Dax's Journal

Sick

Poor Dax has been sick again. Really sick. Really, really sick. Runny nose, very high fever (103.5), and puking. Ah, yes. The rewards of parenting.

I was so worried about him. He wouldn't eat. He couldn't even sit up. He had puked on himself, the couch, the cat, and me. My poor little baby was propped up on the couch with a cold washcloth on his head snuggling his blankie (buddy) all sick and pathetic. I was in tears.

That's when he looked at me and said, "TV? Wiggles? Jo Jo?"

We spent the rest of the day cuddled together on the couch watching the best that the Disney Channel and Noggin have to offer.

He's feeling much better today. Wish I could say the same for myself. There are only so many times one can be puked upon before one is thoroughly germed up good.

TV? CSI? The Office?

The Young Artist

Dax very much enjoys art. He loves to finger paint, sponge paint, draw with crayons or markers, glue things...you name it.

The result of his love of the arts is that I have quite a collection on my hands. Because he's my first child you can imagine I have a hard time parting with any of his work. But holding on to it all is problematic as well. What's a mom to do?

Take pictures of his work and create Dax's Online Art Gallery!

As always...if you don't want to sign up for an account just go to Bug Me Not to get a free login and password.

Slide

Dax learned all about slides at My Gym. At first he didn't go anywhere because he kept planting his feet. Soon enough, though, he figured out how to slide smoothly.

This weekend we walked to a park by our house and they had a nice, big slide. Daddy helped Dax climb up the stairs.


But he was on his own for the big ride.

He flew down that thing. He was absolutely giddy. Once his little feet were on the ground he was off and running as fast as his stubby legs would take him back to the stairs for another ride.

When it was time to go home he was, as you might imagine, displeased. We might be able to move the very sun and moon but we would never, ever put him in that stroller.

So we let him walk.

He walked a long, long way. Daddy carried him where traffic was heavy or where we needed to cross the street. During those times Dax protested loudly until he was allowed to walk again.

Sometimes Dax is willing to hold our hands when he walks. Sometimes he has other plans. He wants to roam free. These are the times when you would think he had suddenly lost the use of his legs.

All day long as I watched my son take chances and assert his independence I couldn't help but be proud. Not only was I proud of my laughing, brave boy, I was also proud of Cat and me. I think we’re doing a good job at this parenting thing.

A note about comments

Comments have been temporarily turned off because of crazy spammers. We have plans to upgrade to a more recent version of Movable Type that should help take care of that problem.

It continues

Dax's sudden burst of learning new words is gaining momentum. Yesterday he walked up to me as I was loading dishes into the dishwasher and said, "Dirty." This morning we were driving in the car and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" came on the radio. Before the singing even started he shouted out "Twinkle!" He's also surprised us with very clear pronunciations of car, truck, milk, kitty, yeah, cool, jacket, keys, bubbles, balloon, peaches. I'm officially done trying to keep track of all the words he knows.

This is Dax on the patio on his little push car that he is about to outgrow. I think he may be ready for a trike. He's had a bit of a growth spurt and I think his little feet might actually reach pedals now. He's also finally, FINALLY, cutting two more teeth on the bottom. Little Mr. Excels-at-talking is waaaaaay behind on the teething. I just hope he has all his baby teeth before he starts kindergarden.

Word burst

Today Dax set a record for most new words spoken. It started when we woke up and I greeted him with "Good morning!" and he responded "Morning" and it just snowballed from there.

A bit later we were playing "Where's Your Nose". He's been able to say "eye" for awhile but that's pretty much it for body parts. But today he pointed at and said "nose", "hair", and "elbow".

A bit later he was looking at some books and saying what I at first thought was "whee!". I thought he was reading his Diaper David book that his Nanna gave him (which consists of one word per page and he knows all of them). But when I looked over and he wasn't reading that particular book I realized he was saying read. I excitedly asked him if he was reading a book and he confirmed "read" and "book".

This afternoon we went over to the neighbor's house and I told Dax that we would need to knock instead of ringing the bell because Russell was napping. He rapped at the door and called out "Knock-knock".

Then tonight we needed to do a bit of shopping. As we were checking out, the sales associate thanked us and Dax responded with his own little "thank you".

Wow. What a day.

Cat and I were thinking very briefly of writing down all the words that he knows but there are just too many. We literally can not keep up with him.

He astounds me. It isn't just the words he knows, either. He can build a tall tower of blocks. He can put together his wooden car puzzle without any help. He can identify the color blue. He knows what shape a circle is. He has mastered going down a slide (and climbing back up it again).

I know. He's a kid and this is what kids do. They learn. But I guess I never really thought about the incredible speed at which they must learn. It's amazing.

Peek-a-boo

One of Dax's favorite things to do is to shut himself inside the laundry room with us on the other side of the door.

Sometimes he shuts the door completely and holds the door knob so you can't get in. Then he waits for you to knock and answers with peals of laughter. Sometimes he knocks back.

Sometimes he doesn't shut the door all the way because he plans on teasing you. He'll shut it aaallllllmost all the way and then pull it open and peek around the side. Then he'll shut it aaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllmost all the way again.

This just charms the socks right off of me.

Flirt

We went out to dinner the other night. Just as we ordered, two young girls were seated at the table next to us. Within moments, Dax was turning on the charm.

He started out with some subtle flirting. You know, looking over his shoulder and smiling, then looking away. He kicked it up a notch when one of the girls said hello to him. He batted his long lashes and said, "Hi."

Pretty soon he was playing games with them. It started out with a simple hard to get maneuver but quickly escalated to full-fledged peek-a-boo.

He had them then. They were smitten. But that wasn't good enough for him. He had to pull out the big guns. That's when he moved on to Feats of Strength. He grabbed a straw and pulled with all his might, making a strong and manly face as he ripped the paper off of the straw. Then he flung it nearly halfway across the table. OOoooooo!

There is just no escaping his charm.

Busy Weekend

Dax had a very busy weekend. We went with Daddy to San Francisco on Friday because he had some business to attend to. While we were there we went to the Academy of Sciences where we saw a lot of stuffed dead things and some live fish who were much, much bigger than any one of us.

Despite all the amazing and wonderous things we showed the boy while we were there (Giant fish! Penguins! Monkey skulls!), this thing here is what he liked the most.

Afterwards, we went to ride this giant carousel. I thought he would love it. As you can see by his face, he was not entirely sure what to make of spinning about rapidly while riding in a big, fake boat surrounded by brightly painted wooden animals.

On Saturday we went to My Gym. He definitely enjoyed that. There were some occassional moments where he looked at us as if we were insane. But, for the most part, he had a ball. His favorite activities included climbing up and down stairs and climbing up and down the slide. If it involves climbing? Dax is your man.

Big fun

Tomorrow is our Friday because we're all taking the actual Friday off and going to San Francisco. I'm not sure yet what we will do since it is just going to be a quick day trip. But whatever we do it will be better than being at work.

On Saturday we are taking Dax to My Gym. I can't wait! I think he's really going to enjoy it. I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures of the fun. Cat is going to be there, too. Something tells me he isn't going to enjoy it as much. I'm pretty sure words like "group activity" and the promise of singing and dancing aren't going to appeal to him.

I also just signed Dax up for his first swimming lessons but they don't start until May. There is NO WAY Cat will be joining us for that. "Water" is above "group activities" on the list of things he dislikes. The only things worse would be being attacked by dogs or dropped from a great height. So....yeah.

Today Dax and I were doing some shopping at Target. He was being all super- cute and charming, waving at total strangers and saying, "Hi!" in his most outgoing and cheery voice. We saw several pregnant women and I found myself wishing that I were one of them. I mean, just look at my adorable and sweet son. Why not have another one?

Just then Dax decided that he'd had quite enough of being in a shopping cart. He started thrashing around as if I was applying red-hot pokers to his chubby little arms and legs. Because I failed to respond IMMEDIATELY, he let loose with a scream that threatened to melt the paint from the walls. One of the pregnant women stopped in her tracks with a terrified look on her face that seemed to say both, "Ohmygod. What have I done? Is it too late to get out of this?" and "Swear to me right now that YOU will NEVER procreate again."

Fortunately, he went back to being cute before I could schedule an appointment to have my tubes tied.

MINE!

When I picked Dax up from daycare today Andrea told me that all the kids have been having trouble sharing. So it was especially funny that when Dax and I were leaving I could hear Tyler shouting, "MINE!" and Andrea responding in a weary voice, "No, Tyler. That mommy belongs to Dax."