Dexter Sleeping Positions

I love the cute ways that Dexter sleeps! Sometimes his paws are so darn cute! I cannot resist taking pictures of him!

12.4 Dexter's new skill

Dexter has learned how to open almost all the doors and cabinets here in the apartment. Art swears he even pulled the handle down on the shower room to let himself in to go to the litter box. Since Dex has full access, because of his new skill, to all closets, he has his pick of activities. We often catch him coming out of the kitchen cabinet (on the floor, not on the counter). One morning I went to get new pillowcases and got quite a shock in the linen closet - yep Dexter's new favorite nap spot.

ZMC - German Doctor

Zach went to the peditrician (Arztkinder) today to get a check up and his 6-month old immunizations. Our ABQ peditrician warned us that the Germans do not have the best bedside manner and SHE WAS RIGHT. Dr. Michael Hauch (How) was a bit gruff and detatched. A far cry from our ABQ peditrician who loved to hold Zach and chat. He answered all my questions and talked about all I wanted to, so I can't complain.

Zach's stats: Weight 7.66kg (16.89 pounds) - 50th percentile Length 67cm (26.4 inches) - 50th percentile. They do not track head measurements, so I don't know if his head is still little or not. I will try to find a tape measure and measure if he will cooperate.

Things are just strange here. Most obvious is that I took a bus, then a train to get to the Dr., though it is not far, and I could walk it in about 25 minutes or so. The biggest strange thing was that, after the appointment and he had received his immunizations, I had to take the immunization prescription down to the pharmacy to pay for them (127 Euro). Hopefully there is no issue getting our insurance to reimburse.

The Dr. would like for me to start Zach on meats and think about adding a lunch of 'solid food' pretty soon. He wants him chewing by 8 months, though we think he might be already. The German take on foods is also different. He said I should give him some harder things that would help him learn to chew, like a slice of apple. An American would consider that a choking risk. So now we will have to reconcile what our US books and peditrician say vs. what the German says. Sigh. Luckily, some things are the same, like table foods by 10-12 months (monat).

Zachary did pretty well with this round of shots though. No noticable fever today. A little more cranky than usual, but not terrible. Certainly nothing like his 2 month shots which kept him asleep in my arms all day, or his 4 month shots where I could not keep the fever at bay.

He will go back for a check-up at 8-9 months, then again at 1 year.

ZMC - Teeth grinder

Since I have no picture to go with this blog, I can go ahead and post it. (All the other old posts are waiting for our computer to be fixed so I can upload the corresponding pictures).

Zachary is getting his 2 top teeth (all he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth). One of them you can see the white starting to poke through, but you cannot feel anything other than gums yet. However, yesterday, after a disturbing few hours, I finally figured that the 'awful grating sound' coming from Zach's mouth was in fact him grinding his bottom tooth on his new top tooth. The tooth is not yet visible, but you can feel it a bit. It was very concerning for a little while, until I figured it out. I kept checking his mouth to see if he had something in there that he should not be chewing on. He had a very strange facial expression to accompany the grinding and I thought 'what in the world'. There you go - Zach is a tooth grinder. His Tante Janneke would be proud (she is also a teeth grinder).

It should not be long before both of his top teeth are poking through enough to see AND feel.

From Zach: zzzzzzzzzßvf f00b 9vvvv (who is obcessed with the keyboard and mouse. Sigh)