Climbing the stairs

We spent a really nice weekend with Dotty and Phil and Alec got to open his first Christmas presents. He has some really fun new toys and great books thanks to his Grandma Dotty.
This evening he decided to climb up our stairs. It caught us a bit off guard since we really didn't expect that until he was walking.

Happy Holidays

This is Alec's first Christmas and I know he won't remember anything. That won't prevent us from exposing him to all the Christmas traditions we hope to establish over the coming years. Christmas Eve after we return home from our Walbrun family party I'll have him help me lay out cookies and milk for Santa and maybe a carrot for Rudolph. We'll check the fireplace to make certain Santa can get in. We don't want a pesky closed flue to serve as an excuse for no presents. If he is good he will get a small gift to open before goes to bed. Christmas morning we will give him some warm formula and check out the status of the cookies and carrot. Bite marks will be a clear indication of Santa's presence. We'll sit down in front of a cozy fire and our Christmas tree and give him the gifts that miraculously appeared overnight. He'll be facinated by the bows and shiny paper and attempt to eat the corners of the boxes. He'll pull off the bows and wave them in the air and rip the paper into tiny chunks that will find his mouth much faster than we can take them from him. When we finally get beyond the paper to the gifts he'll be more interested in the boxes than any of the contents. All of this we will do because having a child reminds us of the excitement and magic of Christmas and we know that in coming years Alec will come to love this time of year but this year we will love it for him.

Happy Holidays to all of our family and friends!

San Diego Visit

Cookies

Alec helped his grandma make Christmas cookies today.

Flu

It's been quite the week in the Walbrun household. Alec picked up the flu bug or rotovirus or both and became really ill starting last Tuesday (Dec 4th). The poor little guy was wiped out. It's really tough to see such an active little boy so miserable and weak. By Wednesday evening Lindsay had the flu and then my mom (Alec's Grandma-nanny) got it that same evening. We all spent the Thursday waiting for me to get it but fortunately it never came. Lindsay recovered from the flu and was better by Saturday but Alec was not. We took him to Children's hospital Saturday morning because he was so listless and seemed to be in pain. They gave him a really good check-up and said that it was probably the rotovirus. We took him home and continued our regiment of hydration and constant holding. He started to perk up by Sunday afternoon and we finally were able to put him in his crib for a good nights sleep last night. He woke up in a good mood this morning talking in his crib. Unfortunately now Lindsay and I have an awful cold. Neither of us has slept a full night for over a week and we can't wait for this to be over! Oh, and my dad caught the flu on Monday! Hopefully we will all be better by the weekend so we can spend some time with our friends!