January's Videos

Letters and Numbers

Erin works REALLY hard in teaching Dawson his letters and numbers. Aiding her efforts are several electronic toys that sing the alphabet and say letters while pronouncing their phonetic sounds. Our Parents as Teachers instructer was over here earlier in the week and described Dawson's ability to count and say his letters as "amazing." She also suggested we get it on video. And while it's really hard to capture the best stuff on video,we did pretty good here. But what you won't see, and what prompted me to get out the camera, is that while Dawson was playing with his toys, he was randomly calling out letters of the alphabet - maybe a few were in order. Erin has got this boy constantly thinking about numbers and letters.

A "Choo Choo Chaine" evening

Like most boys his age, Dawson is obsessed with trains. He LOVES Thomas the Train, as well as Percy, James and the other inhabitants of the Island of Sodor. So last Friday night, we took Dawson to eat at Fritz's Restaurant in Crown Center Plaza. Fritz's is done in a train theme, complete with trains running near ceiling that bring the food. Dawson was in sensory overload. I'm quite surprised he was even able to finish his food, but he did.

After Fritz's, we walked through the City Link (glass walkways connecting the downtown buildings) over to Union Station. There, Dawson go to see more trains as well as ride the huge escalator. Not only were the trains perfect but the City Link was a toddler's dream, too - enclosed hallways in which Dawson could run as fast as he wanted, while being forced to go in a somewhat straight line. Or maybe it was a parent's dream way for their toddler to burn some energy. Either way, it was a great night.

Shunshine

The bedtime routine I wrote about here has altered a bit. Dawson no longer wants "Hush Little Baby", instead he wants "You are my sunshine" and he asks for it with "shunshine?". Erin actually started this song, as well as adding the variation that Dawson loves. She adds the names of people Dawson knows. So, instead of "you are my sunshine" it's "you are my ____."
Here's a list of names Dawson asks us to sing (with a phonetic spelling based upon his pronunciation):
Casey
Trisha
Andy
Sindy
Jhake
Cackie
Pappppaaaa
Gramie
Rashe
Mo
Mahrgie
Daddy
Mommy
Bugga - our nickname for Dawson
And the occasional stuffed animal or character from "Thomas".

He's becoming so aware of and attached to the other people in his life. About a half hour before they got here, Erin told Dawson this morning that his cousins were coming over. We then had a half hour of Dawson looking out the window, then asking or even demanding in a whiny voice "Trisha-Andy-Sindy" (It's all one phrase).
Then there's the occassional phrase "Jake-Cakie-Bye-Bye" which means he wants to go see the Armstrong kids at his babysitter, Sarah's house.