Woah Nelly

(Who knew drool could be so cute?)

This baby is booking. He still isn't crawling, but he has mastered The Worm and can hump his way across the living room and into the kitchen -- he was chasing me this morning while I frantically swept the lower level.

His nighttime sleep pattern is all screwed up. I'll assume from his being sick (a cold and a sinus infection) - because that assumption gives me some semblance of understanding in this crazy circus we call life. I keep falling deeply asleep with him in bed during night feedings and that's fine except he likes to wake up screaming at all hours of the night even when my face is an inch away from his.

He's also developed a habit of either 1) going to bed at bedtime (8ish) but WAKING UP around 11pm; or 2) refusing to go to sleep in his bed no matter how tired he is so one of us holds him on the couch until he sacks out. THAT, I feel, is an extension of his other I-wanna-do-what-THEY'RE-doing behaviors. It's an eldest/only child thing. I totally understand, Z.

By the way, I know I'm supposed to either let him scream it out or cater to his every whim, depending on which parenting camp you listen to. Don't worry, he cries plenty at bedtime. He gets cuddles too. I guess we're riding down the middle on this one. At least until our last collective nerve is shot. Which is sort of gradually happening. There are only so many times I can take being screamed at in the face in the middle of the night before the little prince gets dumped in his crib and both bedroom doors shut. And then I fall back asleep - I couldn't do that a few weeks ago if he was crying, no matter how tired I was.

Anyway, on to happier thoughts:
We are still way digging this CD from Jen G. Zander was bouncing madly and giggling to "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" just a few minutes ago.

He also feels the cats should be part of his entertainment posse. If they would only hold still....

He talks constantly, have I mentioned? Sometimes people are surprisec at how vocal he is but c'mon! Who's his mama? Who's his papa? M'kay. 'Nough said.

We went for a hike at Hudson Mills Metropark this weekend:


And now for a little administrative drama: if you're not on our holiday card mailing list, don't bother posting a comment because I will delete it. You know who you are. It took me a while to figure out how to delete comments but now I have the power. This is Zander's blog and if you are not admiring the baby, I don't want to hear from you! (By the way, if you haven't actually received a holiday card from us before, that doesn't mean you're not on the list - it's figurative, y'know. And besides, we failed to send cards AT ALL last year. This year should be better. That's not a promise by the way.)

Who's that?

Pictures from this weekend...

...is that Zander or is that cousin Connor?

...is that Zander or is that Aunt Julia as a baby?

This one is definitely all Zander, chilling with his Aunt Amber.

Playing around

Hey... here is something I was playing with this morning.

6, 3, 3, 1, 4, 14, 101, 5, 5, 4

HAPPY SIX MONTHS, ZANDER!


We have a little number rubric today:

6 is the number of months old Zander is today.

3 is the number of weeks he has had his cold.

3 is the number of days he has run a low temperature.

1 is the number of times Zander threw up today.

4 is the number of times Zander threw up yesterday.

14 is the number of pounds Zander weighed at the doctor's office this morning (double his birth weight - go baby!).

101 was his rectal temperature (deg F) at the doctor's office this morning. The doctor determined that he had a secondary infection in his sinuses - poor baby!

5 is the amount of the doctor's office co-pay.

5 is the amount of the co-pay on his prescription amoxicillan.

4 is the number of hours he slept this afternoon after taking his medicine and then woke up a new and happy baby.

Additionally...
His head is bigger. I thought I was seeing things but several people have commented on it. Grow, my little bean!

Weird things are freaking him out. Like toilets flushing in the bathroom of a restaurant and my neighbor wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He startles and starts screaming and clinging to me. I guess that stranger anxiety is coming on soon.

He's proficiently scooting across the floor these days. Like an inchworm. Slowly and inexorably.

The rant...
Huggies Supreme diapers (not regular Huggies) totally suck. They leak almost every time...because they are trying to be a cloth diaper. They don't leak out the sides or top, but through the back. In case you are not impressed with this complaint: I never have had my bed peed on until this past week in which it happened twice. Luckily little bodies don't produce much urine all at once. (The above picture has nothing to do with these incidents.)

And because these diapers are suckifiably SUPREME, you get 6 fewer diapers than you do in a regular pack of Huggies. We are, of course, talking about the underwhelmingly small Jumbo pack (which lasts about a week). Yeah, all you other parents-of-small-children know what I am talking about.

Happy Six Months, Zander. Mommy will buy you some quality Pampers when we go grocery shopping this week. Because I love you.


And daddy does too.

Tag

I don't know what it is but Zander loves tags lately. Don't ask me; all the other six-month-olds are doing it.

He also desperately wants to type on the keyboard and dial the phone. Since he barely ever naps, I have to do these things with him in tow. Which is really why I have not been posting more often. Right now he's happy-clingy baby. But other times he's just clingy. Whiney.

We recently went through a few weeks where Zander was waking me up all night long. We're not necessarily out of the woods yet either but last night was better than most. Hence my coherency today. Unlike yesterday.

He's still working on his pre-crawling skills. He's pretty proficient at rolling and worming his way around. His favorite place to hang out is under the coffee table:



Nice cardigan! Grandma Terry made that one. Thanks GeeTerry. Zander says he would like another one in the next size up.

Zander is also immensely enjoying the hillbilly children's CD that "Auntie" Jen G. sent him. Really really. When I turn it on (it begins with children singing the ABCs) he is completely transfixed, stares at the equilizer and listens. He will lay there and do nothing but listen for four or five songs in a row without moving - longer than some of his naps. Yey for Auntie Jen! Zander gives it two slobbery thumbs up - the highest baby accolade. (For other parents out there who are interested it's Big Smith & Family From Hay to Zzzzzz.)


Zander lounging on the couch like daddy. This sideways position must be part of the pre-crawling skill set because he's doing it all the time these days. And then he falls backwards and bangs his head on our hardwood floors. Ouch. But he only realizes that he's banged his head about 30% of the time.

And notice how this outfit is a bit short in the leg (all the Carter's clothes are like that on him). Probably the last time he'll ever wear it. And this was the first clothing I bought for him, when I was about five months pregnant. -sigh- My baby is getting so big! He's heavy now. -sigh-

It came from the bog...

Zander, in his froggy bathrobe, after waking us up for the day at 530 am today.

October pictures are up!

Go visit Zander's picture gallery!

Picture of the Day

I forgot to include a picture of the darling boy with that last post. How could I? This is the best part of all:
Zander the Miniature Viking (from 10/22/05)

Zander likes to worm under the bookshelf - and stash his toys there (from 10/30/05)

More pictures to come when I figure out how to get them off of Matt's new camera.

Where does the time go?

Zander made me kinda crazy (okay, subhuman frothing-at-the-mouth sleep-deprived gorgon) last week when he suddenly developed a sleep problem and was waking me up every hour of the night. EVERY hour. After extensive discussion and speculation it was decided that this problem was a combination of:
1) new sleep space - it started the night he first slept in his crib;
2) darkness - the process of setting up the crib and moving other things around blocked his nightlight and unplugged his baby lamp;
3) illness - he and daddy both came down with a cold last Friday. Luckily the gods have some mercy for new mothers and my breastfeeding superpower is that I am NOT sick, not even a little bit. Although the Nyquil does tempt the sleep-deprived . . . did you know that they card you at Target when you buy Nyquil now?

And just to keep me on my toes, after we thought we had everything above sorted out, he started eating a lot more, probably in preparation for that 6 month growth spurt (yes, our little squidgey is now 5.5 months old) and definitely because of his increased mobility.

He's not crawling yet, but he took some tips from a cutie pie 6.5 month old girl he met on Saturday and got up on his hands and knees yesterday and rocked back and forth. Actually, he did that two days ago but yesterday he did it without falling over. Two days ago Matt and I watched Zander playing on the floor, moving in a circle from toy to toy. He does really well at rolling over and worming. But still he wants to put his head down when his butt comes off the ground so he doesn't really get far with that.

For Dave & Michal - Zander has recently taken quite a shine to the mobile you gave him. It's hanging from a lamp in his room because we're too lazy to hang it from the ceiling. He stares at it from his bed and reaches for it when he passes it and, if given the chance, stuffs those felt dead bunnies in his mouth, carrot and all.

For Aunt Margie & Uncle Stephen - We finally hung the gorgeous name-picture you gave Zander when we set up his crib a week and a half ago. He just noticed it two or three days ago and loves to stare at it. And stare at it and stare at it. I promise I won't let him stuff it in his mouth.