Waiting on the Geeks

Do Not Open Until Geekmas

Sitting here waiting on Geek Squad to arrive and set up the television and components. They gave us a window of noon to four, but called a bit ago to narrow it down to after two.

It was delivered right on time Tuesday and has been sitting there taunting us since. The delivery crew signed off that it was delivered without any damage, so we are keeping it in the box to protect ourselves in the event of damage inside the packaging.

We feel like kids that were allowed to open our Christmas presents a few days early, but we don't get to play with them... we just have to look at them in the box. You'd swear we never had a TV before; we're being so ridiculous.

New TV

We finally replaced the clunker of a TV today. It was actually a very nice television, but at some point the display started getting narrower and narrower until we had an unintentional letterbox happening. That might not have been a big deal if it had remained in proportion, but the picture was all scrunched up. It was no longer functional.

Ross wanted to fit the existing TV space as much as possible, so no less than a 55" and no more than 60". We ended up with a 55" LED HDTV with a Blu-ray player and a Bose sound system. The components will be delivered on Tuesday and setup will happen on Thursday. We are like a couple of kids waiting until Christmas morning. I'll have to wait until it's all set up to properly talk about it... and review it.

Teething & Family Reunion

Peek-A-Baby

Xander had finally developed something resembling a normal sleep schedule. He was in bed and usually asleep between 9 and 10pm and slept through until 7:30 to 8:30am. Occasionally he'd wake for a few minutes around midnight, but it was rare. Then he hit another brutal round of teething.

We are averaging about two hours of broken sleep a night. Ross has been trying to help at night to ease some of the burden, but he has to go to work... my hours are self-imposed. Well, my hours are controlled by Xander, but I have no paying boss to answer to! I'm hoping last night's marathon sleep session from 9pm to 9am is an indication that we're back on track. I only wish I had slept that whole time also!

Mom, Mary, Grandpa Bernie & Uncle Ed

We had a family reunion this weekend on Father's Day. It was for the descendants of Mom's dad's grandmother. It was the first time we had attended a reunion of that particular line, because Grandpa Bernie always figured none of his kids wanted to go. *eyeroll* At least enough of his extended family got on his case that he finally let us in on it.

It was held at a family owned banquet hall. The food was typical banquet, metallic-flavored fare. It was rather sparse, though... my vegetarian choices included mashed potatoes, corn, salad, and desserts brought by guests. They put sausage in the stuffing and bits of pork in the sauerkraut, so I lost out on a two dishes that are generally vegetarian. The highlight was some pumpkin maple cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I have got to find that recipe! No one seemed to know who made them so I could ask for a recipe.

It seemed like everyone had old photographs to share. It was fun looking back on pictures of Mom and Grandpa. A cousin of my grandpa's was even running old home movies of earlier reunions and family gatherings from the 60's and 70's. It was actually pretty amusing. The styles of the clothing and hair was enough to get a good laugh! It makes you wonder what it will be like 30 or 40 years from now when we're watching old movies from today.

Well, the kiddo is actually napping so I need to take advantage of this time to get some cleaning and studying done.

Crawling!

I was sitting there enjoying my breakfast and watching Xanderr play, when I realize something... he's crawling! I swear I was watching him crawl for a full minute before I realized it. I grabbed my phone and caught some video of his first crawl.

It happens to be his eight month "birthday" today. That should make the day he started crawling easy to remember.

The Itchies

It has been a very long day, thus far.

During the night, Xander's eczema obviously got the better of him and he scratched his scalp raw. His hair was soaked with pus and matted to his head. The pediatrician has given us everything in his arsenal to deal with it, but nothing is really working. I think, in part, because the scratching has now become a reaction to frustration and not simply a reaction to itchiness.

He also developed a really nasty diaper rash. Diaper rashes are very rare with cloth diapers and we change him often, so the only likely culprit is too much acidic food in his diet (i.e. apples and berries). We've been powdering his bottom with corn starch and it's healing... slowly.

We've got a topical antibiotic to put on him to help with infection from all the raw spots on his skin. Virtually everything for treating Xander, including the antibiotic, say to avoid face and eyes. Most of the spots are on or near his face. *sigh* We are rubbing it in really well and trying to keep him from rubbing his face and eyes. Hopefully it works.

So, with all of this going on he has been in a less than pleasant mood. He's been cranky and whiny all day. I attempted to lay him down for a nap, but all that resulted in was two hours of screaming, a massive headache, and ten minutes of sleep.

The only way I have been able to quiet him is to hold him. To get anything done around the house, I had to either hold him or listen to him scream. I can't wait until Ross gets home to help out!

Xander Updates

Xander is very close to actually saying "mama." I'm quite certain of it. What do you think?

He also got to go on a swing for the first time. It was very windy, so it was a short-lived trip to the park.

 

Gerber Baby?

He is beginning to crawl a bit. It's very shaky, mostly backwards and generally in circles... but it's a start.

He's also eating a huge range of solids now and drinking about half the formula. I have also entered him in the Gerber baby photo contest with a black and white photo I took of him.