Xander is 3 months old!

So my little man has found his thumb. Usually he just tries to shove his whole fist into his mouth, and sometimes both fists but more and more now he is sucking his thumb. He has also decided that he likes holding onto his blanket and hugging it. We are on our way to Frank's cousin's wedding so I am sure we will get some pics of him all dressed up there. So I'll post some pics of him actually on his three month birthday!

Ok here are some photos of Xander on August 30th, 2008. He looks a little like a devil child due to the red eye on the pic pf the 3 of us but it was a nice pic of me and Frank so...
I love this pic of Frank holding Xander but it is such a typical Xander look. He has the bug eyed, quizzical thing going on. All that is missing is the wave of hair sticking stright up from the top of his head- which was missing on purpose after some vigorous slicking down so he didn't look like a cupie doll at the wedding.

Stomach flu is the pits!

Well we made it to Missouri all right. Xander slept through his first and second plane ride, which I guess was a good thing. We stoppped in Philly and although we didn't have to change planes we were there for an hour and a half so they let us get off the plane, walk around and then get back on. So we changed his diaper and gave him a snack and then he was right back to sleep. We took the MoX shuttle to Columbia from Kansas City, which worked out very well seeing as we'd been up since 3:45 that morning (and we spent the night in Hartford!), but not having to drive was nice. Xander has been a big hit while we have been here and there are tons of other babies to play with... Hatton is having a fertility boom- I think they said that at church there were 27 babies due this year!

Things have been good since we've been here for the most part. I developed a wicked stomach flu on Sunday, which I thought I had gotten over but on Tues it hit again with a vengeance. My poor parents-in-law must think I am a total weakling b/c everytime we come here I get sick. So I have been spending a lot of time in bed or in the bathroom. Luckily Xander seems uneffected so far, but Frank hasn't been feeling so great himself. We are just the life of the party! It's a good thing we came for a little longer this time b/c otherwise we'd be heading home about now and I don't think I could make it!

I finally figured out to get all these pics from Frank's parents new computer. I am a Vista virgin so it has been a little on the interesting side but I think I have it mostly figured out. I can't decide whether I like Vista or not, in some ways its easier and in others harder but honestly I think it is really just difficult b/c it is not what am used to. We finally convinced Frank's parents to get DSL instead of dial-up so hopefully we can do a lot more picture sharing! The pic up at the top is of him discovering the playgym. He is getting really good at tracking things with his eyes and he constantly wants to look at everything. He doesn't like to lie in your lap anymore, he wants to be sitting up. He has been doing a lot more grabbing and grasping recently so we figured the playgym would give him something to grab for. We also got him a very light rattle so he spends a lot of time holding onto that. The other pics are of him and his grandparents. He is starting to recognize people more now- he always smiles at me and Frank whenever we come into the room or pick him up. He is still learning other people but he likes his Uncle Luke a lot. The pic at the bottom was supposed to be him holding his pacifier. He had it in both hands and was pulling it in and out of his mouth, but of course as soon as I got out he camera he dropped him and gave me this confused stare! But it was still pretty cute. We had Xander's three month pics taken yesterday but it will be a couple of weeks before we get them back but we managed to get one cute shot- we didn't time things very well so he was pretty crabby when he was supposed to be cute and adorable getting his pic taken!

Back to work...

So I started back to work on the 12th and it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I was concerned that I would have forgotten how to do my job after 4 months out but it was super busy my first night back so I was pretty much just thrown back into things. There are a few things that I forgot and a few things that have changed but that part was ok. I definetly missed my little man though! And getting used to pumping has been interesting. I have pumped at home of course but at work I have to schedule it into my night so I don't go too long. And figuring out how often I needed to pump has been a bit of a challenge, b/c if I don't pump enough then I am uncomfortable and if I pump too many times and then go home to a hungry baby he gets mad! I think I have a system now that seems to be working pretty well although my little piggy likes to eat more than I pump. Hopefully soon enough my body will get used to the pump in addition to the baby! Anyway I am back to work this week and then on vacation and then back to work full-time on Labor Day. Frank has a job interview tomorrow, no make that today... so we're keeping our fingers crossed for a nice, fat job offer!

We're off to Missouri on Wednesday to introduce Xander to the rest of the Linnenbringer/Prinster clan. It will also be his first trip on an airplane so we'll see how that goes. Mostly I am just concerned about packing at this point. With all these new fees for checked bags I am trying to limit what we take to the absolute minimum but with a baby that is a little bit challenging! Wish me luck!

Xander is 2 months old!

Ok well Xander was 2 months old like a week ago but I figured I would wait until after his 2 month dr's apt so you can have the updated stats and then there was the whole I got busy part... Anyway he now weighs 12lbs 4 oz and is 23.5 in long. He has huge feet and hands and an average size head, whatever that means. He got his first round of shots- mean mommy- but he did very well and only cried for a few minutes. I had this whole huge debate in my head about whether or not to delay shots but we ended up just giving them all at once b/c by delaying them he would have had to get more needle sticks and I'm more concerned about me bringing something home from the hospital or Frank bringing something home from school that will make him really sick than the effect the vaccines will have on him. So pretty much he has been growing like a weed. We spent the last 2 days with my mother at Pop's house making diapers b/c he outgrew his xsmalls and is now into smalls and we only had 1 medium made. Time to make some bigger sizes! There are always prefolds but mom has bought some really cool fabrics so he is going to have some pretty snazzy dipes.

In big news he rolled over for the first time last week- totally not on purpose and I doubt he could do it again but I got pretty excited about it! He was on his tummy for tummy time and put on arm out to the side instead of under him, cocked his head to one side and rolled right onto his back. It's funny how excited we can get about the littlest things. He has been cooing a lot more now and in the mornings he lays in his bassinett smiling and cooing until he gets hungry and demands food! I love hearing his little voice.

I'm turning my child into a baseball fan!

So Frank and I just got back from Maryland visiting my friend Christina, while Frank went to an Ag Engineering conference. While we were there we went to 2 baseball games, an Orioles game on Sunday the 27th and an Aberdeen Ironbirds game on the 30th. Xander was pretty much umimpressed as he slept through most of the games but we had fun! I enjoyed dressing Xander up in his Orioles gear but somehow we all ended up wearing different shades of orange.