Dax's Journal

Like a fish

Dax had his first swimming lesson tonight and he LOVED it. I only wish I had one of these cameras so I could have taken pictures.

He took to the water immediately. In fact, it was all I could do to keep him on the edge of the pool until the instructor said it was ok to go in. He floated on his back and on his tummy and kicked his pudgey little legs and blew bubbles, all the time laughing himself silly. He even let me dunk him underwater a few times.

I should have known he would enjoy himself. I mean, his name means water so how could he not love being in a pool, right?

Hello!

This morning I saw Cat's cell phone number on my caller ID at work. I picked it up and said, "Hi honey."

"Hellooooo?"

It was not Cat. It was Dax. We had a lovely conversation about cereal and when I asked where his daddy was he said, "Uh-oh. Bye!" and hung up on me.

So I called back.

"Helloooo?"

Dax again. We had another conversation about who he was going to see at daycare, what he was wearing, and whether or not he planned on behaving himself today. That's when I heard Cat in the background asking, "Dax? Do you have my phone?" Then he told me "Ok. I love you. Bye-bye."

A few seconds later the phone rang again. "Helloooooo?" Hee! My son again. We chatted a bit before Cat finally came on the phone and said, "Dax called you." My husband: Master of the Obvious. I explained that this was actually the third time Dax and I had spoken on the phone. We were both silent for a moment while we pondered both the awesomeness that our son had made his first phone call just shy of 21 months and the frightening fact that no telephone would be safe within his reach lest we want to be paying for rambling calls to foreign countries in which Dax extols the virtues of The Wiggles to total strangers.

Any of you on speed dial on any of our numerous phones, be warned. While he has not yet learned to say, "Would you like to switch your long distance carrier?" I can not guarantee that he won't call you in the middle of dinner.

Happy Mom Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day. We didn't do anything special but it was wonderful all the same. I got a very thoughtful gift and a card signed by both my hubby and my son. And I got to spend the day with this adorable little boy and his gorgeous smile and contagious laughter.

I hope all of you who have the title of "Mom" on your life's resume had a fantastic day as well.

Lesson Learned

We take Dax to get his hair cut at a place called Cool Cuts 4 Kids. The best part about Cool Cuts is that Dax gets to sit in a little car and watch The Wiggles while he gets his hair cut. You'd think he would LOVE it there.

Not so much.

The first time we took him there he thought it was awesome. He was so excited about the toy trains, the video games, the cars, and getting to watch The Wiggles. He was all smiles until they wrapped that cape thing around him. That's when he lost it. Fortunately the woman who cut his hair was a saint whose ears are impervious to the cringe worthy screams of very small boys.

So the second time he got his haircut I asked the woman if she could leave the cape off. She looked at me like an arm had suddenly sprouted out of my forehead and informed me that, no, she couldn't possibly do that. She proceeded to drape my son in nylon and he reacted as expected by bursting into tears and trying to wrench himself free of the chair by clawing at my shirt.

A few weeks ago, while Dax and I were at My Gym, we noticed someone who looked familiar. After I chatted with her a bit I realized that she was the saint who had cut Dax's hair the first time. I made sure to get her name so that we could go back to her when the time came.

Tonight it was time. My son was starting to look like a very small hippy so back to Cool Cuts we went.

I think Dax remembered his last experience because he seemed a lot less excited about being there this time and when I lifted him up to sit in the small metal yellow cab he started clinging to me like a baby lemur.

I told Saint Sadie about my cape theory and asked if we could leave it off. She said of course we could and proceeded to cut his hair.

He didn't cry. Not immediately, anyway. In fact, he held it together very well until the tufts of itchy hair started to drop down the back of his shirt and onto his arms. Then he cried even harder than he ever has before. And the more he cried? Well, the worse it got. I mean, just picture it: hair + tears + snot = HORROR!

So, yeah. I was right about the cape. Unfortunately for Dax, though, next timne he gets a haircut he's going to have to do something he doesn't like (wear the cape) to avoid something even worse (becoming encased in a veritable cocoon of hair and body fluids).

Life is like that sometimes.

Give me a hand...

Here's Dax helping out in the construction of his new watertable.

By the way...the legs just snap in.