So I read that the average amount of words a toddler Xavier’s age (14-months as of this writing) says is about 3-5…. Well, OMG, so Zak and I were trying to list all the words Xavier already says and I couldn’t believe it! He already says over 20 words!!! He blows me away. Of course he doesn’t pronounce all these words perfectly, but he does say them clear enough that other people do understand what he is saying, so it’s not like he is speaking a language only us as his parents understand, know what I mean?! Lol.

1. Bam bam (his nickname for my breasts)
2. Mama
3. Daddoo (what he calls daddy)
4. Milk (pronounced “mik”)
5. Yogurt (he pronounces it “go-gur”)
6. Water (he pronounces it “wa-wa”)
7. Bath
8. Bubble
9. Nose (he pronounces it “Nos” as he points to his nose)
10. Bye-bye
11. Hello
12. Night-night
13. Titi (Bianca hasn't heard him say it yet, but when I am on the phone with her and tell Xavier I am going to call Titi he repeats the word Titi and Titi over and over a couple times, of course once I get Bianca on the phone he's stopped, lol -- it’s Spanish for “auntie”)
14. Book
15. Cars (he pronounces this word with a Boston accent, and he extends the “s,” it’s hilarious!)
16. Huggie
17. Diaper (he also pronounces this word with a Boston accent, so it sounds like, “Diapah”
18. Blocks
19. Poo poo (I swear this kid is ready to be potty trained, he squats tells me when he is pooping and then walks to his changing table and says, "Diapah!")
20. Bird
21. Tree
22. Light (Pronounced “Ligh” without the “t” as he points to the lamp)
23. Colors (when he is referring to crayons)
24. Dinner (At night I always say, “Do you want dinner?!” And he walks to his high chair and says, “Dinner!”)
25. Ball

That’s all I can think of right now, but I am sure I am missing something. At 14 months it’s as if he is already having full blown conversations with us sometimes, he’s amazing!

OMG... so for months now whenever Xavier does a poopy he finds a corner in the house, squats and goes. But then yesterday he not only did that, but while he was squatting he looks over at me and says, "Poo Poo!" THEN when he was done, he leads me to his room and says, "Diaper!"

I mean seriously, is this kid advanced or what?!?!? He just keeps amazing me every singe day!!!

Xavier just keeps getting smarter and smarter every day!

At night now when it’s time for his bath I say to him, “Zavi want a bath?!” He’ll look up from his toys in the living room and say, “bath?” Then he gets up looks at me as if to say, “aren’t you coming?” and walks directly to the bathroom. I have this mat that I use to kneel on when I am giving him a bath and when he gets to the bathroom he pulls down the mat points into the tub and says, “Bubble!” So then I proceed to turn the water on and get his bath ready. He then starts to try and climb into the tub… so funny! Of course, I still have to remind him that we need to take his clothes off first, lol!

After his bath we read a few books and then I say to him, “Are you ready for night-night?” And again he amazes me with how much he understands. He gets up again and gives me that “are you coming?” look and reaches out his hand to me and says, “night-night.” We walk to his bedroom and he reaches for his boppy pillow and tries to climb up on the chair that I sit on to nurse him before he goes to sleep. All the while repeating the words, “night-night.” We then read Good Night Moon and he goes night-night… SO CUTE!!!

Xavier just keeps doing more and more things every day that shows how much he is starting to understand. He is also repeating more and more words that Zak and I say to him. Every time he hands something to us we always say, “Thank you.” Now when we give him something he is starting to say “Thank you” back… although it sounds more like, “tat ooo.”

All I have to say is “tat ooo” Lord for this little guy! I love him sooooo much!

When I decided to nurse Xavier when I was pregnant, I wasn’t even sure I would make it past three months… especially since I work full time and didn’t have many people around me with breast feeding experience… so, I had no idea what I was in for.

Well, not only did we make it past three months… we made it to a full year! Never in my wildest dreams did I think it could be done, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be the kind of mom who would nurse longer than one year at all. Yet, Xavier is now 13-months old and showing no signs of slowing down.

When he turned 11 months I started introducing him to cow’s milk, by giving it to him in his cereal and leaving one out of three bottles of milk for him at day care as cow’s milk, the other two still being pumped breast milk. As he neared his first birthday that increased to two out of three bottles. Since he turned one, I’ve been slowing down on pumping and now am at a point where I am pumping maybe once a day at work, just to help relieve the pressure. So while at day care, the majority of milk he drinks is cow’s milk.

My plan when he turned one was to stop with the day time nursing and gradually let the night time nursing’s taper off. I thought it would be a piece of cake considering how he takes bottles and stuff during the day while I am at work.  But alas, over the weekends all he wants is mommy’s “maam maam’s.” Even when I get home from work he is all over me until I finally give in.

My whole strategy has now shifted to the “don’t offer, don’t deny method.” It’s tough some days b/c while I am not supposed to be offering,  if it’s a day he refuses milk from a bottle from me, or is being picky with his solids, I feel it’s necessary that I offer him the “maam maam’s” so that I know he is getting something nutritional during the day.

Some days I am perfectly ok with the idea of extended nursing, and letting him take his time weaning, even if that means he doesn’t wean till he’s two-ish. But then there are days that it freaks me out.

When I think about it though, what freaks me out the most is what other people think. As for me, I always thought it was weird too… but when you are the mom and are in the thick of it and knows what it feels like, it’s so different. It’s so maternal, I really find nothing weird about coming home and bonding with my son and giving him something as nutritionally beneficial for him as breast milk, even if he is past one and not looking like he wants to give it up right now.

So, for anyone reading this who may think it’s gross, I give you fair warning… Xavier and I are venturing into unchartered territories and I do plan on letting him extend nurse into the foreseeable near future.

Something I’ve learned since becoming a mom is that you can’t really plan for anything. And just as I didn’t expect to nurse past three months, I can’t really say right now when I plan to put my foot down about stopping. Not to say that I want to be nursing a pre-schooler, but at 13-months, Xavier is still so young and right now going through a very clingy phase, I think it would be cruel of me not to meet his needs… whether for nutrition or for comfort, which is the reason many babies nurse into toddlerhood.

From what I’ve read and heard from other moms who nurse their toddlers, by being patient and doing the whole “don’t offer, don’t refuse” method, many toddlers really do begin to wean themselves and eventually cut down on the amount of times they want to nurse until pretty much by 2 years old or so, they’ve stopped completely on their own, without any prodding from the mom.

So, just as I began my nursing relationship as something I was going to take one day at a time, so I too start the journey into weaning. Who knows, maybe once he’s over this clingy/picky eating phase he is going through he may stop nursing very soon… or maybe not. And at this moment, I am ok with either scenario… and so should you be!

PS: The World Health Organization reccommends breastfeeding till two-years of age.

.... and all I want is to get out of work early and spend the rest of the day with my little Xavier. But alas, I am stuck here on what is turning out to be a very busy day. Happy Birthday to me. 

We arrived back last week from a fun-filled vacation in California where we were able to spend time with family and have some much needed time away from work.

Thanks Johnny and gang for letting us crash at your place – My brother lives in San Ramon (about 40 minutes outside of San Francisco) and we got to spend some quality time with him, my sis-in-law and my beautiful niece, Chelsea, and very rambunctious nephew, Ethan. It was so great to have everyone together and I see Xavier have fun with his cousins, aunt and uncle.

Thanks Soufy and Danielle for “escorting” us around town – Zak’s brother lives in San Francisco. It was so nice to see how happy he was to spend time with Xavier. Being the loving uncle that he is, he took us to some cute parks and pushed Xavier in the swings… so cute seeing Xavier spending time with him.

When we weren’t spending time with the extended family, we spent time together just the three of us taking in the sights and walking down Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. If you are planning on every visiting San Fran… you have to go the Ghirardelli’s Factory, there is this cute little ice cream parlor next to it and they have the BEST CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!!... ok, I just had to get that out… lol.

Special thanks goes out to Titi Bianca who so graciously spent a whole day with Xavier so that Zak and I could have some special husband/wife time in Napa Valley visiting different wineries. Needless to say, as many other parents can relate to, we spent most of our day talking mostly about Xavier and all the funny things he does. But don’t worry, the topic of conversation may have mostly been on little X-man, but we did take full advantage of having some romantic couple time – we ate a nice restaurant, sampled lots of wine and held hands while walking through the vineyards together. It may sound like a scene out of some sappy romance movie, but it was refreshing to have that time together. Thanks again Bianca!

All-in-all, the trip was great. It’s been a bit of a challenge to get Xavier back on the East Coast time, and even more of a challenge to get him back on his regular sleeping routine since in California there was no routine at all… but seeing my family and having the time away from work was well worth it!

PS: Check out some photos from our trip!

Zak starts work an hour and a half after I do, so he is in charge of the morning routine with Xavier and sending him off to day care. So typically I don’t see Xavier in the mornings because I am out of the house just when they are waking up. But some mornings he is up early enough for me to see him and give him lots of hugs and kisses before the start of a work day, which I love.

If they happen to wake up right before I leave though I try to stay hidden so that I can leave without Xavier crying and giving Zak a hard time when he sees me walk out of the door. But this morning, with just 5 minutes to spare, I couldn’t resist going into the room when I heard Zak changing Xavier’s diaper… I wanted so badly to give my little guy lots of xo’s!

As always, as soon as Xavier saw me he wanted me to hold him but Zak was still getting him dressed. He was just trying to finish snapping his onesie when Xavier sat bolt upright and reached out to me. Again, I couldn’t resist – so I went over and he stood up on his changing table (Zak and I both right there by his side). Xavier leaned into me and just wrapped his arms around my neck. Zak tool the opportunity to finish getting his shirt snapped and pull his pants up, the whole while Xavier was hugging me. It was soooooo sweet!!!! Xavier is so loving.

Even though the 5 minutes I had to spare were fast coming to a close, I still sat with him and gave him “bam bam” (code name for boobies!)… even tho he’s reached his one year mark, we are slowly winding down on the nursings. The hardest sessions to get rid of will be the night time and morning ones… but I digress, I sat with him in the chair and gave him his bam bam and he just locked eyes with me and stared at me. He had this look of happiness and I just couldn’t help but tear up a bit from how much I love him!!!

After about 5 minutes of bam bam he popped off and looked over at Zak and smiled. I gave him a big kiss and Zak picked him up to take him to wash his face in the bathroom. Once I heard the two of them chatting away – Zak making funny small talk and Xavier babbling away – I knew it was safe for me to sneak out and head to work.

I got in just a few minutes late, but it was worth it… I don’t care how good your coffee is, there is no better way to start your day than with a good ol’ jolt of family love!

Yes, I know it sounds corny!!!...haha!

As he approaches his first birthday I can’t help but reflect on the past year in wonderment as I think of how much Xavier has grown and learned. In just one year he’s turned from being a helpless tiny infant to a curious little toddler.

He started walking at just nine months, with his first solo step toward the end of his eighth month. He’s been babbling things like “mama,” “dada,” “bam bam,” and so on for quite a while, but it wasn’t until earlier this month during the Labor Day weekend that I truly felt like he said his first word. We were sitting down on the floor playing together and he looked at me with a big smile and said, “Mama!” I nearly fell over from the immense amount of love I felt! Although he’s babbled those two beautiful consonants many times before, it was the first time when it felt like there was some meaning behind them, like he knew I was his mama.

Since then it seems like these past few weeks he’s caught on to a lot more words. I handed him his Curious George monkey the other day and told him to give it a “huggie” and guess what? He did!!! I know this may seem silly, but those of you with children or about to have one, it is THE MOST AMAZING thing in the world to see your child start to understand things. When I told him to give George a huggie, I didn’t think he knew what I was saying… to see him understand what that word meant and actually act it out was amazing. And the fact that he was SUPER cute doing it too added to the amazement I felt as a mommy.

Here are just a couple other super cute and amazing things Xavier has done recently that has me reeling with pride and gushing over what a smart little guy he is becoming – His favorite is The Very Busy Spider because you have to sound out animal noises. Every time I “Baa Baa,” or “Neigh Neigh” he chimes in right along. His favorite animal sound though is the grunting pig, he always laughs when we snort together. The other day after reading the book to him and putting it down, he picked it up and somehow found the page with the pig and looked and me and snorted!!! OMG, I nearly had a conniption fit!!! Then that night when Zak came home (or “daddoo” as Xavier calls him) we went into Xavier’s room and Xavier pointed to his books on the shelf and said, “Book!” Ok, so the “k” sound wasn’t totally there, but almost!  OH MY GOODNESS, it was so marvelous to hear him interact with us that way.

He’s also started day care this month too. I had a bit of a hard time with the change but he seems to be doing just fine – and in the end that’s what matters. He’s already brought home a foot print portrait and a drawing, well more like a ripped up piece of paper with crayon squiggles on it, that are both on the fridge.

I just can’t believe how fast this past year has gone, and how many milestones he’s already reached (did I mention he’s got all his front top and bottom teeth and his molars are starting to peek out?) It’s just been one year and already it’s so hard to remember the little 6 pound 12 ounce bundle of baby I brought home from the hospital. Since the beginning he’s been so independent, holding his head up pretty much right away and being super eager to sit up on his own. As much as I’ve tried to hold on to every small moment of his infancy he seems to have a different agenda, as most children do – so far he’s becoming a smart, curious, sweet and very loving little boy.

Up to now parenthood has been better than I could have imagined. And while I know I still have a long road ahead of me filled with new things Xavier will learn, some good and some not so good… I have to admit watching him learn and grow is a blessing from God.