Texas Blue Bonnets

It's an Austin parents' tradition to take pictures of your kids with the Texas wild flowers. We've always seen parents of the side of road or near railroad tracks with their kids and a camera. I theorized that the wild flowers thrive off the CO2 from the engines. We found a safer field of flowers by the parking garage at my office. There's no traffic here on the weekends, but we did see another family with the exact same idea that we had.

March and April are the best time to visit Austin...well, except for the threat of hail.

Afterwords, we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for some lunch. The waiter was totally in love with Xander. We had to give her a little extra tip for that. :-)

L'oeil rose

Sounds better if you say it in french...blah....pink eye.

Is there such a thing as 24 hour conjunctivitis from infection? Last night, Xander started having some eye drainage in both eyes. By morning, his eyes were glued shut. He wasn't rubbing them so there must not have been any of the itching. I wiped the gunk away and took him to the doctor because there was a little bit of redness in his eyes. The doctor agreed that it was conjunctivitis and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. By the time I got to the pharmacist though, his eyes looked almost normal. I don't know how long pink usually lasts. I was thinking that if it was from some kind of allergic reaction, it might explain why it hasn't lasted very long. I don't know what it might be a reaction to really. It just doesn't seem like an infection. On the other hand, one of Xander's classmates was diagnosed with pink eye earlier in the week so....

In the end, I'm doing the antibiotic drops as recommended by the doctor. With all the modern technology, it is frustrating to me that doctors can never tell if problem is caused by bacteria or virus. I hate using more medicine than absolutely necessary.

I was so scared the drops would be hard to put in his eyes. Both the doctor and the pharmacist were giving me suggestions on how to do it. I braced myself for a battle, but Xander didn't even care. One quick drop in each eye and he didn't even fuss. He did better than I would...seriously, I can't put drops in my own eyes. Sometimes, I have to get Dolphin to do it.

Dolphin's boss recently went through pink eye that he got from his daughter. His suggestion was for us to pre-emptively take the drops. I think I'll risk it.

Thankful

I was really thankful that Xander fell asleep on the ride home from day care today. I ran into a terrible storm about 2/3rds of the way home. I saw the squall line up ahead and started to slow down because it looked scary. The other cars next to me did the same. Within seconds, we were in the middle of a hail storm with cranberry and grape sized hail. I was really scared that it was going to crack my windshield or cause me to slide off the road. I made it home ok and I couldn't find any dents on my car thankfully. Dolphin's car wasn't so lucky. He also saw a car with it's rear window broken out. Xander slept through the whole thing, which is good. I think if he were crying on top of the scary drive home, I would have freaked out.

Little Chopin

Xander had fun pounding out some tunes on my old keyboard. I wonder if he will play a musical instrument one day. Mommy played piano and sang. Daddy didn't have the patience to learn. Right now, his hands are not really big enough for this keyboard. While I was pregnant, I joked that I was hoping for the next Miley Cyrus so I could retire early. :-)

Laughter is infectious

Laughter is infectious. The little bus toy on the lower right makes giggling noises every third button press. I think it is supposed to be kids giggling in the bus. Xander always smiles for the giggles.

DB Sandwich

Dog Baby Sandwich - when I'm down on the floor with Xander, the dogs insist upon being there, too. When I'm checking his diaper, Peanut will sit right on my feet. When I am feeding Xander, sometimes Copper will rest her head on Xander. We move around the house as a pack.

Xander loves Diana!

Xander appears to be starting the whole separation anxiety phase. He will start crying if mommy leaves his sight, and sometimes if Daddy leaves his sight. He seemed to be ok this morning with Diana. Diana and Ashley are his primary caregivers at his daycare. As soon as I handed him to Diana, he could care less than mommy was headed out the door. Does this hurt my feelings? Nope. I am happy that he has an attachment to Diana. Then, I know he is in good hands during the day.

Sometimes the separation anxiety is funny. I picked him up from day care last week and I needed to get gas. I had the back window and was talking through the window to him to keep him happy. If I just looked at the gas gauge, he would start crying, but when I looked back he was fine. Good thing that eye contact is good enough to keep him happy. Sometimes, he does need physical contact, but not 100% of the time. That would be really a lot of work. I am getting some awesome upper body strength carrying Xander around though.

I was reading some strange psychology article on separation anxiety. Sorry, I lost the link already. It said something about that you could test the child's sense of security by how easily they were comforted after separation (reunion with mom) around 10-12 months. It will be interesting to watch Xander and how his personality develops.

Blackmail pictures

Doesn't it seem like I post a lot of bath pictures? I asked Dolphin to take this picture. It seems like all parents have these kind of bath pictures that they keep (for blackmail purposes) and pull out when their child hits the teenage years.

Messy boy

This is what happened when I let Xander feed himself.

I didn't start out intending for him to feed himself. However, after a few bites, he kept going for the spoon. When he got a hold of it, he would get mad when I took it away. I didn't feel up to the battle so, I figured what the heck. He's needs a bath anyway. I helped him scoop out the food from the bowl, but he did everything else. He put the spoon in his mouth. He also put it to the bowl when he was ready for more.

We followed up with a nice bath with daddy.
You get to see a few seconds of him splashing, which is one of his favorite bath time activities these days. I had to put a towel on the floor as he was getting water everywhere.

Long lost brother?

The picture of Xander with my glasses on made me think of this guy (from the 1940s!)

All these months of putting everything I can get my hands on into my mouth finally pays off!

Xander got about half of the sweet potato puffs into his mouth. Copper and Peanut got a few, too. We decided that these treats are really too sweet though. The second ingredient is sugar. We need to find some puffs that are whole grain or veggie.

Soooooo cute...

Daddy put his glasses on Xander. He's a little nerd! It's so cute.

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi (3.14) Day! I made this blackberry and cranberry pie this evening in honor of the occasion.

Time changes...the good and the bad

So, we recently had a time change to one hour later.

In one respect this has been good. Xander has his own rhythm and it didn't change with the time zone. So, now we have more awake Xander time in the evening and he sleeps a little later in the morning. The extra time in the evening is great. An extra hours of Xander play time is great. Yay!

On the other hand, my body was so exactly tuned into making milk at exact times. Now my schedule for pumping at work is completely off. I am surprised how exactly timed my milk production is. I always have done it at approximately the same time everyday and even put it into my calendar. I may be crazy, but I swear if I adjust my pumping to one our later than normal production is better. Weird eh?

Stranger Danger

Bruce Schneier makes an interesting case for why the common advice of "don't talk to strangers" is bad advice to give to children.

When I was growing up, children were commonly taught: "don't talk to strangers." Strangers might be bad, we were told, so it's prudent to steer clear of them.

As it turns out, this is profoundly bad advice. Most people are honest, kind, and generous, especially when someone asks them for help. If a small child is in trouble, the smartest thing he can do is find a nice-looking stranger and talk to him.

The advice in each of these paragraphs may seem to contradict each other, but they don't. The difference is that in the second instance, the child is choosing which stranger to talk to. Given that the overwhelming majority of people will help, the child is likely to get help if he chooses a random stranger. But if a stranger comes up to a child and talks to him or her, it's not a random choice. It's more likely, although still unlikely, that the stranger is up to no good.

Penn and Teller also did an interesting show on the subject.

Nice Pootie

Peanut is a bit more tolerant of Xander yanking on his whiskers. (I made this post from my phone and for some reason only the first sentance came through). Copper generally just heads for the hills when Xanders starts poking her in the eye.





I was just about to give up taking pictures, since my phone doesn't handle motion too well, and Peanut looked like someone from 'The Ring' who only has less than 'seven days' left:

Starting...

Untying shoes...you have to start somewhere.

First fever...

:-( Xander has his first fever today. He's been sick before without fever. Poor guy. I'm not sure what caused this fever as he doesn't have any other symptoms. He was a little bit fussy this afternoon and slept a lot today. No gastro-intestinal or respiratory symptoms though. Poor guy has such a newbie mom...Hopefully, I'll figure it out what ails him or he gets better on his own soon. If he is not feeling better tomorrow, daddy's mandatory time off from work is going to come in handy. There is a silver lining...

Astronaut poll results

It's a toss up on the astronaut poll. I asked blog readers if we should "ecourange Xander to be an astronaut". The results are 50% no, 37% yes, and 12 % maybe with 8 people voting. It's not exactly conclusive, but leaning towards not encouraging him.

I didn't even know that 8 people read this blog. How exciting! Now, I'm more motivated to keep posting.

Soccer

We'll have to get Aunty Laura to teach Xander how to use this when he is a little older. That is...if Copper and Peanut don't destroy it before then.

The weather out side is delightful...

Daddy went to see "Watchmen" yesterday with a friend. The weather was nice and warm without a lot of sun, so Xander and I went for a nice long walk. This was the first time that we used the stroller without the plug-in car seat. I'm sure it is more fun to look out a the world that stare at boring old mommy.

Funny glasses

Here are those glasses that I was referring to earlier.

Visual Aid for Amy's Poll

We saw this little outfit on My Name is Earl and thought it was so cute we had to put it up. I am going to have to remember this one for Halloween (well, in a year or two).

Hair

Grandpa Tom may be jealous soon. Xander is starting to get some hair on that head.

Thank you, cousin Mary

Cousin Mary sent Elmo's head to Xander with Grandma Jo during her last visit. Mommy likes it because Elmo's head doesn't make any noise. :-) Xander likes it tossing Elmo's head around. The only problem...the dogs seem to like Elmo too. I don't know how long he will survive.

Oooo what's in here

Xander loves finding and digging the little cars out of this toy. It's a supposed to be a bath toy, but it's hard to play in the bath tub. He does need rescuing sometimes when his hand gets stuck inside, and he can't figure out how to get it out. I think Xander might be the kind of kid who can't resist sticking his tongue to the flag pole in winter. :-)

Developing a sense of humor...

I think Xander is developing a sense of humor. In the past, he's laughed and giggled with funny faces, funny sounds, tickling, and bouncing. This past weekend, he laughed at Dolphin when Dolphin put on a pair of 3D glasses. (These were the 3D glasses to view the Superbowl commericial/epidsode of "Chuck") Dolphin did look pretty funny with the paper glasses on.

Tennis anyone?

One of my employees is taking his daughter to regional tennis championships this weekend. I decided to get Xander started training early...just kidding!