I AM BABY!

Good news everyone! Xavier has finally moved out of the 0th percentile for weight! Previously, if you had taken 100 random babies of the same age, he would have been lighter then all of them. Now, he is in the 2nd percentile, so he'd be heavier then 2 of them. Not quite there yet, but he is making progress! He is eating a little more big boy food each day as well, which helps.

Some fun news today! Xavier is getting 4 new teeth His lower canines and two more upper molars are poking through.

He is also proving to very adept at using a fork! Stabbing food and popping it his mouth with glee!

The big news is now that it is getting warm out, he wants to be outside all the time. We have a little play set, and he just wants to go down the slide for hours. So much laughter! I'll try to get some video for all of you.

Xavier can now operate light switches!

We just got back from MN where we all were visiting for Xavier's Grandma Barb's birthday. For the ultimate present, Xavier actually said "Grandma!" Twice! He was a generally very good boy all weekend, playing with toys, keeping the screaming to a minimum, and laughing a lot. He did get up at 5am both days, so that wasn't so good.

Xavier has four more teeth coming in! All four are molars, two on top and two on the bottom. Hopefully the ability to actually chew food will help with his eating.

For those of you who may not know already, Xavier was quite ill the weekend before Thanksgiving. We went to the ER on Sunday night after he had been throwing up all day and night Saturday, and had diarrhea all day Sunday. He was admitted to the hospital, and stayed there with an IV in until Thursday. Thankfully, we got to go home on Thanksgiving.

His mood is much improved now, but he still has a bit of the runs. Still, his strength is returning quickly, and he's back to playing and laughing. All he wanted to do while sick was snuggle.

A very cute moment yesterday. Erica had the TV on the National Geographic channel on a program about wolves. Each time they showed wolves howling, Xavier would howl back. He does the same thing to try and call the cat. AHHOOOOOOO! Oddly enough Ra is not amused. When the program ended, he got mad there was no more howling.

Xavier's blood tests are back, and the news is mostly good! The best news is that the genetics test showed he was negative for Russell-Silver syndrome, which is a huge relief. The second was for IGF-1, which is an insulin-like growth hormone. That one is a bit low at 41 ng/mL, but its hard to tell what that means in someone his age. He will be reevaluated in January, and may need hormone stimulation if he's still not growing well and the IGF-1 is still low.

We gathered at a friend's apartment to carve pumpkins, and Xavier was a big "help." Between trying to put carved out pieces back into their holes and making an unending valiant effort to eat seeds and pumpkin guts, he had a fantastic time.

Xavier was a tiger for Halloween, and here he is being cutely fierce!