Merry Christmas

Lexi's first Christmas has come and gone. For the most part, it went very well. She is, however, very glad to be back to a more normal schedule today.

The holidays started this past Sunday with Lexi playing the role of Baby Jesus for the pre-school portion of the church Christmas program.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Spitzer's. Grandma and Grandpa Crosby, Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Spitzer and others from The Spitzer clan were there as well.

Christmas was a much smaller affair at Grandma and Grandpa Tubbs' house. That was just Grandma and Grandpa, (Great)Grandma Nell, Uncle Ben and Aunt Robin.

Yesterday, we met up with Dave and Kristin Oakley, Sandy and Mike Cofta and all the associated children. In addition to Lexi, there were two 3 year olds, a one and a half year old and six month old twins. Lexi loved interacting with babies her own age.

I'll have some pictures and video up once I get everything on the computer.

Yummy Yummy

Lexi ate cereal from a bowl with a spoon for the first time tonight. She was a little confused at first, but seemed to enjoy it (at least what stayed in her mouth.)

Rolling around

I know I haven't posted in a while. Lexi has been growing like a weed. She's real good a rolling around now. She is starting to be able to support herself briefly when sitting.

Lexi's Sabres Debut

Lexi made her first appearance at the HSBC Arena Saturday night as Buffalo hosted the BlueJax. No, she isn't the secret weapon to fix the power play (but it couldn't hurt). A picture of Lexi and Daddy, both sporting Sabres gear, made the Fan Scrapbook that is shown on the Jumbotron during a stoppage in play.

Baby Firsts

Lexi has had a couple of firsts recently. About two weeks ago, she moved from the bassinet in our room to her crib in the nursery. She took to this change very well.

The other first happened this morning while in the nursery at church. She was laying on the floor on a blanket and, after a couple attempts, she rolled from her back to her tummy.

Back from Hawaii

I got back from Hawaii Wednesday night. After all, air shows are a vital part of our National Defense, and you can't drop Navy Seals out of an airplane at an air show without maintenance to support the plane. It was a very nice trip. We had a down day on Monday and I was able to get in another dive trip and visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. (See picture at right) It is a very nicely done memorial. It takes about 75 minutes to see everything. The tour starts out with a video that documents the days leading up to Pearl Harbor and actual video from the attack. For those of you who do not know, the Arizona was sunk when an armor piercing bomb penetrated the deck and struck the ships forward ammo hold. It seemed like you could feel the blast watching the movie.

After the film, there is a boat that goes out to the memorial. The memorial is build over the wreckage of the Arizona. From the memorial, you can see some of the ship, including the mount for one of the gun turrets, above the water. Since the ship was refueled about a week before the attack, there is still fuel oil bubbling up from the tanks.

I have uploaded all of my pictures to Flickr. In the pictures, there is another battleship moored not to far from the Arizona. The is the USS Missouri. This is the ship on which the treaty ending WWII was signed. This battleship was in active service as late as the Gulf War in the 90's. It is now set up for tours. Unfortunately, time did not work out to allow us to tour this.

If you plan on visiting the memorial should you ever get out to Hawaii, make sure you get there early. We tried going one day after work, but ended up getting there about a half hour too late. The last tour starts at 3:00 pm so make sure you get there in plenty of time.

Aloha

Here I am in Hawaii, playing a vital role in our country's national defence (read: airshow). Today was a down day, so I was able to get some diving in. The first dive was to a site with two wrecks about 100' from each other. The dive was around 70-100' with great visibility. There was a pretty strong current, so it took a little work swimming around. The second dive was to a reef around 35' deep. The current here wasn't nearly as strong, but the visibility was only around 30'. The water was a nice 79 degrees. I did the dives in just my dive skin, but if I get a chance to go again, I'll probably wear a thin wetsuit. The 79 degrees may seem warm at first, but after being in the water for a while, I was getting a little chilly. I saw a bunch of turtles, some eels, two shark, and the usual assortment of tropical fish. I have the pictures from my dives on my flickr page.

New Job

My days of being a cable guy are over. Last Monday I started new job. I am now working full time at the Air Force base as an Air Reserve Technician. This job is the civilian equivalent of my reserve position. This job is a big jump in pay as well as more time off. The down side is I will probably have to deploy more.

In fact, they are sending me away already. I am going away for a week tomorrow to Hawaii. (Unfortunately all the deployments aren't going to be this nice.)

Three month update

Lexi is now three months old. She is very alert and vocal. She has a good assortment of oohs, ahhs, and coos. She likes it when I mimic her sounds back to her. She also had her first cold last weekend. She was very stuffy and sneezey for a couple days. She's mostly better now, but she still has a couple sneezes occasionally.

While we were camping last weekend, Lexi found her first geocache. Here's a picture of the find:

Baptism Video

Lexi was baptised on September 16th. It was a very nice ceremony and we all had fun at the lunch afterword. We'd like to thank everyone who helped us celebrate this. In case you missed it, here is the video:



The dress that Lexi is wearing is Kristi's baptism gown. This was made for her by her Aunt Betty. She is wearing a cross that was given to my parents for me when I was a baby. While you don't see it in the video, she was wrapped up in a quilt that was hand made for her by Grandma Nell and Dorris Henry (a member of our church).

Winter Classic hockey game

With the announcement of the Winter Classic game on New Years day, I thought I'd ask the following question:

Two month checkup

Lexi had her two month checkup today. She weighs 11 lbs 5 oz and is 23.5 in tall. This puts her right at the 50th percentile for her age. The doctor said everything looks good and she is developing well. On the down side, she had her first batch of shots, so she's been a little unhappy since the doctors visit.

Now that you know what's going on now, I'll fill you in on what you've missed. The big development is she is learning new sounds. She has a good assortment of coos, oohs and ahhs in her vocabulary.

Lexi has been camping two times this summer. The first trip was a couple weeks ago to Lazy Lakes. She was fascinated with all the new sights, sounds and smells. Unfortunately, she got a little sunburn Saturday afternoon. This new, unfamiliar feeling had her really out of sorts, so we elected to go home for the night so she could sleep in familiar surroundings. We went back Sunday afternoon to pack up the camp site.

The next trip was this past weekend when we joined some people from the Magical Flying Camping Club in the Thousand Islands. She did much better on this trip. She slept until just before Watertown on the way up. Mostly, we just hung out at the campground with our friends, but we did make it to Boldt Castle one day. This day trip went ok, but it was hard to find a place out of the wind and this upset Lexi a little bit.

Here's a couple pictures from the trip:

Lexi with Hope (the youngest child of one of the families with whom we were camping)

Lexi with Daddy in the castle

Lexi with Moma outside the castle

A video

I still haven't gotten around to writing an update, but here's a video for your viewing pleasure:

I've been a bad blogger...

I offer my heartfelt apologies to those that have been following this blog. I posted nearly as much as I've should. I'll get a detailed post out after the weekend. Here's a little teaser of what's been going on: camping trips, visits with other babies, sleeping and more...

Weighing in

After reading Sandy's recent blog entry where she posted the weights of her (not so little) twins, we got curious about Lexi's weight. Since she is not going into the doctor again for a while and Kristi won't let me put her on the bulk food scale at Tops, we did an unofficial weight check using the carrier and the bathroom scale. She weighed in at 9.8 lbs (approx 9 lbs 13 oz. The bathroom scale is precise to .2 lbs) We were surprised to see she weighed this much. We should have guessed since she has moved out of newborn diapers and is starting to outgrow some of her newborn clothes.

What's new

It's been a little while since I've made a blog post, so I sure all of you are dying to know what is new with Lexi. This past week, Lexi went to her first Kingdom Bound. Kristi and Lexi joined the youth group and myself at Darien Lake for three of the four days. She did very well up there. Inf fact she was awake and content for an entire worship set that Kristi and I were at. From what Kristi said, Lexi was very happy to stay home on Wednesday, being in a familiar place and being held much more than on the past few days.

She is staying awake and alert much more between feedings. This is good and bad, since she has yet to realize she can do and grab things with her hands. She will get bored and fussy if she runs out of interesting things to look at. She is getting much better at holding her head up. If she is laying on her stomach or being held, she will lift up her head and look around.

The above picture was taken earlier today. I set Lexi down next to Jasper. Surprisingly Jasper didn't get up and move. Lexi was fascinated by being next to the cat. Jasper even let her lean over and touch him. If you are interested in a size comparison of how Lexi has grown, here is a picture of her and Jasper taken shortly after she came home from the hospital:

Grandpa at the base picnic

Today at the family picnic at the air base, Grandpa Crosby had a chance to show off his granddaughter. Of course, grandpa wasn't the only one who got to show Lexi off. She made the rounds and got oohs and aahs from the people in Dad's shop too.

Baby Math

Lexi has recently started to sleep longer at night. Normally, one would think the end result of this would be better sleep for me. That's where the baby math factors in. Previously, she would sleep two or three hours at a time. Our routine has been that Kristi would give Lexi to me after her last feeding of the night and we would sleep on the couch until she woke up for her next feeding. This would usually fall around 2-3am. I would then change her, hand her off to Kristi for a late night feeding, and I would get a couple hours more sleep before I had to go to work. The past couple nights, she has been sleeping 5-6 hours overnight. This now has her waking up about an hour before my alarm goes off. Hopefully we'll now be able to get her to sleep overnight in her bassinet so I can actually get some sleep in the bed.

One Month Old

Time flies when you're having fun (or lacking sleep). Today, Lexi is one month old. She's been growing like a weed. Our rough estimate is she now weighs around 8 pounds. Since it will be another month before she goes back to the doctor, we don't know for sure. (My solution was to use the bulk food scale at Tops, but Kristi vetoed that.)

She is much more alert now. She'll have a couple times a day where she is wide awake looking around. The other day when we were over at a friend's house and being held by someone else, she was looking around for Mom or Dad when she heard one of us talking. We've also observed her picking up her head and looking around when laying on her stomach.

Hot Rod Lexi

We just got back from Canal Fest. While we were there, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Spitzer who were there for the car show. Here's some pictures of Lexi with Grandpa's Vet.

Video of Lexi

Here's a short video of Lexi getting some tummy time.

200th Geocache

I just got back from finding my 200th geocache.  (Hey, not everything on this blog has do do with Lexi)  The milestone cache was A Return To Nature.  This is one of four caches located in Bond Lake park, and the second of two caches today.  Having found the other two caches in the park previously, I have now found all the caches at Bond Lake. 

For those of you not familiar with Geocaching, it is a sport here one looks for hidden containers using a gps.  The coordinates for geocaches can be found at http://www.geocaching.com.  The hidden containers can range in size from a film canister or magnetic key locker to a Rubbermaid container or ammo can, and can be hidden just about anywhere.  Common hiding places range from parking lots to city parks to hiking trials in the woods.

The doctor is in

Lexi had her two week check-up today.  The doctor said she is doing very well.  She weighed in at 6 lbs 9.5 oz and measured 20" long. 

Back to work

I started back to work on Monday. It's defiantly different now with a baby who wants to be fed every couple of hours. Kristi's been pretty good about letting me sleep overnight.

On another note, this past Sunday the three of us went to Kristi's family reunion. Lexi made quite an impression among the Tubbs clan, but she wasn't the main attraction of the day. We were also celebrating Grandma Nell's 90th birthday.

One week...

It's hard to believe that Lexi's first week has come and gone. During the past week, she has entertained scores of visitors, been to all three sets of Grandparents' houses and been a perfect little angel the entire time. . .

Then she proceeded to keep us up all night. . .

Things are getting better, however. Mom and baby are both starting to get the hang of feeding and we are getting onto a schedule. Lexi is getting more alert every day. We swear she'll be rolling over before we know it. She'll have no idea what she's doing, but she'll be rolling over.

I'm sure the next couple weeks will be just as exciting as the past week has been.

Some more pictures.

Here's a couple more picture links for your viewing pleasure:

Webnursery page 1
Webnursery page 2

These are pictures taken at the hospital by their photographer [while she (Lexi, not the photographer) was being a hungry pill]. You will need a password to get into these sites. The password is our last name. If you can't figure out what that is, e-mail me (and I will make fun of you).

Some pictures

Lexi Birth 028
Originally uploaded by rwcrosby

I'm sure there have been people out there chomping at the bit to see pictures. I have uploaded the pictures I have to flickr. The link for the pictures is as follows:
http://flickr.com/photos/rwcrosby/
I'll put a link to this page on the side bar soon.

Happy Independence Day

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Independence Day.  As you enjoy yourselves at you picnics and parties, just remember to give thanks for living somewhere in which we have the freedom that we do.  Fly your flag proudly.  (Which I will if the rain lets up)

Welcome home

We made it home yesterday afternoon. As soon as we came in the cats were cautiously curious about this little, squirming, funny smelling thing we had with us. Pumpkin for the most part will keep a safe distance. Hi is, however, slowing working up the courage to get closer. Jasper on the other hand has been intrigued with her, especially when she cries.

We were both able to get some sleep last night. I took Lexi in between feedings, allowing Mom to get some sleep. After her last overnight feeding, Lexi and I took a pretty good nap together on the couch in the Living room.

I'm off of work this week to help Kristi out and give her that extra set of hands when needed.

Her First Day

As I write this, Lexi's first day is coming to a close.  It was a wonderful and exciting day.  She entertained visits from 6 grandparents, 1 great-grandmother, an aunt, an uncle and two friends.  All the while, she behaved wonderfully as she was passed from person to person and made to pose for countless pictures. 

We don't know right now if she will be coming home tomorrow or Monday.  Either way, we are anxiously awaiting her homecoming.  As for right now, I am going to get some sleep so I can be well rested for when we do it all again tomorrow.

It's a girl!

Now that I'm home and able to get on a computer, I thought I'd fill you all in a little more on yesterday's events.

The story starts Thursday night. We were planning on camping this weekend at Lazy Lakes. We had figured that since Kristi was feeling well and all indications were pointing to the baby coming late, we'd be able to get a last pre-baby camp trip in. We head out Thursday night and set up the trailer, have dinner and go to bed. During the middle of the night, Kristi got up and went to the bathroom like you expect any 8.75 month pregnant woman to do. A couple hours later, she jumps up and runs out of the trailer. Concerned at her hasty exit, I go over to the window to see if she's ok. By the time I can look, she's already out of sight. When she came back she told me that her water broke. We called the doctor, and they told us to get our things ready and go to the hospital. We quickly packed up the trailer (apologies to any neighbours we woke up doing this), dropped my truck and the trailer at home and took Kristi's car to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital and things started progressing. Everything was moving around nicely until early evening when Kristi seemed to stall around 5cm. Since her water had broken, the doctors wanted to speed things along (I believe they said they don;t like going more than 18 hours after the water breaks.) They gave Kristi a drug to speed along the contractions, and not long after that gave her an epidural. Things started moving quickly after that. At 11:33pm, Alexis Katrina was born. She weighted 6 lbs 4 oz.

After the doctors finished the initial checks, Lexi was taken to the nursery to be cleaned up and Kristi did the same. A couple hours later (Maybe 3:30ish?) they brought her back to our room. Now by this time, had had been able to get no more that a couple 15 minute naps. I was basically planning on making sure mom and baby were doing well and then going home to get some sleep.

After Kristi nursed Lexi, I took her and was rocking her in the recliner. This had managed to purge the adrenaline from my system that was keeping me awake. I started dozing off, so I handed Lexi back to Kris. Some time after 4, the nurse took her (Lexi, not Kris) back to the nursery. As soon as she left, Kristi and I were both sound asleep. The next thing I know, the doctor is waking us up at 7.

Fwd:

It's a girl! Alexis katrina. Born 6-29@2333. 6 lbs 4 oz

Guess what

Well, we were camping. I guess the baby wanted to camp to. After a hasty pack up of camp this morning, we're at the hospital. (Well, right now, I'm at Panera's getting lunch and picking up stuff for Kris. Stay tuned for more....

How do you want to be notified?

We're now down to under two weeks until the due date and we're getting the final preparations together.  One of the things I need to do is get a list together for announcements.  As of right now, I figure I'll do announcements in three ways.

 

1) Cel Phone picture message.  I'll probably send this out within a couple hours of the birth.  If you want to get a picture message, make sure I have your cel phone number.  (Standard messaging rates apply)

2) E-mail message.  This will probably be within a day or two and will include more pictures.  If you want an e-mail, send me your address.

3) Announcement card.  I'll mail these out within a week or so.  If you got a thank you note from the baby shower, you're on the list to get an announcement.  If not, send me your address please.

Stick a fork in me.

It's official, I'm done.  I was walking through a store today.  As I passed by the baby clothes section, I saw a dress out of the corner of my eye.  I actually stopped, looked at it and thought "Aww, that's so cute."  And to think, there was a time I made fun of Kristi for doing that.

Some baby info

Kristi had a doctor's appointment today, and everything is going well.  There's not too much to tell at this point.  The heartbeat is strong, the baby is head down and Kristi is measuring right where she is supposed to. 

Some people have been asking how big the baby is.  While we know that you really need a sonogram to figure this out, we asked the doctor about this today.  She told us that it's hard to tell even with a sonogram and they're not always accurate.  She even quoted a recent patient of hers who had a sonogram right before she gave birth and the baby ended up being significantly heavier (1.5-2 lbs) than what the sonogram measured the baby at. (Sorry Sandy)  The doctor did tell us that from what she has observed, the baby will not be a big baby. (Sorry again Sandy)  So, I guess (s)he is taking more after Dad than Mom.

So, until next time. . .

Nursery Tour

The nursery is now almost all set up. We picked up the crib and dresser/changing table last night. Fortunately last night was garbage night, since there was quite a bit of cardboard and styrofoam left over. In fact, between cleaning out the nursery, painting and unpacking baby furniture, we have the entire lawn between the sidewalk and street filled with garbage.

Now, getting back to what I originally came here for. I thought you all would like a little tour of the nursery. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube and a digital camcorder, you can.

Official Nursery Tester

Now that the nursery is painted and the carpet is installed, I am faced with the task of taking all of the baby products out of their boxes and putting them together. I did, however, have a little help.

While Pumpkin didn't help with the actual assembly, he did make sure to check everything out once it was put together and ensure everything was ok.

I hate painting!

What better way is there to spend one's anniversary than by being stuck inside the house painting? At least the nursery is one step closer to being ready. We have new carpet coming in tomorrow (nothing like running right up to a deadline.), and we should be getting the furniture in within the next week or two. After that all we need is the baby. Well, I have to go scrape all the paint out from under my fingernails, so until next time...

Rik

T-minus one month

We are now at the one month to go stage. So far, everything is going well with both Mom and baby. Kristi is starting to get a little more uncomfortable as the baby contiues to take up more of her internal real estate. In fact, here is a text message I got from her this morning:

I hate this. I have indigestion already and I'm not even done with breakfast yet.

Here's a picture of mom. I'm sure she'll yell at me for putting this up here, but oh well.

Welcome

Hello all. Welcome to the inaugural post on my blog. I plan on using this as a place to share the going-on of Kristi, myself and our new addition.

As of right now, we are all doing well. Kristi is due in a little over a month. We are slowly getting the house ready as time is quickly running out. Kristi had her baby shower yesterday and we would like to give a big thanks to everyone who came and especially to everyone who helped set it up.

Check in here frequently for updates and pictures.