Opinions Needed: Children on leashes...

We were given one of these in a gift basket before Xavier was born. Back then, I would have never thought I would use it. I thought people who put their child on a leash were crazy. And now I have an active, rambunctious toddler who does not like to stay in a stroller for extended periods of time. And we are going on vacation to California for a few days over our long weekend. I can see it being very helpful in the airport and busy places like the zoo.

What do you think? Abusive and controlling? Safe and smart? Leave me a comment below!

Xavier--sixteen months

At sixteen months, Xavier definitely seems like a little boy and not a baby anymore. Good thing we have another baby on the way so that doesn’t make me too sad. Here’s what he’s been up to:

Xavier loves to pray. He folds his hands multiple times per meal and at other random times during the day. We find ourselves praying in the parking lot before story time at the library fairly often. He also occasionally claps after prayers and I’m worried that “Yay, Jesus!” (ala Schmerber family) could become a regular occurrence at our house.
Xavier still plays with his various types of balls the majority of the day. There are at least 15 different balls in his bin and he likes them to all be in use at once. He also enjoys giving Mommy the little baseball bat and pitching at her (baseballs, footballs, basketballs all included). When Matt took him to an indoor playplace and spent $7 for him to have a whole playground to explore, what did Xavier do? He played basketball. He loves to go to the park and play at the basketball hoops there. He goes under the basket, pounds it on the ground 3 times, holds the ball above his head, and grunts to indicate that he is ready for Mommy or DA DEE to pick him up and let him monster jam.
Speaking of DA DEE, Xavier loves to hang out with his dad. All day long, he says, “DA DEE” (two words—DA pitch rising, pause, DEE pitch falling), wondering why he is stuck playing with just Mommy at home. He loves to cuddle on DA DEE’s lap and eat his breakfast (and Mommy makes him sit in his chair). When either of us leave the house, he waves and blows kisses and runs to the window to wave some more.
Xavier frequently brings us books off the shelf to read to him. Even though he has a whole bookshelf full of books, but he continues to love his Eric Carle books. The original Brown Bear, Brown Bear now contains approximately three yards of Scotch tape to hold it all together and we have wisely invested in the board book version. His other favorite is From Head to Toe. In this book, he is asked “Can you do it?” when the animals make various movements. Xavier has the movements memorized and demonstrated to us when we went to the zoo recently that he knows that elephants stomp their feet, penguins turn their heads, and giraffes bend their necks. It’s almost scary sometimes to realize how much is going on in that little head of his!

He knows that he is “X,” that the letter on the wall in his room is “X,” and that the boy in the pictures on the wall is “X.” We rarely call him “X,” but I think this is what they call him at his babysitter’s house. Speaking of his babysitter, he loves that whole family! Last week, he missed a couple of days due to sickness and when he went back without being there for a week, he giggled out loud when he realized where he was.

At this point, he still remembers who his grandparents are and especially who “Ca” (Aunt Erica) is when he looks at pictures. Hopefully, we will see them again soon enough that he won’t forget! He loves talking to his Grandma Mueller on the phone, but tends to spend more time pressing buttons than actually talking. He does smile or laugh every time he hears her voice though.

Our little boy had a bout with the flu last week and I think we both realized how blessed he has been to be healthy the majority of the time. This was the first time we had seen him with such a high fever, just lying there helplessly. We were so happy to see his energetic self return a few days later!
Xavier has been finicky with eating lately, probably partly due to being sick and teething. When he decides he doesn’t want something, he promptly throws it on the floor. My question is who thought it was a good idea to carpet dining room areas? I hope any future homes we have do not have that feature! When I take him out of his seat and make him help me pick up the food, he usually decided it is pretty tasty straight from the floor. He continues to want to eat whatever we eat, no matter how spicy.

Xavier loves to color and often produces multiple masterpieces a day. If I let him sit on a kitchen chair, he loves to test the boundaries and stand up. He usually warns me by saying, “Dit, dit.” I guess he is informing me that I should be telling him to “Dit”? How thoughtful of him.

We love our little boy more and more each day, even on those days when we have to read these lines out of another one of his favorite books How Do I Love You multiple times:

I love you on your very best and very worst of days. I’m happy when you’re happy. I’m sorry when you’re sad. And even though it may not show, I love you when you’re bad.

Littleton Historical Museum

Since the weather was so beautiful today, Xavier and I went to the Littleton Historical Museum. Outside, they have two working farms in the style of what an 1860's and 1890's farms would have been like. Xavier loved playing in the dirt with sticks, looking at the animals, and chasing a cat!

I took a lot of pictures! If you want to see more, go to my photography blog!

25 Random Things

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
I tag...anyone who wants to do this! (I was tagged on facebook and figured I'd post it on here too...)

1. I love to read, especially if I can read an entire book in a sitting or two…which rarely happens since October of 2007 :)
2. I take hundreds of pictures each month (thousands at times) and I have yet to put a single picture of my son in a book.
3. My husband and I are both English teachers and we enjoy making fun of others people’s grammar.
4. Even though I know it’s bad, I talk on my cell phone the majority of the time I am driving.
5. I hate grading papers and tend to really procrastinate. I usually feel bad about this when I finally do grade, because I teach all the great writers in AP class!
6. I usually have at least five types of lip gloss/lip balm in my purse at all times.
7. The ocean really scares me.
8. I want to run another marathon someday fairly soon and break four hours.
9. My computer is missing three keys, thanks to Xavier. One of them is the “X.” Do you think he did that on purpose? (And he now points at himself in pictures and says “Ecksh,” which is kind of strange because neither of us even call him that very often.)
10. I really like ice cream, especially cherry chocolate chip which my husband finds completely disgusting.
11. I would love to be a stay at home a little more full time, but I definitely appreciate that I am only part time now.
12. Snow makes me crabby because it makes it hard to run outside.
13. I think St. Louis is the motherland.
14. My husband and I almost always eat Indian food when we go out to eat and we are training Xavier to like it at a young age.
15. I love watching HGTV, the Food Network, Discovery Health, TLC, and a healthy dose of reality TV.
16. I don’t really like talking in front of people and I am a teacher.
17. I would love to have a garden someday, even though that sounds kind of nerdy, doesn’t it?
18. My feet shrunk ½ a size in running shoes after being pregnant and having Xavier, even though the opposite is supposed to happen. That still doesn’t make them small.
19. I get “fired up” about things frequently and my husband and my mom have to listen to all my thoughts…sorry about that.
20. I would love to adopt a little girl from India (that Matt would name “Latika” after watching Slumdog Millionaire), but international adoption is really expensive. I’ve always wanted a family that was multicultural.
21. My husband blames my son’s “intense” personality on me…and I blame it on my father??? But I like that he is independent, even though it drives me crazy sometimes.
22. I don’t mind eating the same thing for lunch every day, especially if it is homemade soup.
23. I prefer to have my hair in a ponytail the majority of the time. And if my hair is long at the time, it can’t touch my neck at all while I’m running…I have to have it twisted up.
24. I love looking at old pictures and look at photos from when we were growing up about every time I’m at my parents’ house. Can you tell that I don’t live very close to them?
25. I have a number of strange quirks while running. If I am running with someone else, I like that person to remain on the same side of me, even when we turn around. I also will run loops around my house to make sure that I don’t stop short of an even minute.

Happy Birthday, Grandma...take one

Xavier colored this pretty sign for his grandma's birthday today. But when it came time to take a picture with it, all he wanted to do was laugh and throw that piece of paper!


He thought it was so funny to tease Mommy with her camera!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

(Click on this to see it bigger)
Since I wouldn't pose nicely with the Happy Birthday sign, Mommy decided to show you some pictures of me doing one of my favorite things--running around outside! Hope you have a great birthday!
Love,
Xavier

Happy Birthday, Uncle Aaron!

Hope you have a great day! We love you!