Baby K: November 2009

Here comes a flood of random thoughts. I apologize for grammar and run on sentences, but time is still at a premium these days.....

Xander is 1 1/2!!! I can't believe he is already 18 months old. He is 34 1/4 inches tall and 28 1/2 pounds and doing great. He is running all over the place and still into everything. He is currently working on jumping and it is so cute when he tries to get air borne, but doesn't quite make it. He is still very attached to his blanket which we call blueby. He now has to have it in the car and at the child care at the YMCA. He likes to pet it and gather it all up in his hands. It is so fascinating to watch him play with it. Some of his favorite things are balloons, bubbles, balls, books, animals and trains/cars. He is babbling all the time now. His catch phrase is teega teegle teegle. He can say a bunch of words like bubble, ball balloon (which all kind of sound the same), he likes to say cheese when someone takes his picture and is really into making elephant noises when he sees one in a book. And boy does he love books. His current favorite is Goodnight Moon. He wants to read it every night and just studies the picture of the room. He loves his sister too and even gave her a hug at preschool when we picked her up today. They play pretty well together for the most part although there are a few sharing and pushing issues still to be worked out. He loves to hug her and hold her hand. He loves to tickle his belly, in the middle of dinner he well lift up his shirt and tickle his own belly. He is pretty picky with his food these days and he is going through an anti bread and meat thing lately. He pretty much likes the complete opposite things Aisling like. His favorites foods are fruit, chicken nuggets, pasta with red sauce only, puffs and french fries. I try so hard to get him healthy foods, but half the time he won't touch it. He loves his Kindergym classes and just runs for the entire time. He is so busy and active and just loves to run around in big spaces. He is good at climbing and running so it is a perfect outlet for him.

Aisling is still loving preschool and has started staying till 1 to have lunch with the other kids on Tuesdays. She is so excited on preschool days and loves playing with all the other kids. Her best buddy at school is a little boy named Ryder. I guess they play together alot and she is always talking about him. So cute. She loves doing all the projects and playing in the sand yard and generally comes home an absolute dirty and painted mess, but I know she is having a great time. She is really growing up and mellowing out. She has become the easy one lately as she is moving out of toddlerhood while Xander runs at supersonic speed into it. She is still in tumbling class for at least another month. She has gotten much better and can flip over backwards, with help from a bolster, but does it on her own. She has gotten braver, but still gets pretty nervous on the balance beam. It is so fun to watch her in her class. Half the time she is just dancing around on her own in her little 3 year old way which is just so sweet and funny. We had our first parent conference for her and the teachers said she was fun to have in class, very independent and very enthusiastic (about everything). They are trying to help her use her words and with her overreacting with the crying thing. She is very excited for Christmas and is just beside herself when she sees any type of decoration. It is so fun to watch her be so excited.

As for other general notes about the family. We had to give Lady back to the shelter. It was very heartbreaking and sad, but she started having seizures and we just couldn't afford to keep her. It was pretty upsetting and one of the reasons we didn't want an older dog. We were told she was 4 (already past our age cutoff) only to find out she was at least 8 and doesn't seem like she was in the best shape. Ais still talks about her every so often, but isn't too upset. I think she handled better than Brian and I did. Brian painted an awesome Bass like the genie for charity through Disney. It is awesome. I started culinary school a week ago. So that's basically it... Here are some pics in no order at all.