Because Babies Are S'posed to Eat Their Toes!

Apparently, it's the greatest thing ever! And, of course, Dexter laughed himself into hiccups again. It seems he just can NOT laugh without getting the hiccups. I hope he grows out of that before it becomes a deterrent to laughter in the future.

Dexter's First Christmas

Dexter's first Christmas was a huge success! And to think it's only half over! (Tootsie and Pop are due for a visit in a few days and are bringing their Christmas loot along.)

So far, he's gotten a fun hammer (that makes noise, of course) a teether toy that plays "a farm tune" (you know the one), two books, a very busy elephant, some duplo legos, a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament, lots of great stuff. He must have had a very big day, because he had 3 naps and 3 bottles in less than 6 hours. So I guess it's fair to say that Dexter enjoyed his first Christmas very much.

(His parents got a lot of great stuff, too. Many are Dexter-related - framed photos, teether necklace, etc., which is just fine with us.)



Waiting for Santa on Christmas eve and enjoying the booty on Christmas Day. (Sadly, only 2 of those gifts are for Dexter, since this is the pile of stuff we were giving.) And, although Santa certainly came to visit a very good baby Dexter, he pretty much just stopped by to say "hi," since he's already spent a small fortune on Dexter this year, and Dexter has plenty of other people to spoil him for now.


Nap #1.


All of the loot at Aunt Mary's house, making friends with cousin Tybee.


Opening presents! Dexter happily hung out in that swing pretty much the whole time. It's good to visit people who have babies (and baby stuff!)


Nap #2.


Nap #3 - snuggling with Grandma.


Grandma and Granddad, hard at work.

Also, I can finally take this opportunity to show off part of his present for Grandma & Granddad. I couldn't post it earlier, because sometimes they read the blog, and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Shocker - we arranged for a photo of all three grandkids. Dennis's sister, Mary, found a frame that said, "The Grands. " They were happy to get it. But the photo shoot was... interesting, to say the least. Dexter was uncharacteristically grouchy that morning (Saturday, December 20), and his cousin Tybee was so sleepy he barely opened his eyes the whole time. (Livia was a very patient big sister/cousin and an excellent smiler the whole time.) We managed to get some good shots anyway. I'm still not sure if it was because of or in spite of the not-so-cooperative babies.


This one pretty much sums up how the morning went.



I believe this is the one that ended up in the frame. Note Dexter's keen martial arts skills already in development.



Going, going... down. (Apparently all Tybee needed to get his eyes open was a head-butt from Dexter.)

Dexter is 11 Weeks Old!

I know I just posted some pictures yesterday, but here are his "official" 11 week photos. I figured we needed to get something between 2 months and 3 months, as he'll surely still change a bit in the next 15 days. As you can see, he is now taller than that teddy bear but not quite as tall as Demonjello.

He's still sporting that Ed Grimley hairstyle that was so prominent in yesterday's photos. Not sure when we'll grow out of that one, but for now, I think it's cute.






And, just for fun, some videos from tonight.

Some video from the photo shoot:




A little rendition of "If you're happy and you know it..." Is there anything we won't do to get this kid to smile? And, of course, he was much more smiley before we grabbed the camera. We'll have to do some drills and work on that some. :)


And some more, as poor Dex gets quite tired of all of this videotaping.

Some new pictures

Seems like it's been a long time since I updated, so I thought I'd give up some cute pictures we took this morning. He was quite the ham for a few minutes - a rarity, since he's still not quite sure he trusts that camera.




And I guess it's pretty exhausting being such a ham. :)



Here are a few videos from the last month or so. As you can see, he still doesn't do much besides smile and laugh. But BOY does he smile and laugh!

Here, we catch Dexter interacting with his good friend - the baby who lives in the mirror. Actually, he laughed hysterically at this the first time, and we tried and tried to get it on tape. So far, this is the best we've gotten. (The video is 7 minutes long, but only the first 2 minutes or so are entertaining. Editing was too much effort.)


And here's a minute or two of him enjoying the hell out of his bouncy seat. He's only 2 months old, and his feet are already hanging off the end. Still, we have no immediate plans to retire the bouncy seat.


Here, Dennis is teaching Dex the fine art of rolling over. He hasn't quite caught on, but we keep trying.


And here's just a little bit of everyday fun with Dad. Sadly, I stopped the video just a few seconds too soon, but I think you can see where it was headed.



Here, we let him lick a clementine. He doesn't seem to be a big fan, but it's (probably) not quite as good as if we'd let him taste a lemon.


Honestly, he really does enjoy his baths. Not really all "OMG I am sooo excited!" but he does seem to enjoy them and is upset when they're over. Also notice how scrunched he is in this tub, especially compared to his first bath 7 weeks ago.


Finally, more fun with Dad. It's another long one, but there are a few really good smiles in there.

Dexter's 2 Month Checkup

Dexter excelled (again) at his checkup today. He weighs 12 pounds, 13 ounces (67th %ile) and is 24.25" long (85th %ile). His head circumference is 15.75" (44th %ile).

He got 2 immunizations. The Rotavirus vaccine is oral, and he took the whole thing without any fuss at all. The other (DTaP) was an actual shot. He screamed for about 5 seconds and that was that. I was very proud and relieved.

I'm also hoping that the immunizations don't impact his super-amazing sleep schedule! He's now slept through the night for SIX nights in a row!
Tuesday 02 Dec: 9:30 PM - 5:15AM (7.5 hours)
Wednesday 03 Dec: 10:00PM - 7:00AM (9 hours)
Thursday 04 Dec: 11:00PM - 6:00AM (7 hours)
Friday 05 Dec: 10:30 PM - 6:30AM (8 hours)
Saturday 06 Dec: 10:30PM - 8:30AM (10 hours)
Sunday 07 Dec: 9:30PM - 4:30AM (7 hours)

In other news, it turns out that the baby in the mirror is camera-shy! Ever since Dexter laughed himself into hiccups at that adorable baby, we've been trying to catch it on video. Alas, all we have is about 20 cumulative minutes of footage (over several days) of Dexter's parents acting like goofballs trying to get him to laugh at the baby in the mirror. Thus, no video updates yet. If we have anything exciting to show, rest assured you'll see it here first.

2 Nights in a Row!

That's right. Dexter the Great slept through the night again, this time twice in a row! Tuesday night, he slept from 9:30 PM until 5:30 AM. When he woke us up at 5:30, Dennis sat up in alarm and said, "Did you feed him at 1:00?!" I said I hadn't. He had slept through. Awesome. He went right back to sleep and stayed that way until I woke him up at 9:30.

I thought perhaps he was just extra tired from his big day visiting Santa, but sure enough, he slept through again on Wednesday night, this time from 10:00 PM until 7:00 AM. NINE hours. Again, he went back to sleep shortly after that feeding and slept until 10:00 AM.

I really hope this is a trend. Of course, this is all swaddled sleep, but I'm not too worried about that just yet.

In other exciting news, we've introduced Dexter to the baby in the mirror. Yesterday, he laughed SO hard at that baby that he gave himself the hiccups. Twice. We're hoping to capture this excitement on video tonight, so let's hope he performs.

Finally, Dexter is two months old today! He's definitely growing up. And out. His thighs are officially bigger than my wrists. I think we may soon have a very chunky monkey on our hands.


(I know what you're thinking - that's not a lot of clothes for December 4. But there's no need to call DCFS, I promise. Rest assured that we are staying inside our warm house all day and will add many layers if we do go outside for any reason. Besides, what's a growth picture if his cute little thighs and feet are all covered up?!)

Dexter Meets Santa Claus

Dexter got his traditional photo with Santa this afternoon. Since it was afternoon, he was not at his most smiley, but we did at least manage to get one with his eyes open.

It's tough to tell since he is covering his top with his hands, but this is the same dinosaur outfit that nearly swallowed him on his way home from the hospital. It fits him perfectly now. (We're estimating his current weight at 12 or 12.5 pounds. We'll get an official update on December 8.)

Anyway, Santa could look a bit more merry, but I think Dexter looks great.