More newness

He learned how to say banana today. It was banada (rhymes with Canada) at lunchtime, but by dinner was banana.

He's also on a major pepper kick. In the last couple days, he's requested and enthusiastically eaten shredded wheat with pepper and mango with pepper (and not a little - it was like pepper-crusted mango slices). I think it's mostly because he's enamored of using the pepper mill, rather than a true love of pepper. He does have a high tolerance for it, though.

He's also taken to saying ho, ho, ho in a deep voice, while mimicking my signing of the word, but it looks more like him pulling and imaginary trigger and laughing about it.

"Fast" is another favorite word. He says it in the car as it takes off, when he points to Goldilocks running away in the Three Bears book, and when he runs around the house.

Items from playgroup this morning

New word: cylinder. All the syllables are there, even.

New favorite toy: two halves of a plastic lemon that stick together with velcro. Cut apart with plastic knife. Put back together. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

The cute, it burns

How adorable are the hat, scarf, and gloves that Magalie got for Xan? His coat from last winter is riding up a bit, though, poor guy.

Language Explosion

This last week has seen a huge jump in Xander's ability and interest in mimicking us. This morning he pointed at our rug and said, "rek-da-da." I repeated it back to him a couple of times in and attempt to figure out what he was saying, and he gave me a look like, "No, stupid. Rek-da-da. REK. DA. DA. How much more clearly and slowly can I say this?" He added the sign and I finally got it. "Oh. Rectangle." He nodded, "red rekdada," then went on to show me the blue and purple ones.

At lunch he got the syllable count and intonation right for indubitably, but we haven't been able to get a repeat performance out of him.

First Salon Haircut

Sorry for the crummy pictures; I forgot my camera and had to use my phone. Xan was an awesome haircut-ee. He was completely happy to sit in the chair and play with the box of lizards and frogs they handed him.

We had prepped him that morning by letting him watch me cut Bill's hair and talking about going for a haircut later that day. Xan immediately wanted me to buzz him with the clippers, but the thought of the resulting grandparent riot prevented me from doing it, so he had to wait. The rest of the morning he kept saying cut? cut? hopefully and made little scissor motions by his head.

It came out shorter than I wanted on top and in the front, but overall it doesn't look too bad. At least it's not a mullet.

Monsters Attack Carson City!

Bargaining

I'm loving that Xan is finally to the point that you can make deals with him. Want to go outside? Ok, you have to put on your coat. Want to get up in your chair for lunch. Ok, put down bear while you eat. And he does it! Without complaint! (Usually.) It's like a miracle.

It's very useful for extorting kisses, which Xan is pretty stingy with. Up? You want up? Ok, give me a kiss. It's gotten to the point where I don't even have to say the last part. He can tell by the tone and leans in. Kisses have increased tenfold. Bill isn't so keen, though. He says I'm training him for an, uh, unsavory, not to mention illegal, profession.

THE way to have fun in Vegas

This is one of a collection of coin-operated cars at mom's local mall. Xan had a blast climbing in, out and through them. We neglected to tell him that they would move if we put money in them.

Pumpkin Face

Yoda dressed as Superman

We're back!

Sorry for the long absence. We've been visiting the fam in Nevada for pretty much all of November. It was a great trip, but now we're just three weeks away from leaving again for Christmas with non of our shopping started and haircuts to be had and naps to adjust, then adjust again when we travel, then again when we get back, and my to do list is a mile long, arrrhhh. Can you tell I'm feeling jet lagged and cranky?

Anyway, cute pictures:

oops, they will have to wait. The camera is in Bill's backpack at work. Here is an old series to tide you over.

Finally, some pictures

Toothier

I was so busy watching the bump on his lower gum where his right canine will be coming through that I didn't notice until yesterday that both his upper canines have made an appearance, so his upper gum is beating his lower gum 8 teeth to 5.

Old pic from nonnie's visit

Man, I have got to get the camera out more. Haven't taken a picture of him in weeks!

S is his favorite letter

He spots it everywhere and is always excited about it. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out where he's seen it, like the other day when is was spray painted with some other initials on the side of a trash can. He knows more than half the alphabet now, which means there are more letters he can recognize than words he can say.

Words

In answer to Jess's question in her comment on the last post, yes, Xan has a few more words he says aloud.

cock (for clock)
up (for up, help, and open. fortunately he does a different sign for each one, so I can tell what he means)
mama, dada
outside (sounds exactly like Cartman - outsiiiii)
uhoh
nuh nuh nuh (no)
I know (said with the exact intonation I was using to soothe him when he was fussy. I don't think he really know what he's saying, he's just comforting himself.)
the letters X, S, N, A, O

Mad pre-literacy skillz

Xan now shows interest in letters and numbers and points them out in books, looking to us for their names. He can reliably recognize and say X and O, both printed and signed. He often also recognizes S, and occasionally A and N, though those seem to come more when prompted.

My Little Pumpkin

At the coffeeshop with mom and nonnie

Cuteness

At the park

Apple picking at the farm

In addition to picking fruit, Bill and I brought home an apple pie that was so ridiculously delicious that we just ate three pieces. Each.

His first word is cock?

For about a week Xan has been saying k-k-k-k when he sees clocks or clock-like objects like our food scale in the kitchen. Today he started clearly saying cock and it cracks us up. He also sometimes says AHp, with just the faintest hint of a p on the end for "up" and dada for Bill, but both of those are infrequent and are often said at other times too, so it's not totally clear that's what he means by them.

It's getting hard to keep up

He used five signs today that I didn't know he knew: orange, baby, airplane, horse, and fish. Other recent signs - again (at the end of almost every book we read), train (when he sees a train or we cross the tracks near our house), banana (requested at every meal, whether we have them or not), cat, motorcycle, socks, outside, help. Today on the T he was signing about thing he saw in posters. He picked the banana out of a food poster, signed "hat" for the football helmets on players in another, and saw many balls.

Two word phrase!

Today after I thought he was done nursing and had pulled him off he signed, "Nurse please." How could I refuse him after that?

Cutie

Communication

Signs:

Shoes
Bye bye
Cheese
Eat
Water (when prompted)
Brush teeth
Bath
Sheep
Duck
Ball
Please (when prompted)
More (when prompted)
Hat
Up
Down
Where is it/where'd it go/it disappeared
Nurse/milk
Book

Body parts he'll point to:

Tongue
Teeth
Nose
Ear (for both ears and eyes)
Penis
Toes
Feet
Belly/bellybutton

Animal noises:

woof woof (kind of a deep barking mmm mmm)
moo (occasionally - an extended mmmmmmmmmmmm)
quack (caw caw, started yesterday, along with the sign for duck)

Curls

At the park

The water features in the local parks are some of the best parts of summer. Xan is crazy about them.