Month of Love

February heralded some more developments... Mom has been working from home since the beginning of January and has seen a lot of Alex that would otherwise be unusual. Another business trip to Sacramento separated them, and some very busy planning of Mom and Dad's trip to Ireland in March has resulted in a stark lack of photos once again. Unfortunately, Alex won't be traveling internationally this year, but he did have some more accomplishments: mastery of the pincer grasp and a huge variety of solid foods. He mostly eats finger foods at this point. Valentine's was a low-key affair, and Alex got a T-shirt that said "Future Hunk" but we didn't even get a shot of that before he outgrew it. At this point he's in 6 month pants and 12 month tops. His 9 month doctor appointment gave stats of 30 inches, 20 lbs which puts him at 95th percentile for height, 50th percentile for weight, and 15th percentile for weight-to-height... meaning he's tall and skinny! Totally buttless, I might add, like many Teeter men. We can only imagine what walking will bring him. Next month he will be mainly away in Grand Marais while we're in Ireland, and there is another Charlotte business trip so photos will probably be supplied by grandparents. Still, here's a couple more photos of his insistence on touching electronics and big smile... plus a classic shot at the Superbowl party showing our team spirit!

Cruising into 2011

Just days after mastering the stairs, Alex began standing on furniture and cruising around it. What should be months of development has been compressed into about 5 weeks and is the main cause of a lack of time to blog. Also, a shortage of photos abounds since he's too fast to be caught on camera or video, but a high-quality camera (Thanks, Grandpa Chris!) should hopefully improve on that issue. He does this super cute little thing where he grabs onto the furniture with his hands and then pulls himself up by clamping on with his teeth. This month's photos include him sitting in his new pirate gear (brash as ever), being defiant about touching the lamp, an example of the teeth-climbing technique (new revelation for rappelling?), a happy moment when the Packers won the AFC championship, and one of snuggling down for the night and reading with Daddy (a favorite winter activity, as it's too cold to snowshoe).

Grand Marais trip

For Christmas, Mom took Alex up to Grand Marais for two weeks (Dad joined us after one "bachelor break week") and enjoyed working remotely for the first time. All the grandmas and grandpas always have a positive effect on his development, and his vocabulary of babble started to expand along with his gross motor skills. He went from a 50% self-feeding success rate to about 80%. He also became so proficient at crawling that he was able to master stairs (up, not down) in just two weeks! He also had the advantage of meeting Uncle Tony for the first time since June, and of course, he had a lot of laughs. Uncle Alex and his fiancee Louise also got to visit with him and hold him - he's a lot more interesting and less fragile than June, so everyone had a good old time. Here's a shot of his joy in wrapping paper, one of Tony making him laugh, and documentation of the stair mastery. His first New Year's was a success... he fell asleep before midnight and Mom stayed up later!

Holiday spirit!

Mom went on her first ever business trip for her new job, so she was away in Charlotte for the first time in Alex's little life. Five days was hard but relaxing, and Grandma Michele came to the rescue and took care of him with Daddy.
Many other people visited at home, and Alex was fascinated by the Christmas lights and tree that were put up as a surprise for Mom when she got home. Our first gift opening was with Joe and Erin, his godparents. Auntie Heather also did a great family photo shoot there, too.
This month marked Alex simultaneously sitting up and crawling - all within a few days of each other. Suddenly he's on the move!!! There are a couple of crawling shots here, one family photo, one shot in Christmas pajamas with Dad, and one that we hope you're not too offended by... it's of Alex pretending to drink a beer, and this joke goes all the way back to when I was his age and there are photos of me reaching over my dad's lap for the Point beer can and everyone laughing at me.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been an exciting time this year because Alex is just venturing into the kinds of solids people actually eat for Thanksgiving! He has eaten the veggies, potatoes, even tried a little turkey and we're feeling very festive about it. He continues to roll over frequently and clearly wants to be mobile like his cousin Isaac. Here are a few pictures of him lazing around while I fold the socks, posing in his "tough guy toque" before heading outdoors, wearing a cute Thanksgiving onesie that shows what he actually ate, and posing in a very dorky, but very cute, "My First Thanksgiving" turkey costume. Sorry for the blurry photos!

The Major Blog Catch-Up Project

OK. I accept the blame. It's been four months since my last blog post... *sign of the cross*... well, once I put up all the individual posts as if I were doing them over time, you'll see that Alex kept us very busy! :) Enjoy the subsequent posts and I'll try to keep it more up to date - promise!