mia - and we're not talking miami

sorry we've been on a long hiatus here.  work has been crazy and dax and i have been adjusting to attempting a new work room set up so he'll be happier during the day times.  either way it's been long days (and nights - sometimes until 1am) and we're excited to be nearing the end of a very strenuous and overloaded work schedule.

because i've had a lot of work lately we've also been going full throttle on the weekends.  three weekends ago we finally took dax to get his big boy hair cut, and i finally have some post-hair cut pictures for those of you who've asked.

last weekend we headed to my parent's house to be in town for a family friend's funeral and made sure dax got to visit with about 25 family members.  we were hoping to sneak a dip in the lake in on this visit, but the water and weather were just too cold, so dax just got to spend time playing in the yard and running around.  i got to stay up until almost 3 am to chat with my big sissy.  it's been a while since we got to catch up and it was great to spend so much time with her.  we were glad to see everyone, but totally exhausted when we finally made it home and needed another holiday weekend just to recover from the long weekend.

 

 

 

 

then, this past weekend "we" (and i should say my super amazingly wonderful husband) built our new patio chairs and got everything set up on the deck so that we can finally eat dinner al fresco.  we've been contemplating a patio set for a number of years now, but i am rather picky and just finally found something i liked that i thought dax would be able to use his booster seat in.  hopefully now we'll be doing a lot more outdoor dining.

saturday afternoon before dax's nap we turned on a giant sprinkler ball to let dax run through the water.  it was hot and muggy outside and dax had been such a good fella with all of the trips to target and construction going on that we knew we could all use some down time.  we were not sure how he'd react to the icy cold water spraying out everywhere, but it really did not take him long to run at it full force and just stand there with water spraying right into his face!  he played in the sprinkler for a good thirty minutes until he was soaking wet and covered with grass clippings when we elected to shut 'er down and get him into a nice warm bath and into his bed.  i think he really enjoyed it and we will be doing more sprinkler times soon!

 

 

 

saturday night after we got the table put together and ate our dinner we had to cut up over 1200 pieces of bread for The Lord's Supper at church.  sunday morning (after a short night) we had to wake dax up at 6am to get ready to get to the church by 7:15 to get everything set up.  (we are not morning people - nobody in our family does 6am well.)  we did not get back to the nursery to pick him up until 12:30 and when we got to him, he was fast asleep in a care giver's arms.  by then he'd skipped his lunch and we'd never really been able to get him to eat his breakfast off schedule so he was having a really hard time.  we suffered through an attempt at lunch (which really tested our patience) and got him down for a nap.  unfortunately he could not sleep for long and woke up with bad allergies and a runny nose that just would not quit.  luckily after we got him some benadryl his neighbor friend dylan wanted to have dax over for a dip in the pool.  dax really enjoyed swimming for about two hours!  however, once he was done - he was done!  his entire routine was thrown off and he had trouble for the rest of the day/night and had a terrible time going to bed that night.  i think we will have to find an alternate solution to The Lord's Supper set up until he's older.

lately we've had some questions surrounding when we'll adopt again.  will and i have had discussions around this and really find our hearts torn at this point about what God's plan is for growing our family.  we're praying and considering adopting from africa, adopting a waiting child from foster care, or pursuing another domestic infant adoption.  right now we're just not sure where we're being called and we're completely fine with that.  we're discussing talking with our previous adoption agency about all options some time in 2014, so when we have progress there we'll keep you posted.  until then we're madly and deeply in love with our sweet boy and are treasuring every second that he's our only.

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 months

dear daxy turned 17 months old!

this month has been a month with rapid development!  in the blink of an eye our baby is turning into a big boy.

 

daxton went from standing up and walking with his walker, to walking 1 step, to walking 9 steps, then walking 27 steps, and then walking all the time.  it's amazing to see those little legs walking all over the house.  will and i still stand in awe every time we see that fancy foot work!  sometimes he'll get going a little too quickly and get stumbled up, but for the most part he's trucking around really well.  he'll still sometimes forget (early in the morning or after a nap) and resort to a crawl, but when we ask him if he can stand up and show us his "walkings" he'll hop into action.  we're excited to see where these little legs will go!

 

daxton celebrated his second Easter this past month.  he had a great time at our church's Easter egg hunt where he hunted for a couple of eggs (he was not so sure what this was all about and he had no sense of competition so he just let the other children take the eggs they wanted.  it was quite tender and sweet.), danced to music on daddy's shoulders, and got to pet a baby goat and lamb.  sunday he got a little Easter basket with a doc mcstuffin's doll, some veggie tales dvds, a praise song dvd, and a couple of dvds about Jesus' life.  it took him about a week to do enough investigating to see that daddy had put cheddar bunny crackers in his plastic eggs.  we had a great time at church and then after dax's attempted afternoon nap we headed to our friend's house for Easter dinner.  dax had a great time playing with some friends from church and checking out their tupperware collection.  he sat at the big people table and enjoyed some sweet potato casserole, but did not want to let us feed him much of anything else so he could have enough time to check out their cook book collection.  we were so thankful to spend this day with our sweet fellow, even though he told me no photos were allowed.

 

daxton is testing his authority with meal times these days.  he'll inspect the food before it goes into his mouth, or he'll check it out with his tongue and fingers and pull it right back out if he does not like the feel or taste of it.  he's gotten pretty vocal when he does not get his way and we're trying to find a balance between not letting him win and actually being able to enjoy dinner time.  we've determined that he seems to love saucy things, so i am going to work on preparing things with more sauces to see if we can keep him eating green foods without the expense of our eardrums and sanity.

 

dax's favorite game these days is "peeky boo".  most people call this "peek-a-boo", but here - we've always got new names for things.  his latest trick is to play this game with daddy on either side of the kitchen island.  we can get him going anywhere by just saying "peeky boo", but he loves going round and round the island with daddy - never knowing where he will pop out.  his laughter is deep and sometimes takes his breath away.  it's so intoxicatingly sweet we just love that little "peeky boo" monster.

 

dax is still having a fondness for "raffie" (the giraffe).  we recently went cold turkey without the passie except when in the crib.  we've given it to him a handful of times when he was not in the crib when his days were excessively long and he was expected to be respectful to others eardrums, but otherwise we've reserved it for sleepy times.  now when he wakes up you can unclip it from his shirt and ask him if he will leave the passie with raffie and he cheerfully tosses passie over to raffie for her to nap while we're out of the room.  we never imagined we'd be able to get rid of the passie so "easily" after we'd tried several times and only been able to last about 30 minutes.  however, i think this time he was just ready to let it go.

 

leaving the passie for sleeping has also helped with his chatter.  he's doing a lot more talking and jabber.  we've gotten some new words like "okay", "i do", "i go", "boom", "a bye", "a spoon", and "ya, ya, ya".  he's also started mimicking us when we make certain sounds or say certain things.  when i sing him the abc song he will hum it back to me using the same annunciation to my version of the song.  he's definitely not saying his abcs, but we're making some interesting progress with this.  we still get our favorite "uh oh" and "dank you" (or "chank you"), and at dinner time if he does like what he is eating he will certainly keep giving you the "mmmmm" so you can keep the applesauce coming.  his "a bye" is usually followed with a wave to himself (backwards) - and he loves to say "a bye" to himself when he sees his adorable reflection in the mirror.  he still usually does not say his goodbyes until someone has left - which to him we guess makes sense because he says it after they are really gone.  ;-)

 

dax has gone from taking his baths in his baby tub to now taking his big boy baths in the regular bathtub.  our little fella had stretched out too big for the baby tub and had his little feet hanging over the edge.  at first he was not so sure why we'd changed the situation up on him, but within minutes he thought it was pretty awesome to be in a bigger tub with more splash room and more toys.  now he'll do funny things like not wanting to sit down in the tub so one of us will have to hold his torso while the other one bends his legs to get him in a sitting position.  most of the time, once he is sitting he's fine to stay there, but it's like he's just like i don't think i want to sit right now.  silly goose.  he also likes to get everything out of the tub.  he'll toss each toy out one by one and even send the washrags overboard.  will and have to be on guard to catch things or the entire bathroom is afloat.

 

dax has been attempting to give up his second nap of the day.  mommy hopes he'll keep up with it because he is certainly happier when he takes it, but sometimes he just cannot fall asleep.  he's working on his upper molars and they are really giving him a fit so we're hoping that once those teeth quit pestering him his little sleep routine will resume with getting enough resties each day.  usually if he goes down for his nap and he does not fall asleep before the time the sleep sheep's ocean waves stop lapping, i know he's not going to be able to make it happen so i go get him and try to keep him busy with some other activity.

 

daxton had an awesome visit with his birth mother and half-brother this past weekend.  we picked them up and brought them to our house.  we gave them a little tour so they could see dax's favorite hang out spots and put a real place with all of the photos we've sent them in the past 17 months.  it was great to see their smiling faces and catch up on how everyone was doing.  we had fun playing with blocks, the wii, and bubbles in the front yard.  it was sad to have to take them home, but we know we'll see them again very soon! 

wordless wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"big book of boo boos"

scary things happen quickly.  just like leaves falling from a tree, one minute it's there hanging firmly to its branch and the next moment it's drifting in the wind. 

 

this morning, just like every sunday morning, we were harried and getting ready for church.  it was my turn first in the shower while will watched dax.  dax was enthralled in doc mcstuffins in the middle of our bed.  our bed is pretty tall and the top of the mattress sits about 3 feet off the ground.  one minute things were fine and the next dax saw something exciting on his show and he lunged out for the tv and tumbled off the bed.  will said everything played in slow motion and he lurched forward to grab him but did not make it before dax fell to the floor. 

 

will screamed "no dax" and then i heard dax crying.  instantly will came with dax to get me from the shower.  we all sat in shock for a few moments and dax cried while we took turns holding and comforting him.  i was still dripping wet from the shower when will told me it was okay to go dry off and get dressed.  dax was sad and sore, but seemed okay.  we said our prayers and thanked God for keeping our boy safe, even though something so scary had happened. 

 

 

as the morning progressed he seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable so we decided to take him to his doctor.  the doctor confirmed he did appear to be okay and told us the signs to look for with worsening conditions.  he checked the boo boo and bruising on his forehead and around his right eye, but said that the motrin we'd already been giving him was about all we could do at this point.  he told us he was glad we brought him in, but he thought he would be okay.

we told dax we'd jot this one down in the big book of boo boos, but the rule is that things like this can only happen once - and this one is now checked off the list.