Here We Go Again

Does it feel like last week is repeating itself to anyone else? It does to me. Let's see, it's Wednesday morning, I am packing, getting presents together and I have to run to the store. We are heading out of town this afternoon so we can go see my parents in East Texas. We'll be back Sunday...yep, exactly like last week! I miss my parents so much. It feels like forever since I have seen them, I think it's because I didn't see them on Christmas. The only difference is that I was a little more organized last week. I am sitting on my couch now looking around at my house. Had you told me 7 months ago that my house would look like this, I would have said no way. It is a complete wreck. There is baby gear EVERYWHERE. No matter how much I pick up, it never seems to stay that way. We need a room devoted just to baby stuff. Our friend Rachel came over Monday night and brought us a few things her son has outgrown. She is moving in a couple of weeks and wants to take as little as possible. It's great for us because it means free stuff! She brought us a walking toy thing for Alex when she is a little older and a Jumperoo!

I put Alex in the Jumperoo yesterday and she loved it! This picture kinda describes my days right now. Cooper is like my little furry shadow. Poor guy is starved for attention so anytime I am with Alex, he is right there. It is even worse when the camera comes out, he has to be right between us!

I had Miss Abby yesterday. Over the Christmas holiday she started rolling over!!! Yeah, two rolling babies! Abs isn't quite as fond as being on her tummy as Alex is, but we'll work on it!

Abby, come play with me!!

Mommy, seriously, why is Abby trying to kick me?

hmm, not quite how I imagined it would be. How am I supposed to play with you if you aren't facing me?

Thank you for the comments on yesterday's post. I got some size 3 diapers last night so we'll see how they work. Alex is still sleeping so hopefully we will have dry sheets when she wakes up! I better go start packing so we can head out when Josh gets home!

Avocado

Alex had avocado for the first time yesterday. Despite the silly faces, she ate it all so I am assuming that means she liked it! This girl is an eater. She always finishes whatever fruit or veggie we give her and the oatmeal then acts like she still wants more!

Josh and I think she is starting to cut a tooth (or 2)! We can see and feel 2 white bumps on the front of her gums on the bottom. She has been very fussy at night, chewing on my finger non stop and tugging at her ears (which is a sign of teething). She has been great during the day, but a little miserable at night. My poor little pumpkin.

Josh worked yesterday and Alex and I ran a ton of errands then met him for lunch. He was so cute when he got home. She was napping and he kept going in her room to see if she was awake yet. After spending the last 5 days with her, he really missed her while he was at work. She finally woke up and Josh snuggled with her most of the night. She is getting so snugglie again, I LOVE it! She was a little fussy so I put her on my chest and within a minute she was out. I left her there for about an hour because she was just so darn sweet. I swear, sometimes I just look at her and she just takes my breath away. She is just so perfect and beautiful.

She is now sleeping about 10-11 hours at night, which is great except....she sleeps on her tummy and we are having leaks pretty much every other night. I am forever stripping the bed and washing the sheets and mattress pad. We have always loved the Pampers Swaddlers but I am wondering now if I need to switch to something else.

I hear the little munchkin waking up and she doesn't sound happy...I am guessing she leaked through again. Ugh!

Christmas 1-3

Sorry it's been so long since I have updated the blog. I was having problems logging in for some reason.

Anyway, Christmas (#1) started on Christmas Eve morning at our house. Since we were heading to Dallas that afternoon we wanted to have our Christmas at home before we left instead of taking the gifts with us. Josh and I got up early on Wednesday, made coffee and opened our presents from each other. We decided to let Alex sleep since she really doesn't know what is going on just yet. My sweet, amazing husband did great this Christmas. I got a KitchenAid Professional series stand mixer that I have been wanting FOREVER! I was so excited and surprised! Then he handed me a flat box that I just knew had jewelry in it. I opened it and saw a necklace and matching earrings. I just kinda looked at it and said thanks, I love it. I was really thinking, does my husband even know me?!?! It was nothing I would ever wear but I felt so bad because he looked so proud. I just sat there acting like I really liked it. He was doing something behind his back but I couldn't figure out what it was then he finally just took the box away from me and pulled the necklace and earrings out and there was my real gift! He got me an iPhone! He was trying to call it so it would ring but it wasn't getting a signal so it wouldn't ring. I was so excited to get the phone but I was even more excited I didn't have to act like I liked the necklace and earrings anymore! I mean, it really was ugly. I actually think it is plastic! He said he actually looked for the ugliest thing he could find!

That afternoon we loaded up the car and headed to Dallas. I have spent every Christmas Eve of my life at my Grandma's house with my entire family and this Christmas Josh thought he was going to have to work all day on Christmas Eve so we told my Grandma we were not going to be able to make it. We told her in November and I could tell she was upset we wouldn't be there. When we left her house Josh said he would plan on working half a day so we could drive up and spend Christmas Eve (#2) with her. I was so excited! I decided not to tell her so we showed up at her house on Christmas Eve to surprise her. It was great! We had a great time visiting with the family. My Grandma was so happy to see us!

We spent the night with Josh parents and woke up Christmas morning and had Christmas #3. Cooper didn't waste any time with his presents. He took his wrapped bone and within 5 minutes he had half of the paper and wrapper off and was chewing away!

Alex was not very interested in her gifts. She was more interested in trying to get the tissue paper in her mouth!

She got to debut her Christmas jammies with the Santa baby pockets!

We spent the morning relaxing. That afternoon we went to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Buddy's for Christmas #3. Alex LOVES them! She just smiled and laughed the whole time we were there.

Friday we met Shannon for lunch. I miss her so much, it was great to see her! We relaxed again Friday night. Saturday afternoon/evening we did some shopping while Alex stayed with Terri and Ray, then we went to dinner. It was nice to have a little baby break! Now it's Sunday and we are back in College Station for a few days. We are heading to Mineola to see Nomi and Popi on Wednesday. We are doing Christmas (#4) with them that evening. We'll hang out there until Saturday, then we are heading back to Dallas. We are having Christmas with Josh's brothers/wives/kids (yes, #5) on Saturday afternoon. Wow, 5 Christmases. It seems crazy doesn't it?

In the last few days Alex has mastered rolling...and rolling and rolling. She will roll onto her tummy (she prefers to roll to her left) then will roll again into her back then just keep going. We were unpacking just a while ago and I looked at Alex and she had rolled from her blanket onto the rug and under the coffee table. She was just hanging out looking proud of herself. She is also able to sit unassisted for about 15 seconds at a time. She doesn't even put her hands down for balance.


Here are a few cute pictures of Alex and Grandpa! She LOVES sitting on his shoulders. It is so funny because after a while she bends over and kinda gums his head!

Christmas Eve Eve

I am so excited Christmas is just around the corner! Josh and I are exchanging gifts tomorrow since we won't be here for Christmas. We figured it would be easier than trying to take the gifts with us! I am trying to talk him into us doing it before he goes into work (for half a day) because I just can not wait! We'll see what he says!

Hmmm, what else is going on. Oh, we decided to nix the bananas for a little while. Alex tried them Sunday and loved them, but she had some "interesting" diapers that evening and the next morning. I am guessing the bananas didn't agree with her. Alex goes for her 6 month check up on the 12th so I'll talk to the pedi about it and until then we will just move onto something else.

Alex is still loving her newly accomplished skill! We can not keep that girl off of her tummy. We put her down and within a minute she has rolled over. I posted a very short video below showing a little bit of the rolling action. It took about 15 minutes to get that because she was more interested in looking at me with the camera than rolling over. The second I would put the camera down she would start rolling over.

Speaking of the camera...Sunday was a very sad day in the Stafin house. Josh dropped my camera and bent something that holds the lens cover/shutter things. A few pieces came off and will not say on. It is still usable, but the lens is not covered so I can't really take it anywhere without worrying about scratching the lens. I called Wolf Camera first thing on Monday and they said it will take 6-8 weeks to get it fixed!!!! I am going to have to use my crap-tastic Sony camera until it gets fixed.

I am having a day where I am not motivated to do anything. I am sitting on the couch...I think...it looks like Alex's closet threw up on it. I've been doing laundry and I'm now surrounded by piles of her clothes. I need to figure out what I have to pack. I used to think I would never get tired of folding and hanging up these cute little baby clothes, boy was I wrong! It's just more laundry to add to our ever growing pile.

Oh, on top of trying to get the laundry done so we can pack, taking care of the babies and wrapping presents, I am getting sick. My throat is killing me and I am so stuffy and congested. It's a real pretty sight in the morning when I'm stiff from the RA and snotty from whatever it is I have. Poor Josh, I'm sure if he knew this is what he had to look forward to, he would have thought about it twice! The crazy weather isn't really helping.

Alex is loving her exersaucer more and more. She loves looking at herself in the mirrors on it. She will even start talking to the reflection. It really is the cutest thing. Cooper loves it because he can do drive by lickings since she is at his level.

ok, enough rambling, I better get off my rear end and get some stuff done!

mmm, bananas!

Yes, this weekend has been relaxing! I started wrapping presents yesterday and we watched a couple of movies last night. We got out today for one more gift and now we are watching some football before we go meet some friends for dinner. We are going to Texas Roadhouse. I am starving already, a steak sounds sooo good!

Miss A tried bananas today. Another hit! I wanted to do some veggies before doing any fruit because I heard if you start with the sweets, they will prefer those over veggies. Who knows if it's actually true but we went with it.

Getting ready for that first bite! She cracks me up, sometimes the flash just completely catches her off guard and she makes the funniest faces!

First bite...a little mushy...hmmm, not sure about this!

Oh yeah, I love them...Mommy, more please!

This last pictures shows what I call her baby bird face. She has started doing this when she eats and when the sippy cup gets anywhere near her mouth! You would think we never feed that girl!

Little things are making me happy these days. Not only are a few days away from Christmas, but I just realized I don't have to cook for an entire week! Like I said, we are meeting friends for dinner tonight, tomorrow we are going to the Sorensen's for dinner so we can check out baby Kyler's nursery. He is making his appearance in a couple of weeks and we can't wait to meet him! Tuesday, we are going to Red Lobster with the James'. Then of course, we are heading out of town and I'll be helping out in the kitchen, but I won't have to cook a whole meal!

Ho Ho Ho!

We took Alex to have her picture taken with Santa on Thursday. Little pumpkin would not smile no matter what we did! The second I started walking towards her to pick her up, she started smiling! I guess no smile is better than crying!

We tried green beans again yesterday, while she wasn't sleepy, and she loved them! Yeah! She is so funny when she eats. If the spoon gets anywhere near her mouth, she opens her mouth and tries to move her head towards the spoon. She is such a little piglet!

We are planning on a pretty quiet relaxing weekend since we have a busy 2 weeks coming up. We have a little Christmas shopping to finish up but other than that, no plans!

green bean...yawn

We introduced green beans today! I made a few mistakes. Alex didn't take her usual nap so she was tired but seemed ok when we started lunch. I also decided to use the high chair instead of the Bumbo. She ate quite a bit then started getting fussy.

The first bite!

I thought she was getting fussy because she was in the high chair so I moved her to the Bumbo and she ate a little more! Then, she decided she was just too tired to keep eating! Tomorrow we will go round 2 with the green beans!