Dax's Journal

Reunited

It has been awhile since I got to post pictures of Dax and his friend Miranda.

Can you believe how much they've grown? Especially since their very first play date.

When I talked to Siobhan on Saturday night she said that Miranda was getting very close to walking. She obviously meant very close because, when we showed up, she was walking all over the place.

Dax was dressed in this adorable outfit that our friends Erik and Michelle gave him for his birthday. I think he looks like such a little man.

As always, it was wonderful to spend time with Siobhan. The twist this time was that Cat and Alfredo were also part of the fun.

Miranda is incredibly verbal already. Seriously. She can say so many words that I can't even keep track. She even strings them together in small sentences. While playing peekaboo with her, she cocked her head to the side and said, "I see you!" I absolutely melted. And the best part? She's bilingual. She also speaks spanish.

Dax's vocabulary is growing more and more each day. I think being around Miranda was good for him because he's decided that he will even attempt words that don't begin with D. Words like more and shoe and bottle and book. Sheesh! By their next play date they'll be discussing the benefits of organic milk and which is more educational, The Wiggles or Boohbah.

Trick or Treat

Dax wishes you a very happy Halloween from the bottom of his froggy little heart.

He really enjoyed seeing all the ghosts, goblins, witches, teenage mutant ninja turtles, fairy princesses, pirates.....well, you get the picture. He ran to the door every time someone rang the bell. He was also in charge of waving and saying "buh-bye" when everyone left.

Finicky

When we first started to give Dax solid food, he took to it like a fish to water. We could give him anything and he'd eat it.

Those days? Have ended.

Dax has suddenly decided he does not like pasta. And carrots. No carrots. Absolutely no carrots. And chicken? No. Same for turkey, ground or otherwise. Mostly he likes Cheerios. But man can not survive on small round cereal alone.

When you try to give him something that he doesn't like he will either slam his mouth shut like vault and shake his head "no" or he will put it in his mouth and then spit it out again while making a face that seems to say, "But I thought you loved me."

We've been trying to ween him off the bottle and we've tried several different sippy cups. We tried short and stout ones with no handles and tall and skinny with no handles and small and round with handles and tall with no handles and...well, you get the picture. Sheesh! Finally, this weekend, I found some that he likes. And, while I'm proud of him for making yet another step into toddlerhood, I'll be sad to pack up his bottles. My baby, he is growing up so fast.

Here he is trying to mesmorize you with his cuteness.

You are under my powwwwwer! You will give me Cheerioooooos!

Spook Preview

How do you like Dax's Halloween costume? He picked it out himself. Can you tell what he is?

Let's take a vote. How many of you think he is going to be a cute little ghostie? And how many of you think he is going to be dressed as one of Michael Jackson's extremely unfortunate kids?

You're all wrong. He's going to be a little froggie.

And, yeah. I know it isn't Halloween yet. But how often do you get to dress your kid up as an amphibian? Besides, how cute is this snuggly little googly eyed frog?

I'm hoping to teach him how to say "frog" before Halloween. As you know, he can say "ducky". He can also now say "doggie" and even "Dax". He's very fond of "D" words, I guess.

Forward ho!

It was a big weekend over at the Madayag's. Dax has reached a major milestone. He is now facing forward in his car seat.

Tah-dah!

I don't know why Cat and I have been so looking forward to this. I'm pretty sure it was a much bigger deal to us that it was to Dax. He did seem to love it, though. Especially when we had the windows down a bit and he was catching a breeze back there. One of his greatest pleasures in life is a nice breeze through his hair. Talk about a blissed out kid.

Ok, so riding forward in the car isn't the only big news for Dax. He's also started to talk a bit more. He can say "ducky" and he actually seems to know what he's talking about. If you point to a duck, he says it. If you ask him where the ducky is, he can show you one. Although, this weekend we saw an emu and he called it a ducky so we clearly still have a lot of work to do.

We had him saying "Dax" this weekend, too. It was hilarious. It comes out in two syllables with a big pause in the middle. Da..........cksssssssssss.

Mostly he just makes a lot of noise. He often will sound like he's speaking in some foreign language. You know, something recognizable as speech but unintelligable unless you speak the same language.

Dax looks a lot like his daddy. Everyone says so. I rarely have anyone tell me that he looks like me. Cat and I were talking about that this weekend. I said that I could see a bit of myself in him and I asked Cat if he could. When he said yes, he could, I asked him, "In what way?" And he said, "His chattiness."

Well. At least there's something.

Improper use of a nostril

I caught Dax trying to stick a veggie puff up his left nostril this morning. Isn't a bit early for him to start treating his nose like some sort of tiny pinata?

Thankfully, the puffs are bigger than his nostril but it won't be long before he finds some fabulous prize that will fit up in there. Tell me, is it wrong to spackle your baby's nose closed until he learns that it is not for storage?

Funny like a clown

I had kind of a bad day today. It was nothing too serious but it was an unpleasant hodge-podge involving an ant invasion, a rude cashier, and shopping with the unwashed masses.

Anyway....

My darling son seemed to sense that I needed cheering because he was a tiny little one-man-show all day today.

His grand finale today was when he put his tiny feet into my giant shoes and shuffled around the kitchen while we both laughed like hyenas.

I think he wore himself out with all his antics. He was sound asleep by 7:45.

Pumpy-umpy-umpkin

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You're my Sweetie Pie
You're my Cuppycake, Gumdrop
Snoogums-Boogums, You're
the Apple of my Eye

And I love you so and I want you to know
That I'll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear!

Chaos and Daycare

The daycare plan. I drop Dax off in the morning, and then Michelle picks him up in the afternoon.

Michelle would have a tough time dropping Dax off in the morning because of the ocassional Separation Anxiety episode. So the ugly job of leaving the kid behind is left to me.

On the other hand, Michelle has the optimal situation of a kid, who's happy to see her, running into her arms after a long day at daycare.

The funniest episode I remember that occurred at Kindercare one morning:

Picture about 5 infants, maybe 8 toddlers, and 3 teachers all in one room. I'm in the process of dropping off Dax. It’s pretty hectic, it’s loud, it’s just plain craziness with kids running around everywhere.

Then Anaya, one of the infants, starts to crescendo into a cry, the room grew very quiet. It was like the calm before a storm.

All you could hear is Anaya:“………aaaaaaaa@@@@@@@AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

As Anaya gets about halfway into her crying, the rest of the infants/toddlers do the same thing, they all start to crescendo into a loud cry.

All kids: “………aaaaaaaa@@@@@@@AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The funniest thing was sweeping my gaze over the sea of children and noticing that half of the kids were actually distressed and, from reading their eyes, were very scared as they screamed. The other half were obviously having fun and were smiling as they screamed along with the rest of the class. I remember looking at Dax and seeing him screaming as loud as he could with laughter in his eyes. It was Classic.

This went on for about 10 or 20 seconds, this very load Screaming/Crying Kid Chorus of sorts. And of course, this only made Anaya cry even louder.

And just as suddenly as it started, the Group Scream slowly subsided until it was silent again.

The only sound then was my laughter. and a few whimpering kids.

How it went

Dax's first day at his new daycare was a smash hit. He didn't cry when daddy dropped him off. He napped at the designated nap time. He played with new toys and got to read new books and he learned some fancy new dance moves from his new friend, Tyler.

Do you know how you can tell when you've enrolled your child in an awesome daycare? When you show up to pick him up at 3:45 and you don't leave until 5:30. That's right. When your son's daycare is so awesome that you can't pry yourself away from it? That's good daycare, my friends.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Yesterday was Dax's last day at his daycare. He starts at a brand new place on Monday and we are very excited about it but it was sad to say goodbye to his teachers who he loves so much and to all his little friends.

They had a little going away party for him and all the little ones got to nosh on some cupcakes and chase soap bubbles.

I wish I could post pictures of all the adorable babies Dax has been hanging out with for the past six months or so. I'm not kidding when I say that you would be so overcome with cuteness that you might have to go lay down for a little bit with a cold compress on your forehead.

I will, however, post pictures of a few of his wonderful teachers (who are also very cute, don't get me wrong).

Here he is snuggling with Miss Jessica.

And having a cuddle with Miss Tivona.

And getting a big smooch from Miss Rebecca.

You'll probably be very surprised to know that I actually made it out of there without bawling like a .....well....like a baby. I'm sure we will stay in touch with Jessica, Tivona, and Rebecca and that made saying goodbye much easier.

In other news, Dax had his one-year checkup the other day. He is 29 inches and weighs just a bit over 19 pounds. That means he's at about the 11th percentile for height and the 5th for weight. He had to get two shots this time, both is the back of his arms. I thought shots in the chubby little thighs was sad but shots in the back of the pudgy little arms is even more sad.

Here's another picture of Dax. In this one he is demonstrating his new game of "Lookie what I'm eating!"

What is he eating, you ask? Veggie puffs. He loves them. They might just possibly be his favorite food EVER. He loves almost every flavor including sweet potato which is what he is showing you in that picture above.