Teething

Xander has been acting like he is teething for a while now but this week we finally have progress!  He has two bottom teeth poking through!  I can't wait for them to finish coming in so that he will be a happier little guy, and maybe less of a drool monster!

On the other hand, I am a little scared of him being a biter and having to ween him.  I would love to make that one year mark!  I suppose I have quite a bit of milk in the freezer so we could probably get by that way, but it wouldn't replace the comfort he gets.  We have had a couple of instances where I have had to scold him and flick his cheek for biting.  Breaks my heart but better now than when he can draw blood!

In the meantime Xander has been gnawing on frozen bagels.  I also have one of those mesh feeders, which is been a blessing!  He has used it for months to eat fresh fruits.  He particularly LOVES mango.  To help with the teething, though, I have been freezing apple juice and putting it in the feeder for him to chew on.  It keeps him entertained and soothed for quite a while.  He just yells at me every time I take it away to refill it.

Eating mango, his favorite.

Alternating between frozen bagel and frozen apple juice.

Book Challenge

A week an a half ago I wrote about the 1500 book challenge.  That weekend I made up a spreadsheet to help us keep tract.  My original goal was 100 unique books for his first year.  Well in the week or so I have been keeping track, we have already read 34 books, in addition to some I am not counting.  I am thinking of increasing our goal.  I think I will go to 250 for now, and possibly bump it up to 500.  It will get more challenging as we go, just because we do not have that many books!  We would have to make frequent library trips.  Anyway, we will see.

In other updates, Xander is sitting better and better everyday.  Yesterday and today I made him sit up to watch his YBCR.  He didn't seem to mind at all.  Soon, hopefully, I will eliminate the bouncer completely.  Probably a good thing, he is approaching the weight limit.

Unfortunately, now that he wants to sit all the time, it is even harder to get him to spend time on his tummy.  He cannot push himself up on all fours yet, but he is getting much better at reaching for things.  He rotates himself as he plays, and he does get some movement in.  Unfortunately, he usually pushes the toys he wants forward, out of his reach, and moves himself backwards, away from the toys.  Needless to say, this causes a lot of frustration.  I also notice the other night, while I had him on his back to dry him off after his bath, he was scooting himself backwards, sliding on his back.  I know it wasn't intentional, but it shows he is getting stronger.

Xander still LOVES his food.  We finally switched him to a bigger bottle.  He likes veggies better than fruits, but now eats about a third of a jar at a time.  It is nice to be able to give him more during each feeding; I have less crying to deal with.  He has tolerated every food well, except apples.  We are not doing them again for a long long time.  They really upset his tummy, and gave him diarrhea for a few days.  I am excited to be able to branch out to a wider variety for him!

The Very Hungry Xander

You know the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar?  Madelynn always loved it, and now Xander has a copy.  I think he likes the bright pictures.  Anyway, I can't help but think of my little guy every time I read that book.  My kid LOVES to eat.

A lot of the time, particularly in the evening if people are around and I'm using a nursing cover, he screams his hurting cry when I switch him from one breast to the other.  It takes less than a minute to rehook, unhook, and flip him, but gosh you'd think I was torturing him.  Lately, we have been giving him some baby food, just to try out tastes and textures.  I try to feed him either while I am eating breakfast or lunch, just so it feels more like "meal time."  Well, today I had him playing in his high chair (I know, when did he get old enough for that??) while I was making my lunch.  I got out his little bowl, spoon, and the jar of baby food while I was finishing up.  Well the little stinker saw it and apparently made the connection.  When I hadn't started feeding him within a couple of minutes, he started to cry.  Then he made cooing noises the whole time he ate, and cried and cried when he was done.  He was so upset that I wasn't giving him more, I called the nurse to ask if we could start increasing his portions.  He is only supposed to have 2-3 teaspoons a day at this point, so I was very relieved when she said we can slowly increase his portions, as long as we stick to one food at a time still.  I may need to make a trip to the grocery store!

"I got this, Mom.  I'll just feed myself."

I don't remember if I wrote about our play mats or not.  A couple of weeks ago I got a great deal on some floor mats (similar to these).  My carpet is thick, so Xander has trouble moving around on the floor.  If I put a blanket under him, he usually balls it up rather than accomplishing any movement himself.  He'd get frustrated, I'd worry about him developing enough muscles to move his ever increasing weight, and Toby would steal the blankets, so - floor mats.  Now that I have them, I don't know how I got by without them!  They came in 8 big puzzle pieces, so I put half together at my house and half at my parents house.  Since then, I've noticed a big change in his physical ability.  He can rotate around pretty well, particularly if he is mad.  He is getting better and better at holding his chest up, or reaching for a toy while propping himself up.  He still only rolls from front to back, but every once in a while he can scoot himself backward on his tummy.  On his back, he now pushes himself up with his legs, almost into a bridge position (without the arms over his head, of course).  He has a toy that plays music if you spin it, which he has figured out from the sitting position.  I put it in front of him while he was on his tummy to see what he would do.  It took a while, and a couple of face plants into the mat, but he has now mastered spinning the toy with one arm while supporting himself with the other.  Yesterday, he lay there and spun it for a good 20 minutes straight.

Oh, and today is Grandpa's birthday!