Can you hear me now?

On Wednesday, December 12th Bugbaboo had tubes put into his ears. After 5 rounds of antibiotics over 5 months for ear infections, we and his doctors decided that it would be a good move. I've told you before about Dr. Fantastic. Well she just had a baby! So in her absence we've been seeing her partner, let's call her Dr. Wonderful. And she is just that. She's been so concerned about him that she even called us on Thanksgiving Day (the day after a particularly bad infection) to see how he was doing. She suggested we go see a pediatric ENT specialist asap, so that's what we did. We went to the Children's branch in Parker and met Dr. Chan, and all of his nice nurses were so kind and helpful.

And let me tell you what a little trooper this kid is. He's never minded all of the poking and prodding that goes with all of the ear checks he's had. He just leans against our chests and lets the doctors do whatever they need to. Last week he sat on Daddy's lap in the sound booth to check his hearing, and he was so attentive to what was going on and sat so still and quietly. He was just amazing. They did say that his hearing in the normal ranges was great considering how full of fluid his ears were, and that his eardrums weren't moving at all. But he did miss a few things in the outer edges, so we're hoping (and sure) that will all come back now with the fluid drained away.

Wednesday morning we checked in to Children's Hospital, got him all changed into his gown and then had visits from a series of nurses and doctors and the anesthesiologist all preparing us for what would happen. He wasn't afraid of anyone, charmed the nurse who gave him is little physical, checked out everything in the room, and then took a 45 minute nap in Mama's arms while we waited for our turn. When the anesthesiologist came to take him into surgery, he happily went with her, began playing with all the cool things hanging around her neck (stethoscope, goggles, name badge, etc) and away they went. He never even looked back, which I'm thankful for because I think I would have lost it, seeing someone else carry my baby away to surgery.

Less than 15 minutes later we were seated in the waiting room and out comes the doctor, "Everything went well...drained copious amounts of thick fluid...going to be a different baby!". Yippee!!! Although he was an amazing baby to begin with, so I hope the "different" part only refers to him feeling good all the time! Less than 5 minutes later we were back in recovery with him as he fussed off the affects of the anesthesia. After nursing and getting some Motrin, he was crawling and talking and playing up a storm within 30 minutes and they sent us home with some ear drops. We had a fantastic afternoon with him, he ate, slept and played like nothing happened. We still have to do the ear drops a few more days, and we have 2 more days left on his oral antibiotic from this last infection. But then hopefully we don't see a milky fruity bubble-gummy flavored goop for a long long time again.

So thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We felt so good about this decision and we know it's because of the support we had from the doctors and from all of our family and friends.

Here is a picture of Bugaboo in all of his hospital finery. It was taken with my camera phone so I apologize for the fuzziness, but isn't he just too cute?

8 Months Old

Yes, more catching up to do! Something like 6 or 8 weeks worth. Doesn't sound like a lot of time really, but in baby time that's quite a bit... almost 2 months! Which is, sadly, 1/4 of Bugaboo's time so far. So yeah, we have a lot to share!

Alex is 8 months old now and he has 4 teeth and is crawling and pulling himself up onto things. He loves to "climb" on things, like me, Dan, pillows, Tucker and his toys. And he is just so proud of himself! He gets himself to standing and then starts to bounce and forgets he can't stand on his own yet and just... tumbles! And he laughs and gets right back up! He's trying to "cruise", too. He'll stand next to something and walk along it with his hands and then move his feet to catch up with himself. He is actually getting really good at balancing himself. I don't think it will be long before he's trying to walk on his own. Look out world!

Our friend Windi lent us a baby signing video and Alex just LOVES it. We've been doing the signs for water, eat, more, shoes, bird, fish, ball, milk and sleep and we think that he is trying to do some of them back to us, but we can't tell what they are yet. He definitely understands them, though, and when I ask him if he wants to eat and do the sign for it he grins and bounces! He still loves bath time and has a lot of toys that he splashes around with. I'm usually pretty soaked after a bath. Our bedtime routine has really helped with him going to sleep on his own, too. After the bath we do lotion and jammies and then a little snuggle. Then I wrap him up in his blanket, lay him in his crib and turn out the light. Sometimes he stays awake and talks to himself for a few minutes, but mostly he can hardly wait for me to lay him down before he drifts off to sleep. It's wonderful!

Speaking of talking to himself, Alex is really jabbering a lot now. He definitely says DaDa and MaMa, and he's even starting to use them at the right times which is very exciting for us! He usually says DaDa when he's "wrestling" with Dan, and MaMa when he's upset or hungry. I guess he's pretty clear on what our roles are!

We've struggled with ear infections and are currently on our 5th antibiotic. Poor little guy just can't seem to shake this last one. He's such a trooper though, and even though he doesn't feel good he is still a very happy and good baby. We're going to see an ENT soon and will talk about putting tubes in his ears. Everything we've heard about tubes has been very positive, so while we are sad that it has to happen, we are glad that it will help him.

Ok, here are a ton of pictures and captions. Enjoy!



Back in early October we went to a pumpkin farm with our friend Windi and her little guy Oz, and the Whites came with us, too. We had a great time even though it was super windy out. I love this picture becuase Alex is gazing up at Dan. Isn't that sweet?



Here are Oz and Alex discussing the qualities of pumpkins. Either that or talking about the current state of their diapers.



Here is the cutest litte pumpkin you've ever seen. You can see his bottom two teeth really well in this picture. He's really started to get a lot more hair now, too.




Alex and his big hairy brother Tucker. They play so well together, Tucker is so patient with Alex.



And there are always a lot of kisses exchanged between the two of them.




Grandma and Grandpa Garcia came to visit and Alex had some quality diaper time with them!



Alex had so much fun playing with them! Grandpa was giving Alex kisses on his back which just CRACKED him up, it was awesome!



I think someone was getting a lot of snuggles and kisses that weekend. Can you guess who that might be?



Alex just LOVES containers. Buckets, boxes... anything he can fill and empty and beat on.



Remember me saying he likes to climb things? Here's proof! Crawled right up onto his box of toys to get to the toys on the other side of it. He hung out on top of it for quite a while and was as happy as he could be!



Alex's daycare had a little Thanksgiving lunch for the kids and their parents. I went and had turkey and mashed potatoes with Alex, he loved them both!



It has been very cold here recently and so we've been bundling Bug up from head to toe. Here he is in his super cool tassle hat and matching mittens. Doesn't he look cozy? And the best part is that he doesn't mind either that hat or the mittens and will leave it all on so we don't have to worry about him getting cold!



Dan's sister Kathy and her family came out from California for Thanksgiving and stayed with the Whites. We went over a few times to visit and let the cousins all hang out together. Left to Right is Kyle (6), Zachary (7), Justin (11), Alex, and Kailey (5). That's Elly in the front, she LOVED having all those kids in her house!



Alex was hanging out with the boys, Cousin Zach and his Uncle Matt.




Kailey just adored Alex, and I think the adoration was mutual. Alex watched every move that Kailey made and was always looking for her in every room. Kailey was SO good with Alex, she played with him and all his toys, brought him stuffed animals to snuggle and even read all of his peek-a-boo books to him.


Well, that's it for now! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

A lot of catching up to do....

So, yes, it's been over a month since my last post... oops. So much going on, so little time to blog! I have been taking pictures though! Here is the story of what's been going on the last 6 weeks or so...


We've started feeding Alex veggies and fruits and he LOVES him some squash and oatmeal! He also really likes peas, bananas, applesauce and sweet potatoes. All the other flavors he'll eat (really he's not picky) but he just can't eat these fast enough!


Squash!!!


Very first time with a veggie, we had Squash. Mama even had a squash on hand and so Alex saw what he was eating. The significance was probably lost on him, but it makes a really cute picture!!!



Green beans - NOT a favorite. Maybe if I mix them with applesauce he'll eat a few bites, but these rank right down there with prunes in his book.






Alex just adores Tucker. He watches him, reaches for him and even sticks his tongue out like him when Tucker is trying to lick him! Whenever he's on the floor next to him he does anything he can to get closer to his Big Hairy Brother.





And now that Alex is eating some finger foods - teething biscuits and Gerber puffs - Tucker sticks pretty close to the high chair! Of course this just fascinates Alex and all thought of the food is gone from his mind.




It's that time of year again... football! Here is Alex in his Bronco themed attire. The whole family dressed up in orange and blue hasn't seemed to help our team much, but we're loyal to the end! We're in the market for some Avs gear, too. Haven't found much of that yet though.






Other new and exciting events.....

The sippie cup! How does this thing work???



So far Alex really likes playing with this new sippie cup thing, he grabs it, mouths it and even puts the spout in his mouth to suck on. But WHOA, watch out when the juice comes out... so far he does NOT like that part. Makes a face like "What the HECK?"




It's getting chilly in the mornings now, so Alex wears a hat and a jacket to daycare. Unfortunately we don't have any hats that fit him too well right now so he's been wearing this newborn cap which, as you can see, has a tendency to turn around and slip! Mama just finished knitting him the perfect fall cap, though. You'll see pictures of that soon!




We spent Labor Day weekend in Trinidad with Grandma and Grandpa Garcia and Uncle Steve. We had a cookout that Nan and Poppa came to.













It was beautiful and sunny weather all weekend! Thank goodness Alex had his shades and sun hat!!!





Uncle Steve brought his friend Jason to play in the Golf Tournament.






We visited the guys on the Golf Course.






And the latest news is that Alex sits up on his own so well and is now trying to crawl! He'll push up onto his hands and knees and rock back and forth, then PUSH!... backwards. He does wiggle and roll just about anywhere he wants to get, but we're not far from the army crawl either. And he's SO proud of himself, and only wants to be on the ground or bed where he can wiggle and figure out this motion deal.






Alex is such a good natured, happy and smiley baby. We are SO lucky and fall in love with him all over about 57.3 times a day.

Splish Spash

Well we had a busy day today! We started the morning by checking out the Methodist Church by us. It was a special day there where they were kicking off the new school year so all the groups had displays set up, and there was a New Orleans style jazz band performing music. So, safe to say it was pretty different from how it normally would be! We'll go again next week to see what it's really like. On the plus side, though Alex LOVED the music! He was bouncing on our laps and even joined in the singing a few times. He was all grins! We'll definitely check this place out again, it seems to have a great focus on kids and is a really nice setting.

Then this afternoon we went to the Rec Center and went swimming! They have a great little splash area for the kids. It has a soft floor and lots of spraying, dumping, bubbling water toys. We hung out mostly on the outskirts of the water chaos and left all that fun to the bigger kids, but Alex did love sitting next to one of the little bubbling deals and feeling it on his hands and feet. He also loved just bobbing in the water with Mama and Daddy. I think we'll do this again! Plus he looks DARN CUTE in his little swim trunks, don't you think?