Lately....

Everyone said it would happen, and well it has....XYZ has grown up! Other than still drooling everywhere and not having any teeth, I feel like he's not really a "BABY" anymore. I'm not sure what I would call him as he's not a toddler either, but he's just too big and independent to be a baby anymore!

Speaking of drool though. Oh my....we've taken to freezing burp cloths and letting him suck on those - as you can see below, he just shoves it in his mouth and lets go. We also gave him some frozen apple in a mesh thingy, which he enjoy and made a mess with...as you can see below. (And then looked like he'd frozen his entire face with!)

We finally got around to hanging some of the photos Annie took for us. Though not entirely straight/centered, here' what the finished product looks like (for now...hey they're on the wall at least, right?!)

 Last weekend, we actually made it to church. This has become a not-so-regular occurrence in our family since Xander arrived, but we do try. They have a lovely family room where we can all sit together and not stress if lil man starts screaming or something.  As you can see here, as long as he has something to put in his mouth, he's pretty happy.

And we also made it to the pool....no words needed here:

 

 And finally - his latest trick....sitting up all by himself!

Half a Year Old

Not to sound redundant, but I can't believe it! Xander is 6 months old now. I have to look back at the 5 month post to remind myself of all the new things he's doing.

• Rolling over consistently from back to front and front to back
• Laughing all the time
• Blowing bubbles
• Allllmmmmooooosssst sitting up on his own
• Putting EVERYthing in his mouth
• Eating mom and dad out of house and home
  

Stats from our 6 month well visit yesterday:

Height: 28 inches (88%)

Weight: 20 lbs, 11 oz (87%)

Head: 46.5 cm (97+%....his little dot was officially OFF the chart)

He still LOVEs the bath....as evidenced below:

He has now been to two birthday parties. Here he is at his cousin's this past weekend....just hanging out in the dino chair....and at Lucinda's party sporting a lion hat:

We also had two visitors this past weekend. "Original" Laura came down from New Hampshire and gave him his first taste of pineapple:

While Callee came to town and gave him a bright, shiny balloon.....which he proceeded to try and eat (unsuccessfully):

He is big enough now to enjoy the baby swings at parks, and of course, he LOVEs them.

And last but not least, I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. Other than locking ourselves out of the house after breakfast, it was a great day. I will be redeeming my Zen massage later this week!

Run for Angela Post-Event Update

Race day was this past weekend, and it was actually quite fun! Waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday was not necessarily fun, but somehow I managed! Of course Simon and Xander had no problems getting up that early! 

We arrived to the start line just early enough for Simon to drop me off, us to get Xander settled (asleep) in the stroller and me to go pee (key before running any distance, I assure you). Xander and Simon went off to peruse Wal-mart and the rest of the strip mall while I mingled with the other runners and vendors (of course running into someone else from Socastee High School). 

It was a small crowd, but I was still impressed by the size due to the rainy start to the morning and overcast skies. Luckily it had stopped raining by the time we arrived at the start and didn't rain again until later that day. The 6.2 kilometers were a bit hilly, but I was plesantly surprised when I rounded a corner and saw the  back of the strip mall ahead of me. That was right after I found this guy to follow:

He definitely made the last little bit FUN to run. When I got to the end, I found this crew....well, really I just found Simon and Xander, but the Michaud posse wasn't too far away. Lucinda evidently was ready to race Xander....next year we will make that happen!

Before stuffing my face at  breakfast with the Michauds, JP and I paused for a photo with Angela's poster. There were probably 10 or so of these posted on the window of a local running store who supported the race. It was sad/sweet to see.

A close up of my running shirt - which also doubles as SPF too.

 All in all it was a great run. I raised $665 for Miles Against Melanoma. THANKS to everyone who contributed!! I hope to be back next year and raise even more!