Arizona, 1st haircut & Elmo!

This past week Xander, Grandma Nancy and I took Xander's first road trip ever to Aunt Sami's house in Mesa, Arizona! A short 6 1/2 hour drive. We left Wednesday around 4:30 and Xander slept most of the way. It was such a beautiful drive, and on the way home Xander say several Chugga, Chugga, Choo Choo Trains! Ha ha I have gotten Xander into Trains lately, he LOVES them! It all started by neccessity, when Thomas the Train would come on tv Xander would get bored and cry so I would pick him up and say, "Look Trains! Chugga, Chugga, Choo! Choo!" and bounce him up and down, eventually he caught on and now everytime it comes on he gets oh so excited! I think he was really thrilled to see a real train, and it got me thinking maybe we should take him on a trip this fall to see a real train up close! I think he'd really love that.


Aunt Sami, "uncle" Kevin, Xander and I

So getting back to our trip, it was wonderful to see Aunt Sami and who we now like to call "uncle" kevin! Their new house was great, Xander really enjoyed crawling around a new place and opening all their cabinets! haha The dogs were a bit scared of Xander at first, probably because he chased after them excitedly, but they warmed up by the end of the weekend.

Also Xander got his first haircut! Don't worry I saved those first sweet locks of golden curls! Since Aunt Sami is a cosmotologist, we have been holding out so she could give him his first haircut. It turned out great after we distracted him with fruit snacks! haha She also did a fabulous job on my hair and mom's too, I have to mention! Aunt Sami also took all of us to see her work at Runway magazine, Xander enjoyed crawling around the offices picking up everything little thing off the floor and trying to eat it! lol The joys of motherhood!

Xander has learned alot of new words lately, he seems to be just picking up new words left and right! The cutest new word is Elmo! He likes elmo and I got him a book in AZ with elmo and when I showed it to him and said, "elmo" he repeated it and pointed to elmo right away! He says it alot now, it's very cute! He also is saying book alot. He loves his books and I even caught him pretending to read to the dog yesterday! It was absolutely adorable! He was going on and on in his gibberish and showing the pictures to Bailey, very cute!

Getting Bigger by the minute!

Xander will be walking anyday now. As you can see he loves to walk and run using the walker toy mommy and daddy got him for his birthday. He walks along the walls, the furniture, anything. He has ventured out and taken a step or two independently in between furniture, but is still too nervous to do it on his own. We've almost tricked him into taking steps a few times, but he catches on quick and will sit down in defiance ha ha


Walking Like Daddy






Xander had his 1 year well-baby check-up last week, 5 shots in total! It was torture! He is now 29inches long and weighs 18lbs. 10oz. He is still on the smaller side as far as weight goes due to his constant activity, the doctor said that was perfectly normal for a baby as crazy active as Xander. He is no longer anemic, but far from it actually! I stopped giving him supplements about a month ago when we beefed up on the grown up food. Looks like all those extra vitamins and minerals helped! The doctor also had me fill out a 6 page sheet on different development steps, Xander has completed every single one except walking on his own. The doctor was very impressed and even more impressed by the long list of words he could already say. She said that he was perfect in every way! (I already knew that though!)



Xander has learned alot of more advanced skills lately, like pushing the small button on this light up toy to make it turn on and flash! He likes to push buttons, stack cups, put animals and toys in his big wagon and cart them around, he now can throw a ball like a base ball (pretty impressive I think), he enjoys dumping out a box of raisins and pick them all up and putting them away,
and he is now learning to recoginize the words for several of his toys and foods, for example bird, whale, peach, plum, banana, he can bring each one to me when I ask for it and he can even give them all hugs when I ask too! It's super cute! The amazing things he can do!


But in the end he's still my sweet baby boy!

1st Birthday and so much more!

So it's been a while but we've been BUSY! Xander and I had a fabulous 2 weeks of swim class and by the end we discovered he has no problem being dunked or going under water, also he's a bit of a natural swimmer, the only little one in swim class that instinctively kicked his legs and moved his arms (sort of a doggy paddle) but it was amazing! That two weeks wore us out!
Then it was time to prepare the the BIG birthday! Mommy went on a cleaning and organizing frenzy but it all was done in time and the party was a success! I made Xander a "classic" winnie the pooh cake, my first attempt at cake decorating, but I think it was a success!


The Party was a winnie the pooh 1st birthday theme! I made lots of yummy finger foods that Xander would like to eat and Xander had so much fun playing with all of his cousins!








I also made a simple cake for Xander's actual birthday, it was just Chris, Xander and I, but we wanted to sing him happy birthday on his real birthday...






Xander got lots and lots of amazing gifts for his birthday and he really enjoyed ripping the paper this time! He got a new car seat (yay!), TONS of books!, toys, clothes, diapers and more than we could ever have asked for! We are so so thankful! And with the gift cards I was given I was able to go out and purchase the final Extra-Large Size baby gate we so desperately needed for our little escape artist!








As of the past couple weeks Xander's eating habits have really started to change. I transitioned him over to whole milk a couple weeks ago, which he seems to like just the same as formula. He still refuses to take milk out of anything but a bottle, but he will drink juice or water out of a sippy cup, go figure? So my goal right now is getting rid of that bottle but it looks like it will take some time and a lot of patience. Also Xander has all but started to reject his baby food! He now believes he should eat whatever we are eating. If I have a sandwich I end up losing half my bread to him! His favorites include: shreeded cheese, blue berries, any type of fruit really he can chew it all now from strawberries to watermelon and he loves it all, bread or toast, chicken, hamburger, speghetti, he can eat it all now. Which is very fun but frustrating that I can't just whip out some oatmeal in the morning or other easy baby food.

We've had tons of milestones and Xander has learned SO many new tricks in the past couple weeks, I'll try to list them all...
He has learned to clap and high five, He learned to click his tongue on the roof of his mouth to make a noise, He can paly ball (push it back to you when you push it to him over and over), He will walk around the house pushing his wagon or the new walking toy I got him for his b-day, He is getting ALOT of practice walking but still is nervous to take off on his own. Xander learned to use a Kazoo (we got them for his b-day and he learned to use this noise maker quick!), Xander also learned to push buttons, on toys, his little flash light, etc., he's finally got that hand-eye coordination down!

Summer Time Fun!

Xander's 1st 4th of July! He was too little to stay up for fireworks this year, but mom and dad watched them on tv, and talked about what future 4th of July's would be like...




Xander started swim class with me this week and we are having a ball! We go every day for a half and hour. It's TON of fun! It's nice to get out in the water and sun and let Xander splash and kick or just float. He is already kicking and moving his arms at the same time like a pro, very impressive! lol And he doesn't mind getting water in his face at all!

















Also two awesome accomplishments this week, Xander learned how to dance! His first song was Billie Jean by Micheal Jackson, it was the day after he had passed away and I was dancing around the living room with Xander and when I set him on the ground he continued to bob up and down and back and forth till the song was over! He's been dancing ever since, and will even start to bounce up and down when a jingle comes on a commercial, it's very cute!
Xander also learned how to brush his hair this week. Which is just a funny cute little trick more than anything, but it's really adorable to watch him do it!

Hugs!

Xander's adorable new trick is giving hugs! I'm not sure where he picked this up, I think it's from watching us hug each other, the dog and showing him to hug stuffed his animals, but I never really showed him. He started with the dog, he'll crawl up to Bailey pet him gently with his hand (so cute!) and then lay his little head down on him and goo! It's SO sweet! I wish I could get a picture, but Xander tends to chase after the camera once I pull it out. He also gives US hugs! He'll lay his head on your shoulder, wraps his little arms around you and hugs tight, it's the BEST feeling in the world when they finally hug you back! The cutest has started the past couple days he has started hugging his stuffed animals! It's just about the most adorable thing you ever saw, he'll grab a bunny hold it up next to his face and hug him tight, or he'll lay it on the ground and lay his head down on it, the entire time he just coos and goos and it's SOOO sweet!

So... Here a couple fun pics I found on my office camera, a couple a few months old...

Sitting at mommy's desk


With Grandma... working hard! haha


Playing with Grandma's work boots in her office...


Boppy Pillow fun!


Another cute one with Grandma!

Just for fun!

Xander's likes to climb into his toy boxes to play with his toys, I'll look over and he'll be doing a head stand into it and then he'll play for a while throw a couple toys out and then do an head stand and flop out of it! I haven't been quick enough to get a picture of him climbing in or out but here's a few cute one's (when I started taking pictures he climbed out and chased after me with the camera lol)






And here's a couple cute one's from Xander's Great Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

Love this one: Xander and Daddy


Our Little Family : )

The Countdown is on!

Till Xander's 1st Birthday!!! I can't believe my baby boy will be 1 Year Old soon!

I bought the pan for his birthday cake on Ebay last night, It's winnie the pooh holding the #1, here's a picture:


Let's keep our fingers crossed I can pull it off! It will be my first try at a cake like this, any tips?? The theme is going to Classic Winnie the Pooh Book Party, light greens, blues and browns, and everyone has to bring a book for Xander's library (my trick to get Xander more books which he really needs, baby books are expensive!). I've found invitations but they're a bit pricey so I'm looking into other options. I'll show them off once I order them!