AJ and Dexter at One Year

So I was looking back because I get curious. I shouldn't do it because it makes me feel badly that Dexter doesn't get as much one on one time.
However, I noticed back in March/April 2007 when AJ was the age that Dexter is now, a couple of similarities....

AJ
March 9th, 2007
-We start to realise your facination with towels on people's heads after a shower.
Dexter
-He is totally facinated by this too! And glasses for that matter.

AJ
March 10th or so
-I was washing you on the change table, washing your nether-regions, and you signed 'more' over and over again! You naughty boy!
Dexter
-Dexter doesn't start signing more, but he very eagerly signs 'change' at this time. It's very cute.

AJ
March 12th-16th
-You got your bottom left molar and you start pretending to do your hair with me when I do my hair.
Dexter
-Just got his first molar, bottom right.


AJ
March 19th-23rd
-I tried you on one nap over Spring Break since you did so well with one nap at daycare, but to avail. You will not sleep more than an hour for me in the afternoon if you haven't had a morning nap. ARG! But then again, I like you having two naps, so thanks!
Dexter
-We've been trying one nap a couple times because he's starting to try this at daycare. It's not so great at home. He still really likes two naps.

AJ
March 25th
-You are saying and signing "hi" all the time now. You touch your hand to your head. You say 'hi' when we arrive at the house.
Dexter
-'Hi' is just about your favourite phrase. You say it at the appropriate times.

AJ
March 30th
-You are very facinated by my Eeyore pajamas. You think the picture is very neat.
-You are climbing on the couch! Oh no! And you climbed onto Daddy's laptop desk on the end table. ARG!!!!!
Dexter
-Dexter has been facinated with those pj's forever! He loves to touch the picture!
-He's so close to climbing on the couch. He's been too busy walking to get in proper couch practice time.

Dexter
-I should note that Dexter, who never gets to climb stairs because we just don't go downstairs very often can climb all the way up, AND knows to turn around and go feet first down them. This is probably from all of the 'getting off the couch lessons' that Daddy has given him.

AJ
-Made a nice thank you card with me for his teachers for preschool because it was his last day there before starting his new one.
-He copied out the words "Thank You" for the card, wrote his name with the J facing the right way, drew a car, one of his teachers, and scribbled what he decided said Miss. Jennifer.

That's my boys.

Mostly January Stuff

So, here's a mish mash of pictures from more of January and I'll provide some explanation and some extra tid bits about the boys at the end.

Dexter's 'family' birthday party was on Sunday, January 11th. It was a really big turn out. It was so nice to get to see everyone, as we didn't get to see everyone at Christmas. The guest list was...
Cousin Michelle (pictured above letting Dexter walk away) and her guy, Dave.
Cousin Shauna with baby-Ethan
Cousin Alina
Cousin Lisa and her fiance Mike
Cousin Theresa
Cousin Mike
(all my cousins)
My Auntie Brenda and Uncle Al
My Uncle Len and Auntie Jacqui
Grand-Dan
Gram and Papa
Auntie Kim and Uncle Paul
Richard and I, of course, and AJ

Below, is a pic of AJ and Dexter VERY excitedly looking at the Car Transporter from Auntie Brenda and Uncle Al. Both boys love this.
Thank you to all who came and thank you too for the gifts! Dexter has been playing like crazy. He even vandalized my hallway with the Tadoodles from Richard and I. He walked down the hall dragging the egg shaped marker down the hall.


Here are some pics from the 'friend' birthday the day before.
Here's the one year old Dexter offering to share some cake!


Here he is not eating his cake!!!???
Why????
He was pooping.

So, here's my party pooper.
Mmmmmm, lunch. Yes, I made sure he ate lunch BEFORE his cake. I'm so mean.

Gram wanted to make sure that Dexter got to have the same fun as the big kids. She took him way up high, climbing.
When I look at pictures of Dexter, I see myself as a baby. Am I the only one who sees this?

This is AJ the night before, helping Kim and I with decorating. He's enjoying a some chocolate cake and chocolate icing.


Kim helped make sure the cakes got done the night before.
Here's our treasure chest. Auntie Kim did exactly what I wanted.

Here's the Jolly Roger 'no dairy' cake for Dexy and Auntie Jen.

Here are Auntie Jen and Auntie Erica entertaining Jen's twins, Emerson and Jaxon. Auntie Erica brought Jack, but she was Baby-Rya-Free that day.

This is my pirate picture of Dexter for the invites.
They were made to look old and treasure mappish. You know, like washed with a tea bag and burn the edges kind of thing.
Thank you to all of our friends who came to Dexter's first birthday party and thanks for all the cool gifts and gift cards! Thanks so much to...
Auntie Erica and Jack
Auntie Jen, Allison, Makenna, Emerson, and Jaxon
Sharon, Sean, Emily, and Claire
Nancy, Carl, and Ava
Ryan, Wes, and Charlie
Uncle Tarrie, Adam, Matt, Jenny, Erin, and Lauren
Jill, Daryl, Kevin, Michael, and Ashley
Gram, Papa, Auntie Kim and Uncle Paul
I feel like I'm missing a couple people. Hopefully, I'll fix that by tomorrow.

A big thanks again to Auntie Kim (and Uncle Paul) for all the set up. And thanks to my family for all the clean (and anyone else who helped- auntie erica).





Here's our trip to the zoo on the 15th, Dexter's real birthday. We hadn't been in sooo long. I was so keen to go. Erica brought Jack and Rya and Jen had Emerson and Jaxon only that day. It got a little too cold, so Auntie Erica and Auntie Jen took off and me and my boys stayed for some lunch, swings, and a look in the vivarium. AJ really liked the vivarium this time. He was very interested. He looks upset swinging in this picture but he's actually yelling to me "Another underduck, please!!!"
Here's Dexter. He was so good to stay in the stroller for so long that day. He's eating a bagel.

Here is Dexter crashed on the way home. So sweet. Look at him! So chunky and delightful. Eat him up!
Here's AJ crashed on the way home. Please note the pen is still in his hand for his 'doodle art'. He loves that thing. Thanks Auntie Brenda for another great gift!!! If you look closely, you can see the car he drew on the way home.

Here's a picture from the family birthday party of AJ 'chillin' with Uncle Paul.

Here's AJ tumbling around in the baby/toddler area at the playcentre for Dexter's birthday party.


Okay, I just love this picture that AJ drew. Now, it isn't as impressive as you think it is. You're thinking he drew like cartoon character eyes, right? Yah, I know. That's why I love it so much. It's like he's going to start his own comic strip soon. In fact, those are little black eyes, and he's drawn glasses on them. Hence the big circles and the line across them. But man, it's so cute. Look at the hair, and the smile. No room for legs or arms here, but whatever, it's cute cute cute.

This is me taking a picture of AJ's great colouring. He's all about staying in the lines... the eyes and the horn looking things. Sorry it's blurry. Not sure what went on there.

Here are AJ and Dexter playing the most fun game of all...
"What did Daddy bring home from the grocery store? Let's dump it out!"


So, I think I left off after our very busy weekend.
Here's what's gone on since then.


On Monday, the 19th, AJ lied.
Now, this isn't new. He's inadvertently lied many times. Partly because of misunderstanding. For instance, "AJ, are you finished your breakfast?"
"Yes."
But he's not. He probably means that he doesn't want any more, but I was in fast asking him if he finished it all up like I asked him too.
So, this day, I said, "Did you finish all your breakfast?"
And he said, "Yes."
I said, "I'm going to come see this!" (I was excited. I believed him.)
He stops me at the kitchen doorway and says, "Noooo! Don't come in here. Don't look at my breakfast. You can't come see my cinnamon toast."
I said, "Why can't I see? You said you're done."
He says, "No, you go in the living room. I'll be back in just a second."
What a bum. He lied. Then tried to cover it up! Oh dear!
Yet, I'm impressed by his cleverness.

On the 20th of January, Dexter was trying so hard to get up onto the couch. I'm not encouraging this in the least. I'm dreading the day I can't leave him alone in the living room for even a moment for fear of him falling off the couch. Granted, he can get off the couch safely when he's trying to get off the couch. But that's not when the fall happens. The fall happens when he turns around and just wants to sit on the couch, but places his bum where there is no couch.

On the 22nd, we realized just how much Dexter studies our eating habits. He really really wanted a fork. I have pickle forks for AJ, I guess they're called. Anyhow... he can totally use a fork. He carefully lines it up over the carrot he wants or PB sandwich piece and stabs down and brings it to his mouth. He's better with a fork than a spoon!
This same day, Dexter shows me how he can reach the top of the counter, so we need to be extra careful about what we place at the edge of the counter now.
This was also the day that AJ gave Dexter one of Dexy's new Tadoodles and he walked down the hall writing a big wiggly line on the wall.

On the 23rd, we went to Mill Lake with Jen and her kids. It was a little chilly, but the kids had fun. The babies had fun crawling all over the toddler town play structure. Dexter really likes the slide now. He was all over that thing trying to climb up and sliding down. He's now not only crawling up the stairs of the different levels, but he was walking up the steps holding the wall.
I wish I had brought a camera. All the kids were on the swings at one time... Makenna and AJ on the big kid swings, Dexter in a baby swing, and Jaxon and Emerson back to back in a baby swing. It was cute.

Saturday, the 24th, Dexter was observed by Richard, standing up in the middle of the hallway. I hadn't seen this yet. So, now he can get up to standing without holding anything and then just takes off.

Sunday, the 25th. AJ's asking more and more about words. Even though he can write letters individually and his name, when he writes a word it's a bit different. He likes to 'label' things like he sees me do or sees in books. Like, he'll draw a car and then say, "This says car." And he's jotted down a few lines quickly to look like word. It's funny. I'm hearing more and more, "What does this say?" When he 'jots' something down. Or "Does this say car?"
So, I drew him a car with the letters C A R inside as part of the shape of the car. Well, evidently, today, when Auntie Kimmy was babysitting the boys, AJ was drawing cars and writing ARC or RCA or CAR on the page with the picture.

Monday, the 26th.
When I came home, I was colouring AJ's big WALL-E colouring book with him. He was pointing to the word "WALL-E" on the character and asked, "Does this say, 'WALL-E'?"
I said yes and he started writing out the letters for the word... W A L L E. I took a picture, but it's not loaded yet. It's really great. The E has way too many lines, but once I told him 'top middle bottom', then he was set.

Oh yes, and reading my friend, Jodi's blog, reminded me to mention that Dexter 'drives' cars around. I may possibly have already mentioned this a month or two ago, but I don't think so. They must learn it from an older brother because AJ didn't do this for a long time. Dexter takes the toy cars, which he LOVES by the way, and he makes a car noise, and if there's a track it's all the better. He will drive that car all over the track. I should record this. It sweet. Dexter going, "Brrrrrrrmmmmmrrrrrmmm".

Okay, that's all I can think of right now.

Sonja C

Dexter Turned One and Man oh Man Did Auntie Erica Capture It!!

Just as AJ had a BIG first birthday party and I had to make sure Dexter's first birthday party was big too-
AJ had a 'professional' photo shoot for his first birthday.
I had to do the same for Dexter.

Auntie Erica was the professional this time.

Here is a mere taste of what Erica captured at the dairy farm today. She is amazing. I only hope that I've pasted these in here properly from Facebook so that I can give the pictures the justice they deserve. There's about 100 shots. Somehow, I need to pick my fave 7 for my frames.

My heart is doing flip flops.

He's so adorable.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you, Auntie Erica.

Partial Picture Catch Up

My boys.
Or as AJ calls himself and Dexter,
"Your two boys, right Mommy?"
Believe it or not, it is actually faster, or at least less hassle for me to put the pictures into a scrapbook page and load it here, than it is for me to place each picture in here, drag it to where it needs to go, and make sure the writing doesn't get all bumped around because of it.

So, we still need to upload more pictures, but here's some from the past month and a half or so, grouped.


Christmas Eve, we headed to my mom's. It was supposed to be Christmas morning at my house, but unfortunately, the snow and Paul's gigantic xmas gifts put a wrench in those plans. Of course, it was lovely and wonderful as it always is.... that is, after packing ALL the gifts and everything I'd need for the boys for who knows how long AND in case of being snowed in. You'll notice AJ eating pudding powder in one of the pictures. I was making the lazy cinnamon buns for the next morning and he was eating the vanilla pudding powder. Gee, I can't imagine why he gained 3lbs this past month. The small picture is supposed to be of the snow outside. It was much worse than what you can see.

Now here are some from Christmas morning. There were so many wonderful gifts. Too many to name and some that have been a surprising hit. The boys in these pictures are showing off Dexter's giant stocking (I'm a stocking kind of girl), AJ's new bike, AJ's board book version of one of my childhood favourites "There's a Monster at the End of this Book", the Aquadoodle from Gram and Papa, new baby crayons, and AJ's camera. Christmas morning was so fun. It was our first Christmas without "G.G." (AKA Great Grandma, or Grandma). It sure made the morning a lot different. But we had lots of fun in her memory and I'm sure she was watching it all unfold, saying "That's just lovely" or "That's just ideal" the whole time.







Here are some pictures from Christmas evening. My mom usually hosts the Christmas dinner. It was wonderful to see how many of our family members trekked through the yucky snowy conditions just to see everyone else and have a nice, special, family Christmas.



The day after boxing day, after unpacking everything, doing a bunch of laundry, and repacking everything, but into the car this time instead of the truck, we headed to the Island to see Grannie and Papa (Richard's parents). As we do every year, we had a wonderful and relaxing visit, complete with trips to Timmy's and lots of playing and leftover turkey. The boys had a blast and AJ's already asking to go back!! In these pics, you can see the boys wearing the sweaters that Richard's mom made them, AJ wearing his new safety goggles for his power drill from Grannie and Papa, and Dexter doing what he does best.... hunting for other people's food.




Next, we had our annual 'couple's night' New Year's Eve. This was hosted by Erica and Kevin (Jack and Rya) and the other guests were us and Ryan and Wes (Charlie). Here's a picture of the kids all sitting up in Jack's loft bed for a bedtime story. Now, Ryan and Erica's pictures turned out way better and with all three kids smiling. The reason I still used mine is because this is quite possibly the first time that my 'glaring' sweet son is the ONLY one smiling and is NOT the one who looks stunned. So, it deserved a place in the blog. Sorry stunned Jack and stunned Charlie!!!
I must mention that we had a DELICIOUS turkey dinner that we will be re-enjoying again tonight over at Erica and Kevin's. Kevin makes a turkey just as delicous and moist as Richard's. AMAZING!!! Don't even get me started on his yummy stuffing. Don't even get me started.



So, I've been taking pictures of some of AJ's masterpieces. I don't have a picture of the SUV he drew with all the appropriate windows and his entire family inside. Well, actually, outside. He IS only 2.5 years old. All of the legs were hanging out the window. That can't be safe!!! Anyhow, here is his big 48 piece Thomas puzzle he did all alone, and his octopus complete with 8 legs, and the word MOM.







Here's what Dexy's been up to.
Eating with a spoon. Sleeping with his bum in the air. Attempting to climb up the dresser to reach the Xbox successfully lifting his feet up off the ground, and wearing his homemade pirate birthday shirt at his pirate birthday party!!

That's it until Richard uploads the rest of the pictures.

I've had AJ, Makenna, and Dexter all down for a nap for the past 2 hours!! That's why I had time to do this right now. I just got back about 3 hours ago from Dexter's 'One Year' photoshoot, courtesy of the VERY talented, but NOT wallet breaking, Auntie Erica. Just wait until you see the results of that!!!

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.