Our Boxer Boy: A Tale of Two Ears

When Flint first arrived, he had these adorably delicate butterfly ears, that were so soft and floppy they looked like they were opening like flower petals in the morning, or unfolding like butterfly wings. And they did open, but not quite as beautifully or as fully as one might expect. Then again he's not a flower. Or a butterfly. But we didn't think much of it. I just figured they would fix themselves in a matter of time as he grew and his cartilage hardened.

At our first appointment with the pediatrician, she made a small (playful) fuss about his ears to implicate they would not actually fix themselves and we should consider "molding" them. He was actually missing the third fold that makes the ear flatter against the head. I took this topic home to discuss with the dad-man, who agreed and somehow knew something like this was going to come up. We did some research and concluded it would be best to give the molding a "go" for now and see where it gets us, rather than wait and poor Flint possibly have to undergo cosmetic surgery in the future...

Friday was Flint's follow-up appointment, and the doctor attached the molds to his sweet little ears, a process not so enjoyable for him or his Mama, though it seemed to be painless. Babies definitely don't like to be forced to hold still, however, and I'm fairly certain all the prodding was uncomfortable. She shaved the hair from around his ears and cleaned them up before sticking a plastic frame around them - literally sticking with adhesive. Once the frame was in place, several other silicon-coated components were placed in his ear to get it in the correct shape, then some kind of soft, breathable soft was fastened overtop to hold everything in place.

And now, our son looks like a wrestler (or boxer?)...

I can honestly say, I hate these molds and wish we didn't have to do them, but it's for the best. He will wear them for 6 weeks, having them changed every 2 weeks until then. The doc says 8 out of 10 cases have "excellent results." So here's hoping that Flint will be one of those eight. He doesn't seem to mind them, thank goodness.

In other news, Flint hit the one-month mark yesterday. Check out his Watch Me Grow album to see how much he's already changed. The pediatrician was pleased with his weight gain - already 12 lbs and the size of a 2-month old! Aside from his physical growth, we are seeing a lot more awake time from our boy, with lots more eye contact. He's even tried cooing a few times - the sweetest sound of all time! He's been a really easy-going guy, though he does not enjoy tummy-time so much. He's responding well to his big sister's constant kissing and smothering, making some improvements with nursing (my boobs really appreciate it!), and enjoying as much "vertical" time as he can get. He has even taken to sleeping up to 6 hours at night for me, provided Daddy swaddles him up really tight and snuggly-warm.

Lyla is adjusting slowly, but surely. She definitely loves her brother and hasn't shown any signs of jealousy, though she is struggling to behave off and on and we're seeing lots of tantrums. Who knows if that's 2-year-old related or big-sister related? Maybe a bit of both. I welcome any tips on getting wildly independent 2-year-old girls to listen and mind. :)

We can't believe it's already been a month - so much has changed!

Oh, October!

What I really wanted to do was blog individually about each of the following fun things we did in October. Well, as it turns out, newborns are about as much fans of blogging as two-year-olds are, which amounts to a slowly dying blog of no-post sadness. So, apart from springing forth a new life, here are some things we were up to in October...

Awaiting William Flint's birth, we took Lyla to Nash Farm in Grapevine and met Grandma there. It was particularly warm for a Fallish event, but that's Texas for ya! We drank a lot of Dr. Pepper, saw a ginormous cow (among other farmy animals) visited a small petting zoo (and petted said farmy animals), watched kids ride ponies (because we didn't want to wait in the longest line ever for Lyla to ride one, herself), posed on old tractors, galloped around on stick-horsies and watered an adorable veggie garden with a small tin watering can.

We had lots of fun taking all sorts of Fallish pictures in Grandpap's backyard...

A week after his birth, we went to the Pumpkin Farm by Grandma's house in Colleyville. We met up with Aunt Shannon and the girls to pick pumpkins, pose for pictures, visit some more farmy animals, get lost in a corn maze, eat kettle corn and play on some more old tractors, trucks and even a small playground. Lyla had tons of fun here with her cousins and family. And since it's across from Grandma's neighborhood, she continues to talk about the pumpkin place every time we go to Grandma's, which is almost every day!

We carved our pumpkins together a few days later. I was really hoping my girl would get elbow-deep into some guts with me, but she wasn't so much a fan. She decided which shapes each of the jack-o-lanterns' eyes, nose and mouth should be, though. She also found it amusing to sort pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts so that I could cook them (yum!). Mostly, though, she wanted to "put fire in there" and "put it in the baffroom!" having recalled the pumpkin in the bathroom from the previous year, where Mommy must've placed it to show her its face in the pitch dark. What I anticipated to be an entertaining activity ended up being just that: Mommy entertaining Lyla with carving, scooping, cutting, and following all other directions regarding lighting and placement of the pumpkins.

We celebrated Halloween by trick-or-treating in Aunt Shannon's neighborhood. Lyla dressed as Jessie, the cowgirl from Toy Story, and Flint dressed appropriately as a cow. Her cow. Sort of. We were lucky to have Grandma with us to enjoy our sweet kiddos, and PapPap not far back at Shannon's house to order some much needed non-sugary food item (pizza) for dinner. Lyla took to trick-or-treating like a seasoned pro this year, and had no trouble knocking, holding out her pumpkin bucket and saying sweetly, "trick or treat." She followed each treat receipt with a pleasant, "Thank you. Happy Halloween," which made me tear up at every house. Every. Single. House. Thank you, hormones.

And that closes out October.

I'd better get on the ball. November is already halfway over! Ack!

(This post took approximately 1.5 weeks to do! Seriously.)

Oh yeah, and visit my Picasa for the rest of the insane amount of pictures...