The suprizing thing we found last night.

So last night I put Zander to bed.

About half an hour laster he starts screaming his fool head off. We let him scream for a while, and finally Carol had to go check on him. Moments later Carol calls me upstairs to see what she had found. There Zander was standing up in his crib holding on the the railings. He had pulled himself up all by himself. Now, Zander has been pulling himself up for a little while now, but this was much more extreme. He didn't any help, and only had the bars of his crib to help.

Needless to say, I am frightened at how quickly this kid is moving toward walking.

Matt

November photos

The November photos are up on Matt's Photo Emporium.

And if you haven't figured it out by now, the photo gallery was updated a few months back so it has a new URL. Update your bookmarks accordingly.

Zander sends all of you, his adoring fans, big wet kisses.

Finger Foods

He can feed himself. Mercy. I can sit at the table reading a book, eating my breakfast with Zander sitting next to me in his high chair eating his breakfast. We did it this morning, as you saw above.

He loves these things. They're Amaranth Cereal Snaps - y'know, avoiding wheat and all. When they get a little bit wet they start sticking so usually half end up stuck to his clothes and face and hands. They taste like nothing but he loves 'em just the same.

He's talking up a storm. Other people don't usually get to hear it because he gets really quiet whenever we go somewhere new. Too busy taking in new information. But right now he's talking talking talking (to his toys), more complicated sounds than before. I guess he's getting into more of those consonant-vowel combinations. I can't say which - there are several all at once: blah , ga, la, wa, da, ra, etc. It'll be Da-da any day now.

Huff and puff

Sorry there haven't been more frequent posts. I think about it during the week but, well, I am completely occupied with trying to keep up with Speed Racer here.

Zander's latest and greatest this week includes a funny scrunchy-nose look that we call Fight Face because it reminds us of his cousin Connor's Fight Face. Of course Connor is trying to be fierce and here I think Zander is just mimicing some funny expression he sees one of us doing. You tell me if this looks familiar:



Also, on Friday, whilst setting up holiday decorations - including our first real-but-fake Christmas tree, which is only four feet tall, and a big plastic electric menorah - Zander "crawled" up to me while I was sitting on the floor and pulled himself into a standing position. And then slipped and fell and bonked his head on the hardwood floor. I know, I know, I'm losing my mother-of-the-year medal over this one, but in my defense, he WAS behind me.

But standing? Will he be cruising then by the new year?

Photo Diary

As promised, a little photo diary of the past week or so:

On Tuesday last week, Zander chases mommy into the kitchen.


(Wednesday was the big snow storm - no pictures - who wants to remember that anyway?)


Zander & Uncle Noah on Thanksgiving Day.


Impromptu slumber party at our place on Friday - Zander & Cousin Tess hunker down for a long winter's nap.


Hugs from Grandma Carol on Saturday.


(Still on Saturday) Zander considers a career as a reindeer...


...but he likes to suck on pickles too much.


Leaping ahead to Wednesday, Zander can sit up by himself. And oh! What a nice jumper! Fits beautifully now. Thanks "Uncle" Andy!

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...