Category: Xander

In his twenty-second month, Xander is: doing a lot of pretending in his play kitchen (so adorable); starting to be quite the little provoker; narrating his activities throughout the day; comforting the baby when he cries by saying “Kay, baby…Mommy here” and bringing him his pacifier; valiantly giving up his bottle of water (his own pacifier); and talking up a STORM (saying things like funny…”fuddy”…JoJo, careful JoJo, uh oh Pooh drop honey, see that, JoJo milk all gone, Mommy knee hurt, look Mommy more owie, please open…”pease ope”…bag, more buttercup, honey pot dump out, look Mommy egg, sure Mommy, like apple pie, green…”geed”…light Mommy, get honey pot, hi bug, I do rope swing…”ope sing”, oh great…”gate”, etc.).

In his twenty-first month, Xander is: saying “ticka” for “tickle” and “follah” for “flower”; starting to emerge as the funny guy; saying “sure” (or “um” while he considers it) when you ask him if we wants something/wants to do something; really getting the spirit of kindness behind having manners (it just wells up naturally from his heart)…saying “pease” when he wants something, “taku” when you give him something, and “besshu” when he hears someone sneeze; turning into a big boy all of a sudden; being a good big brother to his new baby brother, Roman (bringing him his pacifier when he cries, saying “besshu, baby” when he sneezes, and learning how to give gentler pats); starting to give Jonas a taste of his own medicine with all of the pushing, taking, and hitting (ugh); and running to time out when he does something wrong (and even sometimes when he doesn’t) and running back to give pats and say “shawee, JoJo”.

(I was trying to distract him the other day from something he was wanting to do that he shouldn’t and said, “Xander, can you go put Petra’s collar on her?”. He said, “No, shi”…he knew she was outside…and just went back to what he was doing. Ha!).

At twenty months, Xander is: surprising us every day with his expanding vocabulary (see, cut, lap, hide, cup, top, dip, honey, catch, “lot” for “a lot”, “dump” for “jump”, “cose” for “close”, “seeze” for “squeeze”, “sup” for “syrup”, “muse” for “music”, “mesh” for “medicine”, “bit” for “big”, “phot” for “phone”, “bat” for “back”, “cabi” for “cabinet”, “shool” for “stool”, “tash” for “trash”, “XanXan” for “Xander”, and “JoJo” for “Jonas); outing with more and more two and three word combinations (get it, did it, do it, “pease ope” for “please open”, “moh pease lot” for “more please…a lot”, “appuh deuce” for “apple juice”, “mess keen it” for “mess clean it”); and using words to show us his silly side (saying “cheese” when you take his picture and “cool” when you put him in a shirt he likes).

In his nineteenth month, Xander is: having a bit of a language explosion…saying “gai” for “again”, “bass” for “bath”, and “hod” for “hold” and outing all of a sudden with a battery of clearly spoken words (help, mess, sorry, hi, top, home, house, piece/peace, and too); loving the ever-popular-with-the-Seyfried-boys smoothie (“sooey”); pushing (and trying to carry) chairs around to climb on them to get to what he’s wanting; becoming a fan of taking his plate to the sink (“si”) just like his big brother; delighting in helping out with household chores (unloading the dishwasher, putting trash in the trashcan, and transferring laundry to the dryer); starting to tell on Jonas (“hit head”, “push”, etc.); and remaining the eye contact king.

(He also TOTALLY amazed me by saying “Huss”, our pediatrician’s name, as soon as we pulled into the parking lot of our pediatrician’s office last week. Crazy smart.)

At eighteen months, Xander is: doing the sign for “change” when he needs a diaper change; saying “deh” for “there”, “lala” for water, “uh oh” when he drops something, and “go go” while he points to his plate and his tummy to let us know where he wants the food to go; diving into two word combinations with “DaDa nih nih”, “JoJo potty”, “see DaDa”, “PePa bye bye”, “DaDa boo”, and “MaMa moh”; doing the bouncy dance for things he gets excited about (climbing up on the couch, watching Winnie-the-Pooh with his big brother, getting a fresh sippy of ice water from the refrigerator, and eating); and taking a shine to building Lego towers.

In his seventeenth month, Xander is: saying “bih boh” for “big boy”, “pepa” for “Petra”, “shack” for “snack”, “ton ton” for “crouton”, “caw caw” for “car car”, “shi” for “outside”, “tay too” for “thank you”, and “Jo Jo” for “Jonas”; doing the sign for “thank you” and “change”; getting pretty good at going down the stairs (just today he started doing the full body slide); champing out on his daytime and nighttime sleep; cutting four molars; echoing everything big brother does; delighting in rousing games of hide and seek with DaDa and Jonas; and brightening our days with his happy spirit.

In his sixteenth month, Xander is: saying “boo” for “spoon” and “book”, “ta” for “trash”, “moh” for “more”, “sih” for “sit”, “sh” for “share”, and “tu” for “turn”; doing the signs for “please” and “change”; continuing to love doing anything “big boy” (using a toddler fork/spoon, washing his hands, sitting at the table in a booster seat, etc.); identifying body parts; really getting into lift the flap books; making passionate choices of favorite books to read for nap time, bed time, and any time; outgrowing his dairy intolerance (yay!!!) and testing positive at the allergist’s for a peanut allergy (ugh!!!); cracking us up with his headlong into the world attitude and endearing us with his sweet, sensitive spirit.

In his fifteenth month, Xander is: doing the sign for “up” (he bounces up and down, smiles, says “mmm”, and points his little finger up in the air when he wants to get up on the couch…one of his favorite places to be); saying “ba” for “ball” and “shoe” for “shoe”; developing a fascination for trying to take off his shoes and socks; becoming more willful (either that or he’s starting to show his willfulness in a different way); enjoying arts and crafts time with Jonas (play-doh, fingerpaint, pom poms, crayons, stickers, etc.); falling in love with dipping (maple syrup, ketchup, and hummus are his dips of choice); presenting with a peanut allergy (ugh…my poor little buddy!!!); attempting to physically pick me up when he wants me to do something/wants to show me something; starting to get a little possessive of things he wants to hold onto; and showing an uncanny ability to match things up (containers and lids, toys and all of their parts, etc.).

In his fourteenth month, Xander is: having a bit of a language explosion…doing the signs for “ball”, “music”, and “fan” AND saying “w” for “wolfie”, “p” for “pooh”, “b” for “banana” and “blueberry”, “deah” for “yeah”, “s” for “yes”, “dat” for “that”, “dis” for “this”, “bye” for “bye”, and “duh” for “done”; working on giving up the bottle; following one step directions; climbing into and rocking in his rocking chair; giving Petra lots of spontaneous hugs, kisses, and pats; and saying “num” when he tastes something he likes.

In his thirteenth month, Xander is: saying “cacka” for “cracker”; striking out on the dairy trial (back to the drawing board for another three months); developing a fascination for shape sorting toys, putting things in/taking things out of containers, and matching lids (he goes through the tupperware cabinet, finds the water bottles and sippy cups, and matches them up with the correct lids); closing doors; doing windshield wiper head when he’s really happy; and dancing (bouncing up and down).

At fifty-two weeks, Xander is: becoming our resident grunter; eating anything and everything; giving high fives; walking all over the place; skipping out on his morning nap in favor of one long afternoon nap (yay!!!); and lighting up our hearts with the spontaneous hugs and kisses he gives when he feels the love.

In his fiftieth week, Xander is: developing a sense of humor (he loves to sniff fast through a scrunched up nose, make a fish face, and put a puff on his sippy cup and tip it back so he can eat it and then take a drink); using the kitchen table as his own personal jungle gym; and taking a surprising amount of steps (I haven’t quite stopped counting his steps yet or saying, “Tom/Jonas, look!!!” every time he launches out but we’re getting there because he’s quickly starting to walk as much as he crawls).

At forty-nine weeks, Xander is: saying “nac” for “snack”; showing a strong preference for certain books to be read to him at nap time and bed time (he loves any and all “touch and feel” books and books about dogs and he always asks for repeat readings of “The Going to Bed Book” by Sandra Boynton by grunting, pointing, reaching, and saying “dat”, if you didn’t catch his drift the first time); and adding a few more wobbly, exciting steps to his walking attempts.

In his forty-eighth week, Xander is: saying “nih nih” for “night night” and “dat” for “that”; putting his sippy cup in the cup holder on his high chair tray with great care and precision; and taking a few more unassisted steps (go, Xan-Man)!!!

At forty-seven weeks, Xander is: doing the sign for “milk”; loving Jonas’ “munchie mug”; winning the messiest eater award; saying goodbye to his late afternoon nap (come to think of it…he said goodbye to that one a while ago); figuring out how to stack blocks and put things in containers; and taking a few unassisted steps!!! (he has no fear…look out world).

In his forty-sixth week, Xander is: slamming back the finger foods (he loves diced bananas, avocados, pears, and sweet potatoes); champing out on drinking from a big boy sippy cup; standing unassisted for closer to the minute side of seconds; protesting with cries, grunts, and reaches when he’s got his sights set on something he wants; doing the sign for “more”; and dearly loving the stack of books read to him before nap and bed time.

In his forty-fifth week, Xander is: saying “boo” for “book” and “ba” for “bottle”; crawling up the stairs with assistance (he can make it all the way to the top): climbing up the slide in our bonus room and crawl-sliding down face first; and continuing to win the wild-man-during-diaper/wardrobe-changes award.

At forty-four weeks, Xander is: waving; saying “dah” for “dog” and “sh” for “shoe”; pointing to his teeth when you ask where they are and crawling for his books when you ask where they are too; sporting four new teeth on top; and walking pretty steadily behind his walking toys.

At forty-three weeks, Xander is: clapping; giving kisses; cutting what looks to be like several teeth all at one time (bless his heart); revving up his jabbering with mamama, dadada, nanana, bababa, and vavava; saying “dah” for dog (we were at storytime the other day and he saw a dog on the cover of a DVD a lady sitting next to us had in her hand and said “dah” as clear as day); giving back a toy when you ask for it; opening up cabinet doors; and understanding the function of a toy car garage enough to know where the toy cars go.

At forty-two weeks, Xander is: trying watermelon; becoming very fascinated with all of Petra’s goings on; and starting to stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time.