Rolling With It: In a nutshell...

I can't believe that Xander is already 7 months old (on the 2nd). He's quite the character and is developing his personality every day. He's now sitting up on his own, really close to crawling, grabbing at everything he can, has his first tooth (on the 30th it popped out), and just a bowl full of sugar...that's 19 pounds 13 ounces of sugar!!
We returned from our trip to the states to visit family on Friday and Nick also returned from his temporary duty assignment that same day! Our family was once again together, but is short lived because Nick is getting ready to leave again next week for a month. He'll return the week before Christmas, so I'm excited that he won't be missing my favorite holiday. We've already started ordering Christmas gifts for Xander...well Nick has. It's hard to decide what he needs to have to help him develop and grow. We don't want too many toys as it's just clutter and we don't deal well with clutter. The choices are endless though and tough to decide on.
Our trip to the states was a great and it was so good to see everyone. I had a hard time saying goodbye to my Grandma. I stood in the back of the funeral home, looking up at the coffin, balling my eyes out for an hour and a half. It was hard. I'm glad I was able to get our tickets changed so I could say that goodbye. I finally walked up to her to let her know that I love her and that the baby growing in me was growing strong. She knew I was pregnant as I told her early on, but I told her at that time I was scared the pregnancy would end. So I was happy to tell her the baby had a strong heart beat a few days earlier. I was also excited to introduce her to Alexander.
After 5 days in Sioux Falls, SD for the funeral, I headed back up to North Dakota to spend time with my sister for the next month! We had a great time and I'm so glad Xander was able to spend time with his cousins! He loved playing with each of them, but I have to say I think the 2 year old was his favorite. The 5 year old discovered that she can hold him and walk around with him, so that was her favorite thing to do with him. They dressed him in tutu's, let him play with their dolls, and ride in their pink car. Lets just say I hope this month around all girl toys won't have a negative affect on him. I'm sure it won't, not like it would matter I guess. My sister ended up staying dilated to 2 cm for a month! She finally had her baby boy on Oct 18th just after midnight. He is just the most precious baby ever! I never did get a size up with the new baby and my big boy, but that's okay. We have a lot of fun memories while we were staying with them.
Now that we're back home, I'm working on getting Xander back on his sleeping schedule. He would not get on schedule while we were on vacation and was up many times during the nights. Last night was his first night of sleeping 7 hours straight! Now, I've been exhausted being up with him every hour or two for the past month and a half, so 2 nights ago I decided to turn off the monitor in our room and let him cry it out. The first night was hard for me and he cried...well fussed is more like it because he wasn't screaming or anything...for about an hour, then slept for 3 hours, fussed again for about 20 minutes and back to bed for another 2 hours. Last night was much better, he fussed for 20 minutes and then slept for the next 7 hours. I'm hoping this continues because I woke up feeling so rested!
Last night Xander had 2 runny diapers, and today so far another 2. He's not finishing his bottles (he'll leave about an ounce or two of a 7 ounce bottle), but he's not crying in pain or anything. Should I be giving him pedialite? How long does this go on before I would need to take him in to see the doctor? I'm not sure where this came from as I haven't given him any foods for 3 days now, only his formula. We go in next Friday for his 6 month well baby...yes I'm aware he's 7 months, but we were away for his 6 month. Maybe i'll ask her then even if it clears up by then?
My brother in law also took some great pictures of Xander while we were there, so I'll post a few on here that we won't be sending out to family. I'm excited to get them developed and hung out, passed out and create a Christmas card. This weekend we plan to take a family picture to also add to the Christmas card.
I received my Bachelors degree diploma in the mail! It's so exciting to see it, I still need to take a picture with it...LOL. I know the next phase of beginning my Masters is right around the corner. I just can't decide if I want to start in January like planned or wait until August so I will be adjusted to life with 2 babies. This decision is tough because if I start in January I could be finished before we move in 2013, otherwise I will have almost a whole year left. I think I'd like to be done before the move, but I don't know if I will be able to handle all the work a Masters degree entails, taking care of the kids, and still doing everything around the house.

And now...picture overload