We have reached the 5-month mark and Baby Allex is beaming.

He's had a lot of "Firsts" lately; first camping trip, first view of the ocean, first plane ride, first time meeting his Aunt Trish.

When he saw the ocean, he stared in amazement as the waves crashed noisily on the shore. His reaction was fun to watch. He was a trooper when we camped, even waking up happily in the mornings there. Everyone wanted to wake up when he did so they could listen and watch him coo and stretch and squeal with pure innocent delight. It was really cute. When we hiked, I carried him in the backpack and he loved it. I actually carried him up a high, pretty steep embankment once. I impressed myself! lol

And when we flew to Trisha's, I couldn't have asked for him to be better on the plane. He watched all the people and absorbed all the new sites of the plane. I nursed him when we took off and landed and he never complained of his ears hurting. He is quite the little traveler! When he met Trish, he smiled and giggled like no other time meeting a new person. It could be because of how excited she was to meet him, but I think it was also because of how much we look alike. (And we have never looked more alike then now. We both showed up with the same haircut – it was too funny.) It was fun. She was a lot more comfortable holding him than I ever was with a baby before having one. He loved her. She would swing him in the air and play with him so cute. She and Phil have a medium sized dog that Allex thought was the funniest thing. He would just laugh and laugh when the dog would walk nearby him. It was so cute!

Throughout his travels, Allex has managed to stay healthy. He has LOTS of energy – reminds me of his Dad. I’m the one that came back with a little flu bug. Shouldn’t have looked through the “SkyMall” magazine :-).