Visit From Family

My mom, sister (Robin), and her daughter (Amber) came to visit the first week of July. We had a good visit in which cousins Alex and Amber got to know each other better...or the best they could at their ages. Amber is 21 months and Alex is 10 mos. Alex watched Amber like a hawk as she loves older kiddos. You'll notice that in some of the pics as she is looking at Amber. However, they copied each other doing so many things...so cute. Amber and Alex both loved attention from their Grandmother.



Grandmother bought the girls wagons in which we loaded Alex's down with heavy books so she could walk pushing it without it slipping out from under her. She loved walking/pushing the wagon!!!

Alex loves to give (and get) kisses.




At Chick Fil A






Cousin Amber loves to read just as much as Alex.

Bummed Out

Well, I have tons of pics to upload from a visit from my mom, sister and niece this past week plus an entry on Alex turning 10 mos old. However, Alex and I have been running fever along with Chris and Alex having a cold plus Chris is on call today/tonight. Also, a 33 year old friend (married with 3 little children) of ours is about to enter eternity with God as he has struggled with acute myeloid leukemia since January of this year (see blog on left side titled Jason Weathers). Unexpectantly, Jason experienced cardiac rest this week. The family made a difficult decision to cut off the ventilator today and are waiting. Thankfully, Jason and his family have hope in Jesus Christ and trust Jason will be in heaven soon. Very emotional time for all, but they are surrounded by support and prayers from thousands of believers. We are grieving with the family and praying for them. So, as you can see, I am too "bummed out" to update the blog with pics. Good night.

Update: Jason is no longer struggling. He went home to be with the Lord just before 11 pm. Please pray for his family as they now have to tell their children.

July 4th Weekend

We hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend. Chris actually got a 3 day weekend. It was nice not to travel this holiday as we were able to rest more and do random stuff from house projects to fun things. Notice Alex is sporting her American spirit with her NY Yankee outfit. Thanks Gina!

Alex kept the hat on when she noticed that Chris was wearing a hat as well.
Alex took her first trip to the zoo this past weekend. She did great considering it was hot and humid. She only noticed or cared about the animals if they were moving around or really big so she could see them. Her favorite was the pink flamingos (probably because they were close and at her level). Unfortunately, we didn't get a pic of Alex being within 6 inches of a lion. Plexiglass separated them. Chris squated down to hold her on his knee at the lion's level. The lion rubbed against the glass right by her face. Then, it snarled and snapped at her and Chris! Neither Alex or Chris flinched. (Chris says she didn't flinch because the biggest, strongest thing in her world was holding her. :) However, I was about 6 feet back and I jumped. Crazy sight...and thankful for the plexiglass.

Some of June...

A couple of weeks ago Alex started waving, clapping, cruising more, saying a ton of new babbles and sounds and crawling on all fours about 99% of the time. This video shows some of those "tricks."

My attempt to video her clapping did not last long as she preferred tackling me with the camera since I wasn't clapping with her. And I can't seem to get the cute new noise she makes on video. I tend to say "uh oh" a lot during the day when things "fall" down (I try to distinguish between accidental drops and purposeful ones with her as she has started dropping everything over the high chair, stroller, car seat, etc). I think her new noise is her rendition of "uh oh," but it sounds more like "ah ooh." It's cute. Alex is so lovable. She loves to be held, play with and on you, hug, and kiss. Below is a sweet picture of her kissing me. However, the picture turned out funny like we are ghosts or something. I had to post it though because this is such a sweet characteristic of her. I read to Alex most mornings before her first nap, then she reads her "books of the day" throughout the day and then one of us reads to her before bedtime at night. Chris reads to her if he gets home before her bedtime, which he did in this pic. :) Alex loves books. She has been going through the stage where she likes to turn the pages more than listen to all the words. Alex enjoying her new musical and educational toy.
Alex had just finished making a mess with finger foods and yes, mom forgot the bib. Alex looks mad here, but is actually just pulling up. However, I thought it was a funny pic.

Mold Sorrows

Well, I don't know exactly where to start. :( This post will not involve pictures as it would gross most of us out. Ok... Not long ago, I noticed that my pump equipment had mold on it where the valve connects. I used to disassemble it completely to dry every time I washed it. But lately I started leaving it connected to dry thinking it would be fine. Well, it wasn't. Pumped milk had been passing the mold and yes, sadly, Alex was drinking that milk unbeknownst to me that mold was in there. I was upset about this and did an overhaul clean job on my pump stuff.

I am still breastfeeding, but only 1-2 times a day as she has gotten too distracted and busy to breastfeed every time. I pump for the other feeds (and starting this month, I sometimes supplement formula with it), and use defrosted milk with her dinner. Sometimes, Alex has not been wanting to drink all of her milk from a sippy cup even when she wouldn't breastfeed. At her 9 month check up, her pediatrician stressed the importance of her needing at least 24 oz of milk a day right now. Yikes! So, I've been making a conscience effort to get more milk in her. Today, as I was unloading the dishwasher, I decided to look closer at the holes on her sippy cups thinking maybe she needed a "big girl" sippy as hers are the beginner ones. When I pulled the valve off, mold covered the inside. :( I almost threw up and cried at the same time. I checked all her sippy cups and it was only on the oldest 2, but 2 others had a sour smell. They are now in the trash. Unfortunately, I had never taken the valves off. Yes, you can call me stupid, but don't get too proud because you will make a dumb mistake, too! Anyway, this is embarrassing to share and I am only doing it so no other new moms will do the same thing. This is so out of my character as most of you know that I can be a borderline clean/health freak. Needless to say, Alex guzzled her milk today in a fresh clean sippy cup and gets more new ones today! Even though Alex probably has a rock solid immune system after all this, I am still sad about it all. :( btw...I did talk to a neonatologist (pediatric specialist) friend in MS today about this and he said Alex would be just fine.

If any of you know of anything else with a valve on it, please let me know! I need to check it. I was told today that bathtub toys that hold water probably have mold in the inside and you might not be able to even see it until water is squirted out with black in it. :( I'll be checking her rubber duckies next.

Pool Time

Layla and Reagan came to the pool with us last Thursday. We had a good time. Well, Reagan did after her fear of the pool subsided (see her story under The Ramsey Family).

Father's Day

Alex and I met Layla and Reagan at Firefly to paint something for the Dads. Alex painted her footprints for Mother's Day so we planned to surprise Daddy with her hand prints for Father's Day. Since Daddy got off work early, we told him to meet us there as we had just finished. Daddy was surprised. We'll post the final product after it is fired in a few weeks. btw...Alex and Reagan had a good time while there. :)
The worker is painting Alex's first hand.
Pressing hand down. Alex did great! We only had to rinse off one tile and redo the hand print. :)
Time for the other hand. Alex's face is priceless...
Daddy showed up to see his surprise. (The footprint plate is the finished product from Mother's Day. The hand print tiles will be fired which will darken the green background on the border.) Reagan and Layla's finished product (pre firing)

This is hilarious! Reagan sneezed for real which made Alex laugh. So, Reagan started fake sneezing which had Alex cracking up. I did the best I could to capture it on video as it happened so fast and many "sneezes" and laughs happened before I started videoing. I think Reagan enjoyed entertaining while Alex loved being the audience of this comedy show.

The Latest

Well, time keeps getting away from me and this blogging. I always have tons of entries in my head and some get posted. This time I have a little bit of an excuse...we were out of town last weekend. So much seems to happen in life these days. Since I last blogged 3 friends (Ashley, Iris, and Jennifer...check out on the right: The Finton Family, The How Family and The Glasgow Family) had babies, Chris' mom (Mimi) flew here and traveled to Birmingham with me, spent time with college friend, Kristen, was in Cathy's wedding, Chris turned 31 (June 10)and Alex turned 9 months today! That's a lot!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get pics of all this. I can't believe we didn't get any of Mimi and Alex, Kristen, or birthday pics. :(
Our Sweetheart
Reading before bedtime
Alex realizing her sun hat doesn't come off
Alex playing hard...(check out that tummy)
Alex wearing Daddy's hat
Cathy getting ready to walk the aisle
Jeff and Cathy
at Cathy's bridesmaid luncheon
Daddy and Alex at church nursery a couple weeks ago
Grace and Jennifer Glasgow
Grace Lillian Glasgow
Kekoa How
Iris, Matt and Kekoa How
Ashley Finton's son, Hutchison Pierce
Sister Tess and Hutch