Dax's Journal

A Boy and His Mommy

I very rarely post pictures of myself with the boy but I kinda like this one. Mostly, you know, because he couldn't be bothered to take the sippy cup out of his mouth to smile.

I swear he is my kid. I know that it sort of looks like I adopted him in this picture because he looks so like his daddy and not like me at all.

But I'm in there. I see little bits of me in him every day. He's got my weird, misplaced dimples that only show up some of the time. He has my thumbs. He has my wide feet. When he cries his eyebrows get all red, just like me. He has my hangnails, poor kid.

As I type this he is alternately putting his dinner in his hair, on the floor, and eventually in his mouth. He keeps asking me, "What are you doing, mommy?" but it comes out something like, "War do ying, mommy?" He has dropped his spoon on the floor about a billion times, each time pleading "Help me!" only to giggle every time I return it to him. He has promised to eat "just one more bite" of rice and chicken before he got some yogurt only to spit that mouthful out as soon as I set the yogurt in front of him.

But I've been too busy taking in his scent (sunscreen, baby wipes, and sunshine), getting caught up in his laughter, and absolutely melting in his smile to be bothered by messes today.

Why can't I always be like this?

Brace yourselves!

Dax, my sweet little perfect angel, is going through "A Phase". In other words, a crabby little troll beast has eaten my child.

As I'm writing this he's sweetly munching on a banana. There is no sign of the boy who got himself so worked up this morning with the crying and the flailing and the paint-melting woe that he THREW UP. Let us all pause for a moment and be very, very thankful for that because it won't last.

I'm thinking of keeping him stored in this small but flexible box for the duration of this phase.

I kid. He did this to himself. That's a cat toy he's gotten himself stuck in. Puck has figured out that, when the boy is chasing him, Dax will follow wherever he goes. It is highly effective because Dax hasn't figured out how to get all the way through.

Sometimes I think of letting Puck be the disciplinarian in our house.

Mmmmm....Cereal.....

Rough draft of an animated gif:

Apples and Flowers

It's still funny when we come up to a stop sign and Dax screams "APPLE!"

What's even funnier is when Dax stops to "smell" the flowers, he steps up to the plant, puckers up, and then blows through his lips.

Happy Daddy Day

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there!

Especially this one......

And, of course, this one.

And we certainly can't forget this one.

Yakkity Yak

Dax and I went to Target today. We love Target. There is just so much to look at.

Daddy had to stay home because he's sick so Dax and I discussed that a bit in the toy aisle and again in children's music and once again in the beverages row. That's when Sir Speaksalot said, "Daddy no here. Home sick." To which I replied, "Uhhhhh." Because I just wasn't expecting that.

I know I will eventually get used to the fact that the boy, he talks. But when he starts stringing words together to form sentences (albeit a bit caveman-like) it still startles me. He is still mostly a very little man of very few words but sometimes he gets on a roll and will spit out a sentence or a whole tirade of goobledygook.

Sometimes he says things that we really wish he wouldn't. Like a couple weeks ago when I called one of the horrible little children at My-Gym an insufferable little brat (under my breath of course) and he then called her "brat" for the duration of free play. Or yesterday when he threw cottage cheese on the floor after I had just mopped some up and I said, "Crap" and he repeated it perfectly. Or tonight when Cat thought it would be funny to ask Dax to say, "tough tittie" thinking he wouldn't repeat it? He did. Three times.

Right now he's laying on the floor next to his germy daddy encouraging him in a soft, sweet voice to sleep. "Sleep, daddy," he says as he pats him on the leg. Then he alternates with "WAKE UP DADDY" because he watches too much Wiggles.

I'm going to go put him down for a nap now and I can tell that it will be one of those days where he lays in there and has extended conversations with his toys.

There! Off the Starboard Bow!

Here's Dax using an ad, a fork, and a menu as periscopes.

Just Like Daddy

So often Dax makes me think that he is just a teeny little version of his daddy. He loves to drum, just like daddy. He loves to skateboard, just like daddy. And he loves to eat Crispix cereal, just like daddy.

He eats it from a bowl, with a "big boy" spoon. And daddy taught him to drink the leftover milk from the bowl when he's done.

Just like daddy.

Got Something To Say?

Comments have been turned back on for awhile. If you want to leave a comment just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of any entry and give us a shout.

Also, let me know if you are having trouble seeing the pictures. At least one person has reported a problem and I'm trying to figure out if anyone else is having trouble.

Thanks for reading!

Bits About The Boy

Last night I made my son cry. I didn't mean to. He was playing with a little toy that his Nanna gave him that plays songs about feelings.

"Feelings are special. Feelings are real. I like sharing the way I feel."

Cat and I were singing along with the songs and demonstrating the facial expressions that go with those feelings. Everything was peachy as we grinned and clapped and sang about the sun shining on a happy day. But when we got to singing about our ice cream falling on the ground and I made a sad, sad face to illustrate that emotion my son took one look at me and crumbled into tears. Apparently my sad face is very convincing.

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Every time Dax and I arrive at home I pull into the garage, unlock the garage door, and disarm the alarm before fetching him out of the back seat and bringing him in the house. And every time I turn back around to find him grinning the most enormous and hilarious grin because he knows it will make me laugh and laugh.

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Dax thinks that farting in the bathtub is hilarious.

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Dax continues to call stop signs "apples". He pronounces "lotion" like "shoshun" and he loves the stuff. He knows we have a cat named Puck and one named Duncan but he continues to confuse the two. For some reason he really gets excited about clocks. Unfortunately, he doesn't pronounce the "L" sound when he says that word. Mickey Mouse is "Me Mouse" and grasshoppers are "beeboppers". Dax talks a lot but you may need a translation dictionary to understand a lot of it. At least in the beginning.

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Dax really enjoys dancing. He loves music, too. The other day he started to sing along with the radio. I nearly drove off the road. He knows all the hand gestures to "The Wheels on the Bus", "The Hokey Pokey", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Rockabye Your Bear", and "Hot Potato". He also can sing along with parts of all those songs.

Another goodbye

Sadly, we've had to say goodbye to another one of Dax's daycare providers. Miss Andrea is moving away and Friday was her last day.

Dax adores her and will miss her. I will have to keep showing him pictures of her and reminding him of how well she read "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" and how she sang German children's songs to him.

Good luck, Andrea! We'll miss you!

Bottomless Pit

2 containers of yogurt
1 small bowl of cottage cheese
1 cereal bar
Part of daddy's cereal (eaten with a big kid spoon)

This is what Dax has had to eat this morning and it is just 10AM. Sometimes this foretells a growth spurt. Other times? Well, I guess he's just hungry. Parenting is such an exact science, no?

Speaking of growing? I noticed the other day that I tend to gauge whether or not he's grown recently not by the fit of his clothing but by the height of the items he clunks his noggin against. Sad, but true.

But see? See how he is growing? (Although, in the interest of full disclosure it should be noted that I put him into a size 12 month pair of shorts right after taking this picture. So, yeah.)

Who Needs Sleep?

Yesterday Dax woke up at 4AM and refused to go back to sleep. Last night he woke up just before midnight and he was awake until about 1:30AM. I am very, very tired.

Dax often wakes in the night and cries a bit but he almost always goes back to sleep on his own unless he is sick. Last night as his wails escalated to the point that I became concerned that he may be dangling from the side of his crib with his leg entangled in the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium I thought I should go check on him.

He was fine, of course. I gave him some water and tried to get him to go back to sleep. No go. He was pointing to the door of his room and saying, "Out, please." That's my boy. Mindful of his manners even in the middle of the night. When his manners got him nowhere he began crying again. Crying and rambling on in toddlertalk about......something.

I thought he was upset because the nightlight in the hallway had burnt out so I turned the bathroom light on for him. But that didn't help. Finally I put him on the floor and said, "Show mommy what you need." Dax waddled out to the great room, climbed up on the couch, grabbed the remote and said, "TV?" He then shook his chubby little arms and wriggled about on his diaper clad bottom and pleaded, "Wiggles?"

When I told him that, no, he could not watch television in the middle of the night you would have thought that I had just set fire to his blankie. He was beyond distraught. I'm beginning to wonder if we are going to have to send the kid to a 12-step Wiggles Addiction program.

In the end, he had some milk and laid on the couch and eventually......eventually......became drowsy enough that I could get him back into his crib without my eardrums suffering an onslaught of screeching and crying that could melt the paint off the walls.

Damn those Wiggles.