An Alexander update

I can't believe he's already 2.5 months old. The time has just FLOWN by. Things were a bit rough at first, but we've finally found out groove (just in time for me to go back to work in a week and a half... *sigh).

Lately he's all about making faces. He has a wide variety of expressions down. What a cutie.

A month worth of updates

As usual, I've been very, very bad about updating. *sigh* Maybe someday I'll actually get some blogging motivation. Until then, once a month seems to be about all I get to. So, here's a month worth of updates for you.

Chicago trip

Our trip to Chicago in February went well. We had lots of fun visiting friends and family there. Ellie also got to play in the snow for the first time ever. I was going to pick out some of the best pics and post them here, but I think I'll just use this little widget thing instead because I'm lazy today. :) If you'd rather browse through them on Flickr, the set can be found here.




The baby:

Only 8 weeks to go! AAAAAH!

All went well with the glucose test a few weeks ago. Hooray! I had another ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and all is looking good with that as well. They're still a little concerned about his growth, so I have to go back for another ultrasound in 2 weeks. I think it's good that he went up in percentiles from my 20 week ultrasound, but they're still concerned that he seems to be weighing in around the 18th percentile. Then again this is the same doctor that told me Ellie was going to weigh over 10 pounds at birth, and she came out a whopping 7 pounds 6 ounces. I'm half expecting this baby to be over 10 pounds now that they're making a big deal about how small he is. ;)

Here are some pictures from the last ultrasound (also seen here on Flickr). Isn't he cute?



Ellie's birthday:

It's official... I'm now the mother of a two-year-old! Ellie had a big birthday party while we were visiting in Illinois, and a very small get together with grandparents back here in Arizona on her actual birthday. She seemed to have a great time, and is definitely enjoying her new dollhouse, courtesy of me and Kevin. :)

Halloween!

Two posts in one day! Amazing!

Obviously this is a little late... but I have some Halloween pics to share. Ellie was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz this year. She was perhaps the cutest Dorothy there ever was, complete with her own Toto (part played by Dudley).

And now, the pics:

Dorothy	I'm not sure what she's trying to keep her feet away from... perhaps a bug?
She finally has enough hair for "real" pigtails. YAY!	Always a lady, climbing in her dress.
And just because... Dudley in his Toto costume. ;)

Just in case that's not enough for you, more Halloween pictures can be seen on my Flickr page.

What a difference a new camera makes

Ok, so it's not my new camera. My Dad got the camera I've been wanting for oh so long (Canon Digital Rebel XTi).... but at least now I can borrow his until I save up enough to get my own. :)

I really don't know how to use it yet, but even with my lack of knowledge and extremely novice (umm... non-existent is probably more like it) photography skills, I can absolutely notice a difference in the quality of pictures taken with his camera vs. my 5ish year old point and shoot crappy camera (Fujifilm FinePix 2650) that I've been stuck using lately since my Nikon E5700 bit the dust.

To illustrate my point, here are a couple of pictures taken yesterday, outside on a very sunny day with my yucko Fujifilm.



Compare those with the pictures taken today, inside, with the pop-up flash using my Dad's sweet new camera.



The images can be clicked on to pull up a larger version. The pictures taken with the Canon are so much more vibrant, show so much more detail, etc... I can't wait to see what kind of pictures I can get once I learn all the features and get a chance to try it out in natural light.