Happy Half-Birthday, Dawson!

Today Dawson is 1 1/2! I can't believe he could possibly be this old, but saying he's only 18 months makes him sound younger than saying he's one and a half! :) I plan to have the full 18 Month Update posted on Friday because his 18 month check-up is on Friday, so after that I will have all the stats!
It has been about two weeks since I last updated our blog, and since then we have been spending as much time outside enjoying this unseasonably warm weather as possible. It's still been getting in the seventies (even upper seventies sometimes) almost every day! Today is one of the first true cold days, so I have a feeling we may not be spending as much time outside from now on.
We've been spending our time outside playing on the play set in our backyard and going to a local park. Dublin Park has an awesome kids area called Kid's Kingdom that has a ton of slides, swings, and things for kids to climb on and through, so it is the perfect place for Dawson who LOVES to climb now more than ever. He has been getting in a little trouble recently because he can climb on ANYTHING! He can quickly climb on top of the kitchen table, coffee table, or our bed to name a few. He loves doing this, and it makes me so nervous. Hopefully soon he will learn that it is against the rules.
Unfortunately, I've been having to get on to him for climbing so he's been hearing the word "no" a lot more, and has started telling us "no." It was funny at first, but the humor it in is wearing off. For example, John may say, "Dawson let's go get changed" to which Dawson shakes his head in an exaggerated manner and replies "NO." Or I may tell Dawson that it is naptime, and he will tell me no. I did teach him "yes" which he pronounces "yeash." As of now, though he rarely says yes unless you specifically ask him to say it.
Even though Dawson is going through a phase of pushing the rules by trying to climb on everything, he continues to be SO much fun! John and I are loving every minute of playing with Dawson. I plan to include some recent Dawson "funnies" and what else he's up to at this age in the next update with his 18 month info.
Recently, John has started to get busier with work as it is beginning the holiday shopping season. Someone has to ship those boxes to the store! :) But he managed to fit in a golf game yesterday, and has continued to fit in time to update his fantasy football team with the Fantasy League he is in with our Sunday School class.
I have stayed busy taking care of Dawson, John, and the house. Also, recently I had a crafting night at my house for some friends where we all brought our own crafts (mine was Dawson's scrapbook) to work on, chat, and hang out. We had a great time!
Here are some recent photos that are only of Dawson! Enjoy...

Above: Dawson showing his graham cracker

to Bentley.
Above: Dawson vacuuming before church.
He LOVES his vacuum.

Above: Walking with purpose!

Above: Dawson about to go down the slide

at Kid's Kingdom.

Above: Dawson reaching for me before

going down the slide. I was standing at the

bottom with my arms out, so he reached out

to me.

Above: Up in the castle at Kid's Kingdom.

Above: Dawson in the pumpkin at Kid's Kingdom.

Above: Dawson cannot stand a mess. At

Kid's Kingdom the ground was covered in mulch,

and he kept squatting down to dust the mulch

off of all of the wooden pieces as you can

see him doing in this picture.

Dawson loves to do this sort of thing and to

clean....John says he gets it from me! haha

Above: Dawson sitting on the swinging bridge

at Kid's Kingdom.

Above: Dawson decided to climb on the one thing

at the park that wasn't made for climbing!

Above: My big boy!

Above: I told Dawson it was time to go, and I think he was worn

out because he walked to the gate of Kid's Kingdom ready to leave.

(this never happens)

Above: Dawson gave Bentley a treat. I

asked him if he loved her, and he leaned

down to give her a snuggle while she was

eating her treat!

Above: This is the not so innocent look.

Above: Dawson half-way out of his pjs and riding his horse.

He has started making it rock so big that he has flipped it over

a few times. You can see how big he is rocking it here.

(He rocked it over forward and fell off about 1 minute after

this picture, but he got right back on the horse!)

Above: I asked Dawson if the horse could use his pacifier, and

my smart boy tried putting it in his mouth.

(Look at all the toys he had already gotten out, and he had only been

up for about 30 minutes.)

Above: Trying to share pacie with horse.

Above: Dawson successfully got the pacie

in his horse's mouth. Silly boy!

Above: Dawson playing in our backyard yesterday.

(Yes, it was warm enough for short sleeves!)

Above: Dawson running in the backyard like

a big kid. He has a dog toy wanting Bentley to

chase him.

Above: Dawson knows pine cones are prickly

and that they hurt, because he points to them

and furrows up his face. For some reason, he

still cannot resist picking them up to bring them

to me.

Above: Dawson touched the ground and got

some dirt on his hands. Then he spent about 1

minute squatting like this trying to get 3 small flecks

of dirt off his hand, before running to me to show me

his hand so I could dust if off. He does not like

dirt!

Above: Mowing our yard.

Above: Dawson can now climb in his small

swing on his own. First he climbs in like this, and

then he turns around to swing.

Above: Sometimes he just sits in it for

half a second to relax! :)

Above: Being silly relaxing in his swing.

Above: Happily demonstrating the wrong way to swing.

Halloween

Thankfully we have much better news to share than in our last blog update. We are all feeling much better...and feeling much better just in time for Halloween at that!
On Friday Dawson go to go trick or treating where I worked full time before he was born. I dressed him up in his cow costume which he loves! He seems happier wearing his cow costume than any other time. They had the office set up so that children could go in a trick or treat at all of the offices or workspaces. One department had even made their room into a haunted house complete with glow in the dark spider webs, a fan, music, a blacklight, and more. It was set up as a maze of cobwebs to get from the door to the back of the office where the candy was. When they saw Dawson they offered to turn the lights on for him to go through, but I said to give him a minute to see if he acted afraid. Dawson did GREAT! He wasn't afraid at all. He walked right through the cobweb maze, and actually did so several times he liked it so well. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of this event, but I think someone got some pictures so I hope to get those this week and post them.
On Saturday morning we headed to Big Springs Park downtown for John to volunteer through work with the MDA Walk. Dawson and I tagged along to participate in the walk and enjoy the fun. After returning home we carved our pumpkins and played outside in the wonderful weather. Saturday evening our Publix store had trick or treating for kids inside the grocery store, so we dressed Dawson up in his cow suit again and took him around the store. He had a great time. He was so happy in his cow costume that we decided to go out to eat a Red Robin after trick or treating and we left him in his costume! He was the kid in the cow costume at Red Robin eating a burger! (Hah!)
On Sunday we went to church and played outside. In the afternoon we went to visit our friends the Heatons. They had their second child, Gabe, on John's birthday, September 27! Unfortunately, since we have all been under the weather we have been afraid to visit them before now. We went for a visit and got to meet sweet Gabe, hang out, and Dawson got to play with their first son, Jack. I only got one picture of Dawson and Jack while we were there because I was too busy holding Gabe.
After leaving their house we came home to get ready to go trick or treating. John and I decided since we were going to take Dawson that it was a good excuse for us to dig some of our old costumes of of the attic. John and I were Fred and Wilma Flintstone. We took Dawson around our neighborhood with our friends the Burns who have a son, Connor (24 months) and one of their friends who has a little kid also. Dawson was the cow, Connor was Thomas the Tank Engine, and James was a dragon. They had a fun time together! We pulled Dawson around in his wagon, and he wanted to eat his candy as quickly as he got it! :)
We had a great Halloween (stretched over three days) and hope everyone else did as well!

Enjoy the pictures below...

Above: Dawson in his cow costume!
Above: When we got Halloween cards in the mail
from Lolly, Pop, and Uncle Logan, Dawson LOVED
the card he's holding in this picture. It plays the
Ghostbusters theme song. He carries it around the
house opening and closing the card while he dances
and smiles like this!

Above: I went outside to find this cow in our yard!

Above: This cow turned into an airplane

and flew by our pumpkins! :)

Above: This was the first day we tried on our

costume to get used to the hood!

Above: The cutest cow I've ever seen.

Above: My sweet cow!

Above: Dawson loved being in his cow costume

so much he wanted to play in it!

Above: Dawson looking at the "ducks" at Big Spring Park

downtown on Saturday morning.

Above: Although it warmed up to be in the 70's

later in the day, it was cool on Saturday morning in the

park so Dawson had to be bundled up!

Above: Dawson looking at one of the many fountains

in Big Spring Park.

Above: Dawson and Mommy with Chaos one of the mascots

for the Huntsville Havoc Hockey Team. The Chickfila Cow and

Lawler's BBQ Pig, Tasty, were also there. We didn't get pictures with

them though, although Dawson did talk to all of the characters.

Above: Dawson on a fire engine at the MDA walk.

He loved being on the truck and didn't want to get off!

Above: At Publix after you took your kid

trick or treating around the store, they had this

area set up for photos. As you can see in this photo, since

Dawson was a cow he trick or treated with a milk jug

to collect his candy in.

Above: Another picture at Publix.

Above: Publix again.

Above: Dawson eating a cookie while trick or treating at Publix.

Above: Dawson and Mommy dressed in orange

before church on Sunday morning.

(Doesn't Dawson look SO big!?)

Above: Dawson and his friend, Jack, (23 months)

playing on Sunday afternoon!

Above: Dawson pointing at other trick or treaters.

Above: Our neighbor, Melissa, gave out these snack cakes.

As you can see from Dawson's face, he wanted to eat it

immediately!

Above: John (Fred Flintstone) taking a turn

pulling Dawson's wagon.

Above: Dawson in his wagon enjoying one piece of

candy!

Above: At each house Dawson had to take the candy

back out of his milk jug, inspect it (as if he knew what

it was), and put it in a pile behind him. Silly boy!

Above: John walking Dawson up to a house.

Above: Unfortunately this was the only family

Halloween picture we were able to take. At this point Dawson

was beyond tired, so he wasn't in too much of a picture-

taking mood!