First Hike

About 12:30 last night, we got back from Estes Park, CO; finishing up our first full week family vacation.  All things considered (mainly that we have a toddler) it was a great week.  We had a good mixture of sight-seeing while also not pushing Dawson too hard and even sticking to his nap schedule.

The first morning in our secluded cabin just a few yards from the boundary of Rockies National Park, Erin needed to sleep in.  Our cabin was cozy but a bit small, so it was impossible to keep Dawson quiet enough to allow Erin to continue sleeping.  So after some encouragement, Dawson agreed to go on a walk with me.  Of course, I didn't have a camera (these pictures were from a later hike along  paved path) but I have some great memories.  I was really, really proud of my son on that hike.  The hike was almost two miles and it was along a rough path, up and down hills, over rocks and along a high ridge but Dawson strongly blazed through the path, speeding along ahead of me.  I did carry him down a steep hill and after he freaked out from a bug bite, but he walked almost the entire two miles.

At the start of the hike, some deer walked in front of us.  While Dawson was quite excited to see it, that reminder of the fact that we were in a national park had me keeping a look out for bears the rest of the trip.  I wasn't sure what I would've done had we come across a bear but considering how Dawson had been freaking out over the chipmunks outside our cabin, I kept my fears to myself.

My favorite moment was watching as a snowy peak rose up beyond Dawson's head as he crested the rise of a hill. I watched with pride as he hiked over the peak of that hill and kept moving deeper into the forest.  Dawson was alive with all the wonders of nature all around him.  At one point, I wanted to walk along a patch about 15 feet down the side of the ridge, but Dawson was worried that trail wouldn't take him back to mommy.

The hike did wear him out though, evidenced by the meltdown he had just before nap time. The next morning, I tried to convince him to go on a walk again but he must've remembered how intense that hike was because after about 20 feet up the first hill he announced, "Daddy, I don't want to go on a walk."  So we sat on a bench and spent the next half hour listening to the mountain wind, looking for more deer, tossing pine cones, talking about how God made the mountains and just hugging on each other.  That time was also sweet but his lack of desire to do the hike a second time confirmed just how special that first hike truly was.

Stench

The other night, we were laying on the couch together and Dawson was doing his usual
job of piling every available pillow and blanket on top of me.  Dawson then laid on top of
that pile, as the pile rested on top of me.
I'm not sure what I'd had for dinner that night, but it was creating some serious
pain in my stomach.  Thinking I could release some of the gaseous pressure and
that Dawson wouldn't care, I did so.  A few moments later, however Dawson did care.
Dawson wrinked up his nose and got a bewildered look on his face.  He then pointed to the
inside of his nose, acted like he was in pain and then said, "my nose hurts."  I started to laugh
at that point but lost it at what he said next.  Dawson looked at me, with a serious
and pained expression, ording, "Daddy, don't poop in my nose!

"I tackle daddy"

For a solid 9 months now, Dawson's favorite activity is "I tackle daddy."  Though the definition of
tackling has changed over time.  Now it's much closer to wrestling with daddy but since daddy
is a forme football player rather than former a wrestler, we've stuck with tackling.

At first, tackling involved me laying on the floor while Dawson lauched himself from the couch
toward a semi-soft landing on my stomach and the occassional not-so-soft landing in other areas.
Dawson eventually began to fear the lack of a gauranteed soft landing, so tackling became an act
of Dawson pulling out every single blanket from a cabinet
and every pillow from the couch and covering me with them.

Lately however, Dawson has discoverd the joy of the spare bed in the tv room downstairs.  Now, "I tackle
daddy" has changed into "I go downstairs and tackle daddy."  On that downstairs bed we have good times
doing thins like pillow fights
(Dawson taking a dive even before the pillow hits him), form tackling drills, me pushing Dawson over
while he's jumping on the bed, swinging from the treadmill to the bed or me diving headfirst
at my boy on the other side of the bed.  It's just your basic father-son bonding time.

The good news is that as Dawson gets older and stronger, these matches are going to get more
intense and I'm sure the day in coming in which my son will put a serious hurting on me.  Right now,
though, its' just a bunch of silly stuff all wrapped up in the imperative, "I tackle daddy."

"I be cold with you."

It's been funny for Erin to see that I'm not the only male who believes less clothes is better
than more clothes.  In fact, Erin has now realized that the desire to wear pretty much only
underwear is a universal male trait.  Dawson's favorite outfit is nothing but a diaper with
his next favorite outfit being a shirt and diaper.

So when I happen to be walking from the shower or from the bedroom to iron my pants and wearing
only underwear, Dawson immediately drops his drawers and strips off his shirt in order to join
the'a la mode' of the male househould. And since toddlers still bond with skin-to-skin contact,
Dawson runs up and asks me to hold him or he just grabs my bare legs.  Dawson also usually adds an
"I be cold with you, Daddy."  It's very humorous and incredibly predictable.  If Dawson ever
sees me without pants or without a shirt, he immediately removes the corresponding article of
clothing.  When he does this, Erin and I just laugh.

"Cold" is usually how Dawson describes his pants-less mode.  Most likely it's because whenever he
does strip off his pants, which is quite often, we tell him he'll get cold without his clothes.
Especially when Dawson and I are down in the cold basement jumping in the bed and Dawson strips
off his pants, I ask a bewildered, "why do you want to be cold."  I guess Dawson is numb to the cold
or just figures that no matter his body temperature, the male bonding that occurs while
jumping on the bed needs to be done sans-pants.

I'm not sure whether he'll ever grow into the civilized notion that pants are not a bad thing.

First Answered Prayer

A couple of weeks ago, my dad had a serious mishap; his back went out in excrutiating style, sending
him to the hospital for several days.  I was a bit worried for awhile, but thought it would
be a good chance to start teaching Dawson about prayer.  So during our nightly prayer, I asked
Dawson to pray for my dady.

"God help Papa.  Papa is sick."

It was the first time Dawson has directly asked something of his Heavenly Father.  A couple
days later, my dad made an almost overnight recovery and was back at home and back to work.
When my dad called, Dawson yelled into the phone, "Papa is all better!"

So there it is, Dawson's first prayer request and first answered prayer.

October Videos and some memories

Finally, some more videos.



I usually can't catch most of the funny stuff on video and Dawson typically throws a fit and stops doing whatever cute thing he was doing, when I do pull out the camera. So I wanted to at least write down some of the funny things he says on a regular basis as he's trying to master the English language.

- We have an alphabet book with Grover twisting his body into each letter. It's a book that I read as a kid, too. When we get to the "H", Dawson puts one hand and one leg down and attempts to stick the other limbs straight up into the air, just like Grover. It's quite funny.

- He loves saying "Oooozzzzy mud" when we're reading "Going on a Bear Hunt."

- He throws temperamental fits when he wants the other parent to do whatever the first one is attempting. Even something simple like giving him his milk. If' dad is doing it, but he wants mom to do it, its "Mommy wants to do it." He's been saying "____ wants to do it" instead of "I want _____ to do it" for quite awhile now. It's usually quite, though not always.

- When he does something for which he thinks we should thank him but for which we failed to do so, he announces, "I yelcome."

- When he wants us to cuddle with him on the couch, it's "I cuddle for you."

- When he needs some fresh air, its "I pay back yard."

- When he wants us to chase him, "I get you."

- When he wants to wrestle, "I jump on daddy!"

- When giving a thoughtful or playful response, "aahhhh.... NO / aahhh... YES."

- When finishing the ABC song, "Next time won't you sing with Dawson (or Elmo).

Where are the KIDS???

All parents inevitably seem to have those moments. The ones where the kids are right beside you and then a second later you turn around and they are nowhere in sight. Well, when we were in Iowa, Dawson and his cousin, Dani were with me upstairs getting ready to go on an errand with Grammy Lori and Aunt Rachel. After I finished getting Dawson dressed, I watched the kids go downstairs where Lori and Rachel were in the kitchen. I got dressed and then went downstairs about 5 minutes later.
When I got to the kitchen, I asked, "Where are the kids?" Rachel and Lori looked at each other and said, "They were just here!" Rachel had seen them playing less than a minute before and looked at me bewildered.
We started calling for them, thinking they were on the back porch, in the living room, or the office. After no response and looking in each of the rooms, we checked in the bathroom and even went back upstairs in the bedrooms and closets. No sign of either of them.
I went to the back porch, looked down the cellar stairs, and noticed a truck at the bottom, so I went into the basement and called for them. There was no light on, but I still wanted to double check, so I said each of their names loudly and waited. No response.
I was beginning to panic. I raced outside and looked everywhere around the house. Donnie's parents live on a fairly large farm with a house that sits right at the highway. My heart was racing... Rachel followed me outside and we were both yelling for them, looking in the garage, machine shed, bushes, and the barn. We couldn't see or hear any sign of either of them anywhere.
While I stayed outside searching, Rachel went back in and rechecked some of the places that we had already searched. She just didn't understand how they could disappear so quickly! She went into the basement and walked back into the rear rooms, calling the kids names. As she got closer to the back room, Dani popped out! They had been HIDING, SILENTLY, in the basement TOGETHER the WHOLE TIME!!!
Looking back on this I can laugh, but at the time, I was SO scared that they might be dead on the highway, that I was pretty upset. Rachel talked very seriously and sternly to Dani. Just a week before, she had left the house and gone out into the machine shed by herself because she wanted to play in there. The funny thing is, we don't think either of them would've gone down into the dark basement alone. But, together, they somehow figured that it would be fun to hide from their mommies and not talk when they were calling for them. I guess one of them has figured out how to hide. But they don't understand that the rest of the game involves telling someone to come and SEEK you!
Whew! First dangerous missing child episode down! I hope to not feel that way again any ttime soon!
Erin

My Boy is Reading!

Dawson has settled into an interesting routine. Every single night, he wants to read just three books; a book about Thomas the Tank Engine, Going on a Bear Hunt and Bear Snores On.
Tonight, however, we couldn't find Bear Hunt but thankfully, it wasn't too much of an ordeal.
We read those books so often, that Dawson is saying the words along with me. In the case of Bear Hunt, he is even making the same sounds.

Tonight I tried something new. Knowing that Dawson actually knows many of the words, I would read a few words at the end of a phrase, then point to and read each word, then have Dawson repeat the words individually and then read the entire phrase. And the sending-chills-down-my-spine response from Dawson was that he would READ THE PHRASE! This is just so EXCITING!

I can still remember the first book I ever read, it was A Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss. What I don't remember, however, is actually learning to read. I know that both of my parents worked really hard with me, but my only two early reading memories was crying with frustration while reading Great Day for Up but finishing because my mom wouldn't let me quit - I also remember her wild celebration when I finished. I also remember riding through Burlington with my dad and reading each sign that he pointed to, which was followed by a celebratory whoop from my dad.

I learned during my TFA Institute training that ideally a kid won't remember learning to read. That's my hope for Dawson, that he won't be able to remember learning to read, that he just reads from his 2 1/2 year old state throughout his life. The ability to read any author's story allows us to live an unlimited number of lives.

We finished the night with another activity I can't remember learning to do but just did my entire life, singing "Jesus Loves Me."

A good night that I wanted to remember, so I took the time to write this blog post.

Our First Family Vacation

A few weeks ago, we took our first family vacation to Saint Louis. To read about it and to see some pictures, check out this link.

A Memory to which I’d like to Hold On

If I could put time in a bottle, last night would’ve been a deposit I would’ve made. However, I can’t stop time and my little boy’s relentless march toward becoming a big boy continues. So I’ll just do the next best thing, blog on the memory. And while I likely won’t be able to adequately convey our adventures of last Sunday night, just the act of re-reading this, as I’ll eventually do, will likely trigger the emotions of the memory.

Erin was away for the evening, attending the HS graduation of her adopted sister and since we knew a graduation would not be a good place for Dawson, I had the late afternoon/ evening alone with my boy. As soon as he woke up from his nap, I strapped him in the jogging stroller and headed toward Cornerstone Park. We took our usual route; past the HS, through a newer neighborhood, then eventually through the older, tree-lined neighborhood.

As soon as I unstrapped the restraining harness of the stroller, Dawson tore off toward the playground equipment. As usual, he occasionally stopped his passionate run over the bridges and down the slides to get an approving smile from his daddy. One time, I had to keep Dawson from crashing the birthday party taking place in the shelter. Knowing he was hungry, we sat down at the picnic table and with legs swinging from the bench, Dawson munched down his peanut-butter crackers. Occasionally, he picked up the lid of the little orange container, looked at the cartoon drawing of a cat’s face on it and gave a “meeoow.” But what really melted my heart were the smiles he kept throwing up over his right shoulder, in my direction. Maybe that was just because I kept giving him more crackers. Or maybe it was because he was enjoying the daddy-son outing as much as me.

“I see dogs” was the enthusiastic answer to the question of whether we should go to the dog show happening the nearby 4-H building. Inside, the sight of all those dogs, the barking and the clapping almost over stimulated Dawson. And when I asked whether we should go to another park, I was given the reply “ut-her pak.” So we played on the playground of Gardner Elementary, Dawson fearlessly, then cautiously, running along the swinging bridge under the bright late-afternoon sun.

At first, he threw a mini-fit about the idea of leaving the park, but I explained we needed to go eat “dineh,” so he walked toward and climbed into the stroller. At home, he tried climbing into his booster seat and again got a big angry when I said we needed to go “bye-bye.” Although he didn’t understand what I meant, Dawson tried to mimic my explanation of where we’d eat with a “Ma-don-owd.”

At McDonalds, he kept trying to run behind the counter as I was waiting to order the food. He then pointed at the toys in the Happy Meal display and I thought, “wont’ be long before he’s asking for one of those.” And while the Chicken was too spicy, he sure wolfed down his fries. And again, I got some more heart-warming smiles as he ate the fries and swung his legs in the thin-air beneath his seat.

I eventually realized that since we were at a fast-food restaurant, it was a bit pointless to insist he eat some more bites of chicken before getting the “tweet.” So I ordered the treat of an ice-cream fudge Sunday and we shared the dessert together.

Later that night, my announcement that it was time to go “night-night” was met by an enthusiastic cheer, demonstrating just how tired my boy was. He grabbed the tooth brush and was trying to do it on his own before I even got into the bathroom. That version of the usual bed-time routine was enjoyable and sweet, reading the usual “Mouse” and “Moon” and singing about “Sunshine” and all the people in my little boy’s little world. With Monkey and Cow joining him underneath Blanket, Dawson quickly fell into a much needed sleep. Though the fact that I forgot to give pain medicine to the teething boy made for a rough night’s sleep.

I can’t hold onto my little boy, keeping him a little boy. I can, however fiercely hold onto the memories; keeping the memories from fading the way my suntan from Sunday afternoon is already fading.

Vocabulary

As is normal for this age, Dawson’s vocabulary is EXPLODING! But not only is he able to name all kinds of things around him, he is also speaking short, but complete sentences. Sentences containing pronouns, direct objects and even the occasional conjugated verb. When he’s trying, for the hundredth time, to persuade us to let him watch one of his favorite shows, he’ll state, “I watch it, Thomas” (or Nemo, or Elmo, etc). He is singing to us most of the alphabet and the better part of the song “sunshine.” What’s really impressive to me is how he’s finishing the sentences of book or adding in words, like the end of the phrases in “Good Night, Moon” or as I’m reading the line “one morning the warm sun came up and..” from “The Very Hunger Caterpillar”, Dawson will enthusiastically add the “POP” of that sentence.

I think what impressed me the most, however was the other night during dinner. We were, again, getting on the floor to pick up the plastic fork he had, again, thrown on the floor. When he had it in his hand, I told Dawson to put the fork on the, the, the… and the word just wouldn’t come to me. So Dawson decided to help his daddy out, supplying the missing word – “tehbal” (my best phonetic spelling of Dawson’s “table.” His pronunciation may not be quite correct yet, but Dawson was able to produce a word that wasn’t able to make it through his daddy’s temporary mind block. That’s some serious vocab and language development.

Happy Birthday

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. :(

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.

Balloons

As you can see from these pictures, Dawson had a lot of balloons for his 1st Birthday. Thy floated around the house for several weeks after the party. And he just discovered a sick looking balloon behind his crib three days ago.
I didn't get any pictures or video of the incident I'm about to describe, so I'm blogging it to hep us remember.
One morning, not long after waking, I was playing with Dawson in his room when he decided to go after some stray balloons. He was able to hold one and shake it around while the other kept bouncing just above his head. Eventually, the 'free' balloon built up enough static that it stuck to the back of Dawson's head. As Dawson kept twirling around, looking for the balloon, it would detach momentarily and then come to rest again just above the back of his head. As the balloon settled back down on his back, Dawson would giggle/squeal in joy, twirl around - generally having the time of his life. I've seen Dawson do a lot of heart-meltingly adorable things, but that might be an all-time favorite memory.