Alexander Daniel Kegel

(a.k.a. Alex...a.k.a. Zan...a.k.a. Little Buddha )

"He looks like an ad for babies." -- Judy Carr

Hi! My name is Alex, and I was born on August 7, 2003. I was supposed to have been born a week earlier, but I kind of liked it where I was, and I decided to wait just a bit longer. Of course, while I was waiting, I was doing a little extra growing, too...so when I did decide to come out and meet everyone, I was a bit larger than they expected (8 pounds, five ounces!). And that meant my mom had kind of a hard time pushing me out. So some very nice folks came in and got me...although,as you can see in my very first picture ever, it was a bit of a shock (they didn't even knock first!), and I don't always react so well to surprises.

I did calm down pretty soon, though, and I spent the next few days getting to know everybody. This is how my mom likes to say hello (no, her tongue's not really that color - she was drinking purple Gatorade!).

And this is how I spent a lot of time with my dad. I guess me getting born was kinda hard on both of us (my mom says he doesn't like the sight of blood...but he stayed right there with me through my whole delivery, and even went to the nursery with me afterward while they put my mom to sleep for a while).

After four days in the hospital, my mom and I were both feeling better, so I got to go home in my spiffy new clothes and my spiffy new car seat.

And once we got home, all sorts of new things started happening. This is me getting ready for my first bath, which I kind of enjoyed.

In fact, most of the time, I'm a really good baby and I love seeing new things and meeting new people (of course, so far, almost all the things and people I see are new to me). But just so you know, I don't like everything. And sometimes I just have to let people know how I really feel.

When I got to be about three weeks old, however, I found a new way to commuicate -- I learned to smile when I'm having a good time...and I almost always have a good time when I'm talking to people (I especially like it when they talk to me in my language) or watching toys dangle in front of me. These bugs on my travel seat are some of my favorites.

I'm still learning lots of stuff -- for example, at five weeks old I taught myself how to suck my thumb. My dad tried to get a picture of it, but he didn't get quite the right angle, so it looked like I was just sucking my fist...but I've been able to do that since I was just two days old. I'm pretty proud of the thumb thing, though (and about being able to hold my head up now all by myself...at least most of the time), so here's a picture of me looking like a big boy (which I am -- I weighed 11 pounds, 4 ounces at the doctor's office just a few days after this was taken!)

Oops -- I just realized it's been two whole hours since mom fed me. I'd better go let her know it's meal time, so she doesn't forget. And then I have a very important nap to get to...so that's it for now -- but I'll write more soon!

Love, Alex

(p.s. My dad has a website about me, too! You can see it at http://www.kegel.com/alexander)