Bonding with Zander

The week with Zander has really flown by – we can’t believe that tomorrow marks two weeks since we’ve been back from Korea! It has been a busy week focused on lots of bonding activities (playing, exploring inside/outside, walks, trying new foods, etc.), and working toward a more sustainable schedule. We have made great progress on the sleeping front… recall that we started with a 4am bedtime… tonight was 9pm – yippee!  Speaking of bonding,  here is Jim taking Zander out in the morning to fetch the paper:

Zander loves exploring outside - both on our deck and front porch/sidewalk:

Monday afternoon our dear friend Jodi (from Minneapolis, but now lives in Philadelphia) visited Zander along with her twin girls Zoe and Gabrielle... who are already seven years old! It was wonderful to see them all, and they brought Zander a huge box of their favorite books all the way from Philly! Jodi also brought a special treat for Jim – his favorite: a big batch of chocolate chip cookie dough – yummy!  Zander loved playing with the girls - it was fun to watch them all interact:

 

After all that fun play, Zander needed a nap... as did Daddy.  Here they are in their respective Philadelphia gear:

Monday evening, the three of us loaded into the car to attend cousin Luke’s tee ball game (uncle Bob is one of the team coaches). Zander quickly reminded us not to take transitions for granted (e.g. in/out of car seat, stroller, high chair, etc.) – he became extremely upset when placed in his car seat and cried so hard that he vomited… all over our ‘new’ car, his new Philly’s hat and T-shirt (from Jim’s Aunt Gail), and worst of all, on his best pal Dooly (the big pink dinosaur). Gross!! We cleaned up the car, the boy and the doll and gave it a second shot – success!! Although we missed the first part of  the game, we enjoyed seeing Cousin Luke bat and play the field, as well as Uncle Bob coach a team of 4 to 5-year-olds. Woo Hoo!

On Tuesday Zander watched South Korea defeat Nigeria in World Cup action, securing a spot in the next round of play. Go Korea!  If both Korea and the US win their next rounds, the two will play each other, which would pose a cheering challenge for our family!
Zander does tend to clap when he sees sports on TV which makes his Daddy very proud. That afternoon, Zander experienced his first big shopping trip... Super Target. Tomorrow we may even try Babies R Us depending how the morning goes...

Wednesday was a rough day… our first visit to our pediatrician. Zander did great the first half of the visit – he was measured/weighed and had a general assessment performed. Things got pretty stressful when the doctor removed some hardened earwax from both his ears using a long instrument – it looked very painful and there were lots and lots of tears!! He then needed a TB screening which involved a needle injection… twice since the first one didn’t take properly. Nurses also came in to draw several vials of blood, but had trouble finding a veins on both arms and decided that Zander had endured enough for the day, so we took a raincheck. Zander received a great examination report – we are so thankful!