Friday, March 6, 2009

Firsts

Lately, Alan is full of firsts! He recently cut his first tooth! He enjoys sticking his tongue out and flashing a silly grin. Brad and I think he's fascinated by how his tooth feels. One night I got a good picture of him doing it. He's just drying off from a bath and getting ready for bed so I decided to play with his hair and try a faux hawk (older boys at church style their hair like a mohawk but the slang is faux hawk).


He finally discovered the joy of eating solids and we're rather entertained as well (until it's time for clean up). He's showing signs of being stubborn and insists on having his hand on the spoon otherwise he may refuse to open his mouth. As you can see it makes for a messy meal. Here we're trying prunes (doesn't he look thrilled ;)




Brad and I both attended his annual DM outing, so Alan had a full day to himself with Grandma Flanagan. Both survived their day! We came home to a sleeping baby and an exhausted sitter :) We were grateful for the time together but often wondered how our little guy was doing and prayed that he was on his best behavior. We fully expected to get a call saying that it was time to come home. So we checked our phones frequently and to our surprise no missed calls or messages! Aldi treated us to a tour of the Harley Davidson Museum (further fueling Brad's urges to buy a bike), bowling (Brad bowled a 182 which was the high score for our group of 42!), dinner (the food at bowling was better), and a room at the Hyatt in Milwaukee. That same night church had a murder mystery dinner and the neighbors invited us for a game night. Too bad everything fell on the same weekend :(



He had his six month doctor appointment on Monday which meant another round of shots :( To my relief, he's been rather pleasant in the week following. The past two rounds didn't go so well. He's growing like a weed! He's officially doubled his birth weight and then some weighing in at 19 lbs. Explains why my back has been killing me lately :) He's 28.5" long and about to outgrow his car seat which only goes to 3o". We'll need to upgrade his car seat soon but he still needs to be rear facing for another six months! Of course his head is still growing but not as much. Here's him in a hat our neighbor Holly made for him (in Cubs colors of course).



Brad came with us for the 6 month appt to hear more about the MRI which went very well! His appt was the first available of the day at 8:00 am. No eating allowed for four hours prior. So we planned our night out and set the alarm clock to wake him for feedings every three hours. Then in the morning we transported him from sleeping peacefully in his crib to his car seat and off we went. He didn't wake until just before the gave him the oral sedation medicine. Perfect timing but the first dose didn't quite do the job so they administered another half dose that was successful in knocking him out. He laid very still for the scan and they got the images they needed. No serious issues were spotted only some large subarachnoid spaces that are hereditary. While at the doctor's office she measured mom and dad's head to see which side of the family gets the credit for macrocephaly (big heads). Apparently both of us have above average head size! Here's a picture of him the night before his MRI in no-snap pj's from Aunt Kelly (perfect because he couldn't have any metal on in the machine). Poor little guy has no idea what's in store for him when he wakes up in the morning!



Each day brings a new adventure! He's working on using a sippy cup, sitting unsupported (pretty tough considering his head size), crawling (hopefully soon), and standing (with lots of help of course). Here's him in another adorable hat from Holly!