Things I love about you right now...

I love that...
-any bearded man in a book is "Jezis"
-you say, "ho ho" whenever you see any kind of Santa
-instead of waving, you like to "pound it" as you were taught by Mary Kate at rehearsals. You're not satisfied until you've fist bumped everyone in the room.
-bed time means cuddling with your "bonkey" - monkey that Aunt Mo and Margie gave you on the day you were born. You throw anything else out of your crib.
-your hair looks like a wild man's when you wake up.
-squeals of delight begin as soon as you see any of your cousins.
-you crawl on my lap to see what I'm reading,watching,making.
-you walk around the house in my shoes and slippers.
-in the morning, when we come out of your room, you look for Daddy to see if he is here. (He is working mornings at FedEx right now.)
-you love to "un" -run. being chased is one of your favorite games.
-I can get you to give me a kiss by pretending to cry.
-you smile up at me when I sing the low parts of "Goodnight Sweetheart" before bed
-you kiss the phone when your grandparents or aunts call

One thing I'm not lovin' so much:
-you have started taking off not only your pants, but your diaper. You've done it twice during nap time and peed on your bed. :(

"Frog"

Dawson hasn't quite gotten the hang of pronouncing "frog." But in the meantime, it sure is funny to hear what he pronounces in place of "frog." Enjoy...

"Ehl-fint"

Dawson is slowly starting to learn his adoption story (which you can read yourself via the adoption tags on the other posts). Well, I shouldn't exaggerate, but he does like to listen to "Ehl-fint" music (the Seussical soundtrack on the ipod) and pulls both of the Horton Hears a Who ornaments off the tree- which is actually quite annoying. It shouldn't be too long before we're reading him that book, as we did the night he was born.

Here are some pictures of him decorating the tree, putting up the Horton ornament, kissing the Santa ornament and eating an ornament made of crayons.

"Gake"

Ideally, Erin would be able to stay home with Dawson full-time. Our world, however, is less-than-ideal, though close-to-ideal, since Erin is able to work only part-time and I'm home with Dawson half the afternoons she's at work. Honestly, I think Erin appreciates the chance to get out of the house and work. And, God has been faithful to provide for our family, as you can read here if you'd like.
So when neither of us are with Dawson, he goes to a home daycare run by a lady in our church, Sarah Armstrong. Sarah is a great person, good friend and leader in our church. On top of all that, she's not charging us a lot for the afternoons Dawson is over there.
I've come to the conclusion, though that even if we didn't need to take Dawson to Sarah's, we still would do so. For no other reason than so Dawsie could hang out with Gake.
Jake, as us adults call him, is Sarah's 2 1/2 year old son. Dawson loves Jake. Often when we're getting into the car, Dawson will ask "Gake?" Sarah's best friend, Katy who is also a part of our church, has a 1 1/2 year old son named Seth. Seth also comes to Sarah's sometimes, reuniting the "three amigo's" of the Trinity Family nursery.
There are some other kids at Sarah's daycare, including her 1 year old daughter, Callie. Dawson loves to hug Callie and Sarah wants Dawson to (eventually) date Callie. Dawson likes hugging all of the kids at Sarah's, as I witnessed the last time I picked him up.
For a kid, who for now anyway, is an only child, his friendship with "Gake" and his time at Sarah's are positive elements in his social development.

1st Bloodhound Football Game

A few weeks ago, Dawson got to experience his first Bloodhound football game at Fort Madison High School, his daddy's Alma-matter. As usual for these type of events / photo ops, dad was more excited than son. Dawson did however, clap along with the crowd a few times.

October Videos

I've got some good ones in here, Dawson enjoying "Five Little Monkees" and our Night-Night Song.

There's Pee in the Potty!

Last week, I was sitting in our hall bathroom doing my business while being observed by my toddler son. Dawson has taken an interest in the potty and sometimes will want to sit on his potty chair while Mommy or Daddy are using the facilities. On this particular day, he had such an urge. He pulled his pants down and I helped him with his diaper. He sat on the potty, stood up and went over to the bathtub to check out his toys, and then to the big toilet to say his goodbyes to the contents of the toilet. Then he sat down again. I left the room for a moment to get him something from his room and when I came back, there was liquid in the potty chair! I made a huge deal out of the fact that there was pee in the potty! We danced and sang, and giggled for about 3 minutes. I'm not sure he really knew what happened, but it was the very first time that he peed on the potty!

Tonight at Dinner, My Son Stuck a Pea Up His Nose

Yes, you read that blog title correctly. Tonight, around six o'clock, Dawson and I were sitting at the dinner table eating dinner and I heard him say, "Googer," which is his word for booger. :) He had his finger up his nose and I thought he was just trying to be silly or possibly contrary since I've recently started to ask him to take his finger out of his nose. He thinks it is funny when I give him my "mommy look" and shake my head at him. Anyways, I went to get a napkin to clean his nose. When I pinched his nose with the napkin some dark green gunk came out. I wondered if it was snot until I glimpsed the peas on his tray. Then I went ahead and tried to clean out his nose some more just in case there was more "pea" inside and what do you know, the pea shell plopped out. Dawson was not a happy camper anymore. His poor nose was hurting, especially when I had to go get the bulb syringe because I thought there was another little pea up inside his little nostril!

Bedtime Routine

Bedtime is quite likely my favorite part of the day. Not only because of the quiet that usually follows but because it's such a great Daddy-Dawsie time. When Dawson was first born, I read in the Healthy Sleep / Happy Child book that kids need a bedtime routine so they can start preparing themselves to sleep. So with little variation, here's how our bedtime routine has looked since Dawson was about 6 weeks old.

We give him milk while changing his diaper and putting on his pajamas. We then move to the rocking chair, where he continues to drink his milk (the amount has been lessened as he's gotten older) as we read him some books. The reading is one of my favorite parts of the routine. We read a few normal/ daytime books but we eventually end with several night-time books. Books such as Night, Night, Little Pookie, Pajama Time, The Going to Bed Book, Five Little Monkeys, and the night-time classic Goodnight, Moon.

After reading and drinking the milk, it's time to pray together. I say, "Dawson, it's time to pray." Sometimes, Dawson responds by folding his hands. Lately, he's started responding by whining and squirming because he knows it's almost time for bed. But when he does fold his hands, my heart melts.

The last part of the routine is the "night-night song," Hush Little, Baby is the official song. One nostalgic thing about this song is that I can remember my mom singing it to me, and tickling me at the end of it, just as I do to Dawson now. Lately, Dawson has wanted to turn around and hug and look at me while I sing him this song. He often smiles, gives me a kiss then puts his head on my shoulder as I finish the song. Last night, he smiled at me and got his face close to mine in a very precious moment.

When the song is over, I let him know it's time for night-night, I put him in the crib, cover him with a blanket and give him a stuffed animal. He usually dives onto that stuffed animal as I cover him with a blanket. Most of the time, he's close to being asleep before I even shut the door. Most of the time...

September Videos

August's Videos

18 Months

Words:
Mom, Mama, Mommy
Dad, Daddy, Dah
baby
tractor
Dawson (Dawsie)
uh-oh
Shhh
Off
Mmm
Bite
drink (dink)
Mmmm
go
Hey
Ball
book (gook)
cracker (cacker)
truck (guck)
car
yay
baby
No, Nay, Nine
Yes - "Es"
Shoes
Bye bye
Choo choo
whee
peepee
poop
Hi
cow
Moo
dog (gog)
Oof (woof)
quack (cack)
nose
eyes
up
papa
phone
hot
cold
moon
something that sounds like "thank you"
Star
Car
Circle
and something that sounds like I love you

Knows many body parts: head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly, feet, hands, toes. he points to them when we ask, "Where is your...?"

Climbs on everything: chairs, back of the couch, bathtub,

Walks up and down stairs while holding a hand or the wall

LOVES to read with Mommy, Daddy, and even by himself. Sits for up to twenty minutes listening to books. And he knows if it is upside down and turns it around. He will sit and jabber as he turns the pages and now points to all kinds of things on the pages as we say them. For a long time he has shaken his finger when we read "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

Dives onto his cow pillow at bed time.

When he wakes up happy, he loves to wrestle and play "BOOM" in his crib, our bed, or on the couch.

Loves to cuddle right when he wakes up.


Drags all of his wheeled toys out, one at a time and lines them up as if in a parade, then scoots them one by one a different direction. He still scoots with one leg underneath him when he plays.


He loves to be chased and tickled. It makes him laugh from his belly.
watches our mouths when we sing.


Sits in the refrigerator when it is open and likes to take all of the condiments out of the door.


Is learning that throwing toys results in toys being in time out. He likes to launch his big trucks and tractors down the steps. As soon as he does, Mommy or Daddy go down after it and put them up where he can see them, but out of his reach.

First Haircut

If you've met my son, you know that he has beautiful curly, blond hair. For almost 6 months, it has had generous curls, that kept getting fuller and more abundant as it grew. Needless to say, I couldn't cut it. I kept talking about it and lots and lots of people told me I shouldn't. It was a terrible thing to think about - losing my baby's curls felt like losing my baby. This was one milestone that I been putting off for a long time.
Then one day, before school started back up again, I called and made an appointment and decided that I just needed to go and do it. After all, his hair was starting to touch the bottom of his neck and his bangs were definitely hanging in his eyes. I could still wet it and gel it and make it look okay, but I definitely didn't want it to get to the afro stage. :)

So, we arrived at Shear Madness and Brandi brought my little baby to one of the fancy car chairs for his first ever haircut. She started by cutting of f a few curls and putting them in little keepsake baggies. I appreciate that now and know that I will treasure those baby locks in his baby book as he grows up.
As you can see, his curls are still there, just trimmed up and revealing a little boy where there was once a baby. It took me a few days to gt over the curls being gone. I couldn't even post a picture because it was so hard to let my "baby" go. I realized, however, that he is STILL the CUTEST boy on the planet, baby curls or not.

July's Videos

Family Photo Shoot

For some great pictures and a rather funny story from a photo shoot we took in June, go to this link.

A Year Ago Today

This little guy was almost 6 months old.

Full Circle

I wrote an adoption story on my blog, you can read it here. That is, if you want to cry a few tears of joy...

Hobby

One of Dawson's favorite hobby is putting objects into an alignment then destroying or moving that line. He usually does this with his toys, particularly his toy cars. It's funny to watch his do this but I also can't help but analyze his reasons for doing so. Is he just amusing himself? Does he like to be organized? Is he a tad OCD? I wonder about the OCD part because he works to make sure the objects are aligned as closely or symmetrically as possible. Maybe not however, since after making the line he promptly destroys the symmetry he'd just created.

Imitator

Dawson loves imitating us, which is some parts cute, some parts flattering with an element of scariness as well. I guess it makes sense, however that Dawson would imitate the two people he spends the most time around. The cutest part of it is that when he's doing something he knows he's seen mom and dad do, he gets a huge smile on his face. It's as if he's saying, "look at me, I'm just like mom and dad"!

Here's a list of some ways he imitates us:
- Calling and texting. He puts the phone to his ear and starts gibbering. He also tries to send text messages.
- Sweeping. He drags the broom across the floor and tries to push debris into the dustpan. He's a bit too short to do this successfully, though.
- Fork. He's much more content if he can use a fork. Usually, I put the food on the fork for him but occasionally he's able to do the entire movement on his own.
- Wiping the kitchen floor. I often use a towel to wipe up spills or spots on the tiled kitchen floor. Occasionally, Dawson likes to do that as well.
- Brushing teeth. This is a big one. He loves to brush his teeth now and it's hard to get him to let me do the brushing first. Occasionally, we stand in front of the mirror and brush together, this makes Dawson very proud.
- Kissing. Maybe the sweetest thing he does. If Erin and I share a kiss, Dawson wants in on it. He also will randomly decide to give an open-mouthed kiss to one of us. He hasn't got the puckering down yet.
- Pointing. He'll imitate our pointing.
- TV remote. This was cute at first but now kind of annoying. We usually have to hide the remote because he takes great pride in making some sort of change occur on the TV screen.
- Brushing hair. He'll grab one of Erin's brushes and then run into the living room to show me how he brushes his hair or to brush my hair. I usually have to turn the brus
h around so the bristles are going through is hair.
- Driving. When we're pushing him in his little green car, he turns the steering wheel and honks the horn. With his forward-facing car seat, he can watch us drive. He doesn't see us honk too often, though.

May and June videos

These are late, but here are the videos from May and June. The video of him walking at the school are from the first week he was walking.

1st Baseball Game

Last night, I took Dawson to his first ever baseball game. It was at Community America Ballpark, the home of the Kansas City T-Bones independent baseball club. I'm not paying the money for a Royals game until Dawson understands the difference between the KC Royals and the Burlington Bees. Even though Dawson had no clue what was going on, the money was well spent. We got a picture of our trip, did some tailgating (during which he was more cooperative than I'd expected), got a picture with Big Jay the University of Kansas mascot and looked at other kids at the playground while swinging.

Dawson didn't appreciate being held in our little section of seats however, so I had to let him walk around some of the patio seating. As we were walking back to our seats, he was staring backwards and refused to turn around. I turned to see that the object of his fascination was the huge T-Bones mascot, Sizzle. Dawson was in awe. He kept waving at Sizzle, that is until Sizzle got closer, at which time Dawson got very shy.

All in all, it was a good and successful first trip to a bah game. It was shared with some good friends from church, including Dawson's buddy Seth, who is just a few months younger. Dawson even commented that hotdogs do taste better when grilled outside of a stadium - or something like that.

April Videos

A heart-warming weekend

The older Dawson gets, the more expressive and interactive he's becoming. It's really quite sweet and entertaining. Here are a few examples:

If we're laying down, on the bed or the couch, he crawls on top of us for a hug then turns around and squirms up next to our body for some snuggling. When Dawson wiggles up to us 'rear end first,' he's wanting to snuggle. I was reading on the couch this afternoon when he climbed up over the end - as he's prone to do with the assistance of a wooden box - then snuggled up next to me. Sometimes he'll just throw his body on top of ours to give a bear-hug.

Snuggling and hugging aren't his only ways of showing affection, he also enjoys giving us love pats. He'll smile and laugh while patting me on the shoulder or the face.

This morning he learned how to work the garage door opener. He saw the button, knew what it was for then watched in awe as his action made the garage door go up and down.

While pumping gas last night, I knocked on his window to smile at him while he was in the car seat. When he turned to his left at the noise of my knocking and saw 'daddie' (a word he'll repeat even when I'm in the other room) he burst out into one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen and started laughing and waving. Knocking on his window was a simple act but the exuberance of his response melted my heart in a brand new way.

Over the past few weeks, he's been standing fully upright from a seated or kneeling position. He would only do it once in awhile, though. But over the weekend, he started doing it more often and more quickly, while holding two fairly large toys. This morning, as I was sitting on the couch reading, Dawson repeatedly stood up, sat down, then stood up again. My positive reinforcement was prompting him to keep showing off.

He's also finally began to take 2 or 3 little steps. Nothing major but we know the big promenade isn't too far off. Well, as I was still sitting on the couch reading this morning, out of the corner of my eye I saw Dawson moving rather quickly. Nothing new but this time he was up higher than usual. I quickly turned to see Dawson taking full steps for the longest distance yet, at least 7 or 8 full steps - the entire length of the couch. When he finally stopped and threw himself down on a pillow, I cheered like crazy. Of course, this excited Dawson and we both laughed for about 5 full minutes, then spent some time giggling, wrestling, tickling and playing "boom" (where I toss him onto the couch). It was a really, really exciting moment. I was so proud to see him move so much and glad I could experience such a big milestone.

It was repeated on slighty smaller but more dramtic scale later that evening. Our Parents as Teachers coach was over at our house and trying to entice Dawson to stand for a toy. Dawson just won't do stuff like that when we prompt him, he does it on his own volition. But when he was already standing, Erin held out a toy for him. In classic baby-walking style, he gingerly reached out as far as he could but with the toy being just beyond his fingertips he began taking small steps toward Erin. He walked for about 5 steps before sitting down. All three of us were quite excited, so to join in our enthusiasm Dawson stood back up and began clapping. The boy was enjoying the attention.

Our boy likes to sleep

We've had the idea that about the only thing we can really shape in Dawson's first year are his sleep habits. I've posted on these before, our struggles and successes. Well, Dawsie loves his sleep, he needs his sleep and he knows when it's time to go to bed.

About a month ago, Grandma Kim was watching him while we were out. Now Kim likes to keep Dawson up as long as possible to spend as much time with him as she can. This night Dawson let his Grandma know it was time for bed. At 8:00, which is about as late as he can stay up, Dawson crawled down the hall, sat in front of the closed door to his bedroom and cried. Think about that, he was begging his Grandma to let him go to bed.

That's awesome.

Now just tonight, Erin had just bathed Dawson and put on his diapers when her dad called. She took the phone into Dawson's room and sat in the rocking chair while talking with her dad.
Dawson crawled into his room, popped his binkie in his mouth, grabbed a few books from the nightstand and tried crawling into his mommy's lap.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child stated it's very important to set up a bedtime routine for small children, so they begin preparing for sleep. The book never mentioned that the child might be the one to enforce the routine.

An Exceptional Charmer

I've heard it so many times that I've finally stopped fighting it, "Your son is such a pretty baby / boy." Instead of saying, "he's not pretty he's handsome," I just smile and say "thanks."
I don't know if he'll always have this skill but Dawson puts his good looks to work in charming other people.
A great example was last Monday night, when a lady from Parents as Teachers came over to meet with us. After getting over his initial shyness, Dawson started showing off for Ann. He started by just being flirty, then he began pulling pillows off the coach and launching himself onto them. He worked everyone, including himself, into a good fit of laughter. Dawson is certainly a charmer.

But he's also exceptional, at least according to Ann. She kept giving him the age appropriate tests to see whether his cognitive and motor skills had developed to the point at which they should be. And with just one exception (a big exception I'll write about in a second) Dawson passed all of them. He could stack blocks, pick up things with his fingers, stand up, etc.

What he's not doing yet is walking. Every stage (crawling, rolling over, etc.) Dawson has been patient and cautious, waiting until he could do it with ease. He's taking an even more cautious approach to walking. Recently, he'd stand for a moment before realizing he was standing on his own and then, once he realized it, would quickly sit back down. He gets mad if we try to have him stand or walk, too. Within a few days, however he's started standing straight up from a walking toy or something and begin clapping his hands while standing for a good 30 seconds. He'll even take a step or two before going back into a crawl. It seems he'll start walking almost reluctantly and accidentally.

After our meeting with Ann, we took Dawson outside for a stroll along the sidewalk on his John Deere ATV. He's pushing it along the sidewalk or riding it himself, careful to steer clear of the grass. Dawson walked over to the neighbors East of us and charmed the wife, Robin for awhile.

But I think Dawson grew tired of charming adults and decided to try someone closer to his age. So he decided to put the moves on the cute neighbor girl, Gabby. Gabby isn't too much older for Dawson, just old enough to be in his 'league' but still a challenge.

So, he pushed the ATV over to Gabby, started talking with her, then made his big move. He got off his ATV and got onto Gabby's bike with her. I thought it was pretty smooth but Gabby wasn't too sure. Once Gabby's dad came back outside with a shotgun, Dawson decided it was time to head for home...

In the top picture, Dawson is waving at some dogs walking by. Dawson has started to take quite a liking to dogs. When he hears one barking, he'll look around for it and say "gog." When he sees a dog, either an actual dog or one in a picture, he does his best bark imitation. I wanted to spell his 'bark' phonetically, but I just can't figure out how to do it.