TV Debut

I forgot to blog about this! Anderson made his TV debut back in October on a local news magazine, Eye on the Bay. We were recruited to participate in a baby wearing segment. Anderson was a little less than three months old at the time, so when it aired my heart melted! He was so itty bitty. You can view it here: Anderson's TV DEBUT! Let it load and scroll to the 4:45, 5:26 or 6:00 minute marks to see him. As a thank you from CBS we were sent an Ergo Baby Carrier in their new Grey/Star pattern in July- it didn't hit store shelves until October. It's actually a great carrier for him right now. It does a front, back and side carry. I still really enjoy the carrier I bought before he was born.

The bag of tricks explodes

So this is a few days earlier than the usual monthly update but I needed to record this so I didn't forget. The last 2 weeks have been jam packed with new tricks from Anderson. Besides his repertoire of physical skills he also has two teeth! So cute, they are the center two teeth on the bottom. They are hard to get a peak at but if you stick your (clean) finger in his mouth, you'll yelp - those suckers are sharp. kind of like puppy teeth.

As for for everything else - whoa. This kid has been army crawling for a while now and getting up on all fours and rocking for some weeks. Well he finally put it all together and he's just hustling about going wherever he wants. No longer is he content to stay on the carpet. Nope, I left him in his bedroom and he followed me to the living room. What else you say? Well he can now sit all by himself. He crawls, finds a toy and then sits. When he's done he moves on and crawls away. We found out about his sitting when I heard him crying in his crib when he was supposed to be napping - I open the door and he's sitting upright in the middle of his crib. Good times. Bri has it on his to-do list to lower the crib, as we've been watching him get on his knees and try to pull up on a variety of items. While this is so exciting and new, it's also bittersweet. He'll be 8 months this week - totally more little boy than baby at this point.

He's also putting on some more weight. As of Saturday he weighed in a an ounce shy of 15 1/2 lbs. yeah! Favorite foods include Yogurt (organic, plain of course!) and any variety of winter squash. I've been making almost all of his food from scratch. It's not hard at all I use these little steam bags and pop the food in my mini prep. In about 20 minutes I have enough food for the whole week. We're becoming more adventurous in our offerings and starting to add spices to the mix. So far there is not much he won't eat.

Enjoy a video of Anderson performing his new tricks and Evita getting a little freaked out he's on the move.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you had a good one - as you can see in the picture above Anderson enjoyed himself. What does a 7 month old do to celebrate the Pilgrims and Indians? Eat of course, just like everyone else. Anderson had a tasty meal that consisted of Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, green Beans and Apples with Cinnamon. Cinnamon is the new food/spice du jour.

Anderson crossed the 7 month mark last week. We had our weight check and he's now a whopping 14 lbs 12 oz - up slightly over a pound in the last month. That still puts him in the 1st percentile in weight, but at least he gained more in one month than he did between Aug & Oct.

Weight aside, he's just kicking ass and taking names. Have I gushed how rad this kid is? Cause he is, and I know I might be biased and all, but really you need to trust me. He is dragging himself all around - no more leaving him alone or he'll wind up in the dog bowl, in the fireplace (don't worry it's just empty brick) or somewhere that hasn't been mopped. Work has been kicking my ass this month, so I haven't seen him as much as I would have liked. Throw in an overnight (our first!) wedding in L.A. and I really feel like I missed a lot of November. Let me tell you, that overnight was a long time coming - Bri and I had a blast celebrating Andy and Tracy's wedding. Maybe too much - oh champagne, how I have missed you in such large quantities. :-) That said, we got hosed and weren't able to catch any additional sleep. I think Tai Poa and Poa Poa got more sleep than us. A goes to bed at 7pm and doesn't wake until 6:30 - 7:30 am. Bri and I stayed up way to late and I being the good mom got up at 6:15 to pump and then off to the airport we went. One day I will sleep in and have Bri feed the kid. one day.

I'm so excited Thanksgiving has come and gone - cause that means only one thing. December!! Christmas music, the smell of pine trees and non-stop viewings of A Christmas Story and Love Actually. Two movies that just get me in the spirit. I also can't wait to ship our Christmas Card this year - Jen and Aaron of Tidbit Designs (and wonderful cousins on Bri's side), helped us create what I think is the best.christmas.card.ever and that's not an exaggeration.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Anderson

Today Anderson is 6 months old - I can't believe it. Some quick stats from his well baby checkup:

Length: 25.3"

Weight: 13 lbs 10 oz

He's a bit on the small side, actually so much so we have to go into the dr.'s office next month for a weight check. I'm not too worried right now since he is a breastfed baby still (yay me!) and our pediatrician said that this sometimes happens with kids not on formula and he might catch up. If he does no worries, if he doesn't we will cross that bridge if/when we need to. Bri and I aren't the largest of people so I wouldn't expect him to be huge.

He started to eat cereal Labor Day weekend and has just progressed to twice a day. Last week we added sweet potatoes to the mix. At first it looked like he liked them but by the end of the week he'd seal his mouth shut and wasn't having any of them. So we've moved on to peas and it seems to be a much better success. You can see from the video in the previous post that Anderson can sit unassisted. He leans forward for balance but I think he's on the verge of perfecting this skill. Since he's getting the hang of sitting he decided to add army dragging the his repertoire - note i did not say crawling. If he wants a toy he's figured out how to drag himself to get it.

I don't like talking about this too often - actually I kind of loath it unless with my good friends, but I think it's time to celebrate a bit. I've made it to 6 months of breastfeeding (the word nurse creeps me out for some reason)! I don't think I can express it in words how much of an accomplishment this is and how proud I am of myself. It has been the MOST challenging thing I have ever done in my life and that is in no way an exaggeration. Anderson and I have had an uphill battle to say the least. The c-section, the tongue tie which led to him being on a bottle for over 10 days, to his preference for the fast and easy bottle (me pumping every 2 hrs 24 hrs a day for basically 5 weeks to get enough for him to eat), then there was this easy time for a few months, and the work came along - I feel like I pump all.the.time to produce enough for him to take to daycare. I get up at 5:45 to pump, feed him anywhere between 6:30/7am, pump 3x at work, come home, pump, feed Anderson and pump twice before I go to bed. OY! I'm tired writing it. But through it all, probably out of spite, I've kept up with it and somehow have met his demands. He's had all of 10 oz of formula when we were trying to figure out the tongue tie situation. That's part of the reason I have taken it so personally when I was told by Bri this am that he will have to have an extra weight check next month.

I don't have anything against formula and those that use it. In fact, I'm going to try and transition out the 5:45am pumping session which means I will have to send formula to daycare to make up the difference eventually. Whose says being stubborn isn't a good thing. If I wasn't I don't think I could have lasted this long. I think I'm going to splurge on a massage to celebrate!

What Anderson has been up to lately...

What Anderson has been up to lately...
Originally uploaded by dawn_79

Some video of what the little guy has been up. Sitting, eating, giggling - all the fun stuff!

Video

Just testing out video capabilities on the blog.

5 months old

Anderson is 5 months old today! What a whirlwind. I keep meaning to blog but then something always gets in the way. I've been back at work since Sept 8th, so maybe I can sneak in a blog update here and there at work. It's getting a bit harder to take his monthly picture because he's so squirmy. In the picture to the left he had just caught dad across the room.

As I mentioned I'm back at work now, so my time with Anderson seems very limited. We get an hour in the morning and depending on the day an hour to two hours at night. Not much time to hang out, but I really treasure every second he's awake (as well as the seconds/minutes/hours he's asleep at night). So what has he been up to? Well, he smiles all.the.time and we figured out that he is ticklish and because we are mean parents we tickle him to hear the giggle on-demand. He rolls over with easy mainly from his back to his front, but can do tummy to back if need be. We are all getting sleep. I'm proud to say Anderson has been sleeping 12 hours (yes, I know!!) for the past month and it has been a dream come true. The biggest development is he now eats oatmeal at dinner time. He looks adorable sitting in his highchair reaching out for the spoon. My gut says he's going to want to self-feed early.

Since our time as a family is limited we've begun a baby music class through the San Mateo Parks & Rec dept. He's the youngest in the class but only by two months. We sing songs and the older children tap sticks, drums and shake maracas. The songs have a lot of movement and after watching Anderson go up and down and swing side to side, I really believe he enjoys it. Even if he is too young to participate in some of the activities its 45 minutes that Brian, Anderson and I get to spend together doing something silly and fun.

Next weekend Anderson gets to be the guest of honor at his Red Egg & Ginger party hosted by his Toy Family relatives. It will be a great opportunity to meet many of his extended family members. I'm just hoping he makes it through without a meltdown. :-) I'm sure he'll be fine as long as we get a good nap/feeding in before and after the party.