What would we do without the baby?

He's so good at finding all the corners, niches, and spots that are less than clean. I just pulled him away from the side of the refrigerator where he was checking out some bits of paper. Since we just swept and mopped yesterday, I have no idea where this detrius is from. Luckily I have the baby to point these failings out to me.

Zander had a great Turkey Day, partying down with my family. This past weekend he also got see his first Christmas tree when we went to his father's childhood home and helped Grandma Carol put up her tree. Ooooh, pretty lights!

Zander is still commando "crawling" but he's very fast. He loves cords. He loves to chase the cats. He tries to check out the very hairy cat basket-bed. He tries to play with the cat's circular track ball. (To be fair, the cats try playing with his toys and laying on his blankets if left on the floor.)

Yesterday he suddenly started sticking out his tongue. It's very funny! He practices it too. You'll suddenly look down at him and see him sticking his tongue in and out with his hand up at his mouth, checking out this mysterious ability. And although we're laughing our asses off he's very serious about it.

Uncle John and Aunt Janet, we thought he'd never make it - the lovely 6-9 month sleeper that you sent seemed so huge next to his little newborn body but he wore it for the first time a couple days ago. It was still a little big as he could get his feet out of the footie part, but the nice thing (for our baby) about Baby Gap, Circo, Old Navy, and other similar brands is that the slimmer sizing works out well for our long tall baby. He doesn't get his feet up into the body of the sleeper and wake up pissed.

Zander has developed and healthy distate for bedtime. He has to be COMPLETELY exhausted to be put down without a fight - and he will still wake up a couple hours later and pitch a fit once he's recovered some strength. If left completely alone, he will cry for about 45 minutes before going to sleep for the night. With the holidays this past week we haven't been able to work on this in a consistant fashion. But the books say it should only take a week at the most for Junior to take the hint.

Last but certainly not least, every day Zander is doing better at sitting up on his own. Yesterday I sat him up in front of his Leapfrog noisy toy and he went at it, holding himself up with one hand and playing with the other. We also tried sitting him up in a cart at the story yesterday and he did okay.

Stay tuned for a photo diary of the past week...