Where's Michael's Hat?

I like this image Wendy put together. It looks like Michael's hats are popular among our family's juniors. Cute, cute, cute!!

Week in Review 6/26/2011, 17 weeks

 

It's well into Monday and here is mommy writing this post. Usually it's daddy who writes the weeks in review but he's busy now at the IBM office in Costa Mesa, CA. Alex and I are at the nice hotel, chilling and getting used to the new environment. We made it to California on Saturday morning and after enjoying two days or so in Santa Monica, we made our way to Costa Mesa. Life is good for me this week! I have maids knocking on my door waiting to come inside and clean the room, breakfast with lots of options is served from 6.30 to 9.30 am and the beautiful weather outside is inviting us to hang out by the pool any time of the day.

Firsts A big first for Alex this week was flying for the first time. Despite our terrible traveling experience described by me in the earlier post, he was a very easy baby to travel with. He cried about two times but he was well justified for that- hungry and tired the first time and ear pressure the second time. Another big first was him seeing the ocean for the first time! We hang out by the Pier in Santa Monica on Sunday morning and he loved looking around.

Alex is not rolling yet but this week he discovered a half-way roll. He pushes himself with his legs and turns about half way but then stops. I tried to help him and roll him completely on his belly but than his one arm gets stuck under and doesn't know how to pull it out. I guess we have to wait a little bit longer for that just like we have to do for his sitting up. He does sit up but either being held up by one of us or if we prompt him between pillows. Otherwise, the gravitation pulls his chubby belly down and we find him flipped on one side. Speaking of chubby belly, I think our baby boy weighs now 23 pounds!! We have a doctor's appointment next week so it will be curious to see what's the percentile he is into right now.

Not sure if daddy already mentioned Alex blowing raspberries at us. He's done that for some time but what's new this time around is how wet and sloppy they are. He blows them with so much pathos that he manages to spit on whoever holds him. He does that quite a lot and entertains anyone who's around during his 'performance'. We had people on the plane, at Whole Foods, in coffee shops smile at his show.

Downs Alex caught his first cold!! Not sure when or how it happened but we all got a bit sick during this trip, daddy got his usual head cold, mommy has a sore throat while little Alex sneezes lots and lots and has a running nose. I was a bit worried so we called the pediatric's office to ask for advice on what to do with him. He doesn't have any other symptoms like fever or loss of appetite, so I only hope the cold will go away as easy and fast as it appeared. As I type this I'm realizing how much he actually slept today, it's 1 pm and he's been asleep pretty much all morning. Maybe this is yet another symptom but usually sleeping and resting helps with recovery so I hope that's what's going on.

Ups He's still a happy little guy despite this cold he's got. We so love our good baby boy!

Made It To California!

 

It took us quite the effort, time and energy to get to this moment where Alex leisurely took over the entire beautifully made, queen size bed at Double Tree Hotel in Santa Monica, California.

Our initial flight was supposed to leave from Baltimore around 7 pm on Friday, have a reasonable layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul and then make it out to California by midnight. We decided to splurge and spent two nights by the Promenade in Santa Monica and enjoy the Californian sun, friends from this area and refreshing scenery.

Right before we left the house, Michael got a notification that our flight to Minneapolis was delayed so that meant we were most probably going to miss our connection to LAX. On the way to the airport we got a phone call from Delta Airline offering me a $300 travel voucher to change my initial (already delayed) flight to an Atlanta one. After we made sure both Michael and I got on, we thought it was a perfect solution. Not bad making $600 and catching a flight that we truthfully thought will get us to our fun destination. We cheerfully checked in for a 8.20 pm flight to Atlanta. It was only 5 pm so it meant spending some time in the airport but we didn't mind that,  especially that Alex seemed to be happy with the new surroundings. Half way through enjoying a light dinner, Michael got another notification that this new flight was also delayed. He hurried over to the counter and managed to get us rebooked on an earlier flight, leaving BWI for ATL at 7 pm. Even better we thought, we will have enough time to make our connection for LAX for sure and not stress about it especially that this trip was our first one hauling around all this baby gear.

We boarded on the airplane with a slight delay, but nothing to worry about. When time came for the plane to take off, we were told that it got pushed 45 minutes due to a storm in Atlanta. An hour later we got told that the flight was pushed for another hour. By this time it was 8.30 pm and chances of us getting out of the airport at all were getting slimmer by the minute. Meantime we found out our first ATL flight got canceled. The best decision was to just forget about all these flights and try to rebook a whole fresh one for the next day.

Around 9.30 pm our luggage was already on its way to California while we were driving back to the house for a few hours of sleep before having to go to a new airport, Reagan for our 6.45 am flight. Fun, fun. Sleepless and a bit skeptical, we presented ourselves to DCA by 5.15 am where yet a new surprise was waiting for us: the agent who booked us the night before might have made a mistake because no one at the check-in counter was able to print out my boarding passes! We were slowly running out of time and at this point I started to panic inside a little. But all came through together at the last minute and we were running now, me pushing a stroller with a sleepy but happy Alex.

The only sunshine in all this craziness was seeing how well-behaved, smiley and laid back our little guy was. This was his first trip by plane and without a doubt it was one of our worst experiences ever! Still, he behaved very well in each flight, he charmed people and flirted with flight attendants. God has blessed us with the perfect baby who's now enjoying his well deserved nap in the big, comfy bed.

 

Week in Review 6/19/2011, 16 weeks old

First Father’s Day

So it’s early Monday morning and I’m waiting for an appointment to show up here at the house, so I thought I’d try and bang this week’s blog entry out.  If I don’t make too much sense, blame it on it being a Monday morning at 8:15am.  Oh, and to make matters a bit worse, I think this week was another “no real important news to report week”.

Perhaps the biggest news right now is that it appears Alex has stopped his two month long growth spurt.  Right now, he seems to be eating a little less and when we turn away from him for a second, he doesn’t always outgrow the outfit he was wearing.

I do fear, however, that teething time is right around the corner.  He’s started to drool and has begun chewing on his fingers.  Now, that may not be anything other than a baby being a baby, but it is about that time.

Firsts The only real first I can think of this week is we all went down to immigration to help Feli get some of her final paperwork sorted out.  For daddy and Alex, that meant sitting in the car and strolling around the US CIS parking lot while mommy went inside to handle the biometrics.

Like Father, Like Son

 

First Night in the Crib

From reading I've done and what other moms told me, I got this idea in my head that at four months is the best time to teach our little one new sleeping habits. I don't mind at all holding Alex and rocking him gently in the comfortable glider chair but that means the house will be a constant mess, dishes will pile up in the sink, my own hygiene will start suffering and basically nothing else will get done around the house. This week Alex is stepping into his 16th week of life so I decided to try some new things on him.

Yesterday morning after spending a little time with daddy so mommy can sleep a tiny bit longer, I put him down in the crib for a few minutes so I could go downstairs and prepare my morning oatmeal. By the time I came back upstairs he started dozing off in the crib so out of curiosity I let him be in there until, miraculously he felt asleep all on his own. He had a very long, solid nap comparing to the times I would rock him to sleep and gently put him down in the crib. I did the same thing with  other two naps he took that day and every time, after 10 minutes or so of just fussing, he would close his eyes and be out like a light.

Evening came and I figured why not give it a shot and put him to sleep in the crib for the night? So far Alex was sleeping in a bassinet, right next to our bed so I would easily hear him through the night.  After I fed him, I put him down but it took him longer to fall asleep by himself. Was rubbing his back and shushing in his ear but eventually he felt asleep by 10 pm. He woke up about two times and I gave him only the pacifier (when he was in the bassinet I would give him the bottle every time he would wake up) and he went back to sleep right away. About 4 am when he woke up again, I figured he might be hungry so I gave him some milk. He easily went back to sleep until 8 am! I think he did wake up one more time around 6 am and I gave him the pacifier but I'm not quite sure.... Sometimes nights can be so blurry in the morning.

All in all, I consider his first night in his crib a very successful one! I slept better, deeper and I think Alex did too, making all of us a happier bunch in the morning:)

Here's a picture of our happy Alex sharing his crib with his buddies.

Week in Review 6/12/2011, 15 weeks

We are closing in on 4 months with our little guy. Tuesday it'll be 16 weeks he's been alive and with us. It seems hard to believe it even as I type this. So much has happened in these four months.

Alex laughing at daddy

Now, while his first four months were busy, the las week hasn't been quite as busy. He did go to the embassy and to visit Feli's friends and former coworkers over at IMF.

As for his development, he keeps getting bigger, we figure that he is over 20-21 pounds now. And he's strong. If he had balance and desire, he could definitely stand by now. And he's definitely laughing now. It's not a true belly laugh yet, but it's getting close.

Firsts Nothing of note this week

Ups His sleep keeps getting better. He's definitely not sleeping through the night yet, but he is starting to nap a little bit better.

Downs Our little guy had quite a bout of constipation on Saturday. He went from happy to painful crying and back. Fortunately, it all came out in the end. (sorry, bad joke, I had to).

I suspect that as time goes on, these updates may get to be a bit shorter as there are fewer and fewer notable events.  Well, maybe not fewer notable events, but that they may be a bit more spread out as he gets to be a bit older.

Now, that being said, we did pick up a FlipVideo camera to play with.  It seems to agree with Feli a bit better as it’s a no brainer to use and take video with, hence the larger amount of video being posted now.  Not bad for $70.

Cuteness ....

Watch "Alex grabbing his bottle" on YouTube

Week in Review 6/5/2011, 14 weeks

Alex’s Symphony #1 for Toy Piano

So, this week has been a bit interesting in the life of our little guy.  It seems that he’s starting to learn the principle of cause and effect.  Meaning, if he bangs on the new toy piano my parents got him when they came to visit (oh, did I not mention that they came to visit? … more on that in a moment) it makes a sound.  How was that for a complex and convoluted sentence.

Anyway, it’s so fun to watch him as he will just wail on that little plastic piano so intently.  And speaking of intense, he’s both a serious and not so serious guy.  He’s serious in that he can stare something down for a long time.  No matter where we take him, he’s always just looking around and watching the world go by.  We took him to The Yards Park today in Southeast DC where his spent an hour or so just watching everything from the crazy dancers to the kids running around to the water fountain they had there for people to run around in.

The rest of the week was relatively laidback.  Monday I had off, so we hung around and relaxed (as much as you can when it’s 90F+/30c+ outside. Then Tuesday my mom came up on the bus to see us for a few days.  That gave her and Alex a chance to get to see each other for the first time in about six weeks.  Then my dad came up on Friday for the weekend.

Firsts: While maybe not an actual first, it was his first experience with the toy piano (seen in the video above).  It was also his first trip (and ours too) to The Yards Park down in SE.

Ups He’s really starting to engage his surroundings now. Like with the toy piano or his play mat, he’s taking more in and is really beginning to understand that his hands can be used for more than just randomly slapping himself in the face.

Downs He doesn’t really like to go to sleep.  Mommy has a real hard time getting him to calm down enough to take a nap.  And when he does, he tends to sleep 30-45 minutes then wake back up.  While that seems to leave him at least partially rested (power naps FTW), he is not quite fully tanked up and mommy doesn’t really get a chance to get any thing else done.

Oh and on a random note, we just picked up a Flip video camera from Target for $79.  We hope that we’ll be able to use it quite a bit to take video and post here.  The video on this post was taken with the new camera FWIW.