Tuesday Night Dinner

After eating his own dinner (Annie's mac and cheese and broccoli), Xavier decides to have some of his papi's dinner (more mac and cheese and salad). Here he is after a mouthful...

He also decided to help when papi was drying the salad in the salad spinner.

Then he had to watch when he realized how fast it spun.

Then there was his little food dance...the dance he does when he loves what he is eating. It is usually a twisting motion.

Tia Lala's Homework

While my sister was visiting, I asked her to take some pictures of Xavier. She is such a good little sister. She took many and has sent me some to share on the blog. This wasn't easy since Xavier insisted on fighting with her almost the entire time she was here. She didn't help with her experiment to see if he was developing different emotions. Mainly anger and jealousy...and he has. He gets angry when she hugs his abuela and says "she's mine". He was mostly a happy baby last week, though.

His uncle Joey (and papi) have been trying to get him to learn to kick a soccer ball...

Here he is pointing, probably showing Lala the door...that IS in the general direction of the door...Just kidding, Lala, he loves you!

Discovered he needs a haircut...desperately!

He is beginning to show a lot of different emotion and now gets excited for certain things: when he thinks he is going outside, when he sees someone he likes a lot, when he is eating a favorite or new food.

Sleeping with his booty in the air. Good job, Lala! Don't worry about the video, I'll try to get a clip of some solo steps.

These Pedipeds were Made for Walking...

And that is just what Xavier is doing! We bought Xavier pedipeds, which are recommended for walking, because they are lightweight and flexible. But we didn't expect this to happen so soon...didn't even believe it when my mom and sister/tia Lala (who is visiting from VT) told me so earlier this week. But today I saw him take 2-3 steps at a time without holding on to anything! Then he falls and tries again.

I haven't wanted to put any new video on the blog because it always starts playing as soon as you get on, but I will have to capture these first steps on film while they still look like his first steps.

Father's Day Update

In the last couple of weeks we have seen new developments, but it's hard to say when exactly they began or were mastered. I guess since we see him all the time we can't really tell, but others can tell more easily or we will all of sudden notice that he is doing something new or looks more stable on his feet. Here he is sipping some grape juice. New favorite foods include mac and cheese!

Cruising - Has improved tremendously! He has been walking along furniture for a bit but always looked like he was about to fall down...or did actually fall down. Now we notice that he does it with so much less stumbling and tries it while holding on to almost anything...your hand, the gates, a wall, whatever. Still prefers crawling though.

Xavier is also now pointing! At what we don't know. It's kind of like waving, sometimes he seems to do it for no apparent reason and other times he looks like he is doing it on purpose. His favorite thing to point at? The cats! When we point to the cats they touch their noses to our finger and now they do that with him as well - well only Kiko does it. He thinks it is sooo funny.

He is also "talking" up a storm and singing. New "words"? Papa, mama, nana. Not that he knows what he is saying. He understands no, we think. When he can't have his way, he gets angry and says..."nananananana"...."No" could actually soon be his first word! I'm not convinced he totally understands what he is saying at this point. It is so hard to keep a straight face when he does this...it is really funny. Yes, it is a little tantrum and we shouldn't laugh, I know.

This weekend we also noticed that when he is standing, he will crouch down to a squatting position (sometimes to pick something up) and then stand up unassisted! Daniel says he is doing squats and it does look like that.

Mexico Wins (3-1)!!

The end of last week and this weekend have been a little tough on Xavier. It started with a fever on Wednesday night that lasted until about Friday. It has been especially hard for him at night. This weekend he is generally grumpy. He was ok when we went to Ribfest on the Northside with Gabi and Tsubasa yesterday afternoon. He even wanted to try some ribs...he voted on his favorite place. Now he seems better as well. Who knows? Maybe we'll finally start seeing teeth in this mouth? Below are some pictures of Xavier happily having a cookie after a nap, while watching the World Cup (Mexico v. Iran).



In the end he just stuffed the whole thing in his mouth...
Here he is working on a chocolate we got from München, Deutschland...Danke to the Szlezaks!
The chocolate is all gone and the shirt you sent for Daniel is being worn during the World Cup.

We also got new pictures of the extremely adorable Alaina, who is 5 months old! We are going to have to fly again to see this cutie pie! Hopefully this summer?? We'll keep her mom posted. Make room on your front porch for us!

9 Months!

Today Xavier is 9 months old! He had his 9 month doctors appointment this morning after eating his cheerios. He now weighs 19lbs 9oz and measures 28 1/2 inches.


Today is also a special day for Xavier's dad. He just took his last exam and has officially finished his first year at the GSB. Today is also his birthday, so Happy Birthday to papi! We also need to wish tia Lala a belated happy birthday which was last week!

As an aside, a few people have asked if the last video was on double speed and sorry for abuela but it wasn't.