We've created a monster!

On Christmas, we visited with Uncle Eric's family at Nanny's house. Xander was very social. He learned a new trick: Cheers! We had him running all over the living room clinking his sippy cup up against the glass of anyone who would let him, saying "chee! chee!"

Now that we're home, he's been bugging Jessica incessantly. Poor girl is trying to go to sleep at night, with Xander insisting that she do cheers with him with their water sippies. Now he's using the toy soda bottle in the play food set he got for Christmas, trying to get Jessica to do cheers with the other toy soda bottle.

I think he'll do well at the toast for the next wedding we go to.

Update: now he's trying to do cheers with their lollypops. Will the insanity ever end?!

It's that time of year again!

Happy Birthday Alexander!

He's so cute. He kept saying what I chose to interpret as "I two, I two."

Pictures to follow.

I'm ready to go!

Xander loves to go out when everyone else goes out. Frequently only part of the family will leave the house for whatever reason. Even though he hasn't been invited or asked to go along, Xander invariably goes and gets his shoes and coat whenever someone leaves the house. Or if they're not easily accessible, he says "shoes" and "coat." He gets very mad too, if you tell him he can't go. He's perfected the pouty big-lip sad face.

The Amazing Alexander

Alexander has become a magician. His favorite (and only) trick is the magic disappearing act. He takes an item, covers it with a napkin, asks "Where is it?" then takes off the napkin to magically reveal the item.

A couple of days ago he was doing this with a tiny piece of donut. He did it, oh, 7 or 8 times, complete with the "Where did it go?" hand gesture. Then, in his zeal to pick up the napkin, he accidentally picked up the tiny piece of donut with the napkin. He was absolutely dumbfounded when he saw he had actually made the donut disappear.

* * *
2 notable word acquistions

"Salsa." For some reason, we were talking about salsa and Hari and I started saying it over and over the way Jerry and George do on Seinfeld. Then Xander said it, sort of the same way George and Jerry say it.

"Love you." I finally got the boy to tell me he loved me. Yay!

Stubborn stubborn STUBBORN

Nap time is always a trial. At least for me. Apparently Xander goes right to sleep for everyone else.

Today was no exception. We were in bed and I kept laying him down and he kept popping back up. Then Hari called, and since it was related to our power outage, I took the call. I had to go downstairs to find the list of things for him to bring with him when he comes down tomorrow. I went downstairs, and Xander followed me.

While I spent 10 minutes on the phone, Xander climbed onto the couch, sat next to me and proceeded to fall asleep sitting up. I laid him down on the couch, and he's still there. STUBBORN!

Ball

I'm not sure whose blog to put this on. Jessica thought it was funny when a little while ago she put a ball under her shirt so she could have "boobies." Xander thought it was funnier than I did, so he's currently putting the same ball under *his* shirt.

My Little Photographer

I was somewhere recently, bored, with nothing to do, so I took out my cell phone and decided to go through the pictures I've taken (I haven't figured out how to upload pictures from the phone, so I have 1 1/2 years of pictures on there). Still, I don't really take that many pictures, and I was surprised to see that there were a lot of them. I got interrupted, though before I got to see what they were all of.

Cut to...a couple of days ago. Xander was crying and I handed him the nearest thing to entertain him which was, as it frequently is, my cell phone. I noticed him pushing all sorts of buttons, activating the camera and suddenly realized he was the reason why I had so many pictures. Now I kind of can't wait to see what he's been photographing all this time.

What's in a name?

This is from the second link from the results that Google spit out when I put in "Xander" as a search parameter (the first thing was regarding Xander from Buffy, and my Xander is *not* named after him).

Xander

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xander is an uncommon given name that is often a nickname for Alexander.

People

• Xander Berkeley, American actor
• Xander Darren Lloyd Steen-Thomas, Son of Michael Steen,and Sheena Thomas

Fictional characters named Xander

• Xander Bly, a protagonist from Mystic Force Power Rangers.
• Xander Cage, the protagonist in the film xXx, starring Vin Diesel.
• Xander Crews, a character in the animated series Frisky Dingo
• Xander Drax, an antagonist in the film The Phantom, played by Treat Williams.
• Xander Harris, a character in the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Xandir P. Wifflebottom, a character in the animated series Drawn Together.
• Alexander "Xander" Xero III, protagonist from the upcoming novel X Marks the Spot by Mike Baugh

Fairly Oddparents

Is it Xander? Or Timmy Turner?






















Again, he insisted on wearing the pink hat.

Deny deny deny

Xander has reached the "no" stage. Pretty much everything you ask him, he immediately says no. Now, I primarily ask him yes or no questions because he's not up to more detailed conversation. Most recent conversation:
"Xander, do you need a diaper change?"
"No."
"Are you sure you're not poopy?"
"No."
"Can I change your diaper?"
"No."

He will also answer no to questions that are not yes or no. For example:
"What kind of cereal do you want?"
"No."

* * *

He can now ask for a book by name: "Hawo." This translates to Harold and the Purple Crayon. We have about 6 books and he loves them!

Counting

Xander is counting. Sort of. Jessica's bedtime hugs-and-kisses ritual has evolved into 5 hugs and kisses, where we each count out 5 hugs and 5 kisses, her to me and me to her. So Xander hears us count it 4 times every night. The other night he wanted to do hugs and kisses too, so I did. And he started counting "Two....fwee." That was the extent of it but it was a start.

And boy, is he cute

Xander's never been a lovey kid of kid. I tried to get him to take a pacifier. No go. Went through a slew of stuffed animals. In the last couple of months he's sort of adopted his build-a-bear animal, Dodger the dog. Now, I send a blanket with him for naptime at daycare. I've also tried to make that his special blanket, to give him comfort and again, no interest. However, tonight I took out the blanket to wash it before next week. As soon as he spotted it, he ran over, grabbed it, brought it over to an open space on the floor, threw it down, and laid right on it. I was actually going to send a different blanket next week, but I think I'll stick with that one.

What is up with this boy?

Xander is just an unpredictable little guy. First there was the bath strike. He screamed when I put him in; now he screams when I take him out. Today, it was child watch at the gym. For 9 or 10 months we suffered through separation anxiety. Only in the last few weeks has he not cried when I left the room. Today, he ran to one of the women there and held his arms out to be picked up. When I took him out of the room, he ran back to the door and tried to get back in.

I am very glad to see the end of the separation anxiety. He started daycare at the Y twice a week at the beginning of November. He cried a lot the first 2 days. He cried a little the second week. When I dropped him off this past Tuesday, not a sound. It's a lot easier to get work done without a constantly guilty conscience.

His latest skill is climbing up Jessica's bunkbed! He's been expressing interest in climbing the ladder the last few weeks, and I've been discouraging that interest. But over the weekend, he climbed up while I was in another room. Then, a little while later, he climbed down. What a monkey!

Finding Nemo

There's a scene towards the end of Finding Nemo where a bunch of pigeons try to eat Marlin and Dory, saying "Mine, mine, mine."

That's exactly what Xander sounds like these days. Right down to the inflection.

"I Saw Her Standing There"

Xander is indeed my son. He's currently dancing up a storm to the Beatles song "I Saw Her Standing There." Who can blame him? It's got a great beat.

Celebration time

It is with much excitement and happiness that I announce that Xander's bath strike is OVER! It's been a long 8 or 9 months.

Now of course he doesn't want to get out of the tub.

Monkey see, monkey do

Yesterday Xander wanted to hold his nasal aspirator/suction bulb. I let him. He put it up to his nose and attempted to squeeze it. Then he said "Ewwwwwwwww."

I wonder where he got that from? ; )

In case you didn't believe me about the jammies

Xander in thermals, sans pajamas:



Walking over to Mommy purposefully, armed with jammies:


"Hello?! Why am I not wearing these RIGHT NOW?"

How was Halloween?

Well, Xander's newest word is "pop," as in lollypop. As in "pop pop pop" all day long. So, in his mind, Halloween was pretty good.

And, per Aunt Nutan's request:

Silly baby!

Several times a week Xander closes himself into a room by pushing the door shut and being unable to open it back up. He did it just now and immediately started saying "Mommy! Mommy!"

Now he's walking around wearing one mitten and one Croc, having requested I put them on him. Why just one? Good question.

I hope I don't regret this

Xander loves Goodnight Moon. I was never a big fan of it and Jessica liked it okay. But Xander will often bring it to me to have me read it and then I have to read it several times. He doesn't do that with any other book.

When Jessica was his age, I found another book written by the same author, My World. I hated it. She loved it. I had gotten it from the library and boy was I glad when it was due and I could get rid of it.

I was on Amazon last week, looking for a few books for Xander, and I found My World. Since he *loves* Goodnight Moon so much, I decided to buy it. thinking if Jessica loved it and wasn't even that fond of Goodnight Moon then Xander would be (pardon the pun) over the moon about it.

It arrived yesterday. We read it today. He's not over the moon about it--yet--but he did really like it. It didn't seem as bad as it did when I read it to Jessica. Maybe after a hundred readings, I'll change my mind. But I'll still read it to him.

What we won't do for our children.

B words

Xander's vocabulary continues to grow but he seems to specialize in words beginning with the letter B. Recent acquisitions include bubbles and bug. We've had a fly in the house the last couple of days. For some reason, he seems convinced that he can capture it with a dish towel. Both yesterday and today, when he's spotted the fly, he'll say "bug," go and get a dish towel and try to give it to me, as if I'm going to use it to kill the fly. He's starting to get pretty upset about it, too.

I'm watching you

When we had the DiPerna family beach trip in August, Uncle Danny taught Xander the "I'm watching you" baby sign from the Meet the Fockers. I had never seen the movie, but we spent all week trying to teach it to Xander, just because it was funny. He sort of did it a few times. Then we got home and we both kind of forgot about it.

Yesterday we were waiting for Jessica to finish her martial arts class. He put his finger on his cheek, below his eye, and started pulling down. He did it a couple of times before I remembered this was what we had taught him. Then he started saying "waaa, waaaa" and I realized he was saying "Watch, watch." (You know, "I'm watching you.")

He's such a smart little fellow!

All jammies all the time

Another DiPerna trait has emerged in Xander: the jammy trait. He wants to wear his pajamas all the time. He cries when I change his clothes in the morning. When he spies his pajamas in the evening, he brings them over to me to get changed. I was doing laundry the other day and was putting a pair of dirty pajamas into the washing machine and he started screaming because he wanted me to put them on him.

He wasn't feeling well last week, and after a day of fussing, when he "asked" to wear his pajamas before dinnertime, I put them on him. It only worked for a little while before he started fussing again but it was good while it lasted.

Other times, I have put his pajamas on over his day clothes, just the arms, and then snap them shut at the top. This is sometimes an acceptable compromise for both of us.

To be honest, I wouldn't care if he wore his pajamas all day (sometimes) except it's really hard to get his shoes on!

If adults behaved like toddlers.....

We'd cry and yell about anything and everything:
-being hungry
-being tired
-being cranky
-just for the heck of it
-to see how loud we could yell

Can you imagine a group of adults sitting in their office at the end of a long day crying because they're tired and cranky? Hmm...it might be therapeutic.

Also, if we behaved like toddlers, if we were eating something we didn't like (or did like but then decided we didn't want to eat anymore), we'd just open our mouths and let whatever's in our mouth fall out. Or is that just my toddler?

For example, today Xander was eating an apple in the back seat of the car. He doesn't like to eat the skin, so when we arrived home, I found lots of bits of spit-out apple skin.

Ca

Xander has a name for his sister. "Ca." At first I thought he was saying car, but after he kept saying it a lot when there were no cars around but there was a Jessica, I realized what he meant. Earlier, he was pointing at a picture on the wall of him and his sister and saying "Ca, ca."

Don't stop now!

I've been struggling a bit with Xander at bedtime. He just doesn't want to go to sleep. The bedtime routine that works with Jessica just doesn't work with him. For example, tonight Jessica had a bath. Baths are supposed to be relaxing, good for inducing relaxation and sleep. Except when a certain little someone screams bloody murder in the bath, and has for the past SIX MONTHS. So, no bath for him. He gets the rest of the routine, diaper change (or potty for Jessica, of course), pajamas, toothbrushing, a short video, a couple of books, and then lights out.

Then, in his baby mind, the party begins. He won't settle. In the last week, I've started giving him back massages, hoping this will relax him. I limit them to before naptime and before bedtime, hoping he'll associate it with sleep. He LOVES massages. He giggles, especially when I get to the shoulder blades. But then when my hand and arm gets tired, I stop. He might start crying, or sometimes he pulls at my hand in an effort to get me started again. I'm not sure yet it's working but it's kind of funny to watch his reactions.

Strangest Thing in a Sippy Cup

Until today, the strangest beverage I've put in a sippy cup was seltzer. Which, by the way, I don't recommend, as it manages to fizz its way through the airhole. Today, at Xander's insistence, I put in V-8. And boy did he guzzle it down. I even had to refill it.

* * *

Xander continues to develop along the Vinny path. He just discovered he can reach the light switches, so it's been On-Off, On-Off, On-Off. On-Off. You get the idea. He also loves to pull the power cord out of my laptop and put it back in. Finally, this morning I discovered he also knows how to charge up my cell phone.

Xander: 1 ; Daycare: 0

It took only 5 days for Xander's first daycare experience to end in dismal failure.

Day 1: Went well what with the novelty and not realizing Mommy was leaving him there for 5 hours.

Day 2: Realized Mommy was leaving him for 5 hours, cried pitifully but allowed himself to be comforted.

Day 3: Disastrous attempt to leave him there for his nap. Stayed only 2 1/4 hours.

Day 4: Cried for most of 5 hours, except when daycare lady was holding him.

Day 5: After an hour and a half, daycare lady called to say it wasn't going to work and could I come get him.

He was so happy when Hari brought him home, as if to say, "I won. Nyah nyah nyah."

However, what he doesn't know is that I called the YWCA and put him on the wait-list for their daycare program. I'm hoping that with a bunch of kids and very experienced employees, and with a minuscule amount of daycare experience under his belt, that this will work out better.

Now the question is, will I be able to get any work done until a spot opens up for him?

Mr. OCD

I've joked to several people that Xander has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). He gets upset if a fingernail rips and starts to come off. If he gets a little bit of dirt on his fingers, he holds them up to me to clean off. I made the mistake once of letting him get a stamp on his hand after gymnastics class, and he spent the rest of the day trying to rub it off (I now get the stamps on his feet so he still gets them, but I can cover them up with socks).

Well, today clumsy Mommy knocked over the sand art Jessica made yesterday at KidsArt. We'd had it for less than 24 hours before Mommy broke it (but that's another issue). This was right before we were rushing to get Jessica off to preschool. Now it's afternoon and I haven't cleaned up the sand yet. Xander spied it on the floor, pointed it out to me kind of anxiously, then went to the drawer where we keep the dish rags, brought one over and immediately tried to clean it up with the dishrag. Sadly, it only made a bigger mess but I guess it's the effort that counts.

Chase! It's fun!

Xander likes to play Chase. When I'm the Chaser and he's the Chasee. His favorite time to play it is diaper changing time! It used to be that I could just sit on the floor with a clean diaper, call him over, and he'd come. Then he started getting wise to it, so I would hide the diaper changing paraphernalia behind me, hold open my arms and call "Kisses!" He would come over for kisses and I'd snatch up him and change his diaper.

He's way wise to that now. Now, every time he sees me on the floor with a clean diaper, he looks at me, smiles and runs as fast as he can away from me. It doesn't matter how badly he needs his diaper changed. This is obviously not a kid who's interested in potty training.

The Kevin Look

I'm a bit afraid to say this, but independently, Hari and I both noticed that Xander has what we now call The Kevin Look. When he gets mad about something, he has this way of squinting his eyes and he looks so much like his cousin Kevin. Hopefully, behaviour-wise, this will be the only similarity.

At least he's a happy child

Quick study

Today's is Xander's second day of daycare. He's being watched by a woman who lives about a half mile away. Tuesday was his first day. He did pretty well when I dropped him off. He was looking around the house, taking it all in. I didn't hear any screaming when I left the house. And the report was that he had done well, no crying and had played with Noreen's 2 year old son.

Today he remembered that I left him there for 5 hours on Tuesday. I tried to put him down. He cried. I picked him up for one last hug before leaving. He immediately stopped crying and said "Bye" to Noreen. I had to break the news to him that he wasn't leaving, I was. I handed him off to Noreen and left. I remember how a quick good-bye always worked best with Jessica. I hope it works for him.

Ummm....that doesn't work, Mom

Only 20 months old and the magic of Mommy kisses doesn't work. Xander did something to his arm today, cried a bit and said, "Owieeee," which is one of his new words. Sometimes he seems to say it for no obvious reason. Anyway, he was rubbing his arm, so I kissed it where I thought it hurt.

He looked at me.

I kissed a few more parts of his arm, thinking I had missed the part that hurt.

He looked at me again, as if to say, "That doesn't work, Mom. I need real medicine."

Jazz is overrated

As I've mentioned, Xander loves music. He dances and claps and rocks his head back and forth. It's adorable. Some day I'll download the video I have of him dancing with his little guitar. Until today the little guitar (which has no strings but plays music and animal sounds when you press various buttons) was his favourite toy. Now, it's been replaced.

By what?

Hullabaloo.

Bless you.

No, Hullabaloo.

It's a game for preschoolers made by the makers of Cranium. Very cute, fun. It has a base that shouts out instructions for players to follow (move here, move there, do a silly dance, etc). And it plays this little tune when it starts up and while it's waiting for you to complete whatever task it's told you to do.

That's the music that Xander loves. He took the game out of the box this morning and has turned the thing on and off, oh, about a hundred times, dancing to the startup music.

Now, Hari saw him playing with it, and was probably as sick of the tune as I am, and brought him upstairs to listen to jazz. He did listen, for a while. Then he came back to his old favourite, Hullabaloo.

(Hullabaloo, Hullabaloo, Hullabaloo, Hullabaloo).

This time he really did want more

We went to a barbeque yesterday at Misha's house. I had been wanting brownies and rather than have a whole batch in the house for me to eat, I decided to make some to take to the barbeque. Xander sampled a little after they came out of the oven and decided he liked them.

After eating our grilled meats, we had the brownies. Misha was holding Xander and eating a brownie and graciously shared some with him. She didn't expect to share as much as he wanted to share. Then I took him into my lap, with a brownie for us to share. I held the brownie on my napkin and broke off a small piece to give to him. He promptly helped himself to the entire brownie, minus the little crumb he left for me. His hands were too small to hold it, and he ended up holding a piece in each hand, before stuffing it into his mouth.

After he was done, he got this really happy hopeful expression on his face and signed "more?" He took it pretty well when I told him no more. He was tired and rested his head against me. I was telling someone who hadn't seen his signing about how he had "signed for more brownie." At the words "more brownie" he picked up his head and looked at me hopefully again.

The answer was still no, but I know now how much he likes brownies.

Are you sure you don't want more?

Xander doesn't like chickpeas. How do I know? He was watching me eat some in my salad today. He reached over and pulled 3 out. He would have pulled out more if I hadn't stopped him. Then he ate one. Unsurprisingly, a second later, his mouth opened and he let it fall out. But that wasn't enough. Then he used his hand to scrape it off his tongue. Still not enough: he then used a napkin to scrape yet more off his tongue. Finally, he gagged a little bit.

I don't think he'll be asking for seconds.

I'm in love

How could I not be?

Kisses!

Xander's new skill is kisses. Not the slobbery open mouth wet kisses he was doing last month, but real kisses. Although he tends to look like a fish when he puckers up and he does air kisses instead of contact kisses.

He seems to think if he starts kissing that I'll stop whatever I'm doing and pick him up and hug him, or let him do whatever he wants.

He's kind of right.

A Scary Phrase

"Pediatric cardiologist." Not as scary as pediatric oncologist, but still not something you want to take your child to.

Xander went to the pediatric cardiologist yesterday. Good news upfront: he's okay. We only went because at his last check-up the doctor thought she heard a heart murmur. I wasn't extremely worried because, as the doctor pointed out, if he had a serious heart problem, it would already have been detected. But she wanted the cardiologist to check it out.

I wasn't all that happy with listening to Hari talk about Xander's "bum ticker" for a month.

So he had a EKG and ultrasound. He definitely has a heart murmur but it's an "innocent" heart murmur. I guess that's some sort of technical term. He was pretty good at first but by the time we got to the ultrasound, he was pretty worked up, so they couldn't get a lot of good pictures. However, because it was "innocent" the doctor's response was wait till he's done with the terrible two's and come back for another ultrasound when he's 3. Since it can wait another 18 months, I feel pretty much at ease that it is no big deal.

I do feel a bit worried for the parents of the child I heard the doctor call someone over to see because it was an "interesting" case.

I knew I knew better

We had pancakes and waffles for breakfast today. Usually Jessica gets syrup and Xander doesn't. He's definitely reached the stage that he wants to have what his sister has, no matter what it is. Sure enough, as soon as I poured the syrup onto Jessica's plate he started up with "Eh eh eh" which means "I want that too." I put a tiny amount on his plate. He picked up a pancake, dipped it in syrup and sucked off the syrup. This continued until the syrup was gone. He did manage to ingest a little bit of pancake along the way.

Must remember to lock the pantry

When I don't lock the pantry (as in use the child-proof closure), Xander helps himself. Recently, he's brought me the box of ice cream cones and edible chocolate cereal straws with an urgent "eh eh eh" noise that means "I must have this NOW."

Am I too optimistic?

Xander knows the sign for potty. Per some parenting article I read, it was suggested to teach him the sign for potty while changing his diaper. The last few days, when he needs a diaper change, either because it's dirty or because it's opened up (stupid velcro closures), he signs potty. He still seems more interested in playing with his little potty rather than sitting on it, but it's a start. Right?

More vocabulary

Words:
Mama
Hi ("ha")
Bye-bye
Kitty
Ball ("ba")
vroom

Possible words, not completely confirmed:
duck
Down

Signs:
Milk
More
Cheese
Potty

I am evil baby

There's an episode of the Simpsons where Homer dances around singing "I am evil Homer, I am evil Homer." Well, I've been playing with Xander lately and singing "I am evil baby, I am evil baby." In the last few days, he's starting singing it back, the tune, anyway, "La la la la la la." Yesterday, Misha and others heard him singing it, so I have proof. Now my mission in life is to follow him around with the camera and try to get a video clip of him doing it.

Where's my nose?

Oh, there it is!

Since he's secure in his masculinity....

I present.....FAIRY BOY:


For the record, he begged me to wear the fairy wings.

Just call me Imelda

You might say Xander has a bit of a shoe fetish:

I hate this weather

Primarily because it's hot and sticky and gross. But also because it takes approximately 30 seconds for milk in a sippy to curdle. I saw an advertisement for a metal insulated sippy cup that keep liquids cool. At the time the $15 price tag seemed ridiculous. Now, not so much.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

We've reached that time:

It should be illegal

I don't know what's worse: companies that manufacture and sell white clothing for 18-month-olds or parents who buy it.

Watch out what's in the water

Things I just pulled out of the tub after the water drained:
Plastic:

• 9 (yes, 9) mini My Little Ponies
• 3 dress-up shoes
• 1 cereal bowl
• 1 snack bowl

Non plastic:

• several pieces of paper, including a band-aid wrapper
• some pieces of styrofoam

Despite having deposited all these things into the water already, Xander was running around kind of manically, frantically looking for things to toss into the tub.

Vocabulary

Xander's vocabulary is pretty limited right now. Mostly it's Mama and Uh-oh. While I was thrilled that Mama was one of his first words (and before Dada), now it's degraded into a generic word for all people. It's pretty funny to see him reaching out for Hari, saying "Mama." He also calls random strangers Mama, which is a bit upsetting. He's working on a couple of D words: Ducky, doggie and Dada. It's hard to tell exactly. And I think he's mastered Hi ("ha").

His other very cute new habit is hugging. He will hug anyone. Again, random strangers. We were at the kids gym at the Y yesterday. There was another woman with a son about his age, sitting on the floor. He walked up to her, held out his arms, and when she let him, crawled into his lap and cuddled with her a bit.

I'm hoping this means the separation and stranger anxiety are a thing of the past. This means Hari and I can actually leave him with a babysitter and go out alone. Woohoo!