Whole Milk, Honey, Facing Forward and...

...other adventures with Xavier. Today is Xavier's first birthday and, yes, he now drinks whole milk (hooray! no more formula to buy!), can eat honey (theoretically, though we haven't tried it yet...), and faces forward in his car seat. The car seat thing happened this weekend during our attempt to visit the Anello grandparents in NY. We didn't actually make it because we missed our flight! We made it about 10-15 minutes from the airport when Xavier threw up in his car seat. We had to pull off the road and clean him up (we lost way too much time doing this and got back on the road during 7am traffic). Needless to say the car seat was a mess. So after cleaning it up we just faced it forward. He (and both his parents) were miserably sick the rest of the weekend and week. Now that we are all feeling better we opened a few presents and had birthday cake to celebrate the occasion. He received a box from the Anello grandparents and was very excited about the bubble wrap...the presents too, but the bubble wrap AND the box were pretty awesome. Thanks for everything!

This has been an exciting day! We've also made a video of a collection of pictures from this last year. Enjoy!

C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\My Documents\My Videos\First Year on Vimeo

Countdown Begins!

First I'll report on the teething...After a rough two nights it looks like Xavier has a new tooth. It's an upper front (right) and it feels like the other fang is about to break through any day (whatever that means). So he's up to three (in the most random order) and may have four by his first birthday next Thursday. We're so excited and already have a little celebration in the works during his visit to his grandparents in NYS this coming weekend. Can't wait!

New Activities

Xavier has a few new favorite activities (and word). He likes to sit or stand at the bottom step and yell "kitty" up to the cats. It sounds more like "ditty". The hard part about this is that it seems he is a bit of a thrill seeker and hangs on that step in a way that makes his parents very nervous. He stands too close to the edge, hangs from the bars, and tries to climb up the stairs on the outside of the staircase!

Over the weekend Xavier met a new friend. He met three year old Ela, who can eat on her own, talk and jump! He loved her. He, of course, chased her around to hug and kiss her, but he also watched her every move so that he could learn from her...This is what he learned.



C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\My Documents\My Videos\Jumping on Vimeo

In case you can't tell, he's trying to jump.

Beach, First Words and New Bath Towels

Let's see, where to start? I'll take first words for 100.

There has been ongoing "discussion" in our home on how to call the first word. According to D, the word must be uttered very clearly AND there must be (this is key) abundant evidence of comprehension. By abundant, I mean not one, two or even three times will suffice for this man. Even after four incidents, he is still not fully convinced. I think it's because he is so touched. Xavier's first word is Daddy...yes, meeting all the above criteria. I was convinced it was "mira" (look), but Daniel said that X pointing to everything and saying something that sort of sounded like mira does not count (no evidence of comprehension, according to him). Fine. Xavier now points to his dad when asked "where's daddy?" and will also say "da'y" or "dedy" when pointing to him. This has now happened four or more times...so I've decided to call it. There.

New Bath Towels...A gift from our cousins in California and totally adorable.

Beach Time in Michigan...



Beach on Vimeo

AND I'm working on a new dance video.