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| From SoHum Perseid Shower |
Xander is twenty-one months old now. Our pediatrician said we'd start seeing Xander's language explode, and it's happening. Just in the last week, he's said about two new words a day, and it's clear that his understanding of language is much more developed than his expressive skills.
Just this weekend, he added, "wie-ps" (two syllables, for wipes), "upsigh" (upside down), "muh plz" (more please) "out-sie" (outside). Other favorites are "ah-coh-coh" (avocado), "gac-gac" (grandma/grandpa) and all versions of mama and dada.
He's very self-directed in his play, and can entertain himself for a while. Everything-toast, socks, legos, turns into a car or airplane and gets pushed around with sound effects. He's also into rocks and dirt, and loves standing at the sink playing in the water. We just got him a plastic step stool, and he carries it around the house and places it in front of the sink, or next to something he wants to climb. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, after all.
The other day, I wasn't paying too much attention to him while I was cooking dinner. He was saying "chee, chee" and walking around the kitchen. I had left the fridge door open while turning to do something, and he went in, opened a drawer, pulled something out and walked over to where I was chopping vegetables. Tiptoeing, he pushed it up onto the counter in front of me. A block of cheddar cheese. Of course.
Going back over the other postings, I see that a lot has happened since the March one. Micah did very well at the Reno interview, and was ranked second overall, but the first place candidate decided to take the job. He's applying again for other faculty positions this fall.
Xander's maternal grandmother, Dixie, visited two weeks ago to help out while Micah was in Australia for work. We did all kinds of fun things--Tilden Steam Trains, Little Farm, the Sonoma County Fair (where we lost a shoe), Stinson Beach. It was a great visit.
We also flew out to South Carolina to meet Xander's cousin Kat, who was born in February. We had a lovely time with family there, took several walks in the hot, humid weather, went to the Columbia Zoo (an excellent zoo), and had amazing barbecue with Uncle Steve's family.
We have no plans for travel in the immediate future, which is nice, since we've been cross country with Xander four times since he was born, to Albuquerque once, to Reno once, to Portland, Oregon twice, to Yosemite once, and to Humboldt at least half a dozen times. He's a good traveler, but recently started becoming susceptible to motion sickness, which may curtail any future travel.
