Birthday pictures

We updated the main page with a bunch of pictures from Xander's birthday festivities. Go check it out!

UP!

Grandma taught Duncan to say "Up" (instead of just putting put his hands and grunting/crying), but he says "Puh" instead. He still needs to be prompted a little, but it is cute!

Happy Birthday, Xander!

Xander turned 3 today, but we've been celebrating his birthday for the past several days.

He had a party on Thursday at his daycare (pictured left) where his friends all wished him well. There was a candy hunt and lots of playing. Xander got really embarrassed when the kids were singing happy birthday and was too shy to blow out his own candles. He really enjoyed opening presents, though.

On Saturday, we had some of our work friends over that have kids. We had seen many of them that morning at an Easter egg hunt that Uncle Dave was hosting at his house, but it was a really nice time for both kids and parents. This time, Xander blew out his candles (pictured right).

Furthermore, since his birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year, Tina's parents came over and spent the day with us and we had yet another gift-giving event.

Communication

Duncan can not talk, but he can communicate.

He easily lets us know what he wants be pointing and grunting/screaming. For example, if he wants to watch Baby Einstein, he points to the DVD player and says "Ahh". Or if he wants his cup of water on the counter, he points to the cup and says "Ahh".

He also understands a lot of what we say to him. If I say "Sit down and let's put on your shoes to go outside", he will sit down. If I say "Put your cup on the table", he will do it.

He also has started saying "No" and he will respond with "no" to any questions we ask him. "Do you want some more grapes?" ... "No" (even though he really does). "Do you love Daddy?" ... "No" (let's hope he really does). It is extremely cute and cracks us up every time.

Update

I'm just about finished making camel tails (I said TAILS you perverts) for Xander's Birthday Party. Messerschmitt's do not play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, they play Pin the Tail on the Camel (because we used to live in Saudi Arabia).

I'm home with Duncan today because he is sick - has been since Thursday night - diarrhea and fever. He is soooooo grumpy. He just wants to be held and then he will point all over the place. Like he is saying "I'm sure there is something over there that will make me feel better, take me over there".

Grandma and I took Xander to see his first movie (since he was 6 weeks old) in the theater last weekend. We saw Robots. I think he liked it. It was hard for him to sit still for 2 hours. We got up and ran around at one point and then Xander sat on Grandma's lap. He ate tons of popcorn and drank about a gallon of lemonaid. Xander got really scared at the StarWars trailer.

Mad skillz

For the first time, Xander pulled out his firetruck puzzle and assembled the pieces all by himself. He was inspired because a kid at his daycare was doing a puzzle today. It's pretty impressive how far he's come and he's not even three, yet!

Duncan has also shown some skill improvements: He's learned how to stack rings! Xander didn't figure out how to do that until later...

It's interesting to see the differences.

Sunny days

We've had gorgeous weather for the past few days, so today we broke out the water balloons in the backyard. It got up to 96 degrees according to our backyard thermometer! Good thing we had the kiddy pool to keep cool!

You might expect little boys and water balloons would be trouble, but really it was innocent. Xander likes to watch them "pump" when he throws them in the grass. Duncan liked biting them. At one point they were sliding into the pool from the slide on the swingset (I helped Duncan).

It was a nice way to spend an hour on such a pretty day.

Swing, batter!

Today I took Xander to his friend Colby's 4th birthday party. All of his friends from Candy's (his day-care provider) were there. He had a good time playing with his friends.and especially enjoyed hitting the pinata.

There were lots of bubble-guns at the party, and one was Spiderman-themed, which made it Xander's favorite. But he still was not only willing to share it, but he showed other kids how to use it. What a good boy! I was so proud...

On the other hand, we have been working on Xander's manners with less than stellar results... We're sick of him saying "I want..." all the time and we've been encouraging him to ask for things, "May I have ... please?" He knows how to ask nicely, he just doesn't do it very often.