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