Recipe for Sleep

Ingredients:
1 baby 2 parents 3 grandparents 4 great-grandparents 1 aunt/godmother
2 uncles 1 godfather 1 great-uncle 1 great-aunt 6 other cousins of various relations
5 swords 1 deer 1 dart gun 2 more aunts with pizza

Steps:
1) Visit great-grandma, baby will fuss and only take short naps. Baby will scream when parents nearly hit deer on way home.

2) Grandma visits, stays for remaining steps.

3) Wait a day and visit great-uncle and aunt's house with cousins, only one short nap allowed. Baby will fuss. Baby will fuss only a little while parents drive home white-knuckled with icy roads.
4) Wait a day and celebrate Christmas, make the baby wear adorable sweater outfit with a bib, so no spit up will ruin said outfit. The baby will be perfectly content during Star Wars Episode 1 Monopoly, but will need fed after mother has spent hours preparing Christmas dinner and has just sat down.


5) Visit other grandparents, require baby to wear seasonal clothing. Immediately leave to go out to eat with aunts with pizza. Return and endure sword fight involving everyone present in their twenties. One great grandmother will visit and presents will be opened while there is a short nap. Fuss, fuss fuss. Visit other great grandparents where baby will completely conk out. Return to grandparents and leave for home.


6) Gently bounce baby (never shaken nor stirred) and place in crib.

Results:
Baby will sleep through the night.

We took Xander to go meet Santa Claus for the first time late last week.

Right now Xander is in his bouncy seat and he's stinking the place up. Real bad. I wonder if we need to Fabreeze or Lysol the fabric on the seat. Gross.

3 Months

So it was three months ago that I woke up and thought "At least two weeks to go. Today I think I'll try to get that manicure and pedicure so at least my feet will look pretty when I give birth. Oh, and I need to get the baby safety seat in the car checked this afternoon. And I definitely need to do laundry because Chris is out of jeans and unmentionables." I bet you are wondering if I really refer to Chris's underwear as unmentionables.

Of course all of that changed when I stood up and my water broke.

Now three months later we have Xander, a generally happy baby. He's gained over five pounds and a few inches and has outgrown most of his clothes already. He has good control over his head. He rarely goes cross eyed and can recognize his mom and dad. He's a little chatter box when he wakes up in the morning. He is so different from three months ago.

Now he gets to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with us and we will see what the next year will bring.

heads up 7 up

Here's senor stinkybottom showing off his neck muscles.


Flex for 'em X.

Look at me I'm so cute!

This kid is such a morning person. Waaaaay too chatty. Especially if no one is in the room, he starts using his outdoor voice.
(Sorry for the lousy quality of the film).

Revoked

I should have my mom license taken away. And babies should not have finger nails.

Xander nearly always has a scratch or occasionally a gouge on his face. I try to keep his nails short to avoid this, but it's so hard! He wiggles and squirms or is too peacefully asleep.

I started keeping his nail clippers by his changing table to try to do one finger each time I was there. Last week he squirmed at the wrong moment and screamed bloody murder. And his thumb was a little bloody.

So I haven't tried since. Until today. His nails are practically longer than mine (proportionally anyway). So I tried while he was just waking up and groggy. On the same thumb that I tried last week. With the same results. The poor guy will be missing a fingerprint on the thumb.

I've heard to try filing. I did before with no results because his nails were too thin and flimsy. Maybe that will work better now, they seem to be thicker.

I've also heard to just bite them off. That doesn't make me happy because of germ issues. He's constantly getting his hands into his mouth and if I'm getting slobber and germs all over them... well, it's just gross.

So expect to see Xander in the Guiness records for longest nails in the near future.

no stocking for X!

Amanda just put up most of our Christmas decorations and I just realized we don't have a stocking for Xander. Oh what to do.

I tried to get a photo of him smiling this morning, but it was difficult.




He's been a bit fussier in the evenings lately. We're wondering if he's starting to develop the 'witching hour' thing where he gets really fussy right before bedtime.

He's still a ham whenever we take him out in public. I know babies get fawned over, but he just gets fawned over everywhere we go.

Out for Dinners

This week we were out for dinner twice.

On Tuesday Xander and I met Ikkin for burgers at Red Robin. It was so great to just get out and chat with a friend. Xander was a putz who was on the verge of crying, but he did wait until I was almost done with my burger.

We did discover that he already has a favorite condiment: ketchup. At one point, while Xander was calm, Ikkin held up a bottle and moved it around. Xander was completely fascinated. Then while I was buckling him in and he started to meltdown, she held up the bottle again. He would catch sight of it and get all wide eyed, start to cry, then see the bottle and calm down again. I wish I could describe it better because it was hilarious to see.

Thursday night my mom and aunts came to town for a conference over the weekend, so we met them to eat at Max & Erma's. Xander was tired for half of it and then became incredibly wiggly. Nonetheless he was cuddled and kissed within an inch of his life. Honestly, I found some glitter on his head this morning, so someone had lip gloss on.

Overall these outings were a good time. When Xander first arrived on the scene I was absolutely paranoid about going out. What if he began crying uncontrollably? What if he needed fed? What about diaper changes? What if.... well, you get the idea. So it's nice to know that Chris and I can handle these things.