The ZOO!!!

Our FIRST trip to the zoo was this past Sunday. I know what you're thinking, you're first? Yes, we have not taken Xander to the zoo before. Last summer Daddy and Mommy, well mostly Daddy, decided he wasn't old enough for the zoo. Unfortunately Daddy was right this time, I'm really happy we waited until he actually knew what the animals were. He still had a hard time seeing all of them, but the one's he did he was thrilled about. Of course his favorites were the Ducks, he really does love ducks, always has. He spent a while feeding them and tried really hard to leap into the pond with them. Other favorites included the Tigers who put on a little show and gave him 4 or 5 good "ROOAARRSS!", Xander called them Lions. I think he thinks they are the same thing since they are both big cats that roar, I'm tried to explain the difference but he just yelled "Lion!" haha Oh well, he's close. At the wolf pen I had him yell, "Lobo! Where are you?" just for fun haha The Lobos didn't come out to see him though, they were asleep that afternoon. We spent alot of time watching the Elephants as well and when we got to the gift shop that's all he wanted, the GIANT $60 elephant. I found a smaller one and thankfully he was satisfied haha

I'm ok, and Easter...

The past week Xander has started putting together his first sentences. "I'm OK" being the first. I believe he learned to say this because EVERY time he falls or bumps his head I frantically ask, "Are you ok? Are you ok?" One day he just replied, "I ok." Now he says it just about everytime he falls or gets a bump to let me know, "I ok ma" haha it really is too sweet. Other intresting sentences include, "Lobo? Where are you?" for some reason he will randomly call my mom's dog's name "Lobo" out and say "Lobo! Lobo! Where are ye?" it's pretty cute, cuz the you come's out as ye. Not sure where he got that one though, mostly because he hardly sees Lobo and I know Lobo is there to greet him at the gate whenever he goes outside. Intresting to wonder where they come up with this stuff. Another fun little trick he learned this week, the FAKE sneeze. Yea we are in the store today and I hear "A..AAA..AAAHHH... AHHCHOO!" then "sneeze!" Not only does he do the fake sneeze over and over but he let's you know (in case you weren't sure) that he was sneezing. haha This kid! Passers-by were laughing SO hard.

Easter in Pictures:

The Basket

Close up
















Finding his FIRST egg

Then realizing there's always a bigger and better egg!


Yay for 3 Easter Basket's in one weekend! This kid is spoiled!

Candy! Xander learned his favorite candy is.... Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! Takes after his daddy : )

"Look mom a chocolate bunny!"

Our family on a beautiful Easter Sunday, aren't those views great? I love mom's new house!

Easter Eggs!!

Just a couple of pictures of the eggs:



I attempted to snap a couple pictures to show the astounding lack of mess that Xander had made of himself before bath time, BUT he got cranky and I didn't get one decent shot, oh well. I have been looking forward to this for weeks, but was dreading the actual execution of it. Surprisingly it was much less messy than I thought and the paint that they provided washed right off. Although I was left with slightly multi-colored hands due to blocking the splash when Xander would drop an egg in a cup of dye. He did SO well. This was a practice in patience for him because he got to drop an egg in each cup, but then we had to wait for the colors to change, then the eggs had to dry, and THEN he got to paint them. He liked dropping them in the cups the best. He giggled and clapped his hands in anticipation of putting each egg in the dye, Chris and I were cracking up, he is just too too cute! What amazed me the most with this experience was his knowledge of colors. In the past he has used the colors sparingly. So I wasn't sure if he really knew any color but green. Turns out he knows them all! Purple, Pink, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange! I was SO proud, he'd tell me "Purple!" and then dip his brush in the purple paint and proceed to paint his egg. Chris and I were so impressed, when did he get his colors down like this? This kid amazes us EVERY SINGLE DAY.... and i love it : )

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.

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.

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.

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