Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Giving Thanks

We are so blessed to have Zander in our family!  Thanksgiving provided us the time to reflect on all the joy and happiness Zander has brought into our lives.  He is such a fun little boy:
We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with family in Texas - pictures to follow.  Here is a video Daddy captured on his new phone - it includes Cousin Adaleigh pushing Zander on a Lion-mobile, as well as Zander saying his favorite/most frequently used word, "Dada":

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Having a Ball

A couple of weekends ago, we had our first snowstorm of the year - about a foot of snow!  Zander (and Dooly) watched in amazement as the snow continued to fall:
He bundled up and had a blast exploring outside.  Athough he didn't care for the snowflakes landing on his face, he had a great time riding his sled and playing in the snow:
Zander continues to love to pushing large objects around - including his new shovel:
Later in the day of the snowstorm, Zander helped celebrate Nana Pat's birthday with his first dim sum meal - he LOVED it!  We were amazed at his capacity for noodles, dumplings, steamed buns, and sticky rice!

Here was Zander celebrating Grandparents Day back in September.  He made her a special piece of artwork that included his palm prints:
That evening, Zander attended his first ball - the Little Red Ball, a fundraiser for our adoption agency.  The event was at Target Field (the new MN Twins stadium) which was a fantastic venue.  We all really enjoyed the 'behind the scenes' tour - here is the massive press box:
 It took over 500 colored pencils to complete these pieces of art commemorating the 1987 and 1991 World Series victories:
 We learned some other fun trivia as well, such is the fact that the stadium sports 14 miles of beer piping:
The boys enjoyed checking out the visitors' locker room - the last team to use it was the Yankees during playoffs:
 The tour was supposed to include a trip to the dugout as well, but unfortunately it was inaccessible due to the large snowfall.  Zander (and Daddy) loved how spacious the stadium walkways are:
Mommy and Zander enjoyed checking out the exclusive Champion's Club - a private club behind home plate for select season ticket holders:
 One of the highlights for Zander was meeting the Twins mascot, TC:
It was a fun-filled evening out - we all had a ball!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Mine!

November has been flying!  The first week of the month was pretty hectic - Mommy had two work trips, and Zander came down with a fever, so was home from school Tuesday-Thursday.  He certainly wasn't himself - no giggling, minimal appetite, and he was putting his head down anywhere he could to rest:
Fortunately he was back to himself for the weekend.  On Sunday, he was able to resume one of his current favorite activities - saying "apple", eating apple, and feeding Daddy apple:
Zander loves balloons, so Daddy picked out a Vikings balloon (above) for him before the big Arizona game.  Unfortunately the balloon got tangled going into the car, came off its string, and floated away... so Daddy had to go back for a second balloon!  The balloon seemed to work its magic at the tail end of the game when the Vikings pulled out an unlikely OT win.  This week, we learned that the balloon must only be good for one week.

Zander's cute blue outfit was a gift from Amy's colleague Noreen - it is adorable!
Zander continues to build his vocabulary!  One night Mommy asked him to hand her a book - he gripped the book, turned around, shook his head, smiled, and exclaimed very clearly, "MINE!"  He has roughly doubled his vocabulary from the list of ten words mentioned on our 10/17 post.  In addition to "mine", he now also says: Da-da (finally! Daddy was getting very tired of being called Mama!), Nana, hi, bye, ball, owie, help, more, and poop.  The last three words have been particularly helpful in knowing when Zander needs assistance, when he would like more food, and when his diaper needs a change!