Little Xi

Someone brought to my attention I never wrote how Xandiron got his name. I guess, now that he turned ONE this week, it's about time.

When I was expecting Jeffrey, Tyson really wanted a name with an X in it. He came up with all sorts of variations--Xie (pronounced She-ah--he had a Chinese friend in Hawaii with that name, but I didn't really like the sound of She-a-Hazard, especially for a boy). Dextrous was another one ("And if it's a girl, we can name her Amber Dextrous!"). X-Stream Fire Hazard was another creation we came up with (don't anyone use that--we've copyrighted it). Nothing fit, so we named him Jeffrey.

After we realized we were having a boy, we received a Christmas card from a family of friends who had just named their baby Xander. I thought, "That's an X-name I could live with." Later I was reading the second book in a series and realized that a main character had the same name. We had talked about Joshua for earlier babies, but the name Xander just grew on me.

At the hospital after Xi was born, we told people we were naming him Xander. About ten people said, "Oh I know a Xander! I love that name." Tyson started making a face every time he said, "Xander." He started commenting that it was too common. So, as with Jacob, we started to come up with variations--Xandre, Xandrew, etc. At the time we were looking at the window, at the Flatiron rock formations on the mountains unique to the Boulder area. I'd made a comment earlier about possibly wanting his name to do with something where we lived. Somehow we decided to take Iron from the Flatirons and put it on the end of Xand, making Xandiron. We joked about the nicknames he could have, X-man, Iron-Man. Now that I call him Xi, Tyson says we can call him the Terminator, since XI in Roman numerals is eleven (you know. . .the eleventh hour).

It's amazing how fast his first year has flown by. He celebrated his birthday by walking right after he had eaten some cake. He still has six little teeth and is a great sleeper--as long as he can suck his finger, hold his blanket, and be in his own little bed. He's generally very happy, very independent, loves to copy his older siblings when they laugh, and is still very much like Tyson. He's our only one so far that didn't inherit my blue eyes (they are pretty hazel-like, and sometimes grey), but currently has the blondest hair. His favorite toys are trucks, and for the past couple of months he has developed an unusual crawl (basically scooting on his bum, pushing with one foot and one hand) so he can push around the cars/trucks while making his little revving noise. He is not yet a cuddler--he always pushes his head up if you try to snuggle with him, unless he is sick. But he is starting to get the idea of a hug. He waves bye, says Mama, Dada, and Baba, and can imitate animals (RAAR is his favorite, with moo a close second.)

It's late so pictures will come later, but I feel so thankful to be a mother to my beautiful children!