19 months

daxton turned 19 months old today!  it's his last month in the "teens" before he heads into the "twenties"!

dax is growing rapidly and changing every day.  his running has opened up his curiosity and he's now interested in every single thing in his surroundings.  he's sly like a fox and watches our every move.  you can hardly sneak anything past him these days!  he will look up and give you this half sideways grin that says - "i saw you try to sneak a tortilla chip past me - and now you'll have to give me one too".  he never previously had any interest in climbing up on things, but in this past week he has decided that he should probably attempt a good climb at least once a day and we've caught him climbing on chairs in the living room, the couch in the tv room, his train table, and a patio chair.  we're trying to teach him how to "carefully" get down from each of these situations and that in each case once you climb up you need to be sitting on your bum, but this lesson is a hard one...

 

 

daxton is still being picky about what he ingests.  we're trying to expand his palate and recently we've gone to fixing him lots of raviolis.  we'll put spinach or other veggies in the sauce, or even have mushroom ravioli, and so far he has not turned one down.  he's still a huge fan of fruit and has not found one he does not like.  recently he got to have his first watermelon of the season and we know this is going to be a summer time favorite.  he's also happy about fresh strawberries that are available now and he's watching and waiting patiently for his beloved tomatoes to grow on the vines outside.  we recently took him to try indian food and he did taste chicken tikka masala, lime rice, naan, a mango lassi, and gulab jamun.  he liked the sweets, but was not a fan of anything else - but we'll keep trying.

 

daxton has still never met a stranger.  it never fails that in every establishment we enter dax will immediately greet everyone with a cheery "hi".  he gives big grins and keeps saying "hi" until he gets a response back.  it seems like he takes a little offense if he cannot get a response out of people.  earlier today when he kept saying "hi" to a lady in line in front of us at a store i spun his stroller around and said "hi, you sweet boy!" and he laughed and giggled.  then, when i spun him back around he continued to attempt to greet the lady.  finally she turned around to share in a conversation with him.  he's persistent.  usually he wins and gets a conversation going that we have to finish for him.  certainly helps us to be friendlier.

daxton's word bank is growing constantly.  pretty much anything you say to him now, he'll try to repeat.  he won't always get every word exactly right, but he certainly gets an A+ for effort.  he's amazed us recently with - again, more, get down, go, namaw, tomato (mato), banana (nana), i see, pool, cool, cheese, got you, owl, quack, and ow.  i am sure i could go on all night, but you get the idea.  he's catching on quickly and will surely be chatting up full on conversations in no time.

 

dax's favorite new hobby is dancing.  he likes it when mommy plays music in the kitchen and picks him up to dance ball room style.  i'll even give him a dip or spin him around.  he also loves that when i wake him up from naps i come in singing and dancing, and he dances in his crib with raffie until i pick him up.  we do some family style dancing every night after dinner once daddy's home and all sing and dance "the twist".  he has a singing monkey that sings the song and he'll bring it to you demanding you push the button "again"!  however, he really likes anything sung to the tune of twinkle, twinkle little star.  he'll make up all kinds of songs sung to this tune and then do his dancing to the music.  he will rock back and forth from one leg to the other - keeping his legs stiff (like a peg leg) and occasionally toss in an arm movement or a head twist.  i joked with someone earlier that he appears to be picking up dancing moves from us and that's probably not the best idea.  we'll hopefully all be working on our dance moves this summer and help him increase his mad dance skills.

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daxton's 19 month blog is dedicated to his favorite pup he dubbed "good girl" - the dog we formerly called amelia.  she's been in our family for 14 years and has recently come down with what we pray is idiomatic vestibular disease.  she's too old and frail to have an mri done since she has a pre-existing heart condition, but she presented with symptoms this past thursday that led me to believe she was living her last day.  i called will home from work and we took her fragile body into the vet.  it was a long car ride, even though it's only about 3 miles from our house.  when we got there the vet looked over her symptoms with her head pulling to the right, her eyes continuously twitching from side to side, her inability to stand without falling down, and her pupils not dilating.  the vet agreed to run a battery of tests, but asked that we leave good girl there and come back once the tests were done.  we both left feeling completely defeated as if we'd failed our sweet gal.  a good friend watched dax for us all day because we did not want him to see us in complete break down mode.  we could not imagine good girl never coming home again.  it was a very long morning, but we finally got the word from the doctor that they suspected she had this disease.  since she did not have the form caused by a visible ear infection - they suspect it's either idiomatic (unknown cause, which happens in "old dogs") or it is caused by a brain tumor.  since we cannot do further testing, we're treating for idiomatic and praying for the best.  the past 48 hours have been hard, but we do feel like she's making progress in the right direction.  thankfully we think daxton's got more time to spend with his good girl.