... Oh my!

Xander with our three favorite stuffed animals. Props to anyone who can figure out why it's captioned "... Oh my!"

So far, this is the oldest I've ever been

This is my current favorite series of photos of Xander. I wanted to capture his T-shirt, which says "So far, this is the oldest I've ever been," but when I propped him up on the glider, he was being so cute, I didn't care that you couldn't read the shirt.

You can see he has discovered his hands, and is even sucking his thumb a little bit. I didn't expect that to start at 3 months. Somehow I thought babies were born thumb-suckers or not. He's obviously proving me wrong, which, I'm sure, he'll do a lot in his lifetime.

3 months old, and I've buried the lead

It's amazing how hard it is to develop a routine that allows for blogging when there's a new baby in the house, especially a first baby. Every thing is so new to me.

Harder still, I'm finding that I don't have a lot to say right now. Probably because so much of what I'm doing revolves around feedings and diaper changes, and I'm not really finding these topics all that inspiring for blog fodder. Be thankful. Because that could be some really gross blog fodder. :)

Yesterday was Xander's 3-month birthday. He's reaching all the right milestones. There are lots of smiles and giggles. He loves to be sung to, and fortunately he isn't a critic yet, because I hit a lot of sour notes lately. It has left my karaoke confidence pretty low. He's holding his head up really well and likes to be held in a sitting position so he can watch the world. Now if we can just persuade him to enjoy his supervised tummy time.

If you don't know, since the experts started recommending that babies sleep on their backs all the time (to avoid SIDS), they've found that babies need supervised time on their tummies so that they can develop the strength and gross motor skills to turn themselves over. So, it's "back to sleep and tummy to play".

What else is new? Oh yeah, my maternity leave was supposed to end last week. Instead of going back, I quit my job. That's kind of burying the lead, isn't it? Yes, I quit my job and am now a full-time stay-at-home Mom.

Scary big change for me. A good change. But still scary, since a year ago we were DINKs (double-income, no kids).

OK, gotta run. Xander is waking up and my free time is quickly ending.

Introducing Xander

Alexander "Xander" James, was born Aug. 8 at 3:28 a.m. He weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

It's been a busy five weeks since he was born, but everyone is happy and healthy and trying to get enough sleep.

More to come soon. To see more photos, check out my Flickr album from the first week.

Put the fire department on standby, I'm 40!

Sometimes life gets so busy, it's hard to keep up. There have been so many things I want to blog about, but haven't had the time -- Loki's double ACL surgeries and recovery, Dave breaking his hand while snowboarding, pregnancy updates, getting the house ready for little "Oliver" (that's his public code name right now), and a quick trip to London to see some good friends married.

Well, I might yet go back and update about those things, but right now I wanted to pause and wish myself a belated happy 40th birthday. Yes, I crossed that threshold on Wednesday and turned 40.

The trip to London last weekend was the beginning of my celebration. That was how I'd dreamed of celebrating turning 40 long before I became pregnant. I'd thought that option was out of the cards, though, until Marc and Lesley choose that weekend to get married. Suddenly, a 40th birthday in London was back on the table! (Although, I was technically back home in Chicago by the time my official birthday rolled around.)

Marc and Lesley were so sweet and even arranged for a birthday cake in the middle of their wedding day. It was perfect -- on their rooftop with views of Southwark (up until 6 years ago we could see Tower Bridge from their rooftop, now we had to be content looking at the surrounding hotels that towered over us.) Marc's Mum even baked and decorated a cake for me -- gorgeously done, too.

When we got home from London on Monday evening, I was treated to my second birthday cake. Jaye had been staying at the house to watch Loki and Thor while we were gone, so she'd left a small little cake on the table, complete with 40 candles ready to go. It was difficult, but I manged to leave the cake unmolested until Wednesday night.

Then on Wednesday, Dave lit all 40 candles for me, which I quickly managed to blow out, but not before setting off the smoke alarm. No joke.

My birthday celebration continues this weekend when we go out with friends for dinner. Nothing like having a whole week of celebrations!

So, do I have any profound thoughts on turning 40? Not really. Except to say that 40 seems to be one of those landmarks intended to make you realize that you really are getting older. But, the good news is that being almost 6 months pregnant while turning 40 is a great antidote to that "I'm getting old" feeling. See, it's all part of my scheme to stay eternally young, especially since in 20-some years we'll get to go right from paying for college to retirement, with nary a pause in between.