histoire 2 de jouet en français...

... is Toy Story 2 in French, which is what Xani is currently watching, thanks to me hitting the wrong button so it went to French instead of English. This is a movie he absolutely LOVES and has watched so many times, he even knows what happens when, and what a lot of the script is, proven by him saying a line mere seconds before it's said in the movie. He always gets so excited when he sees someone with a Buzz Lightyear or Woody toy, or a picture of them on a t-shirt/book/poster etc. He'll usually still hang around and watch it, while play with toys, more listening than watching it these days really...but today, with changing it to French, he hasn't moved since I put it on, and is staring at the tv with a look of puzzled fascination on his face. Maybe I should try putting his favourite movies on in another language more often! LOL!

Also, Xan went to his first ever birthday party yesterday... for a little boy turning 2. He had an absolute blast, as the place was set up perfectly for just letting kids run wild, without worrying about them breaking anything. Trampolines, sandpit, swings, slide, bikes, scooters (which Xani LOVED, coz he is forever playing with his own scooter), LOTS of toys... all of these filled the front yard, which was well fenced, so that as soon as we'd walked in the gate and Xan saw the swings etc, he was yanking on my hand, trying to get me to let go... then managed to yank his hand right out, and he was OFF! We barely saw him the whole time at the party as he was having far too much fun playing, to the point where he didn't even want the yummy BBQ food... although he DID come running when he saw the ice cream and birthday cake. Typical kid! LOL! But even they were eaten on the run. The only times there was any trouble, was when the young birthday boy wanted to play with the same toy Xan was playing with. Both boys weren't the best when it came to this whole "sharing" thing.. and I'm a little embarrassed to say our Xani got quite aggressive with a couple of patches, and shoved poor Thane around while trying to yank the current "favourite toy" off him. Definitely going to have to work more on the concept of SHARING! :-/
Ah well... at least he had a lot of fun (as did the birthday boy), which is the main thing. He even started getting the hang of riding one of the little trikes there, although it was only when there was a little tiny slope down hill that he actually managed to push the peddles around. Pushing them around going back UP the slope (even though there was barely any incline at all), was a bit too much hardwork for him... so he'd hop off and push. I'm thinking his 3rd birthday pressie should be a bike of his own (can't afford it for Xmas.. so will have to be bday).. he loves anything with wheels!

Just a drop more...

Just to add to that last bit about the lemon juice... I dribbled a bit of juice onto his cracker, which he then ate a bit of. Next thing we know, he's got a fistful of lemon wedge and is struggling to squeeze some more juice onto his cracker, then into his own mouth. :)

Seems he's got the same "I Love Sour Stuff" gene both his dad and big brother have. -hehehehe-

A whole lotta cute, with just a hint of sour!

Lately Xani has been getting cuter and cuter... too cute for his own good some days, or maybe more a case of too cute for OUR own good! LOL! With the move up to Hamilton, we've found the weather far hotter than we're used to experiencing in Palmerston North, especially this early into Summer... so we've been keeping a lot of fruit in the fridge. Xan has discovered a love of fruit... grapes, strawberries, apples, bananas etc... and he knows where they're kept! A couple of weeks ago, there was a bag of grapes in the fridge, and every time the fridge was opened, he'd be there, begging for grapes. Then, one time, I'm sitting at the dining room table as he comes wandering in... he spots me, gets that cheeky lil "I'm up to something" grin, turns his head and body so I can't see the look on his face as he shuffles past me.. heading for the fridge. Next thing I know, he comes wandering back past... mouth stuffed full of grapes and that grin even bigger! Cheeky monster! Only 2 and a lil thief already! He does the same thing with Karl's mints, which he loves. If we leave the bedroom door open accidently, we'll find him coming out of there, grinning, babbling about a mint.. and sure enough, he's pinched another one!

Ack.. then you get days like today, where we have JUST caught him coming out of our bedroom, smelling like the Lynx deoderant spray Karl uses, and all of Karl's chewing gum eaten! LOL! At least he smells all fresh now!

He's also started sharing with the rats... regularly he will offer them a part of what he's eating, like a bit of apple, sandwhich etc. The other day he had been given a huge strawberry, of which he'd eaten half.. then he wandered over to the cage and held the strawberry remains up to the cage, which was instantly surrounded by twitching noses and reaching, grabbing paws. So he let them all have a few bites, then walked away with the leftover strawberry, after telling the rats "you're welcome"! So cute how he shares... and always with lovely manners.

Now.. for the sour! Karl cooked up yummy crumbed fish today, which Xan had a couple of bites of, then turned his nose up at... and then he saw us putting lemon on our fish. "Juice, juice" came the cry... so, thinking he'd take one taste and then not want any more, I grabbed a piece of lemon and squirted some into his mouth. The look of satisfaction he had was instantly replaced with the typical "oh gawd, what is this, it's so SOUR" screwed up facial expressions, that, like the mean parents we are, had us instantly laughing at him... only to sit and stare in shock at him when he shook it off, and asked for MORE! After that, he kept wanting more lemon juice until we couldn't squeeze another drop out!

I know this is all just little snippets... there's a lot going on in our household at the moment, some of which will be blogged about in my other blogs... so my mind is really not with it right now, and kinda struggling to put a decent blog post up. But, I will at least try to continue keeping up with these posts (even if they're only little random scattered snippets).. part of the whole "new life" we've started now we've moved to Hamilton. A LOT of life changes going on right now!

Inquisitive Destruction

I couldn't resist posting this photo. The other day Xani decided to pull my beloved camera (a Nikon D70) down off the dining room table (my fault for forgetting just how high up he can reach now!), and it landed on the lens (my favourite lens too.. the 70-300 zoom *sobs*), which busted the auto-focusing in the camera, and stuffed up the zooming mechanics in the lens. It must've hit really hard because the lens cap was also very tightly wedged in the front of the lens, and took quite a while to get it back out! I was not a happy camper!! Certainly going to have to pay far more attention to where I leave my camera (and other important things) from now on.

Anyways, yesterday I was checking out the camera, seeing if it would actually still take photos at all. Tried autofocus.. noises happening, but not a lot else. Flipped it to manual focus, and had no problem taking a photo... but with my eyesight as crap as it is now, I've always relied heavily on the autofocus to get even a halfway decent shot that's actually IN focus. So.. I was rather surprised that the quick snap "test" shots I took of Xani while checking the camera, were actually reasonably in focus (well... a lot more so than I'd expected anyways).
This one is definitely my favourite.. it's typical XANI! Those gorgeous curls, that cheeky wee grin with just a hint of the angelic wee boy he CAN be (but, now that he's hitting those dreaded "terrible two's", often chooses NOT to be).. our happy lil man. Even on the days when my head is trying to thump it's way off my shoulders due to the headache I always seem to have thanks to Xani's screaming temper tantrums, or the days where I get so close to wanting to throttle the lil terror, and even on the days where I just have to walk away and fight tears of frustration... even then, I just love this lil boy of ours so much. He has taught us all so much in these last 2 years and I find life is so much richer with having him and Gordy in it. I still have moments where I find it hard to believe I'm a Mum, and have been now for coming up 10 years... where I wait for someone to turn up to collect THEIR kids that I've been babysitting for all these years... and am very thankful when I remind myself that this is NOT the case.
How can you not look at that gorgeous, cheeky wee face and just wanna hug him to pieces?? Now excuse me while I go watch K chase the lil ratbag BACK into bed where he just does NOT want to stay, now he's in a big bed and knows how to get out!!

BIG Steps

*pats my poor neglected blog and sighs* Ok.. I'm seriously not good with this blogging thing. So much for keeping up with it all. BUT.. this is definitely something that absolutely HAD to be blogged. Last night Xani spent his first ever night in a BIG BOY BED! I'm still in shock over it... esp with just how easy it was! We seperated Gordy's bunk beds a few days ago, and moved one of them into Xani's room to start letting him get used to it being there. Xan, of course, thought this was great... a new toy for him to play on! Oh, and watch out anyone who DARED try and even PRETEND to sleep on his new bed... Daddy tried that once, and ended up getting the blankets dragged off him, yelled at, shoved around, and even had his hair pulled! Squig was definitely NOT impressed that someone was sleeping in HIS bed... maybe we should change his nick name to baby bear? Anyway, after a few days, I figured it was time to start trying to see if he'd sleep in the big bed, so the other day we tried putting him to bed that night in it. He happily snuggled under the covers, toys all cuddled up around him, dummy in the mouth, kisses and hugs goodnight were given, and we walked out. All was good and happy... until we made the mistake of turning out the light and shutting the door. Suddenly he realised this wasn't actually a game... we were seriously expecting him to sleep in this bed! So, after the grizzles, he was settled into the cot for the night and I thought we'd be waiting a while longer before being able to get him to sleep in the big bed.
Then yesterday, I thought I'd try him at nap time in the big bed, which resulted in him getting out several times and throwing a tanty every time I tried to put him BACK in the bed... so, nap time was a major failure and I ended up leaving him to play in his room behind the shut door. Night time rolled around, and he was given the choice of cot or bed to sleep in for the night, and I fully expected him to not want the bed. But.. he picked the bed, and again snuggled down with his toys, we said goodnight and walked out... then waited with our breaths held as the light was turned out and the door shut. Not a peep! Huh.. what's going on here? Has he just gotten out of bed.. nope, no thuds or sounds of movement. Wait half an hour.. still silence from the bedroom. Ok.. this is weird.. surely he hasn't just actually gone to sleep in the big bed?? 2 hours go by, no change. Later on, we go to bed, and I'm thinking that when he does his usual nightly wake-ups, he probably won't settle, and will need to be put back in the cot for the rest of the night. Well, he woke up twice.. and both times settled back down in the bed happily enough (he only needed someone to get up to him once too.. a huge improvement from his usual nights of several wake-ups and having to get up to him at least a couple of times), plus he didn't start making murmurs in the morning until somewhere between 8-9am, and even then, he gently knocked on his bedroom door, then went and played with his toys until he was let out. I can't believe it was THAT easy!
So yes, our baby has just spent his first night in a proper bed... now.. to see if he can repeat this amazing feat!

-GAH!-

Welcome, to Frustration City... population: uncountable... population HERE: 4.

Xani has reached The Terrible Twos a little early... and is really milking it for all it's worth.

We still love him dearly... it just takes a little more effort somedays. ;)

2009 Summary

Well, it's nearly the end of 2009 (like 3 days away!) so I suppose a quick post is in order.

Firstly, Squig is 19 months old today. What a change hath been wrought since last I wrote...

Xani is now fully confident on his feet, to the point where to put him in his carseat is as simple as opening the house front door, and the car door, and watching as he climbs down the front steps, runs to the car, and climbs up almost his own height and sits himself in the seat. He has even started to try and buckle himself in, saying "kik" (his version of the "Click" noise) as he slaps the buckles against the release body.

Putting toys away is a simple instruction, and he will go through some remarkably complex thoughts and actions to comply! The kid is almost SCARY in his mental processing power.

He loves to dance to Stageshow Musicals on TV or DVD, and today sat on my knee watching the YouTube video fo The Muppets singing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (Well, their version of it anyways) on his Mum's 21" monitor, and kept grabbing my hands and waving them around... it used to be the other way around - me grabbing him!

It worries me actually... if he is this precoscious now... is he going to be one of these kids who demands constant mental stimulation or he turns to crime for entertainment, or will he be one who uses this inner eregy to drive himself to greater academic and sporting achievements? (To be honest, what scares me the most is that EITHER option gets very expensive for us as he ages!)

Ah well, time will tell... he may discover a third, fourth or even fifth option in time I guess...