Three Months Old

Today we headed out to Sauvie Island, a great spot relatively close, but still a nice getaway. The sun was shining and the wind was actually blowing pretty hard out there. We saw tons of kiteboarders and Lyrik was just kicking himself that he didn't bring his gear today. Heck, I wanted to get out there myself and I thought I swore off kiteboarding after having Xander. Xander was really checking everything out when he was awake-I think he likes Sauvie!



Xander is 13 weeks today. We decided to stay home for Memorial Day weekend this year. I wanted to go on a camping trip with Xander for the first time, but Lyrik thought it would be better to go on a less busy weekend. So we'll go later. For now we are just going to relax and enjoy the gorgeous weather around here.


Xander is practicing his sitting up!


Yesterday Auntie Liz, Auntie Lyra, Cousin Marley Xander and I went to the zoo. It was so fun to see Xander looking around wide-eyed, unlike the last time we went when he slept the entire time! The animals were definietly feeling the spring weather-mating abounded. And let me tell you- those elephants have quite an impressive show while mating! The Lorekeet pavilion was my favorite, as usual, because you can feed them nectar and they will perch right on you to eat!


Grandma gave Xander a bath. They make him nice and relaxed and ready for bedy!

Excuse the legs-this was just such a cute smile though! Maybe I can photoshop the legs out later.

Xander had a photo shoot today-and a professional one at that. So I may get out some birth anouncements in the near future. Or I may not decide to even do them. I don't feel as much pressure to do them because I have this blog and it is the best way to announce Xander, in my opinion.



Xander and Daddy do some funny things together. Here is one of them. I guess as a parent you will do just about anything to make your baby smile.

First Mother's Day

It was my first Mother's Day and I couldn't be happier! We had my Mom over for brunch and then went on a long walk in the sunshine. It was a beautiful day!

Xander still gets the bug eyes when we put a camera in front of him.

Here is a cute one from Daddy's photo shoot.


Xander is eleven weeks now, which means I only have seven weeks left of maternity leave. I just received the awful news from my boss (via voice mail!) that I would not be able to do job-share as I requested. Needless to say, I am very disappointed with her decision and her unwillingness to work with me in facilitating the family-friendly environment the State of Oregon claims to foster. Ha! Family-shamily.
So, I set out on the daunting task of finding full-time childcare. I think we settled on the YMCA at Amberglen which is roughly 5 minutes from my work by car. I figure instead of using my two 30 minute breaks designated for pumping breastmilk in a lactation room, I will just drive over an BE with Xander twice a day to nurse. So even though YMCA is not perfect in every way, at least I can see Xander during the day and that should make my working full-time much easier for both of us. Fridays will be the most difficult, since Lyrik stays home and will be watching Xander. I told him that he will just have to come out to Hillsboro every Friday and we will all eat lunch together. Yay!
Xander new developments for this week include more sleeping through the nights and grabbing. After about five days in a row of waking in the night (even twice one night!). I think he was just going through a growth spurt and needed more to eat at night. But now Xander is back to his 12 hour nights, sleeping from about 7pm to 7am.It is so cute to find him in his crib in the morning happy, content, bright eyed and babbling! Hopefully he will stick with it for a while. The grabbing has mostly been while nursing-he will tug on my shirt or bra. But he also is going nuts on his infant chair and the little "guys" that hang over it. We call it his office because he sits in that chair and just goes to work! He gets a really concentrated look on his face while he is batting and grabbing but he throws lots of smiles in there too.

Snoozing The Night Away

Congratulations Xander! Xander turned 10 weeks old on Friday and he showed us how big he is getting by sleeping through the night for the very first time. By sleeping through the night I mean from 8pm to 6:30 am, with an 11 pm dream feed, of course. What a good sleeper!

Hangin' Tough

I like to do little photo shoots with Xander when I get the chance. Most of the time when he is looking at the camera he is like a deer in headlights. Here are a few examples. Above, Xander is propped up sitting on the couch with his rattle booties on. He recently noticed that he has feet! He just can't figure out why Mom needs to put those silly socks on them.
Xander hangin' in his play yard. He really likes his "alone time" where he just plays by himself staring at his various toys.


Xander sleeping on Auntie Liz. A luxury for Xander, who has been working on his independant sleeping skills. But every once in a while it feels so nice to be cuddled completely to sleep!



Here is Xander with Grandma- they are best buds! And they even color coordinate their outfits when they get together!

Springtime Baby

Xander is now 9 weeks old, smiling and sprouting some hair on his head. He has been doing great lately, he really seems to be growing up! His personality is becoming more evident to us every day, which mostly has to do with more alert time. He still is sleeping a ton, maybe 6 hours during the day and then 11 hours at night. His nights are still going great, today he didn't wake until 5 am since putting him to bed at 8 and then doing a dream feed at 10:30! He had his first big set of vaccines at the doctor's and did great-no strange reactions, just didn't sleep very well that night. He is now around 13 pounds and 25 inches long, so he is a tall lanky fella (gee-I wonder where he gets that from?).

We have been attending the Baby and Me classes at Legacy Emanuel on Wednesdays and it is super helpful to hear other Mom's concerns and share info about our babies. The leader of Baby and Me, Bonnie, taught our Birthing Class and she is so sweet and laid-back and has great suggestions for us.

He has been hangin' with Grandma Lisa a few times a week while I go workout and love playing with the Big Bird puppet and doing tummy time on her carpet.

At home, playtime still consists of his infant activity chair, which he still loves, and singing and playing games on Mommy or Daddy's lap. We sing itsy-bitsy spider, ABC song (with sign language!), peek-a-boo, and we have little pretend conversations-where he has the chance to make sounds (even little giggles) after Mommy or Daddy makes sounds. It's pretty cute! His expressions are starting to come out more-smiling and happy are the most common. He seems facinated with his ability to make spit bubble and it has become a favorite passtime for Xander. Check out the video below for evidence!

Lyrik and I have been working a lot in our yard getting our garden ready and preparing a new raspberry patch. Usually Xander sleeps while we work outside, but occasionally we bring out his swing or his little play yard and he just watches us or stares at the trees and sky. Our garden is all loaded up with seeds and starts and all we have to do is wait for everything to grow. The raspberries won't produce a crop until next year, and even that will be a smallish one compared to the third year. I can't wait to have them! The blueberries I planted last year should give a small crop this year. I wish Xander was old enough to be eating by the time they are ready, but he'll be a bit too young. We are supposed to be starting our CSA (community sponsored agriculture) this June, where we pay up front for a share in a farm and get a box of fresh organic veggies every week for a year. Xander will get some great baby food from those boxes in a few more months!

Smiles Galore!

Here is Xander in his bouncy seat after staring at the little plastic animals and mirror above him. He loves it! He finally figured out that if he bats at the little animals, a song will play and the lights dance around. I am so glad my sister Chrissy gave me this chair!
This is Xander right after he woke up in this morning. I usually nurse him and then put him is his seat while I make coffee. Then I go over to him and we smile at each other for as long as possible. He is so happy in the morning-I wish I could just bottle up that happiness! Another development this week is that Xander has found he can bring his hand to his mouth. He is still working on his coordination, but I can tell there is some serious self-soothing to come.

Smiles

Xander is now six weeks old. Six weeks is some sort of milestone not just for baby but for Mom also. I am now out of my official "healing" stage and can resume much of my former life activities. So, the first thing I did was reinstate my gym membership. (I am learning that nursing doesn't help you loose all of the pregnancy weight). Xander is now much more aware of things around him, people and their eyes especially. He makes various noises now, and I think we are starting to recognise his different cries, one for hunger, one for tired, etc. And Grandma Betsy received Xander's first non-gas-related(i.e. real) smile!

We went on our first trip to the beach as a family last weekend. Chrissy and the kids came to visit for spring break and treated us to a few days in Manzanita. Xander pretty much slept the whole time, but in the arms of his cousins , none the less. We had a nice bonfire one night, did crosswords, made nice dinners, walked on the beach, and watched movies. It was great to get away and relax in a different environment than our house.

Grandma Betsy made her voyage back to Alaska this last week. We were sad to see her leave but we know that she needed to get back to her life in Homer. We actually sent her off on Tuesday only to discover that Mt. Readout had blown again and her flight was cancelled. We managed to get her for a few more days and Xander got to have more Grammy time, which he was happy about. We also were able to go to Betsy's favorite Lebanese restaurant on her departure night.

Lyrik and I have been taking advantage of the gorgeous spring weather the past couple of days. We spent much of Saturday getting our yard somewhat back in shape and Sunday we went to Sauvie Island to sunbathe and picnic. Xander is growing rapidly, he is about 12 pounds right now, moved up a diaper size, and really is starting to fill in all of the clothes we got as gifts. He's been doing pretty good with our "routine", and last night he even slept for a six and a half hour stretch! He usually starts out in his crib for the night, sleeping about 4 hours, then wakes up to eat and stays in bed with us for the remainder of the night. It seems to work out well, but I can't wait until the first stretch in his crib lasts 6 hours or more consistently.