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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Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Be sure to check out all the photos.

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.