Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Outside!
Is where we've been every afternoon this week. Xander is helping me prepare the area for my garden. He LOVES to play in the dirt. He need a serious bath after this one, I've never seen this kid covered in so much dirt! But he loved it, and I got alot done, so I guess I can't complain.
Friday, March 19, 2010
1-2-3!
It's official he can count! It all started about a week ago. First he told me one, two, three. I assumed this was just a fluke, until later that day. He held up his hand in front of his face during a diaper change and counted each finger and folded it down as he did, one... two... three... four... five! I couldn't believe it! Does this mean he's been listening to me all along?haha Since we have been practicing counting just about everything. He can consistently count to 3 and sometimes to 5, although occasionally when he gets to 4 he starts over at one, which is kinda cute.
The weather was beautiful the last two days so we took advantage and headed to the park. Xander LOVES the park. I just wish this whole "mine" phase would end and quickly! Who taught this kid mine? Yesterday when he FINALLY let me take him off the swing and another girl got on it, he ran back to the swing and yelled "MINE!!" Thankfully he moved on quickly, but I was worried. I spent a lot of the day yesterday explaining to him why EVERY toy in the park was not his. As well as the trash people had left on the ground. Yea trash! Someone nicely left an old dairy queen cup and spoon the sand. Xander thought it was destiny! haha He yelled "spoon, cup!" at the top of his lungs and ran for it. I barely scooped him up in time and had to explain that it was trash. I think he's starting to get the "trash" concept so that helped.
Notice the ball, Xander refused to swing or climb with out it, he loves his ball. I'd say about 1/2 the time we don't leave the house without at least one ball.
Xander discovered the pure joy in shoveling dirt into a bucket over and over, he spent a good half and hour filling and emptying this bucket. Until the kid it belonged to discovered Xander was playing with it. He ran over yelled it was his and I gave it back, what could I do? Xander screamed. The kid's grandma noticed what happened, apologized and brought it back, but I figured it was a sign that it was time to leave. I just wish the older kids would be nicer. He didn't want to play with the bucket he just didn't want Xander using it, which made me feel bad because I have no idea how to explain that to my toddler. Oh well, I guess I gotta get a thicker skin, it's hard not to baby and shelter them, but not everyone in life is nice.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Ohhh nooo!!!
"Oh nooooo!" Xander's favorite phrase this past week, it's too cute, but getting a tad repetitive. At first he would only say it when he dropped or spilled something, now it has become his go-to phrase. ALL day it's, "Ooohhh Noooo!" he says it long and drawn out like that usually.
One of Xander's favorite animals is a horse, or neigh as he calls them. We decided we'd try to find him a small real looking toy horse. We took him to Target and found a rack full of life-like small plastic toy animals. We decided to let him pick out his own, immediately he grabbed the horse and said, "mine!" Yeah "mine" is one of his new words this week too. I was hoping we had time before everything became "mine". I will say usually though if he tries to take something that's not his and says, "mine" I just correct him and he'll give it back, usually. Anyways, back to Target, I went through all the animals, Giraffe, Bear, Elephant, turns out he's a pretty picky kid. He settled on a Horse, a Lion and a Dog (not one that looks like our dog Bailey he didn't like that one, he got a golden retriever). They are currentely his FAVORITE toys. All the sudden I'll hear him in the other room... "ROOAARRR!!! ROOAARRR!!"and when I walk in he's holding his lion and roaring with all his might. It's pretty adorable. The cutest is if I ask him, "Who's my little lion?" he will throw his head back and give me a huge "ROAR!" (above is a picture of him playing with his animals)
Meet "Monkey" and "Sea", Xander's bedtime buddies, well now they are his best buddies really. When we stopped swaddling Xander I decided the only way to get him to continue to sleep all night long was to create a routine. Every night we have a set routine and because of this routine he sleeps all night every night at least 12 hours straight, rarely do we have a hiccup. Here's the routine: after dinner we brush teeth, next we change to his jammies, than he and daddy count to three (he has gotten two and three down but still won't do one) and turn off the light. Then we lay him in bed with his blue fluffy blanket folded as a pillow, his "B" or favorite blankie as his blanket, and then a second blanket over his feet. On one side his light up seahorse that plays music and the other monkey. Finally we lay him down, turn off the light, start his bunny music box, we say night night and he says night night, it's too cute. And that's it. He's out! Now let me say it was NOT always this easy at first, but we stuck to this routine. We've been doing this since he was 6 months old and too big for his swaddle. For the first 6 months maybe longer he would cry for at least 10 minutes before finally going to sleep. But now we rarely hear a peep out of him. Lately Monkey and Sea have become much more than bedtime pals. We are NOT allowed to leave his bedroom in the morning with out them or the house for that matter. Now every morning when we head to Grandma's office we have to make sure we have all of his toys, usually my purse is filled with elmo, cookie monster, at least 2 toy cars, his favorite toy dinosaur, a sippy cup, blankie thrown over my shoulder sea horse and monkey in my arms. Thankfully Xander can now walk himself to the garage door!
Lastly I got Xander a couple new books this week, just small ones. One with Dora, one with Thomas the Train, one with Dino's, and one with a bunch of farm animals. When I got home I gave them to him and snapped the below photos. He was SO excited and kept flipping through each one, pointing things he knew out. He couldn't decide what to read first and he was just SO excited. I think he might believe they are a set, because he never reads just one, he always has all four, kinda funny.
One of Xander's favorite animals is a horse, or neigh as he calls them. We decided we'd try to find him a small real looking toy horse. We took him to Target and found a rack full of life-like small plastic toy animals. We decided to let him pick out his own, immediately he grabbed the horse and said, "mine!" Yeah "mine" is one of his new words this week too. I was hoping we had time before everything became "mine". I will say usually though if he tries to take something that's not his and says, "mine" I just correct him and he'll give it back, usually. Anyways, back to Target, I went through all the animals, Giraffe, Bear, Elephant, turns out he's a pretty picky kid. He settled on a Horse, a Lion and a Dog (not one that looks like our dog Bailey he didn't like that one, he got a golden retriever). They are currentely his FAVORITE toys. All the sudden I'll hear him in the other room... "ROOAARRR!!! ROOAARRR!!"and when I walk in he's holding his lion and roaring with all his might. It's pretty adorable. The cutest is if I ask him, "Who's my little lion?" he will throw his head back and give me a huge "ROAR!" (above is a picture of him playing with his animals)
Meet "Monkey" and "Sea", Xander's bedtime buddies, well now they are his best buddies really. When we stopped swaddling Xander I decided the only way to get him to continue to sleep all night long was to create a routine. Every night we have a set routine and because of this routine he sleeps all night every night at least 12 hours straight, rarely do we have a hiccup. Here's the routine: after dinner we brush teeth, next we change to his jammies, than he and daddy count to three (he has gotten two and three down but still won't do one) and turn off the light. Then we lay him in bed with his blue fluffy blanket folded as a pillow, his "B" or favorite blankie as his blanket, and then a second blanket over his feet. On one side his light up seahorse that plays music and the other monkey. Finally we lay him down, turn off the light, start his bunny music box, we say night night and he says night night, it's too cute. And that's it. He's out! Now let me say it was NOT always this easy at first, but we stuck to this routine. We've been doing this since he was 6 months old and too big for his swaddle. For the first 6 months maybe longer he would cry for at least 10 minutes before finally going to sleep. But now we rarely hear a peep out of him. Lately Monkey and Sea have become much more than bedtime pals. We are NOT allowed to leave his bedroom in the morning with out them or the house for that matter. Now every morning when we head to Grandma's office we have to make sure we have all of his toys, usually my purse is filled with elmo, cookie monster, at least 2 toy cars, his favorite toy dinosaur, a sippy cup, blankie thrown over my shoulder sea horse and monkey in my arms. Thankfully Xander can now walk himself to the garage door!
Lastly I got Xander a couple new books this week, just small ones. One with Dora, one with Thomas the Train, one with Dino's, and one with a bunch of farm animals. When I got home I gave them to him and snapped the below photos. He was SO excited and kept flipping through each one, pointing things he knew out. He couldn't decide what to read first and he was just SO excited. I think he might believe they are a set, because he never reads just one, he always has all four, kinda funny.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
My Food Blogs have Moved...
Hi Everyone!
If you haven't noticed all of my food blogs are gone. Well they didn't disappear, just relocated. I decided I really want to keep this Blog dedicated to Xander and our family adventures. I really hope to one day print it all out for him so he has an amazing story of his life. But I do love to cook and talk about food more than just about anything, so I decided I should just start a Food Blog. It's called Inspirational Ingredients I hope all of you will read it and enjoy!
I'll also put a link to it on the top right of this blog. I'm still in the process of setting it all up but I've moved all my recipes over already. Please read and let me know what you think : )
Crystal
If you haven't noticed all of my food blogs are gone. Well they didn't disappear, just relocated. I decided I really want to keep this Blog dedicated to Xander and our family adventures. I really hope to one day print it all out for him so he has an amazing story of his life. But I do love to cook and talk about food more than just about anything, so I decided I should just start a Food Blog. It's called Inspirational Ingredients I hope all of you will read it and enjoy!
I'll also put a link to it on the top right of this blog. I'm still in the process of setting it all up but I've moved all my recipes over already. Please read and let me know what you think : )
Crystal
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