the cutest little laughs

yesterday i was hanging out with my friends samara and april. samara has a new corgi puppy, button, and april has 2 big dogs, jade and clover. button was playing with clover and barking and being all cute and xavier thought it was the funniest thing. he was cracking up. and not just laughs - he really got into it and was throwing his head back while laughing. it was the cutest thing. ever.  i just couldnt get over how cute it was and was telling jeremy and roberta about it. then today i went over to samaras house and xavier was laughing again, but now he was laughing at samara just talking. hahahaa then button started barking and xavier laughed again. then samara made a barking noise and xavier thought that was funny. we kept doing it. haha

xavier is such a fun little guy to be around and he always brings a smile to my face. i love him SO much!

just the two of us...

i am going to get a taste of what its like to be a single mother. i am not really looking forward to it, but i think i will be ok. 

tomorrow jeremy leaves to italy for 4 days. i think i would be fine with that, BUT, he is leaving on monday to go back to the states for a week to be with his family following the loss of grandma joanne. i am really happy that he is going because roberta really needs him, but i am sad that i am going to be alone. 

xavier has been sleeping so bad these last couple of days. im pretty sure, but can be wrong, that he is teething. he has a lot of signs that lead me to believe he is, but im not sure. i really hope it doesnt last long. last night we didnt get to sleep until after 1am and then he woke up at 5:30am. in between he was waking up as well. its going to be hard to not get the help when jeremy would be home. 

all i can say, is wish me luck! haha

stork bites and angel kisses???

when xavier was born we noticed he had red marks one on each of his eyelids and a pretty big one on the back of the neck. there are other couple of small ones - on his forehead and there is actually one sort of shaped like a heart on the back of the neck.

people would mention that they were just "stork bites" and that they would go away after a couple of months. we were curious about them so today i looked online to see what they were and they said that they are vascular birth marks - where blood vessels accumulate under the base of the skin. the ones on his eyelids are "angel kisses" and the ones on the back of his neck are "stork bites". the "angel kisses" should be gone by the time he is 2 and the "stork bites" he might have for a long time. we aren't bothered by them because he is just so stinkin adorable, we dont really even notice them anymore. just curious. =)

joanne

yesterday, jeremy's grandma passed away. roberta, auntie mar, and barney were by her side. this is very heartbreaking. i want to share my last visit with joanne.

before we moved to germany josh, alyson, and eli were coming to stay with us for a couple of days. the day they came i got home late because after work i had a root canal done. i pulled into the garage and jeremy came out to greet me and informed me that grandma was also there. i was surprised because no one told us she was coming too, but i was happy that we get to see her. i also kind of started to panic. i was wondering if we had enough food, where she would sleep and if my house was clean enough. of course, grandma was totally fine with just sleeping on the couch.

i baked 2 loaves of zucchini bread before they got there and by the time they left, the 2 loaves were gone. grandma pretty much devoured most of it. it was really funny. i would clean up the kitchen before we went to bed and when i woke up in the morning i would find crumbs all over the counter and floor from where she got up and ate more. i was a little irritated because i had just cleaned up the night before only to wake up to have to clean up again. but the fact that grandma enjoyed the bread so much, made me happy!

when we told grandma what we were having for dinner one of the nights she said that she doesnt eat meat because she was vegan. then when we cooked dinner that night she ate the meat. we said something to her about it and she said that she is only a vegan around julia! we found that to be hilarious!

she also said she only drank soy milk and jeremy told her that it was gross. she said that she was getting used to it. well, we had this very delicious, expensive, chocolate milk in the fridge from one of the local creameries and she pretty much drank the whole thing! she loved it a lot!

her and eli fell asleep together.

one of the days we all went to seattle and grandma stayed home. we came back and she told us that she watched the movie "coraline" in 3d - glasses and all. she said she couldnt tell the difference between regular and 3d. =)

she definitely made us laugh when she was visiting. just being around her made my heart smile. i wish i could have been around her more. i only knew her for about 5 years, but it felt like id known her my whole life.

she was an amazing woman and i love hearing stories that everyone tells me about her. she will definitely be missed, but never ever forgotten.

i love you grandma joanne!

some things we love about xavier

 - we love that he still does things that he did when he was first born. when he is hungry he always puts his fists up to his mouth, roots, and makes grunting noises. sometimes its a little hard to feed him, i have to pull his hands away. its too funny!

 - we love that he is so talkative!

 - we love that his eyes get huge when we go into a room that's a little darker than the previous room.

 - we love how animated xavier is. he makes the best faces!

 - we love that he is pretty much always happy! its very rare that he is crabby.

 - we love the color of his eyes.

 - we love that he tries to talk when he is eating.

 - we love how he makes us feel.

 - we love his chubiness.

 - we love that he loves when we make noises with our mouth.

 - we love that he is a cuddle bug.

 - we love his ears and the hair on them.

 - we love that he makes us smile.

 - we love the way he smiles.

 - we love that one time he laughed when we put him in the bath.

 - we love the feel of him in our arms.

we love everything about xavier - these are just specifics to name! =)

xavier is 3 months old!

stats at 2 months:

weight: 13 lbs 14 ozs
height: 24 inches

stats at 3 months:

weight: 16 lbs
height: 25 inches

wow. xavier is certainly growing up! it seems like not too long ago ( i know a month isnt that long, but im talking like last week) i wrote xavier's 2 month blog. time does fly when you are having fun! xavier is just amazing.

here we go!

*shortly after xavier turned 2 months old he started recognizing when he is going to be fed. he starts smiling all big and gets super happy! its cute!

*xavier can roll over, and not just to one side, to both from his tummy to back!

*he's started showing us the pouty lip. cant help but think its cute! haha

*xavier has started pulling his toys from his play mat and putting them in his mouth.

*he likes to suck on his fist.

*he sleeps about 5 hrs at a time during the night - sometimes longer.

*xavier likes when we sing to him.

*he isnt really a morning person. he will whine and cry a little when he is waking up but once he is awake he is bright eyed and bushy tailed! =D

*xavier really has us wrapped around his tiny little finger. sometimes we have to be holding him while standing. if we sit down he starts to cry and stops as soon as we stand again. he also knows that when he is crying in his swing or whatever, that when i get up, i am going to get him. he stops crying and starts smiling! haha

*drooling has begun along with spit bubbles, maybe teething is in his near future?

*xavier loves to feel things. he likes a couple of his super soft blankets and will pull them up to his face to feel them.

xavier is such a fun little guy to be around. i love learning new things about him everyday!

xavier's baptism

xavier got baptized today. he really should have been baptized long before now, but we didnt know where a traditional catholic church was here in germany. finally my dad got in touch with the bishop who gave us contact information for a priest here. i started talking to him over email and he told me about a church here in stuttgart! i was pretty shocked that there was one here and its only like 15 minutes away! its awesome! last week was our first time going there. its this little chapel with about 15-20 members. its super tiny. of course, we are the only americans and everything is in german and latin so its kind of tough. well, not the latin part because i can follow the mass fine, but the sermon and everything else is in german. anyway, so we talked to the priest last week about getting xavier baptized and he set it up for today!

we got there at 3:30pm, a half hour before mass started. the ceremony started pretty much right away. it took about 20 or so minutes. when the priest was speaking german he was rolling his "r's" and xavier really liked that. he was glued to him and kept smiling. it was cute! the beginning part is 3 exorcisms - during that part xavier spit up twice. i didnt think of this but jeremy told me after that he kept thinking of "the exorcist". hahahaha xavier did pretty good throughout the ceremony, he liked the salt on his tongue. he started crying when the priest was making the sign of the cross with the oils on him so i took over and held him from then on. he didnt even start crying when the holy water was being poured over his head! 

mass was after the ceremony and then we came home.

everyone there is so nice, even though they dont know english and we dont know german - they just act so kind towards us. 

next weekend, the 31st, is when we are having the celebration of his baptism. i am excited! =)