The PlayArea

This weekend our friend Sarah stopped by. And while she was here she spiffed up a corner of the basement for Xander.



This is to be Xander's playarea. Now we just need to find some rubber matting and/or carpet and some long gate to keep him in his place.

Xander is constantly on the move anymore. His favorite activity is to make sure every door is properly shut. Sometimes he spends a few minutes swinging the door first to make sure it works properly. Seriously, if you set him down he will make a beeline to any door to check it. So I'm keeping an eye out for a used Learning Home for him. Then we can spend hours of me opening the door and Xander shutting it.

But there are no doors in the back room. So Xander has to content himself with playing with my fancy Longaberger basket.


Once he's bored with that, he goes for that cord you can see behind him. We're working on fixing that.

Camping Trip

We just returned from our first camping trip as a family of 3. When we told people we were going camping they then immediately asked what we were doing with Xander. Well, taking him with us, of course. We learned that camping for the first time with a baby is just like anything else with a baby for the first time, rough. But then, you figure some things out, make some adjustments and it gets much easier.

One thing that I don't fully appreciate is the convenience of just letting him loose in our house. That just doesn't work at a campsite. Don't put that in your mouth, don't put that in your mouth, don't put that in your mouth was repeated endlessly when he wasn't in the pack in play or in the baby bookbag.

I also would like to apologize to the folks that we woke up at 4:40am this morning with our screaming baby. Our poor kid has been cutting teeth since April and hasn't slept through the night since then. Now he decided to start cutting a molar and it looks red and swollen and painful. So at 4:40am when he woke up screaming, Amanda soothed him and said "I have to pee!". Okay, I do too, let's make it a family event and walk up to the bathrooms. Amanda's carrying him and all is well, then I say, hey, I'll carry him because I know he's heavy. So she hands him off to me and Xander promptly says "Dad, get your hands off me give me back to Mom RIGHT NOW. NO, RIGHT NOW. I'm serious, Mom, NOW." Which translates to "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH". All this as we walk by snoring campers. Who, of course, stop snoring and wake up. I really am sorry.

So what did we do on our fun camping trip? Well, we went swimming, biking and hiking. Xander didn't take to biking too well. We went with another couple whose daughter is a day younger than Xander and they have a bike trailer. Well, we put the babies in there and the screaming starting. I think they didn't like it because the seat support wasn't too great and they were leaning against one another and they weren't happy.

Of course Xander liked hiking, because that means he's in the baby backpack and gets carried around all day long. Whatever the activity, if he's in the backpack he's a happy camper.

We have a ton of pictures, but here are a few...

Sleeping

You wouldn't know it some nights, with Xander waking up three or four times, but that boy can sleep with the best of them. When house shaking wind and thunder sweep through, there is nary a peep. When fireworks alarm and astound, he ignores and snores.

My parents came to visit this weekend. They showed up at noon just after I put Xander down for a nap. The kid was out before I even lay him down in his crib. We all chatted, Mom and I went to the nursery and bought plants, we all had lunch. No peeps from The Boy. And you know my parents didn't drive all the way here to visit Chris or me. So despite our usual 'let sleeping babies lay' mentality, after two hours we decided to try to gently wake him up.



Yeah, Chris tried poking, bouncing, talking and rubbing his nose. And Xander was totally comfortable in that position. X also slept through us laughing and chatting. We gave up. After another fifteen minutes Chris just went and picked him up. Xander was not pleased.

Get Up, Stand Up

As you can see, Xander is pulling himself up on everything. Slowly, but surely, he is standing flat-footed instead of tippy-toe, holding on with one hand, and cruising along the couches and gates. In fact, this has become a problem in the crib. When he pulls himself up, his mouth is even the top of the brand new crib. He spends most of his time at the end of the crib next to the door. Lo-and-behold there are teeth marks all along the edge there.

I have to admit, I've been tempted to spray Bitter-Yuck on the edges which we already have for the cats. Would that make me a bad mom? Yeah, I think it just might.


Xander and I have taken a couple of road trips this week, despite the ever-rising gas prices (grrr). Monday we visited Dandy and her dog Barkley. Xander was delighted with a new space to roam and a new pet to chase. Xander didn't cry when Barkley was barking and even laughed when Barkley growled.

We visited my sister on Tuesday. He had lots of fun crawling over her futon mattress, pillows and blankets. Have I mentioned Xander has developed a thing for doors? If I put him down in his bedroom he will immediately crawl to the door and swing it back and forth, eventually closing it. Same thing with bathroom doors and the front door. Well, he found a cat carrier at my sister's and repeatedly sat and played with the door to it.

And right now he is throwing a temper tantrum because he can't get under the desk. There is a box in the way and he can't figure out how to push it out of the way.