Inauguration Day

I began Inauguration Day by taking a self-portrait. This is what you end up with when you look into a camera and press the button without anyone looking:

Will Obama do a good job for our country? What a historic day - lots of good, and lots to contemplate and pray for...

After all of that seriousness, it's time to dance to more of Daddy's punk music:



And to finish, a dance to the classic instrumental song from the 70s, "Popcorn":

America's Funniest Home Video

Mommy thinks she should send this one in to the TV show. I had her and Daddy cracking up big time with this one. I found an old mouse in a pile of Daddy's computer stuff. It wasn't connected to anything and he said I could go ahead and play with it. It's not one of those new fancy wireless mice, just your standard plug in mouse. Well, after clicking it and trying to figure out what it does, my conclusion is this...



Yep, that's right - "It needs batteries!!" LOL LOL LOL

Another Fun Playgroup

Ava had all of us over to her house on Sunday 1/18/09 for another playgroup gathering. She has a nice big finished basement that I love to play in.

The most exciting thing was meeting Kaden's new baby sister - Eva - she's so cute!

Here's Ava's Mommy, Cheri, holding Eva:

We had a new family join our group, here is Emma, age 2:

And her sister Hannah, age 4:

Here's Kaden pretending to eat something while riding around on his favorite toy:

Ava has gotten VERY good at riding her horsey:

Cherie made us all some yummy iced banana bread. I sat mine down for a bit to do some serious coloring, not easy to do when wearing so many stickers:

Emma, Hannah and Kaden play with the "popcorn" toy - just like the one I have at home; it's always a hit!

Kaden gives me a BIG hug - Awwwww:

But my favorite toy is the toy vacuum cleaner. We sure had a lot of fun!

This and That

After the holidays and big birthday, things have calmed down around our house. It has become the "getting ready" for baby place now. Waiting, waiting and Mommy getting rounder and rounder.

Here I am on Wed 1/14/09 modeling some hats. First, I had to try on Grammy's hat:

Then another hat I found in the closet that's pretty hip:

It was really cold here last week, and on Thursday 1/15/08 Daddy and I went for a little walk because there was a dusting of snow on the ground. When we came back he made us some hot chocolate and sat down to read the paper. I joined him... Mommy is worried about my deep contemplation on the product I'm looking at in the ad - she thinks it's a little early for me to be needing such a product...

That evening I did some dancing for Mommy and Daddy. They were so entertained. In this video Mommy is giving me ideas of what kinds of moves to do - boy did she look funny doing that, too bad there's not a video of that...



Lastly, here I am at dinner on Friday 1/16/09 - I really love to line up foods...

My Big 2nd Birthday Bash

On Saturday 1/10/09 we had my big birthday party. There were about 30 people there and we had TONS of fun.

My Godmother, Sadie, owns a bake shop in town called A Loaf of Bread. She made this wonderful cake with the help of my Godsister, Alison, made of all organic ingredients and whole wheat flour. Half of it was vanilla and the other half chocolate. They used marzipan for the detail on the cream cheese frosting. They even used organic dyes for it!

Most of us kids played down in my playroom while the parents talked and talked upstairs. I don't understand how big people enjoy just sitting around talking... (like my Godmother, Sadie and Godfather, Phil with Jim (of thosecrazyvolpes))...

when there are tea parties to be had!

Here are Daddy and Phil swimming in a sea of crepe paper - I'm amazed they can keep their heads above "water":

Next, Alison and Maryam remind me of Boxing Nuns as they duke it out with the party favors. And when did they remove the kazoo-like sound from these anyway. All they do is blow with no noise - bummer!



Before I knew it, it was time to blow out the candles on my cake:

I needed a little Mommy assistance:

Mmmm, yummy cake and ice cream!

Sadly, my playground friends who live in the neighborhood, Ty and Ally, had to leave with their Mommy and Daddy (Jane and Dan), but I was sure glad they made it:

Now that we kids were nice and sugared up (be it organic or not!) it was back to some serious play. Believe it or not, Maryam is hiding in my laundry bags turned toy holders:

Peek-a-boo Maryam:

Then we moved on to the opening of the gifts - I got some really nice stuff - thanks everyone!

Mark - are you missing some teeth? Lookin' good:

Heather actually MADE this beautiful blue cape for me and I LOVE IT:

I think it looks pretty good on her too, don'tcha think?

Okay, Mommy and Daddy got me a parachute, and I have convinced Mommy to open it and we're going to play with the balloons on it down in the playroom - let's go, gather the balloons:

Clear all of the toys in the playroom against the wall everyone - EASY DOES IT! WOW, look at this thing:

Hey Mark, can you BELIEVE my Mommy is letting us do this, isn't this AWESOME:

Tossing the balloons, what a BLAST:

DUDE, I am having SO MUCH FUN!

Okay, everybody underneath!

Hey, what's the matter, can't you guys lift me up?

It was really getting out of hand and we were loving it! Just check out my happy dance:



To close out the party, what is more entertaining then multiple children playing the piano at the SAME time:

What a masterpiece, don't you agree?



And as the last guests were leaving, I modeled the lovely dress-up pumps they got for me (to go with my blue cape, of course!). Think I'm going to need some practice with these. First I bumped my head, then a slip and slide, but I'll get the hang of it.



I hope you have enjoyed a peak at my BIG 2nd Birthday Bash. Don't you feel like you were there? It truly was a great time for all and my family and I thank all of you who made it. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends :-)

Sock Hands and Herbie Fun

I don't know what it is, but I really enjoy putting things that belong on my feet onto my hands. Here I am on Wednesday 1/7/09 with my socks on my hands:

What? You don't do this on a regular basis? And didn't you KNOW that once you do this it makes you go INSANE and causes you to run around and scream like a banshee? Geez, go give it a try! You too could end up like this:



After calming down a bit, Daddy and I decided to taunt Herbie for awhile... hmmm... he does not seem amused...



After awhile, he did seem to loosen up:



It's all in a typical Xia and Daddy day at home!

Chuck E Cheese's

Mommy and Daddy took me to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time for my birthday last Monday 1/5/09. We sure had a lot of fun. Here is a run down of our night:

First, I wish this horsey ride had worked, but I still had fun sitting in the saddle MANY times and wiggling around to make it move:

Then I rode this bike that if you spin the pedals goes up and down. Well, my feet didn't reach the pedals so Daddy turned them for me, but as you can see I decided I didn't really want to go up and down...



Next I rode in this crazy green car where I got to sit next to a veterinarian. Quite strange and I couldn't really reach the steering wheel (though I certainly did try). Still, I loved it!



Then I jumped on a Barney ride. He actually says the alphabet as you ride along, so I sang along with him, what fun!




Then there's the little car I rode with Chuck E Cheese himself and it takes a picture of you as you ride; how cool is that?

Then Daddy and I played some skeeball, but I kept getting frustrated because my ball wouldn't go the whole way up the lane - bummer - Daddy did pretty well though!



I really liked the water game where you shoot water at a target and win lots of tickets - I played this one a whole bunch both with Daddy and Mommy:




And of course, no trip to Chuck E Cheese's is complete without a visit from THE MOUSE himself. Here I am giving him a High 5!



What a great way to celebrate my special day :-) (And Mommy and Daddy are glad they survived it!)

I'm TWO Years Old Today!

Happy Birthday to me! Can't believe I've hit 2 already. My how time flies. Mommy made some slideshow videos for your viewing pleasure. Of course, first, the monthly photo:

Long version of my 2nd year in review:



And a short version:

Breaking Down Christmas

Yesterday, Sunday 1/4/09, we took down all of the Christmas decorations. I helped take the ornaments off of the tree. I've been dying to do this ever since the tree went up! To me they looked like a bunch of toys just calling out to me to play with them from the day I put them on the tree.

There were also two bags filled with beads that Daddy and Mommy got back in 2004 when they went to Tampa Bay FL for Guavaween - sort of like a Mardi Gras party only at Halloween. They put all of the beads on the Christmas Tree that year. I just had a lot of fun playing with them as you can see:

Mommy wasn't able to get me to recreate the sitting in the middle of the beads action, but I gladly walked all over them again for some videos. I sure had a good time: