Dax's Journal

And Then There Were Five

A little while ago Dax became the Mighty But Benevolent Ruler of Daxlantis. I'm pleased to report that none of his loyal subjects have gone to the Porcelain Purgatory.

Recently we've added two more critters to his community: a little aquatic frog and a swordtail koi. He named his frog "Miss Merissa" after one of his teachers. The swordtail is actually mommy's fish so I get to name it. I will not be naming him "red and grey" as Dax suggests. Because he's not even red and grey. He's orange and white. Sheesh.

Even Miss Merissa, the colorblind frog, could have told him that.

You know daddy is behind this

The scene: Dax and daddy are sitting at the table eating dinner. Mommy enters the room.

Dax says, "Mommy, I'm famished!"

Miss Cindi's Preschool, Outdoor Park, and Hair Salon

Dax's school provides many excellent additional benefits that you will not find at other schools. For example, My Gym comes every other week and does classes in the backyard (and they'll be coming every week beginning in September). This backyard is so big and has so many fabulous things to climb on and play with that Dax calls it "Miss Cindi's Outdoor Park". They also have a chef. And they have a Miss Merissa who also babysits. And they have "Date Nights" during which you can take your kid back to the school and then go out kid free.



And, apparently, they have a hair salon because I was able to get my son's hair cut there today when I went to pick him up.



As most of you know, Dax usually behaves like a wild beastie when we take him to get his hair cut. It sucks for everyone involved. As a result, his haircuts are usually few and fair between. And he was getting a bit shaggy. That can't be fun for him because the kid has a lot of hair and it is HOT in Elk Grove.



But today? Not a peep out of him. He behaved like a precious little angel and Cindi had him shorn in seconds. The only thing he disagreed with was her attempt to brush the stray hairs from his neck, back, and shoulders. But that's ok....his little schoolmates had him covered. He was surrounded by kids more than happy to rub his freshly shorn head and to brush the hairs from his little bare shoulders.



He loves his haircut. He keeps talking about it. He says, "I get a hair cut at Miss Cindi's Outdoor Park." Two distinct words: Hair and Cut. Sometime he says, "I get a BIG hair cut." He then reenacts the process by moving his hands around his head and making buzzing noises, imitating the clippers. "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!"



I have GOT to get me some of those clippers. Although, you KNOW he would never be that cooperative for me.



Looks like Miss Cindi is Dax's new stylist.

Yay, me!

The potty training has been a challenge, to say the least. Dax is just a wee bit stubborn and no amount of begging, pleading, threatening, bargaining, or "leaving it be" has resulted in a boy who is diaper free. Soooo....I've moved on to Plan Z-3.



Now we've got a "Reward Bucket". Dax gets a sticker every time he goes pee on the potty and when he gets 10 stickers he gets to pick a prize from the bucket. We've had it for awhile and he just got his first prize the other day. He picked a sticker pack.



Plan Z-3 is not completely effective but it works better than just stickers alone. I'm hoping that, now that he's seen how it works and that there really are prizes inside that bucket, it will be even more effective.



Because nobody wants a prom date in pullups.

He Sleeps. A Lot.

Yesterday Dax didn't nap at all and today he was showing signs of doing the same. But today I was badly in need of a nap myself so despite the fact that he was still rustling around and reading to himself quite loudly at 3:30, I crawled beneath the covers and feel asleep.

When I awoke an hour and a half later the house seemed quiet. For a moment. Then I heard, "FOUR silly monkeys SPINNING on the bed!" I shuffled down to Dax's room to find him sitting up in bed, surrounded by about 80 million books, and wide awake.

After a minor debate about why we would not be taking ALL of his books out to the other room I finally got him into the bathroom and as he sat on the pot NOT going peepee I asked him, "Dax, did you EVER sleep?" I wondered if he had just sat in there reading the entire time mommy was napping.

He looked at me like I was nuts and then he said (and I am so not making this up). "Of COURSE, mommy. I sleep eeeeverrry moooorrrning." And then he grabbed ahold of me as if to emphasize this next point, as if to really drive home the ridiculousness of the afternoon nap ritual. He looked at me with those big brown eyes and nodded emphatically as he said, "I sleep A LOT."

King Triton

For awhile now Dax has been asking for a new pet. Sadly, his top two choices were not acceptable, number one being "a red dog" and number two being "a giraffe".

So his third choice was "a red fish". Fish? Can do!

Here is King Triton ruling over his new kingdom. He is overlord to three fish: a Red Wag Platy he named G-O (that spells GO!); a Mickey Mouse Platy (red, of course) that he named Mickey; and a polka dotted Catfish that he named Dyson (because it is the vacuum).

There was only one moment when I thought that we would be denied adopting fish. See, Dax kept saying he wanted to hold the fish and I was explaining repeatedly that fish, they don't like so much to be held so they'd just be hanging out in their little fish house, swimming around, while we watched them.

"Do you understand? We'll just be watching them. No touching."

He nodded, but just to be sure, I figured a quiz couldn't hurt. I asked, "Dax, are we going to touch the fish?"

"Nooooo."

"What are we going to do with them?"

"I'm going to EAT them."

He'd like everyone to know that the red one would taste like apple juice.