5 months old today...Yay!

Xander is 5 months old today -- can you believe it!?! I honestly feel like the time has just flown by, but then I think about how much he's grown and developed in the last 5 months. Amazing! He's officially rolling over (I hhave video but can't upload it yet) and standing with assistance and can sit unsupported for about 45 seconds before he topples over and giggles in delight. So cute!

So...my personal laptop broke the other day. I'm so worried about all my pictures and financial records on the machine, but it's really just a charging issue (or lack thereof) rather than something being wong with the hard drive. So once I get it fixed, hopefully all will be well. Until then, posts may be more sporadic then before (although I've been very bad!) because I have to blog in the wee morning at work before others are in the office.

I know you want to just see pics...

Easter pics with Andrea at Botanical Garden last weekend. This is just a small sample -- real files are being delivered to me this week.


Mommy and Daddy played hooky last Friday afternoon and took little man to Old Town and ate lunch and walked near the water.



Enjoying his cereal and rocking the new monster hat...so cute!


Ready for music class with grandma and sporting the slightly too large clothes from Mini Boden.


With daddy after a bath (or maybe before). Notice the resemblance...


And, of course, his 5 month pics taken this morning...
Looking so sweet


And then nawing the foot of ellie the elephant when no one was looking...


Alright, that's all for now.

XOXO --
Vicky

No time like the present...20 Weeks!

...to catch y'all up on Xander. He is a happy baby. Plain and simple. The kid has the best smile and doughboy laugh. So cute!

He's getting so big, and he is doing so many new things since my last post. I'll work backwards...

Today...20 weeks old
We fed X cereal for the first time today. He only ate a few bites after his morning bottle, but it was pretty darn cute. I think he liked it (although Mike and I tried it and it tastes like paper). He's eating Happy Bellies organic brown rice cereal. I figure we'll give it a few days and then move on to veggies. First on the list -- sweet potatoes. I already bought the Beaba baby food maker since we plan on making all of his food rather than buying it. I'm so excited.






As of this past Tuesday, X can stand on his own if you just hold his little hands! Here he is standing on daddy's lap. I feel like it won't be too long before he says "look mom, no hands!"


I've also taken Xander to his first two museums. This past Sunday Tia Carmen and I took him to the Nat'l Gallery of Art. I think he liked it. :) Mom, Tia Carmen and I took him to the National Geographic Museum on his 4 month birthday to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. It was so cool, and Xander seemed to really be interested in the statues.




Speaking of his 4 months...here's his growth pic. Definitely out-sizing Mr. Elephant now! At his doc appt, he was weighing 15.5lbs (60th percentile) and 26.5 inches (90th percentile). Big boy!


It was just before he turned 4 months that he really started being able to enjoy his Bumbo seat. Proud moment.


His 3 month pics and the crazy February 2010 blizzards will definitely be updated and discussed in separate posts.

Oh, and other big news! Xander is going to school! We were accepted at the American Day School in Alexandria, which is only 1.5 miles from our home. The infant nursery is nice, but I'm especially excited that they have a true preschool program that he'll be able to grow into. He starts April 1st, so we'll definitely have his 1st day of school photos! ha ha! So I should mention this is slightly a big deal because (i) wait lists in DC/NOVA tend to be in the 12-18 month range. We're on two right now and were still considering a nanny for when my mom leaves in May. Well, then I heard about ADS and decided to tour the facility despite their 60 child waitlist for the infant nursery. Mike and I toured this past Thursday (yes, 2 days ago). The director as we were leaving mentioned that they had one opening right now (of their 28 spots)and were 2/3 of the way through their list and may be calling us sooner than we would have thought...well, Friday afternoon, sure enough. We're in! I think it's a true blessing. Apparently a lot of their list either weren't pregnant yet or were still pregnant or had found other arrangements. Our luck!!

Other than that...we're good. Busy, but good.

xoxo-
Vicky

Xander: 14 weeks old

Giggles...this kid giggles. Big belly giggles when you tickle him under his arms (even accidentally when changing his t-shirts). When I got home the other night he just started laughing when I walked in the front door and said "hello." A real, unquestionable laugh. And it made me cry...or at least tear up. :)

We took Xander to his first magic show this weekend. The Magic Dude was performing at Fireflies near our house. He was actually pretty good, and he even managed to hold Xander's attenion for a good bit of time. Xander has an amazing ability to focus and good long attention span. I hope that stays with him as he gets older.

I have found someone to be a mommy's helper on Mondays. A friend from church has a soon-to-be daughter-in-law. She seems great -- is very nice -- and is making it much easier for me to get work (or blogging) done on Mondays. Thanks, Julia. She'll only be with us til April though when her fiance gets home from Afghanistan, they get married and move away. Works perfect with our timing though since my mom will be leaving us at the end of April and Xander will -- hopefully -- be starting day care May 1st (if not a little before).

Xander is getting 2 formula bottles per day now and doing great. No serious issues to speak of, so I hope this continues. He started last Monday, so it's been one week. And I'm down to pumping only twice per day, which is AWESOME! Guessing he'll be on solely formula by his 4 mo birthday. Right now, it's 4 BM bottle and 2 Formula bottles per day.

xoxo
V

Xander: 13 Weeks Old

It's amazing how much Xander can change day to day. This week alone we've seen some serious milestones. His first real belly laugh -- melts a momma's heart!! -- and he has started actually playing with his toys. He grabs them and puts them in his mouth -- yum!

His first real laugh was during his bathtime on Monday. Can you say FISHY! The boy loves bathtime. Seriously. He just giggles and coos the whole time. Unfortunately, that means he is less than happy with us when it's time to come out of the water. I guess he doesn't realize that too much of a good thing leads to pruney, old man looking skin. He screams and screams until he's all dry and warm in his 'jammies. Of course, that has me thinking part of the problem is that he's cold after leaving the warm water, but we try to keep him wrapped in the big fluffy towel, so who knows... such a cutie.

We took his 3 month photos today with Andrea. He did so good! I can't wait to see them. We also went to Gymboree today with daddy. He really enjoys it and is meeting lots of new friends like Patrick and Kenya. I've realized though that while I see these people twice per week, I have no idea what the moms' names are in class...just the babies. Mike compares it to the dog park where you know the dogs but not the owners. So sad. I'm making it a point this coming week to actually trade names with the moms...I can't be the only one lacking in that department!

This was a good week. We were all fighting colds, but Xander has come out like a champ with just a little bit of sneezing and coughing. Not even that fussy - yay!

We've still just been sampling formulas here and there to see if he likes the taste or reacts poorly to it. Looks like we'll probably use Similac Advanced (Early Shield) once the time comes to use formula on a regular basis. Guessing that will be at least a few more weeks.

Well, as Xander and daddy are working on going to bed...it's already 8:30pm here and we have church tomorrow, momma is relaxing with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

xoxo-
V

Xander: 12 weeks old!

Well, we've made it to 12 weeks and Xander is absolutely thriving. He is getting bigger everyday and is constantly amazing me with his new milestones. He's started holding on to objects now and putting things in his mouth. It's pretty cute!

Big thing today - formula! We just tried our first 4oz of formula and, what do you know, the little guy didn't bat an eye! He went straight from the formula to an extra oz of breastmilk too, so despite the awful smell (at least I think it smells awful!), he apparently can't tell the difference (or doesn't care). Yay! This makes me feel so much better about attempting to kill my supply and transition him to formula. It's going to take several weeks, I think, for my supply to totally diminish and then I still have about 500+oz frozen in the deep freezer that we'll need to get through, but we're on our way and I'm excited! And a bit sad. But excited! I wish I hadn't had so many issues with infections, etc. because my supply is obviously not a problem, and I would love to keep going to 6 months if it wasn't so painful. Bah...

Gymboree...this is week 3. Today we're doing a foot print project. Should be fun to compare his foot size to the one taken in the hospital when he was born.

Pics to come.

xoxo -
V

Xander: Weeks 10 and 11

Sorry for the lack of posting. Where does time go!?!

Week 10 was Xander's first trip to Gymboree. We now go on Mondays and Saturdays, and he seems to reallyu enjoy it. It's brightly colored, the teacher has a nice loud voice and there are lots of other babies to stare at lovingly and coo with. Who wouldn't be happy! :) We're taking the Saturday class with Sean and Matthew too, so it's nice to see how everyone has grown each week.

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Xander also started music class on Thursdays with Grandma Terri. Music Together seems like a great program but Xander fell asleep right in the middle of his first class. This was totally excused since he is BY FAR the youngest participant (age range is 3 mo to 2 years), but we couldn't help but laugh. Apparently this child can sleep through anything.

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Only a few weeks after Christmas, we finally exchanged Christmas presents with Matthew and Sean too. These pics are clearly different than the Halloween ones...everyone is getting so big!

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Wonderful new product...the Woombie! This thing is the best swaddle yet because he can not pull an "Incredible Hulk" and bust out of it. So that means no hitting himself in the head and waking up crying. I think it's saving us. That being said, he can bring his hands up to his face higher than in other swaddles and every morning at around 4-5am X starts looking to put something in his mouth. We catch him sucking on his hands though the Woombie in the monitor. This is obviously tough to do, so he gets a bit agitated in his sleep. If I get in there before he's actually awake and stick the popper in then we can sleep til about 6 or 6:30 which is heaven now. Yay!

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Momma promises to be better about posting. Especially now that we have the video camera which is AWESOME!

xoxo
V

Happy New Year!

We woke up on New Year's Day and had Pajama Brunch at Firefly with our friends (John and Jill and Mike and Stephanie) and my mom. Xander slept through the whole brunch. Guess he didn't like the idea of $1 bloody marys and free coffee.

New Year's Day Xander slept til 7:30am. Thought it was a fluke since Aunt Carmen and Grandma Terri kept him up (albeit asleep on their laps) until after midnight while we were across the street, but nope. He's still sleeping lots and going up to 11 hours between bottle now at night.

Yay!