Photoshoot

We got pictures taken at Shanghai bend. Now we just have to figure out what to order. Here's the whole set.

I hate being on hold

Trying to conduct business over the phone with a toddler competing for your attention is a pain, but now we have obtained pediatrician recommendations, switched PCP, scheduled a pediatrician consult, scheduled a 2.5 yr appointment for Xan, , scheduled two more dentist appointments, got a list of authorized technicians in our area (half of which are not in our area and won't come to Davis) and scheduled washer repair.

The dentist

Xan saw the dentist for the first time on Tuesday.

Did you like the dentist?
No.
Do you want to go back?
Yeah!
But I thought you didn't like it.
I DO like it.
What did you like about it?
I liked that toy car that I rode on.
Did you like anything else?
I liked the front shovel.
Was the dentist nice?
Nooo. (total lie - he was super nice and didn't push Xan too much to look inside his mouth. He just wanted him to feel comfortable and have a positive first visit.)

As you can tell, he loved the playroom full of toys and arcade games, but was not to keen at a stranger looking in his mouth. He let me look in while the dentist looked over my shoulder, but he just got a very brief glimpse. He said there were no big concerns, he'd call this a "non-visit" and a get to know you, wouldn't bill us, and we'd try again in six months.

Recently heard at our house

"When I am potty trained I will wear a bra like Mama and Daddy, also." (in addition to big kid underwear)

"I am going to do something funny" ... "FEFF!" *Throws back head and emits an extremely loud, forced laugh.* Made up words are the funniest thing in his universe at the moment.

Cuteness

Xan was waving goodbye, blowing kisses, and signing I love you at Grandma and Grandpa as they pulled out of the driveway today. Grandma imitated his handshape, but with the thumb tucked in. Delighted, Xan squealed, "She's signing forklift!" He laughed, then, "I don't know why she's signing forklift."

Later this afternoon, he looked very concerned and asked me, "Is baby sister friendly?"

You know your keid has way too many toys when...

He'd much prefer that you confiscate them rather than go to the trouble of taking them back to his room. The coat closet has a growing heap of toys and he doesn't seem to miss them a bit. The only thing that will upset him is if you try to take away a spatula.

Halloween

Boo

Happy Halloween! Our neighborhood continues to be friendly. This note showed up under our mailbox yesterday with some candy in a little paper pumpkin.

You've been boo-ed!!!
The air is cool, the season fall
soon boo's will come to one and all
The treat that came with this special note
Is yours to keep. Enjoy them both

The fun now comes with friends like you
Now copy this and make it two

Then other here among our friends
Will give some fun that never ends

We'll all have smiles upon our face
No one will know who boo-ed each place

Just one short day to work your fun
Or big ZAPs will strike, so go and run!

And don't forget a nifty treat,
Like something cute or something sweet.

Please join the fun, let's really hear it,
And spread some boo's and lots of spirit.

"Roll up my pants."

"My pants are rolled down. Who rolled down my pants?!"

In other news, I am sick. Sore throat, sneezy, bleh.

Xander Invention

"Em, this [his stick] is my nail blower. It blows nails away." He's seen leaf blowers and nail guns, I guess this is some combo.

Later: "Em, this [backhoe] is my backhoe blower. It blows nails away." "This is my police car blower." Does it blow away police cars? "No [duh], it blows nails away." Thought we might have a little radical on our hands for a minute there.

Xander logic

Me: "A cake with candles on it is usually for a birthday."
Him: "A cake with NO candles on it is for... NO birthday."

What is X for?

Xan hasn't hit the why stage. I think his equivalent will be "what is this for?" As in, what is this book for? What are trees for? What is poop for?

He's definitely into explanations and you can see him try to work them out and repeat them to himself. Walking down the street last week he informed me that you don't go in the street and if you get hit by a car you get back on the sidewalk. I had to explain that one again.

You can also hear him muttering rules to himself as part of his ongoing monologue: "Oh, here is a frisbee. Do you throw frisbees inside? No, mhm-mm. Frisbees are for outside."

Sometimes I'm briefly included:

"Can I climb on the furniture?"

"No"

"No, I don't climb on the furniture? Is this furniture? Is this furniture?"

Big Kid Bed

We gave Xan a choice of sleeping in his tent or his new toddler bed tonight and he chose the big bed. He went down with no fuss, giggled at being tucked in, and - at 10 min - appears to be staying there. We told him if he got up he'd have to sleep in the tent. Hopefully the desire to sleep it the big bed will be enough to keep him from roaming all over the place. We'll see how the morning goes or if he rolls out of it in the middle of the night: he's a bit of a thrasher.

Yay for poop

I think this is the first time I've felt that way. Xan sat on the potty without any outside suggestion, and then pooped in it, both firsts for him. Up to this point he has been completely uninterested in potty training and we figured we'd better not impose yet another change on him. Who knows if this will continue, but he seemed pretty proud of himself.

News

We're settling into Davis really well, having been here just over a week now. Xan has started and is loving preschool and Music Together classes.

This is such a great town for families. Saturday at the farmers' market we ran into two families we had met the week before: one from preschool and one from music.

We are busy, busy, busy working on our amazing, gorgeous new house, but hopefully I will have more updates and some pictures up soon.

We miss all of you in Massachusetts tons. I'll also try to get our new contact info out soon, but if you don't hear from me, just send me an email.

Xanderisms

When mama grows little, mama might pee in this travel potty.

The car went in reverst!

Take off the pretend foil (tin foil).

Where's Xander

"I'm hiding in the kitchen."

Watch your mouth

This morning I called Xander from another room, "C'mere, kitten britches!" (a la Skippyjon Jones). He must have found it amusing because he tried repeating it for several minutes, except he left out the kitten and can't say the br sound combination, so he ended up gleefully repeating, "C'mere, bitches!"

In other profanity related news, I'm lucky that the aunt we're staying with says "shoot" often, because it has saved me a couple of times when I've said shit and Xander spiritedly pipes up, "shoot!" I think he thinks they're the same word and I'm just saying it wrong.

Thing 2

The top image is a profile of the head and arm; the middle shows the spine; and the bottom is a crotch shot that apparently indicates 75% chance of girl in the beginning of January.

We are in escrow!

We signed the papers last night on a house we love. The inspections are already done and as soon as a few repairs are done and our loan comes through we will be moving to Davis, finally.

There are a few pictures here.

Bubbles in Grandad adn Nana's backyard

More pictures from that trip can be found here.

House hunting

We've put in offers on two houses that haven't been accepted, but in retrospect that is a good thing because I wasn't really looking forward to living in either of them. To be honest, the thought of having one of those offers accepted was kind of a downer actually.

Now there is the prospect of house I can actually get excited about it. I don't want to say too much about it since nothing is finalized yet, but here is a picture of the kind funky flower growing on a vine in the backyard. The flowers at the house are more blue than the one in the picture.

Swimming and Camping

We're staying at my aunt's house in Yuba City while we house hunt in Davis, where Bill got a faculty position. We've been spending most of our evenings in her swimming pool and recently went camping for two nights up in Little Grass Valley. Xander loved the lake, but not quite as much as he loved the dirt.

Time out chatter

(all in an anguished tone of voice)
I'm sorry.
I was wrong.
No. Nooooooo.
Mama count down.
I'm sorry for touching the dishwasher.
Can get up now.

Ride 'em, Cowboy

We spent last week in Santa Fe, where Xan rode a horse for the first time.

Our place

We're trying to find someone to take over the rest of our lease, so we finally cleaned up the apartment and took pictures. This is where we live.

We got our new camera!

I'm still learning how to use it. It has a lot more options than our old one.

Gross

Xander jokingly said "eat poop?" today and I adamantly explained that you never, ever eat poop because it will make your tummy hurt. This news seemed to really upset him and he's been talking about it ever since.

Mystery sprouts

Last week we were at Barefoot Books on earth day. I picked up this great book for Xan and also tried to get this one, but they were all out. Because it was earth day, they had potting soil and seeds for kids to plant. Xan and I planted a couple and have enjoyed watching them sprout. However, we have yet to figure out what they are, since it was hectic while we were there and I neglected to ask. I'd post a picture, but the new camera is still on the way.

Counting

Pointing to my dirty feet: "Two dirts. One." (points to my heel) "Two." (points to the ball of my foot)

Birthday Lunch

We got veggie burgers with our friend, and Bill's officemate, Jiandi. He was kind enough to bring his camera, so the blog might have pictures again for a couple days. And now to go research which camera to get, something I've been procrasting on for way too long.

Note to Xander

Dramatically throwing yourself down on the floor is slightly less dramatic when you cautiously lower yourself the last half of the way down so you don't bonk your head on the floor too hard.

To everyone else: he's started jumping! About a week and a half or two weeks ago he was able to consistently get airborne while holding on to a piece of furniture, and has been able to do it freestanding since last week. He is hilariously spazzy about it. He lands on his heels with his knees locked and often stumbles because of that. Unfortunately I can't get it on film because our camera was stolen AGAIN. So pictures will be light until I can do some research about what to get and order a new one.

Nap hater

Xan just escaped from his tent during nap time, but gave himself away by crashing around with his legos. His naps have become more difficult. If he falls asleep for even two minutes while we are out, or if he is upset when he goes down, he won't fall asleep at all.

He's also been trying procrastination techniques. Glass of water? One more book? Clean up? I usually let that last one work, because the more I can encourage him to clean up, the less I have to do. Plus cleaning up with him always feels easier than cleaning up myself.

Update: Bill said that he escaped this morning, too. Bill went to go get him because he heard knocking on Xan's bedroom door.

Respite

Since the beginning of February, every weekend Bill has been working, traveling, sick, or some combination thereof. I can power through a weekend by myself here and there, but after two and a half months, it was starting to wear on me. Last week was particularly difficult, especially given Xan's increased behavioral challenges, which I'm sure were exacerbated by my thinning patience. I spent a couple of days continuously on the verge of tears. This weekend wasn't any relief as poor Bill has come down with bronchitis as a result of his crazy schedule.

But despite all that, this is actually not a complainy post. Today was awesome. Xan played pretty much by himself in his room most of the morning, an unprecedented amount of time - it's rarely been more than 15 minutes. It was such a needed break that I was practically giddy with energy by lunch. We went for Mexican food, to the park, to the cafe for tea and boardgames, and we sailed through all of it in a great mood, meeting friendly new people at each place. We came home and he took a late, long nap while I relaxed some more, then I left him sleeping with Bill and spent an hour at another cafe reading and enjoying a muffin and a cappuccino.

Thank you, Xander. Today was exactly what I needed.

Transcript of reading video

fish. lion. dog. ladybug. butterfly.

Good job. Are you reading the book to bear? (This is what he was doing before I got the camera.)

Xan...green. red. YEL-low. kk. yellow. purple. oooo. leg. puppy. butterfly. eagle. eagle.

Eagle. Very good. That's the sign for eagle.

puppies. lion. elephant. mwhat is this? what is this?

That's a cockatoo.

cockatoo. read. read book.

Are you gonna read the book to bear?

one. ladybu. ladybug. (leg-a-bug) snake. gorilla. monkey. mhhhmm! mhm!

Yeah, I don't know why you think chimpanzees squeeze things, but I guess you do.

mhm!

Mm-hmm.

i ?? it. oh! um. ?? see that? boo (?) open boo. boo. open boo. (I think he is searching for a specific animal. possibly a bear) again? (pointing to kookaburra. "again" often means "start/continue singing/reading")

You want me to sing the kookaburra song?

no

No? Ok.

nn?

Woodpecker.

nn?

Kingfisher. Cockatoo. Uuh, crane. Wombat.

wombat it.

What?

seagulls.

Mm-hmm.

nn? nn?

Egret.

nn?

Kookaburra.

woah. woah. oh no. oh no. ??? oh oooh ooooh. ... yellow. oh woah. skateboard. skateboard. skateboard.

Yeah, that's not exactly a skateboard.

skateboard! skateboard. (pointing at the computer. this is a request to see youtube clips of skateboarders.)

Tragedy

I mixed peaches in with his cottage cheese and now his life is OVER.

Pockets!

One pocket! Two pockets!

Things to do to entertain yourself while having your diaper changed

1. Read a book, kind of like an old man reading the paper on the toilet.
2. Cross your legs at the knee. Say, "Big X!" Cross your legs at the ankle. Say, "Small X!" Repeat.
3. Play with your scrotum, preferably (to your mama) after the poop has been wiped off.
4. Twist and kick like mad.

It's too soon to say goodbye

Bill has been on the job interview circuit the past month or so and is now starting to negotiate job offers, which means we could be moving as soon as June.

Today we went to the park with friends who we don't see very often because they have moved to the suburbs. They are expecting their second child in a month so chances are slim we'll see them before then and slimmer we'll see them after in the little time we have left here. I can't believe today might have been our last time getting together and I didn't think to take any pictures! Boo, me.

We will miss you Laura and Xavier! Everyone else, hopefully we will see you a bunch more before we go. We have made many great friends here that I will be sad to say goodbye to.

Phrases currently in favor

I want it.
I'm on top! (This one seems to be going out, much to my dismay)
Have a good day.
almost fell off/over
See that? See that?!
Oh man.
delicious

Crochety

ROAR!!

At the Museum of Science

Thanks for the cool shirt, Nonnie

Longest sentence this week

"May I have more wawa please?"

He can say water, but most of the time chooses to say wawa unless we specifically ask him for a better pronunciation.

Imaginary play

We went to a make-up music class this week where the teacher had the kids throw around a invisible ball. Xan thought that was just the best and has been doing it a lot since we've gotten home.

Dressing up

More photos of these looks on Flickr.

Conjugating

Xan has been doing a lot of fall downing and lie downing.

He's weaned

Two weeks ago, as I was brushing Xan's teeth before bed, I realized that I had forgotten to nurse him that night. I didn't want to have to rebrush his teeth so I decided to try to put him down without nursing him unless he asked. He didn't say anything.

I had been thinking about weaning him for a while and about a month ago, stopped feeding him at nap time, leaving just the bedtime feeding. So I decided to continue not offering and see where that led us. My preference was to stop breastfeeding, but if Xander felt strongly about continuing, I was willing to do so for a least several more months.

The next night he asked to nurse, so we did, but he hasn't asked at bedtime since then and I'm thinking he'd pretty much done. He's mentioned it once or twice when he woke up, but took no for an answer without a fuss.

Several people have asked how I feel about it and I'm mostly happy. I'll miss the cuddling, because Xan isn't and has never been a cuddler, but I get some of that while reading and I'm good at extorting hugs and kisses. More than that, I'm relieved to be done with all that sucking, which I've found uncomfortable and unpleasant since the beginning, much to my dismay. I had very much been looking forward to breastfeeding and was disappointed and even a little ashamed that I disliked it so much. Oh well, maybe it will be different next time around. Xan did have a rather aggressive latch.

He can read!

Ok, not quite, but he'd making progress. Sorry for the blatant bragging to follow, but if you can't go on about what a genius your little schmoopy is on your blog, where can you?

One of his favorite Dr. Suess books is Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?, which has lots of different noises in it, each of which is in a bigger, colorful font that stands out from the rest of the text. For a while I've been pausing and just pointing to the sound words and Xander says those parts. I assumed he had just memorized the book and/or was taking cues from the pictures and surrounding text (He can go like a cow, Mr. Brown can ...).

Yesterday, we switched to the paper version of the book from the board book, since he's beeing gentler with books these days. The big version has all the sounds printed inside the front and back covers, with no illustrations. I didn't think he'd do more than identify the letters, but for fun I pointed to a word and asked Xan what it was. He got it right! He correctly identified moo, hoo, pop, tick, buzz, boom, and eek, with no hints or prompting, having never seen them printed by themselves before. The more complicated ones stumped him (dibble dop, cock a doodle doo, sizzle, blurp, splatt), but I was still really impressed.

Oh, and, and! He's got right and left down. Again I thought he had just memorized right hand and left hand, kind of like he had named them Max and Maya or something, but I asked him to identify body parts that I had never labeled right and left and he could correctly point to his right and left ears, cheeks, legs, etc.

My little genius show pony!

Cuteness

If we are a little late coming home for his nap so that he's fallen asleep in the stroller and is mostly asleep as I put him down, he often smiles as I zip his tent up.

Other funny mispronunciations

Taxi: tackiss
Buttonhole: butthole
Pizza: peesta
Tickle: tickee
Cold: code (kind of whispered)

And some common phrases:
Up pease (please)
1. 2. 3. (he avoids 4)
mama dada mama dada
fooood
heavy (when anything is difficult for him to pick up, regardless of weight)
oh no (everything from minor mistakes to operatic tragedy wailing "ooohhh noooo, oohhh noooooo!")

So Polite

Xan is pretty good about saying thank you when prompted, but so far he has chosen to sign it. Today he made his first attempt at a verbal thank you and it came out "fuck you."

Snow!