Toddler Snapshot

It has been a whirlwind of to-do lists around here, so before I forget any of the most important things, I wanted to share a snapshot of my guy. 

Xavier // 3 1/2 Years

I love walking into his room in the morning to get him out of bed and seeing his big, happy smile.  

He loves meatballs, apples & peanut butter, "yo-yohrt" (yogurt), anything with ketchup, and most fruits.  He adores our little dog who he calls "Ja-poh-weeno."   When he plays the Wii, he tries to "kill dat guhl (girl)."  I will be so sad once he has perfected all the mispronounced words because right now, it is my most favorite thing ever!  He loves to play basketball with us at home, and before we play a game, he says he has to go "get my johwl-sey (jersey)."  He sleeps with about fourteen stuffed animals in his bed at night, and if I steal one to give him more space to sleep, he knows every time which one is missing.  His favorite toys are his monster trucks.  He likes to make go up the ramp to do a flip in the air, all while singing Blippi's Monster Trucks song.  

Four Things About Xavier

We are quickly approaching spring, even though we've felt like it's been spring most of the winter.  It's been unseasonably warm, and even though we appreciate not sloshing around in our snow boots, I secretly miss the snow.  Especially because Xavier likes to play in it so much!

Lately, we have been busy with Xavier's basketball and swimming classes on Saturday mornings.  We wanted something to help us get out of the house on the weekends because they just seem to get such a slow start.  Xavier loves basketball, but wasn't the biggest fan of swimming.  I think we'll sign him up for more basketball classes this spring.  

I've been busy collecting interior decorating books and trying different recipes from my blogger friends.  My favorite dishes to make are quick breads.  I made a chocolate pumpkin bread last fall, and recently experimented with some banana breads that turned out amazing!  I'm also designing some locker systems with a local carpenter so we can keep the coats and shoes from being visible from the kitchen area.

We are also thinking about summer vacation ideas.  I want to take the whole family on a summer trip since I know when Xavier starts pre-school this fall (omg!!) we will be limited on flexibility of taking vacations.  And Xavier is at such a great, independent, fun age, that it'd feel less overwhelming getting there.  I think we could now enjoy it more.  We are tossing around going to Nashville, Cincinnati, and Kelly's Island.

And a few random things about Xavier:

1.  Xavier turned 3 and a half the day after Valentine's Day.  We took his measurements on the giant ruler hanging in his room, as we do every 6 months, and he's grown a whole 2 inches since turning 3! 

2.  He is such a negotiator.  When we tell him he can have two pieces of chocolate, he immediately responds with "three" or "five".  If we tell him he has to eat three more bites of dinner, he says "two".

3.  He loves his family and hanging out at home (just like me!).  His favorite thing to do is right before bed, all of us gather on his blanket to read stories.  When Jasper comes in the room, Xavier gets so excited, he runs up and shuts the door.  He says, "We're all to-geh-vure."  It makes him so happy.

4.  He is hilarious!  He likes to do things that get a laugh, over and over again.  His new things are to roll his eyes in the back of his dad (like Papa does) while dropping his mouth at the same time.  It's so funny.  He also has a new trick where he puts a plastic coin in one hand, shows you both closed hands, and makes you pick which hand has the coin.  If you guess the right hand, he'll quickly switch the coin to the other hand and say, "Noooooooo!!"

His excitement for things (even if he doesn't understand what I'm telling him we are about to do, but still say it with an excited tone) is the best.  Whether it's his birthday, or going to grandmas, or going to the basement to play the "weed" (Wii), he always has something he looks forward to.  I love this about him!  It's (almost) always a fun and entertaining time when he's around.

Xavier is really growing up fast.  He's started requesting to hang out with friends from the babysitter's house on the weekends, which really makes him seem like such an independent, little guy.  He's making grown up decisions on who he wants to spend his free time with.  And I love carting the kids around to different places.  Seeing Xavier have so much fun with his friends is really a treat!

Morning Out with Mom

Last weekend, I took Xavier out shopping with me.  My photography homework was to take portrait shots, so I practiced on Xavier.  The shots didn't turn out too bad.

During our walk back to the car, he told me he wanted to push his baby, so I let him handle the stroller.  He stopped a few times to give his baby a toy (binoculars), some snacks, and water.  So cute!

For lunch, we went to North Star in the Short North to get the best pancakes in town.  The fill their pancakes with ricotto cheese, and there's something about their warm syrup that is to-die for.

I told him if he was good, I'd take him to see my work.  He always asks where I go during the day while he's at the babysitter, but he doesn't really understand what work is.  I pointed out that downtown, where the jail is, is where all the tall buildings are.  We stood next to my building (40 stories) and looked straight up.  He was amazed by how high it went in the air.  I took him to my floor and he loved it!  I showed him my desk too and let him see all the pictures of himself up on my wall.

But obviously, nothing beats randomly finding 3 pieces of chocolate in people's offices.  That was by far the best part.  Smart boy!

Christmas 2016

We had the most fun Christmas yet!  On Christmas Eve, the elf left us "Chwis-mas hats", as Xavier called them, and we made cinnamon swirl muffins for breakfast while wearing our hats.  Such a fun way to kick off all of the festivities!  We finished frosting some cookies for Santa and Xavier made reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn later that evening.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Xavier was excited the entire day long.  After his nap, we got him a quick bath so we could open all the presents under the tree.  I set my DSLR camera on the tripod and recorded the entire 20 minutes we opened gifts from each other and from relatives who sent gifts through the mail.  Xavier's favorites were his Paw Patrol games and doctor's kit (because he's obsessed with giving everyone a pretend shot).  He liked giving his Carebear Build-A-Bear a shot and then putting a plastic band aid on his arm.  He also loved his new monster trucks.

Every Christmas Eve, we drive around our neighborhood to look at lights.  We all piled into the car in our Christmas jammies, put some hot wassail (spiced apple cider I made in the crock pot) in to go cups, and headed out to see some lights.  Our favorite house was one in our neighborhood that had choreographed light displays that were in sync with songs on a particular radio station they had rented out.  When we pulled up, Xavier's got to see a show for his two favorite Christmas songs, Jingle Bells & Transiberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells.  We couldn't believe they played his favorites!  We went home and sprinkled reindeer food on the front steps, set out cookies and milk for Santa, and finished setting up all the presents for the next morning.  There is no sight quite like a lit tree with all of Santa's presents on Christmas Eve night!

Santa's Workshop

Xavier woke up bright and early the next morning.  We tried our hardest to keep him on the stairs while I set up my camera, but he was overwhelmed with excitement.  He exclaimed, "So many presents!  Let's open them!"  He tore through the presents and was happy he got everything that was on his list.  After he opened the last present, he opened the letter from Santa that directed him to his final present, which was hiding in the basement in his tent.  He was so excited when he saw it!!!

Opening the first present from Santa...

Finding the letter with clues to where Santa hid his final present...

He opened (dumped) his stocking and got right into the York peppermint patties and Santa nestle crunch.  After we had some breakfast, we headed out to see family and open more presents.  We spent the whole day with them and spent the next day with more family opening more presents.  We mostly enjoyed playing with the classic games, Don't Break the Ice, Lincoln Logs, and Let's Go Fishing.  These were our childhood favorites, which we haven't played in years!  And of course, we were loving the weather because it was 65 degrees!  Xavier got to ride his new Spiderman bike and other outdoor toys!

We are keeping our tree up a few more days to soak in every last minute of the season!

Our Elf on the Shelf

Meet "Reindeer" our Elf on the Shelf.  He arrived for the very first time to our home earlier this month!  Xavier thinks he's pretty cool.  We asked what he wanted to name him, and he said "Reindeer" right away!  He was super-excited about his North Pole breakfast, powdered sugar donuts, the candy canes, and most of all, the colored Christmas lights he can put in his room.

We read him the book and tried to explain how the elf works.  He is loving this thing!  He wakes up every morning, tip-toeing very slowly around the living room and kitchen, kinda hunched over & quietly, whispering "Where's the Elf?  Where'd he go?  Oooh, Cheez-Its (stops to consider opening the box, then proceeds on his hunt)....Where's he at?"

We explained to him that when he's bad, the elf won't move.  He was bad one morning, went downstairs to find him, and saw that he moved.  "Why did he move?  I was bad."  He was good at night, so we had to explain that he moved before the elf saw him act bad.  He keeps us on our toes!

Xavier always wakes up so excited to find out where the Elf moved.  Most times, he simply moves from one place to another (Xavier still gets such enjoyment from this!!), and sometimes, usually on the weekends when there's more time, he will roast marshmallows or have a snowball fight.  We even got in a good chandelier swing!  The best ones are where the elf plays with his toys.  Xavier thinks it's the funniest!!

The funniest thing happened last night when I was calling for Xavier to get in the bath:
Me:  Xavier?
*no response, he was one room over*
Me:  Xavier???!!!!!
*still no response*
Me:  Xaaaaaa-vieeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr?!

*he runs in*
X:  Owwww-iii-sssssoooonnnnnn!!!!! (Allison)

Christmas Traditions

Our town has so many Christmas events, it's hard to keep track!  We have a few traditions we inherited from each of our childhoods, and we added a few more this year.  The first weekend in December is always the biggest.  The tree lighting ceremony was a favorite, where we roasted marshmallows, made s'mores (Xavier only ate the chocolate), and took a horse-drawn carriage ride through a gorgeous part of our neighborhood.

Our town's most popular event, "Christmas in the Park", lets kids visit a Santa who knows every small detail about the kid, including best friends, favorite Christmas song, etc.  Xavier had a personalized visit with Santa and it was the greatest thing!  When he gets older, he'll enjoy it even more, and may even be shocked that Santa knows his Elf's name and Christmas traditions than only we know about.  After the visit, we took a warm bus ride (weather was too cold for the horse-drawn carriage ride through the park, fine by me!!) to the shelter house where Xavier played corn hole and made ornaments.

I feel like it's my job to make holidays as memorable as possible.  And not with presents or over the the top Pinterest projects, but to make every day things more exciting.  I can still remember making cutout sugar cookies every Christmas when I was a kid.  There's something great about having messy, flour covered counter tops, with Christmas music playing in the background.  I'm so impressed by Xavier's cookie making skills, so much improvement from last year!

We are spending lots of time in the snow, building a snowman (and throwing snowballs at and destroying with bats) and forts.  I'm already looking forward to the next snowfall.  I'm excited to make our traditional "snow cream", where the main ingredient is freshly, fallen snow.

Look at the determination!

Batting practice.

We are also planning to do "Elf Yourself", make reindeer food, and surprising Xavier with a day of ice skating (assuming he can stand up in the skates!) and hot chocolate.  I say it all the time, but seeing the holidays through the eyes of your kids is the most magical thing in the world!  It's so easy to incorporate these easy things into the day to make each day just a little more fun.


So make pancakes.  Make magic.  Make memories.

Xavier's Christmas List

On Black Friday, after Xavier scared all the girls on the mall playground with his zombie voice, we saw Santa (no line at all since everyone's scoring deals in the stores).  While we waited for our turn, I asked him what he was going to tell Santa he wanted.  He said, "a bie-sih-kle, tennis [racket], and monstohr truck".  We had been working on saying bicycle and was proud he said it right!  He asked me to listen to him a couple more times.  When it was his turn to walk up, he stood in front of Santa (didn't even site down on his lap) and said, "bicycle, tennis,...." then Santa picked him up.  After he finished, he got right off his lap and said, "Okaaaaay, bye!" and waved.  No picture, no nothin'.  And I'm making a mental note to always hit up Santa on Black Friday!

Every year, since he was a baby, we have been making a Christmas list for Xavier.  It's fun to look back on each year and see how it's changed.

While we were building our snowman, I thought it would be fun to ask more detailed questions about Christmas and save his sweet little answers for just about ever.

What is the best part about Christmas?

Pwesents!!

Where does Santa live?

In uh Chwistmas house.

What are the names of Santa's reindeer?

It's name is Elf.

What do you think Santa's favorite food is?

Cookies!!

What are you getting Daddy for Christmas?
A bicycle!! (I tell him he already has a bicycle.)  Hmm, no, I'll get him uh.... I'll get him...AIRPORT FIRETWUCK.  Yea!  I want dat!

What will Santa bring Daddy and Mommy for Christmas?
He's getting uh tie.

And what about mommy?

Uuhhh, oh shoot. It's weally cold outside.