Santa Struck While We Were Out

When we returned to Austin that evening, we celebrated with the other half of the family. Which meant more presents. Alex fell asleep part way through the present opening, though. Yeah, he was really enthusiastic!


Beofre we started the festivities, Alex changed into his "Baby's First Christmas jammies, and we all posed in front of the tree for this little Kodak moment. You can't see the tree very well, but it is full of Alex's stuffed animals. Dan and I realized that we didn't have any real ornaments, so we just took something we had a lot of--stuffed animals!-- and decorated with those. A's Elmo puppet was in the place of honor on the top of the tree.


Alex is sporting a new little fleece track suit from Grandma Bette. It's so cozy!

Alex's First Christmas

Alex's first Christmas was great. His entire family managed to make it here to celebrate with him. Aunt Cate and Grandma Bette stayed here with us, and the W's stayed in San Antonio. Dan, Alex and I went to San Antonio on Christmas Eve for presents and family time. We attended church on the Air Force base where Grandma and Grandpa W were staying. Interestingly, it was a candlelight service but instead of candles they passed out glowsticks. We all cracked our glowsticks, sang Silent Night and left the sanctuary. It was an odd mix of Halloween and Christmas there for a little while!

Alex had fun opening his first Christmas presents!


Grandpa tells the best stories.


Here is Alex with his Uncle Chris. Can you believe he'd never held a baby before? He looks like a natural!


Alex is all decked out in his Christmas best.

Lubbock Adventure!

We visited Grandma and Grandpa W and Uncle Chris in Lubbock (OK, almost 2 weeks ago now!). It was a nice, relaxing trip, and Alex had a great time playing with his family. The drive up there usually takes 6-7 hours, depending on how many times I stop for bathroom breaks, if I stop to eat or eat in the car, etc. This time, it took 8. Babies can really slow you down! I had to stop to feed him twice, and that really added to our time. The worst part of the trip was this stretch of about 20-30 minutes where there was NO PLACE to stop. Not just "a seedy-looking gas station I didn't want to stop at" but seriously nothing but cows and cotton. Poor Alex didn't understand this (I told him over and over again, but he didn't get it!) and so, hungry as the little guy was, he just had to sit in the back seat, expressing himself as loudly as possible, while I tried to drive, hold the pacifier in his mouth, and sing every song I could think of. I wasn't sure if this just made it worse (Alex: "Mommy, I know you are up there, I can hear you and see your hand...why won't you feed me??"), but even if it didn't help him, it made me feel like I was doing something and wasn't just helplessly listening to him cry...which was a bit closer to the truth.

It was a bit colder in Lubbock, so Alex put his cute furry hat to good use.

On Wednesday while we were there, Alex, Grandma W and I made a trip to visit Grandpa's office. Apparently, Alex is quite the star there. He was greated by everyone in the office, who have all seen pictures and heard stories. It was a nice visit, as Alex got to be the center of attention. He cooed and smiled and showed off all of his tricks (including the trick where he poops, overflows his diaper, and gets it all over my pants...he was on his best behavior, I can tell you that!).

Alex also got a walker while we were visiting. Not that he's quite ready for a walker, but it does have some toys and buttons to press that play music, so that was fun. It's another great seat for him to be in while I try to get stuff done, so we are both enjoying it now.

Look at all the pretty things hanging in this tree. The trees in Lubbock are so pretty!

Just before I took this picture, Alex turned and started cooing and petting the kittly pillow. Maybe he was thinking of his kitty Niki back home.


It's nice to relax on Grandpa after a good meal. Ahhhhh....


It's also nice to nap on Grandma. I love visiting Lubbock!

Check out my new walker. It plays music when I push these buttons! Now, if only I could reach the ground, I could go wherever I want.

Into the Woods

Since I last updated, we've been busy!

A couple weekends ago, we went hiking with a group of friends. This was shortly after the freezing weather, and it was back to Texas climate, the way it should be. We hiked through a local state park McKinney Roughs. It was a rather long adventure, about 3 hours out in the boonies, with a short stop for some lunch. Alex was so good, I just can't commend him enough. He was in his little Bjorn carrier, just looking around and taking the world in. He fell asleep for a short period of time, but there was just so much to look at. I forgot my camera, but a friend took this picture as we set up for our lunch and, of course, Alex got ready to eat too!


Alex: Is it time to eat yet? All this hiking is making me soooo hungry!

Little Vacation

I just wanted to let everyone know that Alex and I are in Lubbock right now, visiting Grandma and Grandpa W. I know it's been a while since I wrote, and I'm not neglecting you all, but I just can't upload and post pictures from here! So, stay tuned for some pictures and fun stories from our visit.

My Big Mouth...

You know how when you brag, the universe likes to come along and bite you on the hiney? Well, today I'd like to apologize to the universe and my friends in Wisconsin. It was freezing here last night, and has actually been in the 20's all day today. I know that's nuthin' to ya'll up there in the frozen states, but here it's a really big deal. Schools were closed, many businesses were closed, and if they weren't closed, they opened late. There were over 70 accidents in Austin yesterday evening. And when I was out today there were a bunch of cars along the side of the road that hadn't been towed away yet. Dan just laughed and said that this state of emergency situation was kind of lame, since this is how it is in some places for months on end, but we Texans are suffering! We don't know how to drive in this, we don't all own ice scrapers for our cars, many of us don't even have gloves. It just doesn't get this cold here. So...I'd like to take responsibility for this cold snap. It is the universe saying "Don't brag about your sleeveless shirt."

Here's Alex dressed to go out yesterday. The little hat came from a friend who made it. It looks like one of those little Russian fur hats, only it has ears on top.

Why am I wearing all this? Only a couple of days ago I was wearing a onsie and shorts!



This is Aunt Sarah's dog, Sugar. So that's Alex's cousin, I guess :-) He's here to visit for a few days while Sarah is in Lubbock for some dental surgery. Poor Sarah! We'll take good care of Sugar for her.

The Friendly Beasts Around Him Stood....

Last Saturday, Alex, Dan and I went down to San Marcos for some holiday fun. We attended a little party with some friends from the church I went to when I lived in San Marcos. That was a lot of fun, since most of the people there hadn't met Alex yet. He spent a good part of the evening being fussed over!

Then we went to "The Sights and Sounds of Christmas," also in San Marcos. It has a fair-like atmosphere, with a few rides, a little kids train, a bunch of food booths, etc. I remembered that its most impressive feature was the millions of lights, and that's what I thought Alex would like, too. And, he did seem to get a kick out of all the light, although sometimes he seemed either overloaded or as if he was getting tired of all the lights.

One section of the grounds was called "Bethlehem" and had a live nativity and some people doing "old world" crafts: pottery, weaving, etc. There were some animals there for kids to pet. Alex didn't actually pet any of the animals (between our cat and dog, I think Alex gets enough animal germs!), but he looked at them and seemed to be mildly interested.

Here we are in front of the camel. Notice that Mommy is still wearing a sleeveless shirt, on Dec. 3rd. I know my friends in Wisconsin are jealous!

Here we are with the sheep. Mommy is trying to snap and make me look at them. I'm looking at something pretty intently, but it's not the sheep!

Thanksgiving Update

OK, so this is a week late, but we had a great Thanksgiving here. Almost all the family made it: The W's from Lubbock: Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Chris; Aunt Sarah and Craig from San Antonio, and Grandma Bette came all the way from Wisconsin!
We all emt in San Antonio for the actual T-day meal, and then roamed the SA botanical gardens to work off some of that turkey and stuffing. It was hard to keep moving as the food coma set in.
Alex had a great time: slept the whole 1 1/2 hours to SA, slept through the entire meal, and woke up in time to eat before the gardens and slept through most of that, too. Ahhhh...the life of a baby. Anything you don't really want to do, you just sleep through!

Grandma B stayed at our house for the holiday, which was nice for Dan and me because we were able to take advantage of the loving babysitting services as well. We saw Goodnight and Goodluck on Thursday and then went out with a friend for coffee and chit chat on Friday. Dan and I talked about how nice it would be to move close to a Grandma. Unfortunately, Lubbock just doesn't strike our fancy, and Wisconsin is just too cold! But having babysitters that we love and trust would be nice!

On Friday evening we also went on a qucik shopping trip to buy a swing for Alex. It is nice to have a place for him to sit that is up off the ground. Of course, the dog can still lick his feet as much as she wants, but now he is up a little higher so he can "join in" at dinner time at the table. When he is in his bounce he is only a few inches off the ground, so he's not really part of the experience. Also, although he has yet to fall asleep in it, the swing does keep him happy for a while so I can get a few things done before he begins to demand my attention.

So, here are a few pictures from last weekend. Yeah, I'm a bit behind....


The picture is a bit dark, but you can see Alex's new swing. And, he is pleased to report that there is a fan-like object perfectly in view when he's in it! (Also, Cate, he's wearing his "Someone who loves me very much went to Hawaii and got me this t-shirt there" t-shirt.)

And here is yet another tummy time picture. As a not-yet-sitting-up kiddo, Alex has only a few poses: in the bouncer, in the swing, propped up on the couch, in someone's lap, and tummy time. Soon, though, we'll be getting all those pictures from behind as he speeds away! Not too soon, though, we hope!!