Poor sick boy

Xander's been battling a cold for 10 days. Yesterday, it seemed to be taking a turn for the worse because he was coughing constantly. He couldn't even take a nap or sleep because of the coughing. The only thing we could do for him was bulb syringe and set up the humidifier. Neither really helped so he and I spent a great deal of awake time in the middle of the night.

We took him to the doctor, who told us that it was turning into a sinus infection/ear infection. We got the good ole amoxicillin antibiotics for him to take and they worked like a charm. Within 24 hours, the coughing is almost gone and Xander is able to sleep again. What's great is that Xander even likes the taste of the amoxicillin mixture. All we have to do is prepare a syringe full of the right dosage, and he insists that he squeeze it into his mouth himself.

Unfortunately, it looks like Daddy is getting sick. Hopefully, he will recover without a trip to the doctor. I'm trying really hard not to follow. I've hand sanitized so much lately that my hands look like they are 90 years old they are so dried.

How did he figure this one out?

Grandpa took us to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock. Inside, there was a toy kitchen with toy food. Xander pulled this piece out an immediately identified it as yogurt. I'm just wondering how he figured that out without being able to read.

Marshmallows

Everything is bigger in TX except marshmallows. Apparently, marshmallows are bigger in AR. Grandma and Grandpa got these gigantic marshmallows. I've never seen them so big. Xander couldn't even eat a whole one.

Choochoos

Here Grandpa learns about the frustration that is called toy trains. Why can't these tracks be more user-friendly!?! I recall that he told me to through the tracks away when he was done playing with Xander.

Cookiebread house

Grandma, Xander, and I made this Gingerbread house. Well, it really has no "ginger" in it because Grandpa said he didn't like ginger. Maybe we should just call it a cookie bread house. Xander helped mix the cookie dough and stick gummy bears to the roof. I've never made one of these before and it was kind of fun. It may have to become a tradition because I've already started to have ideas about how I can make it better next time.

Happy Thanksgiving

We made the long drive to visit Grandma's and Grandpa's in AR. Thanksgiving Day was incredibly warm so we got to enjoy sometime in the city park. We were blessed with some real fall color which we cannot get at home. Xander had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa at the park. He also enjoyed taking their little dog Max for a walk.


In addition to fun at the park, Xander got to ride and drive Grandpa's tractor briefly before the rain started.



For the Thanksgiving meal, Xander helped Grandma to make the green bean casserole and the mashed potatoes.


His favorite activity had to have been cooking pretend food using all of Grandma's "kitchen stuff" which he dragged out. The sofa end table made for a pretend oven and toy dominoes were his play food.

Different stuff for our daughter

So, I have kind of been nesting, trying to figure out if there is anything we need for our daughter that we don't already have. I've come up with a few things that we're going to get.

1. For some reason, I've got this strange worry that my daughter is going to be a baldy like Xander and no one will know she is a girl. It's kind of weird because I never once worried about Xander being mistaken for girl and no one ever did. So, anyway, I went out and got a few baby headbands with flowers. With my luck, she'll probably hate wearing them.
   
2. We never had a changing table for Xander. We changed him on all sorts of different surfaces: bed, couch, floor, etc. We'd just put a pad down somewhere. This was fine for me, but pretty hard on Dolphin's back. So, we're seriously looking at a changing table this time. Fortunately, there are about a bazillion for sale on craigslist.
   
3. I'm seriously considering getting a play yard or pack 'n' play for our daughter. With Xander constantly strewing toys apart, it seems like it might increase our odds of protecting her from a choking hazard. With one kid, we could just keep an eye out, and well, I'm running out of eyes. Plus, I saw that have some with a vibration option, that looks cool.
   
4. I'm definitely getting a new changing pad. I see these for sale used and it totally grosses me out. I don't care how much you wash it, it's just too yucky.
   
5. I've ordered new crib bedding. This was pretty impractical since Xander's was perfectly fine. However, it was SO cute I couldn't resist. We're reusing sheets, mattress, mattress covers, and crib so I don't feel so guilty about the splurge.
   

There are SO many things that we are able to reuse though, which is good because there certainly is a lot of baby junk.

1. Eating accessories - bumbo, nursing supplies, high chair, utensils, bottles, bibs, all reusable
   
2. Toys - well, at least I hope they are reusable. I'm sure there will be some fights, but really Xander has out grown so much stuff already
   
3. Clothing - I went neutral for all of Xander's newborn stuff so that is all reusable.
   
4. Bassinet - This is the thing I look forward to getting rid of the most because it will mean I'm on the path to getting some sleep
   
5. Infant carseat - Xander has already outgrown that long ago
   
6. Baby swing - Xander didn't much care for the thing, so we'll see how our daughter likes it
   
7. Bjorn front carriers - best invention ever
   
8. Baby bath - maybe we'll get peed on less this time?
   
9. Baby monitor - still works
   
10. And a whole bunch more miscellaneous stuff
    

Advent Calendar for Xander

For some reason, I can't remember why really, I decided to make Xander an advent calendar this year. I was sort of thinking that this would be good for practicing numbers maybe. After shopping around, I really couldn't find anything that I liked to purchase. I also found some patterns for a few cute sewn calendars, but I am just terrible at sewing. Finally, I settled on creating my own design--one that would be something I (the craft-challenged) could make and function for its intended purpose.



I used MS Word clipart to make the 25 tree graphics and printed them out with numbers. I used my handy-dandy paper cutter (very good investment) to cut out the tree squares. I attached the trees to little wedding favor bags and then stuck puffy snowflake stickers on top. Finally, I tied each bag on to a long piece of silver-wired ribbon with red satin ribbon. I'm too impatient (and not a perfectionist) to actually measure, so I just eyeballed to make them somewhat equidistantly separated.

Hopefully, Xander will enjoy a daily surprise as we head into December. He's already told us there are "presents" in there, and he just LOVES presents.

Parent teacher conference

We had our first parent teacher conference with Xander's "Transition" class teacher. Some of the interesting things our teacher said about Xander:

• He's got great language skills and can carry on conversations for a very long time.
  
• He is very task-oriented. That's my boy, taking after mommy on that one.
  
• He's demonstrated understanding of one-to-one correspondence, which I had to Google to understand what she was talking about
  
• He's starting to learn some of his letters, and can recognize the first letters in the names of some of his classmates. He's very possessive of the letter "X" and loves to carry the toy "X"'s around the classroom.
  
• He's very observant and aware of his surroundings. He must be taking after daddy with this skill. One day he saved the teacher by pointing out that she had almost left another girl in the bathroom.
  

I want it!

We were recently shopping for big boy beds for Xander. I saw this bed at Rooms to Go Kids. Isn't it so cute? I want to be a princess and have a bed like that!