Belated Snow Day

I'm a little bit late on this post, as our first snow of the year happened on THURSDAY. But, hey - better late than never.

Thursday afternoon brought our first snowfall of about half an inch. Enough so that Dexter was thrilled when looking out the window during snack time. Enough so that John's car went sideways off the driveway when he was trying to drive up after work. Grand...

I love a good snow fall. It's quiet. The snow muffles the sound of the cars on the nearby road. The wind finally dies down, and even though it's chilly you can actually stand to be outside for a minute or two. So we put on our "hot" pants and our snow boots and our coats and our hats and our mittens (whew!) and out we went to play in some snow.

Totally ready to go outside RIGHTTHISVERYINSTANT

What's this... white stuff?

He was thrilled. I promise.

Walking with your nose to the fence is way cooler when there's snow.

BRRRRRRR...

Pretty spruce tree

My favorite part of snow days? Removing the snow-covered "hot" pants and giggling at the cute little legs running around the kitchen.

A little video for ya:

We didn't even teach him how to sign "snow." He picked that one up on his own, from Baby Signing Time. Which, by the way, he REALLY is done with. I tried to play it on the TV last week and he ran, screaming, in to the other room. Clifford the Big Red Dog, though? Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Gookee Monster

Sunday was cold and gross and rainy, but Grandma and Grandpa brought stuff with them to make ginger boys. It was a most excellent rainy day activity for Dexter. As seen in below video, set to John's favorite Christmas carol of all time:

Christmas Cookies from Alissa Norman on Vimeo.

A little photo and video montage of Dex making Christmas cookies, December 2010. Watch all the way to the bitter end for a special treat from Dexter!

Did you watch all the way to the very end? John has taught Dexter all three words he knows. I don't know what kind of magic happens up in his bedroom before bed time, but keep it up, honey.

You can't tell from the pictures, but Dexter was ADAMANT that he DID NOT want frosting on his cookies. NO FROSTING. No amount of persuasion could change his mind. I even gave him a cookie with frosting for a snack the other day, and he wouldn't touch it. Weird kid.

Here's a link to all the photos, in case you want to see them more slowly.

We, amazingly, have a few ginger boys left. Only a few...

O Christmas Tree...

Last Wednesday we bundled up the boy, took the truck to the corner by the candy store, and picked out a Christmas tree. Dex enjoyed romping all over the 50 foot square tree yard, and really liked it when Daddy held him so he could see all the cars stop at the stop sign. And also the moon was out, so that brought great excitement as well. He really cared not at all about a tree, though. So I suppose it was for the best that we didn't all trek out to the tree farm and cut our own tree. It would have been cold. Colder. Maybe next year.

Anyway, I think I mentioned before that we put the tree in the front window of the living room, which is where Dexter's bouncy horse was. So for a few days he kept pointing to the tree and snorting "horse." But then I finally put lights on the tree Friday night, and Grandma helped me decorate the top half of it, and Dex came down the stairs on Saturday morning like this:

He was most excited by the star on the top of the tree, which I picked up for ten bucks at Wal-Mart because I thought he would enjoy it. John did say, though, that I have to be careful about picking up crap like that for the tree. Because now we're likely going to be stuck with this damn Wal-Mart star on our tree for the next 30 years. He has a point, I suppose. But, really, this is so damn cute that it's probably worth it.

I tried to get him to help me decorate the tree, but he only lasted about three ornaments. He thought it was far more fun to just play with the ornaments while they were on the table. And he continues to ask me to take the little blue star off the tree, so he can carry it around the house. The boy does love his stars.

Longwood Lights

Have you missed Longwood? It's been like, a month. Or more! We missed it, too, so we were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa come down for the express purpose of going to Longwood to see the lights. It's my favorite time of year there. Minus the crowds of people...

While it was still light out, we stopped by the trains. Which now have lights on them. Fun!

Dex, Daddy, and Grandpa check out Thomas the Train, til Dex got bored and decided he'd rather go see six trains running on the other set of tracks.

Inside the nice warm main conservatory, with the big gold Christmas tree

The big gold tree

Poinsettia galore in the conservatory

Dex with Grandma and Grandpa in front of the tree in the new conservatory

Hmmmm. Dex and I will have to come back some morning to get some better shots. New conservatory.

We ended our time inside at the Children's Garden

Running wildly after the traveling water, cackling with glee. We kept giggling as parents walked by with their kids, warning them not to touch the water and get wet, because they would be cold when they went outside. We know better. We come prepared.

He was so focused on the water that he ran head-on in to another kid his size, banging heads.

I made the boys sit still for a second for a cute shot

After a change of clothes (wet child, too much splashing) we headed outside to see some lights. John always likes the pretty blue trees.

The main fountain garden is all lit up

Pretty white lights. Longwood went green this year - 100% LED lights. That's got to be quite the up-front investment.

Some cute multi-colored tree trunks by the Tree House

The red trees are always striking

We went to a fountain show, which Dexter LOVED. He wanted MORE MORE MORE when it was done. Here's a few billion shots from there. I kind of watched the show through the lens of my camera. It was still good that way.

Very cool, right boys?

PS - If you want to see all 200 photos from Longwood, and a quick video of Dex chasing the traveling water around, see this link.

Reading

Nonna and Grandpa, with some help from Aunt Marilyn, sent us a very cool early Christmas present:

It's cute, and he's been playing with it often. But I have yet to hear an entire page of the book, and I don't know if I've heard more than about the first three pages.

Twas the Night Before Christmas is also super good for bus driving:

We've got some other Christmas books from Grandma and from Nonna, so we're trying to teach Dex a little bit about the holiday. Our Christmas tree is up, with no lights or decorations yet. Dex thinks it's ok, but keeps walking in to the living room, snorting like a horse, and then signing "tree." Yes, small child. I know. You used to have a play horse there. Now there's a Christmas tree.

So we're working on some holiday spirit down here. Grandma and Grandpa are visiting this weekend to go to Longwood and see some Christmas lights. We'll see what Dex thinks about that.

OH - is that not THE CUTEST when Dex calls himself "Dah?" He started that last week. He's got Mama and Dada down pat (so fun), and now he calls himself "Dah." He loves looking in the big mirror after his bath, pointing to me and saying "Mama" and pointing to himself and saying "Dah." It is wicked cute. He has also, randomly, and at random times, declared that he is all done with Baby Signing Time. I asked him if that meant he was going to start taking and he nodded yes. That has yet to come to fruition. But maybe soon...

Given the circumstances, that was actually kind of pleasant

A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital. A mere 30 minutes away if you don't get lost seven times on the way there. The definitive place to take your child if you live in this area and need to go to the ER. Which, technically, we didn't NEED to do. Had the doctor's office been open on a Sunday we'd have simply gone there. But, alas, the way the planets aligned we ended up at A.I. today. After Dex woke up coughing and breathing fast again. We called the on-call nurse at our doctor's office, who told us some treatments to try, and that if they didn't work we should go to the ER. Under normal circumstances? His rapid breathing maybe is not such a big deal. But two weeks after he went to the hospital and had a fluid-filled chest x-ray? It becomes more of a big deal.

A.I. was really kind of nice. We were trapped in a little 10 foot square room, with a bed, two chairs, a TV with lots of movie choices, and Dexter's favorite book with trucks and bulldozers and stuff that pull out and become their own toys. Plus there were plenty of red and green lights to look at. We snuggled up and hung out with just ourselves, with no distractions and nothing better to do than just hang out. We watched Cars and Finding Nemo and waited forever for a resident doctor, and then waited another forever for the real doctor, then waited another forever for the x-ray tech (who was FABULOUS), then waited another forever for the x-ray results. Which were clear. Congested, but clear. Nothing really to do for him but keep using his inhaler if his symptoms continue.

So... Thanks, A.I., for being so close and for taking good care of us today. I really hope we never have to visit you again.

An old (by a few days) picture. But you all know I can't post a post without some kind of picture...

Red Light, Green Light

Thing Numero Uno: Check out Dexter's new hair cut!

What? What's the problem? Don't you think it looks cute? What do you mean, you can't see it?

Thing Numero Dos: I'm supposed to be at a friend's house right now, eating a seven billion course meal, while a babysitter sits here watching TV and my child sleeps peacefully. Instead, I am sitting on the couch listening to the child cough his lungs up, preparing myself for a long night of listening to a child cough his lungs up. John is eating a seven billion course meal, though, and he promised to bring me some leftovers. I sent him with tupperwares, just to be sure. :-)

Thing Numero Tres: When I was in New York last weekend Dexter discovered the drawing of a stop sign on his train table. And he learned how to sign "stop." And also cloud, and tree. But that's totally unrelated to this story. Anyway - John taught him that a red light means stop and a green light means go. And this entire week, that is the ONLY thing this child will talk about. Well, sign about. We'll be eating dinner. No red lights in sight. Suddenly - "STOP!" "Light!" "GOGOGO!" "Mama" "Drives." And we recite - Stop light? Green light? Yes, Mama drives. Does Mama stop at the red lights? Does Mama go at the green lights?

It's ridiculous when driving. Every stop sign I hear an "OOOOOOOOO" from the back seat, and then the sign for "stop." And I recite - yes, a stop sign. What do we do? Right, we stop. And look for cars. Now what? Right! GOGOGO! He sees a stop light way up ahead. Signs "stop."

He got SO PISSED when we parked in the lot for swimming instead of continuing to drive down the road on Wednesday. "There were STOP LIGHTS up there, Mama! I wanted to see the damn STOP LIGHTS! Screw this swimming thing!" It was a bad swim lesson.

Dear lord. It's cute and all. But after ALL DAY, for seven days straight? I'm damn sick of red lights and green lights, and every single thing that is red being called a "stop" and every single thing that is green being called a "GOGOGO." We need to teach this boy some new tricks.

The train has been packed away in the closet for a little while. But today seemed like a good day to pull it out again. Always a big hit, as long as you can handle listening to the train run for an hour straight.

Yay, train!

Yes, yes. That's the stop light. What do we do at a red light? Stop. Exactly. Also notice serious mouth breathing, from inability to breathe through nose. Meaning - inability to suck fingers at bed time. Meaning - sleeping is sucky. Meaning - long night ahead.

New vantage point.

Dex finds it helpful to put your nose right up to the train track as the train goes by.

Buddy helps to play with the garbage truck. As it drives right by Dexter's nose.

Multi-talented garbage truck also doubles as a horse and giraffe carrier.

If you're playing with the garbage truck you'll also see this sign, which means that the snow plow pushes snow. What's that got to do with garbage trucks, you ask? Good question.

Dex wears his sweatpants like all the cool kids - one leg up, one leg down. That's how he rolls.

So I could be productive tonight and get out the Christmas decorations, and rotate Dexter's toys, and do something else that's on my list but I've forgotten right now. Or I could watch Grey's Anatomy and take a nap on the couch. Yawn. I know which choice I am making...