Monday, October 29, 2007

Fondue and babies do go together

How to eat fondue with a 6 week old:

1. Flop baby into your arm like so.



You may have to shift him higher if your arm gets tired like this. (Yes, I am the source of Xander's stork bite.)




2. Grab your fondue fork and dig in!


Playgroup at Church

On Friday Xander and I attended the Playgroup at our church. Once again it is advertised as including infants, but I wasn't hopeful. Mostly I just wanted to get out and to meet some other moms in the area.

There were five other moms who attended and about eight kids all together, one who was an infant (the mom brought her and her son). It was nice because it was a small group and half of us were there for the first time. We all got to chat and discuss fun details about pregnancy and birth (two of the moms were pregnant).

I also was able to see what Xander has to look forward to, mostly the problems with sharing and the total mess kids make (green icing was everywhere). Since we have no family, friends or neighbors (though one neighbor is due soon) with infants, he'll be spoiled rotten. Chris and I will have to make up sharing games to play.

On a different note, Xander has had two 'firsts' today.
~He slept for 5 hours straight last night giving me my first long (by long I mean four hours in a row) stretch of sleep in over a month.
~He definitely smiled at me today. He has been smiling, but we kept chalking it up to gas. Today he looked right at me and I smiled and he smiled back for like ten seconds, much longer than a gas smile.

Other accomplishments (or milestones I guess) include:
~ He is a champ at holding up his head. Sometimes it gets a little wobbly and he does a woodpecker imitation. He did head bunt me once and started screaming bloody murder. More and more it is head up and he is trying to look around.
~ He has started cooing. It's a little surprising hearing 'ah' and 'o' coming from the crib/bassinet/bouncy seat.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Baby Time at the Library

In an effort for me to get out and possibly meet other moms with babies, Xander and I ventured to Baby Time at our local library. I know, I know, Xander can't read and can't understand what is being read to him. But by golly, the advertisement says "Birth through 2 years." So I fed him, strapped him in his baby bucket and off we went.

Imagine my surprise that all the babies were one year or older. Ok, it wasn't that big of a surprise but I was really hoping. I felt a little silly sitting there with a sleeping infant while everyone else sang songs and listened to Halloween books being read. Actually only like three kids paid attention to the books, the rest were EVERYWHERE, including trying to climb into Xander's baby carrier. I actually had the teacherly urge to tell them to sit down and be quiet. Three times I had to fight that urge.

But the library lady was really nice and made suggestions on books and even came to talk to me afterward. I'm not sure I'll be a regular attendee but it did accomplish my goal of getting out of the house.

On a side note I figured out one thing that Xander HATES. Yesterday he screamed for the entire car ride, which I couldn't understand because he always goes to sleep on car rides or at least quiets down. I'm talking red-faced, panting, sweating screaming here. Today the same thing started and I reached back and pulled off his hat. He instantly stopped and floated off to baby dreamland. I don't think the problem is the hat so much as it is how the hat falls over his eyes when he moves his head. So the car rides this winter should be fun.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The 15 Minute Boy

Since Chris mentioned it, here are the plates we made.


Xander has been doing pretty well at night. He'll sleep anywhere from 2 to 4 hours at a time then cry to be fed. After he's fed though he'll settle right down and I go and drop off to sleep for another 2 to four hours. It averages to about two or three feedings a night.

Of course it doesn't always work that way. Last night I was up for over two hours trying to calm him down enough to sleep.

And the consequence of such decent nights is that Xander transforms into 15 Minute Boy during the mornings. He wants fed every hour and in between he needs changed and burped and is awake being fussy. I get him calm and happy and 15 minutes later he's upset about something else.

Today I calmed him by taking a nice long car ride down to my old library. This resulted in 15 Minute Boy visiting all afternoon. I finally have him blissfully asleep in one of his slings (Thank you Julie!). Of course yesterday he raised the roof with his unhappiness of being in the sling and who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Pumpkin Carving

Aunt Mandy came over this weekend and we had some fun. Hung out, had lunch, went for a walk in the park. It was really a great fall day.


We then picked up some more pumpkins and Xander got his first taste of pumpkin carving this weekend. He was bored with the whole idea.


He's been quite the fussy pants lately too. The whole burping thing is tough.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Falling along

Are you still there? We are.

A few things have been happening. Last weekend we went to a pottery place in town and painted some plates. One for our house with our wedding date on it and another for Xander's room. That was a fun day and we didn't really plan on being out of the house all day, but it ended up that way. So that meant Amanda didn't get to practice feeding Xander in front of the mirror before actually feeding him in public...those two just ended up jumping in head first to the breastfeeding in public club. At least the pottery place was big and empty so noisy boy could be feed. I say noisy boy because he was howling before he ate and he is a noisy eater.

Granny Ba. stopped in this week because she had a seminar to go to nearby, so Xander got some Granny-time. Or vice versa.

This morning for the first time I gave Xander a bath. It wasn't too bad for me, although he was having a nearly atomic meltdown. I find it is easier if he's having a meltdown if I know what is causing it, such as the case was this morning during bath time. However, all other nuclear meltdowns I have trouble knowing what to do. Which usually ends with me saying to Amanda, "Here, I think he needs fed. I'm useless."

It works out. And now he's all slicked up for Aunt Mandy's visit today with his little Tigger Halloween outfit on.

Maybe we'll get a walk in the park in later because today looks great outside!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

rollover Beethoven

So tonight in a fit of fatherly frustration at how to stop a crying baby from crying, I decided that Xander could use some time on the floor face down. With all the limb flailing that he does when he is upset, I figured that it would be good way for him to expend that frustration and exercise his little muscles.

Well, as it turns out our little Xander can roll over at 16 days old. And not just once, but we finally got the camera on the third rollover, this is the tail end of it.



And after the first time I made sure he was in a superman position when I placed him on the floor. So don't get the idea that there was any halfway placement by a parent so that we could brag about what our kid could do...this was a full belly arms legs extended starting position.