First tooth!! And other baby developments.

The title says it all. For the past two weeks Xander has been drooling all over the place and munching his fingers. Then last night he was really grumpy, and we noticed it - a tiny white, sharp, toothbud poking out from his lower left gum! (Technically his left central incisor.) No wonder he was crying, the poor babeleh was in pain. I have such mixed feelings; I'm excited for his new milestone, but at the same time, at three months?! I'm ready for him to be an "infant" for just a bit longer. I mean really, even the baby Oragel to put on his gums is only supposed to be used for four months and older. (We called the pediatrician and she said it was okay to use). This obviously comes from Jonathan's side - I didn't get my first tooth til I was nearly nine months! But then again, the kid is also 14 pounds, so maybe he'll develop physically early in all ways.

To change the subject, Friday night services was quite nice. It was "Rock Shabbat," and the family service. In the middle of the Amidah Xander needed his diaper changed, so we waited until the prayers were done and the rabbi calls people up for the birthday blessings. Then Jonathan got up... and as he's standing in the back of the sanctuary, about to open the doors to go out, Rabbi Coran calls from the bima (with her microphone): "Xander, don't go! I was just about to call you out!" She then proceeded to introduce him to the community! It was very thoughtful of her, and at the kiddish afterwards (where we bless the wine and the challah) lots of people came up to meet him. And Xander, the big flirt, ate it up and charmed them all.

This is the boy winning over the students in the HUC lounge:

He was held by almost everyone in the picture at some point. Stephanie had watched him when I was in class, then I came back and began to pack up. Someone asked where I was headed, and I said I had to do a few HUC errands first: buy books in the bookstore, sign a form in the administration building, and check out a book in the library. About three separate people then chimed up at once offering to hang out with him while I left. So instead of schlepping him all over campus I got to do my errands alone (and therefore much more quickly), and he got to schmooze and be social.



Here Osher has decided that the changing table is really just a large cat bed. The framed art above the changing table (there is a third piece to the set above the two you see) were made by Jonathan's grandmother, and hung in his nursery. They're mixed media prints, and are of a lion reading a book. How perfect - now we know that Jonathan came by his lion fetish honestly, and I love that it encourages Xander to read! He looks up at them every time he's getting changed, the colors must be fascinating.


And to end on a note of blanket-grabbing: here the boy is learning to coordinate his hands. After I stopped the camera, he managed to grab the blanket fully.