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

Eight is GREAT!

Okay, so perhaps yesterday's excitement was a bit premature because, ladies & gentleman, our little man just woke up after 8 (yes, 8) hours between feedings! 8:30pm and 4:30pm -- count it! :) And the nice thing is that last night he was actually asleep by about 9pm and we were actually asleep by about 10pm (darn pumping), which means we've gotten 6.5 hours of sleep. So exciting!

Here's a pic from this morning. Still with oily hair, so we'd just attempted to wash it for the 4th time in 2 days! Lesson learned -- do not use Aquafor on baby hair!! Seriously.




xoxo-
V

Seven is HEAVEN!

Xander went 7 whole hours between feedings last night. That's a record! He had a bottle at 8:30pm and didn't wake up for his next one until 3:30pm. Now the caveat, he didn't actually go to bed until about 9:30pm. We're still working on that one. But we're so close to sleeping through the night that I just had to shine attention on our little man.

Now if I could just go without having to pump in the middle of the night -- that would be awesome! But at least the end is in sight for my mom and Mike having to wake up.

Here's a pic of Xander from his day with Grandma yesterday. She has the cute lil' hat from tia carmen on him because we are working on getting rid of his cradle cap and I think he had olive oil on his head. Yum!



xoxo -

Vicky

Xander: Week 9

X turned 9 weeks on the 26th. It was sort of overshadowed by turning 2 months on Christmas Eve and Christmas itself, so no pics. Whoops!! :)

xoxo-
V

2 Months Old

Xander is 2 months old today! He is getting so big! It's so strange to think about how he's grown over the last 2 months. His newborn clothes are now put away and we were actually buying 6 month clothes this week to get him through the winter.

He has become such a funny, peaceful baby. That's not to say he doesn't cry because my child is impatient and doesn't think twice about letting you know when he's hungry or needs his diaper changed. Surprise, surprise. :) But he can spend large amounts of time just staring in the mirror on his play mat or in his swing or talking to the lil' bears on his swing. He also has full conversations with the animals on his crib bumper or the giraffe that makes his white noise. So cute!

I am so excited for his first Christmas tomorrow. I know he'll have no idea what's going on or that he even has new toys, but I can't wait to let him use his presents from momma & daddy and Santa. I'll tell you more about them on the Christmas post.

xoxo --
V

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow & 8 weeks old!

I obviously have been slacking the last week on posting. Saturday (when X turned 8 weeks old) was a massive snow storm here in DC resulting in 16 inches on the ground by the end of the day. You'd think this would be conducive to blogging, but instead I spent the time indoors with Mike and Xander and watched movies all day. So relaxing! :) Look at the snow! And my lazy men! :)




Two notable things from week 8 were Xander's 2 month doc appt (on 18th) and 1st set of shots and his 1st Christmas ornament (on 19th) from Grandma Terri.

Doc appt was great until the shots. X is growing well and is measuring in at 23.5 inches and 11lb 12oz. Both of those put him in the 60th percentile. Not bad! He got a series of vaccines in 2 shots and one oral med. Oral - easy, shots - not so much. The reaction was priceless. I didn't think X could get so red or cry so loud. Poor lil' guy! Thankfully, momma had a bottle for him so he got to quickly forget about the pain and concentrate on milky. :)

We were joking prior to the appt that Xander knew what was coming and was hiding his eyes from the reality. When we pulled into the doc parking lot, this is how we found him in the back seat (below). Whoops! Funny thing is, he was as calm as can be and we had no idea! Again, whoops!



My mom is going to give Xander the Reed & Barton holly bell ornament each year. The single 2009 bell is so beautiful, and I can only imagine a whole tree of them being so amazing. He'll be able to take all of these and start his own Christmas tree someday.



Into Xander's 9th week...

On Sunday (20th), we went to a holiday party at our friend John and Jill's house. Xander wore his winter sweater and looked quite festive!



This week has also brought a new infection for me, and I feel like crap. I'm back to having a fever and fighting the infection with antibiotics. Boo! I'm trying to ignore it though because I hate the idea of begin sick on Xander's first Christmas. So I'm going to push through and make sure that we properly acknowledge X turning 2 months old today -- Christmas Eve. And then we're going to go to church and dinner at Monroe's down the street from our house.

xoxo-
Vicky

Xander: 7 weeks

Xander was 7 weeks old on December 12th. The pic above is the only one I took that day. Perhaps it shows off how long he is getting! :)

It was the end of a long, fun week with Grandma since both Mike and I are now back at work. I am so grateful that my mom is here watching him everyday. But I cherish the weekends and Mondays when I get to "work from home".

Sunday (6th) we had a nice relaxing day and then had some friends over for dinner of pizza and football. Their idea -- so nice of them (john and jill and scott and joanne). Xander dressed like a lil' monkey for the day to show off his sense of style for our guests. He also showed off his monkey toes! :)



Look how small his feet look in daddy's hands:


Monday (7th), Xander had a bit of a milestone. He was actually tracking Mortimer the moose from left to right while he was laying in his crib and I was holding the moose above his head. It's amazing to watch him focus so much more now and even smile! Monday was the doc appt for his diaper rash. Thankfully, not yeast! I have to say having now suffered with this yeast infection for well over a month in my nipples -- it's not fun!!

On Tuesday (8th) with Grandma Terri, Xander decided to be a supporter of the Animal Rescue of El Paso with his shirt that Grandma Letty and Grandpa Tony gave him when they visited over Thanksgiving. Xander loves his big bro Oscar, so I'm sure he's going to love all animals as he gets older. Hopefully no allergies!

Also on Tues night, we made an increase to 5 oz at night feedings. He's getting big!

Tuesday night to Wednesday morning we had our longest sleep yet - he slept 5.5 hours straight -- Wow!**Disclaimer -- within a couple of days we were back to 4oz per feeding and only occasionally 5oz at night but he's still sleeping 5-6 hour stretches! Yay**

On Wednesday (9th), Xander and Grandma took their first driving trip to Target.

On Friday (11th), we all went to the Living Christmas Tree at Church. Xander stayed in daycare (his first time away from family!) and did great while Mom, Mike and I watched the performance. It was nice -- slightly cheesy, but nice. Xander was dressed appropriately "festive" and here's also a family pic to start off the holiday season:





This week Xander also started discovering his thumbs and trying to put them in his mouth. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work very well, but it's soooo cute to watch! Yet another "milestone", I think. Isn't everything a milestone at this young age!?! :) Momma couldn't help but capture this pic (and a whole mess of others) of X on Friday night after the concert as we were getting ready for bed.



Anyway, that's Week 7. :)

xoxo-
Vicky

Our Big Boy!

So just a quick update because I had to take Xander to the doc on Monday. All is well -- just a diaper rash that I feared was yeast, but, alas, it's not -- but I wanted to let everyone know how big our little boy is getting. At 6 weeks, 2 days, Xander is weighing in at 11 lbs, 2oz. And he's so strong (turtle time is helping!) and definitely focusing a lot more and SMILING! I swear he was flirting with the female doc. I think she doubted whether he really smiled or not when I told her until she witnesses it for herself. She said it was great for 6 weeks -- he's been doing it for about a week now!

xoxo-
V

Xander: Week 6

6 weeks on December 5th!


oh no!

and then...

fast asleep!

Well, week 6 brought with it a lot of changes. For one, I'm back at work and my mom is watching Xander everyday Tuesday - Friday. I miss him so much during the day, but my mom has been wonderful by sending me pics via email and taking such good care of our lil' guy. I think he's perfectly happy. In fact as I was getting ready to leave the first day, X first seemed uninterested and then fell asleep before I could even walk out the door! ha ha! Grandma must be spoiling him!


Bye mom!

So, we discovered a talent of Xander's this week. He can fall asleep "standing up" or rather being held up. After countless attempts to settle him for at least an hour the other night, this is how he finally went out:


If you haven't seen Oscar around Xander then it's hard to appreciate how much he truly loves the little guy and "protects" him. Oscar follows his little bro around most of the time and stands guard. Thankfully, he is not aggressively protective although we've had one incidence of humping in an attempt to show dominance over the person holding Xander (sorry, John!). Anyway, Oscar can be found anywhere X is...

Case in point, the play mat. Xander gets his daily play time and tummy (or "turtle" as my mom calls it) time on his mat each day, and Oscar stands guard so no one disturbs this play.


A few close-ups of play time just because I can't resist:




And during bath time, have no fear because big brother is always there...


to make sure that daddy is keeping Xander warm...


and washing behind Xander's ears...


And when the bath is done and it's meal time, Oscar makes sure that no one disturbs Xander's meal so that he grows up to be a strong, healthy little boy. :)


Xander's 6 week birthday is also the 1st day of snowfall in DC for 2009. We were in Annapolis in the morning for a change of command. This year, the goal was just to keep Xander warm. Next year, we will not only be keeping him warm but hoping there is enough to make snow angels, as well.


One last pic of Xander and mommy, just because (all the other pics totally have daddy in them!).


xoxo
V

Xander: Week 5

5 weeks old on November 28th.

I feel like we had a very active week with X turning one month old and all of our family in town for Thanksgiving. So not much to update in addition to those two big milestones/events. As mentioned, Mike's grandparents did come into town to meet their 1st great grandchild and celebrate the holiday with us. Here are a couple of pics:





Wish us luck for the week to come. I start back to work on Monday and am both looking forward to it and dreading having to leave my little man all day. But I know he's in good hands with my mom, so I'm just praying it's not too difficult.

xoxo -

V

Happy Birthday!

Xander is one month old today! Happy One Month Birthday, baby bear! You are getting so big. :)



His uncle Jason is also having a milestone birthday today -- his 40th! Yikes! Happy Birthday, Jason! :)

On Sunday (22nd), we also celebrated Tia Carmen's birthday. Happy Birthday, Tia Carmen!



xoxo -
Vicky

Xander: Week 4

Week 4 (Nov 21st)-- almost one month old -- wow!

Last Sunday (15th), Xander went to his first bonfire with mommy and daddy at their friend's (John and Jill) house. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. I know that Xander is going to just love camping out and making smores when he gets older. We kept him warm for now in his teddy bear jumper. With mommy and daddy:



On Monday (16th), grandma Terri dressed Xander all by herself and made him look quite spiffy in his Uggs (courtesy of cousin Isabel). A bit Erkel-ish, but very cute. Do you like them? :)



On Thursday (19th), grandma Terri bought Xander a new hat. Isn't it cute? Perfect for momma's "baby bear".



He also spent lots of time with big brother, Oscar. Oscar just adores X. They're going to be the best of friends when X is older.



On Friday (20th), Xander got to meet Grandpa Tony. My dad arrived on Friday for Thanksgiving week. Grandma Letty was supposed to come as well, but she had to stay home to take care of Zeke, the doggie. Zeke, unfortunately, passed away on Sunday (Nov 22nd) and Letty will be arriving on Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and meet Xander. Rest in peace, Zeke.

Grandpa and X got to spend lots of time together playing and napping...


Other thoughts:

Our lil' guy is becoming so much more alert this week. It's amazing to watch his eyes focus and wonder what he's thinking about or, in some cases, staring at...lights, reflections, contrasts.

I think Kate jinxed us. On Tuesday, Xander and I went to lunch with her and Matthew and she mentioned that he didn't have any baby acne. Basically, red bumps caused by my hormones working themselves through his little body. At the time, he didn't! Well, wouldn't you know that when we woke up on Wed. morning he had it! Seriously. Grr...It comes and goes, but seems not to hurt or bother him despite how it looks. Oh well! Should be gone soon.

Xander is in size 1 diapers this week. You may ask, "weren't you using cloth diapers?" and the answer is "yes"...BUT the disposible are sooo easy that they slowly became our "go to" at night and now even during the day. His newborn cloth diapers leave a heavy imprint on his little booty, so it makes us not want to use them. When we go up in size, I am going to try and move back into cloth. We hadn't bought the next sizes yet in cloth, so we have some time to figure out what we want to do.

xoxo -

Vicky