The Holstad family reunion was held at Grandma and Grandpa’s Compound last weekend, and Alex met a lot of relatives for the first time. He had lots of fun!

Here’s Alex with Grandpa on Saturday night. Look at the size of the family trees behind them! There were dozens of people at the house on Saturday.

Here’s Alex hanging out with Mom and Dad. We look pretty sweaty–or at least Dad does, anyway–because we were pretty sweaty. It was crazy hot in Escondido this weekend. Someone read in the paper that they set a new high with 107 degrees recorded in Escondido on Saturday.

Alex got some quality time in with aunt Phet at the reunion.

Here Alex and Phet are cheering on Dee and Dave, who are partying down to the sounds of DJ Lenny Gemar.

Uncle Jeff took some time out to give Alex some unclely advice. Uncle Jeff might have had a few adult beverages before bestowing his wisdom so it may be for the best that Alex doesn’t yet speak English and Jeff doesn’t yet speak baby.

Here’s a back of the head I bet you’ll recognize!

Alex swam in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was his first time in a swimming pool, though of course he’s been swimming in tubs for a while. Here he is with Mom on Saturday.

Alex is weighing in at about 18 lbs–he just turned five months yesterday–and his swim diaper is fitting pretty sungly! We’ll need the next size up soon.

On Sunday we forgot Alex’s swim diaper so he had to wear a normal diaper into the water. You’d never know it by how cool a character he is though!

We’re looking to take him back to Grandma and Grandpa’s frequently to swim while the weather is this warm. Infant swimming lessons with Mommy are just around the corner too!

Today Olivia and Alex both turned to 5-month-old. Congratulations, two Golden Pigs who were born on the same day!

My mom said she cried when she saw the picture at our last post about Alex’s crying when he was trained to sleep by himself at his crib. Many friends also show their concerns about taking pacifier from Alex. Everybody, look at the following pictures taken at family reunion last weekend. Pacifier is back! Grandpa and Alex both seemed very happy.

Michelle told you about the big changes going on in Alex’s life earlier this week.

We’re kicking him into his crib because we tend to grab him and rock him when he starts to get restless or cry when he’s in with us, and all the baby books say that’s not doing him any favors. He also rolls around a lot at times. We want to move him into his room sometime soon, and so he’ll obviously need to be sleeping on his own for that to happen. Finally, a not insignificant consideration is that I love the kid but I’m tired of sharing the bed with him.

We’re taking away his pacifier because he tends to either pull it out with his hands or spit it out when he sleeps, which makes him start crying. I personally don’t mind at all if he uses a pacifier–heck, he can use it until he’s two for all I care–but again, we’ve read and heard many times that he’s got to get to the point where he can get himself back to sleep when he wakes up. I’d love to give him the pacifier during the day and lose it at night, but that’s just the first step down a path of inconsistent parental behavior that I’ve heard ends in very dysfunctional families.

Alex wasn’t all that happy with the changes on Saturday and Sunday nights, when he cried for over 45 minutes each night before falling asleep.

But things have taken a big turnaround. Both Saturday and Sunday nights, once he finally got to sleep, he slept for long unbroken stretches in the crib. I’m trying to give him a bottle before I go to bed and that seems to be working fairly well; he needed one other feeding each morning, and otherwise slept until after 7am.

Monday night, he made less of a fuss when we put him down, but he was up a lot more… which brings us to tonight. When Michelle put him in the crib, he cooed a little bit, looked at his mobile, and fell right asleep.

I think we’re well on our way to a successful transition. This kid is a work of art! We need a little display alcove in the wall for him, like Grandma and Grandpa have in their guest house.

Finally we decided to take actions this weekend to train Alex to sleep in his own crib WITHOUT pacifier. Yes, we put two steps together and it sounds intimidating.

Last night, when we put Alex in the crib, he cried on top of his lungs for one hour or so. Dave and I went to pad him and comfort him in soft and gentle tone in 5, then 10, 15, 20 minutes. We kept lights off. I could feel the front of his shirt was all wet. I first thought that was tears and sweat, and my heart was broken.(It actually is spit-up) I kept questioning myself if that is the necessary or smart to do. He is just a four-and-half-month-old little baby! I feel I am the worst mom in the world to allow her child cry like that. So sad… my sister once told me that parents will be punished by bad habits their children develop. We should have had Alex sleep by himself the first day we came back from the hospital.

After crying for around one hour, Alex seemed worn out. When I turned on one small light to check him, out of my surprise, he gave me a big smile even when he was still panting. My heart was melt right away. Alex, you dont know how much mom doesn’t want to do that. Dad and Mom hate to see you crying. But we have to be through this and we know you can do it! We are so proud that last night you slept by yourself without pacifier for the first time. What a good boy! Tonight I know will be challenging for everybody again, but we will get through it soon. Stay strong and positive!
So far we survived the first pacifier-free day. He did extremely well. Of course, it is not easy for dad and mom to put Alex into sleep without the aid of pacifiers. Actually we dont have problems to give him a pacifier during day. The reason we decide to stop using pacifiers is that he used to spit up a pacifier at night and cried when he felt nothing in his mouth. So it created difficulties for him to sleep through night.

It is a big bold step for everybody. We are pleased to see some progress and benefit already. When we went to Pease farm to celebrate Father’s/Grandfather’s day with grandma and grandpa this evening, we definitely saw more smiles when Alex didn’t have a mask on his mouth. I hope it won’t take too long to accomplish this step. Alex is such a sweetheart and we want him happy all the time.

Last week Alex started to grab things. He likes to grab his favorite Elmo star and then put it into his mouth. Weeks ago, he tried to pull his spine to sit up when lying down. Today when he sit up at the corner of our sofa, he felt over on his tummy. Alex can easily turn over from tummy to his back, but haven’t quite got how to flip from back to front yet. Can you believe his favorite toy is just a plastic water bottle? He responds so well to bottles all the time. Alex, my golden pig son, you know how to save money for dad and mom! Today he weighted 18 lbs with clothes and diaper after eating milk. It is still messy but fun to feed him Gerber food. So far we have tried sweet potatoes, apple sauce, prune sauce, and carrots. Every time we go to Souplantation I like to give him a little yogurt there. This week we will try pear and squash.

This Saturday Alex went to Zoe’s birthday party. That was a really fun party and we did have a good time with Zoe and all her family. Zoe is such a doll with beautiful eyes. Happy 1st birthday, Zoe! Next year I believe you can play water slide together with Alex.

从上礼拜我们开始给易峰流食。本来我还想等等，寻思着妈妈的奶应最好，但有一天，易峰一口气四个小时吃了14OZ，我知道是该给他吃流食的时候了。

We gave Alex solid food starting from the past week. It was quite exciting and a little bit nervous to feed him something other than milk. Alex likes to make raspberry during feeding so we usually end up with mess all over his bib, face, and our clothes and fingers. It is fun tho!!

According to our pediatrician, we first gave him rice cereal as most parents do, but Alex doesn’t like it at all. He would turn his head more than 90 degree away when he tasted rice cereal. However, when he finds it is sweet potato, my feeding speed seems not keep up with his taking. Apparently, Alex loves sweet potatoes as much as his mom does! Today I fed him a whole box of Gerber carrot baby food and some oatmeal. Tomorrow I will try more oatmeal. It seems he likes it.

Last week was a tough one. Alex suddenly got a fever on Wednesday and became very fussy, so we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa’s place over night. At that night, Alex woke almost every hour and it was very difficult to put him into sleep. I had to hold him, rock him, walk him, sing songs for him all the night. God, the next day I have to say that I am never being that exhausted in my life. It might be a sign that I am really getting older:(. Suddenly remember one of Dixie Chicks’ songs”Children get old I’m getting older too” Before being a mother, every time I heard of this song, I always think of my parents and how much they looked forward my sister and I going to college, finding jobs, settling down over the last thirty years, but at the same time they are getting old to the point that I wish time could fly back to wipe off all wrinkles at their faces and all discomforts in their bodies.

Fortunately the following day, although Alex didn’t feel total well, but his fever was gone. He started to smile again to everyone and be a happy boy, which makes us very happy too. So far we still dont know what caused the fever. From time to time, I am worried that water could get into his ears during bathing. But his ears seem not to bother him yet.

We were supposed to have a three-day get-away during this weekend. Because Dave and I both didnt feel well on friday, we had to change our plan at the last minute. After talking with Yingbin and Jared yesterday, we are very glad to know that they are having fun at big bear.

Oh, one thing I shouldn’t forget to mention is that Alex slept 6 hours for the first time last Friday night thanks to the terrific work of Grandma and Grandpa to keep Alex active during the day. When I am typing this post, Alex has slept 5 hours this evening. This afternoon we only allowed him to take a half hour nap. Everybody needs 8-hour sleep at night now.