Dawson Update: Two and a Half

Up until the time Dawson turned two, I did a monthly "Dawson Update," as you may remember.  After he turned two, I decided that I would only do an official update every six months.  Dawson is now two and a half, so it's time for an update!  John and I cannot believe we have such a big boy!

Dawson continues to be a lot of fun, and, honestly, I think he is getting more and more fun every day.  His personality is definitely showing.  He loves to play, but he is also sensitive, loving, compassionate, and silly.  He has a good sense of humor already, and he will say nonsensical things and watch to see if we laugh. 

We continue to be amazed at everything Dawson has learned and how quickly he can pick up on new things.  A little while back Dawson and I started doing school (which he usually refers to as "classroom") every morning Tuesday through Friday.  We determine the day of the week, the month, date, and the weather.  Of these the weather is always his favorite because he can do it by himself since I usually have to give him help remembering what day comes after Thursday, for example.  During our "school time" we also work on learning the alphabet, recognizing letters (he can pick out the letters A-G now), counting, and recognizing numbers (he always recognizes 1 and 2, but beyond that is always iffy), shapes, and colors.  We've been doing a curriculum for two year olds which is perfect.  It includes a different Bible story for each week that is really broken down.  For example, one who week was spent on God creating the heavens and earth.  It also includes song and nursery rhyme suggestions to memorize.  Dawson LOVES his "classroom time," and he frequently asks to do it again in the afternoon.

For obvious reasons his favorite letter is "D," and we cannot drive anywhere in the car without Dawson pointing out D's on signs.  He loves to sing right now.  I asked him what his favorite song was, and he said, "Jacob's Ladder" which I am not surprised because it's the song he sings most.  Other songs he randomly starts singing and knows A LOT of the words to include "Fishers of Men," "Peace Like a River," and "Who Built the Arc."  I love to hear his sweet voice sing these songs.  He loves to memorize nursery songs too.  His very favorite is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  His memory amazes me.  If I'm reading him a book and stop at a random spot, he will usually finish saying the words on the entire rest of the page.  After reading the books just a few times he has them memorized.  One line from his favorite book, "The Perfect Nest," says, "And then a goose lumbered by!"  Now when we read this book, HE has to say this line, and randomly when we're playing he will just say, "And then a goose lumbered by!"  We get a kick out of this because it's so random.  Since he loves his books, he continues loves to go to the library for story time and to pick out books. 

A couple of weeks ago, we attended our neighbor's wedding.  Although we had not planned to, they encouraged us to bring Dawson.  We decided to give it a try, and he was GREAT!  This was the first wedding he has attended where he has gone to the ceremony.  He was a good boy and sat in his seat (we did give him a sucker near the end, though).  After this John and I wondered why we didn't take him in "big church" with us occasionally.  So we've started taking him in the service with us some.  Dawson loves getting to come with us, and I love having him with us too.  He enjoys the music and, and of course, the part where we shake hands, but during the sermon he usually draws or plays with a quiet little toy.  We're not doing this every Sunday but occasionally to get him used to it.  Then while we're in Sunday School he still gets his time with his friends in his class.

Speaking of church-related things, Dawson loves to pray!  I love this.  When we ask him who he wants to pray for his answer is his friend Matthew most of the time!  So sweet!  And most of the time when I ask him what he wants to thank God for he says, "tattoos."  We recently got him some little tattoos to put on his hands, and he thinks it's a big deal and so fun!

Dawson is really a wonderful helper.  Anytime I want him to pick up his toys, he happily starts singing the "clean up" song and puts them back where they go.  The other day John was helping him clean up and accidentally put something in the toy box that goes in the closet, and Dawson pulled it out and told his Daddy, "Uh oh!  Doesn't go there!  Put it in the closet!"  Dawson also still loves to clean, after we do playdough he knows the routine that we use the little hand broom to sweep under the table and his chair.  Now he does a great job sweeping it into the dustpan himself.  I was surprised, but he gets 90% of the playdough crumbles that have been dropped!  I have let Dawson help me cook so much that now I can't even reheat anything in the microwave without Dawson pulling a chair over and asking to help cook.  I love that he wants to help me cook and clean so much, and I hope he always does!

He doesn't just help me, though!  Every morning before John gets up Dawson asks to "get-uh-tha mail" meaning get the newspaper.  We go down to the street and get it, and Dawson takes it out of the bag and puts it on the table for his Daddy.  He is always so proud of doing this for John. 

Last week Dawson started swim lessons at the YMCA of Madison.  His class name is the Turtles, and his friend, Jude, is in his class along with another boy Dawson's age.  Dawson loves to talk about swim lessons, he loves to play in the water and jump, but when the instructor wants them to get any part of their face wet Dawson is not so thrilled.  Dawson's comfortable in the water until his face gets wet up to his nose, and then he panics and clings to me. He loves being in the water, so I'm hoping that over the next 5 sessions of this class he can conquer the fear of getting more of his face wet.  He loves to demonstrate to John exactly what we learned in his swim class, which is really cute considering he's demonstrating it out of the water. 

One final thing that I want to remember from Dawson being 2 and a half is his love of motor graders.  I'm pretty sure I didn't know what a motor grader was until a few months ago, but now I talk about them at least 20 times a day!  It's Dawson's favorite piece of work equipment and it's used to level ground.  We got him a small matchbox car-sized motor grader and that thing has "made roads" all over the house!  When we're out driving and see a motor grader working, it's a huge deal.  I think it's so funny, especially because John was obsessed with motor graders when he was little-and even had a motor grader birthday cake one year!  Like father, like son!

I know this was really lengthy, but since we haven't had a Dawson Update since May it was necessary.  Also, because I shared all the recent pictures of Dawson in yesterday's blog with his baby, I just have a few to share.

Some of our "classroom" stuff.  (Obviously

I took the picture a few days ago.)

The letters and numbers Dawson always

recognizes.  He can also usually always

put the letters back on this board in order...

if anything E and F get mixed up which isn't bad!

Our "counters."  He can count to 10, but

he prefers to count to only 8-such a stinker.

So here are 8 of his counting lizards we

use to practice pointing to and counting.

We've worked on colors a lot and sorting.

Dawson can tell me all of these colors, and

he sorts them as you can see.

I wanted to get a picture of Dawson really

quick before nap since I knew I would be

putting this on the blog during nap, but he was

tired and just laid on his panda.  So here's my

sleepy boy at 2 and a half!

It's a BOY!!! (Our Pea in the Pod: 18 Weeks)

Yesterday, November 14th, John and I traveled to Birmingham for an ultrasound!  When I was pregnant with Dawson my doctor recommended that we go to UAB for our 2nd trimester ultrasound because they have better equipment there and there are infant/fetal heart specialists.  When we went with Dawson I was amazed at the ultrasound.  It lasted about half an hour and we were shown EVERYTHING!  We saw all the intricate parts of the heart, the brain, the kidneys, everything down to the lens of one of his eyes.  So when my doctor recommended we go back to UAB for this baby, we happily agreed.  We were equally impressed with everything we were able to see and with how long the ultrasound lasted-meaning we got to look at our baby for a full half hour!!

Most of all though, we were so excited for this ultrasound because we couldn't wait to find out the gender of our little Pea in the Pod!  John has said since the beginning of this pregnancy that our pea was a girl, but, I, on the other hand, have said since the beginning that we were having a boy.  We had picked out a girl's name and a boy's name, so we would know the name as soon as we were told the gender. 

We were so, so excited to find out.  We arrived in Birmingham early for our appointment, and the doctor and ultrasound tech were so great they had us in the room and the ultrasound started before my appointment was even scheduled to begin!  We told the doctor that we wanted to know the gender and we told her our guesses, immediately after starting the ultrasound she said to John, "uh oh, looks like Mommy guessed correctly!"  John was so certain that it was a girl, that it was a huge surprise to him! 

We are both SO excited that we're having another boy.  I love that Dawson will always have a friend that likes similar things that he can play with.  We could not be more thrilled to be adding another boy to our family! 

In more serious news from the ultrasound though, our baby looks very healthy, which we are, of course, also thrilled about!  During the ultrasound the baby was head down which was different from my ultrasound at this point in pregnancy with Dawson, any position at this point in pregnancy is fine so it doesn't matter, I was just surprised it was different.

We didn't tell anyone the gender until we had driven back home.  We wanted Dawson to be the first to know since he's the big brother.  We had planned that we would reveal the gender to him by giving him a doll dressed in blue or pink.  I thought it would be sweet for him to have a doll to hold and pretend to feed as we start to talk about what our baby will be like when he arrives.  So when we got home we pulled out a baby doll dressed in blue, and Dawson ABSOLUTELY loves his baby.

As for the name, I mentioned we had selected a boy and girl name before the ultrasound, so we had had a lot of conversations about names.  In all of these conversations Dawson would always chime in and say he wanted to name the baby "Mike the Turtle."  I have no idea where this came from.  It's not a character in a book or anything.  After he started saying it one day, now he tells everyone we're naming the baby Mike the Turtle.  Thankfully, now that we know the gender and can begin referring to the baby by his name, maybe Dawson will come around to our name rather than his suggestion. 

So what name did we pick out for Dawson's little brother?  His name is Carter Wade Zorio.  We picked the name Carter, similar to how we picked Dawson-it was a name we both liked!  As for the middle name, Dawson's middle name is Andrew after John's middle name.  So Carter's middle name is Wade, my maiden name.

I am currently 18 weeks (will be 19 tomorrow), and everything is going great!  The baby is obviously growing, and he is VERY, VERY active-I feel kicks and movement ALL the time-that's how it was when I was pregnant with Dawson too. 

Okay, time for pictures...

Carter's sweet face.

(I will say the images we got to see were

amazingly clear during the ultrasound, but

the photos they printed were not anywhere

near the same quality as their ultrasound

equipment images.)

In case you don't believe us...

This is the official "it's a boy" picture.  :)

Check out Carter's spine!

Dawson LOVES his baby.

We've got a lot of work to do.

This is him burping the baby,

the look on his face is because he's

burping the baby SO hard.

My sweet boy feeding his baby

a bottle.

And this picture shows one of

the boy things he loves to do with

his baby.  He crams it in the top of

his recycling truck, pushes it around, and

then stops to give it it's bottle.  SO

FUNNY!

And here's the official 18 week photo.

The baby is growing for sure!

Our Pea in the Pod: Weeks 16 and 17

We no longer have to wonder what our little pea in the pod is doing in there because we can feel him/her moving ALL the time it seems!  :)  At about 15 and a half weeks, I felt our little pea move while I was in the playroom with Dawson.  I tried to get John and Dawson to feel the baby, but they couldn't.  However, the following day, John was able to feel the baby move and has several times since then.  It's so funny, once I started feeling our little pea move, it's as if he/she hasn't stopped!  He/she definitely has a preference for being on my right side  which I mentioned to the doctor because I didn't remember it with Dawson, and he said it was very normal for babies to have a preferred side in-utero. 

Now that we talk about the baby moving a lot, Dawson will randomly ask me what the baby is doing in my tummy.  If the baby is moving, I'll tell him the baby is playing, and if not, I tell him the baby is napping.  He has become even more interested in the baby than before!  He's such a sweetie about it too!

Now that I am in the 2nd trimester, I am feeling so much better!  I am rarely nauseous, and I've gotten some energy back.  This is the fun time of expecting (and I remember it from being pregnant with Dawson too), because you're showing enough that you look pregnant, you feel good, and you get to find out the gender and start being able to do real planning for the baby's arrival after knowing if it is a boy or girl. 

Yesterday was the beginning of my 17th week of pregnancy, and we had a check-up at the doctor's office today.  The heart rate was in the 150s which is where it always is for this baby (and was for Dawson too until near my due date).  The doctor said everything seemed great.  The baby is measuring about two weeks ahead which is right in the normal range especially for births after the first child.  

In just 11 days we will get to go for our ultrasound, and we cannot wait to find out the gender of our pea!  This also means that in the next 11 days, we have to make our final name selections so we will know the baby's name as soon as we find out the gender!  Choosing a name is so hard but fun!  We asked Dawson what we should name the baby, and he responded without missing a beat, "Mike the Turtle!"  I'm not sure where this came from because Mike the Turtle is not a character in any book we read or anything we've been around, so this must have come straight out of his little imagination.  Now every time we ask him what we should name the baby, he always gives us this same response.  We won't be going with Dawson's suggestion, but when we update with our next Pea in the Pod  blog we will announce the gender and the name! 

Until next time, here are the pictures of our growing pea!

Watch our baby grow...

16 Weeks Pregnant

(You'll notice I've switched to a

different shirt for the weekly pictures,

due to the fact that the pea outgrew

the white, non-maternity shirt we

had been using for all the pictures.)

Now Dawson thinks the weekly

pictures have to feature him,

so here is Dawson and our Pea

with Mommy at 16 weeks.

17 Weeks Pregnant

Halloween 2011

We hope everyone had a very happy Halloween!  This year was by far the most fun Halloween.  Back in September we picked out Dawson's costume.  I had planned to sew a gnome costume for Dawson, but when we found a perfect one at Target I knew I couldn't do any better!  As you all know, Dawson has been obsessed with gnomes for many months now, so dressing as a gnome for Halloween made for one happy boy!  Ever since we got the costume over a month ago, we have been talking about Halloween, how we would wear the costume, ring doorbells, say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you," and how much fun we would have.  All of this build up, and Dawson was talking about Halloween constantly for about a week before.
On Thursday, we had a little Halloween party for his friends at our house.  Caroline, Matthew, Jude, Jasper, Jayden, Jordan, and Caitlin all came over dressed in costume!  All of the kids dressed in costume, and Dawson has talked about each friends' costume since the party...especially Matthew the frog! 
The kids played for a little while in their costumes.  Then, Dawson couldn't wait any longer, so we had snacks...cupcakes were specifically what Dawson was waiting on.  When I finally told him we could eat, he announced, "CUPCAKE TIME!!"  Then he sat at the table as everyone made their plate and told each person that he helped make the cupcakes with sprinkles!  After some snack time and more playing, the kids did a little art project.  We bought a small pumpkin for each kid to paint (with washable paint, of course).  They had fun doing this, and then they were ready to play a little more.  I think all the kids had fun, I know Dawson and I did!  I especially loved getting to see all his little friends in their costumes.
Over the weekend we carved pumpkins, which turned into John playing with Dawson while I carved because Dawson said it was "ewie" and "gross" and "I don't like it....DON'T!"  He may look just like John, but he is so much like me...he cannot stand to get dirty, so me telling him to help me scoop out the pumpkins was too much!  He wanted to carve a dino into his pumpkin instead of a face, so we had one with a dino on it.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our very short-lived family pumpkin carving experience. 
On Monday it was finally Halloween.  We told Dawson that when it started getting dark we would put on his costume.  He kept asking if it was time, and we would send him to the window to tell us if it was light or dark.  This started around the middle of the afternoon.  :)  Finally about 45 minutes before we were supposed to meet our friends to start trick-or-treating, Dawson couldn't wait anymore.  So we put on his costume and let him play in it for a little while.  It worked out great though, because it gave us some time to take pictures too. 
Our plan was that for the first half of trick-or-treating, I would take Dawson and John would hand out candy, then we would switch.  We didn't have many trick-or-treaters on our cul-de-sac this year though, so after a little while John just joined us! 
Dawson had a blast trick-or-treating.  We met up with his friend Connor who lives in our neighborhood and another little boy they know.  Dawson almost could not contain himself, and practically ran from one house to the next.  He was very good, but he just wanted to move quickly to each house because it was so much fun to him!  At one point he ran back, held Connor's hand, and started practically dragging his friend to the next house.  Silly boy!  After his friends called it a night, Dawson was still up for going to some more houses, so we let him trick-or-treat a little while longer before heading home.  He walked the whole night which was well over a mile.  When we got back to the house we told him he could dump out his candy in the playroom floor and have a couple of pieces.  He was so excited with all the candy he had! 
John and I loved seeing how excited he got over his costume, trick-or-treating, and his candy.  :)  He did a great job remembering to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at each house, and he also loved to comment on each person's jack-o-lantern before attempting to blow out the candle inside (oops!). 
This was the most fun Halloween yet, and I'm sure it will only get better as Dawson gets older!

Dawson after church in one of

his new bow ties I made for him.

On Saturday night he requested

that I make him a new bow tie and

that he get to wear his boat shoes

to church the next morning.  Silly

boy loves his clothes!

(Just this morning I dressed him

in a polo shirt that had the gap bear

logo on it, he looked down and

said, "this shirt is from gap kids!")

Last week we went in Old Navy, and Dawson

kept standing with the manikins and posing.

When we asked him what he was doing he said

he was being a "man-kin."  I had my camera

in the bag and had to snap a picture.

Show my your gnome beard.

Our gnome in the flower bed.

We had him stand where our gnome

stands in the flower bed!

Gnome Dawson is much cuter!

Gnome Dawson sitting on

our pumpkins last week before

we carved them.

More of my sweet little gnome!

He was so excited to be in costume

he couldnt' be still!

Left to Right: Jasper, Dawson, Caroline,

Jude, Matthew, Jordan, Jayden, and Caitlin

in front.  All his friends at the Halloween Party.

Some of the snacks at our Halloween Party.

Dawson was very interested in Baby Caitlin

at the party.  He talked to her in a sweet

little voice.  Big brother in the making!

Dawson painted a pumpkin at the party, but

the next morning he decided his needed more

paint.  So I took off his shirt and let him work

on it some more.

Some of the pumpkins painted by Dawson's

friends at the party.

Our roaming gnome!

I just liked this picture because we have a

similar one of Dawson running right here

with his arms out in his cow costume last

Halloween!

Mommy and her sweet little gnome

before trick-or-treating.

(16 weeks pregnant with our little pea)

Our silly gnome blowing out the candles

in our jack-o-lanterns.  He did not want to

leave then lit at all!

Daddy and his little gnome!

Since Dawson got dressed in costume

SO early and could not wait, we did

three trial runs of trick-or-treating.

Dawson and I would walk up the driveway,

ring the bell, say the words, and Daddy would

give candy.  :)

Dawson and Connor trick-or-treating.

More trick-or-treating.

Dawson showing off his loot!

(thank goodness he has a

regular dentist appointment

scheduled for next week! haha)