One Year Doctor Visit and a Couple of Firsts

Xander and I trekked to the doctor's office for his one year wellness visit. The nurses all remember him and like to comment on how happy he always is, even when he comes in sick. I'll say that's a good thing to be remembered for (as opposed the the kid who falls down throwing a temper tantrum)(and I hope I didn't just jinx myself).

His measurements seem to be running on the small side.
Weight: 20 lbs, 14 oz (15th percentile)
Height: 28.75 inches (30th percentile)
Head: 16.75 inches
Height vs. Weight is in the 50th percentile, so that's nice.

I felt the need to ask about toothpaste, since Xander definitely has a full dozen teeth. And I asked about getting vaccinations, since I'm always nervous about that. I was finally given a statistic to make me feel better: it's more likely to get sick from not getting a vaccination than to get autism. I know research has some contradicting information and I respect the decisions parents make about getting shots or not, but that little tidbit made me feel better. And Xander screamed during the shot but was smiling and waving at the nurse by the time I had him dressed.

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About a week before Xander turned one, Chris finally had enough and declared it hair cutting day for The Boy. And, ok, he had been referred to as a girl a few times in the weeks before that. But he has such cute curls. Chris declared we will do this ourselves. I cringed inside thinking about how Xander does not sit still. But we head outside and I hold him in my lap, attempting to pin his arms to his side.

Chris snips some curls from above one ear. Xander turns his head to see what's going on.
Chris snips some curls from above the other ear. Xander turns his head to the other direction to see what's going on.
Xander gets one arm free and feels his head to see what's going on.
Amanda re-pins arm.
Chris goes for a curl along the back of the neck. Some hair drifts down and Xander leans over to see it. Chris tries to hold his head down and just cuts across the back. Xander squeals.
And we quit. The back is too high and crooked and we laugh.
I carefully tuck away a curl of hair in Xander's scrapbook.

We totally took pictures, but I can't find where they are saved at the moment.

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We went to the county fair on the day after X's birthday. I love going to the fair :) You see a huge array of people, eat food that is oh-so-good and yet oh-so-bad, get sick on the rides and waste money on silly games. We only did the first two though.

I was frustrated because I wanted to find where all of the animals were. It was the first time we'd been to this fair and the first time really exploring the fairgrounds, and there were just too many barns. Most were empty. We did find some alpacas and goats. We pulled up the the goats and one stuck out it's head. Xander reached out and touched it's nose. He started saying "Guh!" (which is what he says when he sees a cat or, apparently, any animal) and waving his hands excitedly. If only we'd found the horses.

Chris and I splurged on matching, airbrushed tatoos. We had an 'X' put on the inside of our right wrists. We tried to convince people that they were real and we had gotten them to celebrate Xander's first birthday. But people didn't believe us. I guess we're just not crazy enough to get tatoos.

birthday party!

BIRTHDAY BOY!


We had ourselves a little birthday party yesterday, complete with friends, family and a giant monkey cake.


And now Xander has a boatload of new toys to play with and clothes for his momma to dress him in.

Birthday Boy!

Xander turned One Year Old yesterday! Chris was away at work, but called me in the morning to ask if I was crying yet. I said no, but I was reminiscing about how I was stuck in the bathroom the morning of X's birth.

We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate as the big celebration is coming up this weekend. I did randomly sang "Happy Birthday" to Xander. After dinner we took a bike ride to get ice cream. But our ice cream place was closed due to the fair. So we made it into an extra long ride to find ice cream during which Xander needed a diaper change but we didn't think to bring the diaper bag. Hey, it was supposed to be a short ride!

I feel like I should be writing some inspiring and touching letter to Xander about how he's changed our lives and how much we love him. But I think the blog in general does that. And anyone who knows us can see that.

So here are a couple of new things Xander has learned:

Clapping - he started out banging two toys together but it has progressed to saying 'Clap' and he puts his hands together a few times while grinning. Particularly fun is if he holds a finger on each of your hands because he'll clap your hands together.

Almost walking - he loves to push his Retro Rocket around. He's not too comfortable sitting on it just yet. But he will get one hand on the handle and one on the back fin and push it around. But it's really annoying when he gets it stuck and he starts screaming.

Stairs - Xander has been going up the stairs ok (with close parental supervision). We had to teach him how to go down a couple of times, but now he's pretty much got it. If we're upstairs and he sees the gate 0pen, he will rush over to the stairs. Then he'll stop and, keeping his hands in place, scoot his butt and legs around until he hits the edge. Then he'll tentatively stretch his foot down to the next step. After that, it's pretty much one leg back at a time. And lots of excited panting.

Splashing - he's ok with baths, but gets tired of them pretty quickly. Now he understands when I say 'Splash' and he gets water everywhere. He also does this thing where he tries to lay flat and put his face in the water. It freaks me out.

Things we are working on include, but are not limited to: hugs, kisses, high fives, peek-a-boo (which he can do with a blanket but not with his hands yet) and pointing.

retro rocket

Xander got an early birthday present. It is a Radio Flyer Retro Rocket. It's this little cylindrical piece of plastic shaped like a rocket that has wheels and lights and sounds. He could sit on it while I pushed him, but he didn't understand the concept of pushing with his feet. Maybe in another month or so.

Oh, and standing up is getting to be lots of fun. He's able to stand up now unassisted for 10+ seconds. It's pretty funny to watch....he gets so excited he starts flapping his arms and falls down, or he sees something he wants to get to and falls gracefully forward to his knees and starts crawling.

We may be Whooped

I started tutoring again!

"Hold up," you say, "this belongs on your other blog, Hugs."

Wait for it.

I started tutoring again! A family that we are friends with has three kids and the oldest is their daughter in 7th grade. I'm actually tutoring her to challenge her with new things and hopefully get her into 8th grade Algebra next year.

So I met with her Friday after school while her younger sister and mother played with Xander.

Sunday I received a call that the oldest daughter has been diagnosed with whooping cough despite receiving a vaccination last year. So they were calling classmates, friends, sportsmates and pretty much anyone she has been in contact with the past week (such as us). Oh, and since her sister (who was holding Xander while we tutored) and brother could be carriers they had to do the same thing for those kids too.

Monday I woke up and realized that I should probably let the few people we saw on Saturday know, so I was also making a few phone calls. Then Xander developed a runny nose and the cough he'd had for the past month (probably due to more molars and drool) suddenly kicked up a notch. He had received the vaccination, but that obviously is not always effective.

And there was the added fun of Xander puking three times. Which was likely due to eating something in the backyard when we weren't looking. Yeah, I dug something gross out of his mouth, so I'm pretty sure that puking wasn't related to possible whooping.

Sigh.

So today I had to call off school (second week, yikes that doesn't look good) and took Xander in to the doctor. Doctor says it looks like a cold but keep an eye on it. I kind of wish I was pushier and demanded a test, because the timing of this 'cold' is too coincidental. But he said the test wouldn't be conclusive at this point anyway. His lungs sound clear and no 'whoop'ing noise when Xander coughs.

The part that I am finding the a hard time dealing with is that the babysitter has a two year old daughter who is not vaccinated. I have no problem that she isn't vaccinated. And the babysitter said if Xander has a cold, no problem. But if this turns into whooping cough and it gets passed onto her daughter too, I am going to feel awful.