krisalis

Big League Originally uploaded by krisalis.
Marc is pitching! Not that you can really see that from this picture.

Angels Originally uploaded by krisalis.
Ready to head out to the game.

On The Road Originally uploaded by krisalis.
In his new car seat, wearing his pjs, on our way to Dallas. We’re hoping he’ll sleep most of the way. We may be crazy. Wish us luck!

Alexander’s first taste of ‘solids’, i.e. rice cereal. He took to it better than I thought he would!

What you can’t see in this video is that Rosie is sitting just off screen to the left, watching eagerly as I spoon the cereal into Alexander’s mouth, hoping against hope that I might send some her way too.

Rice Is Nice! Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Rice cereal is a big hit!

Alexander is 6 months old today!

Update: 6 month stats: 29″ long, >97% for height, off the chart! 18lb 4oz, 75% for weight, 44.4cm head circumference, 60%.

This month Alexander pretty much mastered rolling over from back to stomach at will. He can also sit straight up for extended periods of time now, although he still tumbles over every now and then, usually when he gets distracted by a toy or someone new walking into the room or a noise that makes him look up to see what’s going on, or Rosie. Alexander still does not seem to have gotten the hang of rolling from stomach to back. I’ve seen him do it, but it seemed more like an accident than an intended action. Once he’s on his stomach, he goes round in circles and can cover small distances on the floor by wiggling as if swimming on dry land.

Alexander made the transition from eating every 3 hours to eating every 4 hours this month. If I try to feed him before he’s properly hungry these days, he just fusses and squirms or has a quick drink and then lays back and burbles at me. He drinks watered down apple juice or baby juice a few times a week, from a little NuBe sippy cup. We’ve also tried putting the juice in a regular Playtex sippy cup, but the juice just seems to end up down his front when we do that. He has not started solids yet, but I’m sure that is coming soon. Alexander’s 6 month check-up is tomorrow, and we’ll talk with our pediatrician about starting solids. I have a book, I have a blender, I have a baby chair, I have a bowl and a plastic baby spoon. But I have to admit that I’m not looking forward to introducing something new into the Alexander equation.

Sleep wise, things are mostly OK. He has been taking 3 or 4 short naps each day, (40mins) but that 4th nap is disappearing as he stays awake for longer stretches during the day. He goes to bed around 7pm each night, and sleeps until 10.30pm when he has his final feed for the day. After that, he usually sleeps through until morning – where ‘morning’ means anytime between 5am to 7.30am. He has been waking up more often in the middle of the night, or really early in the morning, needing pats and cuddles to help him settle back in for some more sleep.

As with everything, there are changes afoot in the sleep department. Alexander suddenly outgrew his swaddle this past weekend. On Wednesday, he was sleeping soundly in the swaddle and then suddenly on Thursday evening when I was putting him to bed, instead of calming him down and helping him to sleep, the swaddle just seemed to irritate him, and he kept wriggling and struggling until he broke free. At first, I just figured he was overtired and feeling restless, so I reswaddled him and tried again. But he worked hard and broke free again, squirming and grunting as if annoyed. So I went in and unswaddled him again, and put him down on the big bed beside me until he fell asleep, then transferred him back to the crib. On Friday, I went back to using the swaddle, and although he would fall asleep wrapped up in it, he wouldn’t stay asleep. Since then, we’ve been putting to sleep without the swaddle. It takes him longer to settle down to sleep without the swaddle, but at least this way he stays asleep. I think I need to get some sort of wearable blanket to keep him warm when he naps during the day now that he’s not in the swaddle.

Alexander is a sociable little guy. Mark and I had friends in town this past weekend, and Alexander was happy to play with Tito Damon and Tita Sarah. He clambered happily over Michael and sat in Kathy’s lap too. When people talk to him and smile at him when we’re out at the grocery store, he always gives them a cheeky grin back. Our boy likes an audience. He’s happy to play in the exersaucer and jumperoo, but he wants us to be in the room paying attention to his antics. If we walk away or get too visibly distracted, he gets grumbly with us. Alexander still likes his gymini, but seems to most enjoy playing on a blanket on the floor with a few toys, where he has space to sit up, roll around and wriggle in circles.

Alexander is becoming more vocal. He burbles and squeaks away, talking to us while he plays in the exersaucer. He loves to talk to me half way through nursing.

He still likes to have his mouth open. Everything still goes in the mouth.

This has also been a month of firsts in the adventure department for Alexander - I went jogging with Alexander in the baby jogger for the first time last week. We only went for about 15mins, but both Alexander and Rosie seemed to enjoy it. I was pretty tired from pushing the stroller by the end. - Alexander went out on the boat for the first time this weekend. He seemed a little anxious at first, and I’m sure that had more to do with the fact that I was nervous and he could tell. (As Kathy said, it seemed more likely that Alexander would be injured from me squeezing him so tight rather than from any boat related injury). But I relaxed after a little while, and so did he. - First night away from his Mumma and Dadda. Mark and I went up to Dallas for a night this month to attend a friend’s wedding, and Alexander stayed with my mum and dad while we were away. That worked out really well. - First night that Auntie Billie babysat. Alexander slept and Billie watched Gilmore Girls on TiVo. I call that success.

Happy half birthday, Bubbalicious. We love you so much.

Katie on her 14th birthday Originally uploaded by krisalis.

A few Katie things:
- that weird finger tapping on the table thing
- pickles
- monkeys
- running
- asking other people to make you tea, even though you have been perfectly capable of making your own tea for about 20 years.
- talking really, really fast
- red hair

Happy 27th birthday. Hope you have a wonderful day.

P.S. To this day, this song reminds me of you. You used to sing it all the time when we first moved to Geneva in 1988. To your stuffed toy monkey. You were 7.

Alexander demonstrates his latest new skill – sitting up. He is 25 weeks old in this video (about 5 1/2 mths).

I Am Mom Originally uploaded by krisalis.
My coffee came with a fun stick drawing today.

I like this even more than the time Mark’s coffee was labelled for Mr. Starwars, and way more than the time I got a coffee labelled for Christink.