Toddler Tales

Xavier is talking in complete sentences, with quite a few funny mispronunciations here and there.  And he loves people, always says and waves "Hi" to new people he meets, check out clerks, baristas, and whenever someone rings our doorbell.  I've never caught myself thinking he's growing up too quickly and always looked forward to the next stage of his independence.  But I think it hit me this month, when I was trying to hold him in my arms like I did when he was a baby (only now his main goal is to escape me), that I realized he is growing up so fast!

Earlier this week, I dropped off Xavier at the babysitter's house, and one of the other kids apparently hit him, because Xavier shouted back to the kid, "No hit!"  They took each other's toys and I left for work.  Later that morning, I got this picture of the two (Xavier on the left):

There are plenty of embarrassing moments for parents when kids start talking.  Earlier this week, we went out to eat and there was a man sitting in the booth directly across the aisle from us that was a bit older and had an impressive, white beard.  Xavier looked over at him, looked back at us, his eyes got big, then he points to the man, and shouts out, "SANTA!!"  He did this a few more times, quieter, but he was convinced it was Santa.

Sometimes you don't want to admit when your kid is exactly like you, like the other day, Xavier was playing with his trucks and lined them all up in a row.  They looked so neat and organized, just how I like things to be.  Then Xavier came running to me and proudly said, "Mommy, lo-o-ok!  I did it!"  We let Xavier take the picture.

I occasionally yell at our dog, Jasper, for making a mess on the carpet.  But Xavier does it much more politely.  When he saw what Jasper had done, he went over to him and said, "Ba-ter, no poo on a ah-pet.  Poo outside.  No Ba-ter.  *Points finger and says forcefully* NO DANK YOU!"

And there are times new words are introduced and mispronounced in such a cute way.  I introduced syrup to him this morning for waffle dipping.  He asked for more "eer-pop".

Xavier absolutely LIVES for a "dance pahty".  These started at the babysitter's house and we've started doing them every night after dinner.  He makes us play Shake It Off (his favorite), Shut Up and Dance with Me, Whip Nae Nae, and Uptown Funk to name a few.  He just learned how to do the robot and it is just adorable!  He's game for any music videos that have a beat and some kind of dance moves he can imitate.

And a little update on Xavier's schedule:  Xavier will be two and a half next month, he wakes up at 7:00 and is still sleeping in his crib. He has a pillow, which he will lay on when we put him down, but he never falls asleep using it.  He takes a two-hour nap right after lunch, around 1:00.  His bedtime is now between 8:30 and 9:00.  We went through a rough patch where it was difficult getting Xavier to stay focused during dinner time, but luckily that has passed.  He eats pretty well during the day.  Most of the time, he doesn't need snacks before bed, but we usually give him a bowl of Cheerios to eat in the "bih bed" (our bed) while we read him stories.

Fall Recap

We've been so busying with selling our house, moving to an apartment while we found the perfect house to buy, finally buying a house, and now unpacking/starting home projects.  Xavier has grown so much since my last post.  Mainly, he's forming more sentences, playing independently (finally!!), and pretending/make believe.

At 2 years and 3 months, here's a few things he has done lately that are so adorable:

1.  He wakes up every morning requesting either a "ih-a-men woll", "wa-full", or "pancake"!

2.  For a snack, he likes to eat Cheerios and share them with me.  He will put a pile of Cheerios on the couch first for me (so polite!), then a pile for himself.  When he sees my pile getting low, he will say, "Want more?", divvy out more for me and say, "Here you go, Mommy."  His little voice is so sweet and high-pitched, I don't ever want it to change!

3.  When I tell him I love him and go in for a kiss, he pushes me away and says, "No thank you".  He's so polite about it!

4.  After playing with his toys, before moving on to something else, he says, "Clean up!  Clean up!  Clean up!" and runs around the room, putting his toys away as fast as he can.  The first time he did this, it was so hilarious because we didn't know what he was doing (babysitter taught him).  It's fun to watch him put in to practice at home the things he learns elsewhere.

5.  Last week, Xavier was getting in to a little trouble, playing with things he wasn't supposed to and not listening.  Steve was on the verge of putting him in time out.  Well then, Xavier managed to squeeze himself in between the chair and end table, looked up at both of us, and said, "Hey Guys" in the sweetest, matter of fact, little voice I've ever heard.  Xavier never got a time out that night ;)

We just wrapped up Thanksgiving and I didn't put out a single holiday decoration.  And the neighbors on our street put up Christmas lights last weekend, thanks for rubbing in how far behind I am!  Hopefully, for Christmas, I find the energy to put up at least Xavier's Christmas tree, and FIND MY FLAT IRON!

Cheers!

More Birthday Fun

On the day of Xavier's 2nd birthday, we made pancakes with sprinkles mixed in, went to Chuck E. Cheese, took a bike ride to get ice cream, spent lots of time outside.  Some presents we got him were a new lift-the-flap book, a talking Elmo doll, and new shoes.  We also got him a KidKraft play kitchen, but with the hassle of selling our house, we haven't gotten around to putting it together.  Someday :)

Xavier has been putting together lots of words and forming sentences these days, which is nothing short of amazing.  Some of my favorites are "Aw May!" (translates to "Aw Man!) when he drops something, "open the door", "put shoe on", "ew, bug", "waffle in my mouth", and for fun we taught him "O-A" (translates to O-H) to which we reply "I-O".

Xavier has become increasingly enthusiastic about reading books, lately!  So much, that he will actually stay put on my lap for a solid 10 minutes before bedtime!  He used to wake up wanting to  watch YouTube videos while we get ready, but now, he wants books.  He likes interactive books - touching, feeling, or rhyming that he can imitate.  Some favorites:

Pout-Pout Fish (Deborah Dieson) - rhyming

Pat the Bunny (Dorothy Kundhart) - touch and feel

Dear Zoo (Rod Campbell) - lift the flap book

Where Is Baby's Belly Button (Karen Katz) - lift the flap book

My First Things That Go (Let's Get Moving) - great visuals he recognizes

P is for Potty (Random House) - Elmo AND lift the flap book, A Little Boy's Dream!

Xavier's 2nd Birthday

So hard to believe our sweet baby boy turned TWO!  We had the best time celebrating with family and a few of his little buddies as well.  We kept asking him the week leading up to his birthday, "how old are you?!" and he's say "two!" and proudly hold out his hand, all five fingers spread out.  The sweetest thing!

We celebrated the Birthday Boy with a pizza party at the babysitter's house.  We had Pizza Hut delivered to the house the Friday before.  We got off work early and took the kids Funfetti cupcakes with sprinkles I made the night before, balloons, and juice boxes.  Not to self, when bringing balloons to a kid's party, make sure there are enough for every kid to have at least one!  Luckily, I brought extras and frantically blew up a few to keep the whining under control!  I thought about making little goody bags for the kids, but decided to keep it a little more simple.  Xavier had a blast!  And, given the amount of work and energy we put into the 1st birthday party, I wasn't ready to have another big party just yet!  I think having it at the babysitter's worked out great for everyone.

After the kids party, we took Xavier to the festival in our town so he could play on the playground and, for the first time, experience jumping in a bounce house.

My family threw Xavier a little party at their house.  We grilled out, picked pumpkins from the garden, opened presents, and ate cake, ice cream, and went out for frozen custard, all in one day!  Xavier loved all of his presents!  He's at the age where he gets really excited to see what's underneath the wrapping paper and it's so entertaining to watch!  Some highlights included a remote-controlled car, a kaleidoscope, hand puppets, and stickers.

I may have teared up a little singing Happy Birthday, he was just too sweet looking at his birthday candles and blowing them out!

23 Month Update

Things are crazy at our house right now.  We are doing a whole house clean and reorganization to make the best use of the space we have.  I wrote this post a few weeks ago and totally forgot to post it.  As I read through it, Xavier has changed so much in the past 3 weeks, I can't believe it!  His vocabulary has increased immensely, he is saying four word sentences, and knows nursery rhymes better than me (haha!).  But, here's what our guy was like at 23 months!

Age:  23 months, the last time we will refer to our guy in months!

Favorite Foods:  pasta, chicken, meatballs, broccoli, yogurt, applesauce, string cheese, green beans, Nilla wafers, waffles, Nutri-Grain bars

Favorite Words: 

Animals and animal sounds, love you, uh-oh, bye-bye c-ya, hello (to every single person/stranger we pass!), hello doggy, “we gih eh go?” (are we getting ready to go?), “na?” (snack), okay, “nee mah uh-oh” (I need my uh-oh, which is his pacifier), “eh poo” (I poo).  And his new favorite word is truck.  He just learned how to make the “k” sound!  He’s putting sentences together now, making it so much easier to understand what he needs.  He can say a ton of words, but understands even more.

Favorite Books: 

All Of Baby’s Nose to Toes – We read this every night before bed.  He loves to follow along and point out his body parts!  After reading it the fifth time in a row to him, I have to take it away :(

Bubbles, Bubbles – I caught him reading this one the other day, saying “Bubble, bubble eh ma noe” (on my nose).

Dear Zoo, My Big Truck Book, and King Bidgoods in the Bathtub

Favorite Songs: 

Wheels on the Bus, The Finger Family, Beethoven’s 3rd, Mvmt 4 (Eroica), Itsy Bitsy Spider, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Johnny Whoops, Five Little Ducks

His favorite shows on YouTube are Sesame Street, Mother Goose Club, Baby Einstein, and Little Baby Bum.  He doesn’t like to sit and just watch TV, which makes these shows a great choice at this age.  He sings along, names the objects, and does the moves!

The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

Want to Want Me by Jason Derulo

Favorite Activities: 

Where to begin!  This little guy is enthusiastic about everything!  He loves to play fetch with the dog, stroller rides, jump off objects up to 2 feet high (while mama cringes everytime!), play on the playground, eat lunch outside, point out all modes of transportation, swing on the tree swing, throw mulch and big rocks, read books, run through the splash pad, swim in his puddle jumper, and cuddle to name a few!

He likes helping in the kitchen by placing all the pots and pans, as well as all contents in drawers, neatly on the floor.  When I tell him to go put his shoes on, he stops whatever he’s doing and runs to his shoes and socks and puts them on top of his feet. 

Washing and drying his hands, he especially likes stepping up on the stool!

Signature Moves: 

This guy is quite the little organizer.  The other day, we were getting ready to hop in the car but he wouldn’t get in the car until we put the trash can back in its spot.  Another time, Steve was putting him in his crib and he reached out and pointed to the changing pad and wouldn’t go in the crib until Steve picked it up.

When I tell Xavier it’s time to change his diaper, lately, he walks right over to me, lays on the floor, and kicks up his feet.  I hope this lasts!!

He also teases us with his food.  We crack up at this!

Giving us hugs.

Throwing balls, coloring, sidewalk chalk scribbles with his LEFT hand. :)

Xavier's Play Table Makeover

We bought the Ikea Latt table and chairs from Amazon since Ikea is a 2 hour drive from us.  We painted it and added a roll of paper underneath to make it extra functional.  This was such an easy and cheap DIY project and we are so happy with the results!

Here's a quick how-to:
The table comes unfinished so we added some white spray paint we had in the basement for touch up trim work.  We used the glossy finish for easy wiping.  The paint was applied after putting the pieces together, but if you aren't using spray paint, I highly recommend painting/staining before assembling.  We used two coats of spray paint.

Steve added a dow rod to the bottom of the table, width-wise, using a couple dow rod hooks we found at Home Depot.  The roll of white drawing paper is from Michael's.  

At some point, we plan to put a piece of chalkboard paper (which I saw at Michael's) on top of the table so Xavier has the option to draw with chalk. I think we will wait until Xavier understands that we don't eat the chalk!

We cut some pieces of trim and placed them on the tops of the table so Xavier could easily pull the paper through and it would stay in place.  Shim were placed between the trim piece and the table to create a small space of the paper.  I recommend using thick shims because it's kind of a pain feeding paper through the small thickness we allowed for the paper to feed through.

There are tons of options for adding flair to this project!  I've seen scrapbook paper cut and affixed to the tops of the chair seats with double sided tape.  You can also get fancy with the painting.  Just google it!

I hope this inspires you to get creative with your kids' play table!  This one is so cheap, durable, and easy to put together, I highly recommend it!

2nd Birthday Wishlist

Our little man’s SECOND birthday is coming up next month.  I can’t believe how time is flying!  We are planning a special birthday party at the babysitter’s house, complete with a delivered pizza lunch, juice boxes, cupcakes, balloons, and goodie bags.  He’s got real friends now!!  So rather than having a party for our adult friends, we decided to focus more on him this year.  We will, of course, celebrate with him on the day of by throwing him a special family party of our own!

We have a few gift ideas in mind.  Since he loves helping us in the kitchen, he's getting this KidKraft vintage play kitchen.  We will lend him some of our pots/pans/spatulas, but also like this toaster and this toy Keurig.  He loves planes and cars, so he's getting this Cars sticker book and this book about planes.  We also got him several new pairs of jammies, including Steve's favorite, these with the monkeys.  He'll also get some new bath paints for the tub.

The things Xavier picks up on at this age always amaze us.  On our walks around the neighborhood, he routinely waves and shouts out "Hello!" to everyone we pass.  Then he will say "Bye, love you!" just like how Steve and I talk!  He is very sociable and active on the playground.  He especially enjoys sliding down twisty slides and stopping at the bottom so he can jump off.  He likes swinging from the bar that's above the slides.  He just hangs, tucks his knees to his chest, and swings.  We never knew at this age he could hold his own weight.  And if there's a group of kids playing, it isn't long before Xavier is right in the middle of the group, playing along too, even if they are middle-school-aged!

See more favorites here!