indyears

20090203

clear actions and words

SO, today Xavier started saying Kitty. clear as a bell. Abbott walks in the room and he says kitty and points.
he has also started blowing kisses.

20090114

family photo

Karen, Xavier and I were able to make it to St. Louis for the "holidays" last week. Here is a pic of us and my rents.

I was sitting in the living room the other day and suddenly Xavier started spinning in place. He was giggling so hard and was so dizzy that he fell over. It was very funny. Luckily I was able to get part of it on tape.

ever since he learned how to spin, he has been fascinated with the act of spinning things. He take anything he can find that is big and flat (like a Tupperware lid) and spins them. The yesterday he discovered that hip "spinning top", as the name implies, spins. here is another short video

the demesticating of and man,and... look at my balls

just as a side note. I have been trying to be more crafty as of late. To help around the house, I decided to by Karen a sewing patter for chair covers. We have to old tapestry covered chairs that our cats (both with claws) love. so we are covering them.
Apparently, even though Karen really liked the patter, she did not have enough time to actually make the covers, with her 100 hour work week and all (insert sarcasm light). So, I decided to give it a try.
This is my first time using a sewing machine, or looking at patterns, or doing anything like this, and I must it turned out really good. take note of the pleats on the back corners, the curved back, and the level lower hem. also the eyelets on the back need to have a cable sewn to tie it shut, i have been to distracted with my balls to start that task, but more on that after the pics.

now on to my balls.
after i discovered how "easy" it was to use the sewing machine, i thought i would be more crafty and try to make an article of clothing. In order to do so, i figured i needed a simple pattern, or maybe a book of simple patterns, thus initiated my trip to half price book store. While searching the craft aisle i did see many interesting, simple, sewing books, but then i was distracted by a book on Temari, or Japanese thread balls. they are comprised of a Styrofoam ball covered with batting covered with yarn covered with thread, then covered with intricate geometric patterns in silky thread. I have made three so far. the red, blue, tan one was my first. It is a "training" ball and was made of stuff i had on hand so it is not the best color combination. the second one is the pink, purple and green one. again made with materials on hand. At this point I realized that I was using the wrong stitching threads. The last one is the yellow one on top. It is the closest to correct that i have gotten. I still had a few problems with it, I used the wrong yarn and it lead to a lumpy ball :(
here are the pics.

20081231

a couple videos

here are some new videos of the boy to help bring in the new year...

A little bit of a giggling fit

Thanks to Tara and John for the fun Tonka Trucks

First gift for Christmas

20081219

Funny video

Karen took this video of xavier the other day, he is just woken up from his nap. he is saying please to get his socks back, dancing in his bed, and declaring that nap time is over by tossing his blanket.