AJ's God-Brother

This past weekend our lil family went on our 1st mini-trip. We traveled to PA/OH for a big day. Alex's God-Father, Sean and his wife Susie have a son one month younger than Alex. His name is Vince. We don't get to see them nearly enough since they live in Ohio. But Sean asked Jason to be Vince's God-Father and Jason jumped at the chance. While I am lucky to be the God-mother to 2 of my nephews, Vince is Jay's 1st God-Child and he is so proud!


Jay, AJ and I drove to Erie on Sat. We met Sean, Susie and Vince for dinner and then we stayed overnight. AJ LOVED the hotel and the big king-sized bed. The next day we got up bright and early. AJ enjoyed watching cartoons for the 1st time. He seemed to really like Tom & Jerry, which was one of Jay's faves as a kid. The picture to the right is AJ watching cartoons in his PJ's.


Then we drove to Ohio for the baptism. The ceremony was long but both AJ and Vince were perfect angels. After the ceremony we took some pictures (of course!). Here are the God-Fathers with their God-sons:

















After the church we went to Susie's parents' house for lunch. That was when the BIG photo shoot occurred...The boys were just too cute sitting next to each other playing. At one point Vince was so tired he started to cry and I swear AJ put his hand on his shoulder to console him. What a sweetie!


Here Alex looks like he is checking Vince's nose for him - anything up there?


Unfortunately we only could stay for a little while and then we drove back home. AJ was such a great travel companion. He slept most of the time in the car and seemed impressed with every service plaza we stopped at to eat. He is such an adaptable lil guy - we are so lucky! He only got alittle fussy the last 20 minutes or so. At that point I had to sing "Old McDonald" over and over (and OVER!) again to keep him happy.

Overall, it was a great weekend and I am so glad we were able to go. Unfortunately somewhere along the way AJ picked up yet ANOTHER cold! YUCK! Poor kid - he was congestion and cough free for about 3 days and now he's all snotty and coughy again.

Of course since AJ was 37 weeks old on Sunday I had to do our weekly picture. Here's one of the cutest:

Stand by Me

Alex has yet to crawl. Really he just swims on the floor or pushes himself backwards. He hasn't yet grasped the technique of pushing himself up on his knees. But one thing we have noticed is that his legs are STRONG! So we thought we'd try to see if he could hold himself up with something to lean onto. We were surprised to see that he is able to. He's a little wobbly and after awhile he does buckle at the knees but he did very well. Maybe he will be one of those babies that stands and walks before he crawls!

Here's AJ practicing standing. The 1st pic is from yesterday and it's alittle blurry bc I took it quickly with my cell phone - I was so excited!



And here he is a few nights ago practicing crawling with his best pal, Buddy:


Finally here is a cute pic from earlier today:

Mr. McCutie

Today AJ and I met Jay at his work and then walked to his very 1st parade. It's pretty fitting since AJ is mostly Irish/Scottish. And could he look more like a McCutie? Or as a friend called him, a little McNugget!

The parade was during his naptime, but with all the music and sirens, he didn't sleep. He mostly stared and a few times he started to cry. I think the loud noises scared him a little. But overall, we had fun. And it was a beautiful sunny day which was nice. It'll be an annual tradition for us now.
As soon as AJ and I got into the car to go home, he was fast asleep!

8 months old today!

Alex is 8 months old today. Since I know I have been behind posting pics this past month I thought I would make up for it now.

Here's Alex at 31 weeks old:


Here he is sitting in a lil chair at 32 weeks old:


Daddy decided to get his guitar out and see if he remembered how to play anything. He didn't remember much but AJ loved it anyways. He was being so darn cute watching and listening to Daddy that I, of course, had to get the camera out. I am convenced that AJ has the music bone in him! This was during week 33:


I HAD to post another pic from that week. Just look at his face! He was eating a Cheerio for the 1st time and I don't think he liked it!


I couldn't decide which pic to post for 34 weeks either so here's 2 again:























Finally, here he is today at 8 months old


Of course I have a LOT of other pics during this past month but in order for me to hurry and post something b4 AJ wakes up (any minute now!) I had to be quick and decisive. Truth is, he takes such cute pics (I know I'm a little bias!) I wish I could post them all!

So what is he doing these days? Well, he is babbling a lot.....he says dada, yaya, blabla, AH....but no mama in that babble yet! That's ok, I don't take it personal. Well, not too much ;-) He loves to grab the strings on Daddy's sweatshirts and suck on them. I swear he could do that for hours and be happy! He's eating a TON of new foods - just about every fruit and veggie. And I have stuck to making most of his food myself. We haven't introduced him to meats yet but soon. Not sure if I am gonna make those for him or just go with the jar meats. We'll see. He's not crawling yet, but sorta "swims" on his belly. He sits up great and grabs everything. His new favorite game is to grab a toy and then drop it off the edge of his exersaucer or his seat. He's also getting the hang of peek-a-boo which is so cute. He loves to be tossed up in the air, but he is getting too heavy for me to do that as much. The "Old McDonald" song seems to make him stop crying or whining when nothing else works. But, I will be honest - he still does not cry or whine much at all. We are so lucky to have such a happy, easy-going boy :-) As I mentioned above, he really loves music. Anything that has music just grabs his attention. He loves to watch and listen to American Idol, any commercial that comes on with music or songs draws him in, and any toy that makes music really keeps his attention. K sang and played the piano so maybe he got the music genes from her. I can't wait to get him into a music class with his cousin Aidan!

It's a DATE!

I know I haven't been good about posting pictures/updates lately - life has been crazy busy! I was planning on posting tomorrow since AJ will be 8 months old tomrorow. BUT I have some GREAT news I wanted to share...

WE HAVE A FINALIZATION DATE!

It's May 14, 2009 at 9am. Still 2 months away but it'll be here before we know it!

I am actually sorta surprised at how giddy and excited I am about getting this date. AJ has felt like our son since that day I had the Mama Bear roar in me while he was still in the hospital and the nurses wouldn't give me any info. We know he is our son, that he was always meant to be our son, so "finalizing" that really is just another logistical step. But it is more than that. Even though we know he is our son, it isn't until finalization that much of the rest of the world recognizes him as ours. We will finally get his birth certificate and social security number, and more importantly we will have the security of knowing that no matter what happens, nothing and no one can take him from us EVER!

We will be inviting our family to be there to witness the finalization, and we are so excited that Jay's dad and step-mom will actually be in town that week as well. Also, May 14 is right around Mother's Day AND it is the birthday of my paternal grandmother, with whom I had a special relationship with. We plan on taking pictures as well as video and will treasure that day forever. Can you just hear the excitement in my words????

YAY for us!