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.