365 Days With Alex

Today is the day that Alexis turned one year old. So much has happened in this past year and she made the incredibly painful times bearable and given us perspective and she has made the good times into cherished memories. I know that sounds sappy, but we're talking about my girl here and I will always be sentimental about her.

We kept her up a half hour past her bed time so we could get a picture of her at 7:29pm, the exact time of her birth. In order to do that we gave her some of her personal banana cake that I made for her birthday party. She ate part of the chocolate panda bear cake at her party on Sunday, but saved the mini-banana cake for today. That little bit of sugar kept her going for the final half hour as she rifled through her bookshelf and climbed in and out of the chair a half dozen times.

As for developmental milestones, she continues to get closer to walking. She can stand on her own for about twenty seconds before she slowly lowers herself to the floor. She can also take about six or seven steps at a time, but only when she really wants to---she rarely attempts it on request. She also has moved on from the infant and toddler bathtub to the full bathtub. She insists on standing up and crawling around so much it just got easier to manage her in the big tub. For the last couple of weeks she has really wants to lay on her back when she's in the tub. There's only about two or three inches of water in the tub, so the water barely covers her ears when she rest her head at the bottom of the tub. She alternates between letting her limbs go limp and kicking her legs and splashing the water.

A tradition we intend to continue on each of her birthdays is to measure and mark her height on the wood post in the basement. Tonight she measured 29 inches (she was 20 and 3/4 inches at her birth). She seems so healthy and strong. She has a doctor's appointment next week, we'll get her weight and post it then. She's seems to be kind of long and lean in her body. She has a nice pot belly, and her legs have a chubby aspect to them, but she seems more muscular than anything.


Here's some video of her taking on the banana cake:




And, to commemorate her birth, here's a video of her getting her first bath in the hospital and waking up all of the sleeping babies in the room:

First Birthday Party

Alex's first birthday is coming up on Tuesday, but she celebrated the occasion today with her first birthday party. The invitations, sent to family, friends, and baby friends, were made by mom and aunt Tracee. They are based on the Ed Emberly-inspired paintings I made for her room. Tracee lined the envelopes and helped mom cut circles and triangles out of construction paper to create the lady bug, baby chick, and owl you see below.



Mom made a colorful banner that read, "Happy Birthday Alex!" that was hung up in the backyard where we held the party. We purchased over twenty balloons, and set up the kiddie pool. For the first time in weeks, the day was cool and breezy, and while it was a welcome respite from the hot weather we have been experiencing, it meant the pool went unused.

I made a devil's food panda bear cake and a banana brown bear cake. The panda bear was made from the same mold that was used for my first birthday cake in 1976.


Pictured above are the birthday cakes made by me with the mold from his first birthday cake.


And above are pictures of my first birthday party with the cake made from the same mold. You can see mischievous baby me putting my frosting laden fingers in my sister Tracee's hair.

In addition to the cake we had chips with home-made salsa, watermelon, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and apples. Guests included uncle and aunt Andy and Rachel with cousins Eleanor and Vincent, dad's cousin Scott with his wife Rachael and their seven month old daughter Fia, friends Dan and Ashley with their son Pete, friend David, friends Claude and Sara with their son Atticus, aunt Tracee, grandma Lael, grandma Pam, and great grandma Evelyn.

As you can imagine, she got lots of great gifts. It was a great day and we're looking forward to her actual birthday on Tuesday.

Here's some video of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her:


Photos of the party were uploaded to our Photobucket Account. Here's a few of our favorites:

Eleven Months Old

Alexis turned eleven months old on July 17. She's been extremely busy since the last post. On Independence Day she visited Great Grandma Evelyn on her way to spending the afternoon with mom, dad, Grandma Pam, Aunt Tracee, and various family friends in Richfield. She watched her first parade from dad's lap. She thought it was okay but was rather nonplussed by the entire event. Mainly, she sat quietly. After the parade was over, she went to Cousin Paula's home in Lake Elmo to spend time with mom's side of the family.

The following weekend she went to the Anoka Heritage Home and Garden Tour, which dad organized at work. She was a hit (as usual). We thought she was the youngest person on the tour, but then we saw a six week old at the end. At least we know she was the cutest one.

Last weekend was a dad weekend. Mom was busy helping prepare for a wedding shower. On Saturday, she visited the Gibbs Farm Museum in Falcon Heights. They have two black African pigs on the site that were a common breed for Minnesota pioneer farmers to have. Alex was IMPRESSED with these little pigs. She also got in the middle of the petting zoo and got face-to-face goats, ducks, chickens, and a turkey. Fun, but nothing beat the pigs that day---with the possible exception being the home made ice cream. On Sunday, she and dad went out for breakfast and a walk with Grandma Pam and Aunt Tracee. After a long midday nap, she went swimming with dad at the YWCA.

She spent the day at home today with a temperature. Last night was a rough night, but things calmed down for her when she fell asleep in mom's and dad's bed. Unfortunately, while she slept better, the fever still hasn't broken. We're not certain if she has a bug or another tooth coming in. She has eight teeth in and it has been a couple of months since she had more come in. We might be looking at a molar coming in, but were not sure. Her previous teeth didn't produce this kind of reaction, so I guess we'll see.

As for her development at eleven months she is getting even more active every day. She is practices standing for a few seconds at a time. She thrills to take two or three stumbling steps from mom's arms to dad's. She crawls up an entire flight of stairs (under dad's watchful eye) and has even gone down one or two steps. We are not certain about her height and weight at the moment, but she'll be going in for her one year check-up next month.

Dad Flys Solo for the Evening

Mom got a well deserved night out with friends tonight. So, while she went out for dinner and a movie, I relished in the opportunity to watch Alex for the night---and I only had to call Nikki once with a question!

Here are some videos of the evening's activities:


Pushing and walking behind her cart.




Reading Where Is Baby's Belly Button?, and flipping up the tabs.




Reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and turning pages.




Expressing her appreciation for Thor the cat.




Taking a bath (even Thor checks this one out).




Saying good night to Garfield, a nightly routine that signifies bed time.




Reading Goodnight Moon, another nightly tradition.



Tomorrow night, Nikki will return the favor to me when I go to watch the Twins play the Rays. But she's unlikely to blog about it as if she had invented parenting (like I just did)...

Baby Alex At Ten Months Old

Alexis turned ten months old today. She is talking a lot, mainly baby babbles, but she likes to say "mamama" a lot and words that sound like "dadad." She loves to stand up and walk along coffee tables, chairs, walls, book shelves, mom's and dad's legs, whatever's handy. She also loves to have us read to her. Her favorite books at the moment are Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I'll Find You Kitty, Whose Tail Peter Rabbit, and That's Not My Polar Bear.

She has also been expanding her palate lately. You probably read about her love of Cheerios. She gets a real kick out of feeding herself. She's recently introduced beets and Dal to her palate.

So how to she spend her ten month birthday? She took a dip in the pool. She loves baths and has been in the inflatable kiddie pool a couple of times. She loves to splash and pour water out of containers and place tub toys in the containers and take them out. It's all very complicated, but she's got a system she is working on. We're hoping to take her to the YWCA's pool this weekend and introduce her to her first real pool.

Enjoy this short video of Alex splashing and giggling in the pool.

Attention General Mills Casting Agents

4 June 2010

1 General Mills Boulevard
Minneapolis, MN 55426

Dear General Mills:

Allow me the opportunity to introduce you to your next Cheerios spokesmodel, Alexis Mahon. As you can see from this thirty second audition shoot and promotional head shot, the future of Cheerios, and the entire General Mills corporate family, is here. The cutest baby in the world is a big fan of your signature product and she is available to promote it to the consumer public.

But she does not come cheap. The specifics of her contract demands will be forwarded in future correspondence, but generally she requires one cat on the set at all times, lots of mirrors to admire herself in, and a significant contribution to her college fund and her parents' retirement fund.

Act now. She is in the midst of preliminary discussions with Kellogg's and Gerber Foods and is only interested in an exclusive business relationship. Please view the audition tape and promotional photo. We are open to discussion on the direction of any advertising campaign, but insist on veto power with any creative decisions.

We look forward to hearing from you and to a long and successful partnership.

Best wishes,

Daddy
Agent

Nine Month Update

As has become the tradition of this blog, this one month update is coming a few weeks late. On May 18, Alexis had her nine month wellness checkup with her pediatrician, Doctor Dietz. Everything checked out great. She seems to have stopped her rapid growth. At her six month checkup she was in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. At her nine month checkup she was still in the 75th percentile for height, but in only the 50th for her weight. There's no reason for concern, but we've started to feed her even more solid food at her twice a day solid food meals. She currently has two solid food meals and nurses with mom a couple of times a day and has three bottles at day care. One of the bottles is pumped breast milk, and the other two are formula.

Here's her measurements from her May 18 appointment and here's her measurements from her August 17 birth date:

• Weight: 18lbs 10.5oz
• Height/Length: 28 inches
• Head circumference: 17.52 inches