Motion

Some people who don't get to see Dexter very often (ahem, Nonna) have been asking for a video of Dexter crawling. So without further ado...

Sorry if it's a little on the long side!

Pony

Dear Santa,

Please, in my stocking this year, could I have one of these fuzzy things with the soft nose? I promise I will love it and take very good care of it.I have been very good this year. I have been especially helpful to Mom while she is at work. I eat paper really really well.Think it over, Santa. We have room in the back yard, and I am sure that CoCo wouldn't mind sharing her dog bed and her water bowl.

Thanks, Santa!

Love, Dexter

Dex and John came to visit me at Graw Day in down town HDG today. Free pony rides! We decided that a pony ride might well freak the baby out, but that petting a cute pony would be right up our alley.

Room to Roam

Dex is having a bit of a rough week, poor kid. His two top front teeth are thisclose to popping through his gums. He has a runny nose, either teeth related or because he has a cold. He's been sleeping like poo, partly because of the aforementioned things, and partly because we've been on the go this week, so he's been napping in strange places. All of this equals sad baby, who woke up from a late afternoon nap sweaty and crying, and cried all through a bath and a diaper change and half his dinner before finally settling down. We're going to need more Motrin in this house. For all family members, I think.

However, when Dexter forgets about teeth and runny noses, he has a fabulous time playing. The new favorite play place is our fun, empty, wide-open deck, with Mom sitting at the top of the stairs acting as the "gate." Because, as Dexter showed me yesterday, he is perfectly capable of climbing up a stair. And also perfectly capable of falling sideways right off that same stair.

So much room! So many balls to chase!

Ooops! Hold on - got to check out this leaf first

Dude - I am wicked fast. So fast my arms are blurry!

Showing my support for the Cards. They need it - they're 0-2 right now in the play-offs. Why the Cards, you ask? I've got cool friends who live there.

Apparently the whole standing thing just doesn't make Dex tall enough. Must! Get! Taller!

After all that crawling Dexter needed a little protein to boost his energy. How about some salmon? Sounds like an excellent first meat to try. John couldn't believe I was going to feed the baby salmon. He said it wasn't fair, as he didn't get to eat salmon til he was 23 years old... By the way? Dex thought salmon was most excellent.

Tippity-toes

You can't beat the real thing

I have a Cheerios Snob on my hands.

Dexter loves Cheerios. He gets excited when the big yellow box comes out of the pantry. He shovels 27 of them in his mouth at once, gags, spits out the half-gummed, spitty Cheerios, and shoves in another handful. He loves them.

Last week I bought knock-off Cheerios. Great Value toasted oat cereal, or something to that effect. I brought it home and John shook his head sadly. He said there was no way I could pass off fake Cheerios to the baby. He recounted the time his dad tried to do the same thing, even going so far as to put the fake Cheerios in to the real Cheerios box (that he apparently kept around for the sole purpose of tricking his children). To which I said "pshaw." He's a baby. He's not going to know the difference. Plus, look! They look like real Cheerios! They taste just as crappy as real Cheerios! It'll be fine.

Except... I was wrong. (I am now picturing John's jaw dropping to the ground in amazement. And him bookmarking this page on his computer so he can forever remember the day that his wife admitted she was wrong) OK, so maybe the Great Value brand doesn't taste EXACTLY like Cheerios. And they are somehow... CRUNCHIER. Or something. Don't melt in your mouth quite as easily. Even after I left them out on the table, opened, overnight a couple times in hopes that they would get stale and soft. Too hard. Whatever the reason, Dex hated them. Would put a couple in his mouth and gag. Try again, and gag. And then just stop trying.

So, I caved. I spent the extra 30 cents and bought some real Cheerios today. And gave them to Dexter at dinner time. And had to give him some more. And some more. And some more, again. He was making up for lost Cheerios time, I believe.

So now I have an enormous box of Cheerios, a happy baby, and half a box of Great Value brand fake Cheerios. Which John promised he would eat. I don't even have to put them in a big yellow Cheerios box for him.

Both kids went out in the yard to play today

I am, apparently, a jungle gym

Crawling across the grass is hard work. Also, leaves a plethora of stains on knees for Mom to try to get out. Just bought Oxy-Clean

Thank the lord for the fence. Our next house shall also have a fence, thankyouverymuch. With padlocks on the gates.

Sexy. You'll pick up all the ladies that way, Dex.

Whiney McWhinerpants

My lord, but this child has been a pain in the ass recently. Waking up at 5:30 AM. Whining and fussing in the morning after breakfast BECAUSE he woke up at 5:30 AM. Taking short naps. Fussing in the evenings. Today, flat-out crying for two hours after his afternoon nap. A sad, sad boy.

I've been checking his temperature for a few days. No fever. I've been sticking my fingers in his mouth. Nope - don't feel any new teeth. But today during a nice crying spell I got a particularly good look inside his wide-open mouth and saw the little white tops of his two front teeth, just barely breaking the gums. Ahh. Poor pup. Let's give you a little Motrin (as your bad mom has yet to check to see if her Tylenol has been recalled), put your butt in bed for a little while to see if you might nap, and run FAR FAR away as soon as Dad gets home from work! All three things seemed to help, really, as Dex was in better spirits when I got home.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend and from today. He-he! :-)

John finally got sick of my bitching and complaining about our dishwasher. So we took the approximately three dollars and 76 cents I made from working the past three months, and bought a new dishwasher. My expectations are low - I simply want it to suck less than the old one.
New dishwasher means, of course, new cool box for Dexter to play with. He is currently afraid of the new cool box, but maybe we can get CoCo to sleep in it for a while, thus making it more interesting to the baby.
Eat your heart out, Nonna and Grandpa... You, too, could have a new dishwasher!
Walking with Dad at a fun picnic we had with the Movie Night Gang
Dex is obviously quite impressed with his walking skills
All three kids are playing in their own separate areas
And then Dexter makes his move. What's that cool toy Greyson is playing with? Perhaps I will steal THAT!
Greyson graciously shares with Dex. I don't think he had a choice - Dexter pretty much just stole his train and threw it across the floor. Way to make friends, Dex.
Pet the pretty puppy. Pull his ear.
You're damn lucky, kid, that you are this cute. It goes a really long way on days like today...

I usually think these little mesh bag feeder things are silly. But today I had a crying baby, it was time for his dinner, and I thought that something frozen and cold might help him out. So out came... frozen blueberries! And since I didn't think it was wise to just put a pile of frozen little rocks in front of the baby, we also broke out the mesh feeder. And it was a huge hit!
Yeah, yeah. So it looks like Dexter single-handedly killed his own meat for dinner and dug in to it with his hands and his face. I promise, it's blueberry, not blood!

Mr. Serious

I was a day late and a dollar short with taking pictures of Dexter on his eight month birthday (which I always try to do, because I am insane). So I was romping around the house with camera in hand today, tying to capture a smiling, giggling boy. Apparently today was not a smiley, giggly kind of day...

Gee, Mom, I don't know why I am not more giggly today. I mean, my day started out so AWESOME! (Hey! It was cold out this morning!)

This is about the best that Dex could muster this morning. Most of the photos looked more this:

half-heartedly showing interest

Or this:
Dude, back off...

Post-afternoon nap was not much better...

Dex was too busy playing to want to stop and smile for Mom

Also, he looks about 27 years old...

So, this is the best we can do. Sorry! Eight months old is apparently a grumpy time, as this one has been a whiny pain in the ass all week. Cute, though. Good thing!

Timber!

This makes us laugh. A lot. Does that make us bad bad parents?




Video editing, cheesy 80's background music and all, courtesy of Corel VideoStudio. Wicked easy and fun - even little blonde me didn't need to read the directions! Thanks, Christy Norman, for the cool birthday gift!