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!)