Who'd ever thought that someone else's bowel habits could be so interesting...

So I think it is pretty hilarious but there is something about being a mom that means you get to/need to pay attention to the bowel habits of your child. Who knew that I could get so excited over poop, but when your kid hasn't done #2 in 8 days you can go over the moon at the sight of it. Yeah for the poop dance! Then comes the inevitable well now I have to clean this all up...that is the less fun part. Luckily in the last several weeks of 7-8 days of not pooping followed by massive explosions, I have been lucky enough to not be the one the change that diaper. The babysitter got the first honors and daddy came in second- way to go mommy!

We, well rather I , have been having fun dressing up Xander in Halloweeny outfits. He only gets to wear them for such a short time and they are SO cute that I can't help myself, plus he looks pretty cute in orange. I am sad and pathetic but Gap was doing a casting call for cute baby/kids and I entered a picture of Xander. There were LOTS of really cute babies on there though so i am sure we have no chance of winning but there was a secret little thrill of saying hey I've got one cute kid and I'm going to try to cash in on it- that sentiment was quickly following by a horrendous sense of guilt that I was even thinking about cashing in on my kids adorableness but by then the deed had been done! Of course the really sad part about it all was that I found out about the casting call when I was shopping online at gap.com (Baby Gap is seriously addicting!). Actually I have developed an online shopping addiction over the last few days but I think after winning my last ebay auction I have kicked the habit! What is it about bidding in auctions that brings out the adrenaline- I swear i get heart palpitations sometimes, followed by the inevitable crash when I lose b/c I am too darn cheap! Ebay is for bargains right???????

Excuse the rambling post, it is now almost 5 am and I have been up for close to 24 hours and I still have to give report, change clothes, drive home, feed the baby and put away my lunch and pumped milk before I can fall into bed for 2-4 hours until Xander decides he has had enough "cuddle time" and he wants to play now mommy.... Sometimes working night shift sucks a**. TTFN.

Xander's 4 month appointment

Xander is now 15 lbs 1 oz and 25 in long! He is 50th percentile for height and weight and 25th percentile for head circumference. The Dr assures me however that even though his head is small that will not affect his intelligence. He did alright with his shots. He wasn't too happy about them but he calmed down pretty quickly afterwards. He had a fever the next day and was obviously not feeling well, but seemed back to his happy self today. Last week in general he was fussy though. He was on a nursing strike- he would only eat if we were laying down. He gets distracted very easily these days and seems to think that my nipples are made out of rubber! I think he was having a bit of a growth spurt too b/c it seemed as if he was constantly hungry. He was also apparently somewhat constipated b/c he didn't poop for 8 days- the lucky babysitter got to change that diaper! I'll have to take some pics of him in his cute halloween outfits. Today he was wearing a onesie with a glow in the dark skeleton on the front- so cute!!!!

Xander is 4 months old!

AAAAHHHHH- they grow so fast. I got his 3 month photos in the mail today and here he is already 4 months old! He has his 4 month apt Fri so we'll get to see how big he has gotten but I am estimating that he weighs about 15 lbs now. He's been having a rough couple of days but today was better. He has really been fighting sleep so getting him to nap has been very challenging and makes for a very cranky baby and a frustrated mommy. It wouldn't be so bad really except that he has been refusing to nurse when he is tired so then he gets hungry and tired which is a bad combo. Day by day...

Teething isn't much fun!

So I am really annoyed with the computer right now b/c it just crashed internet explorer as I was clicking post after writing a nice long entry which I now have to try an recreate so if my annoyance shines through I apologize in advance!

Xander has started what can only be describes as teething behavior in the last few days. He's been trying to get his hands into his mouth now for a few weeks, as evidenced by the thumb sucking pic a few posts back, but now he trys to cram his fingers, my fingers, and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on into his mouth. Earlier today he was sitting in the swing and there is a little tray to prevent him from falling out which he grabbed onto and then bent himself practically in half so he chew on the plastic edge (see pic below). I don't mind the knawing so much but the drool... I am getting really tired of having to constantly change his outfits b/c he is completely soaked in drool. The streams of drool that he manages to produce are rather impressive.


In other news Cassie has been a very bad girl recently. She discovered that chickens made wonderful playthings and in the course of the last 24 hours has managed to kill 2, maim 1 to the point of death, and maim a 2nd but we think she'll survive. That leaves us with only 1 healthy chicken! The really frustrating part was that they were just getting to the point of laying. So yesterday morning we had 5 big fat healthy laying girls and now we have 1! She has become rather destructive of late- shredding dog beds and generally dragging trash all over the yard. Part of it I am sure is due to the lack of attention she has been getting since Xander arrived and her Beagle nature, but now with the chicken killing spree we are concerned about her around the animals in general. We can't have her running around killing our livestock, especially when we start having lambs. She is already chasing the calf but he is big enough to get away. Hopefully we can get things turned around so we don't have to get rid of her b/c that would make me very sad!

I have also included a pic of Xander's diaper laundry. I just love how the sheep are in the background looking at me like I am totally crazy for taking pictures of laundry drying on a line but there is just something so homey andpretty about all those CLEAN nappies flapping in the breeze. They just don't stay that way for long. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny so I can dry this week's load. I hate drying them in the dryer b/c it takes so long and I feel like I am just wasting energy. Besides the sun has amazing bleaching properties!

Xander is a growing boy!

So I took Xander in for a check-up this morning. He had a swollen lymph node behind his ear so I wanted to make sure that he didn't have an ear infection that he was hiding, all is well on that front, but I thought I would update all on his new stats. He is now a whopping 14lbs 4 oz, well on his way to doubling his birth weight by 4 months, and almost 25 inches long. We go back for his 4 month apt (and more shots, boo hoo) in 2 weeks so we'll see how much he has changed by then.

My baby is starting to look like a boy!

So I don't have a ton of time to post but hey I can always squeeze in a few words. Isn't it amazing how quickly the little buggers grow. Xander has decided that he really likes his swing. I think he likes to sit up and look around and he can do that in the swing- before he didn't seem to like it b/c his head was always flopping over but now that he has a little better head control the swing seems like a pretty fabulous place to be. So these are his various swing poses- the praying, the pumkin hat, and the little blondie boy. I just can't get over how cute he is!

4 Generations!

This photo is of Xander, Frank, Frank's father and Frank's grandfather - 4 generations of firstborn Linnenbringer sons. And to think I thought I was going to have a girl- what was I thinking!

This is a photo of Xander and his great-grandma Prinster, who is believed to be 96 years old, at Cousin Charlie Henke's wedding. If you thought Frank has a big family you should see the Henke crowd. We were at this wedding on Saturday and there were 300 people there and I think about 250 of them were family. Charlie has 7 brothers and sisters most of whom are married and have kids- heck I think we counted the nieces and nephews at 12. It was quite the party! Mary, Charlie's wife, looked beautiful though and her flower girl was simply adorable!

Next we have Xander, Frank, Frank's grandma Linnenbringer, and Frank's dad, Hadley. Grandma Linnenbringer is unfortunetly in rather poor health these days but she was in a good mood the day we took this photo. It so cool that Xander has 4 living great grandparents and we only hope and pray that they are still with us when Xander is old enough to remember them.