Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween from Crystal, Chris and baby Xander!!!

He rolled over!!!

Yay!! We had our first roll over! It was friday evening (Oct. 24th). This is a big accomplishment for us! I was worried because Xander HATES being on his tummy! Which doesn't help for tummy time. It's been a bit of a struggle. We try to put him on his tummy on the couch with us as often as possible but he always cries after about 5-10minutes. I was worried about his neck strength but he seems to have a very strong neck and can already hold it up well when sitting. So back to the rolling over. He rolled over from back to stomach. It was kinda funny and very all of the sudden. Chris tells me to look and I realize he is balancing completely on his side. As soon as I saw it I grabbed the camera but only managed to get a few shots that don't look much like anything, but here they are...


We had a couple other fun first's this week, like playing with his first toys, enjoying music for the first time, first time watching cartoons (actually watching not just staring at the pretty colors!) and learning how to bend his legs so he slides out of any seat when I try to set him in it! I've been very busy but I will make sure to update soon! We are VERY excited for Halloween, Xander has 3, yes THREE, pumpkin costumes! Don't ask me how that happened, but needless to say he will be a pumpkin. Lots of pictures soon!

New Tricks and Old Favorites

Xander is learning faster than I can believe! He's SO smart it amazes me more and more every day! Not only has he mastered pretty much every skill he should have by the end of the 3rd Month but also all the 4th month skills! And he'll only be 3 months old tomorrow! I was reading my baby book last night in amazement as I checked off all the things he could already do. The biggest is his head and neck control. He is so strong and has been holding his head up and steady for about a month now. Also he is a big talker. He will talk and talk to you if you start a conversation with him. He has already started to make combinations of sounds like ah-goo which is a big skill to have down already! The most amazing is that he now turns in the direction of any voice, but knows my voice, Chris' voice and grandma Nancy's voice by sound and will look for us when he hears it.

He has also learned a couple new tricks. I'll try to describe them the best I can but bare with me.

First trick, Last week Xander was playing in Grandma Nancy's office by her desk. Mom called me into the room because she couldn't figure out what he was doing. He would curl up into a ball with his feet in the air and then slam them down on the ground sort-of spread eagle and make a funny thumping noise. Once mom and I discovered what he was doing we watched and laughed and encouraged him to do it again and again, and he did! It was so neat, he just kept laughing and slamming him legs on the ground and we'd laugh and he'd do it again. It was really amazing to see him do this trick. He still is performing this little trick but it's hard to get him started on it, once he gets what you want him to do he goes crazy.

Second amazing trick, Yesterday Xander had socks with grippers on the bottom of his feet. At lunch I set him in his blue chair, Mom came up to him and started playing with his feet. She asked him what was on the bottom of them and kept kissing them and showing them to him and playing with his feet. Quickly he caught on and started raising his feet in the air to show us the bottoms. We'd ask him, what's on your feet? and he'd present the bottoms in the air for us to see. He did this over and over and the more we laughed he laughed and did it again. Now I have to admit I've never really been around babies much so I'm not sure if they all do tricks like this, but I'm not thinking so. It's amazing how preceptive he is and how quickly he seems to pick up on things.

A favorite activity of Xander's is sitting on daddy's lap like a big boy. Often when I come home when the boys have been home alone I find them like this on the couch.

Aren't those the two most handsome men ever???

Old favorites, so now Xander has some well established favorites. First, his blankets. He enjoys cuddling with the small receiving blankets that we no longer use to wrap him up because he's too big. He likes to have the blanket up by his face so he can rub it against his cheek or chew on it if he chooses. He often falls asleep with it cuddled up next to his cheek. Also he has taken a clear liking to his bunny Aunt Judy sent him a few weeks ago. It small, white with purple inside the ears, says my first bunny on the tummy and rattles. This is by far his favorite thing and still the ONLY toy we have gotten him to even acknowledge. He likes it best when he has his blanket AND bunny. Blanket on one side of his face bunny on the other. He likes to chew on bunny most of all. I pick it up after he's been playing with it and it's always soaked with drool! He loves to cuddle him close and hug him too. It's really cute to watch him play with it. Yesterday he fell asleep with the bunny and the blanket on either side of him, it was SO adorable, but I didn't have the heart to take a picture and risk waking him from his nap. But here are a couple pictures of him and bunny.

Baby Manicure!

Anyone know where to get a good baby manicure? I wish! We could use one. Xander's nails are getting a bit out of control. Grandma-Nancy first tried clipping his nails a couple weeks ago, they weren't really too long at this point, she got through 2 nails before she accidently clipped the skin. It was very tramatizing for me and I've put it off since. Then last friday I woke up to discover a scratch right on Xander's adorable little nose! So I decided it was time to try to clippers again. Chris assisted and held his hand while I concentrated on trying to clip his nails. I got through one hand and two fingers of the next when I clipped him, bad! He bleed just a little but I was in tears when he started to cry. I think it may have hurt me more than him! ha ha Needless to say he was worn out and went to bed extra early friday night and consequently woke up at 4:30am Saturday. We will have to try again in a couple days because Mommy is getting scratched and I don't have the heart to put the little gloves on him he loves to chew his hands so much I don't think he'd like it very much.
A couple new pictures of Xander at the office one with Grandma Nancy, one hanging out by Mom's desk on the floor (aka his favorite place!)

Another exciting week!

Here are some fun new pictures (I also put several on his photo album for all to see!)
At the office with Mommy (wearing his balloon outfit for the balloon fiesta!)

Pumpkin Hat and Pumpkin socks for Halloween!




All dressed up in his winnie the pooh hoodie outfit!

Look at the froggie! Isn't that adorable!

We had a very eventful week last week, Xander made his first trip to a store (or any public place for that matter). Friday afternoon Grandma Nancy and Mommy really wanted to go to the fruit and veggie store to get some green chili and veggies to make green chili chicken stew (it was fabulous by the way!), but baby Xander was with us. I was very nervous since he hadn't been in a public place yet, except the doctor's office, Chris and I have managed to keep him pretty sheltered so far, thanks to my possibly irrational fear of germs and people touching him in the store, etc. But Mom convinced me it would be ok to take a quick trip to the veggie store, it's a small store by her house in the valley and not many people are usually there. Ofcourse when we arrived it was packed! More people than we've ever seen there before. The parking lot was full so I parked in the back, and as soon as I got Xander out of the car the wind picked up and sand was everywhere, including my eyes! I was very worried that he would get it in his eyes too so I quickly covered his little head with a blanket and rushed inside. Once inside I decided just to carry him around (left the car seat in the car) and he looked all around at everything. All the colors and smells, I think he was silent with amazement. It was really neat. He was (ofcourse!) perfectly behaved and didn't make a peep the entire time, he just looked around and clung to mommy's shirt. It was a pretty good experience overall.
On Saturday Daddy had to work and Mommy wanted to go grocery shopping with grandma, so Grandma Ruth and Aunt Danielle got to spend the day with Xander. I dropped him off around 12:00, his great grandma was over within a minute of our arrival, no one can resist that sweet baby boy! And he stayed all day until his bedtime at 8:00. Ofcourse around 1:30 while at the grocery store I started to miss him terribly! After heading to a couple stores and getting all the groceries put away, Chris and I decided to take a long saturday nap. It was wonderful! We haven't gotten one of those in too long. Xander did great at grandma's house but didn't get a good nap so he was cranky when he got home and we think he got a bit over stimulated because for the first time in week's he woke up in the middle of the night at 3am! Thankfully after being up so late or early, he slept in on Sunday morning.

Aren't I the cutest??

Yes I am! Xander in his new outfit at the office. 100% baby boy! Isn't he just the most handsome boy ever!


Dressed up in his warm jumper Grandma Nancy got him, isn't that the cutest?? He got to wear it for the first time yesterday, it was FINALLY cold enough! Yay!!


My first bunny! Playing with his first bunny that his Great-Aunt Judy sent him. This is his FAVORITE toy! Of course it's a bunny, just like his mommy. Aunt Judy sent this to him last week and he discovered it on the couch and has been in love with it ever since. So far this is the only toy we've gotten him to play with. He likes to eat his ears.

I just put ALOT more pictures up on his album, take a look and let us know what you think!

Peek-a-boo!!

Peek-a-boo! Xander has decided to play this new game with us! Xander has a new favorite thing, his blankets. He enjoys laying in his car seat with his blanket. He enjoys eating his blankets, and started to play peek-a-boo with his blankets now. He holds the blanket in front of his face and covers his eyes with it and squints and makes a funny face and then shows us his face again and smiles. I didn't catch a smile on camera but I caught him playing peek-a-boo with us! He did this over and over one day at the office while Grandma Nancy and Mommy took as many pictures as they could, needless to say I don't think alot of work was done that afternoon. It was probably a site to see us standing over him in his swing with our camera's trying to catch every cute look, taking picture after picture. He still tricks us with the smiles, and won't let mommy get one on camera no matter how hard she tries! (and believe me I tired ALOT this past week) He has the biggest smiles and giggles now I just want to share them with the world.

Xander also started to assert his independence this past week. He no longer let's Mommy just hold and cuddle him for no reason (unless he's tired). He likes to sit on the couch with Mommy and Daddy and talk and play or sit in his car seat with his blanket and talk to us.

Mommy is obsessively changing baby Xander's clothes as well. There are SO many absolutely adorable outfits that he still hasn't worn, and he seems to get bigger by the second! Mommy has tried dressing him different everyday, but somehow the cute outfits always get tossed aside for a nice comfy onsie. Fall is finally in the air and the weather here in New Mexico seems to be finally starting to cool down so maybe we can start getting him into some of the warmer outfits before he's too big. Mommy is considering having a bit of a fashion show before he outgrows all the cute stuff and just taking lots of pictures. I guess we'll see how it goes!