What? He's crawling? Our lives will never be the same!

Alexander is officially crawling! Wow-ee! All of a sudden on Friday, he knew how to go quickly from sitting to tummy, crawl to the Christmas tree, yank off the East-German, lead-filled ornament, and then sit up again to stuff it in his mouth (luckily, I stopped that part of the plan). He's hilarious and Robert and I just watch him and wait with anticipation for his next hilarious undertaking.He and his best buddy, Riley, had fun playing together on Friday. We went to dinner at El Toro, where they shared Star Wars toys and animals. After dinner, we went to Starbucks and they shared a chair. Alexander showed his affection by smacking Riley on the leg and shoulder. Riley hugged him and kissed him.

Last week, Riley, who is nearly two, said to his mom and dad in the car, "Pickles!"

"Do you love pickles?" his mother replied.

He answered, "Yes!"

She asked, "What else to you love?"

He replied, "Issak."

We're glad that he already has this little friendship.

Happy Christmas!

post scriptum:

Actually, the inedible ornament in question was manufactured in the former Bundesrepublik Deutschland (West Germany). And yes, it probably has lead in it.

-Robert (the editor)

Putting up the Christmas tree!

Hi all!

I guess putting up the Christmas tree is so important to us because it means the start of the holiday season which means magic time. Robert and I are two big kids when it comes to Christmas. We love the glitter, presents, decorations, food, drinks, and time with family. Last year, I was pregnant and had a cold when it was time to put up the tree then I got poison ivy from the tree. I was not exactly feeling festive as you can imagine. I was actually wishing the time away because we were so looking forward to Alexander's arrival. This year is a whole different ball game. We want everything to be extra special so Alexander can begin filing away Christmas memories!

Also, I've added in a couple of our new kitty cat, Cima (Chee-ma), who we got from the Kentucky Humane Society the night before Thanksgiving. He's about 7 months old and has already caused major destruction! Yesterday, while we were at work, he chewed through a thin plastic water pipe leading to the refrigerator. Water sprayed continuously for hours, thoroughly soaking our carpet and carpet padding in the basement hallway and in a spare room in the basement. It also caused three ceiling panels to disintegrate. What a mess! However, he's a sweetie and just a kitten after all! And not to let Loki, our chug, feel left out, there's a couple pics of her in here, too.

Love you all!

Peace,

Hannah and Robert

Thanksgiving

Hi there! Happy holidays!

Well, Alexander celebrated his first Thanksgiving, and boy was he sweet! We traveled to Danville, Kentucky to our Joan and Paul's (our cousins) new home. Alexander ate green beans and bread by picking them up and feeding himself! He also ate mashed potatoes and turkey! Yummo!

On Friday, he went on a spoon strike though. All weekend, Hannah stressed out because she thought he would starve! Of course, he still gets of his nutrition from a bottle but he was on a roll with solids! He got to eat lots of new foods because of his spoon strike though! Rye bread with cream cheese, crispy baby crackers with goat cheese, egg yolks, and squash and zucchini!

Alexander is making lots of sounds including ma-ma, ga-ga, la-la, na-na, ra-ra, and rwa, rwa. He still says, "Oh!" a lot when he gets excited!

We're looking forward to the holidays! We love seeing family!

Love,

Hanah and Robert

After Alexander's Second Surgery

Well, it's one week and three days after Alexander's surgery. He looks incredible. I miss both of his "first smiles," but I already love this new one. It's incredible that he will hardly have a visible scar above his lip or on his little "rainbow arched" lip. It looks like Alexander was scratched above his lip- not like he had such radical plastic surgery.

He is back to himself already, acting silly and eating a ton. His nutritionist is very happy with his weight gain from the past month and we have accomplished one of two of his therapy goals (to establish his suck, swallow, breath pattern and to feed from the Haberman bottle without coughing or choking). Alexander loves to eat turkey and sweet potatoes, sweet green peas, yogurt, and bananas. He definitely does not like apples, peaches or pears. Last night he had Irish Soda Bread for the first time and really enjoyed that. He is trying to self feed, but little things like Cheerios tend to get lost in the palm of his hand. It is so funny, I have to say.

Alexander Isaak is sitting up well and loves to explore all kinds of toys and household items. Some of his favorite things are the TV remote, cell phones, a shiny silver colander, trains, cars, little toy people, a soccer ball from Uncle Terry, and soft stuffed animals. He is pushing himself across the floor using his feet and knees but not crawling. He sort of looks like he's rowing a boat as he scoots across the floor. First, he pushes one way then he rolls to the other side and pushes then back to the other side to push again until he gets to where he wants to go. Very cute.

This boy also loves animals. He loves to pet Loki but doesn't like it when she licks him (who would?). Loki is such a good dog, she just sits still while he grabs her skin and fur or "pets" her (by smacking her), even around her mouth. Loki loves him and is protective of him. In her eyes, he could do no wrong. She is starting to learn to hand around while he eats as something usually ends up on the floor for her. When he sees animals he says, "Ooooo!" and pumps his legs and sticks out his tongue in excitement. The other day, Alexander was given the opportunity to pet his Nana's cat and he grabbed some fur right off of her! Yikes! She's good, too, and didn't give him a hard time, thank goodness.

Robert and I are really enjoying our little one and our family. We are so happy to have him in our lives- he is the sweetest person I know.