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Hey Xander!
Do you know what today is?

You're 4 months old!

I know hard to believe huh?

Look at them perdy little blue eyes!

Hey!

Stop Laughing!

Your making my picture blurry!

This is an attempt at "Tummy time"
(or a reason to show off his cute little butt)



Since "Tummy Time" didn't go over so well how about your rocking chair?

Yeah Baby,

A two handed grab!

That's like twice the talent right?

Hope your next 4 months are as much fun as your first four!

Well maybe with less sleep deprivation and spit ups.

Starts

My mom came to visit this weekend!

YAY!

(and of course I already miss her)

She had lots of fun hanging out with the little guy.

Besides lots of playing she also helped Alex start new things!

(thats what gramma's do - they play and teach new tricks!)

The first new item to try was his highchair!

Were hoping to get him used to to his new seat at our table so that when the time comes to start real foods it will hopefully be easier.

not to mention maybe Chris and I might get to sit and eat at the same time now.

Speaking of sitting ....

Can you say Excersaucer!!!!

Oh Boy! is this gonna be a fun toy for Xander!

He is still a little too small for it, and I have to stuff blankets around him, but even at this early stage for him you can start to see the lightbulb turn on, that this is new, and not something just hanging above him to bat at.

He likes it!

LOOK!

Intentional grabbing!

Thats an awesome thing to see these days, and always makes me smile!

Of course it'll be more fun once his feet can touch the bottom!

Thanks Gamma Q for helping us try new things!

Cloth....The New Frontier

Last week I made a major move towards a greener world,
and started ......

CLOTH DIAPERS!!!!

First off do you have any idea how many advancements there have been in cloth diapers over the years?
Its like shopping for a car; you could go with the economical compact (prefolds) to the luxury sports car (all in ones), and all types in between, not to mention all of this fancy lingo and abbreviations, and guilt thrown in for good measure.

Its huge!

Its mind numbing!

Its a even a bit scary!

But with advice from my mama's group, countless internet searches, penny pinching, and lots of back and forth on the issue I made the plunge, and dived in.

So this is my "3 part system"

A regular "prefold" - basically a rectangle of heavy cotton fabric
A vinyl like cover with easy to use velcro
A flushable liner

The fabric gets folded into thirds, and since the cover wraps around Xander like a dispoasble there is no need for the scary pins of the "old days"

I then place the liner on - lets just say this makes the cleaning up after a "2" a lot easier and a lot less gross. And since its flushable I'm not adding more "2" into a landfill where it doesn't belong.

And then we apply to the baby!

Alex doesn't seem to mind the change, even if it does give him a "Daffy Duck Butt"

(we know how much his looks concern him)

Going to cloth does take longer to put on than a disposable and we've had a lot more "fountains" happen while trying to get all the layers together.

(but I like to think of that as Alex's way of "saving" a diaper )

FYI: I'm starting out with 36 inserts, 5 covers, and 1 roll of liners for an investment cost of 105.00. I realize now that I could have just bought 24 inserts and been fine, therefore saving 20.00. I know this seems like a lot of money - and it is - but overall they say you can save close to TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS if you decide to go cloth over disposable.

I will admit that I am far from going totally cloth - I do like him in a disposable for over nights and when going on trips outside of the house. However since going cloth I have cut my waste from three bags of diapers a week down to maybe one!

And that makes me feel really good!

Like maybe my little part will actually help the world out!

I could go on and on more about cloth diapers, but I have a feeling that I've already bored many of you anyways. I just felt like sharing my little story,
and isn't this what this blog is all about?

Oh yeah, I even saved some energy costs and line dried them .

makes you wanna puke how green I am sometimes

Heads Up

So Alex's head is all messed up.

Yep, I said it, all messed up.

Not sure when it started (probably when I wasn't looking), but my baby is going bald.

Yep , bald.

If you look back at his early days he has lots of hair. Not no more.
Its pretty much "old man" style with the below the ear stripe,

And see that!

Its an actual bald spot!

Maybe if he didn't spend all his time staring at ceiling it wouldn't have rubbed off!

Thankfully no one cares about the back of his head,
its the face thats important right?

Yeah well, that ain't looking to good today either.
Its hard to tell in the photo below, but my baby has his first sunburn :(

We spent the afternoon with some of the Mama's and his baby buddies,
and although he was wearing a hat the whole time, and had sunblock on,
he still came home with his little nose and cheeks all bright pink.



Thankfully its pretty mild and by the end of the day today its looking way better.

Its just not a good day for his head.

P.S. The next time Alex's mom puts sunscreen on him,
can someone please remind her to put some on herself.

first!

So yesterday was my first Mother's day as an official MOM!

Just a year ago little Xander was smaller than the size of a pea!
He wasn't even a HE yet!
Now he's close to fifteen pounds, 26 inches tall and has all his parts!
Crazy Huh!!


So how was my day?

Alex did his part by waking me up at 5:30 am and screamed for a half hour before finally calming down, he then ate 1st breakfast, peed in my face, before falling back to sleep for his first nap of the day.

(I think the crying was his evil genius way of reminding me how bad it could be)

Alex then helped Chris make me cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
and by help I mean he stayed sleeping, until we were done eating.
He then peed on Chris, just to be fair.

Exhausted from all the morning fun

Later on in the day Grampa Ken and Gramma Darci came over to eat brats and hang out.
We enjoyed the nice weather and Alex even got some sun!

Overall it was a good day!
I'm glad I'm a mom!

Big

So big things are a happening...

Alex is perhaps the biggest- he's now 14lbs 4oz
Thats almost twice his birth weight!

Unfortunately, that means no more of the newborn clothes :(
Yep, I have had to retire a great many cute outfits....

I will miss you little green striped sleeper

But hey, now we have new ones to try!

On a less vain front Alex is also starting to entertain himself!
ie: getting more comfortable at not necessarily having to be held all the time!
The mobile can stop and the tears won't immediately start,
he likes to babble at that spot on the wall or ceiling now,
he doesn't start crying immediatly after waking up,
and well we have already discussed his animal abuse.

Another big item of note is Alex has moved!
We went through lots and lots of debate (basically I kept nagging until Chris finally gave into my supreme logic) But Alex's nursery is no longer in the room next to our bedroom upstairs and is now in what used to be our office on the main floor. A lot has to do with making things easier for Darci when she comes up and watches the little guy for us,
another reason is laziness.
Its gonna be far easier for us when he really starts to play with toys and crawling to have a lot of that downstairs and not having to always cart stuff up and down stairs, and by stuff I might be referring to my butt, and speaking of butts its also nice to have a proper changing place for Alex's butt.

Boy do I have plans to make this room way too cute!

Right now he is still spending the nights in the cradle next to our bed, but the plan is to move him downstairs once he really starts to sleep through the night. - he's not that big yet!

(is it wrong of me to secretly wish that doesn't happen?)

5 x 5

5 times this week Alex has slept for 5 hours straight!

Guess who has insomnia.

Life has a very sick sense of humor.

gettin skillz

OK, so I am not to sure how intentinional it is,
and the toys have to be hanging low,
and he has to be in the right mood,
But.....

Xander is Batting!

This is a little sheepie,

and this is a little horsey...

and this is a little fishie !

Woo Hoo! to my little Alex for beating animals!