Au Natural

Not too much new is going on with Xander this week. He still can't get that darned thumb in his mouth but usually seems to be content with his first knuckle and index finger. He's spitting up more and I think the knuckle-sucking has something to do with it. And his Uncle Mark has repeatedly warned us that we'll regret letting him suck on his hand when we try to break the habit.

I did order some BumGenius diapers since they went on clearance prices (still expensive, but they'll pay for themselves over time). I only bought eight and I have a few old fashioned diapers. I figure I use a few while at home each day and use disposable while on the go and at night, at least until I get more.

Chris is concerned with the smell and germs while storing dirty cloth diapers. So any suggestions are appreciated, just leave them in the comments (or email if you'd like).

Go Browns!!

Another football sunday. We missed the Browns game, but we got to see the Chargers pound on the Ravens! Whooo-hooo!


I guess I'm the local bleacher for the games.

In other news, we'll have to figure out the cause of the complete meltdowns that we have in the car. It's a painfully long 15 minutes to get from one end of town to the other while meltdown boy is melting down.

crafty crafter

I had some poster frames from when I was a kid that I didn't want to hang up anymore, so I decided to put them to good use for Xander. I used the wife's construction paper and cut out a colorful little alphabet for him on this one....


...and on the other some numbers, the periodic table of the elements, a map of the USA and some colors to fill in the leftover area.


I think they are pretty neat and add some color to his room. Now I just need to get a Cleveland Browns' poster and at UT Rockets poster and he'll be all set.

Two Month Checkup

Xander and I made it to the doctor's office today for his two month checkup. So far, so good! I had a few questions I'd been saving up that were easily answered, Xander was looked over and then he received his first set of vaccinations. Oh, did that make my heart break. He was all happy and cooing when the doctor came in, after a meltdown in the car. When the nurse gave him his shots the screams were even worse than I imagined. He's a tough little guy though, once I was holding him he just sniffled a while and wanted to be held.

Stats:
Head - 15 inches
Length - 22.5 inches
Weight - 12 pounds and 4 ounces

Things to work on:
Tummy time
Chris possibly doing some bottle feeding

Xander's Baptism

Yesterday was Xander's Baptism and it turned out to be a lot of fun. This was after the mayhem and panic that began the day. We all were up early so went to the 7:30 mass. Afterwards I said "You know, we never called to confirm Xander being baptized today and no one called us to confirm. Let's stop by the office and make sure." Good thing we did because they had no information on Xander being registered. He wasn't on the announcement or in the office records. PANIC!

But the lady in the office was super nice and added our name to the announcements (and ended up recopying them). She found an extra candle and set everything up with the deacon. I do want to call and check his baptism certificate is taken care of.

So we headed home to relax, wait for a few people to arrive early and get the house ready. Then I think of what Office Lady said about the white garment - that we would provide it. Huh, I must have misheard because Chris and I both remember in the class saying a white towel (blanket?) would be provided. So I call Office Lady and ask and she is sure we need to have our own white outfit, which I was way too cheap to splurge on and the family baptismal garment is way too antique and fragile to wear. My mom is bringing a sweater and pants, but we don't know if they will work. So Office Lady offers to loan me one of hers! Office Lady is a saint!

I get off of the phone and nearly have a meltdown. No baptismal registration + no white garment + messy home + needing to get food ready + long term sleep deprivation= Meltdown Hugs. Chris spotted this right away and gave me a hug then sent me packing to bed for a nap. That was blissful.

So family arrived and we were distracted and left a little late because we needed to go to the office to change Xander into his fancy white duds. Rush, rush, rush and we make it in time.

The ceremony was long since there were eight different children. Xander was the best behaved of course (that may be due to the pacifier we let him have, none of the other parents let their children have one). Our family and friends took up more pews than any other family, go us!

The best part was after his mouth and ears were blessed he gave us a huge smile.

Then we all headed back to the house for food and good times. It's a fun feeling to have the house so full of people who love our little guy. And I once again learned more about child-proofing a house courtesy of some broken marble chess pieces. :)

Here we are with Xander's godparents, Ukie and T.

a few free moments

Xander's baptism is tomorrow. Amanda is making cupcakes for everyone after the ceremony and they look great. I'm more concerned with eating one...but she only made 21 and I don't know if that'll be enough for everyone to have one, so I have to wait.

He's cutting one loose over there in his swing, so I better go and change him.

The Elusive Thumb

Over the past couple of weeks Xander has discovered that his hand is right by his mouth. So very patiently he brings his hand over and tries to latch on. And he realizes that he can't latch. So he bops his hand around a little and gets drool all over his fist and sleeve. Then he'll flex his fingers and his thumb will pop out. He'll he'll pop it into his mouth and start sucking his thumb, but almost immediately he lets go. I guess it's not as satisfying as he had expected.

Go Browns!

Xander and I got to watch some football today. Touchdown Cleveland!!


Then we wrestled at halftime (just ignore the stain on the shirt).

Game Time

Xander does such a great job of sleeping at night that he has a very calm active awake period in the morning. Today Chris even made up a song about being morning people (Chris and Xander are, I am not). As the morning wears on and I emerge from my lethargy, there are a few games I play with Xander. None are terribly exciting unless you are a new mom and none last for more than a few minutes at time

1) Watch the Rattle - or giraffe blanket or butterfly depending on what is nearby. I just move it from left to right to see if he can follow it. Sometimes he is great at it, other times not so much. His head has a flat spot from always looking towards his left and his eyes also seem to go left easily, more trouble looking towards his right.

2) Repeat the Sound - Xander is cooing and ahhing and making other various vocal noises, so I just repeat them back to him. Nothing exciting there, I'm just waiting until he repeats them back to me.

3) Smile for Mommy - I stand or sit so he can see me and I smile at him. I laugh and stick out my tongue and maybe tickle him a little. And he smiles back. So I leave you with these morsels of adorableness.

dueling what?

So the other day my wife was pumping so that I can share in feeding our kid. The pump she has is a fancy electric one with a dualie setup, so she can pump both at the same time. So Xander is in his rain forest chair and Amanda is pumping and she says "Gee, I wonder which one's going to fill up first?"

So how do I respond to this? Do I complement her shoes? Do I tell her she looks beautiful? Do I tell her that her hair is nice today? Nope, none of the above.

I, being the considerate thoughtful husband, go to youtube and played this for her.

Proof!

Further proof that Chris is the father. LISTEN.


Last week Xander weighed in at 11 lbs 2 oz. It's no wonder he's already outgrowing his clothes and my arms get tired so easily. He's eating like a champ, though the past few days he's finally slowed down some. And the whole sleeping for five hours thing was not a fluke, he did it again last night. Ah, sweet dreams.

bald spot

Our poor little boy is losing his hair and will soon look like a cue ball.

Oh well!

Xander's first Halloween

Halloween was interesting. We got Xander dressed up in his pumpkin outfit for the 5th time in the past 2 weeks, (which makes sense because he's not going to be able to wear it after this ever again) invited Sergey and Ikkin over and passed out some candy. I thought it would be interesting to quiz the kids some simple questions before I gave them candy, what's the capital of the US, what's the capital of Ohio, what's 2*5, what's 10+10, simple stuff for elementary school kids.

Or so I thought. It was a good idea until I got one kid who didn't get her first question right, but her companion did, then her companion got a few more right (and more candy) and then I went back to the girl again and asked her something easy and she replied "I'm not that stupid, you know."

Whoa! Time to stop this little game that I think is cute. So that was a bad idea and I stopped. Let's just stick with questions about their costumes before I get an angry parent beating me up.

Also, am I a bad candy-giver if I only give 1 piece of candy per kid? Am I cheap and stingy or frugal? One kid walked back down the drive and said something to his mother and she said to him "well, it's better than nothing." It's not like we were giving out the teeny tiny tootsie rolls or the 5 packs of Necco wafers, we had the giant tootsie rolls and fun packs of m&m's.

Oh, and the best costumes where the Darth Vaders' (but no mask) and the tornado. Who knows where this kid got this idea, but he showed up dressed as a tornado. He had a cloth he wore over himself that had strips cut in it and cars and houses sewed to the strips. Very original. We gave him extra candy for a cool costume.