Xander at 2

Xander. What can we say about Xander. What a funny kid! I sometimes call him "mini me." Not a mini Erin, but a mini Brian. He does so many things that are just like his dad. Grandma Ellen has noticed it also and has commented on it several times. He is very observant like his dad and quite, most of the time. He's content to play by himself next to the bucket of legos and just build a tower. He's slow, just like his dad. I don't mean slow developing, but slow moving. Almost always is he the last one done eating, it takes him forever. It takes him forever to wake up in the morning and walks so slow! What a dawdler. He will eat anything you put in front of him. I have a hard time saying what his favorite food is, because he eats everything. Just like his dad, there's very little he won't eat. He has an adorable smile, a cute giggle and is very smart and a lot ornery. He is the most verbal of the three, imitating everything he hears and saying words I didn't know he knew (like ceiling and mower). Just tonight he counted to ten by imitating Brian. But, he did it like Count von Count from Sesame street (1, ah , ah ah. 2 ah, ah, ah). It cracked us up. He isn't always quiet, though he's definitely a toddler. He likes tickling, chasing daddy around the house and gets into all the rough-housing the others do with daddy.

Other favorites of Xander:

Favorite toy: Hands down, legos. Most days he can be found in the living room building towers.

Favorite book: The Train Ride or I'm a Little Teapot.

Favorite food: As I said before, almost everything. He does particularly like rice krispies with banana. He eats 3 or 4 helpings of that each time.

Favorite thing to do: Build legos and watch Elmo.

Favorite Sesame Street Character: Cookie Monster. That's "his" doll and he does a great impression of Cookie.

Likes: building towers, coloring, putting the baby in the carrier and walking around, pushing his juice cup around in the shopping cart and pushing the mower outside.

Dislikes: swimming (he just doesn't really like the pool that much), cheese and cottage cheese, (although he has been eating some cheese lately, but he won't touch cottage cheese), strangers (including the doctor), and the nursery at church (he's been the last one to warm-up to it, although this last week was better).

Something funny he does: Loves to touch the ceiling and asks to do it around tall people like daddy, Grandpa Dale and Uncle Wes.