Like father like son

One moment of fun with Xander today, here is a picture of him taking after his dad.
Xander is in his World of Warcraft onezie playing with an XBox360 controller. He was REALLY interested in this controller. It kind of looks like a baby toy with the nobs and bright, primary colored buttons.

Baby Mystery

Wouldn't it be great if human babies came out of the womb knowing how to communicate? Xander has been a challenging mystery to us the past few days. I had thought all of his new fussiness was because of his ear infection. However, I had the doctor check today and his ears look much better.

Here are the strange things we have observed:

• Extreme fussiness - He will go from laughing to pain cries (screams) in seconds. He is soothed by holding him and walking around or nursing him. The baby bjorn carrier seemed to help a little with this. At least, my arms have a rest. He will spit the pacifier out. He starts to cry if you lay him down for a diaper change or to change his clothes. I hope this isn't just his true personality coming out.
  
• Frequent nursing - The past two days & nights, he has nursed every 2hours, both breasts. Could this be a growth spurt need for more food or comfort nursing?
  
• Extreme drooling - Trevor mentioned that his mouth was like a faucet. I have read that this could be teething but then other sources say that drooling has nothing to do with teething.
  
• Clawing at his head while laying down - He has scratch marks and cuts on the back of his head. I have cut his nails super short which prevents any more damage. I have slathered on every kind of cream that Target sells in case it is itchy. It's hard to say if he really is itchy. The pediatrician told me to try 50% dandruff shampoo just once to see if that helped...in case his mild cradle cap was actually itchy. It may be cradle cap or it may be he just discovered his hands. He seems to do this mostly when in the back laying position, so mostly at night.
  

So, he could be teething, he could have GERD, he could have cradle cap itch, and/or he could be a super needy baby with an emerging personality. I just hope that I can find some way to make my little boy happy.

Bipolar Baby

Today, Xander was pretty fussy. I think it is because he is sick. You know how you feel really cold when you are first sick even though your body temperature is warm. I think he was feeling that way because he wanted to be attached to us all day long. We couldn't even put him down for a second to change his diaper without him screaming. This is not typical Xander.

We did manage to get a few moments of laughter out of him and tried to distract him from feeling bad. Copper helped us entertain him by licking his toes. That cracked him up. He also grabbed onto her ears and fur. She was very tolerant of all of it, which is good because I'm sure he's got more in store for her.

He also liked playing with one of his new Christmas toys from Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris. I put half of the legs on so it is kind of propped up. Then, I hold Xander in a seated position in front of it. He bangs on it which produces all sorts of interesting sounds and makes lights blink.

Dad's technique for keeping Xander happy today was to sing Snoop Dog songs to him. Let's just say I hope that Xander's musical abilities take after mom instead of dad. :-)

Fun with cousins

Here's a picture of Xander with his cousin Trevor. Trevor was so sweet with Xander. He was trying to keep the drool off of Xander's chin. We decided Xander's mouth is like a broken faucet "drip, drip, drip...."

Christmas Firsts

It's been an interesting week filled with Christmas firsts:

1. First Christmas Gifts - Xander received some really nice gifts this year. From mommy and daddy, he got some heat monitoring spoons, bibs, a new outfit, and a blinky key toy. From great grandparents, he received money. From grandparents, he received blocks, books, and money. From S & D, he received a cute Christmas ornament. From Auntie Laura and Uncle Chris, he received two cool fisher price toys.
   
2. First overnight trip from home - The trip to Ft. Worth went very smoothly as he slept almost the whole way. On the way back, it was a little more challenging because he was awake. He kept getting bored and lonely in the back. Eventually, he did fall asleep so we could make it the rest of the way home. Auntie Laura and Uncle Chris were kind enough to let us borrow their bed while we visited and that made things a lot easier.
   
3. First ear infection and medicine - On the 23rd, Xander was really fussing and inconsolable. We took him into the doctor to check for an ear infection. Since Dad was suffering through one (and still is), there was a good chance. We were right. The doctor gave us some antibiotics and we have a check up in 3 weeks.
   
4. First accident in the bath - This one is pretty gross so you might want to skip it. The antibiotic that we gave Xander for his ear infection also has a side effect of loose stools, which he accidentally had in the bath tub. I have to say that is the grossest thing our little boy has done so far. Daddy helped me hose him off with the kitchen sink sprayer and we had a 2nd bath. Yuck! Then, I spent and hour disinfecting the sink.
   

Neighborhood full of little ones

Last night, our neighbor, John came over with some really excellent cranberry bread. He caught us up on the latest news with his new little baby, Angela. Angela just had her 6 month visit. She and mom, Aijuan, are doing very well. I remembered that they have a blog, too. Here's the link http://mesquitemonkey.wordpress.com/.

Christmas Elf

I hope the grandparents have all received their Christmas cards by now. We included some magnets that we made of the picture above.
Originally, we were going to put Xander in the box for the picture, but we couldn't get him into a good position. We took about 50 shots, and this was my instant favorite. I doctored the colors a bit with GIMP and the printed them on a page of magnetic paper. The hat came out of the $1 bin at Target and just barely fit. Dolphin thinks the hat makes him look like a little pope.

Cuter than this??

Milo's mom said that babies start to get really cute at 6months. If Xander is cuter than this picture in two months, we are REALLY in trouble.

Poor Dolpin

Poor Dolphin finally received a video game gift that he has wanted for 6 months last night and he's too sick to play. He has a viral infection causing a cough and ringing his ears. Whatever is going on with his ears is messing with his balance so he's also dizzy and nauseous. I think both Xander and I had the same infection last week, but we didn't have it as bad. I hope Daddy Dolphin recovers before Christmas. Xander and I took good care of him today.

Maybe Dolphin can sleep in another room tonight so he can get his rest without Xander waking him up. I have been very sick twice since Xander was born. On those two occasions, I slept in a separate room from Dolphin and Xander. Dolphin would bring Xander to me when he wanted to eat and couldn't be comforted any other way. Those two nights were the only 4 hours stretches of sleep that I have had since the beginning of August. It really helped me to recover more quickly. I should definitely return the favor to Dolphin with a peaceful night of sleep.

I read all about ear infections on line today trying to determine if Dolphin should go to the doctor or not. I ended up making him go because everything online side he should have started to get better after a few days. The doctor didn't really have much to offer except some really expensive medicine. The medicine appears to be every kind of cold relief medicine that I have ever heard rolled into one pill. Fortunately, he does not have an ear infection (bacterial) after all...just a virus related ear ache.

Speaking of ear infections, this is the one area where my boss gave me parenting advice. He told me that I should get one of those scopes that the doctors use to look in the kids ear. He said that once you have seen one ear infection, you will be able to use the scope to self diagnose. He has triplets so I guess anything he can do to save one trip to the doctor would be good. I saw some of those scope things online for about $30. I undecided if I should follow his advice. Right now, I'm just hoping that Xander never has any trouble with his ears....

Comrades

Today, Dolphin's company had a potluck holiday celebration. This is a big change from last year. Previously, they took out everyone to a very nice, expensive restaurant. Due to economic constraints, this year was a lot different. They had a small lunch at the office and everyone could bring their families.

At the last minute, I decided to go. I didn't bring Xander because taking him out of day care and putting him back in would be a huge hassle and disruptive to his routine. I felt bad though because all the other families brought their kids. In my defense, they are stay-at-home moms.

One of the little ones at the party was 13 month old Milo. He was super cute. He looks a lot like I imagine that Xander will be at that age. His eye color is blue-grey like Xander's is right now. He has the lightest strawberry blond hair. I believe Xander's hair is going to be that color, too. Dolphin disagrees. He thinks that Xander is going to have dark hair because the current hair (which isn't very much) on his head is dark.

Milo's parents were fun to talk to. He is their first and still has yet to sleep through the night, and yet, he is a perfectly happy and healthy little boy. I love to hear stories like that. I get tired of telling people that Xander doesn't sleep through the night and them looking at me like I'm some kind of failure as a parent.

Speaking of sleeping through the night, that one 5 hour sleep stretch does seem to be a freak occurrence. Xander was back to him 3 hourish stretches against last night. He also started a new kind of cry sound last night. I'm not sure what it means yet. It not a really urgent sound cry like pain or hunger or fear. It sounds like it's got more complex thought associated with it...if that makes any sense. I hope it is not because he is getting sick like Dolphin. Dolphin had ringing in his ears last night. How is Xander supposed to let me know if he has ringing ears or not? Poor guy...

I hate dishes

Every day, here is the pile of plastic that I have to wash:

We've got bottles for day care, pumping parts, and milk storage. I need to get a better dish-waster that can handle all this stuff automatically. Our dishwasher doesn't get the nipples clean. If wash those by hand, I might as well wash all the other parts, too. At least, I have started making the human dish waster Dolphin do it every other day.

As for the increase in laundry, I don't mind that so much. Our washer and dryer work very well. I just keep the washer open all day and throw Xander messes in there until it gets full, then wash. I initially folded all his clothes, now I just stuff them into his closet shelves unfolded. It's kind of a waste of time to fold. In fact, I don't even do it for my own clothes. I'm sure my employees think I'm a real mess these days. I looked in the mirror the other day at work and my hair was going every which way.

Very first Christmas Present

Xander received his very first Christmas present today by mail. This came from Great Auntie Sue in Colorado. It looks like it will be a lot of fun for Xander.

I can't wait until he sit up and take paths in a regular bath tub instead of the infant bath tub. This toy should make it really fun for Xander. I love taking baths so if he takes after me, I'm sure he will, too.

Calm after the storm

OK, I don't want to jinx anything, but I think Xander is on the verge of sleeping longer. Unless my sleepless memory failed me, I think he might have slept for a 5 hours stretch last night from mid-night to 5amish. Sometimes I find it hard to remember exactly when and how often he gets up though. I do everything possible not to really wake myself up. I hope this wasn't a freak event...only time will tell.

Lately, I "think" he has been getting up every 2 to 3.5 hours, eating every 4 hours at night, and comfort in between. We still had a day this week that he was awake every hour, but I think that might have been the peak of his illness. He didn't take good naps that day either, only 15 min. at a time.



I did finally breakdown and read a book on baby sleep called _The No Cry Sleep Solution_ by Elizabeth Pantley. I was trying to avoid too much "advice" about baby sleep and try to be a more intuitive parent about it. The book doesn't really talk about amazing magic bullets. It's mostly pretty obvious advice. What I did like was that it was encouraging. Sometimes, when you are exhausted, and you hear about other perfect angel babies that sleep through the night from birth on, it can be really frustrating.

Hopefully, there is some karma involved with Xander. Maybe I'll be able to sleep better when Xander's a teenager and those perfect angel kids will keep their parents up fretting. Hehehe...

Planning for the big trip

Next week, we are going on our first long trip with Xander to Uncle Chris and Auntie Laura's house for Christmas. I am not sure how this is going to go. We've gone for a 45 min drive before and that went ok. This will be a 3-4 hours trip. Maybe if we do it at the right time, Xander will sleep most of the way. To make matters even more exciting, we'll have both dogs in the back, too.

Now, I am thinking about what I have to pack. I think minimum of 2 changes per clothes per day, sleepware for each night, a boatload of burp clothes and bibs, diapers. There's a lot of stuff...we might have to leave Dolphin at home to fit it all. :-P

More childproofing

I remembered one more childproofing item. Glass beads. I have some of those glass bead things that you put in the bottom of a vase. When a friend of ours came over with their 2 year old daughter, she started eating them. Thank goodness we caught her before she swallowed!

Christmas Cards

Yay! I finished all my Christmas cards. I bought just the perfect amount this year including the envelopes that I screwed up. All the grandparents are going to receive a special little treat in their card.

Let me know what you think!

Childproofing

We're going to have to do some child proofing very soon. For the major danger categories, here is what I am going to do:

• Poison - cabinet locks for 3 cabinets (2 bathroom and 1 kitchen)
  
• Water - I wasn't going to do anything special here. Supposedly, kids can drown in a dogs water bowl, but I'm not sure what I could do to prevent that other than keep a close eye on Xander
  
• Electricity - I need to get some outlet covers
  
• Fire - I think we need something to prevent him from accidentally turning on the stove burners. The dogs have accidentally turned on the burners before. If they can do it, so will Xander eventually. I think there is some kind of lock you can buy for that. I don't think we need to do anything for the fireplace. We never burn anything in it.
  
• Heavy things - We have some precarious shelves in the living room that need to be strapped to the walls
  
• Sharp things - We ditched the scary glass coffee table for an ottoman last year. The sharp kitchen items are all up high.
  
• Stringy things - I need to shorten the chords on all the blinds since they are a strangulation risk
  

Did I miss anything?

Found that thumb

Last night, Xander was so cute. He was laying in my arms just staring up at me. He took his free and put it in my mouth. Hey, mom has a mouth, too, but it feels different...there are pokey white things in her mouth. Then, today, Xander discovered sucking his thumb. He switched between thumbs and even tried two at once. Thumb sucking is fine in my book as it helps him to self-sooth.

Also, this morning, he was awake before mom and dad, as usual, but he just stayed in his bed playing with his lovey. Of course, he still made enough noise that mom couldn't sleep through it.

He seems to be doing a little bit better today. He's been sick with some kind of virus. In fact, we all have. This virus had all sorts of symptoms. I had a sore throat and nausea. Xander and I both had really itchy eyes and coughing. Xander has spots in his mouth, and was eating less. Today, I have had uncontrollable sneezing and Dad just got the sore throat. We're all surviving though. I am looking forward to when Xander and I are both well at the same time again.

Preparing for Christmas

This will be a pretty low-key Christmas in our house this year. Here is a picture of our only decorations. We might forgo some gifts this year and tighten the economic belt a little bit. These sure are pretty to look at though.

Exersaucer Try 2

We tried the exersaucer again. This time we raised it up and put his legs through the little leg holes. He immediately turned right towards the little mirror toy and started staring at it. He also like the noisy spinning toy with beads.

This past week he has started to be able to bare weight on his feet for maybe 5-10s. He also seems to be getting close to rolling over from back to front. I have seen him roll on to his side, but just not all the way over yet.

Mother's Intuition Wins

We took Xander to the ear, nose, and throat specialist per the recommendation of our pediatrician. The specialist said that his snorting was perfectly normal and that we should not have to do anything about it unless it bothers Xander. Fortunately, it does not bother him at all. Xander was spared having some kind of scope threaded threw is nose. That sounds awful!!!

Making noise

Birds and Bees - Carrots and Peas

Between 4 and 6 months, we can introduce Xander to solids. I was reading some information on this (all the rules) and I'm so intimidated. The whole time I was learning to breastfeed, I kept thinking "I can't wait until he starts solids." Now I kind of consider myself a breastfeeding pro (pat on back) , and I am not looking forward to solid foods. I would rather just skip to teaching Xander about the birds and the bees or how to tie shoes.

There is so much information out there about how to introduce solids. It's a bit overwhelming. I feel that parenting should be at least somewhat intuitive for basic needs or we wouldn't survive as a species. However, all these rules about starting solids seems very non-intuitive. Oh my.

Xander's not quite ready for solid food yet, but it is probably time to start looking for a high chair.

4th month well-child visit

Xander had his 4 month well child visit today. He's 26.5in long(95%-tile), 17lbs 7oz (90th %-tile), and his head is 41.5cm around (30%-tile). I am really not sure why they use different units for head circumference and length. Go figure.

The doctor requested that he see an ear, nose, and throat specialist because of some snorting that he made while he was being checked. The specialist will check just to make sure the soft tissues in his throat are developing correctly. I think it all sounds kind of normal to me, but we'll see how mom's intuitive measures up against medical science.

Poor Copper and Peanut

I took the dogs to the vet this week. Both gained a lot of weight since their last visit. Copper gained 10lbs and Peanut gained 5lbs. I feel bad. I'm pretty sure this is because I haven't been giving them enough walks. It is impossible to walk them both and push Xander's stroller at the same time.

The receptionist at the vet said that weight gain would probably get worse when Xander starts feeding himself in a high chair. They will be catching anything that falls overboard. Dolphin suggested that if they are eating enough from those droppings that we might drop them down to one bowl of dog food a day instead of two.

Speaking of high chairs, I think we are going to have to get one soon. In just a couple of months, Xander is going to be ready to try some solid food. Oh wow, he's growing up so fast.

Shopping like a big boy

Today, we went grocery shopping at Central Market, and Xander sat in the shopping cart like a big boy. Previously, he would sit in his infant carrier/car seat. While he enjoyed the carrier, it did not let him look around very well. He could only look straight ahead. Sitting up in the cart, he a nice 180 degree view. He really enjoyed looking around at the store so much that it wore him out and he slept on the way home.

Getting ready for the holidays

We're not putting up the Christmas tree this year, but I did invest in some stockings from Pottery Barn. I really like the products that PB sells, but I rarely purchase anything from there because it is so expensive. I wanted some really nice, matching stockings though so I splurged. I even spent the extra $5.50 per stocking to have our names embroidered on them. In case our family grows in the future, I also purchased an extra "blank" stocking. I figure that I can find a place like Things Remembered to embroider that stocking some day...or maybe I'll learn how to use my sewing machine.

Musical Tastes

There are many things that I wonder about Xander and can't wait to find out. One of those things I look forward to learning is what kind of music Xander will like. Will he be a punk teenager playing his music so loud it annoys everyone around him? Will he be a musician into the classics? Will I like what he listens to or will be the stereotypical parent and tell him to turn the music down? One thing I do know is that he will have more access to varied music than any generation before him.

Regarding music, my friend Dave sent me this interesting article about baby lullabies: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7760186.stm. It seems that a lot more moms are using recent popular music to sing to their babies. I don't really sing to Xander to calm him down. To him, singing is just like talking and he considers that something interesting to listen to. It is good distraction from fussiness, but I don't think it would put him to sleep.

While I was on maternity leave, Xander and I would spend about an hour a day listening to '80s and '90s music from the TV. We would dance around the house while I belted out all those retro tunes. I think it was the first "rewarding" parenting moment for me. Singing is something that always makes me feel good, and Xander enjoyed it, too.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Shelby and Dave. The food was excellent, and we are totally stuffed. Xander enjoyed playing with Shelby's mom. We also met Laura and Simon, who were very cool. I can't wait until next year when Xander can have some of the Thanksgiving traditional cuisine.

Dad gets the parent-of-the-week award!!

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights we observed some strange behavior from Xander. He just would not go to sleep or stay asleep without being held. Even when he was held, he was squirming and trying to wake up. This is unusual behavior for him. Normally, he falls asleep with a pacifier and only wakes up to eat and then fall back asleep again. In addition, his day caregivers said he was unusually fussy and they could not figure out what he wanted. Finally, he was having a hard time eating. He would take two sucks and then delatch, then repeat over and over. It was almost like he couldn't breath through his nose but I was unable to suction anything out. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, but we were exhausted from staying up all night trying to get him to sleep. We needed a solution.

Since he had been coughing and that wakes him up, I decided to take him to the pediatrician. I stayed home with Xander and after 45 minutes on the phone finally got an appointment. The doctor checked him and ruled out teething, pneumonia, bronchitis, rashes, and ear infections. He said that Xander was very congested and that all we could offer was saline drops and a vaporizer for the congestion. He also suggested elevating his crib to improve drainage.

The rest of the day, Xander was perfectly normal. He was happy, ate well, and took good naps. Then, as we got close to bed time, he started with the fussiness. He fell asleep but when he drifted out a deep sleep, he woke up almost screaming. As soon as we picked him up, he would stop crying and fall back asleep. Nothing else would stop the crying though.

Then, Dad decided they maybe we should try swaddling because he seemed to be flailing his limbs a lot. We had transitioned him from swaddling to a sleep sack a little over a month ago and he had no problem. We only have one receiving blanket (a homemade hand-me-down from 10 years ago) that is big enough for Xander. We tightly wrapped him up and victory! He quickly feel asleep and had a normal remainder for the night.

I can't say that I understand why Xander wants to be swaddled again. Maybe it is just something we need to do while he is sick or for a little while. The important thing for now is that it works. It is amazing that 2 and 3 hour sleep increments feel so much better than 30 min. to 1 hour increments. I can almost say that I feel refreshed today.

All roads lead to Xander's mouth

All things end up in Xander's mouth:
1) The phone rattle
2) The monkey lovey
3) His hand

Who needs sleep?

"Who needs sleep? Well you're never gonna get it. Who needs sleep? Tell me what's that for." Every time that I think about the sleeping challenges of new parenthood, that Barenaked Ladies lyric pops into my head. Am I ever going to get it again?

One of the last purchases that we made before Xander was born was this side-car mini-crib. If you'll notice in the picture, he has grown to almost the full length of the crib.

Soon he will outgrow this, which has me wondering what is the next step. Will he move to his big crib in his own room? Should we move the big crib into our room? Should we move into his room?

So far, I have taken a laid-back approach to developing his sleep habits. We try to make bedtime a routine and he has fallen into the habit of going to bed at roughly the same time every night. Neither he nor I are ready for any sort of cry-it-out methodologies to get him to sleep through the night. I'm not sure that we will ever be. I'd much rather we just get there when we get there.

Until that time comes when he sleeps longer, I've gotten into the habit of bringing him to bed with me after his 1am wake up. This makes life easier for me. When he wakes up to nurse, I just turn my body, get him to latch on, and then fall asleep. I really don't see an alternative given the amount of times that he likes to wake up between 3am and 6am. I think I would be miserable if I had to sit up and be awake that whole time.

It's possible that Xander will outgrow his side car crib before he outgrows frequent night nursing. I'm not sure what we'll do then. Maybe we'll just put him straight into our bed at night.

Exersaucer

Grandma and Grandpa Therrien gave Xander this exersaucer at the baby shower. We have been dying to get Xander into it. He is just starting to sit a little bit so we decided to try it out. Dad assembled all the parts, but we are still shy a few batteries. This thing takes 10 AAA batteries. I think this is Xander's contribution to excessive energy consumption in America.

He liked looking in the mirror and the hanging objects. He also liked all the noises that the various pieces make. I'm sure he is really going to grow to love this toy.

Upside down

Xander seemed to enjoy playing with Daddy upside down.

The outfit he is wearing is size 6 to 9 months. Our little 3.5 month old Xander isn't very little anymore. I think his growing is starting to slow down a little bit thankfully. I remember during his 3 week and 6 week growth spurts that I could visibly see a difference in size from one day to the next. Now, he is growing much more gradually. We'll see what happens when he hits that 6 month growth spurt.

The Dogs and Xander

People are always asking about how our older children, the dogs, are with Xander. Aside from the bulb syringe fiasco, they are quite good. Here are a couple of cute pictures.

Copper snuggling with Xander and Mom


Peanut trying on one of Xander's bibs

Something Xander learned from day care

Xander has been taking bottles of breast milk while he is in day care. Dianna mentioned to me that he could hold his bottle a little bit. Last night, I went out for a girls-night-out. Dolphin tried to see if Xander could hold his own bottle. He could for about 10seconds and not necessarily at the right angle to get the milk out.

BTW, the girls-night-out was quite fun. We went out to dinner and then to see "Twilight". It was a cute little movie. It was the longest that I had gone without nursing or pumping, and perhaps a little too long. By the time, I got home I thought my breasts were going to explode.

Hook 'em Horns

Dolphin surprised me this morning when he suggested we wanted to go shopping for more clothes for Xander. Dolphin? Shop for clothes? It just started to turn cold in Austin. While we were at Baby 'r' Us, we saw the section of burnt orange long horn and red aggie outfits. We are not football fans at all but couldn't resist. We bought 3 warm outfits for him and a couple of miscellaneous items.

While we were there, we saw a couple of types of baby seats that are supposed to help babies sit up. We were tempted, but they are really expensive. He's been doing well sitting with the support of a boppy so we'll stick with that.

At the checkout, an older lady (grandma maybe) was buying an enormous stack of clothes. There's no way that one baby could wear all of the clothes before he outgrew them. Then, we noticed that she was actually buying two of every outfit. Twins! A few minutes later, mom showed up with the twins in a huge two-baby stroller. I can't imagine how hard it must be to drive around.

Bulb syringe drama continues

Yesterday morning, I left the bulb syringe out and instructed Dolphin to clean out Xander's nose before taking him into day care. He decided that Xander did not need it, and the bulb syringe was left out. Last night, I was looking for it and could not find it. We suspected the dogs were involved, of course. So, Dolphin looked outside in the backyard. Sure enough, they had destroyed it. I still needed to suction Xander's nose so I drove to the near by CVS to get a replacement (in fact, I bought 2).
This morning, I set the new syringe down for just a minute while I dressed Xander. In the just the second that I looked away, Copper grabbed the syringe and started taunting Peanut with it in the other room.
I'm convinced it is the smell of the rubber that makes the dogs think that the syringe belongs to them. We by racket balls in bulk for them to play with. Usually, they play fetch, but sometimes Copper destroys them. The smell is similar. They stay away from all of Xander's other plastic toys.

I spoke too soon

So much for baby memories, Xander has started to recognize the evil blue bulb syringe. He started crying when he saw it this morning.

I had to use the nose drops and bulb syringe this morning to clear out his nose. He was having problems eating because he couldn't breath through his nose. The nose drops that his day-caregivers recommended really do work well. Xander hates them and screams when I use them, but it is necessary evil. I hate doing it though. I really, really hope he gets better soon.

BTW, speaking of the bulb syringe, I think I need to buy some more. Our dogs are fascinated by the syringe. I don't know if it is the smell of the rubber or the shape, but they treat it like a ball. Both of them have tried to steal it for a toy, and I saved it just seconds before it came to a chewed destruction. It's hard to wash the dog slobber off, too. For now, I have to remember to put it up on a high place. I should have some backups though in case they succeed in destruction.

Poor sick bean

Little Xander-bean has been suffering his first cold the past few days. He has a pretty bad cough and a runny nose. Fortunately, he still seems pretty content and has no fever.

At the recommendation of one of his day caregivers, we bought some of the saline nose drops. I absolutely hate using them because Xander screams. He doesn't like it at all. The drops do help clean out his nose though and he is always much happier afterward. Giving him drops has proven to me that babies his age really do not have good memories. As much as he hate the drops, he never anticipates it.

The cold is making nights pretty exhausting. He gets up more than usual, which is not that bad in isolation. He seems to have a harder time getting back to sleep. This morning, we could not get him to go back to sleep with Dolphin while I got ready for work. (His normal routine). His nose didn't look blocked but we tried suctioning anyway. A lot of mucus came out, and of course, he started crying a lot. With the trama of the suctioning, I thought he was awake for good. However, we popped in a pacifier and he went right back to sleep. It seems like the stuffy nose was keeping him awake. Tonight, I might try suctioning him when he gets up to nurse to see if that helps him stay asleep longer.

First Entry

OK. I am being unoriginal. I saw a friend's blog for her family, and stold the idea. I've had a couple of other blogs before, but I haven't updated them in a while. One blog covered the building of our first home. The second recorded the beginnings of my photography hobby. Now, I am trying to share the story of our family.

Dolphin 'n' Amy (DNA) recently added a new addition to our family, Xander. Born in August, Xander impacts everything about our lives every day.

Welcome and enjoy!

Amy