Xavier is 9 months old!

Yay! Xavier is 9 months old! There is so much going on with this little guy, its awesome:

*Xavier is totally walking. Its so funny to see because he still looks like a baby, but is walking. Hahaha. 

*Xavier is trying so hard to say other words. He has a small vocabulary right now. When he watches Baby Einstein he repeats the words, or tries to. The other day they said "Daddy" and he started saying "Dada" and then they said "Ball" he started saying "Ba ba ba ba". Also, when I turn Baby Einstein on he gets his Baby Einstein books and plays with them while watching. 

*He is super ticklish, especially on his right side. 

*Another tooth has broken through and 3 more are just aching to get out!

*Xavier does this cute thing when he doesnt want something that you are trying to give him, mostly food. He will throw his head back and close his eyes really tight. Hahaha

*Xavier is really good at yelling back at you. If you yell to him, he will yell back.

He is such a happy baby, all the time. Its awesome. Everyone is always so impressed on how he was starting to walk a little before 8 months old. =) 

In other news, today Jeremy and I went to pay for our new car and we also finally test drove one! Thats right, we bought a car without even test driving it! See, the thing is, is that the dealership gets one vehicle to test drive and after 4 months, they sell it. So when we were looking is when the new test vehicle was being built and shipped to him  and hadnt arrived yet. I think its kind of cool they get a specific vehicle for that and not just any one that they have. Is that normal?

At first we were thinking, "what if we dont like it?". That would be crappy since we just paid for it! Hahaa but we LOVE it and cant wait for ours to come! Its going to be so awesome!

Plans are in the works!

Lately I have been planning Xavier's 1st birthday party, I am so excited! I already have the location reserved and I am still trying to decide on a theme. I have it down to 2 but still have not decided. I was also kind of getting worried that I wouldn't find a place to make his cake. I was asking around the community because I know there are some women here that make cakes and such but the women that I heard of have already moved back to the states. Samara said she would ask Cathrin about a bakery here and she said there was one! I am so happy! They make American style cakes, too. Now I just have to go there to talk to them with Cathrin and make sure they can do what I want. First though, I need the theme. Hahaha. Its way harder than I thought it would be.

Any thoughts on themes???

Our big bed

We have this huge king size bed that is pretty far off the ground. Xavier sleeps with us and for naps he is usually on it as well. So we barricade him in with pillows and such and hope we hear him when he wakes up to get to him before he starts crawling around on the bed. We actually always hear him when he wakes up and he is just sitting up waiting for us to come in.
    Xavier went to bed this evening and woke up like an hour later. We tried everything to get him back to sleep. Nursing, rocking, patting on the back, but he just did not want to go back to sleep. He was sort of sleeping and so I started to walk away and he started waking up. So I crouched down. I wanted to see what he would do. I was crouched down for a good 5 minutes and all he did was sit up and make noise. He kept looking at the door patiently waiting for someone to come and get him. He made noise the whole time. No cries, just talking. I just think its so amazing that he doesnt try to get off the bed himself and just makes noises and waits for someone to come get him.

Honestly.....

    Ive held this in long enough and now I just have to share.

    I really miss being pregnant. Even though I was sick most of the pregnancy, got really swollen, and my nose grew about 200%, I miss the feeling of a baby inside me. The kicks, hiccups. and turns are such amazing feelings that I can't wait to be pregnant again. At the right time though, my body isn't completely 100% yet.
    Ive been feeling this since about a month after Xavier was born. Its so weird, I really didn't think it would have that much of an impact on me. I also miss how Xavier was when he was a little baby. His cry was so small then. Ahhhh!! I need to stop talking about this! =)

He gave it up

    When Xavier was born I wasnt sure if I wanted to give him a pacifier or not. I was still in debate until I saw that one of the midwives had given him one when he was in the nursery. I really didnt let Xavier have one unless nothing else worked. From then on he used one. I was kind of not looking forward to the day where I would have to take it away and didnt even know if I was actually going to or just let him use it until he was ready to let it go. 

    When we got home from the states Xavier didnt really seem interested in using it anymore. I think it might have been because of his new little teeth that were coming in. Every time he puts it in his mouth now he chews it a second and then spits it out. Its more like a toy for him. Its cute. 

    I am kind of relieved that we dont have to go through the weening stage because I am going to have to do it when  I stop breastfeeding him. Which is going to be hard enough.

PS - Have you noticed that I am actually capitalizing my letters?? Yay!

happy new year!

we had an amazing 2010. it was such a good year it was hard to let it go. although, i think 2011 is going to be fabulous as well. im ready for it.

our new year's eve day was spent getting snacks ready for a little get together we were having that night. it was samara's birthday and her husband was gone so i wanted to make it extra special for her. she had a couple of her friends come over as well - cathrin and nada.

jeremy and i made hot atrichoke dip and hot crab dip, both of which were insanely tasty. we had baked cupcakes for the birthday girl and had veggies, crackers, and sausage and cheese. nothing too major. they came over around 8pm and thats when we started eating. it was a fun time. we all talked and cathrin and nada pretty much fought over holding xavier. it was cute.

when it got close to midnight we all got ready and headed outside to see the fireworks. its legal here to set off fireworks, just not on base. They were so beautiful and xavier loved them so much! it was pretty cold so we didn't stay out there long. After that we went back home for a bit and then jeremy drove samara, cathrin, and nada to the train station so they could go out. on the way back jeremy got a ticket from a MP on base. it was really stupid and jeremy didn't do anything wrong. what a great way to start out the new year, eh?

xavier fell asleep while jeremy was out. when he got home we stayed up for a while watching shows and stuff. it was about 4 when we finally went to bed.

in the morning we got up and i made cinnamon rolls. we pretty much vegged out the whole day. Ito was really nice.

im glad we had a nice and relaxing new year. we all enjoyed it and that's what counts.

christmas!

on the morning of christmas eve is started snowing. and it did not stop. its snowed and snowed and snowed. i personally was happy about it because all of our previous snow had melted and we were going to get a white christmas! overall i think we got about a foot of snow.

 this christmas eve was pretty mellow. jeremy went during the day to check our mail for the last time before christmas to see if we had more packages. we pretty much had dinner and then later that night before bed xavier listened to his auntie jenna read him "the night before christmas". she bought him one of those hallmark books and recorded herself reading it so he could hear. it was pretty awesome.

we left cookies out for santa and then started finishing up the wrapping and putting the presents out. once we were done with that, we headed to bed.

we woke up and santa came! i was so excited to see xaviers reaction to all of the presents.

of course, we let him open his first. well, the ones he wanted to open. he got through the first one or two and then decided that he just wanted to play with those. jeremy and i really opened up the rest. i was kind of disappointed because i thought he would just want to tear them open, but i guess he is still too young. 

after we cleaned up most of them mess we just let xavier play with his toys and we opened up ours. we didnt get a lot of the presents we ordered for each other but we had presents from other people we could open, which was nice. samara came over after we were done and we opened each others presents. we pretty much lounged the rest of the day. we went to our neighbors for a little bit but we couldnt stay long because we were reheating some food up that our dear friend sharon and tom made and gave to us (we were supposed to go over their house for dinner but an unfortunate thing happened and plans changed but they had to cook a 25lb turkey and gave us a lot of it with fixings for our christmas day). that night we just hung out and messed with our new gifts. pretty mellow and oh so nice. oh, we also had to take a bunch of pictures of xavier, but here are a couple:

 nana got him this onesie to wear today! adorable!

grandma got xavier this santa outfit to wear. how cute!