Visitors Galore!

Since August 2006, the month Alex was born, we have had a visitor every month. Gosh, we should have had kids sooner. We really did not think we would get so much use out of our guest bedroom. We love having visitors. It keeps our home alive and exciting (and clean too!) My parents visited us this weekend and Alex had a blast! He had an awesome view of the world sitting on my Dad's arms and my Mom never fails to get his contagious laugh out of him. Unfortunately, Mike's '94 Toyota broke down just as we were ready to start the weekend. His engine overheated on his way home from work and we had to pick him up at a nearby gas station. My Dad (the resident auto mechanic) helped fix up the truck and it is now running great! We are hoping to get a few more thousand miles out of it before we purchase a new one.
Another exciting milestone occured this weekend, it was our 10 year dating anniversary!! Yes, it was in April 1997 that Mike and I attend our junior prom together. We celebrated by going out to dinner at Jax Fishhouse in downtown Denver and took a lovely stroll afterward. We also had the most delicious gelato at a quaint little shop. We were planning to hit one of the clubs downtown but as we passed each music thumping, loud, and overcrowded club, we decided a nice quiet evening is all we needed. Gosh, we are definitely parents. Anyway, it was a blast and thank you Mom and Dad for babysitting!!

Big Smile!

Gotta love the timer feature

Ready to shop at Babies R' Us!

My little cowboy!

Look Mom, I can help with the dishes!

8 months old!

4 months...4 more months till Alex turns the big ONE. He has been a busy little boy this month...so far he has mastered the art of pulling up to standing and is now working on "cruising" along furniture. His two top teeth are coming in slowly but surely. He has also mastered the art of finger foods. He loves to eat his puffs and toasts. I am amazed at the dexterity of his little fingers. But again, he learns from the best :) The clouds and the rain are finally being pushed away by the sun...yes...I can get out of the house again! Alex and I have been taking advantage of the nice weather and have been taking our daily walks again.

We were very saddened by the tragic events that unfolded in Virginia Tech on Monday morning. I am praying for the families and friends of the victims and hope that their hearts will heal in time. It seems that with every tragic event people are desperately trying to put the blame on someone---guns, hospitals, doctors, television, movies, etc. I don't think stricter gun laws or tamer movies will prevent someone from killing. I believe that we must take action on our own and do what we can do within our realm. Being kind, compassionate, and reaching out to people who are in need. There is a young Korean boy who lives a couple of houses away from me and he recently told me about the abuse he has been taking since Monday. Bullies have been tormenting him even in his own home. It upsets me that such a tragic event begets more hatred than creating kindness. We need to teach children that their actions can be detrimental to a person's wellbeing. We need to start in our own home before we can start fixing the big picture.

On a lighter note...here's some pictures of Alex!

Easter Weekend Fun

I just put Alex down for a nap five minutes ago, and now I can hear him happily playing with his crib toys. Hopefully, by the time I finish writing this post, he would have fallen asleep. It's been a rough couple of nights with him because his two top teeth are coming in. Instead of his usual five to seven hours of straight sleep, he is waking up after three or four. Poor guy. So, I'm running on empty right now and depending on my morning jolt of coffee to get me going! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. As many of you know, we enjoyed the company of Mike's family over the weekend. Mike's Mom, Dad, little sister's Monica and Melinda joined us for a fun, festive, and SNOWY Easter! Yup, we had a white Easter. I had my spring dress all laid out but had to slip on my good ol' black pants for Sunday mass. This Easter was definitely special because past Easter's have been spent with only myself and Mike. It was rather lonely and to have Mike's family with us on a special holiday made our home feel especially warm and complete.
Shhh...baby's sleeping....

Cheese!!
Mommy and the twins
Easter at the McLean's
Hmmm...what's this?
Our Little Easter Bunny

Happy Easter!

Washington Park

New Slideshow!

More March Pics

Lovin' the sun! Swab my poop deck matey!
Cute as a button!

I love yoda

Boarding with Melissa

Spring has sprung!

I am so sorry that it has been more than a month since my last posting. Having a little 7 month old really takes up your time! Yes, that's right----7 MONTHS OLD!! That's more than half a year! Yikes! The sun has finally come out of hiding here in Denver and is showing its glorious, warm rays. We have been blessed with such beautiful days that I can't help but keep myself out of the house. It was a dreary and cold winter that's for sure. But I digress, this is about Alex! What has been happening with my little man? Well, he's an expert commando-style crawler. He loves to crawl on our vinyl kitchen floor and loves to hear his hand slap the floor. He was very disappointed that his Daddy baby-proofed his favorite non-baby toys---the XBox 360 and dvd player. His Grandma Thomas visited him for two entire weeks and basically spoiled him from head to toe! Mommy and Daddy were spoiled too, what can be better than handing off the baby to Grandma at 6:30 in the morning? His Aunt Melissa even visited us for a couple of days and went snowboarding with the old folks. It was my first time aways from Alex for an extended period of time and was relieved to know that he CAN survive without me! I am relieved but a bit saddened.... He has been introduced to a wide variety of solid foods now, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, apples, pears...all of which he is still getting used to. He does love sipping water from a cup! Alex is a joy and is growing up so fast in front of our very eyes. We can't wait till Mike's family joins us for Easter in a couple of weeks.

6 months old!

Alex turned 6 months yesterday! Yes, it has been six whole months since Alex entered this world. He's been to Arizona, California, been R2D2 for Halloween, saw his first snow, cut his first teeth, been visited by lots and lots of relatives, sat-up, rolled-over, and now...drum roll please----started crawling! Alex started his "army crawl" on Valentine's Day. He was after Mike's cellphone and that was motivation enough for him to start crawling. We have recently installed baby gates on the top of our stairs and have started to babyproof all the cabinets and drawers around the house. It has just been within this month that Alex decided that it was time to enter the big boy world. He's changed so much! Ackk! My little boy is growing up :(
Mike's sister Meghan visited us last weekend. Although it was a short visit, Alex had a blast playing with his aunt. He can only take so much of Mommy so when he saw a new face, he was all smiles!
My little doggy Noodles is in Arizona right now and unfortunately experienced a bout with pneumonia again. He had to be taken to the emergency vet on Sunday night and was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. He had it in September but something in his lungs and throat is allowing particles of food to enter his lungs. Therefore causing a build-up of liquid around the lungs. He is recovering well but I just cannot imagine the toll this has taken on his little body. Please pray that he gets well!

6 months old and loving it!

What are you feeding me now?

Sweet potatoes...kinda weird

Caught red-handed!

I like pretty girls.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sitting up, haircut, teeth--- oh my!

It's just been a few weeks since Alex and I returned from L.A and it seems like he has hit so many developmental milestones since then. He has now officially cut his two front bottom teeth after many many days of fussiness, crying, and obvious pain! He can also sit up on his own which allows him to bang away at his numerous toys. Alex is very content playing in an upright position but as soon as he gets tired, you can hear a nice soft thump on the carpet as he decides that it's time to lay down. I wince when I hear that but he doesn't utter a cry or a wimper. Mike and I also decided that it was time for a much needed haircut. His mullet and bangs were just not cutting it anymore (pardon the pun)! However, I did not attend beauty school so what seemed like a perfectly easy task turned into a very traumatic and horrendous experience. Yes, Alex has the dreaded bowl haircut. Not only did I cut the back too short (and lopsided of course) but his hair looks very much like a half-coconut---a bunot for all you Filipinos out there. I pretty much gave up and decided it would grow back anyway and then I would just leave it to the professionals next time. And that's what hats are for right?
Alex also tried rice cereal for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He has learned to like it (although much of it still ends up all over his face). We are going to start fruits and veggies at his 6 month birthday and we'll let you know how that progresses. The little munchkin is waking up right now so I must attend to him! Happy Valentine's day everyone!

L.A fun

Sorry about slacking on the posts. Alex and I jetsetted to L.A last week for the 90th birthday party for my Grandma. She's awesome. If I could live 1/4 of the life she's led, I'd be a happy camper. Love her mucho. So, we spent a wonderful, sunny, glorious week in L.A. I so did not want to go back to Denver. But, my hubby and father to my child was begging us to come back home so we had to oblige. Alex was smothered to death by friends, family, acquaintances, waiters, waitresses, flight attendants, god knows who else! This guy is definitely a chick magnet. He was even flirting with the girl next to me on the plane. I really do have my hands full. Not only is he very much like Mike but Mike just loves to show him his beloved Broncos Cheerleaders calendar every chance he gets. Anyway, Alex is doing great. Rolling around, playing with toys, and he even tried his first bite of rice cereal today. Whoopee! He is a rambunctious little guy. He grabs at anything his hand grazes especially my hair. I've learned to live on scrunchies and hair ties now. He has the weirdest laugh where he basically draws in air like he's gasping for air. Hope that changes soon because he'll definitely get weird looks when he's older. Alright, enough of my rambling. Here's some pics of the little fella!

I love laundry!

Alex and Pops

Hi everyone! I'm five months old!

Snoop Doggy Alex

Almost five months!

As I type this, I am giddy with excitement because Alex finally soothed himself to sleep, it took an hour but it happened! Alex has always been an excellent sleeper at night but his naps could use some work. We had resorted to using a bouncy seat to rock him to sleep since he was a newborn. Unfortunately, it resulted to a nice round bald spot on the back of his head. We have been slowly weaning him off the bouncy seat and getting him used to his crib. I have to hold him and bounce him until he is asleep (a workout in itself) and slowly lay him in his crib. However, today I bit the bullet and layed him down drowsy but awake. It took a full hour until he finally closed his eyes and went off to dreamland :) Don't worry, he wasn't crying that hour before he fell asleep. He just tossed and turned, made sounds once in a while, and I guess when he realized Mommy wasn't going to pick him up decided to go to sleep. I am crossing my fingers that this will be a daily occurence because quite frankly my back is killing me from carrying him! As of January 8th, he is 16 lbs 13 oz and 25 1/2 inches long!

Brrr...It's cold outside!

Most of you have heard that Colorado has been hit by a couple of big snowstorms the last couple of weeks. And today is no different. As I sit here in my warm comfy house, the snow is again falling outside. Mike had to wake up extra-early this morning (7 am gasp!) in order to shovel the driveway and make it to work on time (9 am gasp again!). Yes, we are back to the Artic home we call Colorado. We had a wonderful time in Arizona, running around in short sleeves and shorts. It was nice to see our family and friends and Mike and I actually went out on a couple of "date nights"! Woohoo! We had a very low-key New Year due to exhaustion from all of our whirlwind traveling. We stayed up just enough to wish our families a happy new year and off to bed we went. Shoot, we could barely keep our eyes open at 10pm. Life sure has changed for us! Alex is slowly adjusting to having just me and Mike give him attention. No more doting grandparents and aunts to hold him and play with him! Poor guy. Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and we wish everyone a blessed 2007!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It is unbelievable that it was this time last year that Michael and I were sharing the news to the family that we were pregnant. And now fast forward to Christmas 2006, I survived nine months of pregnancy, took a month-long trip to the Philippines, had two great baby showers, enjoyed the company of family and friends on their visits to Colorado, and best of all I had my little Alex. It truly has been a blessed year. Yes, there have been many heart-breaks along the way none of which I will divulge but I firmly believe that it has only made us stronger. It is in our belief in God that has allowed us to plow through the hard times. There has been many tears shed this year but our faith in God has not faltered. We face 2007 stronger and more capable to face our problems and our fears. I want to applaud my family for their support and devotion. They are not only there for the joys and successes but are always on your side through the hard times. I always think to myself how Alex is so lucky to have such wonderful individuals surrounding him as he grows up. I know that he will always have someone to lean on whether he has a had a bad day at school or suffering through his own dilemmas as a teenager (ack! can we just skip through that phase?) and as an adult. On a lighter note, we took some adorable pictures of Alex in his santa suit! Merry Christmas everyone!

The Baptism of Alexander

This past weekend, we celebrated Alex's welcome into the Christian world! It was a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends. Alex was on his best behavior and even had a word or two with the priest during the baptism. It was so cute! Here are some pictures from his special day.

Alex's Slideshow

I made a brief slideshow of the first three months of Baby Alex's life. Enjoy!