Xander turned two today and we can hardly believe how quickly time has gone by. Here are some of his current likes and dislikes.

Likes

• Thomas the Train
• Elmo
• Digging up my mulch
• Running
• Using head as weapon
• Beating up daddy
• Crispy potato puffs
• Boxes
• TV
• Stealing slippers

Disikes

• Authority
• Naps
• Going to sleep alone
• Sharing
• Being quiet
• Rashes

Here he is tearing into all of his birthday presents. We think he enjoyed the Elmo wrapping paper as much as the loot.

I wasn’t joking about the Thomas the Train action. He scored some more for his ever growing collection of what must be the most expensive toy set.

Although there is no shortage of jealousy, I think Xander is taking the arrival of Kayden quite well. There have been a few instances of him being too rough, but not bad given the way he pounds on me. Here are some of the more interesting moments.

I’m a little behind on reporting news, but Kayden went in for her one month checkup last Tuesday and the measurements confirmed the results of her serious eating habit…and her dad’s big dome.

• 22″ for height (75-90th percentile)
• 11 pounds, 1.5 ounces for weight (50-75th percentile)
• 15cm head circumference (75th percentile)

As our pediatrician put it, he’s happy if kids put on one pound of weight during their first month, so three is great.

All is well, save for a little bit of goopy-eye. Conjecture has that pegged as a byproduct of big brother poking her in the eye with a dirty finger as he pointed out that he knows what an eye is. Despite the minor eye issue, she still uses it to spy on us while pretending to be asleep. Here she is checking to make sure we’re within arm’s reach.

Yikes, has a month already gone by? Time flies when you’re not sleeping well. In these few weeks, Kayden has established herself as a grunter. Sure, she flat-out cries when she’s hungry, but outside of that, she does some sort of unfrozen cavebaby grunting thing that I can’t figure out.

She is so anti-swaddle, it’s not even funny. Every time we swaddle her, she turns beet red trying to break free. We’re afraid she’s going to blow a gasket (or diaper) so we’ve given up on swaddling. She’s also surprised us by trying to roll over off of her back a few times. It might be totally accidental, but eyebrow-raising nonetheless. Kayden has pretty good head control and neck strength already — check her out lifting the ‘ol noggin’ up.