Mutual Admiration Society

People ask me all the time how Dexter is acclimating to being a big brother.  Truly, he's been really great since day one.  In the beginning, he was always giving Desmond his pacifier (whether he wanted it or not), sharing toys, being gentle, all of that good stuff.

Now that Desmond is older, Dexter is still a great big brother, and Desmond is appreciating it a lot.  As often as not, I'll look over to see Dexter giving Desmond a big hug for no reason.  And, since they face each other in the car, they are often making goofy grins at one another and giggling back there.  All Dexter has to do is smile or laugh at Desmond, and he'll smile or laugh right back. (And the reverse is usually true, too.)

I resolve to remember these times vividly and am glad to have these videos to refer to, because I know later I'll be doubting it ever happened.

Hey, Dexter! Give us a kiss!

THIS was worth waiting almost 19 months for!

Dexter's First Easter Egg Hunt

We took Dexter to his first Easter Egg hunt today.  Dennis had him practice finding eggs around the house last night, but Dexter still didn't really know what was going on when we got to the park this morning.  He was in a group of 2-3 year olds (technically, he should have been 2 to participate), so I still think he did pretty well considering his competition. (We'll also throw in the fact that it was 46 degrees during the hunt. Ugh.)  And he had a good time, which is all that matters anyway.

The pictures/videos aren't great, but at least we know we were there. (click for larger photo)

 

The eggs.

 

The crowd.

 

Dexter and Dad, waiting for the start.

 

Here's one!

 

It goes in the basket!

 

Dexter's haul.  The blue egg was empty, and the red/orange eggs had one rope bracelet each.

And a quick video of Dexter in action:

Fun Dexter Videos

Lots to write, but no time.  Meanwhile, here is Dexter being pretty darned cute:

Showing Tootsie how strong he is:


And showing off part of his (very exciting) new vocabulary!

Dexter is 14 months Old!

And boy has this been a big month!

Now Dexter TALKS!  And he can stomp his feet!  His hair is short again! And he is an amazing big brother to one incredibly sweet baby!

Here he is, doing one of his favorite things - playing in the faucet in Mom & Dad's bathtub.  This never gets old. He's been doing this for months - since before he could reach the water stream.  Now he likes to put his hand under there, or hold toys under the running faucet.  (Thankfully, he mostly uses the cold water.)  Sometimes he likes to suck the water off of his hands or the toy.  I promise we give him plenty to drink!

His favorite thing in the world, though, has to be playing Chase.  It really doesn't matter if he's chasing you or you're chasing him. He can do this for AGES.  Peek-a-boo is a *very* close second. His favorite place to hide is behind the curtains. And he's getting much more sophisticated in his play in that he will stay still behind the curtains until he's ready to reveal himself.

Let's see. He can also open doors now, both outward and inward.  Still LOVES his fire truck and race car ride-on toys from his birthday, as both play songs he can dance to. (So does his once-feared, now-loved Safari Car.)  Dexter LOVES to dance and will do so when presented with anything even remotely resembling music, including the sound of the shower or vacuum cleaner.

Speaking of the vacuum cleaner, Dexter likes to clean.  He goes into the pantry and gets the broom almost daily, and just try to keep him away from the steam mop when you're trying to clean up after his dinner.  It's pretty darned cute.


Outside is still a pretty big draw, but it's getting a little cold to go out on a regular basis. We're still looking for a good winter coat for Dexter. After we get that, I'm sure he and his Dad will be outside plenty this winter.

Dexter's First Haircut!

We recently determined that Dexter's hair was really getting out of control.  I"m glad we didn't have to cut it sooner, and it still technically wasn't in his eyes or interfering with his life in any way.  But it was definitely looking pretty rough.

Dennis was quite sure he could handle the job and purchased a styling kit just for this purpose.  He did underestimate Dexter's wiggliness, however, so it didn't end up quite as we had hoped.  Still, pretty handsome, and better than it was, especially if you don't look very closely.

As for the process itself - well, Dexter HATED it!  I really didn't anticipate so many tears.  Poor kid. :(

A "before" shot.

Aaaand, a (really long - almost 8 minute) video:

(It pretty much continued like this for a good 15-20 minutes total.)

And, finally, an "after" picture. Handsome, eh?

Dexter Videos

It's been a couple of weeks, so I figured we'd showcase a few cute Dexter videos. His cuteness is pretty irresistible (if I do say so myself), and his sweet baby laughs are contagious. Here's a good one:



Recently, Dexter has taken to playing peek-a-boo with US. Silly baby fools us every time!


And he loves his see-n-say, even if he doesn't *quite* have its intended/proper operation figured out.

Dexter can STAND!

Today, Dexter stood unassisted for the first time! He is 9 months and 2 weeks old.

He did it while holding his bottle (I guess he thought he was holding on to something?). The first time, it was just for a few seconds. I started thinking to myself "What exactly qualifies as "standing" anyway?" Almost immediately, he let go of the window ledge again and drank, standing, from his bottle for a full SEVENTEEN seconds. To me, that counted. :)

Dennis and Granddad were outside working on the deck, so I called them over to see. When Dennis came to the window, Dexter did it again, this time even dropping the bottle to clap (still standing!) because he was so excited to see his Dad. Granddad got a good look, too.

Naturally, by the time we got the video camera, he was a little bit tired of all of that standing. I caught a little bit, but of course he decided to fall over at the end. (Don't worry; our sweet baby is uninjured. I promise.)

Good Morning!

Admit it, you're jealous. You either wish you could be this happy to be awake OR you wish you could be the one who walks in on this every. single. day. (Or both.)

Dexter Has a Friend!

Dexter's very first friend, it appears, is Jeremiah from day care. I hadn't realized what good friends they were until I was able to see them together at Jeremiah's birthday party last Saturday (June 27).

All of the books say that babies don't actually play together at this age (they just play near each other), but it sure seemed to us like Jeremiah and Dexter were really interacting and having a grand time. In fact, I haven't seen Dexter have this much fun for this long in quite a while.

We skipped a nap to go to the party. That, combined with the excitement and the heat, led Dexter to take a 2.5 hour nap when we got home, starting about 3 seconds after we walked in the door. Poor baby was wiped out!

Tootsie & Pop's Visit

Phew!

Tootsie and Pop came for a whirlwind visit from June 9-15. We had so much fun!!

First, we just sortof did our normal playing around. Dexter showed them our new end table. Not coincidentally, it is one that Dexter can't pull over on himself. Nicely, though, it's also much more fashionable than the TV tables we were using as an end table.



Every day, Dexter and Pop walked the 100 yards (each way! Uphill! In the HEAT) to get the mail. Dexter enjoyed that a LOT.


In fact, Tootsie and Pop were happy to indulge Dexter's every desire to play outside and cruise along the bricks that line the front porch.


There was some indoor play, too. That was also very exciting.


One day, Tootsie let Dexter borrow her sunglasses. (Mom and Dad almost never do cool stuff like that.)


And we went to the playground at the park! We got on the swings, and then we climbed up one of the playground pieces. It was dirty (check out Dexter's filthy baby feet!), but Tootsie didn't care.


Tootsie also spoiled Dexter with a cool toy that caught his eye at Target.


Naturally, they came bearing gifts, including new clothes (like this fun surfing romper) and a lot of books. Dexter likes his romper WAY more than he is letting on. And it gave him plenty of freedom of movement when he and Dad were playing with the laser pointer.


Finally, we took advantage of Pop's visit to do Father's Day a little bit early. Dexter helped Pop open his presents (a framed photo of Dex and Pop and a pair of knockoff Crocs).


Indeed, a good time was had by all. We even caught a few prime moments on video.

On the very first night, Tootsie and Dexter played peek-a-boo:


And Tootsie got some kisses, too:


Dexter and Tootsie went outside at least once a day if it wasn't raining. Those of you who know Tootsie well will perhaps have an even better appreciation of what she's willing to do for this kid. (She was OUTSIDE. Almost EVERY DAY!)


And they danced! Dexter didn't quite get the hand-holding part, but that didn't stop him from enjoying himself:


And, of course, it's Dexter, so they had to learn to play rough:



Finally, Dexter got to taste a Violet candy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Violets, they are a very old-school candy that you can't really find anywhere anymore (except, strangely enough, World Market). Sane people with working taste buds think they taste like soap, but they are Tootsie's favorite candy. Apparently, she has found a kindred spirit in Dexter, who always always always scrunches his face at the first taste of anything new (or even stuff he's had before and liked):



Pop didn't make many of the videos, because he was busy for almost the entire trip working on house projects! Good thing he comes to visit, because he does a gorgeous job, and Dexter doesn't give Mom & Dad too many opportunities to work on the house these days.

Dexter LAUGHS!

OK, so that's not really news. Dexter laughs pretty much all day, every day.  But he seems to really get into it lately and just squeals and giggles and goes on and on and on.  

Last night was one example.  Before we got the video camera, he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

Note also the awesomeness that is Dexter's big boy bath.  He was really getting too big for the baby bathtub and was able to graduate to the "real" tub.  His favorite thing was (OK, is) to stand up in the tub and play with the faucet.  We finally got a faucet cover (with Elmo!) and some no-slip frogs for the bathtub floor. Obviously, he also finally got some of the must-have foam bathtub letters in addition to his awesome blocks, bath books, and rubber duck.

Also on the "Dexter loves life" front, I am always telling people how Dexter likes to play rough. I usually say he is happiest when we push the limits of safety right to the very edge. (Seriously, even at 3-4 weeks old with zero head/neck control, I think the kid would have been thrilled to be tossed on the bed or spun around in the air.)  So, as he's getting older and stronger, we're able to play rougher with him, which he LOVES.

Dexter's Evening with Shelby

You might remember our first evening with Shelby and her wonderful parents, Kelly and Raul.

We finally got together for a second time. Shelby is the sweetest thing ever. She's about a month older than Dexter and 7 pounds lighter. She already has 4 teeth and can clap 'YAY' and wave hello. Quite a study in contrast vs. our giant little man, who, as we all know, has focused the entirety of his energy on developing his physical abilities.

Dexter wasn't exactly his usual cheerful self that night, so we weren't able to get a lot of pictures or video, but we did get this one tidbit. How cute is that waving, smiling, clapping baby?!

Dexter Tries Puffs

About 10 seconds after he mastered crawling, Dexter decided it was time for him to start feeding himself. Only problems - he has little dexterity (oh, the irony), no teeth, and no concept that the spoon doesn't self-generate pureed carrots.

Still, we figured we'd throw him a bone and let him try some Puffs. For those who don't know, Puffs are sortof like little cereal pieces, but they dissolve pretty much instantly upon contact with any liquid (you know, like baby spit). Perfect practice for people with no teeth who are trying to figure out this whole "chewing" thing.

The poor kid tries so hard - there's lots of hand-to-mouth action, but those puffs get really sticky really fast, and it's hard for him to actually get any in his mouth. He's a persistent guy, though, and eventually gets some and doesn't get frustrated until he's been at it for a good 10 or 15 minutes.



Still photos to follow later.

Dexter'sBathtime Giggles

Per Tootsie's request, here's a video of Dexter really enjoying one of his baths during her visit. He really does LOVE his baths and can usually be counted on for a few giggles (and definitely splashes) during bathtime.

Dexter Crawls: The Video

This is the first time he's crawled since Saturday, but he did a great job! He traveled probably 5-6 feet before the whole thing was done.


(Warning: It's 3 minutes long. And, as usual, the cinematography leaves a bit to be desired.)

Dexter Can Crawl!

He did it! He is six months and one week old.

Just 5 weeks ago, he couldn't even really get up on his hands & knees. See?



He quickly mastered that and progressed through rocking and scooting just his legs up. A few days ago, he pivoted on his knees (picking up one hand, then the other to turn about 90 degrees before flopping back down on his belly).

Today, we finally saw independent forward movement of ALL FOUR limbs. It's all a blur now, but I'm pretty sure there were at least six independent movements. He was on the countertop (closely supervised) in our bathroom, trying to get his hands on a shiny chrome clock. Dennis and I both saw it. (Tootsie was visiting all week but missed this by about four hours. She says she is bringing Dexter one fewer toy on her next visit, but we think she'll probably forgive him by then.)

Hopefully we'll get this big accomplishment on video soon!

Dexter's Big Laugh

Seriously. Tootsie knows the funnest games!

Dexter is SIX Months Old!

Half a year!

He's chunking up nicely but is also threatening to be majorly on the move any day now. So it's good that he has some energy reserves for that.

Helloooo, ladies!

And I can stick out my tongue!

I still love this bear!

We lucked into an action shot this time.
Supposedly we're soon to move past the
puking phase. I'll believe it when I see it.

Look, lady. I am DONE with these pictures!

OK, you talked me into just one more.

He's been eating "real" food for a month now. He's had sweet potato, avocado, peas, carrots, prunes, green beans, banana, and apple (not necessarily in that order). Apple is definitely his favorite, and he prefers baby oatmeal cereal to baby rice cereal.

His latest trick is getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, seemingly for minutes at a time. I'm sure if we actually got the stopwatch out, we'd find it's not nearly as long as we think. Still, 2 weeks ago, he was barely even getting up on his hands & knees, and last week he was only rocking for maybe 15-30 seconds.




He's having lots of fun with all of his toys, but we've still managed to (mostly) contain his living room play space to about 15 square feet. His newest favorite toy is this "bead roller coaster" that I got at Ikea this week for $10. (Yes, it's that thing you always see in doctor's offices.) He can play with that for 10 minutes at a time (and we have timed that one - we even have that much nearly-continuous video of it). Sophie the Giraffe is also always guaranteed to bring a smile, even if only for a few seconds in the midst of serious hunger or fatigue.

Sleep is still sortof hit or miss. He always wakes up at least once to eat, but things are definitely much better than they were. We finally bought the 3 main sleep books instead of keeping them out of the library. There are sections for just about every age group, so we figure we may need to refer to them repeatedly (although one certainly hopes not).

Official height and weight stats from the pediatrician are due next week. I couldn't really even guess how much he weighs now. Probably under 25 pounds, but not much. Maybe 23? (We haven't done any unofficial weighing at home lately.) Thank goodness we got the carseat with the 30-pound weight limit.

Dexter's Love/Hate Relationship with Sweet Potatoes

Now that Dexter is 5 months old, we decided to break out of the "rice cereal" rut and try an actual vegetable. I pureed some baked sweet potato with baby formula and gave it a shot. (Don't laugh - we're trying to make as much of our own baby food as we can. So far, so good.)

The Dexter was not a fan.


We gave him some rice cereal just so he would get some volume. Overall, he still doesn't seem pleased.


I had frozen the remaining sweet potato puree in an ice tray. Dennis put one of the frozen cubes into the Munchkin "Fresh Food Feeder," and Dexter loved it! It might have helped that he had a frozen thing to chew on. (Like so many babies, he likes that kind of thing.) In any case, the sweet potatoes were a much bigger hit in the mesh feeder.


(Note the sweet potato forehead, knees, and thighs in that second picture. He also got it all over his seat, which went into the wash shortly thereafter.)




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PS - Thin Mints are awesome!