So far so good

With Toddler class. Xander fit right in with the new class like he'd been their for years. Ms. Becky said that he hung back a little bit during transition of activities to observe the other kids and then follow suit. He resisted nap time a little bit, but once he fell asleep he took a really good nap.

He managed drop off really well which was a nice surprise. We made sure to drop him off exactly at breakfast time because food is the best distraction during daddy departure.

I think I can tell that he is already finding the new class much more stimulating. On the way home today, he was talking up a storm. Later, at home, he was playing with his toys in new different ways that he had never played with them before. He must have learned a thing or two from the other toddlers. Let's just hope he only learns the good stuff.

Planned and unplanned outdoor fun

The weather was finally reasonable for the first day this summer so we went to the park this morning. Xander was quite brave and went down the tunnel slide. It was more of a crawl down that a slide down though. I thought he looked a bit likes James Bond in this picture.


Then, this afternoon, Xander was really insistent about going in the backyard. So, we went out there to explore. while out in the yard, I figured that I might as well water the rose bush. This turned into a fun time with mud and the water hose.

Shopping

Race car shopping carts are SO cool:



Xander was helpful putting away the groceries. He put one of the frozen items into the freezer and then shut the door for me. He needed a little extra help because the door was a bit stuff. Once I gave it a little nudge to get the momentum going, he was able to get it closed all by himself.

Some old iPhone phones

I cleaned off Dolphin's iPhone, which had some older fun photos of Xander:


In this first one, he and I are playing "swords" with some make-your-own popsicle stick holders.


Daddy took Xander to the park for a picnic one day. They had lunch inside of an old tracker tire.


Xander throws a fit in Barnes and Noble by the _Twilight_ display. We told him he was too young to be "Emo" yet. Just kidding, he threw the fit because we wouldn't let him play with the _Twilight_ posters.

Toddler room

We met with Ms. Becky, Xander's new toddler room teacher, on Friday. She seems very nice. We learned all about how things operate differently in the toddler room than in the infant room.

First, they follow a schedule in the toddler room. The routine of a schedule is comforting to many kids. Eating, napping, and playtimes are at the same time every day. This is ok because Xander is already used to a pretty regular schedule.

Second, eating is a little different. In the toddler room, they focus on learning how to use utensils and drinking out of a regular cup. Milk comes in a regular cup and water comes in a sippy cup. We practiced the cup drinking with Xander this weekend and he's surprisingly decent at it. Although occasionally, he still spills it all over himself.

Third, they have a new outside play area with sand and a playset. They get to play in the morning here as long as it is not raining. It looks like it should be tons of fun for Xander since he is currently into climbing. They also have an indoor plan room with things to climb on for the afternoon. The afternoon is too hot here to play outside.

Fourth, they change diapers standing up. This isn't going to be all that new for Xander because I have already been doing that. I gave up on fighting to lay him down to change a diaper. Xander 1, Mommy 0. They also have a little bathroom in the room in case there is some miraculous little learning potty training kid that wants to sit or try the potty. They don't really do training in the toddler room.

Fifth, they have dancing time and storybook time everyday. These are two of Xander's favorite things so I am sure he will enjoy these times.


We also had some time to do a little review of Xander's progress with his previous infant teacher Ms. Ashley. She told us that Xander was a little bit advanced in walking (9.5months), drinking out of a cup, and taking regular naps. She told us that we are probably going to have a rough time with the transition to the new room, because Xander is very attached to his current teachers. I am not surprised by this at all. He definite his a great example of separation anxiety. We also got to review Xander's record book, which the school keeps for him. It had some of the art projects that he worked...so cute!

Xander - Year 0

I have a pdf version of the book exported at low quality if anyone is interested (the high quality export is 130Mb!). This one is still pretty hefty at 23Mb. I was very happy with the final product. I read way too many complaints about the quality online, but they had much better software that anyone else I found, and their prices are very reasonable. The high quality paper has a really nice feel to it. The print quality is better than our amateur photo quality in most cases, so until Amy or I go pro, I think blurb is a great choice.

A word of warning: I did not edit the content (besides removing a few spam comments) punctuation, grammar and spelling were all left as is.

I'm a published author!

Thanks to Dolphin, I'm now a published author. Furthermore, so are all of you who have made comments on this blog. For my up coming birthday, Dolphin created a beautiful hard cover book from the DNA's Digital Diary Blog with the help of Blurb.com. He reduced Xander's first year down to 160 pages, and there was some editing to get it down to that size.

It's a wonderful memento. I can't wait to share it with Xander's prom date some day.
It's a beautiful book, full of great pictures of our little guy along with all the journal entries that I have been entering. It took him a lot of work. In fact, so much work that I was starting to get annoyed how much time he was spending on the computer lately. I didn't know that he was working on this wonderful surprise.

I guess this sets a pretty high standard though. I'm going to have to be as diligent about this blog when our next little one comes a long. It wouldn't be fair to have such a wonderful recording of just one of our kid's lives.

Moving up

Xander's moving up from the infant room to the toddler room at school. His teachers have been gradually introducing him to the new room and playground. Today, he got to check out a teeter totter and a slide. That is WAY more fun that the toys in the infant room. Apparently, he and his friend, Celeste, both threw a fit when they were pulled off the teeter totter.

I'm so excited for Xander. It's going to be much more interesting for him to be around other toddlers instead of boring old infants. Hopefully, he learn a thing or two from his older classmates.

Dolphin did learn a few things about the new classroom today. Apparently, they are on a little more strict schedule in the toddler room. We have a meeting with his new teachers tomorrow to learn all the details.

Taking after Mommy?

Xander enjoyed checking out my treadmill last night. He was so excited about the noise it made when he walked around on it. He also tried hanging from the bar at the front. We didn't turn it on. I think that would be too dangerous.

Our dog Copper likes the treadmill, too. When I run on it, she will stare at me the whole time. When I finally stop, she jumps gets all excited and licks me. Who knew a piece of gym equipment would be entertainment for the whole family.

Yuck!

While taking a bath tonight, Xander tried to drink from the cup we use to rinse him with. I told him "yuck" and made a face. He said "yuck" back and laughed. We went back and forth saying "yuck" as he purposely raised the cup to his mouth.

Clean up duty

Now I know why there are scratch marks all over the table. Copper is caught in the act of Xander cleanup. Bad Girl! Maybe she learned this from cousin Zeus (bassett hound).

Singing

Dolphin noticed Xander singing along with the radio this weekend in the car. His singing sounds like "aye-aye-aye-aye-aye" and is totally off pitch and rhythm, but he's trying.

Last night, Xander even tried to sing along with me. We have this book of "playtime" songs. It has some really detailed folk art in it along with lyrics to nursery rhymes. I sang "Mary had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". He did his little singing write a long with me. I think he really enjoyed it because this morning before work he brought the book to me again so we could sing some more.

The Long Walk

I have been working with Xander to try to get him to walk on his own a bit more (he isn't getting any lighter). In the mornings when I drop him off at day care I try to get him to walk with me inside. I've never gotten much further than a few feet, and he usually just plops down on his butt, or follows after me crying (and falling). This morning however he surprised me by not crying at all when I put him down on the ground. He even walked part way with me while I held his hand. It was slow going, but he actually walked all the way inside without me having to carry him. He sat down a couple times, but I got him going again. We got almost to the door to his room before he saw one of his caregivers and at that point I think he realized that I was going to be leaving soon, and he starting doing his usual crying and walking.

Finally, a minion to do my bidding...

Muhahaha! OK, I'm joking, but I am impressed that I was about to get Xander to follow my instruction this weekend. I asked him to go across the room and bring me one of his shoes that was lying on the floor. Much to my surprise, he actually did it. Now, I need to introduce him to the vacuum cleaner.

He definitely is understanding more of what we say. A couple of other examples from this weekend:
- I came out from the shower into the living room. Xander came up to me and I asked him if he finished his milk. I pretty much expected Daddy to answer for him. However, Xander went across the room and got his empty sippy cup and brought it over to me.
- He has figured out how to turn the power off on Dolphin's desktop computer. We were sitting in the room with the computer, playing with a toy. I said to Xander "isn't this much more fun than trying to push the button on the computer?" He immediately went over to the computer and hit the power switch. Oops, right in the middle of Daddy using it.

Hopefully, we'll get Xander to listen to what we say a little more...haha, yeah right.

Boo...water restrictions

Our city has finally hit the level where we have water restrictions. So, I was going to take Xander out in the kiddie pool to play with the sprinkler. However, we are now restricted to water outside on certain days and times at night. So, the effort to protect our drinking water supply, no water fun outside.

Fortunately, Xander had a good time playing in the dry pool inside. Plus, I didn't have to put any sunscreen on...there's definitely similarities between trying to sunscreen a toddler and "catching a greased pig."

Xander and I also did a little rain dance. I hope it works.

Favorite Books

I think Xander has a few favorite books right now. These are two that he kind of likes enough to sit still through most of the book. The first is _Doggies_ by Sandra Boynton. I think he likes this one because of all the different doggy sounds. This was a book that came from Grandma Carla and Grandpa Tom.

The second book is _Baby Happy Baby Sad_ by Leslie Patricelli. I think he likes this one because I really get into it when I read it to him. Each page is either a happy smiling baby doing something or a crying sad baby. "Yay! Happy Baby..." or "Boo, poor sad baby..." Also, the pictures are very simple with like one other object besides the baby. I just learned that there are more books by this author so I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

Another book that he likes, is called _Flip a Shape:Yum_. This is really more of a toy that book. It has wholes for the different shapes that he can grab on to. As you flip the shapes, it looks like different food. For example, a circle turns into an apple or pizza. A square turns into cheese or PB&J.

Mo' dis and mo' that

A while ago, I think I mentioned that Xander knows the sign for more. He now does the combo "mo" word along with the sign. So, he'll climb in my lap and pat my chest and do his little "mo" for more nursing. Sometimes, he'll run to fridge and do it, which means "mo" cheese curds. I think next step is to teach him that "mo" can apply to non-food things like tickles and hugs.

Another thing that he is pretty good at doing is waving "bye-bye" for people that he actually wants to leave. He has yet to do bye bye to me. I'll probably cry the day he does. However, as soon as I pick him up at school, he starts waving his little hand. Also, when we are leaving the house sometimes, he does it, too. I guess he is saying bye-bye to the dogs? They don't wave back unfortunately.

Dangers of couscous

Tonight, Xander had his first surf and turf dinner. Mommy had Chilean sea bass (surf) and daddy had ribeye (turf), both which Daddy grilled. Xander had a little of both. For sides, we had peas and couscous. Boy, does couscous make a huge mess when spilled all over the place. It was very effective in getting Xander to eat his peas though. I agree...peas are much more yummy than couscous. Thankfully, we had Copper and Peanut to help clean up the couscous.

Poor little Xander

My little boy was feeling pretty bad last night. He has been battling an intestinal virus, which gave me a pretty ouchy diaper rash in just a few hours. Today, he stayed at home with me and I tried to mend his delicate derrier with aquafor, warm showers, and air. He's doing much better this afternoon. I hope we're past the worst of it.

Riding

Cousin Trevor taught Xander how to get onto and off of his dump truck.

Sometimes he gets on backwards.

So far, he has only managed to push himself around backwards with his feet. He did really liked to get pushed around by his cousin though.

Street Fighter IV

We had a nice visit this weekend from Chris, Laura, Chase, Trevor, Zach, Hanna, Sidney, and Zeus. Dolphin set up his homemade arcade controller so they could play Streetfighter 4 on the big screen. I have to admit that it was really fun to play. I even won once. Xander played once. He also liked walking up to the big screen and patting it.

After some home video games, we headed out to Gattiland on Sunday. Xander loved all the blinking lights and sounds. We had a good time, but it was tiring chasing after Xander for 2 hours. One of those kid leashes was starting to sound really appealing.

[ed Dolphin: had to correct the title from Streetfighter 4]

Job interview

One of the other parents at Xander's day care saw him in this outfit. She asked Xander if he was going on a job interview. He had on cute little brown leather shoes also. He did look quite professional.

One-year wellness visit

Wow...Xander is such a tall boy. He measured 31" (80th percentile), 22.7lbs (50th percentile) and a head circumference of 46.4 (55th percentile). So, he has definitely outgrown his old car seat, which had a maximum of 30" and 30lbs.

We talked to the doctor about possible allergic reactions. She suggested that we wait a while and try nuts later just because those can be the strongest reactions. She said we should keep some benadryl around and read labels to make sure there were not products made with peanuts. That seems reasonable. I also need to layoff the PB until Xander is weaned...boo!

As far as cow's milk goes, she thinks it is probably not a milk allergy and said we should try milk for about a week. If after a week, it is causing problems, we can talk about soy milk. So, we're trying cow's milk again.

She was generally pleased with everything that he could do skill wise, and he was in good shape. He received three shots including the chicken pox vaccine. I'm so jealous. I wish that there would have been a vaccine for chicken pox when I was a kid. Lucky, lucky boy!

Some things I've learned in the first year of parenting

10. Giving birth is not nearly as scary as one would expect after watching TLC shows.

9. Nursing is natural and wonderful, but not necessarily easy to learn.

8. I can actually be nurturing. After all those years of being cold-hearted, who knew!

7. Pets do NOT prepare you for parenting...even needy pets!

6. Brown eyes plus brown eyes equals green-grey eyes?

5. Tylenol infant drops are worthless cherry flavored liquid. Motrin is the only thing that really works.

4. Probiotics are amazing.

3. Apparently, I prioritize convenience over the environment. I phailed at cloth diapers.

2. Egalitarian, my a$$. Maybe over the long run, but the first year was definitely mommy slanted.

1. Life is so much better after I traded in vanity for loving my little boy.

0. Any sacrifices are worth it for my sweetest boy in the world.

Tunnel fun

Today, Xander received even MORE birthday presents. Shelby and Dave brought over Rudy's for lunch and some fun birthday gifts. Xander loved the Rudy's creamed corn and sausage. He also loved the electronic caterpillar. Our neighbor's also brought over some fun toys for Xander as well including a boat with blocks and an electronic musical book.



Later in the day, Xander and I played in his tunnel a bit as the dragon (yellow dog Copper) tried to get us. Dolphin would say "where's mommy" whereupon Copper would go nuts trying to get to me. Xander fit in the tunnels much better than I did, but I did manage to make it through.

Birthday Toys

This first one is from mommy and daddy. It's a serious of fold up rooms and tunnels that connect together. Xander's already ventured through it a few times,. It is nice that it folds up into a small little bag.

Dolphin seems to have found another use...perhaps a Halloween costume.


In this next picture, you see a mouse and keyboard from G-Jo. We plugged the mouse in and it lights up...way cool! The puzzle is from Grandma and Grandpa T. Xander likes to point at the all the animals as I saw the names. Sometimes, he tries to say the animals, too.


Xander also got a cool dress play pirate doll, books, a shape puzzle, crayon holders and big paper to draw on, money, and a cool toy that comes with a hammer (watch out, Copper & Peanut!). He opened all his presents in his birthday suit...why not? He really wasn't as in to the paper as as we thought he would be. It might be because he has already been there, done that with packages that mommy and daddy have received in the mail.

12 tooth

Xander's 12th tooth, and 4th molar is coming in. He was in such a poor mood today, whiny, whiny, whiny. All he wanted was to nurse and be held by mommy...oh, and occasionally bite mommy while nursing...ugh. Anyhow, the teething gel worked for like 15 minutes as do teether toys. I think we're just going to have to suffer another day or two of this. Then, hopefully, he will back to his normal chipper self.

He did have fun today playing with some of his birthday presents. He also wore a new shirt that he received from G-Jo. I think it is pretty funny. She found this at Think Geek....I love that store.

FRONT


BACK

Happy Birthday, Xander!

Strange potty behavior

The past two days, Xander has had some strange behavior. After his bath, he kind of plays around in the bath tub for a while and doesn't want to get out. Then, while he is in a squatting position, he does a #2. Besides being really eww, I am wondering if this is just a timing thing or something else. I don't think he is ready for potty training, but if he keeps doing this, I might try sitting him on a potty or something..."capture the behavior" if you will. I don't exactly want him to associate the tub as THE place to go. I suppose that I should be happy that he is doing it in the correct room of the house.

MORE!

Xander appropriately used the sign for "more" today. We were sitting in the living room and he noticed a little plastic container of yogurt bites. These are one of his favorite treats. He will eat them even if he is not hungry for anything else. He signed more to me and then I gave him one. He was so happy that it worked. We've been practicing more for a LONG time so I was so excited to see him use it finally.

One thing I wonder about is if he knows the general meaning of "more". It's one thing to know that "more" applies to food, but does he know that "more" can be used generally. That still remains to be seen.

He's also previously used the sign for milk, but I realized that he was using kind of for the wrong thing. At day care, they always give the older kids solids first then a bottle. The older kids sign for when they want the bottle and they get to leave the table to drink it. Xander associated the sign with leaving the table instead of the bottle. So, he used to always sign milk to me when he wanted out of the high-chair.

So, anyhow, he's not an English scholar yet, but my little boy is definitely communicating more and it is SO exciting!

New car seat

Xander's testing out his new, big boy car seat! Doesn't he look so grown up! Next, he'll be driving. BTW, he absolutely loves sitting in the front seat and playing with the turn signal and windshield wipers.

Possible reaction to cow's milk

Xander got his second introduction of cow's milk today at school mixed with his usual breast milk. By the time that I picked him up, I noticed a red rash around his neck. Two weeks ago, a sub teacher accidentally gave him straight whole milk one day. That day, he had an even worse rash on his neck. I think it might be an allergic reaction. I'm going to have to check with his doctor next week.

He's been fine with cow's milk cheese of which he eats some almost every day. He's also been fine with whipped cream and milk-based forumla. So, hopefully, this is just a mild thing.

Sneaky, sneaky

This little boy just found some of his birthday presents. I guess I didn't put them up quite high enough! He tried to unwrap one of them. Not yet, buddy!

He did enjoy riding around the wrapping paper tube like a horse. It was really cute. He also tried to use the paper tube to get to stuff that he normally cannot reach...smart boy!

Utensil Mania

Xander is totally into utensils this week. He likes to have a utensil in his hand even if he isn't using it. In fact, he threw a fit at a restaurant last night until he could hold my fork and eat off my plate. (He liked the salad BTW.)

He also practiced eating with a spoon this afternoon. He had pulled a plastic spoon and a small lid out of the kitchen. He sat scooping some air into his mouth. He flipped the spoon over in his mouth just like he does when he uses it to eat.

Birthday Shopping

We went shopping for Xander's birthday present today...with Xander. I think it will still be a surprise for him. Anyhow, while Dolphin was paying, Xander and I checked out some things at the front of the store. There was this little tricycle that he tried pushing around. It was SO tiny. Then, I sat him in this firetruck in the front. I didn't have quarters to turn it on, but it was still fun.

BTW, we ended up getting Xander this fold up fort set. It is made up of tunnels and rooms that he can crawl in. I hope he likes it.