9 Months Old and AJ's 1st Christmas

AJ's movin' now! He's crawling EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING! Brian and I can't take our eyes off of him for a minute. Once he learned how to get up on his hands and knees it only took him about a week to master crawling. He's a speed demon now and knows when to speed up when mom and dad are after him. He pulls up to stand and has learned how to let himself back down gently (a few good spills took care of that). He can go up a single step to a large landing, but is still working on mastering the entire staircase (won't be long). He also goes back down the single step face first, but has actually learned how to do it without bumping his head too bad (will have to work on going down when he masters more stairs). It's so fun to watch him learn cause and effect. He repeats actions to get a repetitive response from you. He also has this fake laugh he does now. He has mastered the "da-da" sound, but we are still working on "ma-ma." He appears to have conversations which are foreign to us, but we think his one-year cousins may understand him! AJ's other favorite thing to do now is clap. He is so cute when he does it!

We had a wonderful 1st Christmas with AJ. It was busy, but well worth it! The pictures below tell the story of the past week!

I noticed after I posted the Christmas pictures that I didn't have a single picture of the three of us on Christmas day, so here is the portrait we had taken a couple of weeks ago. I think it's so funny that AJ's skin coloring is so different from Brian and mine's.

My sister Angela and her family flew in from Houston on Dec. 21st. We all went to church together on the 23rd and of course tried to pose the two cousins (Megan and AJ) for a cute Christmas picture (easier said than done with a 1 1/2 year old and a 9 month old). This was the best we could do.

Megan had a great time learning how to make the traditional Christmas cut-out cookies with Grandma Bonnie later that afternoon.

Boys will be boys. Uncle Eric got out the old train set and AJ just couldn't resist.

Later that night, we went back to church for the children's Christmas pagent. The question here is, "What's wrong with this picture?"

Since AJ was sick when he was supposed to see Santa, and I was beginning to feel like a bad mother for not taking him to see Santa for his first Christmas, I was so excited when Santa showed up at church after the pagent. AJ loved Santa's jingle bells and happily sat on his lap! On Christmas Eve, we opened presents with Brian's immediate family. Here's AJ having fun with the paper of course!

Grandma Rose kept the kids moving with their presents.

Brian putting his first Christmas toy together. He got lucky this year - this one only took 10 minutes to assemble.

AJ appreciating Daddy's hard work. Right now he actually prefers to stand and push his push and ride toy.

Okay, so I didn't take a single picture of AJ opening any presents with just Brian and I at home on Christmas morning (we only took video), so here he is later that morning at the Glandon house in his wagon that Grandma and Grandpa got him with his new sports center that Uncle Eric got him.

Grandma and Grandpa took the Grandkids and the Granddog for a walk after we opened presents to give the parents a rest. Nuge loves taking walks with Grandpa because he gets to be on a long leash.

AJ's favorite part about Christmas was all of the bows. We should have just filled a box with them. His favorite toys were actually the small items that fit into his hands (the balls from the sports center, the little fish from his bath toys, and the little people).

AJ's other favorite part about Christmas - undecorating the Christmas tree. We then headed back over to Brian's parents' house Christmas night to celebrate with his mom's extended family. They had about 45 people in the house and a present extravaganza. Here's the cutest picture of the night - Heidi and AJ safe in Grandpa's arms.

We had one day of rest on the 26th, and then AJ and I headed to Kalahari (an indoor water park) to celebrate with the McLaughlin clan (my mom's side). AJ and Megan often had trouble sharing during Christmas, but a gift bag in the hotel room brought them together!

After torturing AJ on the baby slide (he hated it) and the lazy river (he got blasted in the head with a water spout) the first night, we simply hung out on the edge of the wave pool the second day which he loved. You can see him clapping for the water.

Megan loved playing in the water spouts that were by the wave pool.

Both kids also loved swinging with Grandpa in the kiddie area. AJ liked crawling around in the water too which came all the way up to his chin.

On Saturday the 29th, the fun continued with a reunion of neighbors from Doverwood Drive. Megan and AJ are bonding with Allison Kimmin's little girl Elianna.

Later that night we also celebrated Christmas with Brian's Dad's family. I had a picture included here, but I somehow deleted it and I don't know how to add a picture without it going to the top of the post. It was so fun seeing all of you again!

Today, my sister and Megan headed back to Houston. We were all sad to see them leave, but glad to have had so much time to spend with them. Here's Grandpa Joe getting one last Holiday hug from his two favorite Grandkids!

Thank you everyone for the absolutely fabulous week, and making AJ's 1st Christmas one well worth remembering. We love you all and wish you a wonderful new year!

Enjoy the short clips from our Christmas week!

Music and Lights and "Who Me?"

AJ loves to stand at his music/learning table and jam to the music (although I wasn't able to get good video of him jammin').

We bundled AJ all up on Friday and went to see the lights at the zoo. He stayed awake the whole time even though we were there from 8:00-11:00. His favorite part was watching the fish.

AJ's new thing is to pull all of the DVD's off of the bottom shelf. I love his look here as if he's saying, "Who me? I didn't do it!"

St. Nick's Day/Snow/Ornaments

Here are some fun pictures and vidoes from the past couple of weeks!

We all opened presents from Brian's parents for St. Nick's Day on Dec. 6th (Catholic Tradition). AJ was actually able to rip some of the paper!

Nuge LOVES the snow!

AJ's thoughts about the snow, "Hmmm, this is new."

"Mom, I'm not sure what it is, but it's cold out here!"

"Oh, that's better... a way to get it in my mouth. Thanks Dad!"

I think AJ would enjoy the snow more if he could actually move in the snowsuit!

AJ decided to help us unwrap the ornaments to put on the tree. The bubble wrap was his favorite!

Nuge is LOVING the fact that AJ eats real food! Nuge gets all the cheerios, bananas and cheese that falls to the floor.

AJ in the Hospital

Well, AJ gave us quite a little scare Thursday night when he started wheezing and breathing really hard and fast. We called the Dr. and were immediately sent to Children's urgent care where they gave him a chest x-ray and decided that he had bronchiolitis. They then admitted us to Children's Hospital where we spent the night a most of Friday. They basically just kept an eye on him and suctioned out his nose several times. He never required oxygen which was the main concern. He actually had fun playing in the jail-bed and flirting with all the nurses. The worst was when he was tired and couldn't get to sleep. He usually just lays done, but now he's requiring a lot of cuddle and rocking time. He's better now, but still has a lot of crude and still a little wheezing when he plays for a while. They told us he could be like this for a couple of weeks. I took some cute pictures of him in his banana nightgown and in the jail-bed, but they are on my phone and I don't think we have a usb port to hook the phone to the computer. Oh well!

Happy 1st Thanksgiving

We spent AJ's first Thanksgiving in Cleveland with the McLaughlin Fam. It was AJ's longest car ride to date and he was perfect both ways. It even snowed on the way up and AJ was absolutely mesmerzied by it. I kept telling him, "snow." We had a wonderful day eating, relaxing and playing games. We are truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for! Thanks Aunt Beth for having us, and we can't wait to see everyone at Christmas.

A new family tradition... FRIED TURKEY! Thanks Uncle Mark! It was delicious!

AJ playing with Grandpa Joe. He loved Aunt Beth's tupperware cups.

AJ is very good at playing peek-a-boo now. Here he is pulling off his burp cloth.

More pumpkin pie... AJ's favorite! YUM!

Cousin Laura introduced AJ to Maverick (the cat).

I never seize to be amazed at how the most ordinary objects can amaze a baby... AJ was fascinated by the light switch.

8 Months

And I thought last month was busy...

AJ isn't quite crawling, but he sure gets around. He also LOVES to stand. He even pulls the stiff leg move when you try to sit him down. His favorite place to stand is at the coffee table so he can pound his hands on it (sorry, I don't have a picture of this yet). Just recently, he has started to take a few steps while holding someone's hands. He can get up on his knees when trying to pull himself up, but I don't think he has really mastered the concept of "holding on" yet. He's so funny to watch. It's almost as if he thinks he should be able to stand and walk without holding on as he flings himself towards something. AJ's other favorite activity right now is to pull all of his toys out of his toy basket. One day he tried to stand up by holding onto the basket, and they both fell over. AJ has also started to eat small bits of real food: cheese, bread, mashed potatoes, and even a fortune cookie. He has become almost impossible to change and dress as he rolls and twists all over the place. He makes me laugh every day!

Here's AJ with Grandma Bonnie and Great-Aunt Beth at Uncle Eric's for the big BUCKEYE game against Michigan. The Bucks won of course, and AJ had a blast cheering for them!


AJ getting computer lessons from Uncle Eric. What is it about keyboards?

As mentioned, here's AJ emptying out his toy basket. I love how he's wearing his bib like a cape in the picture below!

This is the best picture I could get of AJ up on his knees.

AJ crawls backwards better than forward at the moment, which ofter leads to him getting stuck under the exersaucer.

AJ's new trick in the bathtub is to go "swimming." He goes from sitting to his belly quite well, and loves playing around like this!

The first video shows AJ going crazy with the Buckeye balloon (sorry the video is sideways halfway through, I turned my camera and didn't realize the video would come out like that). The second one is AJ "swimming" in the tub.

7 Month Photos

AJ takes way too many cute pictures to pick from (I usually just get the Wal-Mart introductory special for about $7), so this time I had them put a collage together, now that they have gone digital, for about $10. If you click on the picture you can see it better!

Pumpkin Pie

We had Thanksgiving with Brian's extended family yesterday. Here's a picture of AJ having his first bite of pumpkin pie - with whip cream of course! He loved it!

Happy 1st Halloween

Even though we didn't take AJ door-to-door, he absolutely LOVED watching all the other kids come and get their candy. We actually spent most of the night putting labels on Brian's postcards for his campaign.

AJ's shirt says, "Daddy's little monster!"

AJ gearing up for the trick-or-treaters.

My little froggy..ribbit, ribbit!

AJ says, "High-five the froggy!"

Yes, I too dressed up. My kindergartners were allowed to wear costumes to school, so I dressed as the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff. The mouse wears overalls in the story and I also had a tail. I even baked cookies for my students. They knew who I was right away!

Thank goodness Grandma Bonnie and Granpa Joe came over to help us! Here we are outside eating, passing out candy, entertaining the froggy (he was enjoying Grandma's ice water), and labeling postcards.

Okay, so these pictures were actually taken on Halloween Eve, but his Halloween PJ's are soooooo cute! Here he is after dinner hanging out in his chair.