"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."

Exerting his independence

Ever since he's been born, though we're not exactly sure of the reason, our nickname for
Dawson has been "bugga."  Maybe it was the bug-like quality of his bulging newborn eyes.
Whatever the reason, "bugga bugga" has stuck.

The other day however, when refering him by the regular nickname, he obstinately replied with
a "I am not bugga.  I am Dawson."

And there it is, a new level of self-assertion.  "I am not who you say I am, I am my own person."


Our little boy is growing up into a man.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dawson's First Snow

Today was a snow day for Erin and for Dawson, the first day he's ever been bundled up and gone out to play in the snow.
As you can tell from the video, it will be awhile before he's taking over my job of shoveling the driveway.
Eventually Erin had to take him inside because he kept taking off his mittens. Oh, those dreaded boundaries and consequences.

"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.

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...

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.

A Year Ago Today

This little guy was almost 6 months old.

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.