Xavier's New Tricks

These next couple weeks are going to be kind of busy with me finishing up with YW and getting us ready to move, so I might not get a chance to post. But I wanted to post something tonight before the hectic weeks begin.

I feel like Xavier is picking up new things every day now. Just this week he's learned what a lion says and what a snake says. He got some sunglasses for his birthday and the case they go in has snakes on them. We had read a book to X the night before with a snake in it and Tim kept making the "SSSSSSSSSSS" sound and X just kept laughing hysterically. When X picked up his sunglass case the next morning he made the "SSSSSSSS" sound because he knew they were snakes. He kept doing that all day when he'd see his sunglass case.
Xavier has also picked up the signs for bird, duck, stars, and milk this week. His new favorite word other than hi is cheese. He loves to eat cheese. His favorite things right now are flags, balloons, and boxes. Gosh I wonder why he likes boxes? Maybe because they're everywhere in our house. I can't wait to be settled once again.

Happy Mother's Day

This weekend is just full of exciting moments. So, Saturday we went to Holland, Michigan to check out the tulip festival. We met up with Joe, Amy, and their kids; and Grandma, Grandpa, and Mary. It was a beautiful day. On our way back home we decided to stop in Okemos for some dinner at the Olive Garden. Everything was going great until Xavier threw his pacifier under the table. I knelt down on the floor trying to retrieve his pacifier. Mind you, the server had just brought our food to the table at the very same time. As I was coming out from under the table I feel liquid falling onto my head. My first thought is that Xavier somehow got a hold of a glass of water and tipped it over. Then I hear a voice nervously apologizing over and over realizing the server had tipped my dinner plate. I had ordered a chicken dish with an apricot dressing. So as you can imagine this sauce was very sticky. (just as a side note I did not bump the server, but since I was by him when he set my plate on the table the liquid that fell off the plate just so happened to get my head) It got all over the back of my hair and on my clothes. The manager came right out to address the situation and offered to pay for my dry cleaning. Why he'd offer that I don't know, because I wasn't wearing anything that looked dry clean worthy. I assumed they wouldn't charge me for dinner. But at the end of our meal when I got the check, the dinner was not taken off the bill. We did get a free dessert, but I didn't tip the guy. I felt bad about not tipping him. What do you think about me not tipping, did I do the right thing?

Whoops!

I feel like ever since I was pregnant with Xavier I've been slowly losing my mind. Not really, but I feel a lot more forgetful and ditzy these days. Xavier and I went to Target Friday to get a few things. I placed my car keys in the cart next to Xavier. As we were looking at a few summer t-shirts for Xavier he kept trying to throw his pacifier on the ground. I kept trying to keep him entertained while I was looking for the things I needed. As I was heading to the checkout aisle I looked down and realized my keys were nowhere to be found. In my head I start freaking out. Where in the heck did they go? I was searching every inch of the shopping cart, every pocket on my body, and my diaper bag. Still no where to be found. I checked everything again. No where. At this point I'm having visions of having to wait at Target until Tim could get there with my second set of keys. Yeah that was not going to be fun. Next I'm thinking there is no way I'm going to find my keys in this store. They could be anywhere! I finally decided to go back to the clothing section. My eyes are scanning every inch of the floor hoping and praying I find the keys. Luckily I spot a small silver shiny glare by one of the t-shirt stands. YES I scream in my head. I found my keys. Disaster avoided. Thank goodness. I learned my lesson- never put my keys next to Xavier again. (And hopefully no one noticed me frantically searching my cart and the store wondering if I was a crazy lady)

The Aftermath

After having one hour of sleep the entire day and having to be the birthday boy for about 7 hours, Xavier was pooped. He had a super day and we have lots of great memories. Thanks everyone for coming to the party and sharing Xavier's day with him.

Wiffle Ball Game

The best part of the party was the woofle ball game. As you can see we had quite the full house. While everyone was out on the field playing woofle ball Xavier showed everyone his pitching skills. He walked right up to Joe, who was pitching, took the ball and threw it right to the person at bat. I guess he's a natural.

Xavier's Big Birthday Bash

Xavier was pretty excited to be the center of attention Saturday. When we sang happy birthday to him, he just looked at everyone with a confused look. After we blew his candle out and gave him his baseball cupcake he was happy once again. Opening his presents was a fun part of the festivities as well. Thank you everyone for all the fun toys and books!

Xavier's Pre-Party Decorating

We finally had Xavier's big party this past weekend. Here are a few pictures of the decorations. I kept it pretty simple for his first. I just got a few balloons at the dollar store that said Little All-Star on them, which went perfect with the invitations I made. Then I hung a few streamers. I also put together an ABC book through Shutterfly.com that had pictures of Xavier doing different things that coincided with the alphabet. He loves looking at the pictures of himself. I also made a quick photo collage of some of my favorite pictures of Xavier from his first year. As a fun momento for Xavier, I had everyone that came to his party autograph a baseball. I'll try to post a pic of the ball and the invitation later.

I love the picture of Xavier looking up at the balloons. He was so intrigued by these floating objects. We still have them in the living room for him to play with. He has me hand him the balloon and then he'll let go so he can watch it float up to the ceiling. Then we do it over and over again until he's bored and moves onto something new.

Post-surgery photo

I forgot to post this picture of Xavier at the end of the day after his surgery. He was obviously tired after a long day and decided to lay down on the kitchen floor with his little dog named Brodie.

Xavier's Surgery

Xavier's surgery was a success. We arrived at the surgical center at 6:00 am on Tuesday morning. Xavier was wide awake and happy even though he was up earlier than usual. He spotted a little kids play nook as soon as we walked in the door and picked up a life-sized Pooh stuffed animal. He tried carrying it around the waiting area but kept tripping over it. You could tell he was still a little tired because he was stumbling and falling all over the place. You wouldn't have thought by how happy he was that he was about to have a surgical procedure done.
The procedure of getting ear tubes is done at a surgical center that only does these types of procedures. So when we got there, about 5 or 6 kids around the same age as Xavier were also waiting to get the procedure done. It was almost like an assembly line for ear tubes. The nursing staff was very friendly, professional, and awesome at keeping us informed as to what would be happening. They helped me feel comfortable with our decision to have this done.
I put on a robe and hat over my clothes and went with Xavier into the surgical room. They put a mask on him to put him to sleep and I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to help keep him calm. He was not happy about the mask, but fell asleep within 30 seconds. Then they escorted me back to the waiting area. Even though I knew this was the right thing to do for Xavier, it was so difficult walking out of that room and leaving him with the doctor. At that point I realized it was out of my hands, I had no control from here on out. I hate having that feeling. I just had to keep praying that everything would turn out okay. Tim and I sat down for about 5-10 minutes maximum and the doctor came out to tell us Xavier did great. It was that fast! I couldn't believe it.
The nurse took us back to see Xavier and I could hear him screaming all the way down the hall. He was not happy coming out of the anesthesia. I just held him and sang. We took him home and let him watch his Baby Einstein DVD that he loves. It took about an hour to calm him down and after that he was just fine. The rest of the day he was his normal little self. What a relief to have this done.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers. Our little hero has once again showed us what a brave little boy he is.