Alex Update & Pictures

Here's an email I just sent out to many friends and family, but I'm sure I missed someone along the way ...

Hey All!

We haven't been very good about sharing pictures, sorry. We spend just about every spare moment loving on Alex and watching him explore his world, it's amazing. He's napping now, so I'm trying to catch up on emails.


Alex is growing so fast! His last doctors visit at 7 months old, he is 19 pounds and 28" long. He's doing great! He loves one of his new toys, a walker, he's just recently figured out how to move forward in it. He loves chasing the cats, although they are much faster than he is! He's also loving his jumper, my sister, Gina, sent us ... it's hanging from our bedroom door frame, so he jumps all around. Daycare says he has the most fun in their jumper too. His favorite thing to do in the jumper is to lick the strap, haha.










He's eating good, he doesn't have any teeth yet though. We haven't found anything he doesn't like, so far he's eaten: rice & oatmeal cereal, bananas, mangos (frozen, he LOVED them!), sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, squash, peaches, pears, applesauce ... so far so good! :) We're just moving into "Stage 2" of the organic baby food. He eats better than we do, that's for sure!











Alex took swimming lessons with Santiago, they had a blast! Alex loves the water, loves splashing and kicking and even going under the water. Since he's been swimming, when you put him on his tummy, he arches his back, puts his arms out and kicks, kicks, kicks ... I think he thinks he's in the water! It's cute. Santiago has spent a lot of time in the pool with him while the weather is good and Alex is a natural in the water.



I'm attaching a variety of pictures, some from Father's Day ... we made shirts for Santiago, my dad and Robby (my brother) ... it was not easy getting his hands open, as you can see! They loved them.


















These were taken on July 4th. We all went to PictureMe Studios in Walmart, Logan (Robby's son) came with us. Logan is now 13 years old and Alex just loved spending time with him. The photographer did a great job, there's even a pic of Alex in a cloth diaper. :)





























This is the most recent one, taken on July 27, 2008 of Alex in his new bathtub that Gunnar gave us. He is still too small to sit upright in it, but he'll be able to soon!

Training Started!

I'm so totally pumped right now! Last Saturday was the Kick Off of the Galloway Training program at Fleet Feet in Stuart. It was an information session with a demo run afterwards. This morning was our first "real" run, and it was just fantastic! :)

I'm sure it's hard for most people to picture someone my size running ... but as I said last week at the info session, I was built for endurance, not speed. I stole that quote from Jenny during our first year of running. Running gives me such a natural high that lasts throughout the day.

A little history on my running ... Jenny and I did a 5k at Disney in January 2006 with my mom and family friend, Belle. We were all running to raise awareness and money for the Jerry Ayre Scholarship Fund, who is the son of one of Belle's friends (now my friend too!).

Anyways ... while we were waiting around for the 5k to start, we were watching the Half Marathoners finish. Jenny and I were cheering them on and we were very moved, I was even crying. It was just totally amazing to watch these people, not all of them thin people, some older, some kids ... some couples holding hands as they finished. It was just amazing for us to witness it. We decided then and there that would be us the next year. And we set out to accomplish that goal.

We started going to local 5k events, where we met lots of great people and learned about Fleet Feet in Stuart. During the summer of 06, we signed up for the Galloway Training so we could do the Disney Half Marathon. It was not easy! I started out at 267 and I really had a hard time with it, but we did it! During my run training, I was also going to Harsh Reality Fitness twice a week for strength training, which really kept me focused.

December rolled around and so did the Palm Beach Half Marathon, which we registered to run. It was a very hot day, but Jenny, Bucky and I completed our first half marathon!! Jenny stayed with her running group and Bucky and I stayed together. It was hard work, but we did it! My hubby, my parents and my brother were along the course cheering us on, that really meant a lot to me. I was on a high for weeks afterwards, telling everyone I could that *I* did a half marathon. I mean, really, how many people can say that? I was, and still am, so very proud of myself. During that training, I lost 30 pounds, which was a great "side effect" of the training. I'm aiming for similar results with this training!

Alex is napping, I've gotta get a shower then we are going to the La Leche League meeting in Fort Pierce. I'm hoping this weekend I can learn how this blogging works and get some pictures posted. I've had a blog on myspace for a good while, but I haven't been able to keep up with it and my family doesn't like having to join myspace in order to see pics of Alex and see what's going on. So since a lot of my friends are doing this, I figured I'd give it a try. :)