Lots more firsts

Yesterday, Xan showed a clear preference for dad. Bill walked in, Xan smiled, he walked away, Xan started crying, then when he came back he held his arms up to be picked up for the first time.

Today, he lifted his arms and took two hand steps forward while up on all fours. He had pedaled his feet and once or twice lifted a hand, but always flopped onto his belly to drag himself forward.

His coup de grace was pushing himself from his stomach up to sitting.

We got an awesome new camera from Dad and Cyndi for Christmas and are catching a bunch of this on camera, but we'll have to wait until we get back to download them.

Xanta Clause!

Status

Hanging out in Concord, and headed to YC tomorrow! Family holiday time is awesome. The only bummer is that I have a sore throat and Xan is starting to cough.

Kids Music

I recently checked out a bunch of CDs* of children's music from the library**, among them Newborn, by Sara Hickman. The songs are uniformly sweet and lovely, if a bit heavy on the god references for me. One song in particular resonated so strongly with me that I couldn't get through it without sobbing over how much I loved Xan - and it wasn't even really that kind of a song. Hormones, I guess. I thought the roller coaster had leveled out lately, but occasionally I get thrown on it again unexpectedly.

Anyway, the song - A Slice of Heaven - is wonderful, and you should go listen to a clip of it. (You have to scroll down to the lyrics.) GO. Really.

Listened? Great. Remember that "little angel rockin' in your rocking chair" part? I tried playing the song over the phone to Bill, and the poor sound quality made him think it was "little enchilada in your rocking chair".

*The other ones I got were
No! - They Might Be Giants
Here Come the ABCs - They Might Be Giants
Toddler - Sara Hickman
Meltdown - Justin Roberts

I haven't had a chance to listen to them yet, but I'll let you know if I love anything.

**This a great way to try music you've heard of but aren't ready to buy yet. Our library is connected to many others in this part of the state, so you can look up the catalog of all the libraries online and request a book or CD from home. They'll deliver to your local library - one block away in our case - and you can keep an item for three weeks, or for several months if you renew it, also online.

Our friends bring the funny

"So did you like Marissa and her husband?"

"Yeah, they seemed cool. They both have a good sense of humor."

"I know, anyone who jokes about beating their kid is OK in my book."

Bubbles!

Yes, those bubbles have landed on his head, butt, and the floor and haven't popped. They're a special long-lasting kind that Seth has. Xander had a lot of fun learning clapping from Seth, who is the senior clapper, with an extra week's experience. His mom Lauren put all the pics of Xan and Seth (mostly Xan) that I stuffed her camera with here.


We also browsed Seth's library, which includes First Book of Sushi, a super fun board book. Check out the cute:

Daddy Chic

Royal blue and lemon yellow socks with black and red bugs
Red, orange, and pink legwarmers
Navy blue sweats
Pastel yellow shirt with green apples
Multi light blue striped hoodie
Army green and orange jacket
Black and white hat

You can tell who dressed Xan this morning.

Shake, shake, shake

Yesterday at the seniors-babies playgroup, Xander discovered maracas. He happily played with one for more than an hour.

Along with his musical abilities, his scooting is growing by leaps and bounds - not quite literally, but close. Aided by the smooth surface of the counter at yoga, he pulls himself along 6 or 8 inches at a time, and can rush down the length of the counter after my hairclip in no time.

Locomotion update: he is changing so fast! This afternoon he's much better than even this morning. He started off the day dragging himself along on his stomach, his legs dead weight behind him, like he was on a battlefield and had just been shot in the spine. Now he's much more like an inchworm, but less organized. Different parts of his body lift of the ground, almost randomly, and it somehow results in him moving forward. He'll go ten feet or more to reach a toy.

There needs to be a quota system

After changing his FOURTH poopy diaper this morning:

"That's it, no more pooping, you've reached your limit. More importantly, I've reached my limit."

This photo was taken yesterday at playgroup, a much happier morning with progress, not poop. He clapped for the fist time and used his hands to drag himself forward very slowly, less than an inch at a time. Yay for friends* with cameras.

*(Isn't Seth's giraffe awesome? It is hilarious watching him chomp on it.)

T-shirts galore

Enough of this kid stuff, THREADLESS IS HAVING A SALE! Ahem, sorry for shouting, I'm a bit excited. What is Threadless? Only the maker of the most awesome shirts ever - there are a ton of them on my wishlist. And at $10 a pop, I think even I can splurge for a shirt or two, as I haven't bought myself any new clothes in more than a year and a half.

Overwhelmed by their insane selection? These are some of the best:
doodlebug
rocket bird
strangers with candy
frida's garden
99 luftballoons
wanna dance
strange birds
lonesome george looks for a wife
goodbye my hopes and dreams
mama's boy
loch ness imposter
pillow fight
blow with the wind
till death do us part
this is how the world ends
technology ruins nature
barf trip
get some fresh air
midnight snack
acute invasion
city lights
stone jungle
the communist party
day of reckoning

Yep, it's a long list. That's how awesome they are.

Bill is much harder to please. He would only wear this one:
infinity mpg

Updated to add: because of Laura's comment, I just noticed that the sale ends tomorrow, Tuesday Thursday, Dec 14. So if you want a cool shirt for cheap, you better move quickly. And if you go to the site through any of these links and buy a shirt, I get points to buy shirts of my own.

Chistmas Spirit

On a more cheery note, check out these elf slippers for toddlers and kids. Normally I'm pretty scroogey, but these made me smile.

No more pictures

We've been burgled. While I was out today, someone broke into our apartment and, among other things, took our digital camera. We're fine, and not too much else of great worth seems to be gone, except a statement for a credit card, which we canceled. Mostly it was just really stressful and freaked me out to come home to a door with the lock busted open. For the blog it means no more pictures or videos for an indeterminate time. We'll have to rely on the rest of the family for Christmas photos.

UPDATE: we found the credit card statement, turns out is was misplaced, not stolen. But a locked filing cabinet and motion sensors to control our lights have suddenly been added to our Christmas list.

Yay! But right now?

Xan started very carefully picking up tiny objects between his index finger and thumb this morning. Possibly not the best timing, as I had several moms and a token dad over for game night last night and there are snack crumbs on the floor. He couldn't wait until I vacuumed to learn to do that?

Look Alikes

Nonnie crocheted Bill and Xan matching hats!

Teething

Xan is finally teething and it's affecting his sleep, as in waking up at least every 90 minutes affecting his sleep. He's also a lot more needy during the day and it's making for one grumpy household.

At first I thought the bad sleep might be due to his flu shot last Thursday, because that's when the waking at night go so intensely bad, but I realized that it had been worse than usual for about a week, and I felt a bump on his gum on Friday, so now I'm leaning toward the teething hypothesis. This morning Bill confirmed that the bump wasn't just my imagination: bottom left tooth, coming up.

Nooooo!

I found out this week that the Boston Children's Museum will be closing in January for a few months to undergo renovations. Winter is the worst time to close, because that is when parents buy memberships so they have someplace to go to get out of the house when they are stir crazy. A membership was even on our Christmas list. I guess we'll change that to the Museum of Science or the Aquarium.

Xan in San Fran

One of the days Bill was attending talks, we took a long walk through the most touristy parts of the city: union square, chinatown, north beach, pier 39, fishermans' wharf, Ghiradelli Square, the marina.

It is december and i am hot. This is very odd.

Reconnected

My new phone finally came (same number as before), so I can call people again. Except I keep thinking of calling people, then remembering that their numbers are back at home. Entering all of them is going to be a big pain - I think there is going to be a cut.

This picture was taken with the new phone. Isn't this alphabet puzzle awesome? Bill's mom found it for him.

Movie Star Update

Xan's cast bio is up at the Flirting with Disaster website.

New Stuff

He's been pulling himself up to standing while we hold his hand for quite a while now, but today was the first time when I held out my fingers, he reached out and grabbed them, then pulled himself up. Woohoo!

Plus, we got our stroller this weekend!

First Thanksgiving

Of course, all he got was plain oatmeal.

Little Yogi

I left my cell phone in San Francisco

If only it had just been my heart; at least that way I would still have my address book. Please send me your phone numbers. I have none of them memorized since who needs memorization when you can just program them in your phone?

If you're a local mom and gave me your email in the last month, I'll need that too, since I hadn't gotten around to adding the last batch to my distribution list. Including your kidlet's name and birthday will help me remember which Laura you are. If you got the first round of emails about River Gods/Tavern, then I do have your email.

Woohoo

I woke up to this staring at me from the computer

1) Water plants
2) Lock windows
3) Set up light timer
4) Get laundry
5) Do dishes
6) Pack up blue laptop and accessories
7) Pack suit and tie
8) Pack cell chargers
9) Pack breast pump and food grinder
10) Pack travel docs + birth certif.

The laundry and dishes are particularly mountainous. Should be a fun, fun day. At least we'll be in San Francisco at the end of it - and the trip will include Grace, Bill's parents, and Steph. AIChE will be there, hence so will we, until Thursday, when we jet off to Tampa Bay to catch up with APS.

Random (or at least unexpected) act of kindness

A huge THANK YOU!! to Amy for the surprise gift card to Magic Beans that showed up in the mail today, to give a little assist towards a stroller purchase. As is so often the case, those with the least resources are the most generous. Wow, thanks a bunch, that was incredibly nice of you.

Xan love lentils

We started him on lentils yesterday and they were a big hit. He was chasing down the spoon. That actually made it harder to feed him, because he kept trying to put his tongue on top of the spoon into the lentils, which just pushed them off onto his lap. He did eventually managed to scarf down a bunch, however. The hardest part is that it takes two of us to feed him: one holding him in a lap or on the table and the other wielding the spoon.

Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath

I finally graduated from the infant bathtub to the grown up bathtub!

Urban babies breast feed

Awesome illustrations here and here. Full site here.

On a more sarcastic note, we're in the middle of childproofing, so this made me laugh.

Thanks, Rachel!

Xan got a great pair of socks from our friend Rachel. They're handknitted from a cashmere/merino wool blend so they're super soft. I don't have socks this luxe. With the rich red color and slightly pointy toes, he almost looks like a xmas elf.

Trapped

I'm stuck in the house because it's raining and I don't have a stroller with a rain cover. Normally I'd just put him in the carrier and use an umbrella, but the straps go right over my stitches. I was hoping to get to the clothing exchange. They just put out the winter stuff and I need to get him a coat before they're all gone, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Biopsy

I got a pea-sized chunk of flesh gouged out of my shoulder this afternoon. I wanted to take a picture of the stitched-up wound, but bill was less than cooperative. (Leave it alone until you're supposed to take the bandage off, blah, blah, blah, infection, blah.) I'll have to leave the gross medical pictures for tomorrow.

Bill is obsessed

If we don't get him some alphabet blocks in San Francisco, I'm going to go crazy. They have to be the best ones ever.

Don't you think he's a bit young for alphabet blocks?

No! It's the only way he can communicate with us. He can spell out messages.

You could teach him semaphore.

No, that's stupid. He needs them now. NOOOOWW!

---

We found these really cool math blocks, but so far no alphabet blocks to Bill's exacting standards. That is, embossed (not just painted) on all or most sides, colorful on all sides, with a large and small versions of the letter on the same block, and no random pictures. The pictures must relate to the letter. If it combines numbers and math with letters, there must be an equal sign (=), or else you can't make equations and that is just no good. The embossed/engraved standard is the most important to him and the hardest to find. Modern design is a huge plus, with vintage being an OK second.

Improvement

Fortunately, I am not feeling nearly so bad as this morning. Still tired and a tad headachy, but I can deal. Good thing, too, since I have a couple of things that have to get done today - voting on my walk home and a dermatologist appointment this afternoon to get a biopsy of a mole on my shoulder biopsied and another on my back removed.

Ugggh

It's going to be a long morning at the yoga studio this morning. The one class that took place during my shift has been cancelled, so I'm not likely to see anyone except the couple of people who sign in for the gym upstairs. To add an extra element of suck to the boredom, I feel lousy. I'm exhausted from Xander's recent non-sleep schedule - up at midnight, 2am for feedings them up for good at 4am for about a week now - and I've got a stomach ache, a headache, and generally feel achy all over, especially my legs and back. Have you ever had your muscles feel queasy? That's the best way I can describe it. I'm not sure if it's because I'm tired or if I'm coming down with something. Bill feels bleh, too, but has a different symptom: a raw throat.

Xander Trivia

He prefers his food warm. Two feedings ago, we heated up his split peas a bit more than normal, and he finally lapped them up, instead of leaving his mouth half open with a "what the hell is thith?" look on his face. Yesterday, we gave him room temp peas and the look returned. We heated some more, and he once again ate like a champ. That led to a giant poop in the potty this morning, so there's some progress on that front as well. (He's been using his BabyBjorn little potty in the mornings for a couple of weeks now, but only poops on it intermittently.)

Yesterday Bill noticed he started making a new noise. His mouth is closed and it sounds like he's swishing around mouthwash. Really cute and odd.

Mooommmm! I'm trying to crawl here!

Updated to add: to answer a question in the comments, the red spot on on his lower back is all his butt hair! He has a hairier butt than his dad. I almost made note of it in the original post, but then thought no one would see what I was talking about. Guess I was wrong.

Hating my Diaper Bag

I have a very cute diaper bag that has served me well for the past six months. It's water resistant, not at all heavy, and rather attractive. I've actually gotten several compliments on my "cute purse". The design, a light tote with several pockets, is easy to pack full or leave lightweight. So far, so good. It's main drawback is that it has to be carried on one shoulder. In the summer with the Bjorn, it was no problem. Then I got the Ergo, which has nice comfy padded straps that distribute Xan's weight much more nicely than the Bjorn, but don't leave much extra shoulder room for other items. Today I added a wool coat to the mix and forget it. The diaper bag just would not stay on my shoulder. I readjusted and hiked and readjusted, but it wasn't having it. No way it was sharing me with the Ergo and my coat. If it couldn't have my shoulder to itself it didn't want it.

I'm not giving up the Ergo (a stroller doesn't look like it's in our near future, anyway) so I'm going to have to look into other bags. Maybe the Essentials bag from the J.J. Cole collection, highly recommended by one of the moms at Wednesday's senior-baby hour. The other option is a backpack style, but I'm starting to wear Xan on my back more, and I don't want to carry that across my chest. I seem to remember someone saying Ergo made an attachable bag, let me check. Yes, they do.

Yoga at 37 Weeks Pregnant

Speaking of yoga, here's a tabblo of the yoga pictures Christine Hochkeppel took for the Cambridge Chronicle article.

See my Tabblo>

Go me!

I got my belly all the way to the floor in seated wide-angle forward bend this week! Plus, I got into crane, firefly, side crow, and almost into the weird legs in the air arm balance poses I can never remember the names of. I'm returning to normal.

Close ups

Jiandi took these when we went to the arboretum.

Not all developmental milestones are fun

He now objects if you take a toy away. If by objects you mean "has a complete meltdown".

Speaking of un-fun, I'm trying to teach Xan that Biters Don't Get Boob, but he's completely unintimidated by my angry voice.

Expanded receptionist time

Xan's sleeping on my chest, while I'm at our second receptionist shift at yoga. We're now doing 10am-2pm on Thursdays for my membership, in addition to 6am-10am Tuesdays for Bill's. Good thing too, because the second half of my membership fee was due and that's a few hundred dollars that can stay in our savings account.

Trickster

No one believes me when I tell them he's having a grumpy day, because he's invariably smiling at them when I do so. He's all fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss, see new person, BEAM!

He's like the dancing frog, only with whining instead of dancing.

More Gross

This whole dealing with human waste thing sucks. There should be extra biohazard pay. I knew that his poops were going to get worse once he started eating food, but I didn't realize his pee would start stinking. I've thought he had a poopy diaper several times and opened it to realize, nope, it's just his rank pee.

He loves his spider

Nonnie got it for him at the Red Rock Canyon gift shop.

Slowly but surely

The hair is creeping back.

Expanding his repetoire: split peas

Easy to make - see the food blog.

Yet More Stroller Talk

The good news is that we finally decided on a stroller. The bad news is that it's $379. Ouch. A few friends own the Phil and Teds E3, and after test driving it, we decided we want to, too. It's surprisingly light and maneuverable and I can bump it up and down steps no problem. It even converts to a double, should we decide to have another one.

I've been scanning craigslist daily, but so far all the posts about E3s are want ads - not a great sign. One other option for getting a (slightly) cheaper stroller is Returns for Sale. They've got strollers and other baby items that have been returned, like this E3 that is going for $294 at the moment. It's a little scuffed, but who cares.

Gross

Not being an owner, I never realized how hard it was to clean poop off of a super wrinkly scrot.

No go

We tried putting him in a pumpkin, but this was as far as we got before he felt how cold it was and flipped out.

Don't sit on me!

This cup is hilarious! No, wait it sucks

This was the first time I've seen him playing by himself and giggling.

Physicists gone wild

You know it's a crazy party when equations start showing up on pumpkins.

Thank you, Xander

For the first time in almost two months, he slept through the night, a full eight hours! It was totally out of the blue he hadn't been sleeping more than three or four at a time lately. I even managed to stay asleep the whole time, too. It might not happen again for a while, but at least I got one night.

Octopus with tie-dye socks

Thanks Grace!

Mmm, avocados

He has now officially ingested something other than breastmilk. Now we wait for the poop.

We have acheived lift off

He just lifted his bottom in the air, while he was pushed up on his arms, so his whole torso was off the ground! We have butt-liftage!

Moms at the pub

I organized a moms' afternoon at a local tavern and it was a lot of fun! There were over 80 invitees, but fortunately about 10 or 12 showed up, which was a great number. I made sure to bring my camera, and then of course forgot to take any pictures. Next time. There will definitely be a next time, hopefully several, some with babies and some without to accommodate both working and stay at home mamas. We're also going to get together for game night and Marissa might organize a dance night (awesome!). If you're local and would like to be included, send me your email and I'll stick you on the list.

A huge thank you to the staff at Tavern, who were not only completely gracious, but seemed excited to have a gaggle of noisy babes and babies.

I forgot to add: Xan started blowing raspberries with his bottom lip out for the first time while we were there. Previously, he has always stuck his lower lip in his mouth and blown bubbles down his chin.

Bird by Bird

There's a new children's clothing shop in Inman Square. My friend Marissa walked by it and thought, "You know who would like this? Emily." And she was totally right. Bird by bird is independent (yay), moderately priced (not cheap, but not celebrity boutique either),and best of all, has insanely cute stuff. Check out some of my faves.






They don't have a web presence yet, but I'm told it's in the works. In the meantime, you can order by phone, even gift certificates. You can see more pics here.

Bird by Bird
Urban Boutique
617.497.1361
1361 Cambridge St
Inman Square
Cambridge, MA 02139

The goat is not impressed

We got this book at our pediatrician's office and I had the giggles through part of the visit. It's Brian Wildsmith's Farm Animals. Our copy is only in English, but I couldn't find that version on Amazon, so the link is for the English/Spanish edition.

Fading

It's a little hard to see, but the patches toward the middle that look brighter red are not brighter due to an artifact of the picture. The new hair on the sides is actually a little less red.

Xan chewing his cud

I have no idea what this is about. It started this morning. It was while I was eating breakfast, so maybe imitation? Though I'd hate to think that's what he thinks I look like. Or he could be teething and chewing on his tongue for relief.

Jump, jump

He really digs his Johnny Jump Up, which is fabulous because it means I get to shower almost every day now.

Oddities

Xan has taken to punching himself in teh side of the head while he nurses. Thud. Thud. Thud. There's a little beat to feeding time now.

He also emits these delicate little coughs several times a day. My theory is that since he's started swallowing some of his drool, that he doesn't always get it down the right pipe once he gets it to the back of his mouth.

6 months old

He started his half year birthday early at 5am, with his first slight fever (102). I had just attended a winter health talk by a pediatrician last night, where it was said several times that fever in and of itself doesn't mean much and isn't serious, what's more important is how he acts. You treat the fever just to keep him comfortable. He's fairly content, just not all that into going back to sleep, so I gave him some baby tylenol. It's not his favorite. He got a What the Hell? look on his face and refused to close his mouth around the dropper, which is the first time he's failed to clamp down on anything put in there. He did eventually swallow it all, though. So the fever's probably because of the vaccinations yesterday, plus the flu shot they tagged on, and I'm not too worried.

Little Trooper

He handled his shots (four needles!) at his 6-month visit today better than ever, contrary to my expectation that he'd cry longer since he's more aware of his surroundings. He turned beet red and let out a few screams while they were sticking him, but within a few seconds of being picked up he calmed down and he actually smiled when he realized he was going to get boob.

The doctor again said he was the picture of health and the nurse said he was so cute he looked like a doll and should be in commercials. Standard buttering up the parents, maybe, but we believed it.

The new stats:
Head - 17.3 in
Weight - 19 lb, 11.5 oz
Length - 28 in

He's been poked and prodded and peered at a lot lately. Last Monday was his six month appointment for the fetal kick study. He wore the watches again, and this time we got the data. He moves both of his hands and his right foot roughly 3600 times a day and his left foot about half that. He loves to stand on his left foot and stomp his right foot, so it makes sense that they're different.

Yesterday, we headed over to the Longwood medical area to take part in a study by the lab of cognitive neuroscience. Check out the Tabblo I made about it:

I was the first subject in a research study at Children's Hospital. ... See my Tabblo>

Our mornings

We have a hint of a morning routine. Of course, it's likely to change tomorrow, but it's interesting to see a bit of a pattern.

Xan wakes up between 6 and 6:30, I nurse him, change his diaper and bring him back to bed with us for a while. By 7, Bill gets up with him while I doze for a bit longer, and brings him back in when he is fussing for more food, around 8 or so. Bill gets ready for work, and after feeding Xan and I nap until 9 (10 if I'm lucky).

Saturday

We finally made it to the Arnold Arboretum this weekend with our friend Jiandi, who has an amazing camera. He took some beautiful pictures, including some great closeups of Xan, but you'll have to wait for them, since they're still on his camera. Meanwhile enjoy the lesser ones that we took; I've put them up on Flickr, which you can reach through the badge on the right side of the page.*

After the arboretum, he took us to a fabulous restaurant near his place and we had a super delicous post-walk meal. Xan was a hit with the staff, as usual. Jiandi overheard one of them saying he was a real yang wawa, which means foreign baby doll. Apparently in China, little caucasian baby dolls are popular for children and are called yang wawa. So Xan's a picture-perfect white baby.

We were supposed to go to a party that night, but it started at 9pm and we were so pooped by then we were already in bed. We are officially old.


*Regarding Flickr, since I use the free version, you can only see my most recent 200 pics. Do you think it's worth it to pay $25 a year, so all of them are visible?

Pumpkin Parties

There's this one at a park near our house, another put on by the Cambridge Center for Families, and we're throwing one, the Pumkin Party of Death! Fall rocks.

Raspberries and Cream

These days I fortunately rarely have spreading milk circle on my shirt that my breast pads can't contain, as the leaking has slowed to a drip. However, I do often get sprayed when Xan decides to blow raspberries out of a mouth full of milk during nursing.

Blatant Favoritism

Daddy's roars are hilarious, but Mama's roars are scary and make him cry.

Ready for Halloween