Visit to Santa

Today (yes up to date news!) we visited Santa at a local mall. Daddy and Andrew met Uncle Pete and Mommy there. It was a long line for the middle of a workday but Andrew was a trooper and we had 3 adults jumping up and down to try to get him to smile. Though he wasn't too sure about Santa, there was no crying, just a little serious look at first, followed by some confusion, but once Santa had a book for them to look at together, Andrew was feeling okay about the situation. We of course bought photos and the rights and USB stick. Here's a sweet photo of Andrew reading with Santa.

We have a real white pine Christmas tree that Andrew helped us pick out at the university's forestry program tree lot (supports the students!). He helped pick out safe ornaments to put up and takes some off to carry them around the house.

Andrew is also nearly exclusively walking now that he is an official toddler. Both Nick and I had moments of "whoa" when Andrew first took our hand and walked next to us. He's a little boy now!

If we don't post again before Christmas---Merry Christmas to all!!

Walking when convenient

So honestly not much has gone on since the last post, or at least is seems so. Andrew is getting a little more confident about walking, but he's still very aware of how much faster crawling can be, so he never takes more than a couple steps at a time. He loves throwing his ball and then crawling after it, which we think he learned from the puppy. He also smiles nearly all the time, though he's had a couple periods of crankiness that we think are precursors of impending teeth.
For Halloween, Andrew was going to go as Daddy's Little Sidekick (a set of superhero pajamas), but at the last minute we got some adorable pumpkin-but PJs from Lynn's aunt, and we realized that he could be a superhero all winter but the PJs with pumpkins, bats, and black cats were more time-sensitive. We didn't go trick-or-treating because, frankly, we didn't think he would eat candy. Turns out we were wrong: Mommy opened up a Laffy Taffy, and Andrew reached up, grabbed it from her, and shoved it in his mouth ravenously. Good thing he's so good at brushing his teeth!!

Standing, clapping, laughing and even a step

Andrew has been a very busy boy lately. He is getting very good at standing up on his own and applauds himself. The first time he did it he looked at us like "are you getting this, yep I stand" then sat back down. We also had a great time with grandma and grandad in town the other weekend. Grandad ran a marathon (getting a new "PR"--personal record of 3:37!) so Andrew "ran" his own race that weekend--the Diaper Dash. As one of my co-workers commented when I was describing the race to them it's like a turtle race--put all the racers in the center of a circle and the first to the outer circle is the winner. Andrew from what we could determine was the first baby to crawl to the outer circle (a few bigger kids gave up on crawling and stood up and walked/ran, which disqualifies them in my book).

On Sunday, October 11, Andrew went for some fancy pictures and did very well. See this one of Andrew showing off his crawling moves. He also stood and clapped and played with his new red ball. It was fun. We are getting excited that we are less than 2 months from his first birthday.

Ok, so for everyone following, we hope you are well and sorry it has taken so long to get a posting!

Brothers

Looking through old photos and found these. I think they really are brothers.

He's Crawling

Well, he has been for a while, but I've been pretty bad about updating this thing. In fact, we've had a lot of fun all summer with no updates. Briefly, we went to Chautauqua at the end of June and saw Sesame Street Live, Andrew is up to 6 teeth, he's unstoppable with his mobility, and Aunt Emily came to visit for the summer. Comment if you want longer entries on any of those points, but otherwise I think I'll just endeavor to be better in the future rather than going back and trying to recapitulate past events.

Andy's Wedding

This past weekend, Andrew and his parents went the wedding of Nick's cousin Andy, who is the reason we always refer to Andrew by his full name. Even more important than the wedding, at least from Andrew's standpoint, was the opportunity for a string of firsts. It was his first time on an airplane, first time meeting his same-age (+/- 2 months) cousins, first time being passed around from stranger to stranger (all family, of course), and his first time in a swimming pool!

On the plane ride to North Carolina, Andrew was perfectly behaved the entire first couple hours and only became fussy for a couple minutes during the pressure change on the way down. The ride home was a little bit more eventful, but nothing compared to the 2-year-old a couple rows behind us. Other passengers complimented him on his behavior!

Sicky Baby

It's been a while since the last post, and yet much of the news on Andrew since then has been his being sick. He has been super-stuffy off and on for a couple weeks now, and he even got the eye crusting for a little while. For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, apparently babies can get so stuffed up that the mucous starts coming out through their eyes and then crusts over. Aren't you glad you read this? Anyway, we were keeping that under control with an aspirator and saline drops, and all was well. That is until two days ago when we got a call (actually several calls and an email) telling us that Andrew had a temperature of 102.9! We picked him up immediately and have kept him at home yesterday and today. The diagnosis? Baby's first ear infection. Yeah!! He's actually handled it really well. He is a little more fussy and a little less happy than usual, but not by much. He's still an adorable, happy, smiley, mostly bald little boy.

In non-medical news, it seems that Andrew is growing by leaps and bounds. Since the last post, he has gained nearly two pounds! What used to be our skinny lanky little boy is now a chunky monkey. He has even grown out of clothes, a feat I never imagined was possible. I guess I just assumed he would be that tiny forever. He is also showing the very beginning signs of sitting and crawling. He can tripod-sit (or "gorilla sit" as Lynn calls it) for a few seconds at a time, before accelerating forward into a face plant (we try to catch him as often as possible). We're also giving him lots of tummy time, during which he has figured out how to push with him arms OR his legs, but he hasn't quite figured out how to do both at the same time. He does manage to pivot on his tummy a bit to get his toys. He likes toys. That's my boy!

Summary Statement

I was just looking over the blog all the way from the beginning. Hopefully the site won't shut down anytime soon so we can keep going back and seeing how much has happened in such a short amount of time (what have YOU done in the last 4 months?). I have come to two conclusions:

1. Andrew just gets cuter with time. If this trend continues, I don't know what we're going to do. We may never be able to put him down again.

2. I am grateful for such a wonderful wife with whom to share this adventure and for such caring friends and family who actually stop by every once in a while to check up on how Andrew is doing. He is lucky to have a small village already looking out for him.

The Bald Man and the Serpent

We got some pictures of Andrew from day care recently, including this one of him apparently eating a snake. He has also been busy finger-painting and making "April showers" raindrops with his footprints. His teacher has even decorated the room with all the "artwork", illustrated descriptions of how each was made (showing each of the boys engaged in the various stages), and a chart of vocabulary (e.g. sleepy, happy, napping, etc.) featuring Andrew as one of the models. He certainly looks like he has some fun times at day care, so many of our fears have been quelled. It's still not as good as staying home with his parents, but it's the next best thing.

First Easter

This afternoon, we got out the egg dyes for the first time in years to give Andrew a traditional experience for his first Easter. I'm not sure he really got the concept, but we had a lot of fun. We even used a white crayon to write M (Mommy), D (Daddy), A (Andrew), and P (Uncle Peter), along with some other "secret" messages, on our eggs before dying them. They actually came out pretty well! Lynn has big plans for the Easter outfit for church tomorrow, though she was disappointed by how few options there are for a 4 month old's basket. And before I get too many comments, we realize that Easter is about more than bunnies and colored eggs. However, if he doesn't really understand that the egg changed color, I doubt he'll be able to appreciate the whole "dying for our sins and overcoming death" thing. Maybe when he's older.

First St. Patrick's Day (A little late)

Lynn was supposed to blog about this last week, but not being able to do so at work apparently put a damper on those plans. Andrew had a very nice first St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate at school that week they made a special (first) art project. Andrew made a shamrock with little green footprints, and the teacher hung it up in the room for everyone to see. His shamrock leaves were considerably smaller than his classmate's, which is not surprising given the tiny feet of his parents.

He also wore the shirt seen here, which is mostly true. As far as we know, Andrew is 5/16 Irish, which we feel is sufficient to claim Irishhood, especially since it is a plurality (equal with German, all from Mommy's side of the family). And since he's been to Ireland, even more reason! So what if he was still inside Mommy and approximately the size of a kidney bean. And we followed the instructions on his shirt several times that day.

Video Updates

Lynn says she will be providing an update that discusses Andrew's attempt to get in touch with his Irish roots this past Tues, but I wanted to upload some long-overdue videos of our little man talking.

Week 2

Day care is not going as well as we would like, but we're learning to accept that it's the best institutional day care gets. There are things we don't like (I won't go into details), but we can live with it as long as it doesn't get worse. But enough gloom and doom.

Lynn declared Andrew to have made his first laugh a couple days ago. He's been smiling a lot for weeks now, and he's been vocalizing a LOT (must take after his Daddy), but he finally put the two together. I remember my cousin Jon saying his wife could make Cody (Jon's son) squeal about this age, so maybe Andrew is right on track. Lynn finds it slightly amusing that much of his smiley time with Daddy is on the changing table and while getting dressed. He apparently doesn't find getting dressed with Mommy quite as entertaining. We have video of a conversation that hopefully we'll post soon.

Andrew still looks bald in a lot of the photos we take, though Lynn just claims that his hair is "invisible". I guess she's not used to Davenport babies. He's got Lynn's eyes and mouth, but I can definitely claim the scalp!

Better Days

For all of you who were on pins and needles about how Andrew's second day went, it was much better than the first. The teacher read to him and sang to him, and she said he seemed very interested in the book. And he only went 3 hours without a bottle, which is a drastic improvement. We're still a little jilted by the first day experience, but at least now we're not as worried about his physical health being compromised. Today he's home with his Mommy, who is taking some scattered vacation days over the next couple weeks to ease the transition for both of them, and Daddy will have him every Thursday. Daddy is very excited.

Daycare Woes

Andrew started day care yesterday, and it was a disaster. Lynn was quite anxious about leaving her constant companion of the past 3 months (or year, arguably) with almost perfect strangers, no matter how well-recommended the place and teacher are. The drop-off seemed to go alright, but when Lynn went to pick him up the teacher had just started a bottle. If Lynn were late, that would be understandable, but when the Mommy is on time, there is no reason to start a bottle right before. That did not help Lynn's anxiety. Then when we got a chance to look at the daily report, we noticed that he had only gotten 3 bottles for the day: 10am, 3pm, and 5pm. Note the 5 hour gap in the middle. Perhaps needless to say, Andrew was nearly insatiable last night and ate more frequently than ever (and cried more than ever too). All in all, a horrible start to the day care experience. We are hoping that today will be better.

Good sleeper

Andrew has been sleeping through the night much more reliably than in the past. I think we've gotten stretches of at least 6 hours all week! He is also much more interactive and actually plays by himself in his bouncer. You can see in the picture that Lynn keeps hanging more and more toys, and he plays with them all. His favorite activity is to pull on the rings until the chain breaks, which I don't think I could do if I tried (the notches have to be lined up just right).

Happy Morning Baby

We woke up this morning after a very good night (6.5 hours straight) to find our baby in his crib flipped to his side and exploring the elephant toy that hangs next to him. Awake, but playing happily alone. He has been showing a lot more grasping and self-play the past week, much of it with the dangling toys in his bouncer. He has also been bubbling quite a bit, which I guess is a more "advanced" form of the drooling he was doing earlier. He seems quite proud of himself for blowing bubbles, but he is also quite happy when we wipe his face (usually).

Andrew's other recent developments are the proliferation of the social smile and saying "a-goo". When the aunts were here, Emily became an expert at getting him to smile. She would gently brush his cheek, and he would grin from ear to ear. Jenny never achieved quite the same level of response, but he was clearly happy to have both of them there. Along with the smiling, Andrew is trying very hard to communicate verbally with us. He is obviously not saying anything too intelligible, but his parents are hard at work trying to figure out his sounds. The only thing we've picked up so far, and it might just be wishful thinking, is that he gets really happy when he hears his name. He also got really good at saying "goooo" (as most babies do), and then started adding "ah" at the beginning. I swear he's trying to say "Andrew". He probably has no idea that it's his name, but I think he's realizing that his parents say the word a lot and they always seem so happy when they say it. Perhaps he thinks "Andrew" means "best thing ever", which, in a way, it does.

Doctor Thumbs Up

Last Friday, Andrew went to the doctor for his 2 month check-up and immunizations. He is officially 10 lbs 3 oz. On one hand, we're ecstatic he's over 10 lbs. On the other hand, he should really be closer to 12 at this point, so our mission to fatten our child continues. The doctor was also impressed that he is drooling a lot, which she says means his oral development is ahead of schedule. Apparently drooling is a sign that he's getting ready for teeth! I always knew we had an advanced baby. Now if only he could get some real hair.

The past couple days Andrew has enjoyed meeting his Aunt Emily and Aunt Jenny (Nick's sisters) who came to visit him. They have been impressed with what a good boy he is (usually), especially on our outings. Then again, if they heard any of the activity last night, they may have gotten a better idea of his true range (Lynn was up at least 3 times, and Nick helped a couple times too). He was probably just too excited about having his aunts here to sleep.

Birthdays Galore

Andrew would like to wish his granddad, great-uncle Al, and cousin Nathaniel very happy birthdays. He would also like to extend a very warm "Welcome to the world!" to his new cousin Levi Michael Salmon. Unfortunately, he is a day late. He's two months old! What do you expect?

To the Zoo!

Last Saturday was such a beautiful day that we took a family trip to the zoo. Andrew enjoys time in his stroller, so he was happy to be out and about in a new place. He couldn't see all that well into the various exhibits so he was getting pretty bored. He did react when we walked into the zebra building and he smelled the unique smell. We also walked around the conservatory and discovered that the paths were not the most stroller friendly. It was nice to get out with Andrew as it was over 40 degrees for the first time in Andrew's life! It was also a great outing for Mommy and Daddy as we have always loved going to the zoo and conservatory and even had our wedding photos taken in the park there. It was a grand day out.

Excuse to post a photo

We took some pictures this weekend, and they were just too cute to keep to ourselves, so here they are. In terms of news, Andy had his first play date today with Russell, his friend who was born two rooms down from us in the hospital. His parents Rita and Tim are friends of ours from church, so we're hoping the boys become good friends so they can raise Cain together. Lynn says Andrew was well-behaved the whole two hours, alert and smiling the whole time. Apparently he was just happy to be somewhere new, like a little Mr. Excitement. On one hand, his father was also notorious for being happy in any situation, so there's a Nature influence. On the other hand, Ruggles has been known to get excited no matter where we take him, so Nurture may be at work too. Either way, we're just happy that we can dress him up AND take him out.

Another Weight Check

We went in for another weight check yesterday, and Andrew was up another 3 oz. Hooray! Any increase is a reason to celebrate at this point. However, we got lectured by one of the other pediatricians in the office (not our primary pediatrician, who we think is excellent) because he did not gain at least half an ounce per day (he was half an ounce under that guideline). But we will just take from that lecture what is helpful and discard what is just WAY overcautious.

In other news, Andrew has started making real facial expressions (e.g. social smiles) recently, occasionally mimicking his parents, which is quite exciting. He is also very good at tracking things and likes to bop the toys that dangle into his playpen, and he's cooing up a storm. To be fair, Lynn has been noticing these behaviors for a couple weeks, but he is now doing them at increasing frequency. It's amazing to watch him go from a blob that is desperately trying to make sense of our confusing world to a small mammal figuring out how to interact with it.

Chunky Monkey

Although it hasn't been mentioned a whole lot here, we have been struggling for several weeks to get Andrew back to his birth weight. For a while we were giving him an extra 2 oz of formula 3 times a day, to supplement what Lynn could provide, along with occasional pumping to increase milk supply. Still not enough, though I should mention that he was healthy in every other respect - just a little skinny.

At his one month visit (at 5 weeks old), the doctor said it was time to stop fooling around and start really forcing the calories into him. She recommended adding a scoop of formula (which would normally be mixed with 2 oz of water) to every 2 oz of breast milk and giving him 4 oz bottles of formula with 3 scoops instead of 2 oz bottles with 1 scoop. The result: Andrew's weight on January 18 was officially 8 lbs 9 oz (up from 7 lbs 14 oz on January 15). Hooray!! I weighed him unofficially on our bathroom scale last night, and he was close to 10 lbs. Double hooray!

Otherwise the whole family is doing well. Nick has returned to work, though he misses his family greatly. Both sets of parents have made an appearance for a couple days, and everyone agrees that photographs cannot capture just how beautiful this little boy is. And today is Ruggles' birthday, so happiness abounds!

Mommy awake?

Finally, after weeks of Nick saying I should add to this blog, I am here posting. Hmm, well I'll leave the details to him with what's gone on. My collection of boys is a generally happy bunch. We have taken to camping out on the couch most days, the boys all piled up asleep. In my short time home so far I have learned a few things 1) daytime tv is judge shows, soaps or news 2) never lend anyone money without a written contract and 3) most commercials target unemployed young people, retired folks, and moms (of which none seem to apply to me--at least yet). We've watched a lot of movies so far, though never straight through as we are interrupted for feedings and crying. We may never see a movie all the way through in one sitting again.