Waaaaaaaaaaaay Behind

Okay, seriously. I'm so behind. A month and 11 days behind, if you can believe it. This time, I haven't been working on it all along. All I have is some notes on the calendar and memories. I'm not going to attempt to categorize this. I'm not going to attempt to make this clever, witty, or cute. It's just too much pressure. I'm not even going to add pictures to this one, sorry. Not all the pics are uploaded and it's just too much extra time. Since this is my baby-book, I've just got to get this important-to-a-mommy-and-probably-grandparents-too information officially 'in the book'. Nothing fancy. The pictures will come in their own entry, with commentary too. I may even write in note form in some areas.

Okay, here we go.

AJ, His Friends, and Some Cute Stuff
-AJ asked me some time ago, "What's Mack's song?" He was referring to "Mack Truck" from the Disney Pixar movie "Cars". I realized he was referring to the song "Life is a Highway" that plays while Mack is driving to California for the big race with Lightning McQueen in the back of his trailer. So now, everywhere AJ drives his Mack Truck (that he received for Christmas from Auntie Christine and Uncle Tarrie), you can hear him singing, "Life is a hiiiiiighwaaay, I'm gonna riiiide it all night loooong.... doo dee dooo dee doo.)
-Speaking of the Disney movies cars; When Makenna was over tonight with her mommy, daddy, sister, and brother tonight for a very adventurous dinner with toddlers who hadn't napped and were quite cheeky, she informed me that AJ was calling her "McQueen" instead of Makenna. That was cute. But not as cute as Makenna realizing that AJ wasn't going to be finishing his dinner, and just leaning over to finish it for him. Nor were either of those moments as funny as Dexter climbing on and over his Fisher Price Learning Home to get to AJ's dinner so he could too have perogies with bacon and onions. That baby has one hollow leg.
-Also cute today... Auntie Erica took AJ and Jack to the art museum and left Rya here with me to play with Dexter. Dexter was ecstatic to have a baby play date today. His eyes were in sheer disbelief that he had his own friend over. They had a great time playing instruments, watching Baby Einstein, knocking over the cat water dish, and playing Fisher Price Little People. When Auntie Erica came back for a visit, I urged her to leave Jack here and just take Rya out on her errands so AJ and Jack could play. Jack was pushing one of the toy trucks from the kitchen to the living room and it got stuck in the unfinished part of the flooring in the doorway. Rather than taking it out of that spot, he took advantage of the situation, yelling to AJ, "Hey AJ! My truck is stuck in a ditch! Can you get your tools to get me out?" This was adorable. In the meantime, not thinking, I'm giving AJ a hard time about bringing up toys from downstairs that are supposed to stay downstairs and he says, "But I need to get Jack's truck out of the ditch." They did their fixing and were back to playing. Jack comes out with the tool box safety goggles on and says, "Are these for going deep in the water?" I let him know they were for safety so you don't get hurt when you're using tools, and I tapped them to show him that I couldn't hurt his eyes. Now, I don't know exactly what he said a few minutes later, but it sounded like, "I am the building man for under the water." Before I knew it, both him and AJ were on their tummies 'swimming' down the hall.
-Today, AJ asked for some treats after Jack left. I was on the computer at the time and was only half listening to him. Using the tune and some of the words from the song from music class, he sang "Hello, hello, hello, hello, I would like some treats." Cheeky Monkey.

Weight
So, Dexter has definitely gotten heavier. It was high time to weigh him again. Though he's walking now, so he's burning some more calories too. I don't usually count evening weight as genuine weight, but, oh well, he's 24.5 lbs. I thought to myself. Wow, AJ and Dexter are finally the same weight. I put AJ on the scale and he tipped it at 27.5 lbs. That means, my little bird of an eater gained 3 lbs in the last 3 or more weeks just by being able to eat Christmas chocolates and baking!! Whoa!! He's still skinny as can be.

Since December 5th
December
All this month, Dexter is really letting me know that he doesn't want the purees anymore. He'll go along with it if I need him to (ie., for convenience at Starbucks), "But really, Mom, can you just give me the good stuff off your plate already?"
7th-Dexter is standing alone, not holding onto things. 10 days short of being 11 months old.
13th-Doing lots of standing by himself.
15th-Turns 11 months old
17th-Tries egg whites for the first time in our no crust pizza and has no allergic reaction, yay!
18th-Dexter takes his 2 first unaided steps.
19th-Dexter is using a spoon by himself, and isn't doing too badly with it. He puts it in the food, he scoops, he brings it too his mouth. But after the 4th or so bite, he decides it would be better as a toy.
22nd-Dexter's saying, "Cat." Granted, he doesn't just use it to refer to cats, but he knows the cats are called cats and he says the word 'cat'. It sounds a little more like 'gah' or 'gat'.
24th-Christmas Eve - I'll give a Christmas run-down later. We headed to my mom's this night.
25th-Dexter's first Christmas. Dexter gets a Leap Frog stand and learn thingy from Santa and a Leap Frog toy from Mommy and Daddy. AJ gets a new bike with training wheels from Santa and a real camera from Mommy and Daddy. Dexter takes about 8 steps between us at Christmas dinner.
26th-After much waiting, Dexter starts clapping today or a few days before and he's clapping a lot!!!
31st-New Year's Eve. We had a fun night with Auntie Erica, Uncle Kevin, Auntie Ryan, Uncle Wes, Jack, Rya, and Charlie. Kevin made a turkey dinner. It was delicious. The night was great as it is every year.
January
2nd-Dexter's signing 'more' and 'change' consistently. Dexter really truly start to wave, knowingly, and with vigor!! Again.... finally. He's really learning to steer his walking toys. He bumps into a wall or doorway, picks up the walker, turns it around, and gets going.
6th-Signing 'cracker'. Not independently, but copies the sign when I'm offering him a cracker. Dexter and AJ go to daycare for the first time. Dexter didn't take an afternoon nap, but all was good.
7th-Dexter is 'running away' laughing his fool head off while AJ and I chase him in the living room. Lots more chatter and babble too. Dexter has music while AJ has preschool, as usual, and I meet Jen (with Emerson and Jaxon) for Starbucks).
8th-I'm super tired this morning and when Dexter goes down for his morning nap, AJ kindly allows me to have a 30 minute snooze while he plays in his room quietly. He took out all 5 packages of wooden 4 pack/12 piece Melissa & Doug puzzles and did them all during this time. And some playing too. That's 20 puzzles in 30 minues, folks. Oh, wait, no, two of the puzzles are in our travel bag. So, he did 18 puzzles and playing in 30 minutes. And a big 12 piecer too. He really loves his puzzles. It may be that same day that he did his whole Thomas 48 piece puzzles without me. I'll have to see in the video footage.
9th-Dexter's walking more, and letting go more, between items of furniture and taking more steps between us. He's really proud.
10th-Dexter's BIG first birthday party. 20 adults, 18 kids. BIG FUN! Dexter walks across the room for the very first time while we're cleaning up the party room.
12th-I worked and the boys stayed home with Daddy.
13th-I worked and the boys went to daycare for the second time. A really great day. Naps were on time. Everything was wonderful and AJ happily told me that he got to sing "Baby Beluga". He did miss me dearly that day and said, "You came back for me!!!" Wow, that was sad.
14th-It's our usual preschool for AJ, Dexter has music, and the three mommies (Jen, Erica, and I) who are toddler free, meet at Starbucks with our 4 babies. One lady said, "You ladies are brave." What she didn't realize is that it's truly bravery when we go there with the 3 toddlers too. After Dexter's afternoon nap which ended way too early, I took the boys to the park so AJ could finally, for the very first time, because of rain and snow, ride his new bike!!! He rode like a pro. He's had practice in the house, unfortunately. He did about 4 laps around the playground path before stopping to go on the swings with Dexter. Dexter got to walk around the playground too. He really liked that. Oh yeah... and..... Dexter and AJ played at 'toddler town' together. It's a tiny playground structure that Dexter is capable of climbing and riding it's slide.

15th-Dexter officially is one year old. He's been choosing walking over crawling quite a bit. When you call him, he'll use a piece of furniture to stand and then will walk away from it to get to you. We went for a really cold brisk day at the zoo. It was too wet for AJ to have big fun at the playground, but he enjoyed getting to see Jack. It was Erica, Jen, and I with all the kids except Makenna who was at daycare.
16th-Dexter's been signing 'finished'. He uses it to actually tell me he's finished eating. Have I mentioned his hollow leg?

I think I'll start a word and signing tally for Dexter now, like I did for AJ.

As of January 16th, 12 months old, here are Dexter's words and signs.

Words
Mama
Dada
Cat
and some form of 'AJ' like 'Daj' or 'Ajah'
hi

Signs
more
change
cracker
finished
hi and bye

For comparison (Which you should never do). Here was AJ's first birthday update. Granted, I was much more on the ball with signing, and, come on, he was a first born.
"You say "Mum" more than ever.
You tip your sippy cup to drink from it perfectly all the time.
You are really getting a kick out of using your spoon. I can't wait until you can scoop stuff.
You say, "Uh oh" all the time.
You like to fling Monkey OG, and Monkey 2 out of the crib and yell, "Uh oh".
You cruise all over the place.
You stand alone for a few seconds without really realising it. For example, when you pick up your drink with two hands.
You are using more signs, but not many are consistent. You sign
mommy
hi
dirty
bubbles
eat
more
You are back in your music classes again. Soon you will be in swimming again.
You had your first Valentine's Day.
Today is your birthday! Happy First Birthday my baby, I mean big boy! We'll celebrate on the 11th at Grandma's house, and on the 18th at the pool!
You've tried walnuts.
Sometimes, you like to jump up and down while you're holding furniture.
You like to push your push toys sometimes, and sometimes you just sit down.
You are great at walking while holding our hands.
You really stood alone on the 22nd of Feb.
You signed 'hi' on the 23rd of Feb.
On the 25th of Feb., your bottom right lateral incisor came through and Daddy thinks your top left canine is coming in. We'll see.
Your routine has not been quite as consistent as before. You only take one nap at daycare, you were having longer awake times, and then went back to short ones again.
You had your first haircut on March 1st. I trimmed the back with the electric razor and 'tickle tickled you'.
You found out you aren't going to be a big brother yet anymore, and you thought to yourself, "Well that's okay, that means more mommy-time just for me!"

Phew, you've been busy! You are so smart my little special-bum-cheeky-monkey!"

**No surprise, Dexter's ahead on physical and AJ's ahead on mental. Pretty typical. Dexter's tipped a cup for forever and a day. Dexter's walking now. He's been walking his push toys for forever and a day. He also can scoop with a spoon.

My good little boys. It's neat to look back.

Let's Hear Some AJ Stuff Now
Sorry about that. All of Dexter's stuff is taken from a baby calendar from the fridge. AJ's is just jotted down on a pad of paper that only I can read. For 2009, they're both on the same calendar.
-Sometime in December, AJ realized that he could put his two fridge phonics beside each other, put the upper case letter in one, and the lower case of the same letter in the other and then push them at the same time to hear the related song like "U says uh, and U says U. Every letter makes a sound, U says uh, and U!" I think this was big for him because it really solidified that the upper case and lower case are the same letter.
-He still knows all of his letter sounds except 'hard G'.
-On our second night on the Island to see Richard's parents for Christmas, it was time for bed. AJ said to Richard and I, "You guys go up, and I'll be there in just a second." It was just so funny. Lo and behold, he showed up shortly after we got upstairs. I think he was saying an extra good night to 'Grannie'.
-So, I was playing the game 'Cariboo' with AJ that I got him for Christmas. He needed to look on the game board for '4' of something. Instead of just spotting '4' of something like usual, he pointed to something that had only 3 (but he knew it was where the hidden ball was and really wanted to open it). I said, "Are you sure that one has 4?" He says, "Yes, I'm sure." I said, "Maybe you should count them. Point to them and count them." He continues to point to them and say, "See..., one, two, four!!!!" What a cheeky monkey!!! Nice try! He's already trying to cheat!!!!
-I brought up AJ's old booster seat/high chair for Dexter because Dexter was just too messy in the old fashioned wooden one right now. Upon seeing the 'new' high chair, AJ said, "What's this all about?" This is one of his favourite phrases used in many ways throughout the day.
What are these treats all about?
What's this movie all about?
What's all this dirt about?
-Lastly, my favourite cheeky moment.

AJ woke from his nap and didn't call for me or get out of bed. This is not a good sign, because it means he's still resting and too lazy to get out of bed and therefore, has probably peed. He doesn't wear pull ups for naps anymore for a good 3 or 4 months I'd say.

So, sure enough, I go get him and he says, "Uh oh, I peed in my pull ups."
I say, "You aren't wearing pull ups. You're wearing underwear."

He comes down and I'm changing him and I'm kind of talking to myself, but complaining to him at the same time in a little rant...

"See, now this is why I don't like you to have a drink right before nap. You asked me for the ice tea right as I was putting you down for a nap, and I said, 'but you really shouldn't drink right before nap or you might have an accident'. Next time, no drink before nap."

And he pipes up with... (and please picture him quoting me using a high pitched mommy voice)

"But then you said, 'oh okay, you can have just a little ice tea!' "

sassy little bugger




just like me


I'm going to update properly about Christmas and Dexter's first birthday when I do the picture update.

Here's what you get for now.