Xavier is four months old!

Our baby is four months old! I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone.

He has his check up later this week. I'll post stats once we have them. In the meantime we got giraffe photos with a few bonus pictures of the whole stack of kids.

Xavier is still a very charming guy. I'd say little guy but he's never really been little. He's wearing six month clothes now, and quite a few labeled six months are already too small. He fits best into the ones labeled 6-9 months. I don't remember that distinction being important the first two times. Pants and shirts are generally still ok at the six month size. But he's outgrown anything with feet especially and even some one piece outfits. I can still fasten them but he has a couple extra inches of leg hanging out at the bottom.

In other big news, he's just started to move around. He can't roll over on either direction yet. I suspect that's a reflection of how heavy he is as well as how infrequently he gets tummy time. (Once to twice a day in case you were wondering. Usually it's when I'm getting change or the bigger kids are both out of the house or confined elsewhere in the house.) although he can't roll, I found he migrated several feet from the position I left him on his activity mat. That happened for the first time on his four month birthday.

That means we can't have little choking hazards lying around anymore. It's not that we have had so many as much as I've been a bit lax about enforcing the pick up but no more.

Another big development happened on MLK Day. Michal had the day off for the first time in almost a decade and we all went out for lunch. I had Xavier in the front pack infant carrier. We've officially entered the stage where we have to clear at least a quarter of the table of everything. He grabbed my basket and thoroughly enjoyed moving it around. Everything was plastic or otherwise unbreakable as well as empty this time. But I had completely forgotten about this stage.

He's much better at reaching out and grasping things. One of his favorites now is his sister's hair as she is often in reach. Luckily he's pretty gentle and frequently lets go of his own accord at this point.

Xavier is one hundred percent on board with bottle feeding. We've done it enough times now that he recognizes the bottle visually and starts squirming with excitement when he sees it. He's still on a strict breast mil diet but if the choice were up to him, that would definitely not be the case. He is enraptured by people eating food and will lean, squirm, and lunge in the direction of food. I gave him a clean plastic spoon last week for the first time and he tried so hard to get some food out of it. He put it in his mouth every which way and had drool running all down the handle into his grasp.

Otherwise, he's nursing every two to three hours during the day, with less time between feedings in the evening before his biggest stretch of sleep. He ranges in total time from about an hour and a half to two hours over a 24-hour period.

He can easily grab soft cloth items and stuff them in his mouth. He also has no trouble with things that are firmly attached and can chew on those too. But he has not mastered untethered objects yet and quickly loses them when they drop out of sight and he forgets about them.

Xavier is sleeping about fourteen hours a day. Most of that is overnight. He's definitely not a morning person. He goes to bed between ten and eleven pm most nights and doesn't open his eyes again until ten or eleven the next morning. That's awesome except that Theo has to be at school at 9:30 four days a week.

Xavier has no napping schedule and generally cat naps four to six times during the day. Those range in length from about 25 to 40 minutes. He can fall asleep just about anywhere as far as I can tell and regularly sleeps swaddled in his bassinet, in the Bjorn infant carrier, in the stroller, in the car seat, in the bouncy seat, or in the swing. He'll also occasionally catch me off guard and just pass out on the floor while lying on his activity mat. I look over and he's peacefully snoozing.

Last week he started having a mega-nap about once a day. It's not at a regular time or even guaranteed once a day, but I think it happened about four to five times last week. It usually lasts two the three hours - much, much longer than normal, and almost always when's he wrapped up and in his own bed in the room with the space heater to keep him extra cozy.

Xavier rarely cries. Every once in a while a big burp will get him riled up as it prevents him from nursing. Otherwise, if he's fussing, he's almost always overtired. He rarely goes more than two hours between naps, and typically more like an hour and half before he's pretty much done. 









Xavier has outgrown the baby bucket! By the time we returned from our sundry east coast travels, he no longer fit into it. Instead we dip him into the big tub with his older siblings once a week or less to rinse him off. He's not opposed to the idea but doesn't really get much out of it either, except cold.

In the past month, he's also mastered sucking on his thumb. He doesn't do it super often (not every time he gets tired or fussy or anything) but when it happens he's really into it. I can often hear him slurping away at it, which clues me in to the fact that he's hungry again.

Xavier likes toys, especially the ones with faces, but definitely still prefers real people and interactions to any type of toy.I have yet to notice any color or pattern preference, but he's very willing to share his award winning smiles with strangers and familiar faces. He's got an awesome belly laugh that he employs when he's tickled about anything. Sometimes in the evenings he gets punchy right before he goes to bed and just making eye contact is enough to set him off. His dad shaking his arm up and down rapidly is always good for a laugh, and he still has tons of tickle spots on his jaw, collar bone, ribs, and especially his feet. His feet are hilarious.

Theo and Vivian Trade Candy

For his birthday, Theo got a $5 gift certificate to the local grocery store. He generously allowed Vivian to buy some bags of candy using his money (although he got more for himself) and the result is they ended up with different kinds of candy in their piles. This is the result of negotiating and trading:

A Tale of Five Christmasses

We are far, far behind on posting on this blog. In the case of Christmas, our laziness starts to look very prescient, as we just had our fifth (and, I think, final) Christmas last night when a box of gifts arrived. It was a very busy Christmas season which had us in both Atlanta and Cincinnati. Without further ado, presenting the five days of Christmas:

Christmas 0: Santa Photos at Red Apple



Christmas 1: Christmas Eve in Atlanta with the Bentleys

Theo made a train track out of Christmas presents, complete with a tunnel:



Vivian received pink butterfly wings with a pink tutu:





Another big hit was pretty much anything related to Daniel Tiger. Here's the trolley:



Theo received a simple Airbus airplane model as a stocking stuffer. It was incredibly exciting for him and he flew it around so much that we actually have almost no photos of it, except this one with him holding it.



After everyone went home and/or to bed, Sarah and I tried stuffing Xavier into a stocking (as we did with his siblings when they were babies). It was largely unsuccessful:



Christmas 2: Christmas Morning in Atlanta

The stack of presents was impressive:



Vivian, for scale:



Opening the stockings:



Afterwards we went outside to swing, but it was cold. With all the blankets, the kids almost fell asleep!





Xavier got presents too, and Theo and Vivian were very excited to help him open them:



Christmas 3: December 26th in Cincinnati

On the afternoon of Christmas day we flew up to Cincinnati for a brief two-day visit.



The letter mats were very fun!



Here's Vivian getting tucked in with the small subset of animals that we brought on the trip:





Theo got a vest:



Xavier looks forlorn at his siblings open his presents:



The coup d'etat was, however, the new LeapPad tablets!



Returning to Atlanta was exciting!



Back in Atlanta, we went to the Gift of Lights at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Fundamentally you get to drive around the racetrack (slowly!) and look at light displays set up -- and you also drive through the access tunnels which are covered in lights!





We also took the kids to ride the Pink Pig. While it's "Atlanta's Christmas Tradition" I found it poorly organized and largely a disappointment.





We also went to downtown(ish) Atlanta and checked out the old fourth ward park, complete with super-fancy disk swings:



Playground at Senoia State Park:



Christmas 4: Seattle

The flight back went quite well; I sat in a row with Theo and Vivian and Sarah sat across the aisle with Xavier. A lot of horse-trading went into this seating arrangement, including calling Delta twice to get two seats in aisle 14 which we then traded on-plane to the folks on the aisles in the row with our other two seats. Fortunately we weren't too far back -- the back of the plane always sucks!



We managed to stuff Xavier into a larger stocking.







Vivian got a tent!



And a doll that uses the potty!



Theo got some trains!



Christmas 5: Box from the Masons

A box from the Masons arrived yesterday:

Theo's Ski Lessons

Back in October I signed Theo up for a 6-week series of ski lessons, and the very first lesson was today! Aside from the fact the Pacific Northwest isn't having a very good snow year and the ski area should really have been closed because there were literally only three runs open, Theo did great! Part of the reason the poor snow conditions didn't bother him is that all the real beginnners were hanging out in the "corral": an enclosed area with carpets to walk uphill on. ("Uphill" is very loosely defined as there's hardly any slope at all.)



When I mean Theo did well, I mean exceptionally well. I was surprised at how well he did. Not only with the chaos and confusion of dropoff (separation was abrupt and he had said he didn't even want to go, so the fact there were no tears was a surprise), but Theo actually skied a lot better than I thought he would. Here's a video I caught from quite a distance away from early in the morning. I was trying to stay hidden. Theo is in the blue coat and about to get off the carpet inside the corral.



I later came back around 11 to check on the class and this time Theo spotted me. He was happy to see me, but got really sad when I didn't take him home and many tears were shed. Later after I picked him up he told me he didn't eat any lunch because he was too sad so perhaps being spotted caused two full hours of grief. However, when I came back around 2:15pm to watch the final fifteen minutes of the class, he was super happy to show me his skiing abilities, and when his class went to build snowmen I thought for sure my video opportunities would go away but he declared he'd rather keep skiing!



He even did well walking around with his skis on:



Perhaps part of the fun was eating snow. He did a lot of it -- I suspect part of it was he was actually quite warm, part was thirst, and part was the boredom of waiting in line.



Those poor snow conditions I mentioned? This is the best run they had open:



Afterwards we stopped by the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad Museum because he did so well. Check out all the photos.

Xavier at Three Months

Xavier is three months old! Can you believe it? He's still a nice chunk of change and loves eating and sleeping. He nurses about every two hours during the day though he can go up to three hours between feedings on very rare occasions. He has also learned to take a bottle which is not surprising to me at all even though I waited until well past two months of age to try it. He will suck on anything from his fist to a pacifier to my shoulder or arm. Anytime he encounters bare skin (and lots of the time even when he doesn't), he tries to suck. He probably prefers the bottle as I've noticed a very marked increase in biting when he's nursing. He's more likely to get frustrated waiting for the letdown now, too.

He's nursing up to two hours a day but rarely more than that and sometimes as low as an hour and a half total nursing time in a twenty-four hour period.

At night, even during all of our recent travels (Georgia, DC, Cincinnati), he's been sleeping extremely well. He normally goes at least six hours from when he falls asleep and often it is eight or more hours before he wakes up for his first feeding. He even topped out at nine hours one night! He usually goes back to sleep for two to three hours after that. If he's only sleeping for closer to six hours before the first feeding he often nurses twice more, usually only on one side, before waking up for the day.

He still doesn't cry when he "wakes up" to nurse at night. I know he's hungry because he tosses his head back and forth rapidly looking for a snack and the noise is enough to wake me. He never even opens his eyes but instead just latches on and falls off when he goes back to sleep.

When he wakes up for the day he also doesn't fuss which means, especially at my parents' house, that I have to go check on him regularly to see if he's woken up yet. At home I can often hear him rustling around.

He's sleeping almost entirely in his bassinet or in the small crib when we were in Georgia. He certainly doesn't object to sleeping with me in the big bed and often that's how I get him to fall asleep at night is by lying down with him until he nurses himself into oblivion.

He's definitely a night owl and by the time he beds down for the night I am totally ready to tuck in as well. The biggest roadblock to going to bed together between eleven p.m. and midnight is me putting him down long enough to go get ready for bed myself.

He wakes up smiling and happy about twelve hours later. I felt guilty waking him to take Theo to school four days a week but since we were traveling almost all of the last month that hasn't been much of an issue. He eventually shifted time zones so he was falling asleep at eleven to midnight instead of between one and two. Now that we are back in very dark Seattle, I'm curious to see if he shifts back to west coast time or continues going to bed around 9:30 local time.

Xavier does not cry much at all. On one of our quick trips, I heard him cry only once in two days - except for car rides. He still hates the car, even with a warm blanket and pacifier. He screams bloody murder there. Lucky for us both, courtesy of my mother's satellite radio stations, we discovered he loves blues music more than he hates car rides. Sadly satellite radio doesn't work in the carport, but as soon as we pull out and the blues music comes on, he makes a few more "huh huh huh" grumbly noises and then calms down. After that he's almost always asleep.

Xavier is much more verbal now. He makes "ooo" and "ah" noises no problem and still loves to look at faces and have conversations. He has an excellent sad face as a precursor to crying where his lower lip rolls out and his whole face puckers up.

He is also very ticklish now too and his laugh has evolved from sounding like he might be choking to some quality belly laughs. There's nothing quite like a baby laughing to put a smile on your face. He's ticklish on his collarbone and along his jawline as well as toes and feet in general.

He doesn't have a lot of hair but he has much more than either of his siblings did at this age. All of his hair except a small band at the back of his neck has fallen out. It's come back in on the top in what we call a five o'clock shadow and so far it looks very dark. In fact with his ears and his smile he looks very similar to a photo my mother has on her wall of my grandfather as a baby.

Xavier learned to grasp things during our travels. I ordered a bouncy seat for him since we were staying so long and I wanted somewhere besides the crib or the floor to safely put him. He spent many happy hours in it watching the toys on the bar and waving his hands. By the time we left he could consistently catch the blue elephant we attached to the bar which hung the lowest of the toys. He doesn't realize when he's captured something yet and often lets go very soon after grasping it. He's best at grabbing cloth items but we shall see how that develops.

He loves both the singing light up stuffed puppy he got (In all fairness both the older kids are obsessed with it too. They love to show him and make it sing and light up for him or even just their own entertainments.) and the stuffed gray bear from his auntie. He will talk and smile at the bear fairly indefinitely.

He gets cranky when he is hungry - which is more often than you might think - or sometimes sleepy though that's often the unfortunate nexus of hungry and sleepy. He's rarely awake two hours at a time but if he is he's usually angry. He's still taking a bunch of twenty to forty minute naps during the day with no discernible schedule except how long he's been awake. That's pretty convenient with two older kids, though, one of whom has been mostly done napping on a regular basis since the week of Thanksgiving.

Xavier has outgrown his three to six month clothes and moved solidly into the six month stuff. We don't have any stats this time but he goes back for a check up at the end of the month. In the meantime he's filled out the six month pajamas quite well and I suspect he will move into nine month footed stuff sooner rather than later. He's outgrowing things mostly by length of his legs but occasionally it gets tight on his head too. Tops are more likely to be short in the torso than short on his arms and he's plowing through shoes as well. His feet are definitely bigger than both his siblings at the same age but of course he is too so that makes sense. I suspect his feet are closer to normal size for his age whereas Theo and Vivian both wear much smaller shoe sizes than all of their classmates of the same age or even younger.

Xavier is big enough that when my aunt met him before the holidays, she subsequently returned the six month clothes she had purchased and got him nine months sizes instead. :-)

Xavier is loved and adored by everyone in the family! Vivian can't wait until he gets up in the morning (or afternoon as was often the case when we were on the east coast). She jumps up and down and squeals with joy to see him. She loves to help pick out his clothes, change his diaper, and still holds him multiple times a day. Theo gives him lots of hugs, (very enthusiastic - sometimes too enthusiastic for Xavier) pats, and kisses. None of us can resist his sweet smiles and belly laughs and we look forward to sharing many more with him in the months to come!

Michal adds: My photos are now available after an upload delay. A small sampling: