Alex's Baptism - 6/27/10

On Sunday, June 27, 2010, Alex was baptized at St. Vincent DePaul in Chicago.  It was a great day.  Family from all over came in for the occaision.  It was wonderful that everyone took time out of their busy schedules to be here for Alex's special day.  There were 5 babies that were baptized that day and all of them were so good during the 30 minute ceremony.  It was amazing.  When I looked at my pictures, there was an orb in some of them.  It made me feel so good to know that my mom decided to drop in to see Alex's big day!  Here are some pics - see if you can find the orbs.  There are 4 of them.

Father's Day - 2010

This past weekend was Alex's first Father's Day! I asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted all 3 of us to head downtown to Lake Michigan and walk along the lake. For the past 2 weeks, we've had cloudy rainy weather. I assumed it was going to be rainy this past weekend (as it said on the weather channel), but it was surprisingly sunny! We drove down to Montrose Harbor, parked and took Ajax around the lakeshore in his stroller. It was a great day and we have some pictures to share with you!

RIP Gunnar Hotchkin - June 16, 2010

Last Wednesday, I found out that my high school friend, Gunnar Hotchkin, had passed away.  While my son was turning 6 months and just beginning his life, my friend's life was ended at the young age of 31.  Gunnar was in the army and was deployed to Afghanistan this past January.  His truck was hit with a bomb and he was killed.  I'm really proud to have known someone my age who served our country.  It really hit home about how members of our armed forces risk their lives everyday fighting for us!  Gunnar - thank you for serving and for being so brave!  Rest in Peace!

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/06/naperville-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan.html

Krisoye and Lindsey's wedding - June 12, 2010

On the weekend of June 12th, Alex's high school best friend, Krisoye Smith got married.  The wedding was in Des Moines, IA.  Alex and I had never been to Iowa and am not sure we ever will go back.  Des Moines is definitely a cute town, but very small compared to Chi-town.  It's even smaller than Charlotte - which was pretty small compared to what we're both used to.  I did enjoy that there was very large population of young people - so there was a nice selections of bars to hang out at:)  All of Alex's good high school friends were there.  It was great to see everyone again (Nafees, Mike and Amy) and even meet some new people (Alina, Brian and Chrissy).  The wedding was in a beautiful rose garden at the Des Moines Art Center with the reception inside.  It was a lot of fun!  Lindsey even turned some photos of her and Kris into a coloring book and gave us crayons to color them in.  Our table decided to do one.  After the reception was over, we continued the party to the streets of Des Moines.  We ended up at Fong's.  It's a Chinese Pizzaria.  It was packed with people too!  We ended up having slices of really good pizza (especially for Des Moines).  Also, their drink selection was outstanding.  They had this drink called "The Dragon", which is a big ceramic Chinese dragon with some liquor mixture in it and lots of straws.  You also need to wear a helmet while drinking it.  We all shared "The Dragon" and enjoyed it so much we decided to get "The Scorpion" as well.  That probably wasn't the best idea based on how we all felt the next morning.  Thanks Krisoye and Lindsey- it was a great weekend!

Anastasia's Baptism - June 7, 2010

On the first weekend in June, we headed down to Bloomington, IN because my niece, Anastasia was getting baptized.  Anastasia is 2 weeks older than Ajax and a little peanut compared to him.  She is so sweet and dainty compared to him.  Here are some pictures from the baptism.  

My sister, Karen, noticed that one of the pictures has an orb in it.  She and I both believe in spiritual orbs and feel that my mom was there watching the baptism:)

Ajax is 6 months!

Well - we made it!  I never thought the day would come where I had a baby for 6 months!  I can't believe I made it!  When Ajax was born, I thought it was going to be a LONG six months, but he's a joy to be around.  Looking back, I can say that the first 2 months were harder.  I think most of it was getting used to being a parent and having this little being be SO dependent on you!  Ajax has been a wonderful baby and very laid back!  I can't believe how lucky I've been to have such an angel!  I know he will probably change once he's a toddler, but for now, it's been a nice journey.  Here are some pictures that we took right around his 6 month birthday:)

Sleeping in the jumper

Ajax loves his jumper - which has been true ever since he was 3 months old. Well, he now spends about 1-2 hours in it at a time everyday. He is so comfy in it that he actually fell asleep in it one day. Of course, it was so funny we had to take some pictures of him. ENJOY!

My First Mother's Day - May 9, 2010

For my first Mother's Day, Alex, Ajax and I spent the day with our friends, Abby and Jeff. Their son CJ had just had his dedication at church and we were celebrating at a brunch at Abby's parents' house. Here are some photos.

Ajax and his jumper

We bought Ajax this jumper when he was about 3 months old.  He used to try and bounce on our laps and we thought it would be great exercise for him to have a jumper to be able to practice on all the time.  Until about 2 weeks ago, he didn't really understand it and would just look at us strangly every time we put him in there.  Plus, his legs weren't long enough to reach the ground so he wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought he would.  Well, all of that changed in the past 2 weeks.  First of all, he grew so his legs now touch the ground.  Also, he seemed to figure out just how the jumper works and loves it so much.  It's definitely his favority "toy"!  Here's a video of him in his jumper!  ENJOY!

First Cereal

Last week Ajax had his first run in with solid food.  I had decided it was time and he seemed very eager and ready to try it out.  I started him on rice cereal and of course, we video taped a bit of our experience.  Ajax did a really good job.  I was actually impressed with how well he did.  Check out the video...