Imaginary Friend

Xander has an imaginary friend named Boondai. Boondai actually just started out as a strange word Xander would say. When we first asked what Boondai was, Xander said it was a car. But Boondai developed into a person and now we hear about Boondai's exploits all the time.

Boondai is basically an extension of Xander who can do all the things Xander cannot. Boondai can drink beer because he is 21 years old. The next day Boondai is four years old because Xander is only three. Boondai can drive a car and often beats us home from day care. But Boondai has his own house somewhere. Sometimes Xander and Boondai ride motorcycles together - Boondai's is green and Xander's is blue. My favorite is when I tell Xander to do something and he replies "But Boondai does it!"

Boondai has an imaginary family also. There is Boondai's Mom (I usually do not hear much about Boondai's Dad) and Boonzer, who I think is Xander's imaginary version of Duncan.

New couches

We finally got new couches for our front room. We wanted to get a sleeper sofa so that we had somewhere for guests to sleep. People have asked for a picture, so here it is!

Teach me!

Xander has known how to connect the buckles on his highchair/booster seat/stroller forever now, but he does not know how to unconnect them. I'm not even sure he could if he knew how, because you have to have strong fingers. I've used this to my advantage many times when I wanted him to stay in the highchair/booster seat/stroller for some reason.

Today we were playing in the front yard and Duncan wanted to be pushed around in the stroller. Xander and I pushed him around for awhile them Duncan wanted out. I started to unbuckle the strap but Xander pushed my hands away and wanted to do it himself. I told him I would do it, but he said "Teach me! Teach me!"

I hope he is always as interested in learning new things.

PS - I did not teach him how to undo the buckle.

Spider

This weekend while the boys and I were playing on the swing set in the backyard, Xander called to me excitedly: "Daddy, a spiderweb!" It was very small and faint on the side of the jungle gym. I explained to Xander that webs were how spiders caught bugs to eat. Just then, as if on cue, a bug landed in the web!

I started narrating a science documentary, then: The spider will come out now and bite the bug to make it stop moving. Then it will wrap up the bug in webbing and make a little backpack out of it and carry it away to eat.

Every description prompted the appropriate response from the spider. Xander was very interested. He was so excited about it, he talked about it as he drifted off to sleep that night. It was a pretty cool event even for me!

Hospital Corners

My mom was a nurse and I was a Jr. Volunteer (aka Candy Striper) so when we make the beds in our family we do hospital corners. I was changing the sheets this weekend and I asked Xander when he was going to learn how to do hospital corners (because he WILL learn someday) and he replied without a pause "When they are circles!" like that was a totally normal response.

Pajama time

For Father's Day last year, Tina got matching pajamas for me and the boys: White with blue stars and red stripes (how patriotic!). I chose to wear mine this week, and Xander wanted to wear the "star pajamas" like Daddy, so we got his and Duncan's out too.

This evening, when I was putting new pajamas on Duncan (with dinosaurs on them), he pointed to a star on my pajamas and grunted as if to say "Where are my pajamas like this?" I explained to him that he had wet them this morning, so I had to put them in the laundry, and I swear he sadly replied with "Oh."

Duncan's communication skills continue to improve. We are pretty sure he can say "Go outside" and "Ba" means alternately ball and balloon. He still calls me "Mama" sometimes and will answer all questions with a serious "no", though.

Xander's quite chatty now, too. Last night he was telling me: "You're my best friend, Daddy, because you have star pajamas like me. And Duncan's my best friend, too. But not mama. She doesn't have star pajamas. I love her, though."

Crazy kids!

Starbucks

This morning, the family went to Starbucks after breakfast. The line was almost to the door when we got there, so Tina took Xander to the side to the CD sampling area while I waited in line with Duncan.

By the time I got Xander's apple cider and our coffees, I expected Xander to be running around the store exploring everything, but to my great surprise, he was contentedly listening to the music on some ridiculously oversized (for him) headphones. He would take sips of his cider and sit back in the oversized padded chair looking like a regular patron.

Duncan, on the other hand, insisted on running around the store exploring everything... :)

Last night...

I was cuddling with Duncan and Xander and Xander said "I love you mama". So I said, "Xander, I love you more than I love cheese. I love you more than I love ice cream. I love you more than I love ... " (pause while I think about what else I like a lot). Then Xander said "Duncan!".

What a punk!