Let's compare, shall we?

In response to this post, where I wondered if I was as awesome as Dex when I was a kid, my mom brought down my baby book. Like, an actual, written in baby book. With details of my life, and stuff. It's kind of cool, really. Dex shall just have to hope the internets still exist when he is older, because this here blog is all the kid has for a baby book. Sorry, kiddo.

So according to my book, the president when I was born was Gerald Ford. Dexter? Obama had just been inaugurated a couple weeks before.

Me: Born at 3:04 AM. Man, sucks to be you, Mom! Dexter: Born at 7:53 PM. Much more reasonable. Hooray for induction!

Me: Born on a very hot day, with off and on rain. Dexter: There was snow on the ground when we went in to the hospital, but I think it had all melted by the time we got home.

Me: 8 lbs, 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. Dexter: 8 lbs, 4 oz and 22 inches long.

Me: Sits without support, 5.75 months. Dexter: Yeah, probably about that.

Me: Hold own bottle at 6.75 months (Dad worked hard on this skill). Dexter: No real need for this skill, although you did try desperately to hold your nightly bottle with Daddy, or at least hold Daddy's finger the whole time.

Me: Takes first steps alone at 9.5 months (dear lord). Dexter: If you squinted and pretended you could maybe say you were doing this around your first birthday. Not well, though.

Me: Walks alone readily at 11.5 months. Dexter: According to Facebook, this was some time around March 15, 2010. What's that make it? 13.5 months? Thank heavens for Facebook.

Me: Take off my own shoes at 23 months. Dexter: Hmmmm. You're supposed to be able to do this? I'm not sure this is a skill I want to teach, as I foresee lost shoes all over the planet.

Me: Put on own boots at 2.5 years. Dexter: Hey, we actually have been practicing this! With Crocs! You suck at it!

Me: Puts on own socks at 2.75 years. Dexter: Seriously? Not even close.

Me: Picks up and puts away toys at 2.25 years. Dexter: I've got no hard stats on this one, but I can guarantee you're kicking my ass on this skill. Keep it up!

Me: Potty trained at 2 years. Dexter: We're trying desperately to get you to just tell us when you have poop in your pants. That is all. Potty training is so far from my mind right now. It seems like... a lot of work.

Me: Shows imagination at age 3. Dexter: Dude, I need to videotape the elaborate set-up we have going in the sandbox these days. This is Starbucks. This is the pizza place. This is McDonalds. This is the window. This is Miss Eliza. This is the deep end and this is the shallow end. I can't keep track of everything that is going on.

Me: Counts to 20 at age 2.5. Dexter: How old are you this week? 2 years, 4.5 months? This one you've finally got nailed. You even remember that pesky old number 16 now.

Me: Says alphabet and recognizes letters at 2.5 years. Dexter: You've known all your letters for a couple months now. Maybe 2 years and a couple months for that one. But saying the alphabet? Not really been high on our priority list.

Me: Cries and is stubborn about minding at 2 years and 3 months. Dexter: Dude, you haven't been in time out for like, hours... Seriously, though. You're pretty damn good.

Me: First sentences at 18 months, first questions at 2 years. Dexter: OK, it's not really fair to compare here since you didn't really talk until a month before your second birthday. You have started asking "What is that?" in the past couple weeks. You don't really understand how a question TONE works. But the word part is there.

Me: Lisp when saying "S", difficulty saying "R" words. Dexter: Yeah. Ditto. Isn't that EVERY kid? You've figured out how to combine your letters, finally, so you can now say "twee" instead of "eee" or "tee." And you say "gween" instead of "geen" now. It's impressive. Your biggest speech accomplishment over the past 2 weeks? You can FINALLY say "stwaight." This was a source of contention for a while. Dude, don't push you to say something. You just refuse to speak.

Me: Like to play school and house at 2.75 years. Dexter: You really like pretending to pour ketchup on stuff. And salt. And you enjoy driving your cars over big bumps on the way to Starbucks. And you LOVE playing "red light, green light" or "stop, go" depending on if you are holding a stop sign or a stop light.

Me: Liked to recite "Diddle Diddle Dumplin" at 2.75 years. Dexter: Every damn time your shoes falls off we hear "One shoe off and one shoe on, diddle diddle dumplin my son DADDY!" You're just a chip off the old block, aren't you?

Me: Apparently I liked puzzles and coloring books around this age. Dexter: You play with your clock puzzle every single day. You like floor puzzles that Miss Lisa brings on Thursdays, but if you can't put the piece together the first try you get fairly well pissed off and try to walk away, or just say "Mama do it." Patience, my boy. You need to learn some patience.

I'd compare heights and weights, but that would mean I'd have to go upstairs, and that's just far away. From memory, I think you were 37 inches and like 33 pounds at your 2 year visit. You are kicking my ass, at a meager 35.5 inches and 29.5 pounds at the same time. Keep growing, little man. Girls like tall boys.

PS - mixed in here, randomly, are photos from Zoo Day at the Tato Chip Factory. Thanks, Herrs, for being right down the road! "Amimals" were fine for about 25 minutes, and then basketball hoops took over from there. Even those got boring and gave way to the playground and lunch.

BUZZZZZZZ Part 2

Since the two human boys in the house were already sporting buzz cuts, we figured we may as well let Buddy in on the action and get him a summer 'do, too. Plus, the hair shedding on the kitchen floor was reaching epic proportions. Hopefully the new shorter hair will keep the shedding down a bit.

BUZZZZZZZ

Dex took Buddy to the groomer with me. He decided that Buddy should get "red, and orange, and yellow, and brown" during his hair cut. I was confused for a minute, and then it hit me. Ahh, yes! Buddy should have some M&M's during his hair cut! Dex also decided that Buddy would have to use a hair drier during his hair cut. It always amazes me the things that stick in this childs' head. Apparently the hair drier at the barber shop was more traumatic that I thought.

Earlier this week I was cleaning out a few boxes Mom sent me, of awards from high school. Most I had forgotten I even won. I took pictures of all of them so I can prove to Dexter later that, yes, your Mama actually used to be smart. And then I put a few down in the basement (the salutatorian statue, and a couple basketball awards from sectionals and IAC championships), and made a pile on the picnic table with the rest. Dex played with them for the afternoon (they make awesome slides). And then they went in the trash. Sentimental? Yes. Necessary? No.

The Woody Herman Jazz Award (which I have no recollection of receiving - why would I get this? I sucked at jazz. I didn't start playing saxophone till junior year, because Mr. Phelps made me.) made a good edge of the pool. The fire truck was jumping in.

Percy got to drive through the towers.

We've been swimming twice this week at the Y, in the outdoor pool. Once was on a ridiculously hot day, and half the world was at the pool. 75% of that half of the world was sitting in a chair, or chatting with another mom, paying zero attention to their child diving all over the world, throwing crap at other children, and generally being obnoxious. Other peoples children make me crazy... But Dex enjoyed the pool at lot, and talked for the next two days about the outside pool, and how it has two waterfalls and a really long hill. We went back Friday afternoon, and had a really nice time jumping in to the big pool at least 7,214 times. We played in the little pool for a while, too (Dex calls it the ki-kee pool, instead of the kiddie pool), but I think the big pool might be where it's at for the rest of the summer. And we saw Miss Eliza at the pool on Friday, lifeguarding. That kind of blew Dexter's mind - I'm sure he thought that he was going to have to swim with Miss Eliza. He had a bit of a worried look on his face, but once I reassured him that he could swim with Mama he just spent the rest of the time looking for Miss Eliza and commenting on her every move. At least you always know what's happening inside this child's mind. He always tells you.

I don't have any pictures of Dex swimming, so you'll have to survive on pics of Baby swimming in the water table. Here she is, doing 1-2-3 JUMP.

And here she is being drowned by a small child. Or, doing 1-2-3 UNDER.

Today John and Dexter shoveled some dirt, trying to level out the ground where our little swimming pool will go. And then I tossed the boys out the door to go to an air show, while I stayed home and trimmed hedges and vacuumed and made dinner. It was a nice day for everyone, I think. The boys said they had fun, and Dexter won an inflatable airplane, and he told me all about seeing lots of airplanes on the ground and way up in the sky. And he survived with no nap, was mildly hysterical at bed time, and then promptly passed out cold. Tired pup.

Climbing Buddy Mountain while it's brown. New! Fun!

Someone else was "helping" today, too.

Earlier this week John and Dexter explored the laws of physics by pushing the baby stroller up the slide...

And watching how fast it can go down.

PS - Grandma, thanks for the puzzle!

Recovery

Remember my last post, when I was sad that I had deleted all my Memorial Day parade pictures? Well, since John is filled with awesomeness, he found some fancy program that recovered the deleted files on my camera's card (along with eight trillion other deleted files) and he downloaded my lost pictures, quick as a flash, on to my snazzy new computer. So all is not lost after all. Hooray for file recovery programs, and for awesome husbands.

We are all still recovering, I think, from a fun-filled weekend. We went to the Gore picnic for the first time as a family, and Dexter had fun jumping on the moon bounce and sliding down the really big slide. John is, I think, still recovering from having to take Dexter down the really big slide. He was... not excited about being chosen to go. Dexter is, I think, still recovering from being forced to ride on the train. Because heaven forbid you let a motorized vehicle take you around, when Daddy's perfectly good arms could carry you instead... I don't get this kid sometimes.

Poor John is on the mend, recovering from a stomach bug that has made his last 24 hours fairly unhappy. He stayed home from work today, which rarely happens. We thought Dexter caught the bug, too - he woke up crying this morning and dry-heaving. He said his tummy hurt. But no vomit left his body, and after he let loose a really really big fart, his belly was all better and he was back to his normal morning self, running from one side of his room to the other under his new ceiling fan, and devouring any food in sight. We laid low this morning just in case, but he's given no other indication that he is sick. Crazy kid. Who dry-heaves because they have to FART?

Here's some recovered parade pictures, followed by a few videos from the parade and from this past weekend.

If you ask Dexter about the parade, he will tell you there were lots of cars. And lots of amalances. And lots of fire cars, with spinny lights. And drums. And music. With a little prompting, he'll tell you that people were riding horses. But the cars (that's what he's watching here, with our friend Lara) and the fire trucks were a big hit.

Wonder what's coming next? Could it possibly be... MORE CARS?

Dex thoroughly enjoyed waving his flag

Yay! Flag is going!

About the best you're going to get from us, for a kid holding a flag on Memorial Day picture

Cool! They have flags, too!

Little League kids throwing candy are of no interest to this kid. Who needs candy when you have a flag?

One of my favorites. Lara has to peek around Dexter's big head to see what's coming next.

Oooooh. Fire cars!

That fire car have spinny lights

That's our fire truck! We saw it way back in the fall.

Grandma gave me another flag, so now I have TWO!

Some parade video:

Some video from the REALLY BIG SLIDE at John's company picnic:

And some bouncing:

The Perfect Morning

The perfect morning has scrubbed-clean bright blue skies, a nice breeze, no humidity, and temps in the 70's.

The perfect morning has a small child on a relentless mission to find every. Last. Fountain. At. Longwood.

The perfect morning has cheese crackers and raisins.

The perfect morning finds you reading "Horton Hears a Who" in a tree house to a child, while 27 billion school children on a field trip yell right next to you about bird houses and bird calls and bird nests.

The perfect morning finds a small child calling bird nests "bird nesties."

The perfect morning includes fountains with speakers and music and "Stars and Stripes Forever" and me inexplicably getting all misty-eyed when that patriotic music plays, and me telling Dexter "That's Aunt Jeanne!" when the piccolo solo plays, and Dexter looking all around for Aunt Jeanne, wondering what the hell I am talking about.

The perfect morning finds a child running "triangles" and "squares" and "rectangles" in the grass, simply for the sheer joy of running.

The perfect morning has a small child jumping off a wall about an inch off the ground, and grinning with delight because "That was a REAL BIG JUMP!"

The perfect morning has us watching the big fountains from a new vantage point, and giggling at the girls who got totally soaked when the fountains went "way up."

The perfect morning ends with lunch at the picnic table, a dog who doesn't try to eat things off the table, and a child who discovers that cheese with a "little bit of pepper" and Lebanon Bologna is possibly the world's best lunch.

It's been kind of a perfect week, really. An awesome Memorial Day parade on Monday (I am SO SAD I lost the pictures from it - I thought I had downloaded them, deleted images from my camera to make room for today's trip, and came home to realize that, alas, I have no pictures anywhere. Boooooo!). Swimming lessons and the library with Grandma on Tuesday. Art class on Wednesday. A trip to the Herr's Potato Chip Factory and a visit to the playground with awesome friends on Thursday, plus Dex came to volleyball to eat dinner and watch me play for a while. And today, Longwood. Can't get much better!

This was the best we could do, Grandma, for a picture with the dogwood trees.

The little man is a tough nut to crack some times. I know he loves the fountains. You'd think he'd, ya' know, SMILE some time? (Note - VIDEO BELOW - click on the picture to see)