No More Bumbo

Easton finally figured out how to get out of his Bumbo seat. I was kind of heart broken by this because it sure has been handy. The bumbo got some bad press not long ago, because some babies fell out of the seat that was on a raised surface and fractured their skulls. It clearly states on the back that the Bumbo is intended for the floor. Well, I can't say that we were perfect, because we often put it on raised surfaces, but we were right there. We used it to feed Easton because he was not quite big enough for his high chair. In fact, we had it sitting on the table the first time he decided to make his escape. Luckily, I grabbed a leg and Jason caught his arms. The next morning, I put him in it on the floor of the bathroom while I got ready. I turned my back and then all of the sudden he was on the floor. He didn't even cry, just proceeded to play with his toys. I decided that it probably wasn't just a coincidence and put the bumbo away. Goodbye, we will miss you!

"Jesus can heal her...." and "That's Awesome..."

Monday morning, Taylor, Easton and I were heading to MOPS when I called Grandma Cinda to see how her morning was going. It wasn't going to well because she was sick with a sore throat and headache. When I got off the phone I told Taylor that Grandma didn't feel well. She said "Awww, poor Grandma," and then after a moment she said, "Jesus can heal her, right Mamma." I told her that she was absolutely right and maybe we should pray for her. She wanted me to say the prayer, so we stopped and asked Jesus to heal Grandma.
At the bed time prayer Taylor asked Jesus to watch over Grandma and help her to feel better. How sweet is that?!

Tonight, as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Jason mentioned to Taylor that Easton was handsome. He asked her where he got his good looks and after some prodding by Jason, Taylor agreed that he got them from his Daddy. Then Jason told Taylor that she sure was pretty and asked her where she got her looks. She said that she got them from the changing table. WHAT?!?!?! Jason told her that she got them from her Momma and Taylor said, "Yea, and that's awesome."

A few recent pics.....

Jason and Taylor after a hard days work!

"Um, Sis, what are you doing?"

Taylor feeding Easton

Easton's beard after Taylor fed him.

Ferber Method or Not to Ferber

So what is Ferber, you ask? Most of us that have kids, have heard of the Ferber method of putting your infant to sleep. Richard Ferber, the genius of this advice, suggests putting your baby to bed awake and allowing them to soothe themselves to sleep. Supposedly, after a long, soothing bedtime ritual, you put your infant to bed and leave them in the bed for longer periods each time until they learn to fall asleep on their own. I have a few beefs with this method. One, did this guy ever really perform this "cry-it out" method wih HIS children? Also, were his kids as determined as ours are? Second, anything LONG and soothing with a three year old around is nearly impossible!

Easton is not a good sleeper, anytime, anywhere. Taylor absolutely spoiled us because she was such a good sleeper. She slept through the night at six weeks, usually 12 hour stretches, and took three to four hour naps during the day. Well, Easton is....different. He does not sleep! So needless to say I have been sleep deprived for nearly 7 months now, and I just started enlisting Jason's help about a month ago. That hasn't exactly gone over too well, but he pulls out his "super Dad" shirt and rocks Easton on the second shift of the night. Thanks babe, we all love you!

The NEVER Ending Stomach Bug

Wow, I am so glad that we only decided to post once a week. Obviously, it has been longer than a week since the last post, but we have an excuse. Well, actually two and a half weeks worth of excuses. We mentioned earlier that Taylor had the stomach bug after we returned home from skiing. Despite all of my cleaning and lysoling of everything, Jason got the stomach bug 6 days later. Poor guy was a champ though. He spent most of the night sick and only went into work a few hours late and worked all day. By Friday, Easton had the bug and boy did he have it bad. He had some sort of stomach upset for 10 days. Yes, I did say TEN! Of course by Monday I had it, too.

So after a very long two and half weeks, we are all back to 100%. Thank goodness.

Potty Talk

Taylor has been potty "training" for quite some time now. In fact, we started working on it before Easton was born, which turned out to be a mistake because she reverted back to not being interested at all when he came along. I think we FINALLY reached the plateau thanks to being able to hang out with older cousins over the holidays. Thank you Quaid, Noah, Jaci and Jaden! She had the whole tee-teeing thing down for a long time, but she would hold her #2, for lack of a better word, until she got a diaper for quiet time or bed time. I had such a hard time keeping my patience and staying "positive," as all the books suggest, when I could see her anguish, but she just refused to go.

Fast forward to the Christmas holidays, and all of the sudden going #2 in the potty is the new thing. You should have seen the celebrations at our house when she did the deed in the potty. An outsider might think we had won the lottery with all of the whooping and hollering and dancing going on. Not only would Taylor dance and sing, she would yell, "AND I get TWO skittles." Oh, how this precious child loves candy.


I never really thought about the repercussions of all of the celebrating at home behind closed doors, until we went on a road trip to New Mexico. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station and Taylor had to potty. So we made the trip to the restroom and she sits down and announces very loudly that she has to poop. Thank goodness it was a single bathroom. So, trying to stay "positive," I plaster on a smile and tell her great, well lets go and get it done. As we are exiting the bathroom, Taylor did not forget our home celebrations, and promptly starts singing at the top of her lungs that she pooped in the potty and she gets TWO skittles! It was embarrassing, but I was still one proud Mommy. So I quickly made it to the candy aisle and purchased the treasured skittles.


Her next little celebration took place at her cousin, Reagan's, first birthday party. The party was at Grandma's house and she announced to everyone that she had to poop. So after the deed, the celebration wasn't quite as loud because the room was full of people, but she did have to go tell her Uncle Justin about pooping in the potty, all the while he is trying to film his daughter opening her presents. He told her good job while trying to hide the chuckles. Thank you Uncle Justin!

Taylor's Prayer and Easton's foods

About six months ago Taylor started to say the bed time prayer and then all of the sudden she stopped and requested Daddy to say them. We kept asking her if she would like to say them, but her response was always the same-no she wanted Daddy to say it. Recently, she started to say them again and boy do they melt our hearts.

Here are some of the recent things that she has thanked God for:

• A wonderful day
• Mommy, Daddy, Brother, Taylor and their eyes
• The clouds
• The snow
• Everyone's safety
• Sledding
• Her Big girl bed

She is growing up so fast and really learning how to speak her mind!

Easton is growing fast as well. His bouncy seat about hits the ground these days. He is starting on some foods. We have tried green beans and peas. He LOVED the peas. I am not sure if he really even tasted them because before I could get the spoon back to the bowl he was holding his mouth open for some more. I hope he does not turn out to be a picky eater like his sister.....

Stomach Bugs and Big Talk

We made it home from Ruidoso in one piece. Well sort of, Taylor got a stomach bug that hit about 7:30 yesterday morning. I thought we had escaped the bug that threatened to spread through the family until Taylor came bounding out of her room, laid on the floor and then you know what happened next. I was counting down the hours, hoping the 12th one would come in a hurry. Between cleaning up, sterilizing, washing hands, trying to keep Taylor away from Easton, my wish came true. Jason called and told me he was done and would be home shortly. Taylor asked for a cheeseburger and because she had not eaten since the night before I thought we could honor her request. So we sat down to eat at about 6:00ish and Taylor just sat there starring at her burger and talking her daddy's ear off. I asked her why she wasn't eating her burger and this was her response, "I have no intention of eating this burger." I don't know where she got this, but it was hilarious and so fitting. She eventually did eat part of it around 7:30, exactly 12 hours after her first vomiting episode.

Now, hopefully the rest of us won't get it......

What A Year!

Wow, what a year 2007 was! We added another family member. We survived Taylor's terrible two's and potty training. We started our debt snowball on a steady but long roll. Jason's practice grew by leaps and bounds. I got the hang of staying at home with the kids. We were truly blessed in 2007.

We are looking forward to 2008! We thought we would try to start a blog to help keep family and friends informed of what is going on in our lives. At the very least we would like to capture our kids comments/activities as they grow and change every day. Our goal is to post at least once a week, maybe more if possible, but we are trying to be realistic here. :)

Wish us luck, and we hope you visit often!

The Alexanders