The Kilbride Kid

Update

2010-12-10T11:51:00.003-05:00

So, it's been forever since I've updated this blog. Most of my mini-posts are going up on Facebook these days - if you'd like to be updated on Alexander's hijinks and are not my friend on Facebook, feel free to post a comment here and I'll get you set up. Pictures are uploaded there, though I haven't gotten many uploaded lately - there may be a deluge once I'm out for the semester though.

In other news, Alexander is due to get a baby brother in early March!

And some videos

2010-05-03T20:58:00.003-04:00

Since they take so long to upload, I'll put them in a separate post.

Look, my very own cubicle!

Alexander's battle with the milk.

Alexander's opinions....

2010-05-03T20:31:00.004-04:00

On Daddy - James was out of town for several days this past week, so Alexander was very happy to have Daddy all to himself Sunday morning. Daddy made eggs with cheese and peppers for breakfast, and Alexander ate it all up. Apparently the lack of appetite this week was just disapproval for Mommy's cooking. Then Alexander and Daddy played in the sandbox all morning while Mommy got out the summer clothes - apparently this year summer decided to start May 1rst in our area! Alexander even pulled out the puppy dog eye enough to convince Daddy to take him to his class meeting on campus in the afternoon. A day with Daddy - Yay!

"Look - we buried my legs!"

On Helping - Alexander has decided he really liked helping Mommy. Today I asked him to carry his milk in to school because my hands were full carrying him and his bag of supplies. He kept a death grip on the strap of the milk bottle, and was reluctant to give it up for his teacher to put in the fridge. He was so proud of himself for helping!

Fast forward to later that day. We'd stopped at the store on the way home, and Alexander decided he wanted to carry his milk in from the car. The only problem - this time it wasn't 10 oz in a Nalgene bottle, it was a full half gallon fresh from the store. It was so heavy he could just barely lift it, and he could usually only make a few steps before tripping or dropping it. But he was determined. He wasn't going to let me help, and he wasn't going to let me trade it for one of the lighter bags. He was going to get that milk into the house if it was the last thing he did!

"It's ok Mom, I've got this. Really, I do!"

Not pictured is the "snow angel" he made in the gravel when his frustration at the bottle turned into a meltdown. But eventually he decided he could carry the milk and I could carry him, and that would be acceptable.

After dinner I brought the trash cans in from the curb. Alexander was also determined to help there. So Mommy got that chore done so much faster with his help, even if that help involved tipping the can over far enough for him to grab the handle, and walking across the driveway at a toddler's pace.

Which brings me to....

On Memory - Once, several months ago, I let Alexander sit on the lid of the recycling bin while I pulled it back to the driveway. When we finished with the garbage can and went back for the recycling, he decided he didn't want to grab the handle and help pull. Instead, he tried to climb out of my arms and onto the lid - he remembered that ride, and he wanted another one! Apparently it was a lot of fun, because he really didn't want to get off when we got the recycling can to its normal place, and kept signing "more" when we stopped. A jog to the corner in the stroller as a start to our evening walk was enough to satisfy his urge for bumpy, rattling transit though.

On Odors - Alexander would rather play with the stinky trash can than smell the lilacs with Mommy. In fact, when I help him up so he could smell the flowers, he pushed them away, squirmed to get down, and ran back over to the trash can.

Yes, we definitely have a little boy on our hands here. :)

On Communication - the whole concept of non-verbal communication has finally clicked, and Alexander still enjoys testing the concept that he can ask for something, and generally he will be given it. It's also interesting watching the way he processes language. The sign for "more" has become the universal "I want something, you need to figure out what it is" sign. He's getting very consistent about using it when he wants something - he was even signing "more" in his sleep the other morning. "Clean" has become his sign for "I want out of the chair", because usually after he finishes eating I wipe his hands, sign and say "all clean!", and then let him down. He's transferred it to other "get me out" locations - this morning he signed "clean" when he wanted out of the toddler chair where he hangs out while I take my shower. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. :)

April Showers...

2010-04-27T22:32:00.002-04:00

Alexander had fun helping me out in the garden last week. He's been getting spoiled by being able to go out and play nearly every day now that the weather has been nice - he was a bit upset when I brought him in this evening because it was raining, and wanted to go right back out! Fortunately we got enough of a break in the weather to go back out again later.

Here's some pictures of both...

And of our little trouble maker, and the only surefire way to keep him out of trouble. Looks like we need to get him a bigger crate soon! :)

Alexander is fully into the mimic phase, and loves doing anything he sees the adults do. One favorite is "drinking" from soda cans... or anything that vaguely resembles a soda can...

One Year!

2010-03-29T20:32:00.002-04:00

Alexander had a great first birthday party. It was unbelievably warm for mid-March - on his actual birthday we were able to hang out outside for a good chunk of the afternoon, and on his birthday party we spent the entire day outside! It was wonderful to see all the family and celebrate his first year with everyone.

There were a ton of pictures taken - the album is posted at http://alexanderkilbridephotos.shutterfly.com/ Highlights are posted here.

Walking!

2010-02-16T20:48:00.002-05:00

I love watching Alexander walk. He goes in zig-zags more often than in straight lines, and everywhere he goes he's waving his hands over his head for balance. It's so cute!

He keeps amazing me with how quickly he grows. He can now grab things off of the top of the entertainment center, and the edges of the kitchen counter. So now we need to be very careful about keeping hot or sharp things well back from the edge of the counter. And today he tried to climb out of the tub on his own for the first time. He was very unhappy with me when that ended the bath time - Mommy was mean for not letting him play on the edge of the tub.

Some videos of Alexander's walk!

A view from the other side. And evidence of the amount of destruction a small child can create in about 15 minutes, if you're paying attention to the increase in chaos in the background.

2010-02-14T22:10:00.002-05:00

Here's one more album of pictures for you. If anyone hasn't had enough Alexander by now, or wants higher res images to download, I have been uploading pretty much everything I take to my shutterfly account - just ask and I can point you to it.

Summer vacation photos

Alexander discovers "No"

Kissy face

Evil Santa - Alexander was terrified of this doll the first time it came out, and spend the rest of Christmas break trying to beat it up!

The patented Alexander scoot-crawl. This has mostly gone by the wayside now, but he did this for quite a long time even after he was really good at crawling, because it was faster on the smooth floors.

Showing off his dino costume now that he can walk in it...

Long overdue update

2010-02-14T21:15:00.002-05:00

So I'm way behind in my picture posting here! But uploading pictures to this blog takes far too long. So I'm going to take advantage of other sites that allow batch uploading, and then just post the links to the albums here for your perusing pleasure. I hope you enjoy, and apologize for being MIA for so long!

Here is photos of Christmas and some of the surrounding snowstorms.
Some general Alexander pics.
Halloween 2009.

Alexander walking...

More soon!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T13:52:00.002-05:00

We have a lot to be thankful for this year - Alexander has brought a lot of joy into our lives!

We spent the Thanksgiving holidays with family in Maine. Alexander enjoyed it, but he also seemed really glad to be back with his familiar surroundings. He slept through thanksgiving dinner itself, after having his dinner at Mommy's Milk Bar, but woke up in time to help with the leftovers, and really liked getting to eat some turkey and mashed potatoes and peas and green beans.

Alexander is starting to show some good problem solving skills when it comes to navigating around the house. He is now confidently crawling on all fours, but has recently figured out how to drop to his belly to wiggle under obstacles and get out the other side. He was in the living room, trying to get to me in the kitchen, but the way was blocked by his swing and a folding chair. He whined for a moment, then stopped, belly crawled under the chair, and was on his way. Similarly, when getting packed to come home from Maine, he was trying to get past an area blocked by a suitcase and a towel, and very deliberately pulled the towel out of the way so he could crawl through that space.

He's understanding the Mommy Voice, or Daddy Voice, and testing it's limits. When he got the Mommy Voice to stay away from part of the computer this weekend, he stopped, but then tried to touch the same area again while watching me to see what I'd do. After a repetition of the Mommy Voice, he moved on to play with other things instead.

He enjoys "helping" in the kitchen. Last week he very deliberately took every towel out of the towel drawer, one by one, and dropped them on the floor. Today all of the tupperware containers from the tupperware cabinet are scattered across the kitchen. He even was kind enough to take out the counter liner for me. :)

He's cruising around the furniture - he's getting pretty confident about walking as long as he has at least one hand to balance himself with. Thank goodness he doesn't show any signs of being able to balance without something to hold onto yet, but I'm sure it will come soon.

He now has 5 teeth, two bottom, three top. The first of the top teeth came through last weekend, around Nov 22nd, with the second one close behind, and the third top tooth broke through last night.

And now, it is time for me to teach. More pictures and videos soon, I hope!

We're in trouble...

2009-11-04T10:12:00.002-05:00

Part 1 - Alexander can now reach the top shelf of the entertainment center - the area where previously we could put stuff that needed to be out of reach. We can still put stuff on top of the entertainment center, but he'll be able to reach that too soon.

Part 2 - Today I was cleaning out the dishwasher, so I took the rack out of the bottom and had the door open while I was rinsing something out in the sink. I looked down to find Alexander was sitting in the middle of the dishwasher door! I have no idea how he got there, but it's probably a sign that I need to put a gate on the bottom end of the stairs soon.

Even the teachers at day care have been commenting on how much of a daredevil he's been lately, pulling himself up on everything and getting into tons of stuff. He's really enjoying his improved balancing ability. And he just took the door off of the Wii - time to go intervene.

And another

2009-11-02T20:52:00.002-05:00

And while I'm uploading videos, here he is showing off his new and improved hands and knees version of crawling at the Halloween party this weekend.

Apples

2009-11-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

A while back we got several bags of apples from our CSA. Alexander's mommy is so stingy she won't even buy him a ball to play with, so he had to improvise by stealing one of the apples out of the bags and rolling it around on the floor. :) It actually worked pretty well - it was round enough to roll a decent way, but then it would end up on a flat surface and stop rolling so he could catch up with it. He was much less frustrated with this than he was with normal balls at this stage of crawling, and chased it around the kitchen for quite a while.

More Pictures

2009-11-02T20:41:00.002-05:00

Look at me stand!

I love you Mal!!!

Mom, you really need some help organizing this cabinet....

Look, see these ones go on the TOP shelf!

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

2009-11-02T20:35:00.003-05:00

Showing off two of his favorite activities of a few weeks ago - he discovered that he could stick out his tongue. And that he could hold TWO of something!! One for each hand!! TWO!!!!

Rawrr.

I'm coming to get you!

Showing off the hat and jacket from Memere - and his two bottom teeth! (So hard to get those in a picture!)

Hanging with Uncle Nick.

November, and changes are in the wind

2009-11-02T20:28:00.002-05:00

Alexander hit one of those phases where he's figuring out new things in leaps and bounds. Mostly to do with mobility - we're in trouble. He's getting very good at balancing and pulling himself up now - I'm beginning to wake up to him standing in the crib in the mornings, and as long as he has one hand to balance himself he can stand well. He looks a lot taller these days, but I think a large part of that is because he's loosing the baby bowleggedness and actually standing up straight. This weekend he also started really crawling on hands and knees for more extended periods. I finally caught him in the act of sitting up from a laying position the other day - I know he's been doing it for a while, but never while I was watching. He's been teething this weekend, so likely the top teeth will be on their way before too much longer. And he's getting very good about walking his way along pieces of furniture to get to things he wants. Where did my little boy go?

Next post - pictures!

Time flies

2009-10-15T11:32:00.002-04:00

Alexander had his "6 month" (more like 7) checkup last Friday - 22lbs 7 ounces, 29 inches. He had a slight ear infection, so he's on antibiotics, and going back in a few weeks for his actual shots.

He learned to clap this weekend, although he claps more with his fingertips than his whole hand, so it looks like the Simpson's "eeeexcelent" - very cute. He's getting a bit more clingy towards mom, but for the most part will still happily visit anyone who smiles at him. I have yet to see him sit up from laying on his belly, but my mom says she saw him do it several times in his crib this weekend - I think the floor may just be too slippery for him to manage it. He's getting very good at pulling himself up on the side of the crib, and standing as long as he has something to hold on to for balance. Before we know it he'll be walking. He still mostly crawls on his belly, although I've seen him go from sitting to hands and knees and stay there for a while, or even take a few "steps" that way before he flops onto his belly. I think normal crawling is too slow for him, and again there's that slippery floors thing.

I can't believe he'll be 7 months old Saturday. Where did the time go?

6 months

2009-09-23T13:36:00.002-04:00

Alexander turned 6 months old last Thursday. It's amazing how time flies! In another major lanmark, yesterday morning he managed to pull himself from sitting to standing using his crib railing. It's the first time I've seen him successfully pull himself up using something other than a human who can help him balance.

He is enjoying being mobile, and continues to crack me up. Here's a little snapshot of an evening with Alexander....

I put him down by his play gym, and then sat down on the floor on the other side of the room to work on putting his carseat cover back on the carseat. He started fussing, and when I looked up to see what was wrong he had belly-crawled halfway to me and was fussing that I wasn't paying attention to him. I called him to come on over, and he grinned and started wiggling faster and crawled over to me and I put his arms up over my leg. That wasn't good enough as he kept fussing, so I pulled him up across my lap and that seemed to be what he wanted. He lay quietly across my lap for a few minutes just chilling, until something caught his attention and he wiggled off of my lap and crawled over to the door to the dining room.

He had found one of the cat toys - a little loop of wire with some cardboard danglies on one end! What could he do with this? He picked it up and banged it on the floor a few times, and passed it from one hand to another several times. Mal came and laid down next to him and batted at it, then wandered off. Alexander started crawling forward with the toy in one hand and then noticed the cat door in the door that leads to the basement. He crawled over to it and looked at if for a few seconds, then looked at the toy in his hand. Door, toy, door, toy. *lightbulb!!!* He put the cat toy through the cat door and dropped it.

Now what to do? He looked around and crawled over to play with his little farm toy, the kind where you push a lever and the door pops open and shows you an animal. Then he pushed his diaper box around for a little bit. Then he took off down the hallway and picked up the shears that were still there from my earlier attempts at repairing the fence. I took those away from him and put him down in the middle of the kitchen floor, and he made a beeline for the cat's water fountain. I put the fountain up on the table, then took the piece of gravel that he'd found in the meantime out of his hand. He started crying because I took all the good toys away, so I sang him some songs and he happily watched while I sang and unloaded the dishwasher. He then crawled over to where I was standing and grabbed my legs and started whining again, so I picked him up, gave up on getting work done, and went to cuddle in the rocking chair while we waited for Daddy to get home from class.

Mobility

2009-09-14T17:01:00.004-04:00

Alexander in one of his "back to school" outfits.

A very mobile Alexander.

Alexander is doing well at daycare, although he really doesn't like taking naps there. But he seems to have fun playing there, and doesn't seem at all bothered when I drop him off. When I pick him up he's ready to come to me and gets very upset if I do anything other than go pick him up right away.

Tooth!

2009-08-28T09:36:00.002-04:00

Alexander officially has a tooth now! It finally broke through the surface last night. No pictures yet since it's basically just a white spot on the gum, but you can certainly feel it when he tries to chew on your fingers now.

In other landmarks for my future reference, when I weighed him Wednesday he was over 22 lbs with clothes and diaper on, so we installed the convertable carseat. Last Wednesday, the 19th he said Mama for the first time - he said it a lot that day, and a hanful of times since, but not often. While we were on vacation he started seriously eating solid foods, and started pulling himself up from sitting if you give him fingers to hold on to. He'll now put his hands up when he wants you to give him a hand standing up. And he has taken a few steps while holding onto hands, but hasn't figured out how to do it on command yet.

Updates from vacation soon!

Photo session

2009-08-05T11:55:00.002-04:00

A few weekends ago Alexander had a professional photo session in the yard - the pictures are here: http://www.jgoingsgallery.com/Gallery/Clients/Clients.html Click on Alexander to see his album.

Bounce, bounce

2009-08-05T11:45:00.004-04:00

Lately, one of Alexander's favorite places to be is in his jumper.

(He's in the closet because it's one of the few places where we have a door frame to attach the jumper to, not because we like to store our baby with the coats and shoes. ;))

Reading with Daddy

2009-08-05T11:38:00.003-04:00

Daddy: "You see Alexander, people often attempt to attribute patterns to stock market movements, when really randomness is the driving force"
Alexander: "Really Daddy? That's fascinating!"

"Mommy, why are you interupting us with that flashy box?"

"Sorry - you were saying, Daddy?"

(James was reading "Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" to Alexander. That kid is going to have a better understanding of economics than I do by kindergarden!)

And some random shots

2009-08-05T11:26:00.003-04:00

Watching the big trucks with Grandmom

"It is so stimulating being your hat."

CEO Alexander discussing important buisness with chairman of the board Big Bird

Grandmom's visit

2009-08-05T11:14:00.004-04:00

Pictures of the Saturday out with Grandmom....

Snowcones are yummy!

Um, Mom, this bathtub is awfully big....

And awfully cold!

Ooh, the sand is nice though!

I like the way it squishes between my toes!

It tasted yummy too!

Hanging out with Bridget

2009-08-05T11:03:00.005-04:00

I have lots of pictures to catch up on! Here's one batch - hanging out with cousin Bridget when they stopped through after the baptism. This was around the 4th of July weekend.

Yummy

2009-08-05T10:56:00.007-04:00

Today I had one last overripe peach from last week's CSA share - Alexander was watching me so intently at breakfast that I decided to offer him a little mashed peach to see what he would do. He seemed to love the taste, grabbing the spoon and putting it back in his mouth after the first bite, but didn't seem quite ready to handle the actual eating part. The little bit that he actually managed to swallow got spit right back up again. So since it was so overripe, I decided to pull the skin off of a section and let him lick the juices to see how he'd like that. The results are below. (When I took the peach away for a moment so I could go get the camera, he started crying in protest!)

Mmm, tasty!

Slurp, slurp, slurp

I wanna do it myself!

Why is the peach gone???

The Emerging Will

2009-07-30T11:57:00.002-04:00

Alexander's will and personality continue to emerge. He's gotten to the point where he's getting good at making his will known. He will reach for a toy when he wants it. When he wants to play in his johnny jumpup, he will look at it and make bouncing motions. He gets all excited when you walk by his stroller if he wants to go for a walk. It's great because when you figure out what he wants and give it to him, he gets a great big grin on his face and laughs and is so happy!

The downside is that he is now that much more capable of being frustrated when things don't go the way he wants. He knows how routines work, and expects them to be followed. The night before last we messed up his bedtime routine - he went to play with Daddy before bed as normal, and the lights got turned off, but then I took him to change his diaper and gave him back to Daddy instead of sitting down to nurse him. He was NOT HAPPY with this change in routine, and boy did he let us know! When I came to take him for his before bed nursing he settled down for some voracious nursing, but you could tell he was still miffed. "Geesh - it goes change diaper, play with Daddy, then lights out and nurse with Mommy. Don't you guys know anything!"

He has also been very chatty this past week. While I was sitting on the couch talking with Grandmom about their day together and nursing Alexander, he stopped in the middle of nursing, looked up and made eye contact, and babbled at me for about 10 seconds before going back to nursing. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to tell me, but he obviously had something to add to the conversation!

He also is ever more fascinated with new textures and toys. Last night we had spaghetti for dinner, so I put a pile of cold noodles on his plate for him to play with - he was having a great time digging his fingers into them and squishing them around. He seemed to like the odd, slightly sticky texture. Today he picked out a new toy from the "big box of toys that you haven't grown into yet" and was fascinated with figuring it out all morning.

Busy weekend

2009-07-27T14:39:00.002-04:00

Alexander has had a busy, adventurous weekend! On Saturday, he went out with Mom and Grandmom to his first fair - granted, it was a 5 stall church fair, but he got to watch the big kids play in the bounce house, and taste his first snow cone, and see a clown! Unfortunately, the ponies had already gone home for the day. Then we went to the town beach and he got to try swimming in the lake. He thought it made an awfully large, awfully cold bathtub - he seems to prefer the one he has at home. However, digging in the sand was wonderful. He loved the funny feeling of the sand between his toes and was digging his feet in and kicking. Earlier in the day he'd had a photography session in the yard, and was fascinated by the grass and dirt between his toes too.

When he got home he got a nice bath, and then later in the evening we let him try some mashed up bananas for the first time since he's been so interested in watching us eat and trying to put stuff in his mouth! He seemed to enjoy the spoonful that made it into his mouth, but was much more interested in just smearing it all over the tray, so I don't think he's quite ready to get serious about solids yet.

Today the town paved our road - when he saw the big trucks out the window he started squealing with joy, so we went outside to watch them for a while. Four months old and he already loves the big dump trucks - he's definitely his mother's son. :)

On the landmarks front, Alexander is getting very good at sitting unsupported. He can occasionally sit on the floor with his back straight instead of having to prop himself on his hands. Of course he commonly overbalances and flops backwards when he tries to do that, but he's getting pretty good at it. He's starting to introduce more consonants into his babble too. Grandmom put up the jumper that we got at the consignment shop, and he absolutely loves bouncing and twirling in it - when I carry him past it he'll start wiggling and kicking to tell me he wants to get in it again. He's been enjoying lots of long walks in the stroller with Grandmom, and has started sitting up in the stroller for extended periods instead of having to be in the reclined position most of the time.

The past two weekends were weddings - one of the Kilbride cousins last weekend, and his Aunt Mikaela the weekend before. Both times he did wonderfully, handling meeting all the strange people with ease and apparently enjoying being passed around from one person to the next. We were all glad to have a weekend at home to relax though.

Pictures soon, once I get a chance to get them uploaded.

And the other way

2009-07-15T19:16:00.002-04:00

Alexander learned how to roll over the other direction on Monday. So now he's got back to front and front to back down. He's very good at back to front, still perfecting front to back.

He also went to his first wedding this weekend, and his Aunt Mikaela and Uncle Nick got married! He handled the large crowds and being passed around like a football quite well, and seemed to enjoy meeting all the new strange relatives. :)

His evening caretakers (thanks grandad!) have reported that he's been rather fussy in the evenings the past couple nights - he seems to be dealing with a bit of teething pain or something. Hopefully it will pass soon!

Rolly polly baby!

2009-07-08T21:40:00.001-04:00

Tonight, Alexander managed his first unassisted back to front roll over! He'd been working on this very hard for the past few weeks. The past two nights he'd managed to make the roll in bed, but with a gravity assist from the fact that the crib is still side-carred, and the bed mattress is a half inch lower than the crib mattress, so that would help him get through the last little bit of the turn. He hadn't been able to quite get that last bit of the turn on his own. But tonight while he was hanging out on the floor with Dad and Grampy, he manage to roll over all by himself!

Alexander has gained mobility - we will never rest in peace again. ;)

Growing so fast!

2009-07-01T12:58:00.002-04:00

I am constantly amazed at how fast Alexander is growing. He's only 3.5 months old, but he's already solidly into his 9 month clothes - I think some of the smaller of the 6-9 month outfits may be getting hard to fit on him soon! It depends on the manufacturer - one set of his 3-6 month onesies still fits and is worn to bed every night. But some of the 9 month barely fit.

We had a hard time finding a baptism outfit for him - the largest outfit we could find was 6-9 months, and it barely fit him. If it weren't for the fact that we bought the outfit Saturday and he was getting baptized Sunday, I would have worried about him outgrowing it before the baptism! I tried to put the shirt on over his onesie for mass, and it wouldn't button - I had to take the undershirt off! And even then, the top button wouldn't button, the little bow tie wouldn't fit, and we could barely get the cuffs buttoned but it would have been very uncomfortable, so we left them undone. He got to be cover model casual in his white tux with no tie and unbuttoned collar!

Picture Update

2009-07-01T12:31:00.006-04:00

Alexander got baptized this weekend! So here's a bunch of pictures to share with you all...

Happy baby playing on the blanket Memere made for him!

Alexander did not fit into the baptism gown that we were hoping he would wear. The sleeves wouldn't even fit over his hands! The skirt part barely fit him.

Kendo Baby!

Ballerina Baby!

Alexander met his (soon to be) uncle Nick for the first time! Who is this scary guy, mommy?

And meeting his great-grandmother for the first time.

Cover model - showing off his baptism outfit for the admiring crowds.

It's hard work being this cute!

Alexander got baptized in a joint ceremony with his cousin Bridget, who is 6 weeks younger. I don't have pictures of the ceremony - I'll have to post those once I get them from someone else's camera. But here are some pictures of Alexander with Bridget, and the priest who baptized them.

"Cutting the cake". Alexander had a great grip on that knife! Bridget was doing her best to help. I think they were both about ready to end up in the cake though - Bridget ended up with a little icing on her toe.

The cousins together.... aw, how cute!

Sitting

2009-06-22T12:27:00.004-04:00

Alexander managed to stay sitting solo for several minutes Saturday. Of course, as soon as I pointed the camera at him gravity took over and he tumbled off to the side. But, after a few tears and a hug from Mom he was ready to give it a try again, and this time the camera didn't break the spell.

For Emily....

2009-06-20T14:14:00.004-04:00

Alexander got a package!

Hmmm, this blanket is pretty, but how does it taste?

It passes the Alexander taste test!

And it's great for hiding behind and flirting....

And for resting on the floor with.

Thank you Emily!

He he!

2009-06-18T16:23:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I almost forgot to post this - last night Alexander "really" laughed for the first time that I've heard! This was a full chuckling "he he he" rather than the squeals of delight and joy that has been his laughter so far. I have no idea what was so funny - he was sucking his fingers while I changed him into his PJs last night, and as I pulled his hand out of his mouth to puill the sleeve over his arm he chuckled at me. :) I then got a few more laughs out of him as he laughed at my delight in his laughter, but I coudldn't get him to laugh any more than that last night.

Like mother like son....

2009-06-18T15:05:00.001-04:00

I'm told I spent a lot of time sucking those two fingers as a baby too...

The next level

2009-06-18T09:38:00.003-04:00

The play gym has now become a place to practice fine motor skills as often as coarse. Notice the delicate pinching of the elephant's ear as he tries to go for the difficult dual hold manuever....

3 month pictures

2009-06-17T19:05:00.003-04:00

Taken this afternoon...

Irony is....

2009-06-17T11:40:00.003-04:00

.... coming down with mastitis while on the way home from a breastfeeding support meeting. :(

When I went to the meeting Alexander hadn't eaten since he got up for the day, and didn't want to nurse much there, so I thought I was just engorged when I was uncomfortable when we were leaving around 11:30. By the time we got home I was in pain, and nursing wouldn't get rid of it. Within half an hour of getting home I had chills. I took a nap when Alexander did and when we woke up 2 hours later I had a fever and the classic "flu-like symptoms" to go with it. By 5 I was in the doctors office getting checked out.

Fortunately antibiotics seems to have nipped it in the bud - still low energy and achy today, but the fever is gone. So it appears to be going away as fast as it came on.

3 months old!

2009-06-17T11:34:00.003-04:00

Alexander is three months old today! Officially out of the "fourth trimester" and into being an alert, interactive baby. Although as is obvious by my other posts, he's been there developmentally for a while.

He's really enjoying standing up (with support from an adult, of course), and is getting pretty good at standing upright for a decent length of time. It's amazing how seeing him standing straight up makes him look like a very tiny, oddly proportioned "person" instead of a "baby". He's also getting better at sitting up - he managed a few seconds of unsupported sitting propped up on his hands yesterday before he started collapsing. And another first - on Monday when he lost his latch and rolled away from me a bit while nursing he managed to grab my shirt and pull himself back into position instead of having to have me help him on again.

Unfortunately, he is so enthusiastic about practicing all these new skills he's getting that he doesn't want to nurse as much during the day, because he's too busy playing to sit down and nurse for any lenght of time unless he's sleepy. As a result he's waking up more during the night to nurse - we had been pretty consistantly having him go down around 10 and not get up to nurse till 4 at the earliest., but now he's back to waking up around 1 or 2 in the morning and then every 2 or 3 hours after that. Oh well.

New achievements

2009-06-15T10:03:00.003-04:00

Alexander has been learnng all sorts of new things lately! On the drive to MA this weekend he learned to blow rasberries. In the car he was getting silent rasberries, and by that evening he was imitating Daddy's lip trills and putting some noise behind it.

He's starting to develop a sense of balance - when he's sitting up holding onto my fingers, he will pull on them to correct himslef if he starts falling over. And he will attempt to prop himself up with his arms if I'm not holding him in a sitting position, but doesn't have the strength to keep that up for long.

He has started pushing his upper body up with his arms instead of just raising his head when laying on his tummy. He has also started to really love standing up as long as someone holds on to help him - he can do it for a decent amount of time before his legs get tired and collapse under him now.

He is working on rollong over - he likes it when I let him hold my finger and help to pull him the rest of the way over when he's trying to roll. And he likes holding onto my fingers and being pulled into a sitting position from laying down.

As I was writing the first part of this post, he was for the first time sittiing on my lap a looking at (and feeling, and tasting) his baby book all by himself, instead of having me hold it up for him to look at!

Textures

2009-06-15T09:56:00.003-04:00

Alexander has been fascinated with textures lately. He enjoys stroking different materials, holding fabrics, or shoving them in his mouth to explore them better. He'll often hold onto the fabric of his outfit or blankets or burp cloths, loves stroking the plastic sides of the car seat, and likes holding on to Mom's fingers.

Last night he discovered that Daddy's beard is fuzzy and tickles! James would rub his beard against Alexander's face and belly, and Alexander would laugh and laugh, and then reach up to stroke Daddy's beard.

I guess we need to get him a copy of "Pat the Bunny" soon!

Fair day!

2009-06-14T17:09:00.008-04:00

This weekend Alexander went to his first ren faire. We went to visit friends who live in eastern Mass on Friday evening - Alexander handled the trip pretty well. As last time, he got tired of being in the carseat before we ran out of driving time, but he did as well as you can expect a 3 month old to do. And he handled sleeping in a strange place just fine once we got him to setttle down for the night.

Saturday we all went out to the fair together. The fair was a relatively small event, but lots of fun. There were some good performers to watch, and lots of boff combat. James brought his swords, and Alexander seemed ready to jump right in and help!

The fair was very family friendly - lots of small kids running around, and several other mothers of infants. I tended to run into the same women often, as we were seeking out the same shady spots to nurse in, so it got to be a very friendly atmosphere by the end of the day.

All in all I think Alexander enjoyed his first day at the fair.

Yesterday

2009-06-10T09:49:00.005-04:00

When I weighed Alexander yesterday, he was up to almost 18 lbs on the home scale. That means he's only got about 4 lbs left before he outgrows the official rating for the car seat, or 3.5 inches left by the last doctors appointment. When I look at this, I can believe it.

Yesterday James had the new mini laptop on the couch, and Alexander sitting next to him. Alexander managed to wiggle around in such a way that he flopped over with his face on the keyboard. When he did he had a huge grin on his face! James picked him up and he started crying, and I commented that he wanted to play with the computer. So James brought the laptop within reach, and sure enough....

Although he doesn't look exactly thrilled in that picture, he's happily playing with it. Here's the video..

Later James set Alexander in his bassinet....

"Row, row, row your bassinet, gently down the stream...."

Aiming

2009-06-08T16:51:00.003-04:00

Alexander is now actually aiming for things when he hits them, instead of just flailing randomly and being pleased by the results. This weekend I had him in his gym and he was looking right at the elephant toy, swinging his hand in that direction, but I'd put him down just too far away for him to reach it. Once I moved him a bit closer, it was a direct hit.

Here's a clip of him showing off what he can do....

(Amusingly, when I was previewing the videos I have of him he was laying in the bassinet starting to get just a little bit fussy. As soon as he heard the baby cooing in one of the other videos, he got very quiet and very interested in what the noises coming from the computer were.)

Finally, more pictures

2009-06-08T16:37:00.004-04:00

I've finally gotten a chance to upload some pictures, so here you go....

2 months old and Daddy's already making him help with the chores...

Wow, that wore him out!

Happy baby!

King of the roost - ready for his evening's entertainment!

For reference - the same outfit and same bassinet as the easter pictures, and the coming home from the hospital pictures.... he's getting big!

Showing off that newfound manual dexterity - he likes looking in the mirror on his gym, and now he can grab the mirror to get a better view!

Reading a story with Grampy

What's new...

2009-06-06T17:45:00.002-04:00

Let's see, what's new since the last time I posted....

Alexander continues to improve his dexterity. He's getting pretty good at hitting the hanging toys on his gym and rocker. He will hold a rattle for a minute or two, and wave it around and shake it. He's getting better at sucking his thumb, although he's still trying to figure out what to do with the other fingers while he's at it - shove them in his mouth too? Put them on his face? Shove them up his nose? He rotates between them.

He is working on vocalizations - lots of cooing at people. Very chatty at times. And he's started singing along with the radio, or me, or the songs at church.

More pictures soon, I promise!

Well Visit

2009-06-01T13:39:00.003-04:00

Alexander had his two month well visit today. (A little late since the office had to reschedule us - he's 11 weeks old tomorrow). He's in the 99th percentile in both weight and height - 16lbs 5oz, and 25.5". He was decidely unimpressed with the oral vaccination, and of course very displeased by the shots, but he calmed down quickly afterwards and is now happily napping.

First Trip

2009-05-25T18:38:00.002-04:00

This past weekend we took our first long distance trip with Alexander, up to Maine so that Alexander could meet his great-grandparents and see some of his other relatives again. The trip went about as well as can be expected with a two month old baby. We left Thursday evening to beat the Memorial Day traffic, and Alexander was somewhat fussy on the way up because I couldn't indulge his usual evening cluster feeding without doubling the length of the trip, couldn't pump more than a half ounce at at time, and the pacifier would only satisfy him for so long. But honestly, he did pretty good - we only had one period of extended fussing, and once we stopped so he could get some cuddle time and nursing in he settled down and fell asleep.

Alexander was an abosulte champ once we got to Maine - he met a TON of new people, ranging from new relatives to neighbors and coworkers of the relatives, and he laughed and smiled and generally made a lot of new friends. Every once in a while it would get to be a bit too much and you could see a bit of panic creep into his face, or an imminent crying fit approaching, but once he looked around and saw that mom or dad was still there, or was held by one of us for a few minutes, he was back to his normal happy self. I do think by Sunday he was missing his swing/play gym/bouncy chair/thing to lay back and look at, but we went outside and laid down under the trees and watched the branches for a while, and that settled him.

He also had no problems with sleeping in a strange place. In fact, out of the 4 nights we were there, he slept at least 7 hours in a row for 3 of them. That makes 5 out of 7 nights last week that he slept through the night. Nice! I'll enjoy it when it comes. :)

This morning we watched Grampy march in the memorial day parade, then drove back. We again managed to avoid getting stuck in any major traffic jams, and again Alexander was very good. We stopped once to change a diaper, feed him and get food for us, and again to get gas and a quick nurse and a diaper change. By the time we were almost home he was getting fussy again, but we were within about a half hour of home by that point, and the pacifier and bottle were able to keep him at least somewhat settled until we got home. He then went into his swing and took a nice long nap - he seemed very happy to be back in familiar surroundings.

Sucking

2009-05-21T17:45:00.002-04:00

Alexander is learning how to suck his thumb. Or his fingers. He hasn't decided which he prefers yet, but he's delighting in the discovery that he can suck on each digit independently instead of just shoving the whole fist in his mouth.

This will be a wonderful thing once he figures out how to do it. Unfortunately, learning new things is hard. Normally I can nurse Alexander until he's mostly asleep, and is "sleep nursing" - sucking for comfort, but not really getting anything out of it. If I put him down then, he'll usually start sucking on his tongue until he settles into real sleep. But last night, apparently the tongue was inferior to the fist, and Alexander would start trying to suck on his fingers instead. Trying being the operative word - it's a hard thing do to when you're 2 months old, and his efforts would end up waking him up. So I ended up having to let him use the mommy pacifier until he was dead cold asleep last night. Similarly, when we were nursing when he was waking up in the morning, he kept unlatching and instead of latching back on to the boob, trying to suck his fingers instead. Very fun, very tasty, but not much nutritional value.

Hopefully he'll get the details of finger and thumb sucking down soon!

Independence

2009-05-20T15:10:00.003-04:00

My parents visited this past weekend to help my husband put in a new fence. The fence has been successfully completed, and Saturday evening we all went out to dinner, then Alexander stayed home with Grandmom for the evening while Granddad, Dad, and I all went out to see Star Trek together. I was pleased with the movie - it was worth seeing on my one evening away from the little one. It was nice to have an evening out, but also nice to come back to my little one. He and Grandmom had a good time while I was out - he had his first bottle very sucessfully. The only problem she had was getting him to stop drinking long enough to burp him! When I came home he was so sound alseep that I couldn't wake him up to eat, so I ended up having to pump to keep from exploding - aparently he'd partied too hard with Grandmom and was ready to crash for the night. Thank you Grandmom for watching him!

Two Months

2009-05-20T14:23:00.004-04:00

Alexander was two months old this past weekend. For someone who's just been on this planet two months, he's doing pretty darn good. (This is a list mainly for my future reference since I haven't had time to write down all his activities in the baby book.)

He's got very good head control, and can even sit up if his back is supported for him, although he doesn't have a sense of balance to try to catch himself if he does start falling. He's very good at tracking objects, and loves watching the world around him, especially bright colors and moving objects and people. He laughs and smiles and coos and gurgles and makes all sorts of interesting baby noises. He's already showing some preteething signs - nice and drooly, and some bumps along his lower gumline.

He can flap his wings and flail his legs around, although he doesn't have much control over where they go, but he can manage to hit the toys in his play gym. He doesn't seem to be targeting the toys yet. He loves watching the baby in the mirror in his play gym. He's getting pretty good at getting his fist to his mouth when he wants something to chew or suck on, although it often still escapes him before too long. He loves his swing and will often hang out there for 10 or 20 minutes at a time if he's awake, and will nap in there occasionally.

He's finally stopped screaming every time he's in the back seat of the car alone, and will ride quietly or fall asleep about half the time. We've had to adjust the carseat to the second set of straps - I think that made it more comfortable. He can hold his head up for short periods of time while laying on his tummy, but it's obviously still hard work - I need to remember to get him tummy time more often. He can somewhat roll from his back onto his side on certain surfaces, but hasn't achieved a full roll either back to front or front to back.

When he's fussy, he likes having Dad carry him around facing outwards. Mom makes a more substitue for carrying - he likes Dad better for that. But he'll let Mom rock him to settle him down more often than he'll let Dad do that. The rule seems to be that Mom rocks, Dad walks. He likes facing out so he can see the world in his moby wrap, or being in the mai tei with his head away from my chest so he can look to the sides. He's only happy having his head against my chest in the carrier if he's sleepy.

Many of these things aren't things that I can put a true date on - for instance, I don't know when he first had a "real" smile or laugh, because it's been a gradual transition from "sleep grins" and smiles of contentment to something he obviously has full control over. But for two months on this planet, he's done a pretty good job of figuring out how to make his body work and how to get mom and dad to cater to his every whim. :)

Love

2009-05-20T14:12:00.003-04:00

I continue to fall more in love with Alexander every day. When he was newborn, I loved him of course. But it was more like loving your right hand - he was still so much almost a part of me that it's not quite the same kind of thing as loving another creature. But he's begun exploring his personality, and every time a new aspect of it unfolds, I find something new to fall in love with.

I love his little laugh of delight when he figures out he can do something new. I love the fact that one of his favorite places to play is on the changing table, even if it does make the actual changing part a bit difficult. I love the looks of amazement he gets when watching his mobile while in his baby swing, as if he's watching a miracle unfold. I love his little evil overlord laugh that gets going when he starts crying too hard, and his pouting lower lip when he's just starting to get upset. I love the look of concentration he gets when he's about to fill his diaper, the feel of his arm around my neck when he's settling down and getting sleepy, and the squeals of delight when he's happy.

And I'm blown away when I think about the fact that this is just the begining, that we have months and years ahead of us filled with new developments, new personality quirks, and that with each new unfolding of his personality there will be another reason for me to fall in love with him all over again.

Wieght

2009-05-20T14:05:00.003-04:00

Alexander is certainly a big boy. We're about to grow out of the 3-6 month clothes - every day I stretch out the feet on the little jumpers to see if he still has enough room to extend his legs all the way without squishing his toes, and so far he still does, but it's a very close thing. We had a Drs appoitnment last week because he'd been peeing a LOT (as in 22 diapers in 24 hours - made me glad we were using cloth!). The doctor couldn't find anything wrong and he seems to be doing better now, so it may have been a classic case of "crush on the nice doctor lady"itis. But at any rate, he weighed in at 14lbs 12 oz - this was last Wednesday, so that meant from his low weight of just under 8 lbs at his first doctors check in, he's gained about 8 lbs in about 8 weeks. What an impressive growth spurt!

Sleep

2009-05-20T13:55:00.003-04:00

Lately I've been reading "Operating Instructions" by Anne Lamott - it's a journal of her son's first year of life. It has been something of a relief to read the confessions of another mom and to realize that I am far from alone in the evil thoughts I have when sleep deprived and woken up again in the middle of the night by a little squirming bundle of need. Fortunately Alexander has always been a pretty good sleeper from day one, so it didn't take me too long to get adjusted to the new baby imposed sleeping schedule. Nowadays it's just a fact of life to be woken up, although there's often a prayer of "please go back to sleep" when he first starts stirring if I just finally got him down and to sleep myself a little while ago. I have upmost sympathy for those moms who have to deal with a colicy baby or a poor sleeper on top of the normal sleep deprivation.

At any rate, as I said from day one Alexander was a pretty good sleeper. *knock wood* The medical definition of sleeping through the night is 5 hours, and he would do that fairly often from the first week. This past Sunday, however, we got real sleeping through the night - he went down after his evening feeding around 10, and slept till 6:30. I fed him, changed him, and we laid back down to cuddle on the bed, and we both slept with just a few stirrings until 10 am. The choirs of angels sang in my head. :) Monday night he managed about 7 hours in a row. Last night we were back to the normal 5 hours. Like all things baby, I expect it will continue to be two steps forward, one step back. But just having one night of solid, uninterupted sleep was such a blessing - both for letting me recharge my batteries (I was truly exhausted Sunday afternoon), and for a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel that some day he might do that on a regular basis. For now though, I'm just thankful that things are as well as they are, and try to enjoy it while it lasts. The four months sleep regression isn't that far away....

Cause and Effect

2009-05-18T15:35:00.002-04:00

Alexander has been having a great time discovering that he doesn't have to sit and wait for the world to happen - he can make stuff happen! He's made up a few games to play with Mom and Dad, and loves to see what kinds of crazy things he can make them do. And he's been having a great time playing in his gym - it plays music when he bumps the toys, and he's delighted when he manages to make that happen. He can't quite do it on purpose yet, but when his flailing hits one of the toys he loves to watch them move.

The other day I realized that if I put the bouncy chair into it's more upright position instead of the infant recline position, he can reach the toys on the hanging bar. The first time I did that I put Alexander's hand on the pull toy that plays music to show him he could reach - he managed to grab onto the bar and pull and start the music playing, and had a great smile and laugh of delight of "I did that!" He hasn't manage to do it again, but he can hit the jingle ball toy and make it jingle every once in a while, and he loves that too.

Tears

2009-05-15T11:53:00.002-04:00

Watching Alexander cry is so much more heartbreaking now that he has working tear ducts. Before when he would be screaming, it would be frustrating because I knew he was upset and I didn't speak baby well enough to figure out what he wanted. Now, when his little blue eyes start shining with tears my heart melts. And if I've had to leave him crying for a little while and he starts having tear tracks down his face and little puddles in the corners of his eyes, go fetch a mop because I'll have melted into a little puddle on the floor.

Welcome Bridget

2009-05-02T14:03:00.005-04:00

Alexander now has a cousin - Bridget joined the world yesterday. Welcome, Bridget, and congrats to the new mom and dad!

Memere and Grampy visited last weekend - Alexander was glad to see them again. He was a bit grumpy during their visit - he hit his six week growth spurt just before they visited, and then there was a major heat wave while they were here, so between the two he was pretty much constantly hungry and thirsty. Which made me a bit grumpy too at times, but we got through it. Going from 40s to 85 in about a day was a but much for all involved! But when the temps went back to something a little more natural for April, we both got a lot happier.

Enjoying sitting on the couch with Dad.

Napping in the swing. He likes the swing well enough for hanging out for a few minutes to let me get food together, but this is the first time he's ever napped in it.

Listening to Daddy read.

Learning new things

2009-04-22T09:28:00.004-04:00

Alexander is 5 weeks old as of yesterday, and he's definitely learning new things all the time! He's starting to make some noises other than crying and grunting now. It's relatively uncommon still, but we're starting to get occasional happy baby noises, instead of just silently watching the world. Alexander is also getting very good at lifting his head up!

Here he is sharing some tummy time with Daddy!

This weekend Mom, Dad, and Mikaela converged on our house to help Mikaela assemble her wedding invitations. So Alexander got to spend some more time with his relatives, and learn the basics of papercrafting!

Apparently all that watching people use fine motor skills was good for him, because just after everyone left on Sunday morning, he discovered his hands. He still doesn't have enough control to get his hand to his mouth consistantly, and he can only keep it there for a few seconds before it flies away, but he certainly is enjoying chewing on his fist.

It looks like he might have some of my genetics in there after all - every time he breaks out of his swaddle, it's with his right arm first, and he always chews on his right fist, so I think he might turn out to be right handed. We'll see how that plays out.

As you can sort of tell from the last picture, he's also starting to have his baby hair fall out. It will be interesting to see what color the hair that grows in to replace it will be. Blonde, blonde, or blonde? :)

Official Notice of Protest

2009-04-13T18:58:00.004-04:00

Alexander would like to officially file protest against this barbaric practice of "baths" that his mother keeps instituting.

And in the "my how they grow" series - the above picture was from this morning, the below from March 28th, a bit over two weeks ago.... he's going to be too big for sink baths soon!

And the hat that Alexander was wearing in the easter pictures that barely fits because his head is too big is the same one that would barely stay on because his head was too small in the "going home" picture that the hospital took the day we were discharged.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T18:50:00.003-04:00

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend if you observe it, and an enjoyable spring weekend if you don't.

Alexander seemed to enjoy his first Easter. We had our first venture out of the house for something other than a doctor's visit, and took him to Easter services in the morning. He was very well behaved - fussy when we got there, but settled down by the time mass started. I only had to take him out once, to do a diaper change during the sermon. When the sermon started, I heard several other babies in the church start crying too. Aparently that is universally the least favorite part of mass among the little ones. :)

When we got back, the Easter Bunny paid Alexander a visit!

Gah, the bunny's squishing me Mom!

Bah. Enough pictures.

I said I'm tired of this!

Ok, I'll be cute. But this is the last one, hear me?

As promised

2009-04-10T17:33:00.007-04:00

More pictures.

Assorted funny faces!

With the last batch of visitors.

My boobs Mom, mine!

With Grandad.

Aide, happy to get some attention too.

Daddy and Alexander.

Waiting for repairs

2009-04-10T16:10:00.003-04:00

Alexander and I are currently hanging out on the couch while waiting for the washing repair guy to show up. Alexander is enjoying a nice nap, and I'm just hoping that the washer will be fixable today and we won't have to order parts in - having a working washing machine with a 3.5 week infant in the house is kind of key. Alexander seems to have taken my comment about "I hope we have enough clothes to make it until the washer is fixed" as a challenge. Fortunately, the washer broke in the early afternoon and I ran out of infant sized diapers later that day - I'd been planning to switch to cloth diapers for daytime use once we finished out the infant disposables, but knowing that it would be at least a few days before I had a working washer I opted to delay that and stick with disposables for now.

Alexander is doing well - he's getting very good at holding his head up, and enjoys looking around at the world. He's woken up a bit more to the world around him and is very displeased with the strange sensations in his tummy when he gets gassy, but fortunately his fussy spells are usually relatively short (knock wood).

James went back to work this week, and that has been going fairly well so far. Mornings tend to be a bit of a challenge as I try to juggle getting Alexander his breakfast and me mine in a reasonable span of time before we both get cranky from being hungry, but we're starting to work out a routine. It will be nice having Daddy around for the weekend though. :)

And now for the part everyone actually cares about - more pictures...

Bah, sorry, I'm a tease. My computer upstairs isn't turned on so I can't get to those pictures over the network, and I don't want to disturb Alexander to get access to the pictures. I'll try to remember to update soon with new pictures though!

Two weeks!

2009-04-01T10:23:00.002-04:00

Alexander reached two weeks old yesterday! It seems like he's been with us for a lot longer than that some days. :) He had his weight check Monday and was up to 9lbs 11oz. Considering that he'd dropped down to about 7lbs 13oz at his 4 day checkup, it's an impressive weight gain. I guess I don't have to worry about whether he's getting enough milk!

In other major baby milestones, Alexander's cord fell off on Friday - he was 10 days old. That meant that on Saturday he could have his first real bath!
As you can see, he was less than impressed. He didn't mind it when the water was actually running over him, but once the water stopped the crying started.

Alexander also got to spend some more time with his extended family this weekend - he got to meet his uncle Phil, and his granddad came down to visit for the weekend and help tackle some more of the post ice storm spring cleanup that was needed in the yard.
Phil and Helena sent us an adorable newborn outfit, which we managed to get Alexander to wear once or twice before he outgrew it - he got to wear a dragon for his first D&D session!

And we've managed to get the moby wrap figured out - Alexander seems to like it. (That's his happy face in the first picture, really it is!)

The cats are also starting to accept Alexander a bit more. They still won't come too close to him, but they are willing to hang out in his general area now, and will come to their humans for attention even if they are holding the baby at the time. They didn't run away when we decided to get this picture, for instance!

Momma speaks

2009-03-24T17:35:00.004-04:00

Finally have a few minutes today when I'm not either so exhausted I need to go right back to sleep, and also not feeding Alexander just at the moment, so I've had a chance to get on line! First, I just wanted to say thank you for all the e-mails, cards, and other well wishes - it will probably be a while before I'm able to get back to people in person. I'm doing well, just spending a lot of time feeding Alexander, and grabbing naps in between when I can.

And now, the stuff everyone really wants to see in the first place. Today Alexander is a week old!

And with his eyes actually open for a few minutes.

Making faces at the camera already. Just like Mom. :)

Alexander and Daddy.
A very welcome nap. And one of these things is not like the others.... here's one of the completed projects that the granddads helped build.

How are things?

2009-03-23T20:12:00.003-04:00

Everything is good. I've attached some pictures from when the grandparents were here. We had a good visit with both sets of grandparents down. Got some projects done around the yard/house with the fathers' help. Today we had another doctor's appointment for Alexander. He's doing good, weight's stabilized(they all lose weight the first couple of days, but his has stabilized and risen a little since friday) and he's transitioned to 'velcro baby' stage. He's constantly attached to Julie's boobs. Mostly for the milk but probably at least as much to just have comfort. he's even gotten to the stage of eating while sleeping, handy habit but making it a little difficult for julie to get sleep, so she's trying right now resting while he's sleep-eating. Here's more photo's from this weekend for everybody though:

First Doctor's Appointment

2009-03-20T13:17:00.002-04:00

Alexander had his first doctor's appointment and apparently likes movement. He was quiet in the car, and would quiet down almost immediately when I'm walking around with him. Was pretty good over all for the doctor and nurse. Christened his diaper with pee instead of the scale this time(christened the nurse, scale and area around him at the hospital when they went to weigh him during one of the checkups). Everything looks good, little jaundice but standard for babies. Slightly dry skin, again nothing surprising. We'll go back in monday so our family doctor can take a look at him again. It's kind of good in that all three of us have the same doctor.

Because people seem to want pictures

2009-03-19T19:05:00.003-04:00

Alexander's in the Kitchen, learning to cook.

Mom and Baby, still doing good!

Oh but Grandma what big teeth you have!

Burrito Baby, mom's got the milk.

Innocence and quiet, love it while it lasts. Which these days seems to be about 30 minutes.

Update

2009-03-18T22:13:00.003-04:00

So Julie and Alexander have checked out fine and been discharged. We're all home and the cats are very curious but were more interested in food than the baby. So on to getting the first few weeks down. Due to recovery Julie's banished to one floor and since the upstairs has more of pretty much everything except housework, including the setup of the crib as a cosleeper, Julie's banished to the the 2nd floor. Works out fine anyway since I do the cooking anyway, and she has no excuse for not eating breakfast, or whatever meals Alexander lets her get, in bed.

Alexander's First Day

2009-03-17T19:58:00.005-04:00

Julie this morning
Please welcome Alexander Stephen Kilbride to world. In a speedy process of approximately 5 hours, Alexander was born at 3:01 pm(EST) to two very happy parents. Julie came in this morning and they broke her water to try and get things moving, and they certainly moved. The only real 'slowdown' in the process was near the end as Alexander had decided his toys needed to come with him and he had wrapped his arm, and his neck, up in the cord. He was delivered fine, just took a little longer than it might have otherwise. He is a hefty 8lbs, 11 ounces and 22 inches and has all of the expected parts. He and his mother are doing quite fine(outside of some soreness, as would be expected). So here's some pictures for all of you as well.

Round two

2009-03-17T07:41:00.003-04:00

Heading in for round two shortly. Mild contractions last night and this morning, but I was able to get a good night's sleep, nothing too intense. Now to go in and find out what the midwives want to do for the next step, and hopefully have a baby soon!

Procrastination Starts Earlier

2009-03-16T19:04:00.002-04:00

Apparently Julie and Alexander are starting procrastination early. We went in, she got an omellette and then kicked her back out again. They were going to start the first of the two drugs which is meant to soften her up. But Julie's as effaced and at 3 centimeters(out of the 'final' 10) already. So they sent her home with, "Come back no later than 8am tomorrow morning and we'll go from there for stage 2." So, as always, Julie is holding out till the last minute to do just enough to get by. I expect around 7:50am her water will break as we walk into the building.

Also, web nursery

2009-03-16T13:04:00.003-04:00

Seaton has a web nursery - http://www.setonhealth.org/NewArrivals/index.cfm?InstanceID=450 They should be posting the wrinkly red newborn photo there at some point after he arrives - I don't know how long it usually takes to get updated though.

Countdown

2009-03-16T12:51:00.001-04:00

A few hours left before I'm scheduled to head in to the hospital. Keep me in your thoughts this evening and tomorrow!

Irony

2009-03-15T11:42:00.002-04:00

So, I just noticed that the little baby countdown thingy now has a picture of the baby being held in someone's arms. *snort*

Lots of really weird dreams last night. I think I may have been playing to much Neverwinter Nights lately - in one dream I was in labor, and every time I had a contraction the little status box would appear over my head. Then I woke up and told James about the dream, and he told me I'd offered him a sandwich in my sleep. That turned out to be a dream too. There were several other points during the night at which I dreamed I woke up and told someone about my dream.

I also had other strange dreams such as one that involved random people climbing into the back of our car when we were in a downtown city someplace and asking to be dropped off at any bowling alley, and one in which mom was trying to take me on a cruise ship and I was worried about whether that was a good idea because what happened if I went into labor, and she said they had a helicoptor that could fly me back. And in one I walked into Target to have lunch and ran into Mom and Melissa there and had lunch with them. (Yes, in Target. While our local target does have a little cafe area, in my dream it was a full food court/restraunt. And for those who aren't aware, Mom and Melissa both live several states away from me, in opposite directions.) And those are just the ones I remember vivdly. Pretty much every dream either had an element of me being in labor, or me being worried about getting to the hospital in time for labor, etc. I wonder what's on my subconcious mind these days.

Unfortunately none of the dreams turned out to be prophetic, and I woke up still pregnant, so here I am. *sigh* Went for a mile walk this morning, may head out for another one later.

Still here!

2009-03-14T09:55:00.002-04:00

Planning to go out for a nice long walk today. Positive thoughts are as always appreciated. If the baby decides to show up today, his birthday will be pi day! :)

I forgot to post earlier in the week that I finally was able to get in touch with someplace to inspect the installations of the child safety seat, and I got it in right! :) He was able to get it a tiny bit tighter than I was, but said I did a good job with it. Which is a nice feeling for when I eventually have to take it out and reinstall it because the kid made a big enough mess that I can't just clean up around the carseat.

Not a Baby

2009-03-14T09:36:00.003-04:00

Still no baby. She can tell you all about it I'm sure but basically.. He's taking his own sweet time. Little things suggest it's moving along and getting a little closer, but kind of in the way that somebody setting out plates suggests dinner might be ready in another 3-4 hours(or days in the case of labor)..

Deadline....

2009-03-13T12:07:00.003-04:00

This morning's checkup looked good - the baby is still nice and active and doing well, and I am still feeling fine. I have until Monday afternoon to get this kid to start labor on his own before the midwives will feel a need to give him a helping hand though.

Still Ticking

2009-03-12T10:35:00.002-04:00

Julie is still pregnant. Internet is just defeating her today but she is still very round and pregnant. Alexander seems to be quite content where he is. Figures with the job market the way it is he should put it off as long as possible.

2009-03-11T11:12:00.001-04:00

Nice rainy, windy day today. No going outside to enjoy the weather today for me I guess! I'll just have to shake my booty around the house to get exercise today.

All is well

2009-03-10T12:43:00.002-04:00

The non stress test, where basically they hook me up to the baby heart beat monitor and watch the heartbeat to make sure there's variation over time, indicating that the baby is moving around and stuff, came out just fine. So if I'm still pregnant Friday I go back in for another non stress test and appointment. Otherwise, it's just continuing to wait till the baby decides he's ready to show up.

2009-03-10T10:09:00.002-04:00

Dr's appointment in a little while for my weekly check in, and a non-stress test just to make sure the baby is doing well. I'll post an update on the results this afternoon.

2009-03-09T11:25:00.002-04:00

I "slept in" today, by which I mean my body still thinks it's standard time. (Can it be called sleeping in if you don't have anything specific to actually get up for?) Given that I don't have anything I have to get up for most days, and given that I need as much sleep as I can get before the baby comes, I've just been sleeping until I wake up, which is usually between 8 and 9 in the morning. Not having anything to get up for may make it a bit harder to get my body reset to daylight savings time schedule. I may set my alarm tomorrow just to reset my sleep schedule.

I'm glad I got out to enjoy the nice weather a bit this weekend. Today started as rainy, then went to sleet, and between the time I opened this post and when I just glanced out the window has shifted to snow. With the weather this weekend I was beginning to wonder if spring had decided to come early, then remembered that a major snowstorm between mid March and mid April is par for the course around here. It will be interesting to see if I actually end up needing the little snowsuit I bought for the baby. I wanted to make sure I had at least one really warm thing in case we were bringing him home from the hospital on a bitterly cold day, but at the rate the weather has been going it might not be necessary!

2009-03-08T11:36:00.003-04:00

Looks like we finally got almost all of the ice melted off of the driveway, which will make getting out to the mailbox in my current condition much, much easier. Beautiful, sunny day today - I think I'll be heading out for a walk a bit later.

Don't forget daylight savings time starts today! It randomly occured to me last night that I thought it was this weekend, so I went to look it up. I haven't heard as many reminders about it as usual this year. Of course, that probably has more to do with me not hearing as much news lately - I tend to get most of my news coverage from listening NPR when driving around, and since I've been home much more often, I haven't been hearing it as much.

Taken last night...

2009-03-07T13:25:00.003-05:00

Just in case anyone is wondering if I'm still pregnant...

Random fact of the day - average delivery date for first time caucasian mothers is actually 41 weeks, 1 day, not the 40 weeks that the doctors office sets the due date at.

Quiet Friday

2009-03-06T11:28:00.001-05:00

Enjoying a nice quiet Friday at home with my husband, since this is one of his Friday's off. Thinking of going to see Coraline in 3D this afternoon!

2009-03-05T10:41:00.001-05:00

Still here. :) Nothing of real interest to share today, so I'll just say hi. HI!

Still growing

2009-03-04T10:39:00.003-05:00

Every time I think it's impossible for me to get any bigger, I run into another sign that I'm still growing. It was only a few weeks ago that my winter coat went from being able to zip up but being snug to basically not being able to zip it up. Today one of the pre-pregnancy shirts that I'd still been able to wear has gotten snug across the belly. I've put on a bit more weight. And amusingly enough, I seem to have gone basically overnight from having no stretch marks to having the southern hemisphere of the belly look kind of like I'm wearing a spiderman suit or something! Granted, it's the southern hemisphere, which means I can't actually see it without the aid of a mirror, so it might not have happened overnight. (Even seeing my belly button requires me to kind of slouch over these days - if I just look down, it's below the curve of the horizon of the tummy. ;)) But given how pronounced they were when I got out of the shower and glanced in the mirror this morning I'm pretty sure I would have noticed them before now if they were that bad earlier this week. And I'm sure they weren't there this weekend since my husband had commented on the fact that I only had one in a kind of odd location. So apparently my belly has finally reached the limits of its elasticity, but the little one is still growing. :)

I'm relieved that I made it through the one day this week when going into labor would have been a logistic difficulty. This is a busy week for James - test Monday, test Thurdsay, and lots of meetings this week. (Personally I'm rooting for labor starting Friday - it's a Friday off for him, so I wouldn't have to worry about being able to reach him at work, and we'd have the weekend before he'd have to start using vacation time.) But yesterday was the day when he had a bunch of meetings with people from out of town. People who had gotten together at his location instead of one of the others since he couldn't travel, so that was the only way to include him face to face. So I was really hoping that the little one would arrive either before or after that meeting day, not during. :)

Another appointment

2009-03-03T11:14:00.001-05:00

Just got back from me weekly doctors check in. All looks well. I have my appointment set up for a week from today if the baby doesn't come between now and then - at that point they'd do a non stress test just to make sure everything is still looking good.

Planning to take it easy today and enjoy watching the sun through the windows. Too cold to actually want to go outside, but it *looks* nice and warm.

Nifty

2009-03-02T10:02:00.001-05:00

Cool, my pregnancy counter does do negative numbers! I was wondering what would happen when I went past the due date. :)

Getting a little bit of snow here today, but it's not supposed to be much. A whole lot more along the coast I believe though.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-03-01T12:28:00.002-05:00

Today is the official due date, but I believe the bun needs a little while longer in the oven before it's done. :)

It's kind of amusing - pretty much everyone I talk to when I mention the due date in the past few days has made a comment along the lines of "you must be so anxious for him to come" or something of the sort. My answer - "Not really". I mean, I'm curious to meet the little person who has been inside of me for the past 9 months, but I'm also enjoying being pregnant. I feel fine. I've talked to many pregnant women who are not even this far along and can't wait for the baby to be born just because of the physical strain of being pregnant, but the third trimester has agreed with me fairly well. So I'm fine with the little one taking his time if he wants to.

Still here

2009-02-28T10:38:00.002-05:00

Just finished a tasty breakfast made by my husband, and looking forward to having him home for the day, relaxing, and taking it easy. I think I'm going to go make cookies soon.

Cravings

2009-02-27T15:54:00.002-05:00

I haven't had too many weird cravings throughout the pregnancy. Lots of food aversions in the first trimester, but not many cravings, and the ones I've had I can generally redirect to something healthier. But every once in a while I give in and indulge.

Today on my way back from the library I decided to indulge and stop by McDonalds for lunch. I pulled up to the drive through and put in my standard pregnancy craving order, to which the worker replied "Oh, you want the special?"

Yup, McDonalds has once again started their Lenten Filet O Fish + french fries special. This could be very, very bad. :)

2009-02-27T11:31:00.003-05:00

I'm begining to believe it might almost be spring. The order form for the county conservation district plants showed up today, and it's warm enough to be comfortable walking around outside without a jacket for several minutes at a time at least. The driveway is nice and slick due to the melting snowpack being covered with a layer of water - I'm hoping that maybe this warm spell will be enough to get it to finally melt all the way down to the gravel.

Right now I want another nap despite the fact that I just got up 2.5 hours ago. When a cold gets into my sinuses it tends to do that - the fuzzy feeling behind my eyes makes me feel sleepy even though it's really just irritation from the cold. I'll have to try to come up with the energy to go out for a walk and enjoy this warm weather before the rain comes.

2009-02-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Today is a grey, dreary day. I think I'm going to spend a little time doing some chores, and then probably spend the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch with a book. It'll give me a chance to finish up some of those baby books I have from the library and get them returned.

Oh, and...

2009-02-25T11:17:00.002-05:00

I got the 10% off coupon from Babies R Us, which reminded me of the fact that I get a one day discount on anything that I put on my registry before the listed due date. So I'm trying to think of anything I want to add to the registry that I might want after the baby comes. For the most part it seems that things that Target or WalMart carry that Babies R Us also carries are cheaper at those sites than they would be at Babies R Us even with the discount, so it's mainly things that I'm likely to have a hard time finding at other stores or would have to pay shipping on to order elsewhere that I'm trying to think of to add to the registry. So if anyone has any suggestions for must have stuff, I'd be happy to hear it.

CDs imported

2009-02-25T11:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's weekly checkup was good - quick in and out in 10 minutes, heartbeat is strong, we'll see you in a week unless you go into labor first.

I finished importing my CD collection this morning. This had started out as a pregnancy related project as I was trying to get some of my relaxing music imported to have available on my ipod rather than having to bring CDs and CD player to the hospital if I wanted music. But since I'd gotten started, I decided to go ahead and finish the collection. Now I just need to go make some playlists since I can't quite fit EVEYRYTHING I have on the ipod in one go if I want to have my podcasts on there too.

Closing

2009-02-24T10:15:00.002-05:00

James and I finally closed on our refinancing yesterday. That has removed a minor source of stress for me - supposedly closings usually only take about a month, but with the interest rates being as low as they had been the mortgage folks were very backed up. Which meant we were rapidly approaching our rate lock expiration date even though it was a 55 day rate lock. The reason it made me nervous is that our rate lock expiration date and my due date were the same day - I was beginning to worry that we'd end up having problems because we couldn't close because I was in labor. The attorney yesterday was joking about sending someone to the hospital to have me sign power of attorney papers between pushes. :) But it's all settled and out of the way now, so I can relax about that.

I've come down with a minor cold in the past few days - fortunately nothing that's making me miserable, unlike my last cold, but just enough chest congestion to let me know I'm definitely not up to full speed. Hopefully my body will fight this off soon!

Updated complete?

2009-02-23T12:07:00.002-05:00

Well, I think that brings me up to date on the events of the past couple of weeks. (Several updates today, so please be sure to scroll down and catch up!) If there's anything I promised somone I'd post a picture of that I've forgotten, please feel free to poke me and remind me.

At this point I'm into the "any day now" waiting game - the little one could decide to make his appearance any time within the next 3 weeks. I have a feeling he's more likely to make his arrival after his due date than before, but we'll just have to wait and see.

At this point I'm going to try to pop on for a quick update every day to keep people from wondering if I'm just being quiet or in the hospital. But James can update the blog as well, so I'm hoping to have any important baby updates posted relatively soon after they happen.

Pictures

2009-02-23T12:01:00.004-05:00

And some more pictures for you all....

Just to show you how I'm carrying - I'm one of those people who is definitely carrying the classic "boy" way - all out in front. From the back my waistline is thicker than it used to be, but not definitively pregnant.

However, from the side....

Those pictures were taken last weekend at the virtual baby shower - I may be even slightly more out front than I was then. I don't seem to be putting on a lot of weight at this point, but the gradual shifts in the way I'm carrying definitely change the way I look, and are putting new and interesting strains on my back.

Also, here's a shot of the assembled crib. James and his father did a wonderful job with this one!