21 months

twenty-one months has come more quickly than we could have ever imagined.  it seems like july just flew by and before we knew it august was here.  summer is quickly passing before our eyes.  dax loves the summer.  he loves running around in the sprinkler, swimming in the pool, and eating on the deck.  he would definitely like to run around more in the grass and we'd certainly let him if he did not always attempt to head straight for the road.  fencing is on our 2014 wish list.

 

 

dax is still a sneaky little fellow.  he's quickly learned that he's here to push the boundaries and the past thirty days have been a test for us all.  his best tricks include standing on the facing of the cabinets, climbing and then standing on the coffee table, standing and jumping on the sofa, climbing up on our bed, turning the water on in the tub, opening the cabinet drawers, and banging on the windows with blocks.  he does all of this while cocking his head slightly to one side and smirking to see if you are paying him any attention.  then, even if you say "no dax" he will proceed with his full intention to completely disobey what you've said.  then, if he should stop in his tracks he will go forth with a full on tantrum in picking up the nearest object and throwing it as hard as he can while screaming "oh no!"  we're working really hard to be consistent and to explain to him that he does not need to get angry every time we tell him he cannot do something.  it's hard, it's trying, and it makes for exhausting days - but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

this photo shoot was full of him pulling things out of the cabinet, throwing said items all over the floor, and trying to put on shoes that were too small.  he brought me every pair of shoes that he owns that i had pulled out to go into the attic and sat on my lap for me to put the shoes on his feet.  he would say "sheeeww" and plop down.  when i told him i was sorry but the shoes were too small he would exclaim "oh no!" and make pouting face as if all of his shoes were too small and he had no shoes to wear.

** this picture is dedicated to a family who is waiting for their precious children to come home from the drc**

 

it took dax about a month to get completely over his stomach issue.  we ended up giving him a probiotic that seemed to cure his ills.  we went from giving him one every three days, to every other day, to then every day and did that for about 10 days and now he seems to be back on track.  during this time he ceased using his bottle because we were no longer giving him milk and now he seems to not want to have much to do with milk, so i offer him some in his sippy every couple of days but he never drinks more than a quarter of it.  he is a huge fan of ice water.  he loves to shake it up and listen to it clunk around in the cup and he guzzles it down.  we've tried to keep dairy in his diet by keeping up with his daily yogurt breakfast and adding more cheese into his lunches and dinners.  he still refuses all meat and revolts at the thought of it in his ravioli, a pasta sauce, on a slice of pizza, or heaven forbid just straight out.  lately he's refusing pretty much everything that he used to love.  we figured it was all a battle of wills, but his palate could be changing, or he could just be learning which textures he likes and doesn't like.  either way it's making meal times pretty difficult unless we just give him something that "always" wins like alexia sweet potato tater tots or annie's spaghettio's.  lame.  but, he eats it.

dax is still in love with "i know" and "oh no" and says these quite frequently since he is always saying one or the other after he's been caught doing something he shouldn't.  it's pretty funny (internally - not on the parental face that we wear and exhibit to dax) when we tell him - "buddy you cannot climb on the table because it's not safe and you could fall off and hurt yourself."  he will get upset and say sternly "i know!"  and it's super hard not to laugh, but we don't and we say, "well - if you knew then you would not do it again."  oh daxy.  he's still a chatterer and keeps using his same words and phrases but has not added much new to the mix in this past thirty days.  we lately broke out some letter cards and he does love to shout out letters while watching super why, but i think he's smitten with "A".  it is a pretty fabulous letter.

as previously noted, we've decided to take one day a month and focus on fun times with dax.  a lot of our time lately is spent saying no and asking him to not do things, so its rewarding for all of us to have a day where we can say yes, go ahead and do that - its fine.  in two weekends we're going to spend the weekend in charlotte, nc.  we are staying down town and plan to do lots of walking, going to the discovery kids museum, and swimming in the hotel pool.  hopefully dax will have a nice and relaxing long weekend with his parents and we'll all keep building fun family memories filled with things dax can do rather than focusing on what's not going to work.