Xander Opens Presents

After Xander's Birthday party, he was due for a nap in a bad way.  Once he woke up, he was ready to open all of his gifts!  He has a pretty generous family and extended family because he made out with a bunch of loot!

Look at all those presents!  He got this Llama Llama book to add to his collection, along with some other books.  Xander loves books because Mama and Dada read to him each night before bed.  He likes to play with books during the day too.

Grandma found Xander this puppy.  It (really hard to tell if it is a girl or boy) teaches Xander colors, body parts and sings to him too.  He really likes his puppy.

Melissa gave Xander a soft bowling ball set, here is an action shot of Dada helping trying it out.

Great Uncle Allan and Tanya got Xander a box of goodies from the University of Washington bookstore.  Here he is falling in love with his new husky dog, Slush.

Go Dawgs!

Uncle Nick got Xander his music cube - he loves music so much so this was a great gift too!

Muters was getting her sniff on - gifts to sniff and Grandparents sock-footies... mmm, sniff!

Xander's new kitty, also from Uncle Nick, Catch Me Kitty!  "Catch me, catch me, if you can, I am a kitty, that likes to play, chase me, race me, we'll have fun, ready, steady, come on let's run!"  Yep, we've got it memorized already...

Muters tried out Xander's tunnel for him because he was a little scared of it at first.

Then Dada tried it out, you can see Xander is thinking about it...

Then Muters made herself available to Xander, so he couldn't resist a trip into the tunnel too!

Thank you to everyone who came out for Xander's special day and for giving him such thoughtful presents!

Xander's 1st Birthday Party

Xander had his first birthday party on Saturday June 9th.  He was joined by his family and his extended family (Mama and Dada's best friends) to celebrate.

We had lots of balloons - here are a couple under Xander's birthday banner.  We weighted them down with jars of Xander's favorite baby foods.

We also used baby food jars to hold photos of Xander.  As you made your way through the snack buffet line there were photos from each month of Xander's first year.

Auntie Lynnette and cousin Remi were there.  This was one of the last times we saw them before they moved away - we were so glad they could make it!

When our guests first started to arrive, the guest of honor was still sleeping.  Finally Dada went to wake him up and get him dressed in his special birthday duds.  Here he is making his entrance.

Nana Joyce was there - she couldn't get over how Xander knew to smile for the camera.  "He's such a ham," she said.

Papa was there too with his sister, our Auntie Vi.  Xander was really enjoying all of the love!

Grandma was there too, and she couldn't wait to get her hands on the Xan Man!  He sure loves his Grandma.

Great Grandma Sandy doesn't always hold Xander because she likes to give him his time and space to warm up to the crowds, but here she is holding the little guy.  See, Sandy!  He remembers you!  You can hold him anytime!

Not sure why, but Xander usually has a harder time warming up to Great Grandpa Henry.  We think he senses that Henry's hair is fake and isn't sure how to react...

Grandpa was there too, and despite the look on Xander's face, Xander was so happy to get his Grandpa fix!

Dancing with Mama is always fun too!

And a little hang time before cake time was in order for the special day!

We took a little break from the party to have some family photos taken outside.  Here's a sweet one of the little guy laughing it up on Dada's lap.

Still has super duper cute feeties...

And his Dada's swirl...

Mama's favorite accessory... Xander!

Xander's favorite accessory... Mama's hair!

Family photo op.

Kiss sandwich!

Eliza always knows the best photos to take - we love this one!  Great idea, Eliza!

We were on the fence about giving Xander actual sugary birthday cake.  Mama made a practice baby cake the week before and was planning to make one for the big day too.  When she ran low on time, she and Dada decided to skip the healthy cake and just let Xander let loose and try the chocolate cake we bought for the party.  He played with it for a little bit, and ultimately liked the cake part more than the frosting.  That's fine with us!  He had a great time eating shirtless for sure.

Xander, do you want some more cake?  Yes please!

Cake face!

Mama made a video of Xander's first year and played it for all of our guests that were still at the party.  Everyone decided to stand, maybe the couch had cooties... We were just glad they enjoyed the show!

Pappu and Gigi were there too - somehow they just got their picture taken later on.

After all the guests left we let the kitties out of their room and tried to get some family photos with them.  It's hard enough to get three people to look at the camera and smile, but it's almost impossible to get three humans and two cats to cooperate at the same time.

We sure love our little guy and even though we know he won't remember this party first hand, we know he had a good time and that's all that matters.  We love you, Xander!

No Hitter

The Mariners had pitched 2 no hitters in team history up until this year.  A weird game went on the night before Xander's birthday party and Xander and Anthony watched intently as the Mariners had a combined no hitter with 6 different pitchers (a feat more rare than a no hitter with 1 pitcher).

Tough to see the TV but a fun and historical night for the boys to share together.  

12 month photo shoot

Something tells us it will be a little harder to document Xander's second year than his first, but we started off strong!  

Xander got all dressed up the day after his birthday in his short sleeved dress shirt from Auntie Lynnette and his dark jeans.  Thank goodness those 9 month jeans still fit!

Here's that winning smile we've all loved since the first time we saw it.  Xander is doing a great job sitting in this chair without freaking his mama out too much with the wiggles.

Oh hi, Mama!  Aren't I handsome?  And look how nice our yard looks right now too!

Say cheese!  Xander had decided to give standing on the chair a try.  Such a cutie!

Hey, Mama?  If I sit in the chair backwards and sorta hang over the edge, is that cute?  Yes sweetie, super cute.

Xander had been working on his getting-off-a-chair-by-himself skills that day, so he put them to the test during our photo shoot.  It was going great until he got off the chair in an unorthodox way and got himself stuck like this.  So adorable!

So, what do you think?  Most handsome 12 month old ever?  We think so... but we're biased :)

Xander's 1st Birthday

It was a day like most other days, except when Xander woke up he was greeted by both Mama and Dada at the same time along with lots of happy birthday wishes and kisses!

He was so happy to start his special day off right!

What is a birthday without a birthday bib?

Once he was fed and dressed, it was time to open his birthday card and presents.

But first, a quick shot with his birthday banner!  This took some work on Mama and Dada's part - needless to say hanging a banner this large and that high was not something we do often :)

At this point, Xander has already opened his large yellow/orange sensory ball and has started to enjoy his new stacking cups.  That boy loves those sensory balls and all kinds of cups.  These stack, nest and turn into balls when snapped together!  Yay!

Loving his new yellow cup while enjoying his new favorite toy - the penguin!  This penguin lights up, teaches him ABC and 123 and plays songs.  He LOVES this thing.  Nice job, Dada, for finding a good deal on this one.

Tobbles!  Stacking blocks that are rounded and weighted.  Once we got them stacked, it was time to attack!

Here is an action shot of the aftermath.  Xander is closing his eyes in anticipation of falling objects and loud noises.

Xander also got a wooden bench - his favorite part of that ever since has been the hammer.  He loves that hammer!  He will carry it with him everywhere.

And the grand finale?  His new guitar!  Xander loves music so much that we had to get him this item.  He can play music, learn to count, hear animal sounds and jam!  "I'll play my guitar, who will sing in my band?"  Wonder how many times we will hear that one in the next year...?

Xander had a great first birthday and was really glad Dada could stay home a little while in the morning to open gifts.  Little did he know Mama and Dada had a big party planned for that weekend to celebrate with family and friends.  Happy First Birthday, Xander!  We love you!

Blake Island

The infamous Wil Lavaris was all set to get married - but first, a bachelor party was in order.  Wil chose to get all his good friends together for a boat ride and two night stay on Blake Island.  In preparation for the event, Anthony ordered some supplies including a new camping lantern, sea bands for the boat ride and a nice sleeping bag and pad.  We had to make sure the supplies were good enough for the trip once they arrived from Amazon, so we opened up the pad and bag to test them out on our floor.  No surprise that the cats decided to test that out for us.

After borrowing Jeremy's tent, Anthony ended up sleeping in a 3 walled and fully roofed structure.  Top left bunk was his.  Suffice to say, this was better than camping outside.  A huge blue tarp and some backpacks kept the wild raccoons out.  The rangers kicked us off the island after about 5 hours of drunken debauchery and we were forced to leave the next morning.

Most importantly, Wil had a great time on the island and many of the boys went on to another island for another crazy night of partying.  Anthony, Booth and others disembarked Saturday and enjoyed being on land, showered and able to sleep at home.

Breaking News

One year and one week after Xander was born he took his first steps!  Of course you are never ready with a camera when something like this happens, so the video of his first steps is more like a video of his 8th step and beyond, but it's close enough!

Mama has been helping Xander to practice his walking skills by helping him to stand up, then with one hand, guiding him to walk along beside her.  She wanted to avoid the stooped-over two-handed help-a-child-walk process, and it worked!  All she was trying to do was to get him to stand unassisted.  So she got him to stand up, then let go of his hand... more like pried his hand off of hers.  Then, instead of standing there as Mama hoped he would, Xander surprised her by walking to her and giving her a hug! It was so awesome!

The video was taken with a laptop set on a counter, so the perspective could have been much better if a real person was manning the camera.  Dada, unfortunately, was at work when this happened.  But he's super excited nonetheless.