Being Sara

Smiley Xander

Last week I had a flash back to a blog post I did over a year ago about the first time Xander showed any excitement at seeing me when I pick him up from day care.  I was thinking about this post specifically because these days picking up Xander is one of the highlights of my day.  As soon as he sees me he runs at me.  This usually prompts a reminder from one of the staff members that he needs to walk, not run.  So then he walks as quickly as his little feet will carry him to me, with his arms wide open of course.  I pick him up and he wraps his little arms around my neck and squeezes as tightly as he can and I give him a little squeeze back.  It’s a great way to end my day, with someone so happy to see me.  The picture I chose this week was taken at my parent’s house a few weeks ago, but it’s an excellent representation of the little boy I see every day after work.  Before you have kids it’s easy to wonder why anyone would want to go through all of the effort, and I can tell you moments like these remind you why.

Related items

• Xander Week 89 - He Has A Palate!
• Xander Week 65 - First Words…
• Xander Week 96 - First Big Fall
• Xander Week 93 - The Great Hunger Strike
• Happy Birthday Xander!!

For about a week now Xander has been strangely attached to his pajama bottoms. In the summer time he usually wears cotton pants or shorts and a t-shirt for pajamas. We just bought him a few sets at Carter’s a few weeks ago. When I get him dressed in the morning he flips out when I try to take his bottoms off. I have to at least pull them down to change his diaper, and even that seems to be the end of the world. Then I pull the pajama bottoms back up, and he goes to day care in half pajamas. I’ve learned to pick my battles with Xander, and arguing over pajama bottoms isn’t worth the melt down in the morning when we’re trying to get out the door. I pack his pants or shorts, and when it was super warm last week they would change him (over his protests) into shorts before they went out to play. But, if it’s cool, he just runs around in pajama bottoms all day. I’m not sure what started this recent trend, and it’s not overly bothersome, but it’s a little strange, and his clothes definitely don’t match anymore

Related items

• Xander Week 92 - Happy Kid
• Week 71 - The Star Pupil
• Xander Week 96 - First Big Fall
• Xander Week 93 - The Great Hunger Strike
• Xander Week 90 - He could eat his weight in grapes!

Xander moved up to the toddler room at day care. There are 4 rooms there, classified by color. The yellow room is for babies, then the green room (where Xander is now) for toddlers. As they get a little bit older, and potentially potty trained, they move to the purple room, and then the oldest kids (just before kindergarten) are in the blue room. The move has been very gradual for Xander - he’s been playing in and eating in the green room for about a month. He was of course the oldest kid in the yellow room, and would often get bored in there with the younger children. Now he’s the youngest in the green room, but he has so much more fun in there - and of course this makes us remember how big he’s actually getting!

In passing a few of the day care providers have mentioned that Xander is a “star pupil”. He listens when they tell him “no”, and when it’s time to pick up, he is sometimes the only kid who will help (not sure why - at home he hardly ever helps…) At any rate, it’s quite the swell of pride one gets when they hear that their kid is doing well. I’d like to take credit for it, but Xander doesn’t exhibit that behavior at home - he doesn’t listen when I tell him “no” - unless I physically re-direct him while telling him. And he only picks up toys if it’s part of a game - lets put all the balls back into the bag, but when we’re done with that - he’ll want to dump them all out again. I am very proud of my son, but he’s definitely not the same kid at home that he is at day care!

child listening, child not listening, child not picking up, child picking up, day care, mother, motherhood, mothers, parent, parental pride, parenting, parents, personality differences, proud of child, toddler

Related items

• Xander Week 92 - Happy Kid
• Xander Week 96 - First Big Fall
• Xander Week 89 - He Has A Palate!
• Xander Week 88 - Where are the manners???
• Xander Week 86 - The “Y-Me?” Generation - an interesting theory…

Xander had another ear infection last week (his second in his short little lifespan). Our doctor prescribed amoxicillin, which worked just fine for the last ear infection. So we started Xander on his 10-day treatment last Thursday. He very quickly decided that he hates that bubblegum flavor with a passion, and will not open his lips when the pink dropper gets anywhere near him. Who knew babies that young could purse their lips?!?

So we are on day 7 of the 10 day prescription. Xander is feeling much better and I’m pretty sure his ear isn’t bothering him anymore. I understand the need to continue with the full course of antibiotics to make sure that he doesn’t build up an immunity, etc., and I’m certainly not suggesting that we are going to stop giving him the medicine early. Unfortunately, Xander has developed a rather unpleasant side-effect. For the last three days he has had nearly explosive diarrhea. Luckily for me, the day care has experienced most of this - he’s been going through 3 outfits a day there (on a side note, we don’t usually have accidents at the day care - when this all started, he still had 3 month clothes in his cubby - they couldn’t even button his onsie…). A few nights ago I was the unlucky recipient of some excess poo, when he leaked out of his onsie, out of his shirt and pants, and onto my jeans - yuck!

Needless to say, it has been a poop-filled week. I’m not a huge fan of the increased laundry, but I’m more worried about Xander becoming dehydrated. He also seems to get a little fussy before an explosion, as if his stomach is bothering him. We didn’t have this problem with the amoxicillin during the last ear infection, so I was surprised when this started happening. In conversations with other mothers, apparently this is a common side effect.

If this is what we can expect from amoxcillin from now on, I’m going to have to buy Xander some more clothes! Luckily, a follow-up visit to Xander’s doctor showed that his ear is much better, and that we can stop the amoxcillin early. The doctor also recommended giving Xander some yogurt to try and calm down the diarrhea, so we’ll see if that helps.

amoxicillin, baby,babies, day care, diarrhea, ear infection, infant, infants, mother, motherhood, parent, parenting, parents

Related items

• Alexander Tirrell - A Year In Review
• Xander Week 51 - LUVS Second Attempt
• Xander Week 50 - Birthday Party Planning
• Xander Week 49 - Transitioning to Milk…
• Xander Week 48 - First Ice Cream Cone

So, I’m a few days late, but luckily having a baby affords me a few days leeway. Since Zach is out of town, and we ended up with about a foot and a half of snow, Valentine’s Day was pretty low key this year. Zach did send some beautiful flowers, so he gets a check plus for Valentine’s Day effort. Xander is having his Valentine’s Day party at day care today. I don’t think he’s going to be overly excited about it, but we did have to make Valentine’s Day cards for all 25 children in the day care from Xander. I was surprised that we were getting started with these events so early, but apparently the other children enjoy getting cards from everyone. They also made a card from Xander to Zach and me. It is absolutely adorable, with his hand prints on either side of a big picture of him smiling. I was initially pretty nervous and sad about putting Xander in a day care (as you could probably tell from earlier posts), but as far as day cares go, I’m entirely happy with this one - and I love the little touches like the card! So, hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Valentine’s Day, wherever you were, and whoever you were with!

babies, baby, day care, infant, infants, parent, parenting, valentine’s day

Related items

• Alexander Tirrell - A Year In Review
• Xander Week 51 - LUVS Second Attempt
• Xander Week 50 - Birthday Party Planning
• Xander Week 49 - Transitioning to Milk…
• Xander Week 48 - First Ice Cream Cone