Let's Go Mets!!!!!

What a glorious Thursday afternoon we had this week. I went on a field trip with my school to Shea Stadium for "Weather Education Day" to see the Mets play the Nationals. OK, the "weather education" part of the day was really a bogus excuse to get kids (and teachers) out of class to go enjoy baseball. We did get to see Daryl Strawberry, who was there with the local weather team.

The best part of the day was that Sean brought Alex to the game too!!!! His first MLB game in the final year of Shea Stadium. My students were so excited to see Alex. And Alex was, of course, a complete joy for the whole day. The only down side was that the Mets managed to lose the game, boooo!!! Oh, well! I still had a great day!!

Spring Break!!

Oh I've been so slow to post new info!!! We were away in WV for spring break....just where everyone always wanted to spend spring break...central WV!!! The week started off great!!!! We took Alex to the WVU Gold-Blue scrimmage game on Saturday, April 19...his first game at Mountaineer Field. We went to watch Zach Flynt play!! Zach was in our wedding and certainly made us proud with his play. After the game we had dinner with the team in the practice facility. Alex was so funny...he was afriad of the field turf and didn't want to touch it at all. We tried really hard to get him to take some steps on his own since he had no desire to touch the turf and crawl, but he was content to just sit or stand in place.

He did decide to go ahead and take those first steps a few days later in the week. Yeah!!! First steps. My how quickly he is on his way to being a real "big boy." He had so much fun in the warm WV spring weather swinging in the swing his Granddad Wine hung in a tree for him and "driving" the tractor. Cousin Elizabeth was visiting for the week (Jennie's 2 year old) and she had fun playing with the chickens and wading in the creek......until..........it hit.................

THE SICKNESS!!!!!! Elizabeth got sick with some kind of stomach virus (Jenn calls it the "Gem Chicken Flu" and we call it "Typhoid Elizabeth.") Before the end of the week it had hit both my mom and dad, Alex (yes my baby was sick at his stomach for the first time.), Sean, me, Sean's Dad, two sisters, nephew and mom....in that order. Elizabeth was sick on Wednesday and everyone else followed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.....on into the next week. Not quite how I envisioned ending my spring break.

So we're back in NY awaiting Alex's big first birthday.....party at the Cunningham house on Sunday....WVU theme of course to match his blanket pictures. We love days when the weather is nice enough for all of us to go to the park after school. School we'll be going on for over another month up here. We go clear til the end of June...yuk!!! But summer is right around the corner.

Alex is 10 Months!!!

Our GROWING boy is 10 months old!!!!! How big he is getting and how much fun it is to watch him explore his world!!

This past month has been full of firsts. He went to church with Grandma and Granddad Wine on Easter Sunday. He even got to participate in the Right Hand Fork Easter Egg hunt. He didn't win a prize for the most eggs, but he was the cutest baby (OK, the only baby, but still cute.)

We were so excited the WVU Mountaineers beat Duke (take that ACC) in the "big dance" to advance to the Sweet 16. Too bad they couldn't keep the winning streak going past Xavier. It was better than most people expected us to play this year. The women's team bowed out early too, but they still had a great year.

We (by we I mean me, Sean had nothing to do with this) decided to let Alex attempt to "feed" himself. I think he got the correct end of the spoon to his mouth all of 3 times, and I don't know that there was any food on it. But he certainly had fun playing with his food while I fed him with another spoon.

Yesterday we finally had a nice spring day here in NYC. It was warm and sunny. So Alex (not wanting to be "out funned" by his cousin Elizabeth) asked us to take him to the park. He was so interested to see what the other kids were doing. He climbed on the little kids play set all by himself (with mommy a step behind) and daddy would help him slide down the little slide. He really enjoyed the swing most of all. He just giggled and laughed!!! We are hoping for more warm days to play at the park.

March Madness!!!

We decided to kick the March Madness "holiday" off in style by taking Alex to his first college basketball game. What a treat it was. He got to see the WVU Mountaineers beat St. John's in overtime. And since we live in NYC how lucky little Alex was to see his first college basektball game in Madison Square Garden. He was decked out in blue and gold from head to toe....WV ball cap, WV onsie, blue and gold Nike pants, WV socks......and there's more.....WV pacifier, WV spoon for his lunch, WV sippie cup, a tiny Mountianeer, and a WV basketball....AND a WV backpack for Mom to carry it all in. You KNOW you're baby is cute when even the opposing team's fans tell you how cute he is. He was so good at the game. He watched the people around us and loved the lights in MSG. He loved the St. John's band and "danced" to anything they played. (If you consider jumping up and down dancing.) He even napped from about 10 minutes to go in the second half...but woke up just in time for overtime.

We won't press our luck with his good ballgame behavior. The Mountaineers are on their own this week when they return to the Garden for the Big East Tournament. We'll be content to watch from our living room in Sunnyside.

Alex is 9 Months!!!

Oh my!!! I can't believe how time is flying by. It's so hard to believe that Alex is already 9 months old!!! We took him to the doctor for his checkup and he officially weighs in at 24 pounds (just 1 pound shy of his cousin Elizabeth who is 2 years old!!!) and he is 29 1/2 inches tall. Sean says he is in the "Shaq Percentile" for height and weight. He has cut a few new teeth and is up to 6 total now. We don't always brush twice a day, but we are beginning to brush.

We got to go home to WV last month during my mid-winter break. We traveled to New Martinsville to surprise Sean's sister Sonnie for a belated birthday greeting and also squeezed in a trip to Webster Springs to see Cathy, Joe, and Sarah and Tammy too!!! We were lucky enough to be treated to a WV snow....finally some fun winter stuff to play in. We bundled Alex up tight and took him out to the barn to see the snow and the horses.

He also got to attend his first live sporting event while we were home. It was a Lady Eagles basketball game...go figure!!!! We were treated to watch Tiffany Huffman score her 1000th career point. Afterwards I got to congratulate both Tiffany and her teammate Shauna Pritt who had reached her 1000th point earlier in the season. That brings the 1000 point club to 8 members total (Cousin Lori Cunningham, me, Aunt Jennie, Mindy Kniceley, Mary Grace Carson, Michelle Facemire, Shauna, and Tiffany.) We were surprised to see our cousin Joe Moses at the game too. Alex climbed right off of Grandma's lap and onto Joe's like they were long lost buddies!!!

Alex is becoming a real flirt. While we were home he started "blinking" at his Grandma Wine (like winking except with both eyes!!) She would just laugh and laugh. Well, Alex is a born entertainer like his daddy. Soon he was blinking at everyone, even Jennie's dog Kennedy. It was a treat when Jenn and Elizabeth came down to visit while we were home. Alex just jumped and jumped in his exersaucer at Grandma's. I don't think I've ever seen him so excited to see anyone.

Alex is 8 Months!!

It's hard to believe that our "little" Alex is already 8 months old. We measured him at 29 inches and last month we weighed him at over 21 pounds....definitely not little!! I swear he gets cuter every day. I can't wait to get home from school each day so I can play with him. My favorite toy is his Drop and Roar Dinosaur. I like it when you drop the ball down the shoot that makes it come out the dinosaur's mouth and the dinosaur "roars." He likes all of his toys, and he likes getting them ALL out at once!!!

I finally assembled his high chair. Now he can really sit up straight and eat like a big boy. We have been busy trying new foods. Sean is making some of his own purees, and some are plain old Gerber. So far we've had success with Sean's potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots (zucchini is in the freezer and ready for his next meal). We have also used Gerber green beans, mixed veggies, and apple/sweet potatoes. He is also eating oatmeal cereal instead of just rice cereal. It is fun watching him try new foods. He makes the funniest faces and blinks a lot.

Happy 2008!!!!!

We have gotten off to a great New Year!!!! The holiday season was sooooo busy!!!! The highlight of Christmas was having the entire Wine clan together at church in Burnsville for Christmas Eve services!!! We spent Christmas Eve at the "Lazy W" opening gifts....always too many!! Then Christmas morning we awoke to find a ton of toys and other gifts from Santa. Alex's gift to us for Christmas (and for his 7 month birthday) was that he pulled himself to standing for the first time!!! Then we were off to Webster to celebrate with the Morton clan!!! Alex met more of his cousins (Hans and Joe) and also met his Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim Marsh. Elizabeth seemed concerned that "Ali's stuck" because we put him in the pack-n-play to try to get him some sleep. But Uncle Joe sprung him, played with him, and even gave him his first taste of candy cane (bad Uncle Joe.) Elizabeth and Alex were both overwhelmed by the number of presents so moms and dads ended up opening most of them. We traveled to Buckhannon on Friday to surprise the rest of the Marsh clan so he could meet his cousin Steve (and Jessica, Grace, and Emily too!!) The holidays are definitely about family and friends for us!!

Alex has been full of firsts in the New Year. We have been trying out different foods with him, trying to make most of our own. He was not pleased at all with potatoes....they probably needed to be mashed up a little more. But he has been eating butternut squash, avacado, and carrots. Next on the list is green beans. He has also gotten his two top teeth.

What fun we had watching the WVU Mountaineers win the Fiesta Bowl!!!! Alex actually met his first real Mountaineer over Christmas. His Godfather Jordan Flynt was in from the Air Force, and came by on Christmas Day!!! We of course took lots of pictures of Alex and Jordan. My favorites are the ones of Jordan wearing the "Optimus Prime" mask from the Transformers movie. Jordan's brother Zach is on the WVU football team. When Zach held Alex for the first time he held him up and said, "You're a linebacker; you're a linebacker; YOU'RE A LINEBACKER!!!" Back in NYC we all gathered around the TV to look for Zach and a WVU win. Our friends Joe and Mike came over to watch the game with us. EVERYONE was wearing WVU shirts and had a fantastic time watching the Mountaineers pull off an upset win!!!!!!!!

We took in the last of the Christmas season in early January. We took Alex downtown to see the tree at Rockefeller Center! After a stop by the FDNY shop to play on the fire trucks we went to the Museum of Modern Art because I wanted to see an exhibit of Seurat drawings. It was Alex's first trip to an art museum. Alex loved the MoMA. He liked looking at all of the paintings with bright colors. His favorite was the Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup cans. He squealed like soup was his favorite food. I think it must have been the bright red colors that got his attention.