Xander Short Stories

Here are a few of Xander's recent adventures.

Story 1 - The day before he turned 2, Xander discovered that peas do indeed fit up his nose. Fortunately, they all rolled right back out. Believe me, I was sitting there wondering how I would get it out. Blue ball nose sucker, maybe? I know if it's Kix, you just crush it in his nose and make him blow it out. He hasn't tried it again.

Story 2 - I was sitting on the couch holding Josie when Xander walked up in front of me holding his little stuffed penguin. He proceeded to pull up his shirt and press the penguin to his chest. It took me a minute to figure out that he was pretending to nurse the penguin! I laughed so hard that I scared Josie a little. He held out the penguin to me and I'm not sure if he wanted me to help get the penguin latched on or if he wanted me to feed the penguin. I didn't know how to break it to him that a) boys can't nurse and b) penguins can't be nursed. He hasn't tried this again either.

Story 3 - In case you didn't know, Xander has chubby feet. This past week the weather turned rather quickly and we had to break out the socks and shoes. The only shoes that are close to fitting do not have any actual laces or velcro, just some elastic across the tongue. To get his foot in, I have to shoehorn it. So the shoe is more than long enough, it's just not quite wide enough. Due to a lack of shoehorns in our home, I used a spoon. Today when we were getting ready to leave, I told Xander to get his shoes, which he did. He then proceeded to run over to the silverware drawer, open it, and fish around until he found a spoon. He brought it over to the shoes. When I got the darned shoes on, I started strapping Josie into her seat and saw Xander get the spoon and return it to the drawer.

Story 4 - Xander's vocabulary seems to grow every day. His pronunciation is a little off, but that is to be expected. We can not seem to get him to make a sentence beyond saying "Hi cat." If he wants something, he will grunt a few times and say "Bah." 'Please' is the only word we can't seem to get him to say. He can say all of the parts, but when we put it all together, he grins really big and with a big nod says "Bah!" For a couple of weeks, he yodeled everything. "Hi-eyi-eyi-eyi!" Everyone thought it was so cute. I kept waiting for it get annoying, but it never did. His favorite word now is 'whale' (pronounced 'vay-heel') for the fishing game he loves and 'poop' (see next story). Today he finally started saying his sister's name. It sounds like 'Joe Gee' but it's better than always calling her 'Bee' (for baby).

Story 5 - Potty training time! Chris and I debated if it were time or not. Xander has seemed interested in it for a little while. The repeated incidents of finding him sans diaper and a mess for me to clean up were pointing towards 'yes.' But I didn't really think I was ready to deal with it, not with a baby to take care of too. So it's a compromise situation where we take him to the bathroom a few times a day or when he says 'poop' or 'pee.' He hangs out on the kiddie potty and we have some books for him to read (like 'Everyone Poops'). There have been a few successes, but there have also been frustrating moments of trying to keep him sitting or trying to get a diaper back on. He gets a cookie as a reward, but he thinks he deserves a cookie every time. So that has lead to a few temper tantrums.

Story 6 - Xander started throwing temper tantrums over the summer. Depending on the situation, it can involve yelling, crying, throwing things, sitting or throwing himself down. For the most part, I find them amusing but it hasn't happened in the middle of the store yet. One day he was upset that I didn't give him juice but gave him water. He started wailing and plopped down on the kitchen floor. He stopped, looked down at the hard floor, got up and walked onto the carpet and then started over by crying and plopping down on the soft carpet.

I think that about covers it. I'll try to get Josie stories in soon.