The Trip to Biloxi Mississippi
Greetings to everyone.
We set off for Biloxi, Mississippi on Tuesday, March 29th. Our plan was to put several hours of the trip to bed before it really started. The picture above shows a sample of the weather before we left. The picture at the bottom shows what we arrived to.
Rebecca scheduled our first stop of our 22 hour trip in Trinidad, Colorado the first night. It was just north of Pueblo that we finally got ahead of (or behind) the storm that hit the Front Range about an hour before we departed Denver. Xavier was fresh from his nap and had a little exercise before we loaded him into the car. Rebecca did a brilliant job of packing the 90 while Xavier slept; she got everything in the back in a single layer; our rear-view mirror could still be used!
It's amazing what constitutes importance when packing for limited space. Rebecca had two suitcases, one for her military garb and one for her civvies. I had a small suitcase packed with all the clothes I expected to need for the next three months. Xavier shared Rebecca's civvies suitcase with his clothing needs. We also had laptops and several of Xavier's toys. We even broke down and bought a DVD player for the car to keep Xavier from melting down (Aunt Chelle was not here this time to sit with him and keep him company—no room for her anyway; we were tight on space).
Xavier did well for the three and a half hours to Trinidad. He played in the hotel lobby and restaurant before going to bed. All the hotel staff fell in love with him.
Rebecca planned a nine hour drive, a six hour drive and a three hour drive over the next three days. Her thoughts were that Xavier would put up with a longer drive up front, but not in the end, nor would he put up with three six hour days. She was right on the money with her foresight.
The DVD player definitely paid for itself. We now have the dialog to the movie "Planes" memorized, though we saw very little of the movie ourselves. To keep the adults sane, we stopped at a Mardel's and bought a CD series: Living Beyond Ourselves; a series on the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We listened to it while Xaiver watched "Planes" and "Cars".
Near the middle of day 2 (the six hour leg), Xavier began mournfully asking to go home. He was sick of riding in the car. On the final day, he must have realized home was not an option, so he just wanted to go to "the room," which meant the hotel.
Our final hotel did have a pool in it and a hot tub. Xavier, remembering the hot tub in Florida, after seeing the pool and tub wanted his swim diaper. He became relentless about getting the swim diaper. When we got into Biloxi and moved the luggage into the apartment, he wanted to know where his swim diaper was. When we visited the commissary to provision the apartment, he reminded us several times to get swim diapers. His insistence that we get him a swim diaper and to show him we had it grew especially intense after he saw the beach across the street! From that point on, all we heard was "swim diaper" and "beach" out of his mouth.
We did spend some time on the beach. It is a beach along the Gulf of Mexico. Xavier chased gulls, waded into the water, which is shallow and small waves, dug in the sand and fully made use of his swim diaper.
Snow Angels and Snow Forts
Greetings to everyone.
We had some snow yesterday and today the weather warmed nicely. When Xavier got up and looked out the window, his eyes widened and he pointed, saying "Snooooow!"
After breakfast, I asked Xavier if he wanted to go outside and make a snow angel. Xavier has not played in the snow much. He has shoveled snow like Daddy and he has trudged through some snow, but never truly played in it.
Mom bundled Xavier warmly and we headed outside. It was warm enough that, after a while of moving snow around, I took my coat off because it was too hot with it on. Xavier was concerned that I took it off and asked me a few times to put it on.
The first order of business was a snow angel. I showed Xavier what to do, then (after adjusting the hood of his coat to keep snow out of his neck) helped him lay down in the snow. A few seconds later, Xavier completed his first snow angel. He was not impressed; he went stomping off to look at the snow covering the lower branches of the Blue Spruce.
He moved to the sidewalk to play because that is where Daddy was. Instead of playing, he obsessed over the fact the Jetta parked there was still covered in snow. I began rolling a large snowball. I tried to get Xavier to engage, but that darn Jetta still had snow covering it. It was after I rolled the second snow ball for the snowman's chest that Xavier grew interested.
Xavier let me roll a third ball and make a head, then he came over and wanted to add snow to the snowman. Mom during this time was in and out taking pictures (she was using the time with Xavier outside to clean and vacuum). Mom reappeared with a carrot.
The snow was not quite soft enough to make things easy; it took us a while to get the carrot to stay in place. After that, Xavier started making his own snowballs and applying them to the snowman.
After giving the man two "top knots" on his head (which we would later call a beehive hairdo), Xavier could reach no higher. He looked to lower areas to put his snowballs. That meant the chest. He turned the snowman into a snowwoman. Eventually, into a mutant snowwoman.
After the snowman/mutant snowwoman was finished, we had enough snow in the yard to make a small fort. I disappeared into the garage, then returned with shovels and buckets. Using our patented strip snow mining technique, Xavier helped fill buckets and Dad carried them off to make the wall.
I tried to get Xavier to help with the wall, but he really liked shoveling snow into the buckets. I let him do most of the strip snow mining. Once the fort wall was up, Xavier found interest in it (maybe because there was very little snow left in the yard).
We stockpiled the fort with many snowballs. We also made a chair for Xavier to sit in and to stand on should he need to make use of his snow arsenal. We played for more than two hours. When we came in, Xavier had soaked mittens, wet pants and a ravenous hunger. All in all, a good morning's play.
Weaned at Last!
Greetings to everyone.
Yes, it's true. Xavier is officially off his bottle!
Actually, he has been officially off his bottle since early February. As this is a chronicle of Xavier Michael's childhood, it would be remiss to leave out the story of the weaning.
As mentioned in an August post we started the weaning in earnest then. Mama was serious about Xavier getting off the bottle. At that time, he had three workable nipples and Rebecca was determined when those had worn out, there would be no more. And, they were wearing out fast, especially when Xavier had teeth moving; he would chew on the nipples at this time.
By the time Rebecca went for her six weeks of training in Florida, Xavier had two nipples left, and one of those had a hole in the side from his chewing on it—it was not long for this world.
Also, by this time, Xavier was down to having a bottle only at night. He took his bottle just before bed. He would rarely finish the whole bottle, and he wanted it in bed with him (if he drained his bottle before going down, we had to fill it again). The bottle became something of a transitional object for him; he used it for comfort. He either cuddled the bottle or he set it in the corner of his crib.
About the second week in to Rebecca's trip it occurred to me why not use this six-week time to transition Xavier off his bottle completely? The idea was so simple and I upbraided myself for not thinking of it two weeks earlier!
I think the idea did not occur to me until I noted that the bottle had become a "teddy bottle." It was more of a comfort item than a food item. Upon understanding this, that's when I thought, "Eureka! Get him off the bottle!"
So, almost cold turkey, I swapped out his bottle with a sippy cup. Of course I kept a nippled bottle in reserve and hidden so I could adjust to any fussiness that would disrupt his sleep (and by implication, my sleep as well). He took to the sippy cup idea readily. He cuddled with it as easily as he cuddled with the nippled bottle.
We had a couple of setbacks during this time. Whenever he got a cup with a straw in it, it made him remember the nipple and he wanted it back. It took a few moments of tough love and some fortitude on Dad's part to get past these setbacks.
Soon, the milk in the sippy cup was replaced with water. Xavier did not seem to mind. So long as he had his cup and it had something in it, he was content. By the way, the filled cup was functional. When Xavier woke in the night, he would drink from his cup then go back to sleep. I learned this the hard way. I took the cup from him as he slept, then went to bed myself. Two hours later, I was up getting Xavier his cup of water.
Today, Xavier drinks from open-top cups and glasses, though we still make him do so in the dining area and kitchen—he is still building his not-spilling skills. Having a cup to go to bed is no longer a necessity, though he still likes one there when he wakes up and wants a drink.
His bottles and what remains of his two surviving nipples sit on top the refrigerator collecting dust. They are on top the fridge because of another lesson learned during the final weaning phase: don't let your child know there are still bottles in the house!