Anita, our FAVORITE pastry goddess, works on assembly and finishing touches to Dexter's amazing cake. Note that we did not discuss the cake beforehand at all - this is ALL her! And these are the exact same 2 vehicles that are on his invitation. She pays so much attention to detail.
Tootsie rounds up some balloons.
Brenden gets to work at the (otherwise mostly ignored) activity table.
Isabel's turn creating her own construction site!
Phew! Good thing Dad and Pop set up this swingset the day before.
Livia tries out the monkey bars.
Awww. Lillie and her Grandpa.
What are you looking at, huh?
Time to EAT!
Pizza, veggie tray, chips, and punch. Good times.
The birthday boy did eventually turn around and take a few bites.
Hi Granddad!
HATS!
PRESENTS!
I'm TWO!
I'm cool with this dump truck, ok?
CAKE!
And ice cream!
He didn't really know what to do with those candles.
He got to spend part of the day playing at Tootsie and Pop's. (naked, in the sprinkler)
Teeth: The fourth canine finally came through, and Dexter officially has sixteen teeth. I keep waiting for the next set of molars, but no signs yet. I am grateful for this.
Words & Signs: He doesn't bother with signs much, except for the occasional "more" and "please." He's too busy talking. Most of the time, we can understand what he's saying, usually becasue we have the benefit of context. "Toothbrush" and "bubbles" sound nearly identical, for example, so it helps to be able to see if he's pointing toward the toothbrush or a bubble. "Mess" is very clear, though, and he does like to let us know when there is one. It's pretty hilarious.
Sleep: It still takes Dexter nearly an hour to fall asleep most nights. I've given up on an early bedtime and just let him stay up until 10:30 or 11 to make sure he's REALLY tired. I mean come on, why spend an hour fighting him in his room when we can spend an hour playing and then 10 minutes going to sleep? This works most of the time, especially if he gets to play outside in the heat. I have no idea what we will do when winter comes. Perhaps it will be the push we need to move to Miami.
Food: After, oh, about 10 months, bananas seem to have lost their amazingness. He'll still eat them, but he's just as happy without them. I think it helps, too, that it's summer and there's a ton of other fruit around. Mostly, I think he'd just eat a solid diet of fruit if we let him. He loves pancakes and "sisup" - one morning he ate twenty two mni pancakes. That isn't the norm, but still - wow.
Potty: After our very exciting first-pee-on-the-potty event, we've had zero repeats.We try to get him on there, but who wants to sit on the potty when you could be outside riding a lawnmower? Really, now. No, he just doesn't have the patience for it. Nor does he care too much. He has, on two occasions, told someone, "I pooped." This is a good sign, but again, there hasn't been very much of this kind of activity. Mostly, we just tell him "you should pee on the potty" when we catch him peeing in the bathtub or other times he's running around diaperless.
Tricks: He's still crazy good at gross motor. Ball kicking, climbing, running, jumping, all that jazz. Really, it's crazy.
He's added black, brown, and white to his color-naming repertoire. And he knows a TON of shapes. In fact, I think he knew more last month than I gave him credit for. (Turns out that "SHA-shasha" is really "triangle." Who knew?) Kid even knows "hexagon" and "crescent." He can also recognize a few letters. This is still quite hit or miss, but it's exciting to get started on that kind of thing.
Books: Definitely some new favorites here. Dexter has recently become enamored with lawnmowers. And by "lawnmowers," I mean pretty much any motorized thing with 4 wheels that isn't a car or a truck. Tractor = lawnmower. Concrete mixer = lawnmower. Scooter at Target = lawnmower. Anyway, he has a few books that qualify as "lawnmower" books, including "Tremendous Tractors" and "Dazzling Diggers," which pretty much get read every night. (Thanks, Nulks!)
Other Fun: In keeping with the lawnmower theme, a new favorite show is Bob the Builder, known affectionately in our house as "Bee-ya!" As in, he loves it so much that we actually find ourselves actively limiting his television watching. At least he's still willing to turn it off to go outside.
Tootsie and Pop made the long drive from sunny south Mississippi to freezing cold southern Illinois just to see Dexter and Desmond! We all had a GREAT time.
Within about 2 minutes of arriving, Tootsie and Dexter were playing chase:
Then she got some Desmond time while Pop and Dexter watched some Yo Gabba Gabba.
Dexter showed them all of his toys.
Desmond got a bath from Tootsie. Not sure what he thought about it.
Pop usually takes on a home improvement project while he visits. This time, he installed our undercabinet lighting! Dexter, um, helped.
Tootsie even took a stir-crazy Dexter outside to play in the snow! You know she must love him a lot to do that.
Pop shared his coffee with Dexter. (So did Tootsie, but we didn't get photographic evidence.) They claim it was "only a little." And I guess part of the grandparents' job is to let them have a few special treats.
Tootsie and Desmond got plenty of bonding time during the day but even more at night, since Tootsie took those wakings so Desmond's exhausted Mom and Dad could get some sleep! Thanks, Tootsie!
Dexter played with play-doh for the first time during the visit. He had fun, but he didn't really make anything. Mostly just took it out of the container and put it back in.
We finally got around to opening presents on New Year's Eve. (You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a reasonably good picture of these four!)
Dexter and Desmond each got one of these really neat alligator bench/stepstool things. VERY cute!
Desmond was pretty worn out after all of that. For a kid who doesn't sleep so well, he certainly managed to do so in some fairly contorted positions with both Tootsie and Pop that night.
One last bottle, ok?
And, lest we forget, Desmond saved his first smiles for Tootsie & Pop's visit, too!
We love when they come visit. I wish we didn't live so far away. Can't wait for them to come back and hope to be able to make the reverse trip before too long.
