Elephant ears

We've been dealing with a little stomach flu at our house over the past few days. Its entailed lots (and lots!) of baths, especially for Xavier. He's remained pretty happy through the whole thing, but manages to get quite messy at times. Gross.
Anyway, here he is modeling his elephant bath towel, and looking pleased with himself for being clean. :-)

Longing for summertime...

The 60 degree weather we've had for the past 2 days (yes, 60, folks! In Ohio! In January!) along with conversations about vacationing at the beach...well, its got me wanting summer to be here N-O-W! So I decided to take trip down memory lane and post some pictures of our trip to Florida in June of 2006. Ben was not quite 2 yet, and Xavier had just turned 3. We went with my sister Kelly and my cousin Holly and stayed at a rental house with a pool minutes from Siesta Beach. My grandparents live there, and it was so good to visit with them. What a fun time!

Alright, I know what follows is a ridiculous quantity of pictures, BUT, not a lot of you have seen these, and they are some of my favorite pictures of all time, so deal with it! HA! (I mean, "enjoy!" ;-)

Play it again, Ben.

Ben had a blast banging out tunes on Grandma's piano with his cousins Owen (left) and Nathan. An appropriate closing to a festive birthday affair. Happy 1st Birthday, cousin Kathryn!

"I made a rainbow!"

Bennett's chalkboard has had a resurgance in popularity, even amongst all the Christmas toys. His favorite thing to draw is a "rainbow" with is really a bunch of concentric circles, each in a different color. He usually finishes it off with a smiley face in the middle.

Look Ma! No hands!

Ok, I know I post about how well Xavier is doing with his sitting quite often...but I can't overstate how proud we are of him!

In the past few weeks, he has gotten so much stronger...we don't know what to attribute it to, but really, who cares! Here he is - sitting with hands up, as he can now do all the time, for several seconds at a time. FABULOUS!!!



Xavier loves the vacuum cleaner. Bennett always helps by turning it on, and 'warns' Xavier before he flips the switch - "Ready, Xavier? I gonna turn the vacuum on! Here we go! 1-2-3!" Xavier immediately giggles at the sound. He usually sits on the couch when I'm vacuuming and likes when I bump into it purposefully. The little thud and vibration of the vacuum sets him into a laughing fit. Screaming with happiness, really. Nick has a new approach to the same concept. Vacuuming a lump on the floor named Xavier (same results - uncontrollable laughter!)


And here's Mr. Xavier delighting in my new favorite toy - an iPod. Nick got me this little gem for my 31st birthday. Such a fantastic thing - love it!