Working on the Jeep

We are headed for Moab in two weeks, so I've been doing some work on the Jeep to get ready.  New leaf springs, new brake lines front and rear, modified front bump stops, a mount for the hi-lift, and a few miscelaneous maintenance issues.  Xander has been very curious about what dad is up to and has helped out lots!!

Hopefully that's all the work on the Jeep for this year.  Next year I'd like to put in a Ford 8.8 rear axle and an ARB locker.

-Jake

Gran Comes to Visit

ran, Mom, came to visit this week.  Xander was a little fussy, he had a tooth coming in, but we had a wonderful weekend.  Xander got new birthday presents including a bubbling lawn mower, and one old present, Beauregard, a 3 foot tall playmate that I hade as a boy.

Mom took us out to dinner at Aji for an early birthday present for Erin.  Xander had his first ceviche there, he loved it!  We had lovely weather and were able to work in the yard for a whole day.  We got lots done, and Xander loved playing outside in the grass.   I had to leave for Philadelphia for part of the week, and Mom had a whole evening with Xander while Erin went to mommies night out.

-Jake

Xander is a 1 Year Old!

At his one -year-old checkup, Xander broke the trend, and fell out of the 90th percentile.  He is 30.25  inches long (50th%ile), 24 lbs 3 oz (75th %ile), and has a 48 cm head (still 90th %ile).

Xander can stand up on his own for a few seconds at a time, but still hasn't taken any official steps.  He has 6 signs: pick me up, more, food, all done, hi and milk.  He has 12 "words": Mama, Dada, Otto, Blitz, dog, Milk, Ball (his favorite word), Block, Jack, this, banana, and "roar"  Xander has 9 theeth, with the 10th on it's way.

We finally finished his photobook chronicling his first year, and that one of the big reasons we haven't updated the blog here in awhile.  Most of the photos came from the blog, but there were a few new ones, and each of the grandparents recieved a photobook for their own.  It was a lot of work to make it, but a lot of fun too, and I know I'll spend hours and hours looking through it, remembering all the wonderful days we've had.  It is so hard to belive that it has been a year- an so much has changed!

Here are Xander's 1-Year-Old Portraits for you to enjoy, as we have!

Yes We Did

Happy 1st Birthday Xander!

I'm not sure if it's more of Xander's celebration or ours, this first of many birthdays.  A year ago today we delivered Xander into the world.  In the last 12 months we've had ups and downs, adventures and misadventures. We've watched Xander grow up, and perhaps we've grown up a little too.  Certainly we've grown into a family, and although I didn't know it was possible, our love for our son, and each other, has grown too. What a year it has been! 

How to celebrate?  While Xander would have been perfectly happy with his dinner of strawberries and oranges and asparagus and salmon, we really felt the need to get the classic photo of our child eating his first cake.  This has been a blog with words describing our feelings, our family and our life, but it has also been a journey in photos- we needed a photo!  Okay, we needed 6!

And for those of you who like to see how generations change and stay the same, here's a picture of Erin enjoying *her* first cake!

Skiing at the Eiseman Hut

This weekend we headed for Vail and the Eiseman Hut.  It is one of the 10th mountain backcountry huts, located a little north of Vail.  The Eiseman hut is a long hike, 10 miles and 2500 ft of elevation gain.  The reward is a beautiful hut in amazing ski country.  We started off hiking early on Sunday morning, with Russ, Becky, David, Suzy, Justin and Kristie.  It was a good thing we got an early start, it was a long hike, nearly 7 hours and I think all of us, except perhaps David and Justin, were pretty wiped by the end.  Fortunately we had fabulous weather, it was warm and sunny the entire time, none of us needed jackets.  Xander was AWESEOME and slept and relaxed in the chariot the whole time.  We stopped for a couple of quick breaks for him.

The hut was a very welcome sight, and we enjoyed a relaxing evening.  I was pretty exhausted after towing the little man all day long, and Erin unfortunately wasn't feeling well either.  We found out later she actually had strep throat!!

The real draw of Eiseman is the amazing skiing.  We had a fantastic day of skiing on Monday, maybe some of the best terrain that I have ever skiied.  There was lots of good snow, at some times I was weaving back and forth between trees, skiing the crowns between the tree wells, it was spectactular.

We hiked back up after each run.  I was suprised at how easy it was to hike back up to the hut when I hadn't already been hiking all day.  I think it took me over two hours to hike the final section the first day hauling Xander, but a little under an hour when I was fresh without a heavy pack or towing the little man.

We skiied out on Tuesday, leaving early since I had a plane to catch that evening.  Erin and I took it slow at the beginning, because it was tough to control the chariot on the way down through the steeper tighter trees.  The rest of the group caught up to us after a couple of hours where the trail widened up and we all skiied out the rest of the way together.  We made it back in time for me to get everything unpacked and Erin to make it to the doctor and get some antibiotics before I had to head out of town for work.  A great vacation!

-Jake

Xander and Utensils

Xander has been interested in utensils for a while now, he likes to hold a fork in one hand while he eats with the other hand...  As a result, we typically don't give him anything too messy to eat by himself.  Today we decided to let him have a go at eating oatmeal on his own.  The results were, well, predictable.

Eat like Mom and Dad      Eat like the Dogs             Eat like Xander!  

-Jake

A week with Grandpa

My father has spent the last week here in Colorado, and it was wonderful! We had the chance to enjoy one-on-one time together in a way that we haven't had for years. Top on the list was checking out Nederland's "Frozen Dead Guy Days" which celebrates the fun of winter in the mountains and the quirky cryogenic preservation of one very real, very dead, frozen Grandpa in a tough shed.  No, really.  Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as exciting or "lively" as I thought it would be- but we did wander around town, and got to watch one kiddy-coffin race before Xander declared himself bored and ready to go home.

During the week we took a few long walks, talked about everything and anything, went the library's story

time, took Xander swimming and spent time just relaxing and reading. I was really glad that Xander and Dad were able to get to know each other better and play together.

We even made it up to Crested Butte.  Dad watched Xander while Jake and I spent a whole day skiing together on Friday, and on Saturday Dad tried downhill skiing for the first time - awesome!  The time flew by and I couldn't believe it when it was time to take Dad to the airport this morning.  I miss him already.

Xander-English Dictionary

Grandpa Charles has now independantly confirmed what Jake and I were afraid was wishful thinking on our part: Xander has real words and knows how to use them!  They do require a bit of careful translation, however, for those not fluent in baby talk:

Maaaa*! = I am feeling a wee bit parched, and I would like to have some warmed milk immediately- IMMEDIATELY!

Dadada = Dad!  I love you, let's play.

Ah-o = Otto

Bids = Blitz

Mama= Mom!  I love you, is there anything to eat around here?

{clicking tongue} = I am hungry and would like to eat what you are eating, or anything else I can find to put in my mouth.

Baa= Balls are so totally awesome- see mine?  Let's play!

Bobcat = Bobcat  (Not sure how it is that he got this one, but he parroted it perfectly after hearing us talking about the animals.... surprised the heck out of us, and he hasn't said it since)

Na = Bananas are really fun to eat- and they taste good too- are there more?


Xander also is getting good at signing "All done" and "Pick me up" and still has his "Yes" face but hasn't really mastered "More" or "Please" or other signs yet.

More to come... I'm sure!

Grandpa is here!

Grandpa Charles came in last night late and this morning Xander and Grandpa have already had lots of fun playing!  Later today we'll go up to Nederland... but more on that in the next post!

Life is Good!

Xander played at Jackson's (Jack's) house yesterday- and Jack had such a marvelous toy walker!  Xander just *had* to have one too.... and Mom caved in and bought his first full-priced brand new toy.  It was worth every penny to watch the confidence Xander showed in taking his stroller all around the house, and then outside in the cul de sac.  He was *so* proud of himself!  Jake and I were grinning ear-to-ear as well. 

Life is Good.