Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Model Train Show

We attended the annual holiday model train show at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma as we do every year. This year we went on the very first day it was open and we arrived minutes before the museum opened. Most of the model trains weren't even running! Check out the Google Photos story, or watch the brief video below:

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Vivian's Holiday Concert

Vivian's preschool puts on a holiday concert each year (Theo's concert was two years ago!). This year Vivian was one of three soloists! Given the auditory nature of the performance, there are no photos of the performance itself, only videos. You can experience the Google Photos Story, or see the after-party photos and some of the videos on Smugmug, or see the entire set of videos on YouTube. I've embedded the playlist below for your convenience as well:

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Holidays 2015: Pacific Place Snow

Last night we took the kids to Pacific Place, a mall which does indoor (fake) snow nightly at 6pm.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween 2015

This year for Halloween, Theo wanted to be a Sounder Train, and Vivian wanted to be a digger. Fortunately Xavier's and Theo's birthdays in the preceding month provided a lot of raw cardboard material. Coupled with a $50 trip to Lowe's which would make any graffiti artist proud, we had proper outfits -- complete with glow-in-the-dark paint for headlights and windows!



Xavier had a costume too!



We did tons of Halloween-related activities. First we had Vivian's friends from school over to decorate pumpkins on Friday (since Theo had his friends over to do the same the prior week). Afterwards we went to Jefferson Park Community Center to partake in their Halloween Festival.



Then on Halloween (Saturday) we went trick or treating in Greenwood...



...followed by Amelie's 5th birthday party. Then we headed home for a quick 2.5 hour nap before hitting up the neighborhood for trick or treating.



See the entire collection.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween Hoedown

Lake and Park, Theo's new school (and Kindergarten!) which we started attending this past Wednesday, had a Halloween Hoedown. Amazingly, Theo took off and danced on his own with complete strangers while the rest of us ate. The entire collection is available here.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Theo's Day Out

Theo's new kindergarten had a teachers' in service day so there was no class. I'd already booked a sitter for my co-op working shift, so instead I got to spend a large part of the day with Theo. Here's what he wanted to do with his exclusive time:

Go to the neighborhood park and ride the zip lines. (I pointed out we could do this anytime so he moved to option number two.)

Stay at home building train tracks.

And finally settled on option three: ride the light rail to the stop with the water fountain and buy lunch from the coffee shop to eat there. Sold!

The coffee shop we planned to patronize had gone out of business but luckily there was another one open very close by so we went there instead.

Theo refused to take a jacket so he got cold at the water fountain almost immediately and crawled back into the stroller (which he hasn't ridden in the front of for quite some time). We spent most of our time inside the coffee shop then went joy riding to the airport to watch planes and eat our lunch.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Theo's Last Day at Coop

We withdrew Theo from coop, and today was his last day. His classes made a super-sweet farewell card for him.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Ola Visits Seattle

The radio silence on this blog doesn't indicate abandonment so much as incredible business. For instance, my cousin Ola came from Poland to stay with us for almost the entire month of August ahead of my sister's labor day wedding in Boston. We did so much, from hitting Seattle's tourist hotspots like the Space Needle to traditional summer favorites on Alki and the fairs, and we even snuck in trips to Mt. St. Helens and Los Angeles. You can check out all the photos as usual, but there's so many of them that I had Google auto-arrange them into a coherent story (which of course misses a lot of individual items, but it's a good starting point.)

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Xavier's First Birthday

Xavier turned one last week! We celebrated his big first birthday in several ways. First, as is our custom, we got him balloons and tied them to his chair at the table so they would be obvious as soon as he woke up and went into the dining room. He had a first birthday balloon in baby blue (the only color they had), a red happy birthday balloon, and a new kind of ball shaped mylar balloon with Mickey and friends on a clear background. He very much enjoys batting at the balloons and watching them spring back and bounce around.

We laid his presents out on the coffee table and had several things set aside in separate places for his older siblings. Xavier was singularly unimpressed with the concept of gifts. I thought he would be interested in taking things out of bags and boxes as he likes putting things in and taking toys out of containers very much now. But he looked at all the stuff and moved right along.

Earlier in the week I had taken Theo and Vivian to the toy store and let them pick out presents for Xavier. Vivian in particular debated long and hard but settled on a red water bottle with a rocket ship on it for him. She had gone on hoping to find a red dish, though there was a surprising lack of red toys suitable for toddlers. Theo of course wanted to get Xavier a train, though once we got to the store and there was an actual train table set up to play with, he couldn't care less about shopping for presents. After he ran out of time at the train tracks, he got serious about selecting a gift. He stumbled across a brio train starter set marked for ages one and a half (instead of the usual three plus) and we were all set. Theo got Xavier his own track so he would stop messing up Theo's creations.

Back at home the kids decorated some packing paper and wrapped their gifts. So on the actual day, they were both super excited to "help" Xavier unwrap the gifts they had chosen for him. Theo then proceeded to help him unwrap everything else.

Because it was a school day for Theo, we had to rush a bit. After presents we took all three kids to the local bakery to select breakfast goodies. Xavier got a cream puff, and Theo and Vivian both selected cupcakes. We lit the one birthday candle and sang to him. Xavier was intrigued by the fire on the candle but had no idea about blowing it out. He did enjoy the cream puff though. He ate mostly the cream parts until I broke off some smaller pieces of the bread for him. It was large, though, and difficult for him to manage on his own.

Xavier has been pulling up to a standing position for about three weeks before his birthday and he's very stable on his feet. He's also remarkably good at getting back down to his knees and then his belly so he can army crawl around the house. So he was at the perfect height to reach presents on the coffee table despite his lack of interest.

He got the gifts from his siblings as well as a wilk (flat wolf lovie), a zutano blanket with a forest friends theme, a big yellow dump truck, a rocking horse (which is actually a giraffe) that talks and sings, a red car, a stuffed badger, a small red barn toy with wooden doors that open and close, a new shirt and jacket, a remote control car that makes music and noise, and a waterproof octopus with three rings that can be hooked onto its legs.

Vivian scored a stuffed digger ( she declared that's all she ever wanted and asked if she could keep it "for all the days"), a new hat and booties for her baby, and a magic pen coloring book. Theo was less impressed with his spider man raincoat, but liked his volcano book and magic pen coloring book.

Xavier is still napping twice a day, so by the time we dropped Theo off at school and returned home, he didn't have any time to enjoy his new things. He went straight to nap. When he woke up, I fed him cheese quesadilla for lunch as that's by far his favorite food right now. He's willing to sign more for quesadilla but not for anything else. I've also started giving him a sippy cup with whole milk in it at meals and he likes that a lot. I think the cup is just as intriguing to him as the contents though. He's mostly mastered the art of tipping it up to get milk out.

He also loved the sloppy joe we had for dinner one night and is still a big fan of beans. He likes cheese more than he used to, and loves to have an entire apple to chew on. Watermelon is definitely one of his favorite foods followed closely by blueberries.

He's not quite cruising along the furniture yet but has enough upper body strength he can pull himself up onto the coffee table if he wants. He still loves to play "ball catch" which is just Theo's way of saying roll a ball back and forth while sitting on the floor.

Xavier's still nursing about four times a day (upon waking in the morning, before both naps, and at bedtime) but gets formula or breast milk in a bottle after three of those sessions as well. He generally has about 24 ounces of supplemental fluids from the bottle per day. If he's nursing I give him four ounces. When I'm not available, he gets six ounces in the bottle and generally empties the bottle.

He's eating three solid meals and an afternoon snack. He loves these Gerber baby vegetable flavored poofs we discovered during our recent trip to Massachusetts. He would eat the entire container if allowed.

Sadly both Michal and I had a meeting we didn't feel comfortable skipping the evening of Xavier's big day. I left him a container of the veggie poofs with the sitter and let him gorge.

To make up for the birthday dinner we normally do, we invited friends over for Sunday evening. Oliver (3.5 and one of Theo's best buddies) and his sister Pearl (exactly a month older than Xavier) came over after to nap to play and have dinner. They brought Xavier a new touch and feel book which he loves, though I have since been unable to locate it. (I suspect older siblings in this disappearance.) Then we had a birthday dinner of steak with tomatillo salsa, black beans and rice, and cheese turkey dogs for the kids. Xavier ate his half a hot dog and rice and beans and Theo devoured five hot dogs!!!

We followed dinner with a small chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate frosting with raspberries and chocolate swirls on top. It was about the size of a bocce ball with two layers and split amongst us all quite nicely. We put a blue candle in and sang to him again and then let him at the cake.

Xavier is still hit or miss on sleeping at night. We haven't had his twelve month check up yet because I scheduled it simultaneously with Theo's five year check up. But I suspect Xavier has a mild to moderate case of sleep apnea since most of the advice for that condition (colder air, inclined surfaces, side sleeping position) seem to result in much better nights for him. On a good night he's up around four a.m. and several times in the last month he's gone ten and a half to eleven hours straight. He's usually in bed by 7:20 something though now that he's pulling up he sometimes spends time playing before settling down to sleep. He likes to throw things overboard but doesn't fall asleep well without his favorite Taggie brand lovie, which is a small pale green (well it used to be pale green - now that he's dragged it along the floor multiple times it's closer to a dirty gray color) fuzzy blanket with ribbon tags sewn around all four edges.

Xavier loves airplanes. It's the only thing he signs for consistently. When we are outside, whenever he hears one, he swivels his head and signs until he spies it. He recently discovered that on clear days he can see them from inside the house at the big front picture window and I think that rocked his world. He stayed standing by the window watching and signing for quite a while.

He's still the happy go lucky guy who gets so excited to see all of his family members when they come back. Whether we've just been in the other room or gone all day, he kicks his legs and grins and hustles over with his army crawl to greet us. He still pats my back when he wants me to pat his back for comfort and it's pretty much the sweetest thing ever. He's got that big toothy grin with eight teeth in the front and at least one tooth coming in further back. His smile is enough to light up any room and strangers often stop us outside when we are walking to comment on what a happy baby he is.

He's growing up so fast and we are blessed to have Xavier as part of our family and to celebrate his first birthday together!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Xavier at 11 Months

Xavier is eleven months old! I know I say it every month, but this month in particular it seems so crazy that he will be one in a month and no longer a baby!

Xavier still loves to eat. He consumes four meals a day these days starting with breakfast around 8 a.m. That's usually oatmeal or rice and whatever finger food is handy. He loves oatmeal baby food cereal in particular. In fact he's our first kid to eat processed baby food cereal. The others wouldn't think of letting it past their lips.

Lunch is around 12:30 though often Xavier is starving by noon. He has lots of veggies or fruit cubes if we are home. Out and about he has baby food pouches. He won't eat the meat pouches and only occasionally shows interest in deli meat. He loves beans though and eats them as fast as he can shovel them in. He's okay with cheese but it's far from guaranteed and with nuts off the menu, most of his protein and fat calories come from yogurt.

He has a snack around 4 or 4:30 after his afternoon nap. That's almost always finger foods whether it's goldfish or snap pea crisps or buttered toast cut into strips. During our travels we got him done veggie puff baby finger food and he can eat the entire container of those in one sitting if we would let him.

Dinner is still Xavier's biggest meal of the day. It seems the later in the day it gets, the hungrier he is. He often has little interest in breakfast which is why we made that meal consist of his favorite food. When we feed him baby cereal at dinner he easily ate three or four bowls at a time. Now he usually had yogurt mixed with applesauce or a mashed banana. I've upgraded to the largest plastic kid bowl we have at dinner and it's rare he doesn't finish it all.

Xavier also loves finger food. He's almost to the point he prefers to feed himself. He's earned to suck from a pouch now instead of spoon feeding him. I have the most success spoon feeding if he has something else to entertain him - whether that's watching the show his siblings are always putting on or having something like a spoon or cup to manipulate with his hands. As soon as he's busy he opens his mouth like a little bird and lets me shovel it in.

He loves drinking water from a sippy cup with no valve or an open cup at mealtimes. Depending on what's he's eating, he needs the water to wash the food down. Since it had no calories I try to keep him from more than a few ounces but I'm considering offering him whole milk at mealtimes instead.

Xavier is nursing four to five times a day these days. He nurses as soon as he wakes up in the morning which is usually between six and seven. He can lay in the bed nursing/soothing for a solid hours a lot of the time. He nurses again before his first nap around 9:30 or 10. He has a third nursing session before his afternoon nap which is supposed to be around 2 p.m. but they really depends on if we have managed to leave the house or not.

He nurses and takes a bottle of breast milk or formula at bedtime which starts around seven p.m. Our giant stash of pumped milk, which took up an entire shelf of the stand alone freezer, is down to just a few remaining bags (though we did donate quite a few ounces). Coupled with all our recent travel, and he's been taking formula no problem as well. He generally has four ounces at bedtime after nursing and I've added a second two ounce bottle in the morning before his first nap as well.

Overnight Xavier is down to one nursing session usually around 4 (ranging from 3:30 to 4:30 most nights). Despite that, sleep is still totally hit or miss around here. He generally has an excellent night and sleeps straight through to that one feeding for about eight consecutive hours. On those nights he wakes up to feed again about two hours later before getting up for the day around seven something.

The alternative is much uglier and totally unpredictable. In these cases, he wakes up three to four hours after bedtime screaming. He will fall back asleep totally on his own after a few minutes, then wake up six or seven minutes later screaming again. Eventually after half an hour or so of this, I pick him up and put him on my shoulder. He squirms for thirty seconds or so, sighs, and passes out. Then I put him back in the crib and he sleeps an hour and a half to two hours before we repeat the whole process over again. At three or sometimes much earlier I nurse him and get him back on the crib but it's still every hour to two hours waking up and crying.

He doesn't cry much during the day though he does fuss now. He doesn't like going into his room if he thinks I'm going to put him to bed and he always cries for a couple minutes after I put him in the crib. But he has no trouble falling asleep and has very consistent naps at an hour and roughly ten minutes both in the morning and afternoon.

Xavier is getting around very fast these days. He's definitely still doing the army crawl with one hand and one elbow to wrist pulling him along. But I often see him getting his bell off the ground and he kicks his legs like a busy little frog. I've even seen him get up on all fours and rock back and forth a couple of times.

His biggest new move is getting up on his knees by pulling himself up on anything he can reach. He's mastered tucking his knees under him now and once he's up on them, he can let go with one hand and reach out for things. He can get pretty much anything he wants off the coffee table these days and can even reach the edges of the sofas.

Xavier loves to pull up on the handles of the toy kitchen and rummage through there. His favorite thing is the red dish washing brush the kids have. It has a suction cup on one end that is apparently just right for chewing. He still loves the color red.

He's completely obsessed with his lovey, which is a taggie blanket. He might sleep without it, but I'd hate to try nursing him or giving him a bottle without it for him to fiddle. He fingers the tags and loves on it so much.

He's very good with his fine motor skills and likes taking something out of a container and putting it back in again.

As for chewing, his eight tooth finally made an appearance! He's been sporting four on top and three on bottom for three months now with no new teeth. Now he has a matched set of four on bottom and top.

Xavier loves playing peekaboo and can hide himself under a napkin or blanket or anything else and peek out. He also loves tickles and the "I'm going to get you!" game. He's so cheerful and mellow pretty much all the time. He's perfectly content to sit in the stroller for two to three hours while we are out and about keeping the other two entertained. Even if the stroller is parked, not moving, it's extremely rare for him to complain.

He loves to swing and has outgrown the exersaucer because he is big enough ( both height and weight) to just lean over in it and pick up whatever he wants. We've retired that piece of equipment for sure. We don't go too many places where he can get out and roam because his army crawl isn't comparable with concrete and I don't relish the idea of him cleaning any floors in public spaces. But he doesn't seem bothered in the least by that or much of anything else.

He still loves to smile and grin at people though he has a bit of separation anxiety now if I hand him off to someone. Overall he's this charming mellow guy and we can't wait to celebrate his big day with him next month!

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Xavier at Ten Months

Xavier is ten months old! Wow-wee! He hasn't changed much in the past month, but he has definitely gotten faster getting around. He's still dragging himself around army crawl style on one elbow and one hand. He kicks his legs and feet it doesn't get up on his knees or get his belly off the floor. As a result, our floors are much cleaner and his clothes collect a lot more grimy stains. Light-colored stuff is not our friend.

In the last two weeks, particularly at Grandma's house where there are many horizontal bars in low reach, Xavier had been pulling himself up. He's not getting into his feet or even his knees. He uses brute force to drag himself into a chin up and clear the ground with his belly then let's himself back down.

He's gotten better at sitting up as well. While I still wouldn't be out of reach when he's sitting upright (yesterday I was right beside him and he still face-planted while trying to transition from sitting to his belly), he can sit for much longer periods of time. Instead of flipping over or backwards immediately, he slowly puts him palms out flat and tries to lower himself down. His feet often get in the way so it's a far from perfect method. But it's definite progress. In fact during his last bath, he sat upright unassisted for longer than he spent splashing around on his belly.

Boy does he love the water! We got to go swimming three times in outdoor pools during our trip to Grandma's house. He is so happy splashing and kicking and moving around in the water. It's so much fun to watch.

He also still loves stripes and buckles and peekaboo is his favorite game. His favorite color is red and he loves doors that open or close - big ones, little ones, doesn't matter.

Xavier is super sociable and although he's getting some separation anxiety, he doesn't really meet a stranger. He was quite happy being passed among relatives he hadn't seen in six months or more with nary a complaint. He smiles at people then hides his head in my shoulder then peeks out smiling again. And if you have food, he's your new best friend. That kid loves to eat.

Xavier has a confirmed peanut allergy that's severe enough we are required to have an epipen with us at all times. He also has possible allergies to walnuts and pecans. That hasn't slowed him down any though, and the good news is he isn't allergic to hazelnuts. (Yay for Nutella!) We've added beans, which are a huge hit, blueberries, beef, strawberries, turkey, eggs, and raspberries to his diet. There aren't many other things left to introduce to him, but he still loves baby cereal. He can eat three to four bowls of it. He's a big fan of puréed vegetables and fruit mixes as well, though he eats so many ounces in a sitting (10-12 if not more) that I have trouble keeping the supply of mushed food in stock. Applesauce and yogurt are go-to foods because they come already in the correct consistency for spoon feeding.

I'm feeding him solids four times a day now - three meals, which consist of puréed solids and finger foods, as well as one snack in the afternoon. Snack is almost always finger foods like beans or fruit flavored puffs or goldfish and the like.

You wouldn't be able to tell how much he loves to eat by his weight however. We had a follow up visit with the doctor to check his weight and gross motor skill development. Xavier tipped the scales at 20 lb 9 oz. That's up from 19 lbs 11 oz at his nine month visit. But it's not much change from 20 lb 6 oz, which is what he weighed the very next day when we went in for his peanut allergic reaction. He is smack in the middle of the percentiles in weight on both CDC and WHO charts.

He's 30 inches tall, which keeps him in the 90th percentiles on both charts. That's a quarter inch taller in the last month (though the allergist measured him in the drawing two lines and using a tape measure manner and he was 30.5 inches at the beginning of the month). It would be nice to have some consistency among measurements. At the pediatrician for the allergic reaction visit, they weighed him in his diaper and got 20 lbs 14 oz so it looks like he's lost weight since then. I re-weighed him naked that day to have more accurate records and I'm glad for it.

Otherwise the only other big thing right now is sleep. Xavier takes two naps and has no trouble falling asleep at either time. The morning nap is around 9:30 most days and the afternoon nap starts between 2 and 2:30 depending on if I have to pick his sister up from school that day or not. He sleeps about an hour and a half both times with no wakings, sometimes as long as three hours in the afternoon.

He does not nap if we are out and about. During our trip he could go six hours even if we spent an hour or more driving. It was impressive in a scary kind of way. But at home with the white noise machine and the dark he goes right to sleep after three hours of awake time.

At night, it's totally hit or miss. He just did four nights in a row where he didn't nurse for more than eight hours. Since bedtime is around 7:30, that gets us to 3 am or so. Then he usually nurses again 2-3 hours later around 5. He might wake up before the first feeding, but he fusses only a bit and goes right back to sleep with zero interventions.

That's a great night. Then there are the not great nights. On those nights, he wakes up after only 3-4 hours and can't get back to sleep and stay asleep for sometimes as long as two hours. He falls asleep and quiets down repeatedly for seven, eleven, maybe even twenty minutes but wakes screaming again. He will calm down if I pet his head, or pick him up and rock him a bit. Sometimes that's enough to get him sleeping again. Sometimes the only thing that works is nursing. After the first waking on those nights, he's generally awake every hour and a half and I'm so out of it I nurse him. Often he ends up crashing the rest of the night in the bed with me as a result though it isn't intentional. Otherwise he's in the crib on his own for the entire night.

I can't detect any pattern or reasoning to determine ahead of time if it will be good night or not. I thought it might be if he had good naps during the day. Then I thought maybe he wasn't eating enough during the day. Taking care of both those things didn't make it any more predictable.

Here's to hoping for more good nights and fewer rough ones in between.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Talapus and Ollalie Lakes

Since the previous family hike to Denny Creek went so well, I figured I would try something a little more complex: a 5-mile round trip to some lakes. This time it was only Theo and myself.

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Theo really enjoyed hiking with Tetley and over assorted bridges, of which there were many.


Our first view of Talapus Lake:
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Our lunch spot:
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Getting in:
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Things went swimmingly (pun intended) so we hiked another half hour up to Ollallie Lake:


The hike down started off great -- Theo was singing a song and basically ran half the way back, but then the tiredness shone through as he started stumbling more and more. Eventually we made it back to the car without needing anyone to carry anyone else, but both Theo and Tetley immediately crashed:
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Check out all the photos from the hike.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Xavier at Nine Months

Xavier is nine months old and boy has he had an exciting week to mark three quarters of a year! He's officially been outside the womb now as long as he was inside it.

We had our nine month check up which I will get to shortly. Tuesday night around 10:35 he had a sudden terrible cough. He sounded so bad we debated taking him to the ER. I decided if he could sleep that was probably better than keeping him up all night at the hospital. He did fine while I held him upright but every time I laid him down he had this awful hacking cough, almost like a barking noise and he couldn't seem to breathe. So he slept on me off and on for three hours until he finally turned himself horizontal in my arms and I managed to get him back into the crib without a massive coughing fit awakening him again.

Strangely he didn't have any cough during the day after. His regular appointment was the following day and he seed so happy and peppy we didn't go to the doctor unscheduled.

At his regular visit, he was diagnosed with croup. Since it's a virus there's not much you can do besides wait it out. Luckily we are past the worst of the scary cough.

Unluckily, Xavier had gained only two ounces since his last weight check at seven and a half months. He weighed 19 lb 11 oz., aka the 36th and 51st percentiles.

He hasn't grown a smidge in height so they came back and measured him again, at which point they decided he was 29.75 inches, up from 29 inches. That moved him to the 90th and 94th percentiles for CDC and WHO for height.

His head circumference is dandy at 18.90 inches (40 some centimeters) which basically puts him off the charts or at the very least "greater than 97th" percentiles.

He is not sitting up unassisted. I would never dream of leaving him sitting anywhere, even the floor. He just flips over to one side or the other, or back. He just doesn't seem to be interested in sitting up. I've seen him do it once about a week before he turned nine months and I was amazed.

He is getting around much faster now. He finally figured out how to drag himself forward via the brute force method at eight and a half months. I believe the move is also called an army crawl. He doesn't get his belly off the floor at all. In fact his belly is generally the part of him most in contact with the floor. He hauls himself around using his elbows and forearms. And boy! In two weeks that boy can move! He can get all the way around the "loop" through the dining room and hall now in under five minutes. He can get to basically anything on the floor he is interested in.

And he's interested in everything. He is filthy after five minutes of scrubbing my floors with his stomach. So we are flying through onesies, which he is currently also wearing as pajamas in our heat streak. The weather is awesome but it is not cool.

He loves anything he can get his hands on. Legos, train tracks, and magnet tiles which are almost always on the floor are top contenders. He will empty the ball basket too and can pull the Lego boxes off the lower portion of the coffee table and distribute those.

He does not mind spending time in the exersaucer and loves the Johnny jump up. Pretty much the only thing that upsets him is Mama walking by or in sight and not picking him up. If he is not contained he will come to me now.

He shows excitement by kicking his feet in the air when he is on his belly on the floor. He can also sit on toys like the rocking horse in the backyard (which has a high back and low seat so it's particularly good for him), the rocket (ship not the cat), and the digger.

He's sleeping terribly. It's been so bad at night that I no longer even nurse him in the bedroom during the day. He wakes up at 11 something every night despite the fact that I haven't fed him at that time for weeks. He cries and goes back to sleep on his own ten to twenty minutes later. Every night. That first stretch from 7-11 is by far the longest stretch of the night and sadly it hardly overlaps with my night at all. After that, he's awake every hour and a half to three hours though three hours is a very good stretch. I nurse him around 1 or 2, and again sometime between 4 and 5. He's been up for the day as early as 5:45 am and as late as 7.

Part of this sleep issue is inconsistency during the school year as I regularly had to drop Theo off right around nap time. Now that I can be more consistent with naps and bedtime I am hoping overnight sleep improves.

Xavier takes two naps a day. The first starts between 9:30 and 10. A regular nap is an hour and ten minutes. A crappy one is 25-35 minutes. If he's had enough sleep, he wakes up quiet and it can be a while before I think to check if he's awake.

In the afternoons he likes to nap at 2, but twice a week I am picking up his sister from school then. He can make it until 2:30 and it isn't like he complains. He sleeps another hour and ten to fifteen minutes in the afternoon though over two hours happens about once a week.

Bedtime is around 7 pm if I manage to stay vaguely on schedule. He sleeps with two small blankets and really loves the pale green one with all the silky tags around the edges. He fiddles it whenever he is awake and nursing or taking the bottle.

We are supplementing him with pumped milk once to twice a day. It was twice a day, about 2-3 ounces each time, but my frozen supply is dwindling so I've slowed down the consumption to once per day at the last feeding before bed.

Xavier loves to eat. He gets yogurt with fruit I the morning and that's by far his smallest meal. For lunch he had Frits and veggies and eats about eight ounces of baby food and whatever finger foods he can get his hands on. At dinner he regularly puts away 16 or more ounces of baby cereal. Any kind seems to work - oatmeal, rice, multi grain. He also has some sort of finger food with that meal. It's generally either a veggie like peas or beans or something from our regular meal (pasta etc).

In an effort to improve sleep, and in case acid reflux was causing the sleep disturbances, I took him off rice a couple weeks back. He seemed to improve, going from waking five or six times a night to three to four so I haven't put it back in his diet yet.

With his weight down the doctor suggested more protein. So the next day I put some peanut butter on a waffle for lunch finger food. That was clearly a mistake though doing it at lunch, in hindsight, was brilliant. Doing it at the park? Horrid idea. He started itching his neck constantly. He had a rash about ten days earlier under his neck of undetermined cause so that didn't immediately concern me. Then I noticed the hives popping up on his neck. Then on his face. Then his eyes. He's clawing at his neck and face constantly at this point even though he had two pinkie fingernail sized bites of waffle with peanut butter. He's had waffle before, too. It was very ugly and super scary. We drove home and he had some Benadryl but I took him back to the doctor anyway. We have an appointment with a pediatric allergist now as well as a suspected peanut allergy.

Other new foods we have tried in the past month with no problem include broccoli, green beans, watermelon, cheese, and eggs.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Denny Creek Waterslide

Way back on June 20th we went on a family hike to the Denny Creek Waterslide. It's just an area of the Denny Creek Trail where the creek flows over very large smooth expanses of rock, and you can sit and slide on them. The water is all snow melt so it's incredibly cold, but that didn't stop Theo and Vivian from getting in. According to the GPS the hike was 5.8 miles but that counts all the running around in the creek we did; the guide book says it's only one mile from the trailhead (so a 2 mile round trip -- but it sure felt at least a bit longer). Here's the GPS track:



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Saturday, June 27, 2015

Vivian Turns Three!



Vivian is three years old! She celebrated her third birthday in style. Vivian's presents, cakes (yes, plural), and party will tell you a lot about our little three year old firecracker.

Vivian, for the first time, mostly with the help of her older brother, has been highly anticipating her birthday. If you ask how old she was going to be you got one of two answers:
"Three." Or
"Fourteen."

Both are probably accurate in terms of her behavior. Her brother wanted her to get all diggers and related objects (rollers, dump trucks, excavators, and any other construction vehicles) for her birthday. She said yes. She also got a child sized umbrella in pink and green and a hot pink baby stroller. These things were not on her brother's approved present list, but she did select them herself - sort of. In a Polish toy store, those are the two items she picked out. She has been asking about them ever since. The umbrella got the best present opening reaction though she didn't get around to actually playing with it until the end of the day.

We did presents first thing in the morning as is our custom. In addition to the things listed above, she got a "new" pink and blue pedal bike. She's almost mastered the balance bike and has been asking for a pedal bike for months. She also got streamers and a green bell to go with the bike.

In the clothing department, she got orange footed digger pajamas, garage truck pajamas (which she has declared clothes and put away in the appropriate drawer with her shirts and pants), a sparkly green tinker bell dress, and a green tinker bell shirt. Her favorite colors are pink and green and she says when she is four and gets her big boy bed, she wants it to be rainbow colored.

Theo wanted to get her a vacuum cleaner, which was a very interesting choice because she is still terrified of both the vacuum and Roomba. She literally shakes while I am holding her and the vacuum is running and has someone turn off Roomba if it starts running while she is home. But when Theo ran the idea by her, she said yes enthusiastically and added a vacuum cleaner to get list of desired birthday presents - a list that was fairly consistent given that she turned three and can change her mind about anything in much less than a minute.


She also got a pink and green wallet, a diaper bag with goodies for her baby, an alphabet construction book, a good night diggers board book, a big digger toy with a removable shovel, wings (she calls them a butterfly), and probably quite a few things I am forgetting because I didn't write them down immediately. The pile looked like this:





When I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she wanted to see fireworks and diggers. I couldn't do much about the fireworks but told her we could watch a video of them. I planned to go see some diggers but it's not exactly something I can look up online. Then we spent the afternoon and early evening throwing up which nixed the idea of going anywhere. Instead we watched two short shows of fireworks and diggers at home after dinner once she had recovered both her energy and appetite. (Luckily no one else got sick.)

Unbeknownst to me, though, it was fireworks night at the baseball stadium. The stadium is only a mile or so from our house so we could hear them very clearly around 9:30 pm after she had gone to bed. I wouldn't have taken her to the game anyway, but if I had realized the coincidence (seriously who asks for fireworks on their birthday and gets them?!?) we probably would've pulled her out of bed to go to the park and watch the show because, well, it was her birthday. 
After presents, Daddy took her and her older brother to the bakery to get breakfast pastries. She picked a chocolate m&ms cookie and a chocolate covered donut. Lots of other tasty things came home too. While she was there, she saw a pink cake she wanted. We called later in the day and got a smaller version of the pink cake which was already made and they wrote her name on it. It was very tasty - chocolate cake with strawberry between the layers. 



That's her birthday dinner of beefy macaroni and cheese pictured behind it. I wouldn't let her eat much because she had vomited three times in the last couple of hours but she wanted to. She did get to have some cake.  We sang to her and she blew out the candles. Then she asked us to "still sing to her" at her birthday party. 
Her party was on the weekend and she loved it. She asked specifically for a swimming party so we booked the party package at the community pool where the kids take lessons. She wanted her friends from preschool to attend. Sadly, since it is a school break between spring and summer sessions,  most of the families were out of town. The only other girl in her class was able to come with her older sister and of all the people attending, that's the only friend Vivian interacted with in the pool. 

We got one hour of swimming time which Vivian adored. She didn't really know the difference between this and the regular public swim times we attend. But although they will book up to three parties in the same time slot, ours was the only one that day. That means we had the pool to ourselves and our friends which was super sweet for the adults. 
Vivian had thirteen friends (including her siblings) at her party where we served pizza, fruit and veggies in the party room after swimming. We had three balloons tied to her chair, and at one point she started bawling. Turns out the balloons had come untied and floated up to the ceiling. Luckily Daddy was able to snag them with the broom and get them back down. 
Her cake at the party was marble cake with strawberry filling and pink and green icing to go with the construction decorations. 



At home, Vivian is a non-stop chatter box who is full of smiles, laughs, and ideas. She loves singing and playing games and has a very active imagination paired with a good memory. She's still a little hazy on the concept of time. After nap is generally a new day for her so she has trouble answering questions at dinner time about things she did that happened prior to nap. 

She loves her diggers and garbage trucks. Those things top her favorites list, followed closely by playing with her baby doll. She adores changing the doll's clothes and its wet and poopy diapers. She liked the new baby stroller so much that she took it with her to the bakery on her birthday - even though they drove instead of walking. In the car, she cried because the stroller was "too far away."

Vivian wants to do everything herself and has a huge independent streak. She will take ten minutes climbing out of the car in the afternoons but heaven forbid anyone try to help or rush her. She is not using the potty at all at the moment despite multiple approaches to potty training. In addition, she hates being changed and would much rather stay in a poopy diaper (or as I learned to my dismay, poopy underwear) than endure a changing even on her terms. She sleeps in her clothes at least once a week - more because she is very attached to her favorite clothes than because she is too tired to cooperate with changing into pajamas. 

She loves her Thomas the train t shirts best followed closely by her digger shirt. I Susie t the new garbage truck stuff will be adds to the list though at least they are actual pajamas so it makes sense when she sleeps in those. She will wear her favorites until I peel them off her. My general rule is to try not to send her to school wearing the same thing two school days in a row but otherwise I couldn't care. 

She loves picking out her clothes when getting dressed and can easily dress (and even diaper) herself. She makes very interesting combinations that I would never even consider but she always manages to pull it off and I'm constantly surprised by how good she looks in the eclectic mix. 

Her favorite food is still far and away macaroni and cheese. She would eat it every day for every meal if she could. 

When she got a door for her toddler bed, she chose green for the paint color. 

Monday, June 1, 2015

Xavier celebrates eight months!

Xavier is eight months old. He's still his charming laid-back self, though a couple of recent additions in the tooth department have made him almost fussy. His sixth tooth us through the gum and his seventh is well on its way, for a grand total of four on top and three on bottom. I suspect there will be more sightings in our near future.

More teeth equals less sleep. Usually Xavier starts getting ready for bed around 7 pm and is actually in the crib by 7:30 or 7:45. He nurses and has a bottle of pumped milk before bedtime. On a good day we also read one or two books, sometimes with one or two siblings present. He gets changed into his pajamas - which requires a size 12 months and even those don't have much room to grow! - and his sleep sack before books and nursing. Essentially we still follow our original adage of change, read, swaddle, feed that began when Theo was an infant. But by this age we use a sleep sack and put it on with the pajamas and fresh cloth diaper.

Naps aren't much different in the routine though he usually needs a fresh diaper after and not before. He's up for the day anywhere between 6 a.m. and 7:30, often depending on the noise level generated by his older siblings. His first nap starts between nine and ten - closer to ten on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays when Theo needs to be dropped off at school at 9:30 a.m. Afternoon naps are around 2, but later on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Tuesdays and Fridays for our new summer schedule which starts June 3) when Vivian gets picked up from school at 2. An hour and ten minutes is a standard nap length these days though much shorter and up to three hours are possible.

If we are out and about near nap time and he falls asleep, he sleeps 35 minutes and is done until the next nap or bedtime.

He generally poops once a day quite regularly. He's eating like a champ and it shows. He loves to feed himself. We've discovered the baby poofs made in star shapes flavored with peach and sweet potato and those are hugely popular. He also loves o's, mum mum rice crisps, buttered toast, pasta, peas, and just about any other finger food we can come up with to give him, including pizza crusts. It's amazing what he can chow down on with not quite seven teeth.

For spoon fed foods, he's not as keen on those as he is on feeding himself. In the morning he had yogurt or cottage cheese mixed with sweet potato or mango. At lunch it's either avocado or a squash or potato mixed with pear. And dinner is almost always baby cereal - either rice or oatmeal. The only food better than rice cereal is oatmeal cereal. In the evenings he can put away 12-16 oz of that stuff in one sitting, not including any water he drinks or finger foods he consumes.

Xavier is nursing about five times a day and twice overnight. He can go five to six hours until the first feeding sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. The second feeding is anywhere from 4 to 6 a.m. and on a bad night he will squish in another feeding or even two extra. He goes back to sleep on his own and spends all his non-nursing time in his own crib - which I still haven't lowered.

That's because he is not sitting up yet. He can sit supported just fine but could certainly not get himself into a sitting position and is never leave him seated even on the floor. He will topple over.

He has gotten very good at sliding around on his belly, however. He can get his belly part way off the floor and go backwards and spin in both directions. It's definitely not the most direct route but he usually gets to what he wants these days. His biggest problem is when he gets stuck under the furniture or straddling furniture legs.

He still plays in the exersaucer but likes the freedom to move around more. His favorite toys are anything he can gnaw. He's mostly lost interest in the baby toys in favor of blocks, duplos, train tracks, magnet tiles, and whatever else graces the floor courtesy of two older siblings.

Theo loves to build him creations to crash out of magnet tiles and play ball catch which is rolling the ball back and forth. Xavier loves Theo so all of that is very entertaining for him. He laughs whenever he manages to catch a ball.

Vivian loves Xavier. Nearly every day she says "Xavier is part of our family." and "Xavier loves me." She loves to help change his diaper in the hopes that every one of them is stinky. She likes to feed him, pick out his clothes, bring him toys, choose his toys, and just about anything else you can think of related to her baby brother. Xavier loves watching her and interacting with all the hugs and kisses from both kids. He now likes to grab hair and Theo regularly offers up his head for grabbing. Xavier will also stick his fingers in Vivian's mouth.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Seven Months

Xavier is seven months old. We wouldn't normally have any stats, but he had an extra appointment for a weight check and flu booster shot. He tipped the scales at 19 lbs 8.5 oz, so that's 1 lb and 6.5 oz in five weeks. It didn't change his weight percentiles much: from 63rd to 64th CDC and 63rd to 71 WHO. He also grew half an inch to 29 inches long which keeps him in the 95th and 97th percentiles for height.



Xavier started rolling over in both directions right after his six month birthday. He can easily go from his back to his belly now. He will sometimes make it in the other direction and even put a few rolls together to reach something. But as often as not he can still get stuck on his belly - or stuck on his belly under something.

Right at seven months, he started moving around on his belly. That's mostly because our wood floors don't offer much resistance. I rarely put him directly on the floor because it's hard and I feel bad doing it. Usually he has a mat or blanket. But he was on the floor directly over the weekend and once he rolled to his belly, he had a fabulous time pushing himself around backwards and rotating to reach things. I don't feel like our house is too bad in the child-proofing department but now I know it needs some work. Mostly he's trying to eat dust bunnies, shoes, and old electronics we haven't gotten around to getting rid of much less of moving out of the living spaces.



Since he was losing weight at six months, we started feeding him three (and sometimes four when I am really on top of it, which is rare) times a day. Rice cereal was a close contender to avocados for his new favorite food - until we introduced oatmeal. Oatmeal is where it's at as far as Xavier is concerned. Mum mums are also a huge hit. I'm not sure if he likes the taste or just the fact that he can feed himself and that they feel good on his constantly teething gums.Other new foods we introduced included squash (no complaints), mangoes (pretty tasty), apples, and peaches (ambivalent about both).

He has object permanence for sure. I know this because if you try to take something away from him, for example the headphone cord he grabbed and tried to chew on the airplane, he complains.

He's fascinated with tags, cords, and straps of pretty much any variety. He loves balls and paper and electronics, as well as pretty much anything he probably shouldn't have (cords and the like) and anything his siblings play with or use.

We've gone from not quite four teeth to five through the gums. The ones on top are impressively large. The ones on the bottom are impressively sharp, as I found out to my detriment when he bit me during our trip and it took two weeks to heal. I feel like he's been teething since 4.5 months because, well, he has. Sleep has suffered for sure as  a result. It's the first time I can think of even for a couple days that one tooth is in and I can't see the next one getting ready to poke through.

As for sleep, since we spent most of the month traveling, it's been pretty ugly. Xavier definitely did not sleep well on any of the plane rides. I think he did not have enough room to spread out much. He's not a small baby and being scrunched on top of me to try and sleep didn't seem to help any. Since getting back and getting over jetlag he's settled in to a much nicer sleep routine. He's generally napping twice a day for an hour or longer each time. He can go as long as four hours awake but usually lasts less long in the mornings at only two to two and half hours. He's getting up for the day around 7 a.m. most days but it's by no means consistent yet. He's also going to bed much earlier, also by 7 p.m. or 8 at the latest.

If he isn't at home in his crib, his nap will last 25 minutes (aka one sleep cycle) and then he's up, but he needs another nap sooner. He will still snooze in the carrier, stroller, or car seat. His nap times both during the morning and afternoon are often subject to drop off and pick up times for his siblings, which sucks. He no longer sleeps through being transferred from one place to another, not even in the bucket car seat. And he hasn't made a successful transfer since before we left.



He's still pretty mellow, though he gets cranky when tired and fussy if he goes too long between meals or nursing. He also doesn't like for me to walk by him and not pick him up now, and that's generally cause for complaint as well. He's uncomfortable in super wet or poopy diapers but doesn't complain outright so that tends to be harder to diagnose. The best example of his personality: when he gets shots, he cries. Then I pick him up and thirty seconds later he's grinning at the nurse who gave him the poke(s)s. He likes to flirt now, smiling at someone, then ducking his head into my shoulder, then peeking back out with another smile. Overall he's just a super happy go lucky guy with some adorable fat rolls.


Monday, April 27, 2015

Happy half birthday Xavier!

 I managed to write most of this post before we left on our big trip, but failed to post it. I thought I would take care of that sometime on our journey. It will surprise no one (not even me) that I failed to accomplish that while having three kids with jet lag. 



Xavier is six months old and we are super excited to celebrate his half year mark with him! The big kids were both at school so Xavier and I had a fun low-key day to ourselves.  We went shopping for a few birthday presents (a new pair of booties and a stuffed animal he took a liking to) and had lunch.

The biggest development we've had is starting Xavier on solid foods. His first foray into good was avocados and boy is he a fan! The first week or so he would eat as much as we made for him - the more the merrier. I couldn't spoon it in fast enough and he opened his mouth like a little bird.

Then we tried bananas. He's not really a fan as it turns out. Mostly he seemed shocked it was not avocados. Then came sweet potatoes and he had a similar reaction. Pears went over somewhat better but by far avocados are the favorite. Lastly we tried yogurt and he was not sure but warmed up to it after several bites to adjust.

Xavier has been interested in eating since he was about two months old. He grew some teeth and I finally decided it must be time. He still loves to watch people eat. Spoons top his list of favorite toys and he will chase a sippy cup until it falls on the floor.

Xavier can identify the kitchen in almost any setting and will stare at anyone eating until they finish. If he thinks the odds are in his favor, he will smile and attempt to charm people into feeding him.

He has 2.5 teeth and the fourth one is definitely on its way as well. The bottom two middle teeth are well on their way and have very distinct ridges. His upper right muddle tooth had broken through the gum as well but you still have to work to see it. And finally there's a very distinct white blob under the gum on the upper left.

All the teething combined with the cough and cold that made the rounds of the house have made for some sleepless nights. Right now a good night has several two hour uninterrupted stretches. On a bad night he's screaming every twenty minutes to an hour and a half and not even nursing is of interest to him. Most nights fall somewhere in between. One night he will go five hours between feedings and the next can't be removed from nursing without crying.

He's nursing often at night but able to go about three hours during the day. He's getting solids once a day with the family at dinner if he's awake. Otherwise he gets his own snack later in the evening.

His naps are still not on any discernible schedule. He is waking up earlier in the day for the last two weeks. That means he's up around nine a.m. instead of between ten and eleven. At night I am still wrapping him up in the velcro to secure his left arm and swaddling in an attempt to get more sleep, and the room is still at 70 degrees or warmer.

Xavier is not at all interested in rolling over.  He can make it ninety degrees of rotation from his back to either side but no further.


Our check up was just a few days before we left. Xavier weighed in at 18 lbs 3 oz, which was 3 ounces lighter than he had been at my unofficial check two weeks earlier. The doctor, not having all the weigh ins I'd been doing unofficially, was not concerned. That weight was in the 63 percentile for both CDC and WHO. 

He measured 28.5 inches tall (97th and 98th percentiles respectively) and his head was 46.5 cm around (98th and 100th percentiles), so he's not exactly a light-weight even if he is losing weight. Because of our trip, Xavier got ten vaccines - all the regularly scheduled ones plus an extra round of measles and a flu shot. So that was one oral vaccine and five pokes - ouch!




Saturday, April 25, 2015

Europe 2015

We just returned from a three week journey to see friends and family in Europe. We hauled 8+ pieces of carry-on luggage, 5 pieces of checked baggage, 3 children with an average age of 2, and two adults across five countries. (If you recall, we undertook a similar journey in 2012 which was blogged here as well: part 1, part 2, and part 3.)

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As always, you can see all the photos online. I started a day-by-day breakdown but ultimately that takes a lot of effort, and I'd rather get something posted sooner rather than later. I've discovered that Google Plus will automatically generate "stories" if you upload a bunch of photos, so that's just what I did. Unfortunately they only process 2,000 photos at a time, and we have more than that, so I had to break it down into two stories. Without further ado:

Part 1: Days 1-18

Part 2: Days 18-20


The trip itself was great, but the weather left a lot to be desired. It felt like the forecast was always good, but what we experienced was cold and rainy (it even snowed three to four times!)

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Tulips

You might have noticed that this blog suddenly stopped mentioning Theo's ski lessons. That's with good reason: the ski area closed after only 40 days of operation, because this winter in Seattle has been so incredibly mild that there's simply no snow in the mountains. The good news is that the ski area is offering 80% off the renewal prices for next year's season passes, so that works quite nicely for me. What does all this have to do with tulips? Well, the mild winter has the tulips in full bloom already, instead of next month! We took advantage of the nice weather today to sneak out of work and check them out.

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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Vivian Hop-A-Thon

Vivian's preschool is doing the MDA Hop-A-Thon. If you are interested in contributing, please see her personal page. We'll have an update on Thursday with her hops!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Xavier at Five Months

Xavier is five months old! Since I never got around to posting his four month stats (and since there won't be any five month stats officially), I'll start with those.

Xavier weighed in about a week past his four month birthday. He tipped the scales at 16 lbs and 12 oz keeping him solidly in the 75th percentile for weight, where he has been since he was two weeks old. 

See all the photos here:
http://furchin.smugmug.com/Children/Xavier/Xavier-5-Months/

He's 27.5 inches tall, putting him above the 97th or 99th percentile according to whether you look at CDC or WHO growth charts. His head measured 17.32 inches (aka 44 cm - they aren't that exact in inches!) which was good for the 87th or 96th percentiles in head circumference.

In other words, he's pretty proportional and if anything, a bit underweight for his head and height percentiles. Zero cause for concern though. 

Xavier grabs toys and can get most of them to his mouth. He is better with soft toys than manipulating hard ones but is definitely making progress. He adores both his siblings and laughing at their antics. Just this weekend Theo played ball with him, which consisted of Theo rolling a tennis ball to Xavier and me and Xavier laughing hysterically because Theo was laughing. He also loves to watch Theo jump up and down and laugh, which gets them both going on a laughing loop. The more Theo does it, the more Xavier laughs. The more Xavier laughs, the more motivated Theo is to jump faster and higher in place. 

With Vivian, it's still almost all laughs but she loves to help change his diapers, pick out his clothes, and give him hugs and kisses constantly. Her new favorite thing is to feed him pretend food in a real bowl with a real spoon. 

As you might've guessed, we have started Xavier on solids this week. The first time he was into it but didn't know quite how to handle everything. He went crossed-eyed trying to track the spoon and would rear back from it trying to keep it in sight. If I held it still, he would focus on it then lunge forward with his mouth open. By the second day, he was still trying to tongue it a bit but caught on after a few bites and downed the whole bowl in about five minutes. We went with avocado for his first food, mashed up very well and mixed with milk. So far there have been no repercussions. 

Xavier still likes people best but is willing to play with toys as well. As he gets better handling items, he's more interests in them. The giraffe on his car seat is still a huge hit. I'm terribly grateful for that as it makes car rides much more bearable. 

He also likes the melon-sized plush rhino ball, and the singing monkey, hedgehog, and moose hanging on his playmat. 

Xavier is definitely still nursing for anywhere from an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and forty five minutes each day. He likes to wait about twenty minutes after emptying one side before starting the other. 

He is completely fascinated with anyone who is eating or has food. He watches them like a hawk, leans towards them, and tries to charm them by smiling. 

Xavier is not rolling over yet. He dies get onto his left side if he's on a flat surface. He arches his back and that causes him to rotate over to one side. He's catching on to the fact that movement is useful for reaching things. He has not mastered it though, and for the most part is flailing around in hopes that something works. He's gotten stuck on his side several times.

He can also move on his bank by pushing with his feet while arching his back. It's a slow process and definitely not deliberate just a result of his flailing. 

Finally he can rotate around the fixed point of his head. If left on the floor long enough, he will move around ninety or one hundred and eighty degrees from where he started. 

He's sleeping less well, which isn't really a surprise to anyone. I knew it couldn't last. He can go about four hours once a night now and then he's up every two hours (or one or every forty minutes for an hour or two) after that. He's still not opening his eyes to nurse at night but he's much more emphatic about it and much quicker to complain. 

He's going to bed for the night between 10 and 11:30 most nights. He gets up for the day between about 10 and 11 a.m.  His naps aren't on any kind of schedule yet. He can't go more than two hours most of the time and often only 1.5 hours awake depending on how long his last sleep was. He's taking naps of about forty minutes frequently with 25 minutes being the norm if he's not on his bassinet. In there, he can nap as long as three hours though that happens much less frequently. 

He's peeing frequently but pooping only once every three to four days. His record was five days so far. I'm curious how solids will affect that schedule.  

Xavier, as a complete surprise to me, has two teeth now! I first got a glimpse of them when visiting Carrie. I have a hard time getting a good look as he always has his tongue out or fingers in his mouth. But I can definitely feel them both on the middle of his bottom gum. 

Xavier still loves tickles on his jawbone, collar bone, the tops of thighs, ribs and between shoulder blades. He is just starting to be amused by peekaboo.  I think that's more the tone of voice and repetitiveness than the actual disappearing act. 

We put him in the Johnny jump up too. He's the first of our kids heavy enough to touch floor. The others required a sack of chicken feed under them to not be dangling from our high doorways. He doesn't bounce himself yet (though he does love bouncing) but definitely controls his movements and turns to follow his head and check out the action. 

Xavier is still our chunk who is easygoing and relaxed. He rarely cries unless he is tired. He does puck up on social cues now which means he cries when his siblings are screaming or startle him. But he also laughs when anyone is laughing. His big gummy smiles from cheek to cheek charm everyone we meet especially paired with his still blue eyes.