Lex and I just got back from spending five days with my sister and her family in Alameda, CA.  All in all the trip was very successful.  The cousins got reacquainted and had a great time together while Amy and I got to catch up.  I did find that being a single parent while on “vacation” is not exactly easy!  Lex and I shared a bedroom and he woke up more than ever at night.  But he was terrific on both plane rides.  His smile is so contagious and all the flight attendants and passengers loved him.    

Here’s some random shots of Tobin, Zoe and Lex together:

This was just a sampling of some of the pictures I took.  I’m sure I’ll post more over the next few days…

Thankfully today was a much better day than yesterday.  Lex actually took his naps and seemed to be in better spirits, although he still isn’t back to his normal happy self.  His nursing strike lasted over 24 hours, but luckily that ended around 3 am last night.  Believe me, my boobs were very thankful to be relieved of their load!  I don’t even know where my breast pump is, but I was about ready to go rent one.  Besides the physical pain, I didn’t realize how emotionally attached I am to our nursing sessions until they temporarily went away.  I’m definitely not ready to end that special bond with my son.    

Anyways, here’s my teething boy chewing on our new measuring spoons:

Tomorrow morning Lex and I fly to California to visit my sister and her family in Alameda.  Tim has to work so he won’t be joining us.  I have to admit, I’m jealous that he’ll be getting five days of uninterrupted sleep!  But I’m sure he’ll miss us like we’ll be missing him.

I’m not even sure how to begin to summarize all of the changes with Lex right now.  My little baby boy has suddenly turned into a very active and opinionated toddler.  Lex is so close to walking on his own.  He now pulls away from us if he wants to go someplace that we’re not headed  (of course he still tumbles over, but he has the determination anyway).  He’s taken at least two or three steps on his own when walking to Tim or me.

Lex is teething like a mad man and chews on everything.  And because of that he keeps getting colds from being exposed to new germs when we go to public places.  Hopefully he’s on the recovering end of his current cold.

His crawling skills are greatly improved.  He still mainly does the “army crawl” with only his arms, but occasionally he will get his belly off the ground.  Here he’s heading toward the book shelf to pull off all the books (a favorite activity).

Today was a tough day.  Lex still doesn’t feel that great (runny nose and cough), and he refused to take both of his naps.  So you can imagine that he was in rough shape by late this afternoon.  Mommy was in rough shape as well.  I really rely on his naps to regroup and re-energize.  Lex also refused to nurse at all today.  I’m hoping that he’s just in a brief nursing strike due to illness or teething.  I’m not quite emotionally prepared for a cold turkey self-weaning.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Meanwhile, Tim and I have found a house that we really like.  We’re gathering estimates from three different mortgage brokers which will determine if we can afford the place or not.  The house is gorgeous and we really like the neighborhood, so here’s hoping that it all works out!

No, we didn’t buy a new family vehicle.  But Lex did get a really cool car for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Weaver.  Here he’s taking it for a spin:

(with a little help from dad)

And taking a break from driving:

We don’t really have any cute New Year’s pictures this year.  We can’t top the ones from last year with Lex in his tuxedo.  But we did have an early family dinner at Sweet Tomatoes before Lex went to bed.  In true Lex fashion, he made sure to visit every patron at every table while we were at the restaurant.  Too bad he didn’t earn a commission for every smile and comment that was made about him.  We’d be rich!

After dinner Tim and I celebrated with the east coast and welcomed 2009 at 9 pm.  Here’s how the Weavers open a wine bottle when we can’t find a proper opener (it’s still packed somewhere in the garage).

A drill and a wood screw:

And some pliers…

Happy New Year!