Dax's Journal

Pet names

Dax has a lot of nicknames. Some of them may cause you to question my love for the little guy but I assure you that my love, it is immeasurable.

Here is just a sampling.

Toothless Hobo (we've covered that one already)
Gummy Gummerson
Daxster the Maxster
Demoliton Dax
The Mess Meiser
Devil Baby
Little Poo
Lumpy
Stinky
Grumpus
Grumpapotomus
My Little Velociraptor

Is it any wonder, then, that he doesn't seem to know his own name yet? If my kid shows up in Kindergarden and claims his name to be Lumpy Grumpapotomus or Stinky Poo, you can all blame me.

Updates?

Just an administrative note: If you want to be notified when we update, please send me an e-mail at mmadayag@comcast.net and let me know. I've been trying to use Notify List but it hasn't been very reliable. (If you are already on the Notify List, I'll move you over to my new list.)

He's with the band

Dax has completely abandoned his old, slithery way of crawling and is clipping along on hands and knees. Well, sometimes hands, knee, and one foot. Sometimes hand, toy truck, knee, foot. Whatever the method, though, he can really move.

His balance is getting really good, too. He still needs to hold on to something when he's standing but he often only holds on with one hand. He can also squat down to pick up things he's dropped and then stand up again.

The other thing he's getting rather good at is getting his groove on. He really seems to like music. When songs that he likes come on, he dances. He also quite enjoys playing the drums. That's right. My 9 1/2 month old son? Plays the drums.

See?

Gummy Gummerson

Dax still has no teeth. Most of the time I don't really think about this. But every once in awhile, I see a picture of his big ol' gummy grin and I am reminded of this fact. I've been calling him my little toothless hobo. Don't worry, I'll stop before he knows how insulting that is.

He's a cute little toothless hobo, isn't he?

I think I've mentioned before how much Dax loves his daycare center. Just as important, we love it. The teachers are all so wonderful. I know that Dax is loved and that he's learning new things every day.

We recently got the sad news that the director of his daycare is going to be leaving. We are going to miss her terribly. In fact, one of us cried. I'll let you guess which one of us that was.

This is actually our second goodbye. One of Dax's favorite teachers, Miss Jennifer, went to another center about a month ago. I plan on keeping in touch with both of them, sending them pictures from time to time.

I tried to explain to Cat tonight why saying goodbye to Alina makes me cry. Part of it is that she's awesome and we will really, truly miss her. But I think an even bigger part of it is that she is clearly so sad to say goodbye to Dax. I'm having trouble putting this into words. It's a bittersweet sort of thing. I'm so touched that someone loves my son so much that having to leave him makes her cry.

I know that life happens and that people must move on. I'm happy for Jennifer
and Alina because their leaving means new and exciting changes for them. But I'm seriously considering installing LoJack on some of Dax's other teachers, just in case they get any ideas.

In other, less teary news, Dax is getting really good at pulling himself to standing. Tonight he was standing at the sliding glass door, enjoying a little summer rainstorm.

Big boy

Sometimes we let Dax try to feed himself. "Sometimes" being when he snatches the spoon away from me before I can get the food into his mouth. Tonight was one of those times. I'm not entirely sure that any of that oatmeal actually made it into his mouth.

Dax is getting pretty brave with the whole pulling up and standing trick. Not only is he pulling himself up on things, sometimes he lets go. That means he's been spending a whole lot of time falling on his rump and pulling himself right back up again. I love when I am sitting on the couch and suddenly his little head pops up on the other side of the coffee table.

Just in case you were wondering? No, he still doesn't have any teeth. But as you can see from this photo, he has some pretty astounding drooling skills.

I was thinking today about how Dax has now been outside of me for longer than he was inside of me. It hardly seems possible.

Curious

Dax continues to learn at an astounding pace. Babies are amazing.

I can't imagine what it must be like living in a world where everything is new and interesting. Wait, that's not entirely true. I'm seeing things as new and interesting through Dax's eyes.

He's so curious about everything. Whenever we open a door, he makes a beeline for it. Put anything in front of him and he'll want to check it out. The best toys are the ones that aren't toys: the DVD player, the remote, our keys, pens, empty water bottles, the camera.

He's getting pretty skilled with the crawling. He still does his little frog move but a lot of the time he is up on hands and knees. He pulls himself up to standing in his crib and at the coffee table. Today he started to "cruise" a tiny bit. He's figuring out how to shift his balance and move his feet. Still, his forehead is frequently riddled with bruises from all this learning he's doing.

Momma's boy

I have been known, on occassion, to wake myself from a sound sleep by laughing. Oh, what an amazing carnival of fun my brain must be. Unfortunately, I never remember what was so funny.

My son, he has inherited mommy's sleep laughing gene. I was watching him nap this morning when it happened. First he started babbling, "ta, ta, ta". Then he smiled a big, gummy grin. Then he laughed. All the while, he slept like...well, like a baby.

That's my boy. :)