look-out - daxton is a growin'

(pre-big boy hairdo)

 

lots has been happening since we got back from the beach.  it seems like every time daxton has a milestone check-up appointment, he leaves the appointment on a mission to explode off the charts with new achievements.  we had his 18 month appointment last tuesday, and it seems like it all started tuesday night.  since then he has been working really hard to repeat words and songs.  after learning "car" while we were on vacation, he has since picked up "bible" while daddy was reading one afternoon, picked up "amen" from us saying it at meal times and bed time, and picked up "conti" (which is one of his auntie's nick names when we were making her a "cheer me up" video).  this week he also learned to sing "row, row, row" of row, row, row your boat and made a video to send to his relatives.  he is also now singing "wink" to twinkle, twinkle, little star and will do a hand gesture to show the diamonds in the sky.  and if that was not all ginormously amazing, he has also started singing very passionately at the end of the "hot dog song" on the mickey mouse clubhouse and actually closes his eyes and tilts back his head to sing the last word (house) "hooooooo-uuuuuuuu-ssssssss-eeeeeee"!  he will rock back and forth from one leg to the other and sometimes even do a little booty shake when he really gets into it.

nights after work this week daxton has spent his time running around in the back yard - clear across the one acre lot from one side to the other.  when we say "run to daddy/mommy" he will take off running with a huge grin on his face until he flops into your arms.  then we send him back to the other parent and back and forth he goes.  he gets fresh air and tired all at the same time!  after daxton's appointment he also went on zyrtec on thursday.  he has been having suspected seasonal allergies for the past 3 months.  after suffering from a non-stop runny nose and being on antibiotics for over a solid month for repeated ear infections, we agreed wth the doctor that we'd give this a shot.  we've only had him on it for three days, but he does seem to be better able to handle being outdoors and we can tell when it's wearing off at night before bed.  hopefully this will do the trick, so he can continue loving his outdoor play time each evening.

when we could not go outside because of rain or allergy issues we've been playing ball with dax in the house.  (yes, ball inside the house.)  we bought him a giant red ball and he is able to catch the ball if you toss it to him and he'll carry the ball back and forth all over the place.  he thinks the ball is huge fun and lights up any time he sees it coming!  one night we played with it for almost an hour!

usually when we order chinese food daxy gets broccoli and rice.  however friday night he did not want anything to do with his usual and insisted on having some of daddy's sweet and sour pork.  we let him try it (thinking he would just spit it out) and he was in love.  dax has only ever had french-fries once, and no other fried food before.  we didn't let him have too much for fear of tummy troubles, but i think he woul have kept on going if we hadn't pulled the plug and switched to apple-sauce.

saturday we took daxy on a big adventure and found a barber shop that specializes in african american hair.  we headed out about 30 miles from home and waited in line for over an hour for our turn in the chair.  dax did pretty well getting his blotchy hair-do trimmed up for more of a big boy style hair-do.  he didn't care for the trimmer too much, but daddy held him tightly while the barber went to work.  he did pretty well and the barber introduced him to the tools and even held him after he was done.  after we left we took him for a treat to try some italian ice.  daxy loved his coconut italian ice on a pic-nic bench in the sunshine!  we decided we'll make that a routine after each summer time hair cut!

at dax's 18 month appointment they confirmed he had grown to over 32 inches tall.  (in case you are not aware that is seriously encroaching on 3 feet tall!)  he's quickly grown out of his 12-18 month pajamas, so we had to stock up his clothing supply with 8 new pairs of 2T pajamas.  it was a sad day for mommy to be purchasing anything 2T, but they fit our boy just perfectly.  our little fella is growing up in every sense!

today daxton amazed us while we were at dinner.  we'd gone to whole foods to shop for groceries and decided to grab dinner and eat on the patio.  we thought this was ideal since he could not disturb anyone by being too loud since we were outside and could not really make a huge mess - again because we were outside.  completely ideal.  however, while we were in the middle of him eating his dinner i told him we had to blow on his sweet potato because it was hot.  so, after he picked up pieces of the sliced potato he would also blow on it.  it was so adorably sweet.  then, half way through the meal he kept reaching for a napkin, so i let him have one and he took it and wiped off his mouth, just like we do! oh gracious, that was just too much for words!

okay - just one last one - later on today, after we got home from the grocery store we played in the yard with the giant red ball and then daddy worked on pulling some weeds out of our front flower bed.  (thanks to daddy!)  they seem to crop up overnight.  and as he bent over to pull the weeds, daxton went up behind him and got into the exact same position so he could do exactly what daddy was doing.  that'll be the day - right!  when daxton wants to help pull weeds!

18 months

 

dax is celebrating his 18 month birthday today!  we can hardly believe how quickly this year is flying by knowing that he's getting so close to two years old!

we've gone from walking to quickly running!  this past week daxton was checking out how quickly he could walk from one side of the room to the other.  his pace got a little faster each time he trucked across his path.  then, before too long his little legs were running.  now we're off and will and i just look at each other and say "there he goes", before one of us starts chasing after him.  he's really enjoyed the open space at the beach this week and is running up and down the shoreline.

 

 

we're still battling a food taste tester at meal times these days.  as of late, daxton has started sticking out his tongue to take a taste of whatever it is you're offering to see if he "might" want to eat it.  he's had several rounds with daddy where he left the table hungry because he did not want to eat what we were serving.  hopefully this phase will be short lived so we can move on to trying more new things.  he was brave enough to try out key lime pie this week and decided that it might not be so bad to trust us once in a while.  we have also finally found some sippy cups dax likes, so we're hoping he will be totally off the bottle very soon.  he loves drinking his water from his sippy, and he'll ask you for more when he runs out.

 

 

dax has always been a good helper, but lately he's found a new appreciation for pitching in.  recently we found him in a giant wad of paper towels wiping up the floor.  nothing was there, but he'd seen us doing it before so he thought it was a good thing to do.  he's also been caught putting things back "where they go".  his definition and ours of "where things go" may be somewhat different, but its still a good help either way.  he loves to watch daddy load the dishwasher and has even put clean tupperware into the dishwasher while daddy is loading.  he wants to make sure things get cleaned up.
dax loves to talk to strangers.  he'll smile and grin at anyone he sees.  he loves to get their attention and say "hi" while waving furiously.  he lights up when they finally smile back and say hello.  he'll do this while sitting in a high chair at a restaurant, riding in his wagon through the street, or anywhere he comes into contact with other people.  he thinks all eyes should be on him, and he usually gets lots of attention.

dax is working on his vocabulary.  as of this week he's talked about riding in the "car" since we took a long car trip.  however, the funniest thing he is saying now is a thousand versions of "okay".  he'll give you a long drawn out - "ooooooookkkkkkkaaaaaaaayyyyy", or a short and quick "okay", or a medium length "ohhhkay", and then he'll dice them all up with different inflections and tones of voice.  he'll say okay in just about any context.  you can ask how his nap was, how his lunch was, if he's having a good day, how he's feeling, if he misses daddy, what color his shirt is, and so forth and you'll always get some version of okay.  its pretty funny and we laugh, so he does it quite a bit.  he's also working on showing us where different body parts are.  if you ask him where his nose is he'll point straight away and show you his nose - but if you ask where his ears are he will also show you his nose.  everything ends up back at the nose and he thinks its hilarious.

dax is having a wonderful time celebrating his 1/2 year birthday at the beach.  he's loving spending all of his time with mom and dad, going for long walks, reading story books, playing peeky boo, playing in the sand, watching mickey mouse clubhouse, playing on playgrounds at the park, walking on the board walk, making a mess of his food, and splish splashing in the tub.  we love spending time with him and still get so excited when we hear him wake up every morning.  we miss him while he's sleeping and cannot wait for more fun with him when he wakes up from resting.  he's a joy to be around and is the best little fella we could have ever dreamed of.  we're all glad we've got more time to rest, relax, and reconnect before we have to head home!