Happy New Year!

Yay for 2009! Dan got channel 9 to come in so we could watch the ball drop. Other than that we didn't do anything really exciting. Staying up until midnight isn't really a big deal! I'm happy that Dan has 5 days off though, we're getting a bunch of stuff done.

Today we got the cabinet set up that we bought a while back. All the tapes, dvds and that type of stuff is going in there. And it has close handles so we can put a baby lock on it, which is the main reason for getting it! Plus it's nice to not have the huge entertainment center in here anymore. Looks so much roomier!

I took these pics last week, he's getting some hair! It's sticking up a bit in the back, but there's still not enough to have to comb.

Merry Christmas!

It's been a very busy week! It was fun, tiring, busy and a bit stressful but we made it through. Now we just need to get back on schedule, which was totally messed up this week! It's very hard being on a 2nd shift schedule, with the rest of the world being on 1st shift it seems!

Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house. Got there at 5:30pm. We were very happy that they invited us in the evening to help with our schedule. We had a fairly normal start to our day which helps a lot. Dawson loves it at Grandma's house and is very comfortable being there. He even smiles sometimes when I say Grandma, which is so cute! It takes him a few minutes to get used to all the people, but then he makes himself at home. We had a yummy homemade Manicotti supper and then watched some tv while we waited for my sister to get home from work. Then we opened presents.

Dan and I got a wood tv stand made by my dad. It's really nice! Sure looks better than the temporary one we had set up! Dan got a DVD and I got a music CD. Dawson got a cute bath toy, it's a boat with cartoon characters in it, you turn the rudders and it goes in the water. Haven't gotten a chance to try that out yet. He also got a Little People set with animals. It came with a DVD with some stories on it, he really likes that. He's already playing with the little animals too. He got a drum with 2 attachable sticks. He's discovered that banging other objects on the drum makes cool noises too! We left around 11pm and watched a movie at home. Dawson stayed up a little later than usual, I think because of all the excitement. He just wouldn't sleep! He went to sleep around 6am.

Christmas Day we went to my Grandma's house. We got up around 9am, so we only got about 3 hours of sleep. Dawson was NOT happy about being woke up! But we had to leave by 10am to get there by 11. We took Dan's car because mine wasn't warming up like it should. I had Dawson's carseat forward facing because that car is smaller and has little room to face him backwards. So Dawson didn't sleep most of the way there. He did finally for maybe 10 minutes, but he just prefers to be facing backwards. Fine by me, the new recommendation is rear facing until 35lbs. It's actually a law some places now! Anyway, we got there at 11, Dawson isn't as familiar with that place, so he clung to me for quite a while. Though after seeing grandma and his aunt Sarah, he felt more comfortable with the other people there.

Dinner was good, lots of good stuff to eat as usual! Snack was yummy too, I totally pigged out! I was scared to step on the scale, but braved it tonight to find I've only gained a pound! Wow! That's less than I have been on a regular week! I'm a bit confused, but I can't complain! Dawson, after his 3 hours of sleep, was really needing a nap that afternoon! He doesn't like sleeping in other places though. So I layed down with him on the bed in the extra room and nursed him a bit. He fell asleep and I was just carefully getting up when someone came in and woke him up. By the 5th time someone came in, he was fully awake and very unhappy! I tried getting him back to sleep, I even left the room to see if he'd fall asleep by himself, but no luck. So he was rather crabby and so was I!

Gift opening is always very hectic there, lots of cousins and relatives all getting and opening their stuff at once. My cousins Laura and Amanda passed them out this year. Dawson got a pair of shoes. I'm very happy he did, he's outgrowing his shoes and being tight on money, I wasn't looking forward to spending another $20 on shoes! I can't believe how fast that boy's feet grow! I got a set of 4 really nice steak knives. The ones I have are falling apart, even though we've used them for less than a year! These should last a lot longer! I also got 2 baking sheets. Dan got a Menards gift card and some cashews. He's looking forward to shopping! Still not sure what he wants to get but I have no doubt he'll find something he needs!

We got home around 6pm, Dawson and I were SO tired! Dan for some reason wasn't. When we don't get enough sleep, he seems to be more sleepy and crabby when first getting up but is ok once he gets going. I'm often fine at first but eventually get really sleepy and crabby as the day goes on! So Dan was fine, but Dawson and I layed on the couch for a nap. I woke up 3 hours later! I couldn't believe we slept that long! Dawson was still asleep! I got up and did a couple things, then tried to wake up Dawson. He did the grunt, flip and fall back asleep thing. It took a full hour to get him to really wake up! I would've let him sleep more but I was worried about his bedtime. I put in a short movie and he layed there and watched it, then got up once it was over. He really likes watching a movie after a long busy day, it helps him unwind.

Friday we stayed home. Dan looked at my car and scraped the ice off the cars. We got freezing rain that morning. Then we did dishes, laundry and relaxed at home. Dawson loves coming with to do laundry, I like it too because it wears him out! It's quite a walk to the laundry room, so I have to wait for Dan to be home to do it since it's too much for me to carry the baskets all the way down there now. It'll be nice when I can get back to being able to do it myself.

Saturday we went to our friend Jenny's house at 6pm. Dawson loves her Siberian Husky and her 2 cats. We're still working on being nice to the animals, as he pulls tails and grabs at their face! Luckily she has very child-tolerant animals! The 4 men and her 2 kids sat and played some car video games while Jenny and I had a nice visit and chased after Dawson. Dan got a combination and pocket knife set, I got a fleece blanket and Dawson got a little wooden wagon filled with ABC blocks. He also discovered some bead necklaces there! Jenny's daughter Abby had won them at a Christmas party but had no interest in them, so after Dawson played with those pretty much the whole time we were there, she sent them home with us! Dawson is loving it! His uncle no longer lets him play with the beads there, so he was very happy to get some of his own.

After opening gifts, the men went back to playing video games and Jenny and I undecorated the house. Apparently the cats had been playing with everything in the tree and she was excited to get rid of it. It was fun undecorating, we got everything done except throwing out the tree. Around 11pm Dawson was tired and crabby so Jenny and I managed to drag the guys away from the video games. Took 2 rounds of what they were playing, but we did get them to stop! We stopped at Walmart on the way home, Dawson is going through so much soy milk, so I'm gonna just start buying 2 at a time now. I think he's up to 3 half gallons a week now!

Now on to the pics! It was fun dressing him up. I went through 3 outfit plans so I'm glad I started a couple days in advance! I had a cute vest and tie, but we ended up with a sweater vest for Christmas Day and a green flannel shirt and jeans for Christmas Eve. Jenny's party was casual and I didn't take any pics. We just put him in a regular outfit that wouldn't collect much dog hair, as her Husky really sheds a lot! Even after vacuuming, there's still stuff in the carpet!

Dawson eating breakfast Christmas Eve morning

After getting home from Grandma's house, he was being silly and wanting to keep his hat on. He kept looking at his reflection in the glass doors, taking his hat off and requesting I put it back on!

Playing with his Little People toys after getting home from Grandma's house

Playing with his drum after getting home
Smiling for the camera! It's often hard to get him to smile when taking pics.
Trying to mess with Great-Grandma's tree! He was being told no by Grandpa!

I really liked his outfit that day, the sweater vest is so cute! I couldn't get a good pic of him facing me standing up, he was on the run all day!

He often tries to climb onto this table and knows he shouldn't be! So he stands next to it until I'm not looking, then climbs up there. Once we're done moving the tv stuff around, we won't need the flap up anymore, so hopefully it won't be as tempting to go up there! He's landed himself in time out a few times because of this. At least that works, he won't do it again for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it never carries over to the next day!

Falls, Fears and Silly Routines

Dawson took a pretty good fall tonight. He often bumps his head on things and barely thinks anything of it, but this one looks like it hurts! He was running and fell, falling on the edge of our glider rocker on the wooden seat part. He's got a 4 inch colorful blue/purple line on the top of his head now. Poor little guy. :(

He seems more fearful lately, I hear toddlers around this age start questioning more. He used to just be afraid of the vacuum and blender. Now he doesn't like baths, new changes in his room, like curtains. We didn't get sleep for days because of that one! He finally had a good bath this last time, I'm hoping it'll continue.

One of the biggest things is me taking a shower. He completely has a fit, crying like he's scared of it. I've showed it to him, let him come in and I talk to him, but nothing helps. He cries and screams like I'm gonna melt and go down the drain! So we try to have Dan feed him while I'm showering or something so he's distracted. Having some music on really helps too.

The funniest thing is when I get out of the shower, he looks relieved to see me alive and follows me to the bedroom. We have a whole routine now. He "helps" with my pants and makes sure my feet pop out at the end. Then he comes up on the bed and takes off my hair towel. Then I brush my hair and he has a turn brushing it. He thinks it's pretty cool.

He has a thing with brushes and combs now. He often brings me mine and wants me to comb his hair. There really isn't anything to comb, but I do it anyway. He'll stand there smiling as long as I'm willing to keep combing!

Tomorrow we're going to our friend Jenny's house for a Christmas party. Should be fun! Dawson really likes her Siberian Husky. She's an indoor dog and fairly tolerant with him. The cat, however, sees Dawson and runs for safety. I guess she likes her tail too much!

December Update!

Sorry, I've been bad at keeping up with this lately! The time has been flying by and nothing major has happened.

The pregnancy is still going good, I have 2 appointments in January, then I go in every week in February. He has a name, but we're not telling! It's a big relief to have a name this time though, doesn't feel like there's much left to do other than setting up the bassinet mid February and having the baby! I'm hoping the next 2 months will go quickly, I'm getting more sore and it's getting harder to keep up with Dawson as I get bigger. I'm very ready for winter to get over with, I always get so cooped up and bored in the winter!

Dawson is testing his limits and trying our patience more and more lately. He'll look at us out of the corner of his eye as he gets into things, fully knowing he shouldn't be! He's been very active and runs all over the place. We go to the mall to play once a week, it's nice to get his energy out and he can see some other kids.

I just signed him up for ECFE class for 12-18 month olds. It's once a week, he starts Jan 8th and it goes until May 14th. Should be lots of fun and it'll be good for him to get out and interact with other people.

He's starting to get some hair too! I really can't imagine him with a full head of hair, but he's got some wispy stuff on the top of his head, it's cute. He insists on me combing it, then he combs it himself, it's really cute. I was thinking before that he'd have my darker hair, but it seems lighter like Dan's so far. It's fun looking to see what he got from who. :)

Dan is doing good, he has off wed-sat this week, that'll be really nice. It's been snowing a lot here, so he's been busy clearing the snow and keeping the cars going. He has to move them out of the lot every time they plow, which is never at a good time with his schedule. They usually want them out by 8 or 10am. He just does it after work and brings them back when he gets up the next day. It's a lot of work to run the block back to the apartment 3 times after already spending 10 hours at work! I did my car once but I was sore for 3 days afterward, so he insists on doing them all now.

This weekend he worked on the living room. He took apart the big entertainment center and just kept 1 tower for now, for the vcr, dvd player and all that stuff. The tv is on a temporary stand until we can get one. It works for now, it looks a lot bigger and brighter in here, which is what we were going for. We still have to put together the cabinet we bought for the movies and cds. It has doors on it, so we don't have to worry about Dawson getting into them anymore. The entertainment center was starting to look pretty funny, the bottom half was empty and the top half was packed full of stuff. I should've taken a picture for a good laugh. Seems like everything moves up as they get taller!

I haven't been able to take any pics lately, my camera isn't working properly. It takes a charge, but dies about 4 hours later. I've brought it to Best Buy 3 times now. The first time they sent it in and replaced something. Still didn't work. The 2nd time they sent it in and they did nothing to it! They said nothing was wrong! I'm getting frustrated! The 3rd time I brought it in, they said to keep it and just keep charging and using it for Christmas, since it works a little and they wouldn't have it back before Christmas. So I'm doing that. I hope someone will figure it out after Christmas!

Here's Dawson on Dec 18th. I was testing out my camera and he had to come over and be a part of it!

I don't think this looks very comfortable! I had an appointment to go to, so he slept with Dan while I was gone since he woke up right when I was about to leave. He often sleeps like this, I don't get it! Usually it's on his tummy in his crib, but in our bed he always sprawls out like this. I think he just likes all the space!

A Fun Weekend

Dan and I went out on Friday night, out to supper and rollerskating. It was lots of fun and it was refreshing to get out of the house by ourselves! Dawson stayed at my parent's house and had lots of fun there. It's cool how he recognizes the place now, and even mentioning Grandma's house makes him smile. With his Grandparents, an aunt and 2 uncles, there's no shortage of attention there! He always comes home tired and looking for people to play with!

Saturday was lots of fun too. I got invited to a friend's house in the cities. Kam is a lady from my message board. There were 4 of us there plus another one of her friends who has an 8 month old. It was fun watching the toddlers run around and play together. It went rather well and it was cool seeing all of them sitting around the table for lunch. Dawson and I stayed from 11am until about 5pm. Dan dropped us off there and continued into the cities to his sister's house to work on her van and picked us up when he was done. So Dawson and Kam's son Jacob had lots of fun after the 2 girls left, running around and being little boys. I guess he has all girls at his daycare, he seemed to really enjoy having another boy to play with. Too bad we don't live closer!

Sitting around the table eating lunch. Dawson did great on just a regular chair!

It's so hard getting 4 toddlers and a baby to hold still! This is the best pic we got. Dawson was trying to escape! Left to right is Jacob (17 months), Cassidy (16 months), Reese (17 months), Dawson (16 months), Dylan (Reese's 4 year old brother) and Elisabeth (8 months).

After we left her house we went to Old Chicago with Dan's sister for pizza. Dawson was so tired he slept through it, so it was nice to sit and talk while he slept.

On sunday Dawson was wandering around looking for someone to play with! After 2 days of lots of attention, the poor little guy didn't know what to do!

Dawson has really been picking up his pace lately. He loves to run from one end of the room to the other. Everytime I go to the bathroom he runs down the hallway and into my dark room. Tuesday evening he was doing that and ran into something. He came to me with blood on his hands and face. Once cleaned up I found he had cut his frenulum, the piece of skin between your upper lip and gums. Since the clinic had just closed (go figure), I called the on-call Dr and he said as long as it stops bleeding I don't have to bring him to the ER. It had stopped within 5 minutes or so, so we stayed home. He was pretty fussy today but it didn't bother his eating or anything. He was just more clingy than usual.

His bedtime is going good. We've been able to move his bedtime up to 5:15am so far. Our goal is 10 or 11pm by mid February. I just put him to bed and he barely fussed at all! It's been less and less everynight. :)

His hair is really starting to get longer and thicker! It's still not much, but he's getting there. He's kissing my tummy in the pic.

He really likes laying on my tummy. Every now and then he'll come up to me, lift my shirt a little and poke my belly button! He thinks it's funny that it sticks out now.

The other night it seemed a bit quiet, so I got up to check on Dawson. He had a mild cold and had been playing nicely, but I didn't see him behind me anymore. I got up and didn't make it far before seeing him! He slept so much that day I didn't think he'd be tired for bedtime, but he slept great! He must've slept about 15 hours that day!

Dawson's First Walk in the Snow!

It snowed today! It actually stuck too, I'm surprised! Dawson watched the snow falling a bit but wasn't too interested. Tonight I brought him with me to take garbage out so he could walk around in it. He wasn't sure what to think of it. He didn't have any trouble walking on it, it was only a small layer. He walked back and forth, looking at all the tracks. He picked some up but wasn't too impressed with the cold stuff. After about 5 minutes he wanted to go back inside.

Dawson is 16 months old! Wow, how'd that happen?! He's completely off jar foods now and is eating more new things. I just tried Soy again the other day. It's the only milk he can have, but he refused to drink it several weeks ago. Well he loves it now! I'm glad he can have that, though it sure costs a lot! They want $3 to $6 for a half gallon of Soy! It's nuts! A half gallon lasts about 4-5 days but he's drinking more as he gets used to it. He's still nursing too, but mostly in the morning and at night.

As for me, I'm 25 weeks now and I feel huge! I know a girl due a week ahead of me and she's so small still! I must be carrying an elephant or something! ;) Besides that, I'm also starting to retain water, so even though I've only gained 11 pounds so far, I look like I've gained way more! I'm trying to stay off my feet more, but it's kinda hard with a toddler to chase. If I'm on my feet for too long, my feet and calves swell up and hurt. Fun, eh? I have just under 4 months left, but I feel the same as I did at about 8 or 9 months last time! Makes me wonder how much worse it'll get in the next 4 months!

We've been working on cleaning and rearranging some things. Dan moved his computer desk to face a different way and Dawson loves it! We have a gate there so he can't get to his stuff since there's little stuff back there, but he loves being able to walk closer to Dan when he's on the computer. He thinks it's so fun to bring things to Daddy, like toys and things, so he can play with them too! Even when Dan isn't home, Dawson still throws toys over the gate and into his chair and all around it. So he has to dig out toys just to go sit down!

Throwing things over gates is fun, he does it to the kitchen gate all the time too. Since it's getting too hard to bend over all the time to throw the toys back over, I just leave them there. Dawson has now started to throw them back over the other way when he's in the kitchen, so it works out great!

He's teething his 2 lower canines right now, so he's been kinda fussy now and then. These are his last teeth to get in until his 2 year molars. Hopefully he'll get a nice break before those show up!

It was still snowing, but it didn't get to be much more than this

Dawson all ready to take his first walk in the snow

New words and new teeth!

Not a lot new here lately. I did have a 2nd ultrasound, everything looks good. I'm 24 weeks along now. I've been having a lot of ligament and sciatica pain, but otherwise everything is good. Dawson is very interested in my belly, he often peeks under my shirt and pokes my belly button that is now completely popped out! He also rests his head on it a lot. He's already gotten kicked once while laying there!

Dawson has been saying some new words lately. He says "hi" and "baby". He's also starting to put together words. He said "Hi Dad!" the other day, that was really cute! He usually says "Dad" instead of "daddy" or "dada", the same goes with "Mom", though he occasionally says "mama" and "daddy".

He's really starting to slim down and look more like a toddler! He's getting pretty fast on his feet and never crawls anywhere anymore. We even had to go down a diaper size! Yay for cheaper diapers! He seems to be on a growth spurt though, so we'll see how long that lasts. He just outgrew the new shoes I got him last month, so we'll be shopping for more this week!

He's been teething like crazy lately! He now has all 4 of his 1 year molars in, got them all in a month! So now he has 14 teeth. Only 6 more to go and 2 are pretty close already.

Here's Dawson being goofy. He was playing peek a boo


Dawson laughing


He was playing peek around the stove corner


Big cheesy smile! He was being really silly that night