More Pony!

March 26, 2014

Here's some more pictures from Xander's last farm class and first pony ride...

Dada and Xander watched and listened (at times patiently) while our instructor explained how we were to pet and brush the pony and then while the kids took turns riding Mr. Winchester the other kids would be moving buckets of shavings into the pony's stable so he'd have a nice place to sleep when he was done with his rides.

It took a while for him to get into it, but eventually Xander showed interest in the shavings.  But not to fill buckets with, not to even carry the empty bucket around (which we thought he would do, due to his love of buckets) but to run back and forth shuffling his feet getting shavings to fly around.  That was hilarious!  (He's also discovered that he loves doing this with loose gravel... super cheap entertainment for future reference.)

Haha!  See!  HILARIOUS!  Every photo of him doing this activity is fuzzy because he got so excited and moved so fast!

Then it was time for Xander's very own pony ride!  As our previous post stated, he didn't take to it right away, but when he got going he loved it.  Check out the smiles on his and Dada's faces!

Mama loved how Xander left his hood on, but held it in his hand like he was tipping his cowboy hat.  Howdy Partner!

Still having a great time...

... and tipping his "hat"...

Then it was Mama's turn to make sure Xander stayed on the pony while Dada took some photos.  Very nice of Dada :)

We all laughed and smiled so much!  Everyone loved the pony ride!

More smiles...

... and more smiles!...

coming around the last corner... sadly the ride is almost over now...

... but we're still loving it!

Mama and Dada are going to look into finding other opportunities for Xander to get to ride a pony.  Who knows, maybe he's a little cowboy in the making!

It's Pony Time!

March 27, 2014

Xander got to participate in a little farmers class this March.  His first class taught him about goats, then pigs, bunnies and at the last class, horses.  Xander didn't love the class all the way through each time, but we made the best of it.  Dada took Xander to the classes and Mama was able to tag along for the last three classes.

By far, the best part of all four classes was the pony ride at the end.  We had been concerned that Xander would not take to the pony ride based on his personality, and how horribly Dada reacted during his own first pony ride at a similar age.  Luckily the pony was being handled by an incredible woman who knew the best way to handle all parties involved for the best result.  She had a feeling that Xander was going to love the ride and despite our suspicions she turned out to be absolutely right!

At first he was a little scared to get onto the pony and have to sit on the pony alone - he tried to slip off back into Dada's arms.  But the pony handler knew that if we could get him to stay on long enough for the pony to start moving, the motion of the pony ride itself might just be fun enough for Xander to hang on.  And she was right!

Here is a short clip of Xander on his first pony ride.  He laughed and smiled almost the whole time.  Mada and Dama said this was possibly our best experience together as a family thus far - seeing pure joy in an unexpected situation like this was simply priceless!

Little Hobo

September 9th, 2013

Just like his furry sister, Mute, and furry brother, Sark, Xander enjoys the comforts of a good cardboard box... kinda like a little hobo...

Sark did a drive-by and was pretty jealous, and stealthy since he shows in the photo as a kitty blur...

MMWAHAHAHAHA - the box is mine!

Once Xander realized Mama was taking pictures, it was time to try and steal the camera and get some extreme close ups taken...

Then run around back and forth in front of Mama, daring her to photograph anything and get it in focus...

Mama loves when the photo comes out where Xander is in full focus and the rest of the world is a blur... it just shows how fast this little man can be...

That's all for this photo session... more extreme close up will be in Xander's future tho, guaranteed.

Dada's Shoes

September 5th, 2013

Before falling asleep at the door, Xander picked out a pair of shoes he thought he should wear to Rosh Hashanah lunch... Dada's shoes!  So cute!

Asleep at the Door

September 5th, 2013

This year our annual Rosh Hashanah lunch with the family fell on Thursday September the 5th.  Dada went to work for a little bit, then came home early to pick up Mama and Xander for lunch.  While Mama was getting ready, Xander was playing on his own downstairs.  Eventually, Xander realized that he hadn't seen Mama in a little while, so he went to find her.  When he found the bedroom door closed and heard what sounded like Mama's hair dryer running, he commenced the usually tactics of trying to get her to let him in or get her to come out - bang on the door, repeatedly.

As Mama got ready (and chose to ignore the banging this time in the interest of time), she noticed the banging subsided and was replaced with a similar sound, one everyone in this house is familiar with... the sound of Xander banging his head on the door.  This is something Xander has done from a very young age to help comfort himself and fall asleep.  He has yet to fully outgrow it, and as such, used it to comfort himself when he knew his Mama wouldn't come out until she was done getting ready.  Eventually the banging stopped and Mama went to investigate.  This is what we found.  Another episode of the cutest kid ever...

Retake Montlake

August 31st, 2013

After a full season of Husky games played at Century Link, it was time for Husky Stadium to reopen, newly remodeled, for the home opener.

We had to ask a couple different people to get one usable photo, but here's a shot of Mama and Dada at the main gate.

Husky Marching Band, keeping it real as always...

Mama really likes when they put the purple puppy eyes on the screen between plays...

New scoreboard and graphics - interesting font choices, but easy to read...

The view of the water is still magnificent...

Pretty nice view of the action on the big screen, eh?

Oh, did you want to see that hand off close up?

Touchdown Washington!!!

Way to Retake Montlake, boys!

Mama's Sweatshirt

August 31st, 2013

Xander has a couple of obsessions.  One of them centers around one of his Mama's sweatshirts.  Mama has had the sweatshirt for about a year now and every time Xander finds the sweatshirt and it is not on his Mama, he hands it to her and asks her to put it on.  Otherwise, he likes to hold on to it for himself.  When he sees it hanging in the closet, he must have it.  Recently he used a stool to pull it off the high hanger in the closet all by himself!

Dada thought it would be fun to put Xander in the sweatshirt and see what happened...

This shot reminds us of the blue towel shot, just a little...

Xander looks a little drunk in this one, but he doesn't allow hoods to stay on for very long so we were lucky to get any photos at all...

After a breakdown and a bit of crying, we got the sweatshirt off.  Xander took it and, as per the usual, rolled it up into a bit of a pillow and lay on the floor with it...

Not for long tho, it was time to bring the sweatshirt downstairs...

Blow by the Muters...

And head towards the toy box where the laundry basket with toys was already waiting... remember we told you the boy in the toy box could get cuter...

And of course, no happy moment would be complete without his Ra Ra....

Sadly, shortly after these photos were taken the Benezra family suffered a loss at the hands of Sark Benezra... the sweatshirt was left unattended for a short period and Sark got ahold of it... needless to say we won't be posting pictures of what the sweatshirt looks like now because it makes Mama too sad, but we learned another lesson about fabric items the hard way.  Xander now uses the remnants of the sweatshirt in his crib as a bit of a pillow.  Curse you, Nike, for not selling the same sweatshirt two seasons in a row!