Say Cheese!

(taken 3/9/06)

It's a picture day. Not much to say except we've been spending more time outside when it's warm and Zander is amazed (but not phased) by all the wide open spaces.

Hmm...the bloom must be off the rose. I don't have a lot of pictures of Z from the past two weeks. Bad mommy, no soup.

Here's a funny one... from 3/8/06... Zander and Tessa struggle for mastery of the might pen:


Guess who won?



Oh wait! I found more pictures on the other camera. (Don't ask why we have two digital cameras.)

(Snaggle-tooth and Dad go for a hike on 3/12/06)

(What would these boys do without me? 3/17/06)

Ah, there. I think that will hold ya'll over until my next post.

Happy Ten and a Half Months!

Oops, it's been two weeks. Two weeks and a day. Sorry to all those fans who check every day. We're still alive and well. Zander's walking and talking. He's almost running, in his unsteady, toddling kind of way. He says mamamama and sometimes dada and I think he also says hi. He loves playing with rubber balls (and telephones and remote controls and knitting needles). He was pretty cranky yesterday - this morning Matt spied a new bottom tooth that's working it's way out into the light of day.

Yesterday, in the middle of a shopping trip at Meijer, Zander started waving. We've been teaching this to him for many weeks. Thankfully, there are lots of opportunities to wave to people while out at a store. Today, he can't be bothered so who knows what will happen on Sunday when he goes to see his great-grandma Joan and fam.

You know those marbelized rubber balls that are kept in big mesh cages at the store? Zander had a smashing time playing with one of those on Saturday while we were at a friend's wedding shower. So I got him a nurf ball at Meijer and he and his cousin Tessa are tearing up my living room right now.

Zander's been trying to eletrocute himself lately - he's fascinated with outlets, of which there are only three in the house he can really get to and not much I can do about them except install those faceplates that twist to cover the plug when it's not being used. Doesn't stop him from pulling out the CO monitor upstairs or unplugging the living room lamp. So he's been getting one minute time-outs in his crib when he ignores me hollaring at him to stay away. Yesterday I was taking him out of his crib after his time-out and I was explaining to him why this was a bad choice, etc, when he sassed me! He screwed up his face and went "ehhh!" In retrospect, probably that's what I look and sound like when I'm yelling at him to keep away from the outlet.

Sigh.

I need a break but I'm not really going to get one soon so I'm going to go to the yarn store right now for some retail therapy. Zander, don't do like your mom does.

Happy Ten Months!

Good job, Zander, on surviving the first ten months of your life. It's been real, kiddo. (Sorry no pic, this is on the fly today.)

Matt and I have been talking about the first birthday thang. May 14, in case you forgot. Which also coincides with Mother's Day this year, ain't that nice? Zander will not care if he gets gifts or not on his birthday and he certainly doesn't NEED anything beyond diapers, wipes, and food. But we understand that it's fun to give gifts and people have been asking so to make things a bit easier, we made Zander an Amazon wishlist.

This isn't definitive, exhaustive, or all inclusive. If you want to get him something, get him whatever you want. Some of these items are just on there for the idea of the item, not because we/he want that very specific one. I put comments next to those.

And please, for the love Zander, no stuffed animals! I think we have a potential fire hazard with all the plush in his room. They may be cute but he rarely plays with them. He also does not need any baby dishes. Thanks to Jennifer, Lori, Dana, Laura, and Carol for giving us lots of that stuff already. We use it all the time.

Not on the Amazon list:

• College money - I'm working on setting up Zander's MESP. It takes a little nest egg to start so as soon as the tax refund shows up (any day now!) I'll fill out the paperwork and send it in. At that point I think anyone can send a check directly to them as long as they have his account number. Meanwhile, Zander has his own savings account at our credit union. The account number for that is on a need to know basis so email me if you want to make a deposit.
• Summer clothes, 12-18 mo aka 18 mo.
• Fall/Winter clothes, 18-24 mo aka 24 mo aka 2T

2T? Did I just write that? T as in toddler? Omigod. My baby is going to be a toddler later this year.

Hey baby, what's your sign?

(Bed hair, 2/20/06)

Today at Target Zander took a ride in the buggy (as they say down south). He wasn't having any of that sitting in the hard plastic car seat-like attachment that some store carts have. Oh no. And I already knew that putting him the in the front seat was going to be tenuous at best - the seat belts don't fit him well and after not very long he decides he's sick of it all and starts to whine, try and stand, slump to and fro, etc. I know, not news in the kid dept. Nothing unusual.

So I plunked him in the basket and rolled along slowly. He played with things I put in there with him but mostly practiced standing, hands holding either side of the cart for balance, and watching where we were going like DiCaprio and Winslet in Titanic. It was great. No whining. No accidents. Only one item pitched over the side (my vitamins).

If this becomes our M.O. for shopping for the next few years, well, I suppose it will help us save on the grocery bill. There's only so much one can fit in the front seat since anything that goes in the basket has obviously been put there for Zander to step on.

Chicks Dig Me

Hey, baby. I can WALK!

Footloose and fancy free, that's me.

That's why chicks dig me. Oh yeah.

(By the by, that last picture made me laugh until I cried. You too? I gotta get a picture now of the rest of his teeth...)

Cheesy Poof-dom

Zander took his first step on Friday night. No, really! He's done it a few more times since then and generally seems pretty iffy about this whole standing unassisted thang. But toys and food distract him from his own self-confidence issues. Sounds like a familiar pattern.

He's got more hair. Thicker, darker... um, definitely not blond. Sorry Matt. Better luck next time.

He tried some of the yummy pork tenderloin his daddy made for dinner last night. That seemed to go okay but lemme tell you about the cheesy poofs. We bought some cheesy poofs this weekend - at Whole Foods so you know they're healthy all natural cheesy poofs. (For the clueless, that's called sarcasm.) He politely tried some from the display at the store. And maybe another couple for a snack yesterday afternoon. And then he and I decided to have cheesy poofs for lunch today (don't judge me - you'd do it too if you were stuck at home with an infant, grey chilly weather, and no clean clothes). We practiced chewing. He's got those new teeth to break in, after all. A few poofs later I realized, as Zander's reaching for his next poof, that he has stuffed the whole thing in his mouth at once and is vainly trying to mash with his gums. We get past that moment and I try and get him to drink some water. He takes a couple sips then grunts for another cheesy poof.

I've created a monster.

By then it was probably 2pm so I tossed the boy into his high chair and gave him a banana. He liked that. Now he has the energy to run all over the second story while I type this up for you. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cheesy poofs.

Hello March!

Sorry it's been so long. Sorry for the lack of pictures today - but it would have been even longer otherwise. The boy is running me ragged!

Zander has lots more teeth. After the bottom two came in, he got one canine, then one upper incisor and then the other and now they're just popping out all over the place. I haven't been able to get a good count. Someone doesn't particularly like it when I pin him down and peel back his lips.

The boy has been balancing on his own two feet a lot lately. Not so much on accident either. He's testing the waters. Matt thinks he's got it down and it's only his own confidence that's keeping him back. Probably.

Zander had chicken for the first time last night. I wasn't there but I was told it was a piece a little larger than a chicken nugget and I think Matt ground it up with the food grinder Grandma Carol gave Z for Christmas. And his reaction to this new food? I hear he made a face at first but ate it up like he does with everything.

He's fast. Up the stairs. Across the room. Grabbing for something. Seems like a dream, those days when he just lay there and practiced smiling or kicking a rattle. Man o man. Of course it was warm then too and here in the depths of winter, warm days seem so far away.

Zander talks a lot. A lot! He sometimes seems to say Hi and Ma-Ma with intention - Hi when you walk into the room and say Hi to him. Ma-Ma when he's whining and wants me to pick him up.

Stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety are in full force. He stared zombie-like at my friend Liz, whom he hadn't met before, for ten minutes on Monday night before relaxing and returning to his normal babbling loud self. Yesterday he woke up from a nap and couldn't get over the sight of DeForest, whom he apparently doesn't remember from two months ago. Zander clung to me and wouldn't talk or be entertained by either of us. He just stared and stared. D left soon thereafter and Zander nursed a bit and was then quickly on the ground, zooming around the living room and giving me a running narrative. Silly Zander will soon learn - DeForest is a great playmate. Plaything. Jungle gym. Mobile child entertainment system.

One last thought... one inch of my daffodils are up. I can't wait to go outside and do some gardening! Now that I have a little helper, bwahaha. Zander can't wait to go outside and play. If only it would warm up a little more. T-minus two months and counting...