Bye, Everybody!

Hi Everybody,

Mama & Daddy said that I'm going to Florida on an airplane! I don't know what that means, but it will be a brand new adventure for me. I know we'll all have lots of fun in Sanibel this week. I'll ask Mama to take lots and lots of pictures. I'll miss you all!

XOXO,
Alex

P.S. Here are some pictures & videos to make you smile while I'm away.


Watching the cheerleaders at Kyle's football game...we're in trouble already!
Look what I learned to do on 9/27 - I'm standing in my crib, and I'm proud of it!
Daddy got all tied up at our church picnic
bathtime

in our front yard in mid-September

at Grandma Schurman's house
playing upstairs with Seth

(Seth is my neighbor's little guy, and we watch him 3 days a week. He's helping me turn the bonus room into a playroom, and in the picture we were having fun while moving stuff.)
Alex's 9 month pediatrician visit. He's 17 3/4 lbs, 28.5 inches long. That's the 50% for height & the 10% for weight. Tall and skinny...but healthy :)
At Kyle's football game

That's all for now...see ya in October! :)

That Crinkly Nose

I am head-over-heels in love with this funny face. Alex started making this crinkly-nosed face a few weeks back, and he is so funny to watch! He'll do this during meals, diaper changes, and occasionally just to get our attention & make us laugh.

We sometimes wonder if we should be encouraging it, but hopefully it's just a passing phase! For now, we'll laugh and smile and enjoy our funny little boy.

Troublemaker!

Usually, I use the walker only in the bathroom while I'm getting ready in the morning. I've never had to move anything other than blow-dryer cords & the toilet paper roll.



Today, I used the walker in the kitchen while I diced onions & potatoes for a pot of corn chowder. I did NOT think to move anything from Alex's level.



I was standing by the stove. Alex scooted over to the walkway behind the couch. He was in my sight for all but a minute, when he rolled himself behind the lazy boy. I could hear him jabbering, so I figured all was fine. Oops!



When I looked around the corner, this is what I saw:



Now, if you know me well, you know this is a nice stack of COUPONS. Coupons that I had carefully chosen & set aside for tomorrow's trip to CVS. Coupons that included CVS Extra Care Bucks. These are like free money to spend at CVS.



Alex ate them. This is what's left of my $2 ECB. I'm assuming that Alex ate the rest, because I can't find it.

Do you think that, if I call CVS corporate, I can convince them to print me a new $2 ECB?
I figure that, at the very least, I'll make someone at CVS corporate smile.

At least Alex is happy...and mama learned a good lesson!

Party Time!

(He's napping...can you tell that by the number of posts I'm writing?!)

The Fisher Price toys showed up a few weeks ago. Mr. UPS delivered 3 huge boxes to our house over the course of a week. Wow, wow, wow. We didn't pay a penny - no shipping fees, no cost for the toys, nada...FREE!





What did Alex want? The box.




Go figure! :)


These toys are AWESOME! I'm definitely one of Fisher Price's biggest fans. They know how to create loyal, happy customers. If I had to choose between two similar toys, I'd probably go with Fisher Price.


They don't really give you an agenda for the party:

• invite friends
  


• provide food
  


• set out toys
  


• give gift bags

That's about it. So, I provided food. My neighbor brought cookies for dessert. 8 of us gathered with the little ones, hung out for a couple of hours, and watched the kiddos experience Fisher Price Wonderland.

I'd be selfish to keep all the toys, so we had a drawing for the Musical Zoo. Everyone's names went in the container, and Sabrina (the only little one big enough to understand what to do) drew a the winner's name. Want to know who won? You'll question if it was rigged...

Sabrina.

I was on the phone with Karen (Sabrina's mom) this morning, and I could hear the musical zoo playing songs in the background. I guess she likes it :)

Every guest went home with a gift bag containing a coupon, a small toy, a catalog of toys, an entry form to win more Fisher Price toys, and some coloring pages and a parents sheet.

Here are some pictures of our fun:

It'll all come out in the wash...

Literally. Figuratively. It WILL all come out in the wash.

So, this idiom means that we shouldn't worry because it will turn out all right in the end. It's a rather fitting idiom for this post, though.

If you haven't heard, my cell phone went missing last week Thursday. It was a rotten day. Alex was fussy, fussy, fussy & refusing to nap. Nothing was going right. I couldn't get anything done. I was frazzled, trying to do 4 loads of laundry in one day, do some cleaning, and take care of my cranky kiddo. We needed clean sheets on our bed, Alex needed clean clothes, and Keith needed a lot of clean work clothes for his trip to Pittsburgh.

Then, while I was running a few local errands, I couldn't find my cell phone. I looked everywhere that seemed logical. No cell phone.

I got home, and moved a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer.

"Thunk".

Um, that's not the sound you're supposed to hear when wet clothes land in the dryer.
Guess what? I found my cell phone.

Now, what do you suppose a cell phone looks like after 45 minutes of agitating in the washer?
The pretty teal paint is chipped in a few places.
It's dripping with water.
Water is SLOSHING behind the screen.

This is my brand new cell phone. I'd only owned it for about 6 weeks, and I was excited to have nice, new cell phone that has good enough reception to actually...well... make a phone call. My former cell phone, which I'd been using for 4 years, didn't really do that any more.

So, living in our high-tech world, what did I do first?
I went to Facebook, changed my status to request help for a wet cell phone, and then googled "cell phone in washing machine". (Try it sometime; I'm not the only idiot in the world!)

Within minutes, I had the answers I needed:
DON'T turn it on; the water might cause something to short.
Remove the battery.
Open up everything on the phone that can be opened in order to air it out.
DON'T use a hair dryer; you might overheat important elements in the phone.
And, the most unusual advice:
Stick it in a bag of uncooked rice.

After 2 days, it was a no-go. The phone turned on, but the screen just showed a bright grayish-white color. After 3 days, same thing. I gave up, figuring my phone was a lost cause. I activated an old phone of Keith's, and I figured that this was a valuable lesson to always check my pockets when doing the laundry.

On Monday, though, the screen came back in a cloudy, hazy way. It was functioning, but not well enough to use. By Tuesday, it was back to life! I have my wonderful cell phone again!

Here's the really cool part - Keith is in Pittsburgh this week, and I'm really missing him. I hate it when he's gone; a nightly phone call just isn't the same as having him here.

When my cell phone 'died', I'd had a blue-green floral wallpaper on the screen.

When my cell phone 'revived', the wallpaper was a picture of Keith & Alex.

I never changed the wallpaper. Really. I'd taken that picture on the day I got my new phone, but it was a little blurry so I didn't use it. I have no idea why the picture changed, but I'll tell you - it made my day!

So...having a bad day? Don't worry - it'll all come out in the wash! :)

August pictures

Alex doesn't like it when Mama sits by the computer. He either cries or swats at the keyboard, resulting in text like this: ee4y63uirbn argi Since that is rather hard to read, I haven't been updating as much. I can READ other websites & blogs, but I can't write paragraphs. It's too challenging. He's currently playing with my cell phone, so my hands are momentarily free. I started this post on September 3, but didn't get very far. It's now September 10th, and I'm just getting around to finishing this.

Here's the August update...

I picked up this dinosaur toy for Alex at a garage sale. Whoever previously owned it was a very organized, tidy person. The dinosaur ($4 deal, by the way) was in perfect condition; it even had the original instruction manual taped to the back!
Alex loves the lights and music, loves to watch the balls go through the "tunnels", but most importantly - Alex loves to use this toy to pull himself to a standing position. Who stole my BABY?!

This picture was taken at Alex's first concert. (Yes, Angie, that's your arm!) A group from our church spent a day at the World Pulse Music Festival in South Bend. It was an all-day (free) Christian music festival. Our seats were far from the stage, but that was kind of nice - we could still chat, Alex wasn't subjected to overly-loud music, and we all had a great day! We brought our own lunch, so the only cost of the day was a snack & then dinner at Burger King on the way home.
Church kids (and Angie's nephew Cole) with Alex
This was taken at Grandma's house when we celebrated Alyssa's birthday. Poor Alex was not in a good mood that day. Diane had been waiting to see him, as she hadn't seen Alex in...um...2 months? (Bad Aunt Diane!) She really didn't get to enjoy him or see my happy boy, though. Alex just didn't cooperate.
Seth is my neighbor's 4 year old. Lisa just went back to work, and I'm watching Seth when he's not in preschool. We're having fun making playdough, coloring coffee filters, taking walks, having picnics at the park...all sorts of stuff! Alex just loves having Seth around. (Maggie's pretty excited about it, too.) Seth & I took Alex to the park a few weeks ago, and Alex went in a baby swing for the first time. He just giggled, grinned, and had a great time. I hadn't brought my camera, so Daddy & I took Alex back to the park that night. Unfortunately, Alex wasn't really in the mood for it. He cried in the swing, but he had fun in Daddy's arms.

The annual Frieling Family Reunion is held in August. So here we are at the park by Grandma & Grandpa Schurman's house, chatting with cousins & aunts & uncles, eating yummy food, and playing guessing games. Alex actually stayed in a pretty good mood, even allowing a few extended family members to hold him for a while.

What do you do with a cranky Alex? Stick him in something unusual...a suitcase, a laundry basket, a cardboard box...whatever is handy. Nine times out of ten, it results in smiles & at least 10 minutes of happiness.

Grandma Purdy & Nana requested to take Alex swimming, so we went up to Uncle Jim's house in Crown Point one Sunday afternoon. Alex was definitely not in the mood to swim. This is about the happiest face he had while in the water. Poor Grandma & Nana...they got to see Alex in the water, but I can't imagine it was the most exciting thing they've ever experienced!

This is in Uncle Jim's house after Alex got out of the pool. Papa found Alex's smile! :)

That's about it for August. In case you're wondering, Alex is sitting on the floor next to me, holding my flip flop in one hand, my cell phone in the other, and fussing for my attention. Sigh. I'll try to update the first part of September during naptime.