First tooth!

Clara's first tooth broke through today!  Big girl!

First Haircut

My husband had been hassling me to cut the boy's hair since he was about 10 months old, and I was like, "Babies less than one don't need their hair cut!!"  But I had to admit that as the weeks rolled by, he was looking rather hobo-like, especially with it coming over his ears.

We made it past his first birthday, but just barely.  He looks SO grown up now with his new 'do, it kills me.

It turned out a touch crooked in the front, but it's not bad for my first effort, especially on a squirmy worm who didn't want it done!

Before: shagmeister

Here we go... sucking on a washcloth makes it better

Wetting the hair down

That wasn't so bad, was it?

Aftermath

The back cleaned up real nice - no more rattail!

After a bath

In other news, I think I can officially tell you that we have a good sleeper.  It only took 11 months to get here, but in the past month, Andrew has begun sleeping through the night with only a wake up (that he can usually handle himself) at 4:30am.  He has also gone to a single, very consistent 2.5 hr nap.  We've had some ups and downs, but for the most part, it's been a month of this, and I'm willing to call it the new normal.

We've also got a ton of new teeth coming, but none that have poked through yet.  It looks like two or three molars and at least one cuspid could be here any day.  (I always say that, and then it's two months before anything pops through.)  Luckily we haven't had any more teething "symptoms," so we're just looking forward to better chewing ability.  :)

Happy Easter!

Last week, Gma Joyce came to visit to help me to start to prepare for BG coming.  THANK YOU SO MUCH.  Andrew also enjoyed lavishing kisses and lovin' on Gma.

Yesterday, we had our friends, the A's, over for dinner.  Mr. Logan is about 3.5 months older than Andrew so it was fun to see them interact and to see what we can look forward to from Andrew when BG is born.

Look out, world.  Here comes trouble.

Stroller buddies. Who needs a duallie?

Today was Andrew's first Easter.  Andrew celebrated Christ's triumph over death by... taking a nap that lasted all the way through the service.  Perhaps this is a sign of the peace that passes all understanding?

After church, we went for a drive to see the burn zone from the Lower North Fork Fire.  It was pretty eerie.  One side of the road is charred and black and looks like the moon, and the other side is... green.  Normal.  As several members of our church were affected by the fire, and the sermon was themed on "new life rising out of ashes," seeing the burn area had incredible impact.

Once home, we made a huge ham, cheesy potato, and brussels sprouts feast... for just the three of us.  It was dee-licious.

We then colored eggs, which Andrew was kind of fascinated by.  He wanted to eat the eggs.

Andrew was so worn out that he crashed into bed at 6:30pm.

In other developmental news, Andrew appears to be cutting his first molar.  Ouch.  His sleep is shot again, and he's been irritable (for him).  I can feel the tooth coming under the gum, but who knows how long it will be until it actually erupts through - hopefully sooner rather than later!  Not sure how much more of this we can take!

His current fascination in play is with putting items in containers.  He loves "putting toys away."  Or taking rings off the stacker and dropping them in the lemonade can.  He's also getting that orientation is important.  He can finally get the letters into their slot on the electronic music box for our refrigerator alphabet set (thanks to the W's for multi-stage learning fun!).  He can get some of the shapes into the shape sorter, and he will sit and rotate them around, because he knows they have to be clocked properly to go in.  Impressive!

Ten Month Update... And Some Other Stuff

Happy 10 months to my beautiful, happy, friendly, independent little man!  We weighed him last week at the birth center when I went for my midwife appointment.  Looks like he has clawed his way back up from 17lbs at 8 months (7th%ile) to 21 lbs at 10 months (39th%ile).  That's right people - a four pound gain in two months.  No wonder we've had poop!  And he's still eating like a horse!


Oh, and we got the 7th tooth the other day (lower left lateral incisor).  The 8th can't be far behind!


I think we may be done co-sleeping again, this time.  And this time I think it might be for good, barring special circumstances.  He is very restless and distracted when co-sleeping lately, due to his new mobility, and I seem to disturb him a lot (not to mention what he does to me!).  Last night he slept all night in his crib, and had two wakeups at 1:45a and 4:30a, which were easy - a quick bottle and back to sleep by himself.  I think that might be a record - if not, it's only happened one or two other times.  This is great timing for sleeping on his own, because I want him to be a fairly independent sleeper by the time Baby Girl (BG) comes - a new interloper will need to be in my bed!


In other sleeping news, Andrew has given up the pacifier.  He just won't take it anymore.  Which... is really fine, because this seems like an awesome time to wean him from it and not have to worry about a struggle with it later.


The one behavioral thing we are dealing with right now is biting  He seems to bite to communicate that he needs something.  Tired? Bites.  Wants a snack of solids? Bites.  Wants mommy to come down on the floor and play? Bites.  Maybe it's related to the recent/upcoming teething.  But I can't help but think it's at least partly that he needs more ways to communicate.  I've started expanding the signs we use (adding "eat" and "tired" to "milk" and "all done."  Also hoping to add "potty" or some variant soon), and have been trying to be more consistent with them.  He hasn't made any signs back yet, but if I make the sign for milk (which I've been using since he was 4 months), he whimpers and kicks his legs: "YES THAT'S WHAT I WANT, ISN'T IT OBVIOUS???"  Hopefully this is just a teething/communication phase, and not a "We have a biter" revelation.

Also, fascinating cloth diaper development.  In the past, I have just used the Kirkland Free and Clear laundry detergent from Costco for my diaper laundry instead of springing for any special soap (which the diaper makers generally recommend, and it's been working fine.  Well, Travis went to Costco a couple months ago and picked up a bunch of ALL Free and Clear instead - there was a coupon which made the name brand cheaper than the Kirkland brand, so he thought, "Score!" and stocked up on it.  So we've been using All for like 6 weeks now, maybe two months.  

Well, you also might remember that ever since Andrew got back on the eating-not-starving track, he's been pooping up a storm, and having a lot of poop-splosions.  Well, since that time, the diapers have been more stained and way way way more smelly.  Smelly to the point that vinegar was no help, and stained to the point that bleach was no help.  Seriously. Of course, Andrew started eating well... about two months ago.

It finally occurred to me that the smelly, stained diapers could possibly be related to the switch in detergent and not the sudden volume of poop.  So I picked up some more Kirkland detergent this week, and tonight was my first load of diaper wash going back to the Kirkland brand.

You guys, it was like night and day.  There is NO SMELL.  The stains that were there, and I assume were starting to set in are much lighter!  I can't even believe it!  I would never have believed that a name brand like All was worse than Kirkland - let alone WAY WAY worse.  I feel like I should apologize to Costco.

Anyway that's my story.  And the lesson is: diaper stains and smells got you down?  Try switching detergents!  I recommend Kirkland!

Here are some recent pictures of our guy:

Oh and On Pine Hill (heh) last week we got 7-8" of snow when 1-1.5 was expected.  After it warmed up and the slabs of snow started sliding off our metal roof, this is the gnarly ice sculpture we got to enjoy for a while.

Fun times!