Visit from Grandpa Ken & Fighting a Cold

The past several days, Fischer has been fighting a cold--I'm guessing that his future teething times will include colds as his first two bouts with teeth have. Bummer--at least we can go through each episode knowing we'll have the "reward" of teeth. Since he's a very healthy boy otherwise, it's only been with teething so far that Fischer's not felt like himself. I guess it will be better to endure teething and colds simultaneously instead of more tough times enduring teething and illness separately!

Now that his appetite is returning, we can continue our adventures in feeding. Meals are almost always very messy! In the pic below, Fischer's sucking on his top gums where his newest tooth is emerging--a habit he's gotten into :) It looks like he's got puffy lips, because he folds his bottom lip down. He's kind of a comic--wonder who he got that from?!
On Thursday we finally celebrated Christmas with Grandpa Ken and his friend Grace when they came for a visit. It wasn't long after they arrived that they insisted we dig into the gifts. Fischer opened his presents with a little help, and lots of chewing on giftwrap :) His favorite present was an interactive puppy that sings, talks, counts, plays music--you name it--when you press different body parts. Even with all of that to offer, Fischer still searched the puppy for its tag, and spent most of his time with it chewing on it. It looks silly when he does, because the tag happens to be on the puppy's bottom :)
Grandpa Ken and Fischer were excited to see each other. It took Fischer just a couple minutes to soak it all in, and it wasn't long before he was loving being the center of Grandpa and Grace's attention. Even though he was a little tired and restless from being sick and all the excitement of the visit, Fischer was good company as usual. We all really enjoyed the visit.

Now that he can sit up nicely in a shopping cart, it's easy--with a little planning and timing--to bring Fischer out to the store. We wanted to get out of the house the other night, so Daddy sent us to Menards for a couple things. Fischer was such a good boy that I got him his first kickball. When I put it in the cart next to him, he patted it and spent the rest of our shopping trip rubbing it with his fingers--it's got a dimpled surface. He likes to bounce his hands on it and try and mouth it. With as much as he's been drooling, it doesn't take long to make almost the entire surface wet with his slobber :) He really likes the ball. It's a treat when Fischer gets to take a bath with Joe these days, because Joe often works past Fischer's bedtime. When we're all home and one of us takes a bath with Fischer, the other stays on standby, ready to dry, diaper and pajama him. When Joe bathes with him, I'll check on them after what I think is plenty of time to get pruney, but they're not even washed yet because they've been playing!
When we hold him, Fischer is constantly wiggling. He likes to 'stand' and even tries to wriggle up our fronts when we hold him--something kind of like a humping motion that I can't help laughing at. It just means he's getting ready to turn our house upside down when he starts scooting and crawling--it won't be long before I'm blogging about that!

In the meanwhile, we're all trying to make the most of these long winter weeks. Soon the groundhog will tell us what's in store.

Beating Winter Boredom / First Accident Report

The first couple of weeks of 2009 have been about staying warm and avoiding boredom! The other day, I even brought Fischer's stroller upstairs and wheeled him around for a change of pace.


Schmooze hopped in the basket under the stroller. At first I didn't notice he was there, because he peacefully strolled around with us. He must've been bored, too!


Fischer and I even decided to go to East Towne Mall to walk around one Sunday evening. He loved watching people go by, and really enjoyed all of the colors of the clothes. We walked from Kohl's, where we got the stroller cart, out into the rest of the mall before I realized that the mall was closing. Unfortunately, we couldn't go back the way we'd come, so we had a long cold walk back to the car. Oh well--it kept us busy for awhile! Fischer has recently "graduated" to the next carseat. He's no longer in his "bucket", but rather in the seat that stays in the car. So it's taking me awhile to get used to loading my arms up differently with him and all of our stuff. He's slippery in his snowsuit, too!

On Monday, January 12th, Fischer got his first accident report from daycare. Maybe you can see the faint red mark above his right eyebrow--he was clobbered by one of his classmates with a plastic cauliflower--ouch! I guess he cried pretty hard--more from surprise and hurt feelings than from pain. But, as you can see, it wasn't bothering him later!

Today at daycare, Fischer's 3rd tooth finally began to emerge! It is the left top middle tooth. No pics for awhile until it's come down more--I learned from our first teeth 2 months ago--it's futile to try and get a shot until he's ready to show it! We've kept an eye there for awhile--as those gums have been pretty puffy and sore-looking. He's also been breaking away from nursing or his bottle to curl his tongue up over his top gums to suck on them. He had a fever off and on a couple days this week, and it seems that Tylenol was the trick to get evening relief from his sore/weird-feeling gums. We took him in to see Dr. Hoyer Wednesday because with his fever, and his cough getting a little more frequent, we wanted to make sure it was just teething. She checked his ears ("perfect"), and listened to his lungs. Since there's a lot of pneumonia going around, Dr. Hoyer ordered a "pulse-ox" to be sure Fischer's blood had enough oxygen in it ("passed 100%"), and also a chest x-ray because she heard a little bit of noise high up in his lungs ("looked excellent, all clear"). So he's a healthy teething boy.

At daycare, Fischer's been offered pretty much what all of the other kids get served for meals. It's so much fun to walk in and see him trying noodles, bread, green beans, oranges, yogurt, you name it! I hear he's a good sport, too about trying new foods. He still mainly eats his mushy foods with cereal and of course breastmilk, but he's on his way to more! As it is, he eats best at home when we eat with him :) Now I've been giving him bits of my dinner chopped up on his tray.

Here he is playing in a tunnel at daycare with his teacher, Ms. Diane. It was his first time in the tunnel, and I hear he got upset when tunnel play was over :) He loves being at daycare--they keep him in a good routine and he likes all of the activity and people around him. It is pretty exhausting, though!

Christmas '08 to New Year's '09

We hope everyone had a very nice holiday season--it was nice to have more time together as a family, but it went by much too quickly!We got to visit with Grandma D, Grandpa Mike and that whole side of the family on Christmas Day. It was a very nice visit--and everyone was thrilled to see Fischer. He is the youngest of several kids we got to visit with. Kaylee, who was one-year-old on December 17, is walking confidently. Cousin April's twin girls, Abby and Annie are 3 years old, and were excited to play with Fischer once he woke up (he was sleeping upon arrival). Everyone seemed pleased to have young children around for the family gatherings, again!
For New Year's Eve, we visited our "chosen" family at George, Joess & Nina's house. George & Joess are incredible cooks, so there's always good food involved when we spend time there! It was funny thinking about how different things were at our last New Year's celebration--some of our friends were still learning that I was pregnant. Now Fischer's here, and our lives will never be the same. We did get through a scrumptious Italian dinner and dessert before Fischer dictated our exit time for us...I knew we wouldn't make it until midnight. He just couldn't unwind until we were home and settled for the evening. Oh well. We had a great time--and with breaks between courses, we left the "table of pain" feeling full but not too over-stuffed :) Yum!
New developments since just before Christmas: Fischer is now rolling in every direction with good control and purpose. He sits up, too. These new abilities make diaper and clothing changes interesting, and sink baths easier!
The last week or so, Fischer has been a bit more demanding. He still has his moments of independence, but more often he wants one-on-one attention at home. The last few days, he whines if I don't involve him in what I'm doing. So I end up bringing him into the kitchen to sit in his box so he can watch me make dinner! He's becoming more leary of new people, too. He warmed up quickly at Christmas, but he turns and grabs for Mom or Dad to bury his head and pretend to be shy, or for a quick hug of reassurance. He reaches out, now, too to be picked up and held.Can you believe our little Fischer man is 7 months old!?

I'm still breastfeeding. We've settled into it quite well. Although I have been bitten several times (ouch!), I've been able to avoid most ncidents by making sure Fischer's hungry, and not just bored, when I offer for him to nurse. If he's really hungry, he even kind of velcros himself to me like a little monkey. It's super cute.

Thanks to everyone for gifts and cards we received!