Play Time

Xander spends most of his play time downstairs while Mama does chores, but sometimes he plays with his upstairs toys instead.  

One of his favorite toys is this funky looking blue creature that has 4 gears set inside of it that move when you roll the creature across the floor.  He is magnetized to those gears, as evidenced above.  Mama found him that toy before he was born!

Xander also enjoys his race track toy too.  The orange circle in the middle spins so when you let your car ride down onto the "track" it spins around and around until it spits out and rolls under the finish flag.  Xander got this for Hanukkah from his Pappu and Gigi - at first he was terrified of it, but now he shows no fear... in fact...

Xander has found many interesting ways to play with this particular item.  Too bad the spinner won't work if too much weight is put onto it, or this would be even more hilarious!  What's that Mama?  I'm doin' it wrong?

Who says a boy that can't walk yet also can't yet enjoy his personalized stool?  Xander already takes the letters out and plays with them.  Ok, maybe he just bangs them on things, but that counts!

Gigi's Birthday & Football?

Xander spent the morning of March 18th with his Mama, Dada, Auntie Selena, Uncle Jason, Auntie Samara, Uncle Jeremy, Pappu Larry to celebrate the birthday of Gigi.  Grandma Benezra was enjoying a slice of heaven, what with her family all present for a nice brunch at Palisade, what more could you ask for?

Mama, Dada and Xander had to leave a little early to get Dada to his flag football playoff game.  The game itself didn't go so well, and despite having Auntie Samara arrive as a much needed substitute player, the Fluke Of Nature team was denied their championship dream for the season.  However, we were able to get a few cute shots of Xander all bundled up for his Dada's game:

The Easter Bunny was EARLY!

Right before Easter, we spotted the Easter bunny in our yard!  Then on Easter Sunday as we were leaving Yelm we spotted him again.  We only got documentation of the first sighting, but here he is!  In the ... fur?  

Saint Patty's Day - another first for Xander!

You didn't think we'd let Saint Patty's Day go by without some documentation, did you?  Check it out!

Go ahead, Kiss him... he's Irish!  Hmm... is he really tho?  Shakira says bibs don't lie, so... oh, what?  oh... HIPS... my bad...

Dada!  You were hiding behind the pillow in your Mariners St. Patty Day hat!  Can I wear your hat?

Where'd everybody go?

Hey, this hat looks pretty good on me!

Haha, we're hilarious!

9 months

9 months old means it's time for a photo shoot!  Here are some choice shots of Xander in his adorable 9 month sweater - Mama Like!

He's a boy in the hood!

He loves sitting in the chair and trying to get in on the action - he figured the kitties are in the window, he should be too!

Ah, to sit in the window... a boy can only dream!

Don't know what it is, but there is something incredibly cute about this photo...  Mama just loves it!

Look Mama!  I can almost SEE out the window!  Better than chewing on the windowsill - I enjoy that too...

The future's so bright!  Oh, it's just the sun... and the future too?  Ok, good!

The Xander Dance

So, as it turns out, our Xander is quite the little dancer!  Some of his toys play short songs, and as he sits playing with them he'll start to sway back and forth while seated.  After establishing this move, he started getting into dance moves while standing.  Here is some documentation of one of his first standing dance moves!  While he appears to have a proclivity for Neil Diamond, in truth he'll now dance to just about anything, including background music on television.

This post will be out of order, date-wise, but we thought it just couldn't wait!

Top Chef Master

We are foodies and love going to restaraunts with famous chefs.  We see them on TV on Top Chef, Top Chef Masters, Chopped, Iron Chef, etc.  This last weekend we had a chance to celebrate Samara and Jeremy's upcoming trip to Israel with a dinner including Selena, Jason and the two of us.  Xander was at Gigi and Pappu's house playing while the rest of us all dined at LUC.  After dinner was over, we talked to the head chef and restaraunteur Thierry Rautureau (pictured below).  He is a James Beard Award winning chef and was very fun to talk to - we recognize him from Top Chef Masters Season 2.  He also owns and runs Rover's down the street in Madison Park - which is where he was headed when we met him.  He travels between his restaurants during the evenings to make sure everything is going well.  We will check that place out soon too.  He hinted that Top Chef is going to be in Seattle soon and that they will be having another Top Chef Masters, probably in August!  Yay!