Hump Day Randoms

Over the weekend, Xavier got a taste of "life beyond the gates" when we opened the back door to see what would happen.  He stared at the step that leads to the back porch for a bit before he crawled down it.  He took it like a champ and crawled down the back walk, onto the driveway, all the way down our driveway, when I finally noticed from inside the house what he was doing.  Steve was watching him the whole time, but wanted to see how far he'd go.  Then Xavier crawled out into the street and up our neighbor's driveway!  It was all safe because Steve was right behind him and our street isn't busy at all.  I only wish I had taken a picture!  Just picture a mini-sized person crawling in the street, moving just a few inches at a time, guiding Dad around the neighborhood.  Haha!

Tonight, we let Xavier paint his pumpkin, toddler-proof style, of course.  Read: no paint got on him, Period.  First, I let him put pieces of painter's tape on the pumpkin.  He picked out his colors, I squirted a few drops into a gallon-sized freezer bag, dropped in the pumpkin, and let Xavier swirl it around.  No mess and a festive pumpkin!

Baby toes!!!

After Xavier went to bed, we made chocolate-chip cookies out of cake mix.  They turned out to be mammoth-sized and totally run into each other.  Guess that's what you get when you make cookies out of cake mix!  But it didn't disrupt the taste, they were to die for!

A quick Xavier update - He is obsessed with closing doors, greets me with a "Hiiiii" when I pick him up at the babysitter, and says the color blue, or "Boo."  He likes to build things with his builders blocks, take the magnets on and off the fridge, and put his blocks in the dog's water dish.  I'm just waiting for him to figure out how to dump that water on his head!  When he's done with his dinner, he throws his next bite on the floor, eyeing us the entire time.  He's bad and he knows it:)  He likes to put things in boxes/containers, close the lid, then take them back out.  

We don't watch much TV, but when I turn Baby Einstein on the YouTube, he's entranced by it.  His favorites are Baby Neptune Discovery Water and Van Gogh's World of Colors.  Purple is my most favorite classical song ever!

We've surpassed some milestones this week that are worth mentioning.  First, after 14 months of life, Xavier has finally outgrown his baby tub.  We just can't stuff him in it anymore and with all the standing up in it he wants to do, it's getting to be too dangerous.  I know you must be thinking, he's still in that thing?!  Yes, we cram him in it every night because he likes the water high on up on his belly, and frankly, it's just easier manage!!  

We also packed away all his bottles.  Ah, so much more free space on the countertops!  Although, we are feeling a little nostalgic since the things we've been using every day since he was born are no longer around.  It's very weird to no longer have these things around.  We've started going through his toys, packing away what he doesn't use anymore.  He's growing up so fast!

A note on calcium - I know some parents really struggle with kids meeting calcium requirements.  When Xavier turned one, his pediatrician told us he needed to be getting no less than 12 ounces of milk a day.  At lunch, he took a couple ounces and at night, we rocked him to sleep with a 9 ounce bottle of warm milk.  But, lately, he's been refusing the bottle at bedtime, which left me panicked.  He doesn't really chug milk during the day so we had to supplement with high-calcium foods.  I asked around and the best tip I got was to feed Xavier the Yotoddler Organic Yogurt.  It's made with whole milk = high calcium content.  There are lots of tips out there, but we found this to be the quickest fix for supplementing food.

If calcium is still a problem, as a last resort our babysitter adds a scoop of instant breakfast to the sippy cups.  It gives the milk a sweet taste, has nutritional value, and kids love it.  After a while, add less and less to the cups to wean them off it.  Xavier hasn't needed this yet, but I thought it was a great tip for the short-term.  I also recommend trying different sippys.  Our sitter did this and found one that Xavier likes to use and hence, is now chugging milk during the day!

The weekend is so close I can smell it.  I'm thinking we need to find Xavier an indoor pool.  With the cool summer we had, we didn't get much pool time and Steve didn't get to show off his perfect cannon balls!