A Very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We went to church last night. I sang in our church choir for the first time. I really enjoyed it, but would have enjoyed it more if I didn't hear my baby crying for me. Bob missed half the service because Alex was so upset. Usually he's really good in church, but it was right at his bed time. I heard Glenn after our first choir piece say, "What's Mommy doing?" as I walked back to the pews the choir was sitting in. Bob said he was very quiet and still every time the choir sang, probably because he had heard me practicing those songs. Here's a picture we took when we got home.


Last night, we put out a cookie and juice box for Santa (the juice box was Bob's idea, not mine) and a carrot for the reindeer. This morning, I heard Glenn get up a little after 6:00. I asked Bob if I should get him to go back to bed, but since we were both already awake from Alex waking up a half hour before, we decided to get up. I pointed to the tree, and Glenn was so excited to see the presents. He sat with a present on his lap while we got ready to open presents. He was very good and had so much fun opening his presents. He thought it was very silly that there were presents in the stockings. Aparently he didn't remember that from last year. Here's a picture of him playing with one of his toys:

Alex woke up just as we finished opening presents. So we brought him out and had Glenn help take Alex's presents out of his stocking. Here's a picture of Alex while I was getting breakfast ready. I think he felt neglected:

We've been very busy. Glenn had his school Christmas party on Friday. He sang some songs. Here's the video:


And here's a picture of all of us (Alex wouldn't turn his head):


Yesterday, we had Santa drive through our community in a fire engine. Glenn was with two of his friends. They were jumping up and down waving at the fire men, and plugging their ears because the sirens were so loud. Then Santa came by and they froze. It was so cute, they didn't know what to do. That's the first time Glenn has seen Santa. It was a lot of fun.

And the big news today is that we cut Alex's hair for the first time. He lost almost all his original hair that he had when he was born except for on the top and center. But he's got a lot of hair that has grown in since he was born. So, I cut it all down to what the new hair length was. It was sad and scary, but I think he looks so much better. Here are before and after pictures:

And the hair we cut off...


Did I mention it has been 80 degrees here the past 4 days? (Hee, hee, hee!)

And lastly, here are a few of Glenn's latest phrases that he says often:
"That was a close one!"
"No Way!"
"Good job, Mommy (or Daddy)!"

Look what Santa put in my stocking

Okay, so he doesn't really fit, but it's still cute.

Alex started eating cereal late last week. He still doesn't like it very much, but we'll keep trying.


Glenn reading to his brother


Alex sleeping

Now Glenn is sick. He went to school today, but his cough got worse (not to mention his extremely runny nose). He came home and didn't even want a snack and has been sleeping ever since (about 3 hours). Poor guy. I guess I will be keeping him home tomorrow. I hope he's better by Friday because he has his Christmas party at school.

Alex is jumping away in his jumpy-jump right now. He still doesn't have teeth but is drooling now more than ever. I keep forgetting to put bibs on him- his tops get soaked. He's rolling to his stomach pretty much any time I put him down. The problem is that he doesn't roll to his back as well, so when he's done playing on his stomach, he gets quite upset that he can't roll back. I'm sure he'll be rolling across the room soon.

Bob went to PA last week for a few days. I think Glenn really missed him. We're happy to have him back home.

Alex has been sitting, well, tripodding, for a couple weeks now. He needs to have his arms down to stabilize himself, so it's not really sitting, but close to it. There's a picture below of him demonstrating this. He also likes to play a game with his daddy. We put Alex in his exersauser by the table when we're eating. He jumps up and down to get his daddy's attention. When his daddy is looking at him, Alex smiles. As soon as Bob turns away, Alex stops smiling and starts jumping up and down again. This can go on during the entire meal. It's very cute. And he also reaches for his daddy when he wants his daddy to hold him. How come daddy gets all this fun stuff? What about me?

I think Alex is finally getting better. He had a fever again last Friday. But now he's not coughing much, just when he first wakes up. Now Glenn has a runny nose, which he probably got from the kids at school. I notices a couple of them were sick last week and sure enough, Glenn's nose began to run this weekend. Other than that, he feels well.

Alex Tripodding- notice the excessive drooling


Glenn making gingerbread cookies


Alex doing tummy time

Candy House

Glenn and I put together a gingerbread house today, or as Glenn calls it, a candy house. Here it is:

Alex is starting to feel better. He's not coughing quite as much and he's happier.

Glenn and Alex had the most tender moment yesterday. Alex and I were in with Glenn putting him down for his nap. Alex kept reaching for Glenn, so I laid Alex down next to Glenn so that Alex's head was on Glenn's chest. Glenn put his arm around Alex and then said, "Bye-bye Mommy." He wanted to nap with Alex. It was so sweet. Of course I didn't leave him there, but did yell to Bob to come in and see. Glenn is really paying more attention to Alex. He loves it when Alex is looking at him and talking to him, and Alex loves the attention from Glenn.

I have a new website for selling my bags. Bob did a lot of work to create it and it's more appropriate for selling things than the blog format. The url is http://lauriescustomcreations.webs.com. I've added several new bags.

Alex is still sick. He had a fever yesterday, but thankfully that has not returned. However, he hasn't been as hungry today. But he did eat well a few minutes ago, and is wetting diapers, so he'll be okay. Please keep him in your prayers that he gets better soon and not worse.

Glenn practiced for his Christmas program at church today. The little kids don't have much of a part in it, but he said he wants to be in the program, which is next week. I'll take pictures, of course.

Videos

I worked on editing videos from the last month. You can see how Alex's hair progressively gets thinner as the month goes on. Enjoy!

Alex in his Jumpy-Jump


Alex & Glenn playing together


Alex not rolling over (Glenn can be seen streaking, but only his legs. He had just taken a bath)


Glenn's Thanksgiving Feast at school

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very nice Thanksiving. Bob's parents came for the week and left this morning. His Aunt Jane and Uncle Ronnie also came last weekend for a couple of days. Below is a picture of Glenn at his Thanksgiving Feast last week at school (he's a turkey). There's also a picture of Alex wearing his "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving" bib. Alex wears bibs a lot now that he's drooling so much. He's also been sick the past few days. He coughs a lot and has a runny nose. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a fever. Right now he's still happy. Also, Alex is losing his beautiful hair. He still has whispy hair all over his head, but going down the middle on the top he still has his long hair and it would be a mohawk if you put some gel in it. However the mohawk is getting more and more narrow. I bet by Christmas it will be all gone. But I think his hair will look better with that gone because it's so patchy looking. It's like a combover. :)

I didn't have internet for 3 days. Our DSL modem died. But now I'm back up and running. Alex has begun rolling over. He rolls from his stomach to his back always going to the right. He's done it 5 times in the past few days. Glenn asked to go potty this morning and did poopies on the potty. Woo hoo! We made a big deal of it and when I dropped him off at school, I told his teacher's aide, and all the aides made a big deal of it. So, we'll see if it sinks in. He was pretty proud of himself.

Alex had a couple nights last week where he only woke up once during the night. But then he went right back to getting up every 2 hours. So, we decided to start letting him cry it out. We just got through our 3rd night. It's not easy, but I know he's ready because he's shown us he can sleep most of the night and he can fall asleep on his own. We had a couple times last night where he was up for a while, but he fell back to sleep within 45 minutes- the longest 45 minutes ever when all you want to do is sleep. I feel so bad for him when he's crying but it's teaching him a good skill, besides the fact that I just can't keep getting up every couple hours every night. The last time he woke up this morning, I fed him because it was 5:00. He's been sleeping ever since and it's almost 9:00. That little stinker. He never sleeps this late. He must be tired from all that crying is all I can figure.

We are having a record cold spell. It was 27 degrees when I woke up this morning. The average low for this time of year is 50. And the average low never gets below the 30s any time of year, so this is really cold. I hope our lemons on our lemon tree survive. I've been waiting for that fresh squeezed lemonaid all summer. Our lemons are a little late because all the buds fell off this spring and it had to start over again with new buds. Our banana tree isn't liking this cold, either. And it's too cold for me to walk the boys to school. I'd do it if it were just myself, but the boys are just sitting in the stroller, so it's too cold for them. I had planned on walking to pick up Glenn when it's too cold in the morning to walk, but I'm exhausted by pick up time. Maybe once Alex is sleeping better, then I'll have enough energy to walk in the afternoon.

One good thing about not having internet the past few days is that I got a lot more work done around the house. So, I better turn off the computer and get to it.

I have put photos on my website of the totes and purses I am selling:
http://lauriescustomcreations.blogspot.com
Bob came up with the name Laurie's Custom Creations for my little business. I'll be adding pictures of bags as I make them.

Glenn has been showing me how he knows the sounds of some letters. We have a Leap Frog fridge magnet set of letters that has a base that plays a little song for each letter you put in it. To go along with that, our friends gave Glenn a video that goes through all the letters that is also made by the same company (thanks Sintia), so it's the same song. He sings the song and gets many of the sounds correct. I was very excited.

Alex had his 4 month check-up today. He weighs 14.5 lbs, and is 25 inches long. The doctor gave me some suggestions on how to get rid of his cradle cap. And we also discussed how Alex still gets up every couple hours at night. I'm just exhausted and have to take a nap every day. Apparently about 90% of babies can sleep through the night by 4 months. Hmm... where are they finding these babies? Not that I want one, I love mine, but most people I've talked to didn't have their babies sleeping through the night until much later. Anyway, she thinks we can let him cry a little to help him fall asleep on his own. We did the Ferber method (cry-it-out) with Glenn at 7 months and it worked in 3 days. But the book says to wait until 5 months old. So, I let him cry a little, and sometimes he does fall asleep, but not for very long. The idea is to get him to be able to fall asleep by himself when he wakes up in the middle of the night, which we all do. I hope it happens soon, because the nights are very long.

Glenn had his annual eye exam today. He gets his optic nerves checked every year to make sure no tumors are growing on them, something that can happen with NF1, but usually happens in the first year of life (from what I've read). He has healthy optic nerves and doesn't need glasses. He was giving the wrong shapes when looking w/ his right eye from a distance, but I think he was just being silly. I'm sure he'll need glasses eventually since both his parents wear them. The doctor was amazed at how well he followed direction and didn't mind getting his eyes dilated.

Alex has learned to click his tounge today. He's sitting in his swing right now just clicking away. He really has to concentrate to do it. It's very cute.

Some of you know that I have taken up a new hobby that will hopefully make me some money. I'm sewing tote bags and purses. I've been busy sewing the past few weeks and hope to have another blog up and running soon to post pictures of my bags. I'm going to sell them. So, if you know of someone on your gift list who might like a tote or purse, please keep me in mind. I'll have several samples pictured which can be bought, but I'll also work with you if you would like a certain color or pattern. I will post the new website when I get the pictures of the bags on there.

Here's a slide show of some pictures at Disney.

We also have access for 30 days to the pictures they took when we met the characters. Unfortunately, I can't download them (have to buy them of course). Here's the link if you'd like to see them.
http://www.disneyphotopass.com
Then log in using my login info: email: lmdechello@hotmail.com, password: lmdechello
My favorite picture is of Glenn just before the picture of him with Pooh. He was waving hi to Pooh. He has the biggest smile. Now I understand why parents wait in line for this. ;)

Disney

We have been away at Disney the past week. I didn't publish any of the posts until now because I don't like posting that we're not home. That just invites trouble. Anyway, I wrote throughout the week about our adventures. So, even though the date of this post says Nov 3, that's just when I started it. I actually posted it on Sunday, November 9.

Monday- We actually got to our resort on Sunday. It's a Hilton resort and we booked it through RCI, using one of our time share weeks. The villas (as they call them) are beautiful and surround a large pond. It has an Italian feel. To help Glenn not be confused when we say we're going back to our room, we call it our vacation home. All the drive here, he kept saying he wanted to go back home. When we got here, he was completely excited and kept saying, "no home, vacation home."

This morning, Glenn woke up at 4:30 and kept saying "castle." I'm not sure where he got the idea about seeing the castle. Someone must have told him at school is all I can think of. Anyway, Glenn couldn't fall back asleep, but did stay in bed and watched TV with Bob. Therefor, Bob didn't fall back asleep, either. When Glenn got up, Alex also got up. He and I didn't get back to sleep until 6, but slept until 8:30. So, there was no going to the park right when it opened. But we did get to Magic Kingdom at probably about 10:30. They have baby care centers at the parks, which are wonderful. Huge clean rooms for changing, another with high chairs if you need to feed a baby, a kitchen to prepare their food, and a quiet room for nursing with a bunch of rocking chairs. So, Alex and I spent some time in there while Glenn and Bob went on rides. Alex's first ride was "It's a Small World" and of course he fell asleep. :) Glenn got to meet Mickey and Minnie. I never thought I'd be a parent standing in a long line to meet a character. But he was so thrilled. I now understand why parents do it. He was just so in awe and nervous when it was his turn. Minnie put her hand out and he went with her. Then he really didn't want to go to Mickey, but when he put his hand out, Glenn took it. It was so sweet. I thought Glenn was going to cry with joy.

It's only 8:00, but I think I need to crash. We didn't come back for a nap. Glenn fell asleep as soon as I finished singing him songs.

Wednesday- Yesterday, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios (they no longer call it MGM, but we don't know why). We went to the Playhouse Disney show and Glenn was so excited to see his friends he sees on TV. After that, he was pretty much done. He was tired from the day before and grumpy. We didn't do a whole lot after that except walk around. There were a ton of characters he could have had his picture with, but he didn't want to, so we didn't push it. It was very chilly so we went back to our vacation house after lunch. In the evening, we went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping and ate dinner. Today, we went to Epcot. Glenn enjoyed seeing Nemo. The Food and Wine Festival is in it's last week at Epcot. There are little huts all around the lake selling food and wine from cities around the world. We ate our way all around the lake. That was delicious. I think we'll take it easy tonight because it's almost 5:30, and Glenn is still napping.

Thursday- We went to Animal Kingdom in the morning. We got there early enough to go on some rides. Bob even got to go on the Mt. Everest rollercoaster. Glenn and I went on the Kali River Rapids ride. He's just big enough to go on a lot of bigger rides. He loved it and loved getting wet. Then we went to Magic Kingdom in the evening for the Spectromagic light parade. Glenn wasn't quite as enthusiastic about waving at the characters as last year, until he saw Minnie Mouse. We think that's his new favorite character.

Friday- We went back to Magic Kingdom in the morning to go on more rides. While I was feeding Alex and getting coffee, Glenn and Bob went on the large rollercoaster (it's in Frontier Land and is a train- can't remember the name) and he loved it. They went on it 3 times because there wasn't a line. He then went on Splash Mountain (a flume ride) and loved going over the many water falls. I think we have a dare devil on our hands. He went on a few more smaller rides before lunch and then we were beat. We went back to Epcot for dinner. It was very crowded due to it being Friday and the last weekend of the Food and Wine Festival.

Saturday- Bob had planned on going to Epcot with Glenn this morning to go on some of the bigger rides, but decided to work instead, since he's behind from being on vacation. Alex and I slept in until 8:30, which is very late for us. We've just been hanging around today. We'll probably go to the pool once everyone else wakes up from their naps.

Sunday- After dinner last night, Bob brought up the suggestion that we should just go home since all we were going to do in the morning was pack up and go home. So, that's what we did. We got home around 11:00. Glenn was happy to see his puppies. And he said he missed his toys. He's excited to get back to school tomorrow. We had a really great time away. It was nice to be able to spend time with Bob. Even though he works at home, I really don't get to spend time with him. Now we're back to piles of laundry and unpacking, school to get up for early in the morning, and the boys and I each have a doctors appointments this week. Fun! But since we got season passes to Disney, we know we'll be back agian soon. I'll be posting a bunch of pictures soon.

How do you explain to a 3 year old about time change?

At 5:20 this morning, I heard, "Mommy... Mommy..." I went to his room and convinced him to get back into bed. I did not, however, convince him to go back to sleep. He was making all sorts of noise, which of course woke his brother. I fed Alex and he went back to sleep, but not for long. No one could sleep with all that noise coming down the short hallway between their rooms. At 6, I finally gave in and got up with the boys. And yes, Daddy will be in bed at least for 2 more hours (but I guess I should say he didn't get home from the airport until about 11:00).

In other news, Alex is working on getting his bottom 2 front teeth. There are 2 white dashes on his gums. But they are taking their sweet time emerging, much to Alex's unhappiness. But he's all smiles this morning.

Glenn put on his pirate costume this afternoon. Then he said, "ready!" I asked him what he was ready for. He said, "House... Candy..." I then realized he thought he could go trick or treating any time he put on his Halloween costume. So, I had to explain a couple of times that it was all done. So, later this afternoon we were walking to the park and he said, "No more candy. All done." I guess he got it now. :)

Halloween

Sunday, we went to a neighborhood Halloween party. There were so many kids there. Glenn had a lot of fun. Glenn is Captain Jack Sparrow, and Alex is a pumpkin.


Here's another picture of Alex the pumpkin:


Yesterday was a very busy day. Glenn had a story book parade at school. He wore his Scooby Doo pjs. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera. But a friend took a picture, so I'll have to get the picture from her. Alex was also in the parade wearing his Goodnight Moon mouse slippers and a duck hat. We then went to our neighborhood park and played with a whole bunch of kids from the neighborhood and had a picnic and popsicles. We all took a nap in the afternoon. Then we met some friends for trick or treating. Alex was a pea pod this time (I didn't buy two costumes; a friend let us borrow them and I couldn't decide which he should be, which is why he got to be a pumpkin one day and pea pod last night).

I have a whole bunch of pictures for you today.

Alex used the jumpy jump for the first time this week and loves it. After he was in it the first time, he went right to sleep for a nice long nap. I think I love that thing. :)


Alex also used the exersaucer this week. His brother was showing him how the toys worked. We had to stuff some blankets in around him so he wouldn't fall to one side. But he can reach the toys by himself already:


Glenn drew a picture of a person for the first time (that I've seen) at the park this week on the sidewalk with chalk. So, I had him draw on paper when we got home. this person has two overlapping eyes, no nose, a mouth, hair, and no body. Usually they have a nose and no eyes. He also practiced drawing lines. He says across or down when he's drawing them (depending on if he is drawing horizontal or vertical):



Today, we carved our pumpkin. I drew the face, and Bob and Glenn did the rest. Bob made Glenn take out all the pumpkin guts:



Then we cooked the pumpkin seeds. Glenn couldn't get enough of them.

I'm Certified!

I just received notice that I passed the certification exam in public health. You may remember I took the exam in August(a few weeks after Alex was born). Having this certification will help me when I go back into the work field because it means I know about the core competencies of public health. In the meantime, I'll have to complete continuing education credits to make sure I stay up to date with what's going on in public health. It also means that when I publish papers, I'll get to put CPH along with MPH after my name (I have a paper or two still pending publishing from when I worked at UConn). In 10 years, if I want to remain certified, I'll have to take the test again.

Glenn played in the dirt all afternoon (see picture below). He looks as though it's cold outside, but it wasn't. It was in the 70's today, and beautiful. I had put his sweatshirt on him this morning when we woke up since we left the windows open last night and it was cold. And he put it back on after we got home from church. If there's a hood, he has to wear it on his head.


Here are more videos from a couple of weeks ago.
Glenn's Wheels:


Alex making the sound he greets us with:

My Big Project

I worked on Glenn's room all weekend. I painted the walls blue on Saturday, and the brown stripes on Sunday. I ran out of paint Saturday with about a quarter of the room left to paint. I was annoyed that I had to buy a whole gallon more just for that small part of the room. I used the new no VOC paint (Fresh something)from Home Depot, which only comes in gallons. Although there was a slight paint smell, it wasn't strong at all.

Anyway, back to Glenn's room; I am going to buy a stuffed animal hammock, which will go in the corner above his bed. We also need to buy a new light cover (Bob broke the old one several months ago). My next painting project will probably be the play room. It has a sponge painting treatment, which is cool, but I have never really grown to like the color- red. I think a lighter color would make the room brighten up and look bigger. I'll probably wait until after Christmas to paint it.

Here are pictures of Glenn's new room. He says it's cool!

I read to Glenn's class yesterday. It was a lot of fun. I came into their classroom just before they came back from breakfast. Glenn saw me and said, "Mommy, what are you doing. You're silly." He didn't think I belonged in his classroom. I got to see their circle time- singing songs, doing the calendar, and then I read the book: "How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight?" Then I got to see them play while the teacher had them come to her one at a time and do some color and letter matching, then paint a little pumpkin. Alex was with me and actually fell asleep in my arms while they were playing, even with all the noise.

This morning was very foggy. We walked to school and when we got to the soccer fields, we couldn't even see to the other side. Glenn was very scared of the fog. I tried to explain to him that it was just clouds down on the ground, but he was still scared. I can see how it would be scary.

I edited a couple of videos. The first is of Alex doing tummy time. And the second is Glenn trying to do somersaults.

Glenn started Sunday School yesterday. He had so much fun. When we went into his classroom, one of the girls gave him a donut (which the teacher later told me was all over his hands- green frosting). I was in Bible study in the main room outside of his classroom, and we heard them playing musical instruments and the teacher say "blow your trumpets." I thought they must be reinacting the battle of Jerico, and sure enough, they were. And he got stickers to play with during the church service, which of course ended up all over his shirt. :) Hey, it least it wasn't my shirt (although tonight my shirt was decorated with Nick Jr stickers). I'm so happy for him that he had a good time, and has a teacher that has the perfect way to teach Bible stories to kids his age.

I have been taking some video of the boys. So when I get a chance to upload it to the computer (hopefully tomorrow), I'll post some clips. In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

Alex with his bear- he was hugging it today and likes to play with the ribbon:


Alex looked so sweet sleeping in my arms:


My boys:

Glenn got caught last night. I had washed some bottle nipples and some pacifiers, leaving them on the counter to dry. After dinner, I caught Glenn with one of the nipples in his hand. I asked him what he was doing, and walked over to see what he had touched. Luckily he hadn't washed his hands yet, so I could see which he had touched. He had touched two of the nipples. I asked if he put them in his his mouth, and he said, "No, Mommy. That's silly." And I noticed food on one of the pacifiers, so I asked if he put that in his mouth. He sheepishly nodded yes. I couldn't get mad at him. It took him almost 3 months to try out a pacifier. He doesn't remember that he used one because he was 7 months old when we took it away. So, I couldn't blame him for wanting to try it out. :)

Alex is beginning to find that he has body parts. He grabs at and plays with his left ear (hasn't found his right ear, yet). Yesterday, he clasped his hands together. Now he plays with his hands, and seems so proud of himself. If I put my face real close to his, he likes to grab my nose or lips and puts his hands on my cheeks. I love that!

Glenn is really growing up. The other day, when we said it was time to come to the table for dinner, he said, "I'm on the phone." He was holding a play phone. He's so cute. He's saying grown up things all the time.

Alex and I got out to do some shopping this morning, and I finally found a jacket for Glenn. You'd think that there would be jackets in all the stores for kids since the cooler weather is coming, but I found it very difficult to find one. I found one at Kohl's, and it's even lined with a little fleece to keep him warm (he's a true Floridian, saying it's cold when it's below 75 degrees). I really wanted a jacket with a hood for when it rains, since he's outgrown all of his other jackets. He modeled it for me. By the way, he's showing his muscles, that's why his arms are up.
We should be able to get a couple of years out of it:

This weekend, Bob and I went on our first date since Alex was born. Our friends watched the boys and we went to dinner and walked around an outdoor shopping mall (it's like Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, but bigger). It was really nice.

Not much else is going on. Here are a couple pictures of the boys. Bob bought Glenn a Jags jersey, which he is modeling. In the 2nd, Alex is reaching for the camera.

I finally charged the battery on our video camera so we can start capturing Alex on video. I feel bad that it's taken this long. We got him a new activity mat because he is such an active baby. He loves to kick and there wasn't anything to kick on the activity mat we already had. Plus, this converts for tummy time and into a tunnel when he's crawling. Here's some video of him.

While we were in CT, I chopped my hair. Alex kept grabbing it and it was always in his face. And what's the point in having long hair if it's always in a ponytail. So, I cut it. Here's a picture of the boys and me with my new hair. It's a little difficult to see my hair with the dark chair, but you get the idea.


Alex is growing too fast. I just brought out his 3 to 6 month clothes and found he just fits in them. I bet they'll be too small in a month!

Alex had his 2 month check-up today. Everything looked good. He is 12 lbs, 8.5 oz and 24 inches. He's at the 75th percentile for both weight and length. He also got some shots today. He napped really well this afternoon, but I had to wake him to feed him. Now he's not very happy. No fever, but I think he's sore because he's pretty cranky. Hopefully the Tylenol will kick in soon.

We just returned from CT yesterday. We went for a week and a half. We wanted Alex to be baptized where our family and friends could attend. So, he's finally baptized. It was a beautiful day (Sept 7th) and we had a nice brunch at my parents' house afterwards. Bob was traveling all over New England the whole time we were up there. So, during the week when he was traveling, the boys and I stayed with my parents. We also stayed a couple nights with Bob's parents and attended a large bash for our nephews' birthdays (Happy Birthday Andrew and Danny. You too, Kathy). It was nice to see everyone, but it is very nice to be back home. Glenn really missed his friends. He'd ask about them every day. He went to school today and after I picked him up, he said, "More school." I had to assure him that he'd be going back again tomorrow. :)

Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Alex's curly hair after a bath:


Alex's baptism- George (Bob's brother) is the godfather, and Lisa (Laurie's sister) is the godmother:


All the cousins on Bob's side of the family (yes, Alex is crying):

I've had some requests to see pictures of Glenn as a baby compared to Alex. I can't find where all of Glenn's photos are right now (probably on an old computer), but I did find this photo of him. He was probably 2 weeks old here. Keep in mind Glenn was a couple pounds smaller than Alex was when he was born.
Glenn


Alex at just over a week old

People have been asking how we are weathering tropical storm Fay. We're wet, but that's about it. I could hear the wind picking up last night, but I don't see any trees down around us. Our neighbor's tree is at quite an angle, but still in the ground. The wind gusts are supposed to settle down a bit some time this afternoon, but the rain is supposed to continue into early tomorrow. Glenn's school is closed again today because they are using some of the schools in our county as shelters if needed. Glenn's very confused as to why he can't go to school. I don't want to tell him because it's raining because then he'll think that every time it rains he should stay home. Yesterday, he packed up his old backpack with some "school supplies" including a snack for school, and carried his backpack around most of the day. This morning he's sad. I asked him why he was sad and he said he misses his friend who sits next to him in school. He also doesn't understand why he can't go outside. Apparently the rain doesn't phase him. We did a lot of painting, coloring and playing with stickers yesterday.

First Day of School

I wanted to share our first day of the school year with all of you. Glenn started on Monday at our new school. It's only the first week and they already had to close school. Our county is closed tomorrow due to tropical storm, Fay. We're prepared for no power, but we're not supposed to get the high winds, just a lot of rain. It has been raining on and off today and it's supposed to get more steady tonight.

Anyway, here are the pictures from the first day (thanks to my sister, Lisa, we have pictures at the school).


Glenn had to hold Alex before going to school:


This is our mode of transportation:


This was taken just outside of the school:


Our family wishing Glenn a good day at school:


Glenn was a little nervous waiting for other kids to come into the classroom:


Glenn's teacher told him he could go play and he stood up and ran to the corner with the toys. He didn't even want to say good-bye:


We eventually got him to say good-bye to us and he kissed Alex good-bye:


And just another picture of Alex's infectious smile. He's gaining so much weight lately; he's definitely not a newborn anymore: