A Year Complete

WOW - it's been one whole year since I woke Simon up to say, "it's time!"

And now that a year is complete, I'm really glad I've kept this blog. It helps me remember...especially now with pregnancy brain for the second go-round.

Since my 11-month post Xander has started using walking as his preferred method of transportation! I was/am in total shock that someone with a head as large as his can balance it well enough to get around to wherever he wants to go, but he does a great job. We can tell when he's tired because he topples over!

The 12-month stats:
Height: 31 inches (80%)
Weight: 26.7 lbs (88%)
Head: +97%

The doctor was also impressed that he can walk too...she didn't say it was because of his giant head, she just said, "oh wow, good."

We had to hold two birthday parties for him...he finds it rough being so popular - one for family and one for friends. We even had to limit the friends category to friends who are also 1. We did allow Lucinda (she's 2) to crash because we needed some ladies in the house for all the boys. Only one of them noticed her the instant she walked in the house though (uh, hem, Callum).

Some shots from the "friends" party:

 

Little cupcakes with little icing for the little ones.

 

 

Not sure what they're all watching, but here you can see the two friends sporting just as much hair as Xander. I think they're all going to be Pantene models one day!

 

More of the hair models.

 

 

 

The balloons were a big hit!

 

 

Xander and his pal JJ, who not only gives him a run for his money in the hair department, but I do believe JJ is taller and bigger all the way around...and he's a whopping 2.5 weeks younger!

 

 

 

And while most of you have probably already seen on Facebook, perhaps one of his favorite gifts is shown above.

All in all, it's been a fabulously quick year. I'm more than halfway through pregnancy #2 and can barely remember what week I am at. I suppose that's what you get with #2 and having them so close together. But this baby is a little different than Xander. He's smaller and moves around more...perhaps the first affects the second. I haven't had nearly as many gas issues with this guy like I did with Xander. I mean, it sounded like a college frat house around here some nights when I was preggo with Xander. I have been able to eat pretty much whatever I like. The only part so far that has been worse is the insomnia. But if that's all I have to contend with, I'll take it. It's just prep work for February when he appears and wakes us up every hour or two...or three (a girl can dream).

11 Months in the Books

Well, little man is no longer little...not that he ever really was. He hit 11 months last week, and it's been crazy. What everyone says is true - it flies by and is all a blur, which makes me glad that I am keeping this blog. I used to be really good at photo albums, but for whatever reason, I am terrible at it now, so this blog has helped me remember when.....

 

 

Over the past month, Xander has gotten better at his walking. He's pretty good about lunging between the couch and footrest, maybe taking a step here and there with no help.

 

He's working on his eighth tooth, which has wreaked havoc on his sleep schedule, but we're hopeful it's almost in and over with!

 

He still loves boxes and bubble wrap, so please keep all impending birthday gifts limited to such. 

 

 

We were able to meet up with an old college buddy Natalie and her little man, Brian, at McDonald's before they flew back home. Yes, I know...introducing them to the junk food early is a terrible idea, but whatever....it was right off the interstate, and we didn't have much time! I promise, Xander at organic asparagus for dinner!

 

Luckily, he's still into brushing his teeth!

 

And - he's still into the bathroom...though he tried to pretend he hadn't just been in there when I busted him with TP on his sock.

 

 

On a nice cooler evening one weekend, we hit up the White Water Center for a picnic dinner with the Loomis family. X enjoyed all the people/dog watching available...and only stole a little of J's food.

We bought a new footrest/coffee table/storage thingy, and I've decided it makes a lovely playpin too. However, I'm sure it won't be too long until he's hiking his leg up over the edge and throwing himself out of this.

 

We had a nice lunch visit from Tanya and JJ later in the month too. These boys could be brothers/twins/cousins. JJ is about 2 weeks younger than Xander and gives him a good run for his money on both hair and overall size. They will make a great offensive line one day.

And finally, we've taught him to Swiffer! He absolutely LOVES watching Simon vacuum...I mean loves it so much he throws himself out of my arms to run toward Simon and the vacuum. Luckily the Swiffer is lighter and easier for him to maneuver.

In little brother news....Baby Z 2.0 is doing well. I had my second 'old lady' ultrasound this morning, and he passed. The doctor finally said, "You are done here." (here being the center where they send old ladies...and diabetics...odd combo in my opinion, but whatever.) For as annoying as these appointments seemed to us in the beginning, we feel very blessed to have another healthy boy growing and on his way. Now to just keep him in until February....which should hopefully be the easy part. Mr. 2.0 is measuring right to his due date, which is good news to me. Xander was already a week ahead at this point, so if #2 wants to be "average" sized I am a-ok with that! As of today, no one has me if I am having twins...I take that as a win!

Double Trouble!

So I guess this whole working from home thing really hasn't done much for my upkeep of this blog! I'm sure my boss would be glad to know that!  BUT I have enjoyed being at home....mostly because I get to 'handle' Xander in the mornings now and let Simon just get ready. It used to be both of us trying to get ready at the same time and make sure Xander wasn't throwing himself off the bed, down the stairs, over the tub, etc.

 

 

So YES, he has started pulling up, sorta walking since my last post. It all started with this:

 

and now we're at the walker stage where he pulls up on the wall and scoots to wherever he wants to go. He absolutely loves standing up and is pretty bound and determined never to sit down again.

Luckily he's started to really enjoy books, so he will sit for that. Here you can see his favorite...and his cousin reading it to him.

 

 

We decided to brave holiday traffic again this year and head down to St. Augustine for Labor Day weekend.  It was  super fun to be able to hang out all weekend with my Florida family. Xander's 'Florida cousin' enjoyed pushing him in the stroller too.

And of course the beach was fun as usual.

 

We ended up leaving a day earlier than planned because we also discovered that Xander HATES his pack-n-play and refused to sleep Friday and Saturday nights, and well, I was done. However, it ended up being a blessing in disguise because we had no traffic coming home. Even though he hates the pack-n-play, he didn't seem to mind his car seat all that much - whew! Our only meltdowns came when I would take something away....like this awesome red spoon.

Oh, and he did enjoy some light reading on the way home, which killed all of about 15 seconds of the 8 hour drive!

 

Another fun skill X has picked up...drinking out of a cup. He likes this cup, but his absolute favorite is drinking out of mom and dad's cups.

 

 

Simon and I celebrated our anniversary by stuffing our faces at dinner. I mean really, this one piece of chicken could feed a small village!

Other activities from the month included:

Consignment sale shopping... Luckily we have a fancy, big stroller that can handle all my '$3 steals' and X is a good sport about the whole situation.

 

 

 

A fun run in Downtown Davidson with his cousins. 

 

And the month's final activity included lots of trip to the photographer to get pictures like this one:

 

 

 

Yup, Xander will be a big brother in 2014....February. And yup, it's another boy, so luckily I get to keep all those '$3 steals' I've been finding around town!

So...it's been a while.

In looking back, it seems my last update was the middle of July! Well clearly a lot has happened since then.

We're back from a one-week stay in Canada. Xander did incredibly well on all our flights....sleeping through most of them. And being a "people person" (aka nosey), he also delighted the passengers around us by continually staring at them and smiling.

 

 

Canada was great. Xander's oldest cousin was in love with him, so it was fun to watch them play. Mamina has loads of good toys at her cottage, so I think he enjoyed having new stuff around him.

 

We've survived a mild case of hand, foot and mouth....not to be confused with hoof and mouth disease! Clearly, it just made Xander tired. Our non-napping child all of a sudden began taking 2-3 hour naps twice a day! However, he was definitely bored with mom and dad after a week of no daycare.....

 

 

 

...and became a little bit of a cranky pants for a couple of days...or maybe he didn't like the haircut mom gave him?

 

 

But after being back in school for a mere day, he was back to his normal self again.

He's totally mesmerized by this book. The very last page has a dragon king with a crown that lights up and plays music. I watch him with other books trying to find the singing, light-up page, and he just gets ticked off at them and starts whining. Then I show him this book, and all is well again. So note: don't give Xander any non-noise making, light-producing books in the future!

 

 

We also had his nine-month check up recently. All is well. His head made it back on the charts....down to the 94th percentile, and his height and weight were in the upper 80s (down from mid-90s), so it seems he is slowing down a bit. The doc recommended we start brushing his teeth...and given his parental dental gene pool, I figured we better take her advice. He seems to like the toothbrush, so let's hope that keeps up.

 

 

I start working from home Monday....my building at work is FINALLY getting remodeled, and I am super stoked. I'm hopeful that since people won't be able to see me every day, they won't be able to throw extra work at me and I can do cool stuff like keep up with this blog better. But most of all, I'm hopeful I can do things like laundry while I'm working. Yes, I aim high!

More on feeding the Big Guy

So now that Xander is 8 month old, he has expanded his delicate palate beyond just boring 'ole formula. It's been fun experimenting with food to see what he likes and watching his facial expressions when he tries something new. But in reality, he likes everything...I mean, have you seen his thighs? This boy doesn't say  no to much.

So much like the story here on what type of milk he ate, I decided to break even more "rules" and started attempting to feed him solids around 4 months. I suppose this is one rule that is changing more than the 'breastfeeding is a must' rule, but plenty of people would tell you that starting solids before 6 months will give your kid food allergies.

Whatever...I just decided to let Xander tell me if he wanted to eat some solids. In the beginning, he definitely said NO. I started with bananas, and he would just kinda sit there and look at me like - "you're crazy lady, where's my bottle?"

About 4.5 months, he would actually swallow some bananas, and around 5 months, he'd actively open his mouth for the next bite. To me, this showed me he was ready for solids. So around 5.5 months, I started trying other stuff....mostly the pouch baby foods from the store.

Around 6 months, my friend shared some of the homemade stuff she'd made for her son. She told me how simple (relatively speaking) it was, so I decided to give it a try myself. I've ended up really liking making Xander's food. Now, don't get me wrong, he still eats those pouches .... they're PERFECT for traveling or really eating anywhere  but your own house.

I started slowly....by doing simple stuff like mixing up a banana with avocado as seen here:

 

 

 Then I decided to get a little adventurous and made a baked pear/banana mix. Started off easy enough: peel and place fruit on baking tray:

 

Bake for 20-30 minutes until they look ooey gooey like this:

 



 

Then throw in food processor for your desired consistency. At the time, this was mine:

 

 

Now that he is 8 months and had several teeth, we've started giving him more whole (soft) foods to try - stuff with more texture. Last night, here's what happened with the avocado:

 

 

 

By the end of dinner, the entire tray was green.....as was his bib and face. A long bath promptly followed!

 

I've been using this site as my guide - anyone know of any other good ones?

Father's Day...and the rest of June

It's been a busy couple of weeks...keeping up with all the spots and stuff. After getting all that cleared up and back on a better sleep schedule,  I realized I missed an important holiday in June....Father's Day! I'm certainly not sure how single parents do it because I know I'd already have lost all my hair if Simon weren't around! To celebrate, we went to lunch and spent the day being lazy. 

 

 

At the end of the month, we hit the beach to visit with Nanny. On the way down, we picked up a cousin and visited with the others....we think they look more like siblings than cousins:

 

When we could tear him away from the sand (eating it), he did seem to enjoy the water.

 

 

And speaking of water....he STILL loves the bath...even when mom plays with his hair:

 

 

The very last weekend, we headed to Canada to visit Mamina and our other family there....more on that trip in a different post.

We're seeing spots

So the sixth month mark was a big mark for us.

First, we began to see the inking of teeth forming on Xander's bottom gumline, and then sure enough - the first one broke through...then the next one!

But I should back up....

Before the sighting of teeth, Xander had his first ear infection. It was right before his six month check up. I was acting all proud: "He's been in daycare for more than three months, and this is the first time we've had to see the doctor!" Haha...little did I know. On a positive note though - he was still the happy-go-lucky Xander we all know and love all during the infection. No complaints.

Then we had his six month check up. The doc said his ear looked "better" but not completely  healed so if he started acting up/differently to bring him back in. Well, hello, has she met him...he's not very good at letting on that he is in pain. Luckily she did mention that if his sleep starts acting up to bring him back in...because that's how we knew something was up. He went from waking up only once a night to waking up twice...and usually pretty miserable at that first wake up.

So back to the doctor...

Yup, this time it was a double ear infection. Great...I got all cocky with the first one, right!? Anywho - the doc prescribed a stronger medicine this time - Augmentin. All seemed to be going well until about day 5 into taking the new medicine....Simon brought him in looking like this:

Luckily I have a baby nurse as a sister and quickly texted her a photo to make sure this wasn't chicken pox. She said it looked more like a reaction...was he taking any medicine or had he eaten anything new/different? BINGO.

So Simon took him to the doctor, and sure enough - textbook penicillin reaction. Doc said it was 'normal' enough and to keep pumping him with Benadryl. So we did. When they looked like this the next day:

we called to ask how long we could give him the Bendryl. Doc said however long we wanted/needed.

So when he looked like this the next day, I called the doctor again....he humored my question and said the spots could be there for up to 10 days!!

But then he woke up the next day, and they were gone...and have been gone since.

It's been a fun week-and-a-half to two weeks in our house! Now we just have to get his sleep back on track! (and await the next tooth breakthrough!)

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!