Cruising for Chicks with a New Grill

Xaiden has decided that it is his responsibility to let his Poppa know who the boss is around this house. He's doing a good job of it, too. Everytime Jason gets home from work, if he doesn't go and pick Xaiden up right away, he starts squawking and yelling at him until he does. It works like a charm everytime. He has been doing it at other various times keeping Pops in line. The other night Xaid was about to go to bed, and Jason was leaving to take Xander out for an ice cream. Xaiden realized that his Poppa was about to leave without telling him goodbye and let him know about it. Jason promptly turned around, came back in, gave him some love, and told him goodnight, with that, the squawking ceased. Even when Jason left two minutes later! I guess he'd gotten what he needed from the old man.

Up until Monday, Jason was the only person with which I'd seen him use this tactic. But on Monday Xaiden went on his first bike ride. He rode on the bike with Momma, and Xander rode his Spider-man bike. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of this momentus event, but I'm sure I'll be able to get one soon. He was pretty mad at me initially. He HATES getting his arms put in anything. When I say anything, I mean anything, clothes, carseats, jogging stroller, and as I discovered Monday, the bike seat is not an exception. It was quite a struggle because not only was he fighting me, he was up high, I was holding the bike up with my legs, trying to make sure he didn't fall, and trying to adjust the harness on the seat so that I was confident that he wouldn't escape once we got going. Needless to say, by the time I got him all strapped into the seat, I was doubtful that the experience was going to be a good one, but that didn't stop me! We were off, and after a couple of stops to readjust the straps, we both felt pretty good about the situation. He really enjoyed feeling the breeze on his little face and getting to look around at everything, the view is much better than that from the stroller. After we had been going for a bit, we saw two girls on the sidewalk, one on a Razor scooter that was probably 10 years old and one on a bike that was probably 6. He saw them and just started squawking and squealing. I think they were catcalls in baby language or something. The girls smiled, but ultimately Xaiden was unsuccessful at his first attempt to pick up chicks. Maybe he'll have better luck next time. I think his technique definitely needs some work.

Xaiden has been giving me a hard time over the past few days. He's been acting like he's hurting while he's nursing again, so I was concerned that his GERD was getting worse. He also hasn't been wanting his paci and has basically just been inconsolable when he's tired. A couple of days ago, he was playing with a toy and whacked himself in the mouth so hard that his gums started bleeding, then he just cried and cried. I felt bad for him and couldn't believe that he hit himself that hard. I discovered today that he in fact did not hit himself that hard, but he had another tooth coming through. I guess he decided to be Mr. Tough Guy and help it through more quickly. Perhaps he figured that it was about time, since he hadn't gotten one in four months. I wouldn't have done it that way personally, but at least he seems to be feeling better today.

Xander has been struggling through a few things lately. Initially, he thought that it was really cool that Xaiden could crawl. He realized, however, that Xaiden crawling means Xaiden grabbing Xander's toys whenever he wants. Now, Xander was very willing to share with Xaiden before he started crawling, but it was whatever toy HE chose to share and whenever HE decided he wanted to share. This is a whole new ball game. It is insane! Almost everytime he sees Xaiden with one of his toys, he either freaks out about it, or trades him out with another one. Even if it's a toy that he doesn't ever use. I'm not sure how long this is going to last. We gave him a box for his room to put a few toys that he's not willing to share, but it appears as though no box would be big enough! Surely this will soon pass....at least I hope so. Posing for a picture together must be a good sign, right?

Xander had his first day of preschool on Tuesday. He's known that he would be going and has been excited about it for quite some time, but on Sunday I told him that "day after tomorrow you get to go to school!" He was less than excited this time, in fact, he cried and told me that he didn't want to go. I explained that it wasn't tomorrow and that we would talk about it then. I was certain that the next day he would feel better about it and be excited to help me get his bag ready. His Poppa's old computer bag had broken, and he had gotten a new one, so Jason had me sew up his old bag so that Xan could have a bag just like Pops. Initially, when we started packing the bag, he was eager to help and told me that he needed some extra socks in addition to the other clothes that I had packed and ran to get them for me. When he came back and we got the clothes in the bag, he lost it. He started crying his little eyes out, and said that he didn't want to go to school, he didn't want to ride the school bus, he just wanted to stay home with Momma and Xaidy and didn't want to have any fun at all. He also said that he didn't want to stay the night there. I guess since we packed a change of clothes and a blanket, he thought that meant we were shipping him off for the night. Even after we explained that wasn't the case and that he wouldn't be riding the bus, he still just cried and cried and nothing we could say would ease his anxiety. I felt awful. Jason and I finally just told him that we love him and that he'll be safe, and we will talk about it in the morning. That night, I made him a tag for his bag that has a picture of Spider-man on it and says "Spider-Xan" underneath the picture. In the morning, when he saw that tag, he thought it was really cool...just not cool enough to make it ok to go to school. When it was time for him to get dressed, he asked, "Where are we going?" I told him that he was going to school, he explained once again that he didn't want to go, so I told him that we would talk about it after I got showered and dressed. While I was getting dressed, he came in the bathroom and asked, "Could you come home [after you take me to school] just for one minute? 'Cause I might have a little fun." I told him that I could, and he responded, "Can we go right now?!" That was a shocker, I could not believe it! I guess he just needed some time to come to terms with it. When we got there, all he could talk about was showing Fallon his bag and the tag on it. He would not let go of that bag, he had to hold it while he got in and out of the car and wouldn't hear of me helping him with it. When we got into his classroom, the teacher started to take it for him, and he jerked it back like he thought she was going to steal it or something. He only put it down when he thought he was going to get to go play basketball. It was the same story when I picked him up from school. I guess he thinks he's awfully big to be important enough to have his very own bag. It is too cute! He seemed to have a lot of fun at school and was already wanting to go back yesterday.

Last weekend Jason and Xander managed to destroy Xander's inflatable pool. They play this game where Jason throws Xan at the slide, he bounces off of it, then lands in the pool. Apparently, this is not an approved use because after a couple of weeks of this two big holes were ripped into the bottom of the pool...but not before they had a lot of fun with it. This looks like fun, right?

Xanderism #3: Rang around the Dangle = Ring around the Rosie

Xanderism #4: Retarded = Restarted (Used in a sentence: I get tired of getting myself retarded)

On a roll

Yesterday, Xander went into the dining room to start coloring on some superhero coloring pages while I finished printing some other ones. After I finished with my task, I came in to bring him the other pages. When I saw him, he was totally engrossed in his work, green marker in hand coloring away on the opposite arm. After a minute or two he noticed I was there, looked at me, and said, "I'm being the Hulk!" So, as any good mother would do, I helped him get his pants and socks off so that he could do it right :)

And yes, we did go to Wal-mart with this look (plus a shirt and shoes), but oddly enough, we seemed to fit right in.

Today at lunch, he was eating raisins and decided that putting one in his bellybutton was a good idea. I actually don't know why I never thought to do this; it seems quite logical. Then he tells me, "Let's pretend this is my belly turd." I asked, "Belly turd?" and he said, "Yes!" So, I cracked up for a little while and took a picture and didn't think too much more about it until dinner.

I had Xander tell his Poppa about what he put in his bellybutton. He told him and said it was his bellybutton turd like when he was a baby. Apparently, I had mistaken the word "cord" for "turd" and he didn't feel the need to correct me. Nice, huh? That made it even more hilarious to me. This is what we call around our house a "Xanderism." We have lots of them, like hanitizer = hand sanitizer, chicken tits = chicken sticks (breaded strips of chicken), and now bellybutton turd = umbilical cord. I like it.

He's just been on a roll lately. We had to brush his teeth an extra time today because he took a bite of a play-doh cookie. Now, I'll admit that I made the play-doh cookie, but I didn't encourage him to eat it. Okay, that was a lie, I totally talked him into it. It was quite funny. He took a bite, then gave me this big smile with blue play-doh all in his front teeth. Unfortunately, he started spitting profusely before I could get a picture, so I figured we should just go brush the play-doh out of his teeth instead.

Today I noticed that there was quite a bit of dried blood in his left ear, so I told him that I needed to clean it out. The last few days, even the idea of blood has brought him to tears. I wish I had thought of this before I mentioned that it was blood. Oh well, he was fussing at me, but for the most part letting me clean it. Everytime I'd put the Q-tip in his ear, he'd start telling me that it hurts SO BAD! So, I explained to him that his tubes were coming out of his ears and that Dr. Hall said that it shouldn't hurt. Once I told him this and that if it was hurting bad enough to cry then I needed to call Dr. Hall so he could go see him, he stopped crying. But he still seemed worried, so I talked to him more and discovered that he thought if his tubes come out it would make him smaller. I'm not sure what he thought the tubes do, but I sure wish I did.

A few days ago, Xaiden was hanging out wearing only his diaper. Xander walked up and started rubbing on Xaid's back. I said, "He's really soft, huh?" to which he responded, "and chewy?" After I stopped laughing, I told him that I wasn't sure, but he might be.

Xaiden has been quite busy lately as well. Now that he can crawl, pull up, and cruise, there is no stopping him! One of his favorite things to do is get his brother's toys and chew on them. This is very difficult for Xander to watch, but he's getting better about not just yanking them away from his brother. One of his favorite toys to chew on is a little alien guy from a Happy Meal. He held onto this puppy for the greater part of the day that he discovered it.

I'm not really sure what the draw is, perhaps it's the squishy legs, they appear to be very good for chewing. Maybe that's what Xan meant when he asked if his brother was chewy?

With his new sense of freedom and mobility (sounds like he's got a Hoveround, huh?) comes an appreciation for the taste of grass. Well, I don't know if appreciation is really a good word. He crawls off of his blanket into the grass, puts the grass into his mouth, gets mad about it, then puts more grass in his mouth, gets mad about it...I'm sure you can see where I'm going with it. This might be what one would call a love-hate relationship.

Tonight Pops did some big time throws with the boys. As I was going in to get my camera, I heard Xan making sure that Xaid got the same number of turns as himself. He is the self appointed fairness assurance manager. He does a great job. In fact, I'm pretty sure he'll be giving himself a promotion very soon.