Dear Xavier,

I love you so very much. I love spending time with you and giggling with you. I love how even in pain, you'll give us a smile & laugh. However, your dad is a pretty great guy. So while a part of me finds it very sweet that you want your mama so much while you're dealing with this horrible cold... The other part of me is exhausted after 3 nights of more frequent wake ups & time spent comforting--- you have clearly been uncomfortable & possibly in pain. (Now we're thinking you have or have had a sore throat--poor baby). Anyway, dad does not have work in the morning and I do. I assure you dad is an excellent cuddle giver & he also wields pacifiers like a pro. Please consider utilizing your father's services the rest of the morning... What's left of it anyway..

Love you forever,

Mom

End of the mullet

I forgot to add another very important thing about 6 months: X has lost his mullet! His hair seems to have been going through a growth spurt, except for the newborn hair in the back. Which works well since now it has evened out. I had been joking about wanting to cut the back of his hair to get rid of the mullet for a while because I thought it looked funny, but in the end, it has all evened out. Kenneth asked if I had cut it finally, with a "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do" type look. On my honor, I did not cut our boy's hair. (Kenneth also thought I was photo-shopping X's hair in pictures. While his hair does look more red in pictures than it is in real life, I swear my photo shop skills are very basic and I have no clue how to make hair red in a picture. I'd welcome tips on how to do that though. Ha.)

6 Months

Xavier turned 6 months. Wow.

 At the doctor's appointment this week, it turned out that he's still a bit on the wee side, at 16lbs, but he's strong and active. He still loves to stand. His 6th tooth broke through earlier this week. Here's hoping an early start to teething means an earlier end. He started scooting, but he doesn't do it often. He's starting to get that he needs to put his backside high in the air to crawl, so he's starting to figure it out... he's so close, but yet so far from crawling. He started sitting on his own unassisted... but doesn't do it often because he's much too busy for that. He'd rather be trying to move. His sleep has finally started getting better, but after a couple of weeks of good sleep, he starts teething again and it all goes to pot for a week or so. 

Solids have really started to be fun over the last couple weeks. He'll eat the purees; he's content with them. But what he really wants is the real food, so we've started letting him while we watch him carefully to make sure he's not taking too big of bites or choking. (So far, big bites have been a problem, but not choking.) He has had roasted apples, bananas, avocados, and a pancake so far. 

We've talked through our childcare plan for while I'm in school. I never imagined it happening, but I'm going to be a stay at home mom from 8-5, and then 2 days a week and in the evenings (more often during finals week) I'll have classes and study time. We'll see how it goes.

Today was rough. He's teething, and not sleeping well because of it. And on top of that it seemed like he had an ear infection. So everything was put on hold and all we did today was nap and try to keep him comfortable, but he was just so unhappy most of the time, especially when he first woke up. It was like the early days with him, where on bad days after Kenneth went back to work, moving from the bedroom seemed like a monumental task-- all he and I did was eat and sleep. So happy to be past that most days. Most of the time he's a wonderful, happy, silly little boy. Love him.

Other exciting things to come, more later.

Avocado... FUN!

Pie and Love

Last night was rough, and Xavier has been up and at 'em between 5 and 6 most mornings these days, so in the end I got a total of 5 hours of sleep last  night. Which makes for a rough morning. On top of that, as I was pulling a rhubarb strawberry (yes, in that order) pie out of the refrigerator this morning, it slipped from my hands and crashed on the floor. The pie plate smashed to pieces. The pie was rendered inedible by all the tiny glass shards. I swore under my breath and pouted at Kenneth. It wasn't just the pie plate I was upset about. The pie had taken DAYS to put together. It's so hard to do these things with a baby, and I look forward to cooking with rhubarb every year... I love food and I love cooking (when I can). And it's so hard to find time to do it with joy right now. So the days of effort it took to steal time here and there to track down the perfect recipe, get the groceries, prep the rhubarb and other ingredients, then bake it (which ended up being a 2 day process alone)... All that effort, ruined by tiny glass shards.

As Kenneth shooed me and my bare feet out of the kitchen to clean up (never mind the fact his feet were bare too), I grumbled about how I was trying to have a good attitude, but overall, I gave this morning a ranking of zero. He responded, "Well, you woke up this morning. You're alive."

Me: "Fine. I give this morning a one."

Kenneth: "And you're married. You have me."

Me: "Ok, I give it a two."

Kenneth: "And you have a baby."

Me: "True..."

All that I need.

Basically, I needed the reminding that all I needed to make me happy I already had. So while I still grumbled a bit more this morning, it didn't last much longer. I needed the reminding that life is good. God is good. Even if the morning includes tiny pieces of glass filling your labor of love pie.

Infant Potty Training

We started today.Because I'll try anything if it doesn't hurt anything and could make my life easier in the end. And because I'm a hippie enough with baby related things to try it. (Cloth diapers? Check. Baby-led weaning? Sort of check. Infant potty training? Sure, why not?)

So far, we're 1 for 1. So far, so good, ha!

(yes, this was a post on potty training. How do you like that? The things that are exciting as a parent. My FB friends are just lucky I restrained myself from posting about X peeing in the potty there.)

2 years/6 months

Two years ago we walked into our wedding together. Life together since then has been busy and beautiful. And I love it, and I love him. (To my husband, high five for making it longer than most celebrity marriages!)

**************************

Also, for the last 24 weeks (or 6 months, but not officially yet), I've breastfed  my son. So many hours, so many of them frustrating at first. But I wanted to make it 6 weeks-- I'd been told it gets easier then, so that was my first goal. It didn't actually get easier until 9 weeks. But I stuck with it with 6 months as my next goal. We've nursed in planes, trains, and cars. In church and at work. It's been a lot of work. And still now that Xavier has teeth number 3, 4, and 5 coming in, there are hard moments again. But we made it to 6 months! *Cue patting myself on my back.*

Nursing at 12 days, when nursing took FOR-EV-ER.

Wolf... Er, Husky baby and Auntie Piper