Wow, has it really been nine months already? As the saying goes, the minutes are going by slow, but the days are going by fast. To commemorate Xander at 3/4 of a year old, here are some videos for your viewing pleasure.

Xander still doesn’t have much interest in crawling, but can manage a bit if properly motivated:

Forget crawling when there’s walking! Here he is with his walker toy:

And here he is pumping iron with grandma’s 3lb weights:

Xander: Yo, mom…check out these cool ball toys.
Tam: Yes, very nice.
Xander: I’ll trade you these for that bowl of food.
Tam: giggles
Xander: Put down the camera and help me get the food, dad.

Xander started to poke out two more front teeth last week, doubling his gnawing ability. He’s been battling the flu and the accompanying anal leakage for a while so he hasn’t had much to smile about. He’s been awfully pale the past few days, but the good news is that we think he may be at or near the hump of fighting this thing off.

His new upper front teeth are huge. Almost rodent-like. Check it out:

Trouble is the big ‘ol gap there between the teeth. We kinda knew he’d be screwed in the straight teeth department given his parents’ pedigrees, but damn…

And for fun, here’s a shot of him last week before he got sick. We think he’s trying to be a male model. Oh, he’ll eventually learn that there’s more to life than being really, really, really, really good looking.

I don’t get sick that often. When I do, it’s usually in no place of consequence. Say…Siena, Italy. Or Santorini, Greece. This time, I got a firm beat-down at home of all places. How boring of me. Just after midnight last Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning), I woke up really cold. And shortly thereafter, I started shivering uncontrollably. Tam piled on every blanket that she could find on me, with some doubled up, and I was still a freezing mess. There was enough bedding to crush a small dog and smother a gorilla. Awesome.

And then the nausea arrived. After about an hour or so of battling some misplaced sense of pride of trying to hold it together, I stumbled over to the can and really let loose. Four times, I think. Apparently it was loud. And violent. And I felt like I twisted a kidney. I almost lost my glasses into the toilet I was having so much fun. I’m just glad I have my major organs intact and that I still have my bones left.

I then proceeded to spend the next two days laid out in bed in various states of consciousness. I started to feel better yesterday morning when my appetite returned. I still can’t figure out how I didn’t lose any weight through this, so I’ll blame the scale.

Great. So good times. High fives all around. Jeff is back on his feet. And then this afternoon I got the news I was dreading: Xander was running a fever and puking all over the place. I was hoping that both him and Tam dodged the bullet but I couldn’t be that lucky. The poor guy had a real rough afternoon and early evening but seems to be a bit more comfortable now. Unfortunately for my mom, she just flew back from Taiwan this evening so she’s now got a front row seat to this mess.

Wish us well — hopefully the flu’s Shih Family Tour stops with Xander. Let’s keep those fingers crossed.