when you say, "smile, xavier!" he does this:




zay zay says:

"be back, 'kay?" [while holding up his index finger and thumb]

"c'mon!" [gestures with his hand for you to come with him]

"eyes" [and points to his eyes. this is in response to the question, "xav, where's your nose?" other answers to this question are "belly" and "head."]

"squirrel!" [one of his favorite things to do is to look out our back window and find squirrels in the park.]

"where'd go??" [both palms up at his shoulders, confused look on his face. he could be asking about anything.]

****

this child yells and screams like no other child i have had. i could be sitting right next to him and hi would scream "MOM!" over and over...and over and over...sometimes smacking my face to get my attention. he will also scream if you come near his blanket. his favorite blanket is this large down teal throw. even if you are just touching a corner of it, he will not have it. you canNOT touch xavier's blanket. period. he also needs his personal space. just ask sam. he can tell you about it.

on top of being so noisy, xavier is also VERY strong. it's nearly impossible for me to hold him still in church these days. he'll wrestle and wriggle and push until you almost drop him. (it's just better to feed him all the fruit snacks he wants so he'll stay quiet.) i've watched this kid push isaiah around the living room in a laundry basket. he's so strong!

i've been singing songs to him lately. he chimes in on "i know" and "twinkle twinkle little star." one of our favorite things to do together these days is to draw on paper i've taped onto the wall in dining room. he always demands that i draw a "ba-ball" - which could be a football, basketball or baseball. i just draw all the sports balls i know how to make and he seems satisfied. i draw a picture of him and he waves at it, "HI!!" i also draw pictures of nursery rhymes and kids songs. he was a big fan of the "itsy bitsy spider." whenever i'd try to sing it with him, he'd run to the wall in the dining room so we could sing it by the drawing. i love it when he holds his little arms above his head to be the sun. his arms barely reach over the top of his head! it's so cute! and he claps with great enthusiasm when the song is over.