AJ and Daddy Are Down for the Count

Well, I'm sitting here on the computer at 7:39pm enjoying one of my most productive, yet relaxing days in a long time. In the wee hours of the morning, AJ and Daddy both woke sick with the stomach flu. Who knows where it came from. We've had friends with it, but AJ's also been at preschool recently too. You just never know. If you ever need a reason to not put your 3 year old into a loft bed, vomit filled evenings would be a great reason. Yuck.

Between worrying that I was going to wake ill as well, and turning up Dexy's monitor in case he puked, it was really hard for me to fall back asleep after all the commotion between 3:30am-5:30am. I finally fell back asleep at 6:00am with AJ and Daddy asleep on the couch in the living room, and graciously, Dexter allowed me to sleep in until 8:00am. Miraculously, and so far, neither Dexter or I woke sick.

While Daddy and AJ laid on the couch most of the day, I got to catch up on some laundry, empty and fill the dishwasher twice after my 'night with the ladies' on Friday night, entertain a very-excited-to-have-the-run-of-the-house-Dexter.

I learned something new about AJ today. When he needs to throw up, he turns into a sprinkler, you know, like the dance. He starts to cry and freak out and shake his hands. He gets up and starts to do a jig, spinning in circles, letting the vomit trail all around him. Finally, this ends in him stepping in it and slipping and falling into it. Not pretty.

We figured this out fast. When we could tell he was going to be sick, we grabbed the bucket, and held him tight.

Well, that's all the gross details.

Let's move on, shall we?

So, I last wrote on the 14th/15th of February.

Here's what's happened since then.

February 14th - Valentine's Day. Richard and I took the Valentine's Love Bus tour at the zoo. It's an hour long humourous bus tour focusing on the mating habits and such of the zoo animals. We learned some VERY facinating new facts. Mom and Ken watched the boys while we went to the zoo and headed to The Keg for lunch, but guess what? The Keg doesn't do lunch. They were, however, going to open early at 3:00 or 3:30pm for dinner. So, we got home, and sent Mom and Ken home (they took AJ with them overnight), and when Dexy woke from his nap, he had his bottle and we went to The Keg just Mommy, Dexy, and Daddy. It was REALLY nice. It's nice to get to do things alone with Dexter sometimes just like we got to with AJ for almost 2 years. The waiters and waitresses and customers were all commenting on Dexter and loved how cute he was and how well behaved he was. Dexter enjoyed some tempura asparagus and snap peas, steak, and bread along with us. It was a nice evening. Dexter went to bed nice and early like usual at around 6:30pm and we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. Thanks again to Gram and Papa.

February 15th - Daddy must've been in charge. Here's Dexter getting into trouble.
Here he is trying to run away from getting in trouble....


February 16th - I didn't work this day and instead decided on an impromptu trip in the afternooon to Richmond to go to Ikea with the boys, eat a small early dinner there, and then head to my dad's house to see my cousin Peter who had just arrived from Switzerland. Actually, he's my dad's cousin. While at Ikea, a funny thing happened highlighting again, my 'metro' son. As we were walking past some side tables, and I was seeing one that was 'just what I was looking for' for Dexter's room (I had gone to Ikea for ideas that day), I saw out of the corner of my eye, this red side table that was the exact red that's our accent colour in AJ's room. No sooner did I see it, then AJ runs to it and yells, "Oh, mommy, this is perfect for my room. Look at the red!". Jeepers. What have I created?

February 19th - I watched Emerson this morning. I drove the kids out to Lellow in Chilliwack and to for a couple errands so the babies could take their morning nap in the car. It went like clockwork until about the last 15 minutes when everyone had enough car seat riding. That afternoon, I took and AJ and Dexter to the park. Dexter has just been having a blast at the playground lately. He can climb a bunch of stuff and the staircases and stuff. He just Frankenstein walks or runs all over the playground. I really can't turn my back on him or he might just run right off the end of a playstructure. This evening, I went to a guy's house from Craigslist to pick up AJ a bunch of specialty Lego pieces. The guy dumped out a HUGE Rubbermaid container of cars, wheels, planes, steering wheels, trees, windows, doors, and all that. AJ's eyes just about bugged out of his head!!!

February 21st - Auntie Kim slept over the night before to help me get ready for the Kidswapmeet in Cloverdale. We met up with Erica and Erica's friend Kim there. We all had tables in a row. It was a great day. I made way more money than I spent and that's what was important!!! Daddy stayed at home with the boys, as you can tell by the next pictures...


February 22nd - We had Gram, Papa, and Uncle Paul over for some birthday dessert for my mom. Yum. Baked oatmeal cinnamon apples with caramel ice cream.

February 23rd - Auntie Erica had the boys while I was at work and took some great pictures!!!


February 24th - Dexter cuts his finger open on AJ's opera glasses and blood's dripping and spurting everywhere. It's quite the gash. I caved in and called 911 because the bleeding just wouldn't stop. He's all good. They don't put stitches on a wound like that. It's kind of unfortunate because right up until Saturday the 28th, when the bandaid would come off, it would start gushing again. He's good now.


February 25th - I note here that AJ's really been extra interested in spelling the past two weeks and trying to read books.
-So, AJ likes books and all, but he's not a memorizer. However, about a month ago or more (I've had to renew it three times for him), AJ and I took out the Thomas (Dr. Suess series, style) "Trains, Cranes, and Troublesome Trucks" and gosh by darn it, he's memorized. And not just looking at the pages, but he'll start saying it in the car too....lol. He also loves to read Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. It's pretty funny. I'm going to have to look for that one to have at our house. Also, he'll write things as I sound them for him now. For instance, if he wanted to write cat and was asking how to spell it, I might say, "Well let's sound it out..." 'c' and he'll write a c, 'a' and he'll write an a, and 't' and he'll write a t. He's getting really great at this.
-On his Magna Doodle (let me sing it's praises once again), he just loves to write stuff. He'll be drawing and then just randomly call out, "How do you spell _________?" That particular few days, he had been asking how to spell Grand-Dan (that's what he calls my dad). And, so I'll start saying "Big G, little r, little a, little n, little d, big D, little a, little n" and sure enough, I come out and he's written it. His letter writing has really taken off this month. He can even write little 'e'. That's a hard one for kids. I still had a couple of my grade ones that still couldn't do that.

February 26th - Just Dexy sitting reading a book upside down. I hope this isn't telling of the future.


February 27th - This day I had Jack and Rya. It was another great day. The kids have all been really great together and to each other. Rya's having a bit of separation anxiety, not just for her mommy, but for me if I walk out of room, which is heartmelting, and she and Dexy have been teething like crazy beasts, but otherwise, everyone's been great.
Sorry, I'm too lazy to spin the pic again, but man, isn't he a cutie?

My funny little situations from this day, aren't about AJ or Dexter. They're about Jack.

Part One: Jack is quite adamant that he does NOT want a nap. Here he is on my couch.
Part Two:
At one point, AJ was using the bathroom and Jack said he needed to go too. I told him he could come use the ensuite bathroom in my bedroom. You'd have to see my bathroom to completely appreciate this story, but anyhow....
Jack walks in and stares confusedly at the Hawaiian wallpapered wall and says, "Why is there.... What is that? Why is it on your wall?"
I said, "Tell me about it. I'm wondering the same thing every day of my life. It's called wallpaper."
He says, "It has flowers on it."
I say, "Yes, yes it does."
Then he turns to notice my toilet and sink and says, "Your toilet is purple!? So is your sink!"

I guess AJ isn't the only one who has some decor knowledge.
-This was also the evening of my Creative Memories scrapbooking party. It was a really nice night and AJ got to stay up really late with all the ladies. He was very facinated by all the punches and cutters, as he is in love with cutting lately, especially with my craft scissors.

February 28th - I've finally noted Dexter's facination with stools. This week has been really cute. Dexter loves the two stools we have that are a perfect height for him to sit on. I'll walk by and there he'll be just sitting and looking so proud. I decided to take advantage of this. I put his Ikea simple potty in his room at his toy table. My plan is working. He sits on it like a stool to play with the little people and cars. YAY!

-AJ's getting VERY excited for his birthday party. He helped make his goody bags this day. He's going to have a Wall-E cake. We made his fondant this evening too.



I don't think there's been any change in the last two weeks for words or signs for Dexter, except that he said "Rya" when she was over on Friday, so I'll just repost what I put last time with that new addition..

Dexter's Word List updated
Mama
Dada
Daddy
AJ (which sounds more like eye-ja now)
cat
up
baba (what we call a bottle)
bana (banana)
hi
Rya - new

Dexter's Signs List updated - he's using these more and more
more
change (which he seems to occasionally be using to actually tell me he's pooped)
cracker
finished
hi
bye
sleep
eat
surprise

Animal Sounds
-Nothing new.
He'll copy the sound of a sheep, but he's actually doing the pig sounds when I say, "What does the pig say."