Father's Day

For Father's Day this year, Mama and Xander wanted to make it special.  So we came up with a plan.  We would have a photo shoot in Xander's new 1 <3 DAD T-shirt, get Dada some presents and make him a nice meal of his choice.  

Our first photo shoot attempt went poorly when Xander fell into some fresh beauty bark.  After carefully changing clothes, we needed to wash his outfit before we could try again.  The second time around we got some nice shots and chose the last one of those posted below to frame for Dada.  

We also each picked out a book and a card for Dada.  Mama's book was called "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" and when you open it, it starts playing the song!  That way Dada can teach Xander how to sing at baseball games.  Xander picked out a book called "My Dad Loves Me" which has different animals with their Dads and all the different ways that Dada loves his child - my Dad reads with me, my Dad naps with me, etc.  

A cool part about Father's Day is the Father's Day fairy.  At midnight on Father's Day, sometimes the Father's Day fairy pulls some strings and sets up a nice surprise for loving Dads.  Dada has wanted to change all the toilet seats in the house to quiet close seats, but Mama thought it was a waste of perfectly good toilet seats and money.  Mama's parents bought Dada one seat for the Master Bathroom last Christmas, but Dada wanted more.  So, the Father's Day fairy heard about this and decided to do something about it.  When Dada went to use the bathroom just after midnight before going to bed, he found the toilet seat downstairs was a quiet close seat!  How did that happen?  Then when we checked the spare bathroom, that seat was changed too!  Dada was so excited!  

After opening his gifts on Father's Day, Mama made Dada a nice meal.  He had requested ahi tuna, and Mama usually over cooks it, but this time it came out perfectly!  With some sides and dipping sauce, we had a fabulous restaurant quality meal at home.  That's Dada's favorite place to be - at home with his family!  

Happy Father's Day, Dada!

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 :)