Happy Birthday Naomi!

Happy Halloween (Our 100th post!)

Alex spent most of Friday October 30th having lots of fun at school with her friends. Each classmate brought treats and the kids all got to trick or treat at the local businesses that share a parking lot with the day care.

Halloween evening, we headed out to the Tiger Night of Fun at the Hearnes Center, trick or treated to a few neighborhood homes and then handed out candy.

Mizzou Homecoming 2009 and Catch Up

OK, we're going to cram a bunch of stuff in here since we are behind (again) - now that the weather has turned colder. we'll have more time to blog about the Nugget's adventures!

The slideshow below covers several recent events and a few everyday activities:

September 28th, Fall Frolic at Albert Oakland Park, sponsored by Parents as Teachers
October 18th, End of the Rainbow Picnic with Friends
October 21st, Family Fun Fest - Percussion Phun
October 24th, Homecoming Parade

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Buggy!

Alex was invited to her first official birthday party for a non-family member! A little girl at daycare named Lillian (aka Buggy - short for Lilly Bug) turned one September 24th.

Alex behaved very well and even ate dinner at the little kid table! She politely waited for the birthday girl to unwrap each present and place it to the side before Alex started to play with it. (HA!)

Catching up!

We're behind again in our postings...to catch you up:

September 19th - Calamity Jane Days, Princeton MO - had a great time at Alex's 2nd Calamity Jane Day celebration.

September 23rd - Picnic with the Barbaro Family at Flatbranch Park, Columbia MO - we decided to enjoy a weeknight picnic and romp at a local playground with some good friends.

Enjoy!

First Scrape & Catch-up

It was bound to happen soon......especially with our 45 degree angle driveway.

We've gotten into the habit of hanging out after dinner around our culdesac. Tonight, we waved at all of neighbors driving by and enjoyed playing outside. Mrs. B made us proud - no tears and barely missed a beat after falling on her knee tonight after dinner.

Alex is also getting the hang of using her spoons and fork to eat with - we will post pics of that soon!

Messy Night at Cosmo Park

The local Parents as Teachers hosts this fun event every year - it was a bit chilly, but well worth it. Alex was able to run free and played with dirt, corn, water, paints, shaving cream, squirt guns - if it was messy - they had it.

We were glad we dressed her in old clothes so she could go wild!

Ring Around the Rosie!?

By accident we recently discovered Alex's ability to dance on cue! Here's an example during our recent jaunt through Flatbranch Park.

Happy Birthday - Alex is ONE!!

Ok, ok, we know it's been over a month since Alex turned one. We've been properly scolded by just about everyone we know to get pictures posted ASAP! Enjoy the birthday slide show below!

No longer a record holder

"A record number of babies were born at Columbia Regional Hospital’s Family Birth Center in July. A total of 193 babies were delivered during 189 births. The previous record of 178 babies for 176 births was set in August 2008."

“We are very pleased that Columbia Regional Hospital has achieved a new record of deliveries and births,” said Hung Winn, MD, JD, MBA, chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health. “Thank you, everyone, for your efforts to make this possible and to make the Family Birth Center such a caring, comfortable environment for babies, mothers and their families.”

It had to be broken sometime.....

Music Appreciation

So, Mom came home last night to some crazy salsa-esque music drifting through the house as the Nugget ate her dinner. Dad informed Mom that Wednesday was now "Caliente" Wednesday courtesy of our digital cable music channel. This helped Mom when she made brownies for a hospital bake sale and many tiny cakes for Mrs. B's numerous brithday celebrations.

For all of you out there wondering, tonight was Hip Hop Thursday..........

51 Weeks - almost there!

Creeping up on Alex's numero uno - only one week to go!

This week was a another busy one - full of purchases.

Saturday morning the family took a quick jaunt around Columbia in the rain and visited several garage sales. Mom spotted a practically new play kitchen and had $18 left to spend. The woman wanted $50 (really?). Mom said NO DEAL and left. Thinking more about it, she ended up hitting the ATM and got $20 more and headed back. This time Mom offered $35, final answer. The lady wanted $40 and Mom was prepared to walk. The lady ended up taking $35 and threw in some extra play food, this put Mom in a very good mood. We also picked up some great kid clothes that looked pretty new at another sale.

Saturday evening, the family attended the 2nd Annual Taste of the Market, which was a creative mix of Posh Columbians and Tree Hugger Columbians. Mrs. B enjoyed the music and people watching and even got a surprise hug from a random little girl.

Mom got some new glasses (finally) since the prescription was forever outdated and she needed to use her pre-tax, flexible spending account money from work. Being a creature of habit, Mom settled on glasses that look very similar to the ones she used to have.

Speaking of glasses, Mrs. B has a new set of glasses thanks to the Little Ladies of Kansas City - Kate and Lo. We have started calling them her "nerd glasses" and from the pics, you can see why...

The new car seats arrived from an online retailer. We purchased two Britax Boulevards in Madison. We're not wild about the fabric color, but it's very soft, safe and we got a great deal!

Mom also picked up a piece of furniture and some colorful canvas cubes for Mrs. B's room. We're hoping this will be a good place to store clothes and toys out of sight.

Alex's eating has dramatically improved! Water intake is up and breast milk intake is going down, which is normal. She's added the following to her repertoire: cream cheese, homemade baby meatballs, homemade yogurt cereal bars, pancakes, apple slices, cottage cheese, string cheese and watermelon ice cream!

Taking a page from the Barbaro's, Michael made a sensory board for Alex, see pics below. Random pieces of hardware stuck to a board makes for hours of play!

We have a final One Year Well Child Check-Up on 8/13 and will report back with the stats. At this appointment we hope to have clearance for whole milk, egg whites, chocolate, honey and peanut butter among other things.

By the next post, Alex will likely be ONE!

Pool Party!


Zonked out!


Nerd Glasses


Eating Watermelon Ice Cream


Hanging out at Taste of the Market


Sensory Board


New Car Seats


Bins




Someone's in the kitchen.....


Baby Julia Child

Recap of July 2009 - HUGE POST!

We've been very busy and expect to continue the frenetic pace into August. Hopefully, we can get back into the groove of weekly postings (at least until someone turns one!).

Looking back on July:

Friday July 10 - dinner with the Barbaro's at Osaka in Columbia - yum, sushi! J got a very nice electric griddle for making tons of pancakes....wait, who was this present for?

Sat July 11 - the family went to the Mid America Harley Davidson Street Fair benefiting MU Children's Hospital - Alex received her first tattoo! See pic below of Nemo on her foot.

Monday July 13 - after an exciting weekend of chores and the street fair, A woke up pretty cranky, which is unusual. Mom dosed her with some Tylenol (thinking she could be teething) and her mood improved.

Tuesday July 14 - after 24 hours of pain management with Tylenol, Mom called the doctor. One quick visit later,we discovered Alex had small blisters in her throat as a result of a "summer virus". They have seasonal viruses now? She recovered quickly and was Tylenol free after Wednesday.

Saturday Jul 18 - the Maag's and the Hardy's celebrated Grandma Hardy's birthday in Kirksville with cupcakes and a cookout.

Tuesday July 21 - Grandma Hardy, Andrea, Katie and Nicholas traveled to Columbia for a doctors appointment and some shopping. Grandma got to see the daycare and everyone ate dinner at Shakespeare's since Flatbranch was too crowded - A had her first taste of pizza and sat still in the high chair for all of the meal!

Thursday July 23- Boone County Fair - saw some farm animals, watched the pig races, ran into Erin & Ava Barbaro. Alex was a bit too small for the rides, but she enjoyed people watching and didn't get to bed until 9pm!

Friday July 24 - Mom took the day off and visited the eye doctor with Baby A in tow. Both of us had our eyes checked out. Mom has a new prescription and new glasses on the way. Alex had her eyes dilated and is very far sighted, which is good for a child her age. No cataracts, glaucoma, retinal tumors or eye turns (lazy eye). Alex will go back when she turns three. For more about the program sponsoring the free infant eye exams and our doctor Karen McHargue, click here

On the way home from the eye doctor, A fell asleep and J's car was rear-ended by a clueless, but nice lady. Everyone was inching towards a green light and she didn't stop inching. Of course, this occurred at the THE busiest intersection in Columbia on Stadium in front of the mall. After a quick survey of the damage, J took the lady's info, but figured nothing appeared to be damaged.


Sat & Sun 7/25 & 26 - Trip to Kansas City to see the Bohr's - this trip has been rescheduled at least once for weather and twice for various kid sicknesses. Twin 6 year old's Kate and Lauren enjoyed calling Alex "Mrs. B" and had a great time entertaining her. We all ate dinner at d'Bronx and had fun catching up with Ken and Christine.


EXTRAS:

Talking into cups - Alex has started babbling into containers - cups, bowls, whatever. She holds it to her mouth and chats away. It's pretty funny to see - we will try to capture on video and post.

Table food drama - Alex is getting ready to transition to the ONE YEAR OLD room at her daycare, which is a big deal in the daycare world. Part of the criteria is age, mobility, ability to eat table food and cutting out bottles. Two out of four aren't bad, right? Alex is walking and will soon be one, but she's not so much into the table food and would probably be content to eat jarred baby food as long as we offered it. So, we've cracked down on operation TABLE FOOD and moved from bottles to sippy cups of breast milk. We've figured out she will eat (or at least try food that are large and crunchy vs. small and squishy.

HITS: half of a banana, watermelon chunks, bagel chips, rice cakes, half of a sweet potato, cheese, plain toast, eggy bread, muffins.

MISSES: peas, pineapple, avocado. The jury is still out on cream cheese, bagels, pancakes, Gerber Graduate meat sticks (ugh), spaghetti, green beans.......stay tuned!

47 weeks old - Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Aunt Allison and Miles popped in for a visit this weekend. Alex enjoyed the visit and playing with her new stainless steel cooking set, complete with cooking utensils.

It's been an interesting week here....

• Monday night the $200+ breast pump stopped working at 2am and Mom hauled ass to Wal-Mart to get a hand pump in the interim (yeah, the kind you have to power yourself). Luckily the expensive electric pump was still under warranty and a replacement arrived quickly.



• Wednesday afternoon, our air conditioner seemed to be working way too hard and we called someone to check it out. After a few small adjustments and a pound of coolant, we were back in business.



• Thursday night, Alex got nailed between the eyes by a mosquito and has a big, itchy red bump.



• Friday night, Alex started walking (see Breaking News post below)

BREAKING NEWS FROM COLUMBIA!

Alex took her first real steps last evening! Not the most graceful - but who cares. We are so proud of her. Look out world, here comes Mrs. Baby!

The real steps occurred right before this video was taken, luckily, she did it again so we could record it for everyone to see.



Stay tuned - we'll keep you up to date and informed as this story develops: Happy Birthday America - Walking in the Heartland...

46 weeks old - Videos A Go-Go

Late again with the posting this week, but this time it's well worth it, you should set aside some time to get through this week's post as it is filled with videos of the lovely and talented Baby A.

Some add on's that didn't make it last week are also included (leftover Father's Day pictures!). Biggest News This Week?: Alex can stand up unassisted!

Alex's custom card from Shutterfly.com and a Burnt Sugar Pie for Dad


Alex showing off!


Alex at 46 weeks loving her Air Baby (thanks G-ma Hardy)


Alex loving her bear

45 weeks old - Meeting Naomi Lai

Another exciting weekend, we traveled to Kirksville and bought 3+ garbage bags crammed full of 18m-24m clothes for Baby A. While we were there, we celebrated Nick's 9th birthday with lots of Legos, cake and homemade ice cream.

We quickly busted back to Columbia for a visit with the Lai's who made the trip from Iowa City in their stylin' new mini van. Naomi is definitely the 2nd cutest baby I've seen and she & Alex played together a little & shared a meal of baby oatmeal and various pureed foods.

For all the fans, Sleep Sheep will make his triumphant return next week! And here we have Alex with no pants on, wearing her brand new "Birthday Princess" crown from Toys R Us walking around our kitchen with laundry stacked up behind her.

44 weeks old - Alex's Baptism

We traveled to P-town this weekend and Alex was officially baptized by Pastor Dan Stratmann on June 14th at the Princeton United Methodist Church. Grandma Hardy was disappointed that the pictures turned out blurry, but at least we have some pictures - (Alex's version: some strange man sprinkled some water on my head and held me for a short time before I started crying).


In true Ebert fashion, Alex successfully shattered the Pastor's previous record - 15 years of baptisms with no crying babies...... oh well.

Now before you mistake our baby for an Amish child, the bonnet turns into a handkerchief to be used on Alex's wedding day. The dress she was wearing is no doubt hand made, but was purchased by Pop & Grandma (Veach & Genevieve "Jerry" Wilcox) for Katie Maag. Since Katie is about to turn 13, Andrea gave us the dress and we thought it would be a nice touch for Alex to wear it at this special event. Be sure to check out Alex's tribute to Gene Simmons of KISS below.

43 weeks old and walking?!

Summer is upon us and that means lots of sunscreen for little babies....or does it? We picked up this UPF 50 "Rash Guard" that Alex can swim in - kind of a baby wetsuit to protect her skin.

We also picked up a Hippo shaped inflatable baby pool, but have not had time to try it out. Check back later in the summer for pictures of a bathing beauty.

This weekend we:

• played with our buddy Ava Barbaro and got absolutely freaked out by her cat (Alex knows it will try and suck her breath)
• tried out the thrift store horse - special thanks to Grandma Judy & Grandpa Wally
• starting walking (with help) see video below

42 weeks old - Mother of the Year

This weekend we traveled north to see Grandma Hardy receive her 2009 Mother of the Year award from the Mother's Club in P-town. We were so proud of her! The club has been honoring mothers since 1939!

Of course, Alex charmed all the old (and young) ladies at the reception immediately following the ceremony.

Enjoy the pics!

Special thanks to the Malter's for loaning us their spare car/walker featured below.

Down on the Farm & The Norwalk Hot Zone - 41 weeks old!

Ok, so as of Sunday May 24 - Alex is 41 weeks old - she's almost a year old! WOW!

Since we were traveling during the long weekend, Sleep Sheep stayed home to guard the house and was unavailable for the weekly update picture. Our sincere apologies!

Tuesday May 19, we attended the Parents as Teachers, Down on the Farm event after work. They had lots of fun things to do for age groups up to 5, including seeing live cows/calves, pigs/piglets and baby chickens. Alex took it all in and probably had more fun people-watching than anything.

We left Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend to see our good friends in Iowa, the Malter's (Norwalk) and the Lai's (Iowa City). We arrived in Norwalk a.k.a. "the Hot Zone" where John Ross was recovering from pink eye, Cortney currently had pink eye and before we left Monday, Judd was starting to sport goopy eyes. We didn't make it to the Lai house (for fear we could be carriers of conjunctivitis).......so far, our eyes are regularly colored.....!

While in Norwalk, we visited the Blank Park Zoo (5 minutes from Cortney and Kyle) and had a great time! Enjoy the pics and video below.

Down on the Farm with Cows


and pigs

and baby chicks....

John Ross and a goat at the Blank Park Zoo

Mrs. Baby enjoying the Zoo

Judd-man chilling out


Dad and Alex watching people


That's a giraffe!


Huge aquarium