Time for Turkey and Birthday Cake!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year John's job required that he work Thanksgiving so we stayed in Alabama for the holiday. Since John did not have to be at work until the afternoon though, we had a little Thanksgiving dinner of our own for lunch. I knew it would just be myself, John, and Dawson eating, I decided to make a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. This was great because we still had days of leftovers, but we didn't have so many that we got sick of turkey! I also made broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy (for John), and stuffing. We set the table with our china to make it a special lunch! This was Dawson's first time eating on china so I'll have to remember that one for the baby book (haha!). We relaxed in the morning and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while playing with Dawson, and then we ate our meal before John went to work.
That evening for dinner some of our wonderful friends, the Perez family, invited Dawson and me over to eat Thanksgiving dinner with their family since they knew John was working. They had a feast which was delicious, but Dawson decided he was only interested in eating the yummy homemade rolls (silly boy!). They have a cat named Polly that Dawson was obsessed with while we were there. Luckily, Polly was very patient with Dawson! We had fun visiting and celebrating Thanksgiving when our friends!
John took a vacation day from work on Friday because it was my 25th birthday! We celebrated by doing some shopping. Even though it was Black Friday, we didn't get up and do any early shopping. I'm not getting up early on my birthday, especially when Dawson gave me a super-rare and wonderful birthday gift--he slept until around 8:30!!! (This NEVER happens!!!!) We waited until around 9:30 before venturing out into the crowds. John got a Caramel Cheese Cake for my birthday cake this year and, of course, it had pink candles! It was so tasty! We spent the rest of the day playing with Dawson which was my very favorite thing to do on my birthday. :) After Dawson went to bed our (again) wonderful friends the Perezs offered to listen for Dawson so that John and I could see a late movie. It was great to have a date on my birthday, since our last date had been when we were in Florida about two months ago. John said the movie was my choice, so we saw "Love and Other Drugs" which is a chick flick, but was good...John even said so. I had a wonderful 25th birthday spending it with my two favorite guys!
We spent the rest of the weekend Christmas shopping (we're almost completely finished! yay!), relaxing, playing with Dawson, of course, and decorating our house. We now have the entire inside of our house decorated (pictures to come in the next blog update), and we have about half of our lights up outside. Dawson LOVES LOVES LOVES all of the Christmas decorations. He loves the tree. We ended up putting all of our breakable (aka all of the pretty) ornaments on the top half of the tree out of Dawson's reach, and he's doing fair with staying out of the tree...it's just SO tempting. Our nativity scene is also of great interest to Dawson. If asked he can point to the wise men, Mary, Baby Jesus, Joseph, the sheep (he points to it and says BAAAA), and most of the time the donkey (which John keeps confusing him on by calling it a "burro" which is Spanish for donkey...I don't know why...haha). We also do the Elf on the Shelf tradition, and Dawson loves pointing out his elf, Charlie. I will have more about Charlie the Elf on the Shelf in another blog after I take a picture of the elf. I think Dawson thinks all of the decorations are just for him. He gets so excited every time he sees our tree. I think it's so sweet!
Last week Dawson started LOVING to give kisses which is wonderful! On Wednesday night he also looked at me as I was putting him in his crib and said very clearly, "good night!" Then he burst in giggles. This was the first time he had said "good night," and I was thrilled.
Dawson really loves coloring these days, so I decided we would do a craft each day December 1-25 and have 25 Days of Christmas Crafts. A lot of the ones I have come up with are super simple, just coloring sheets, but some are a little more involved. Today was our first craft and we colored and glued cotton balls on a snowman. I have posted a picture below. He was more interested in putting glue all over the page than he was coloring or putting cotton on the glue. He now knows the word "glue" as he was saying it over and over "glue, glue, glue, GLUE, GLUE, GLUE!" because he wanted to only put glue on the page. Silly boy!
Enjoy the pictures below, and look for another update soon because we are going to see Santa this weekend and I am going to take pictures of Dawson with his Elf on the Shelf and our decorations hopefully!

Above: Dawson & Mommy before eating our Thanksgiving

meal at our house!
Above: Preparing our meal.

Above: Our Thanksgiving Table.

Above: My birthday cheesecake...so yummy!

Good job, John!

Above: Presents and cake with candles lit....and my favorite

part of this picture: the lower left corner...you can see Dawson's

sweet little hand. He was peering up at the candles.

Above: One of the many silly faces of Dawson.

Above: Dawson has a renewed interest in his

tunnels and play hut. John and Dawson play

in the hut connecting the two tunnels.

Above: It was so nice and warm on Thanksgiving, but

by Sunday it was FREEZING cold. This is Dawson on our

way to church. The way he was packed in his carseat with

his fluffy church coat on it made him look like an Eskimo.

Eskimo Dawson decided to point at me while I took a picture.

Above: Dawson now has a good amount of

hair...enough to make stand up with static!

He thought this was hilarious!

Static hair Dawson!

Above: Dawson loves to share with Bentley!

Above: John, Dawson, and Bentley playing in the living room.

(Bentley looks funny because her ears are laying back.)

Above: Since Bentley looked funny in the last picture,

I tried to take one more. Then Dawson got silly!

Above: The Thanksgiving coloring sheet I

printed for Dawson. He was only slightly interested in coloring

with the parade on tv.

Above: Our first of the 25 Days of Christmas

Crafts is hanging on the fridge!

18 Month Update

Today was Dawson's 18 month check-up with his doctor, and it went great. Dawson weighs 27 pounds and is 32.5 inches tall! He's around the 50th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. His appointment was relatively uneventful, he is doing everything he should be for his age developmentally. As I've mentioned before, we've had him on a different (delayed) vaccination schedule that we made, so it was time for him to have the MMR and the Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccinations. He got one shot in each thigh. Two nurses administered the shots, so they were able to do both at one time, thankfully. He's been great today though, considering he had two shots. We do not go back for another check-up until Dawson is two!
At eighteen months, Dawson is quiet the ham. He will do ANYTHING to get your attention and make you laugh. He is constantly making silly noise or imitating you and then bursting out with laughter. Everything Dawson does, he enjoys, and he is happy 95% of the time....that is if you are playing with him! :)
Unfortunately, one of his loves at this age is climbing. It's great at the park or outside on the playset, but Dawson likes to climb inside too...on the kitchen table, coffee table, or a kitchen chair. He is slowly learning that this brings a punishment, but it is still SO tempting for him.
Dawson still loves Bentley, and they have a new game they play together. Any time Dawson gets a snack and he isn't in his highchair, he takes the snack over to Bentley, and holds it out for her to almost sniff it. If she's interested she jumps up, and Dawson takes off running. He LOVES for her to chase him trying to get the food (usually a graham cracker) away from him. Thankfully, Bentley is a good sport and never gets aggressive. I guess she figures that she wins this game 75% of the time when Dawson starts laughing so hard he drops the cracker and she gets to eat it. That, though, is when Dawson stops enjoying this game. He comes running back into the kitchen upset and signing "more," and then the game starts all over again.
Dawson still loves waving, and waves to everyone when we're out in public so John and I have gotten to meet a lot of new people. Haha! :) Dawson is very friendly, happy, and full of smiles usually.
Some of his favorite things to do at this age are play Weebles (he LOVES them!), dancing to anything that has a beat, stack blocks, push cars or trucks around the house while making the vroom noise, ride his toy horse, vacuum, hide and wait for John or me to find him, and run. I think Dawson runs everywhere he goes!
He still loves playing outside, and understands he has to sit down to get his shoes on before we can go outside - so he sits and waits for me to put on his shoes! We've still been having warmer than normal temperatures, and so we have been able to continue playing outside in the afternoons which is awesome! Dawson also loves to color now, more than ever.
Dawson can say A LOT more words all of the sudden, which I love. My favorite word he now knows is "love" which comes out sounding like "lus," but it is so sweet!
We're not pushing potty training at all yet, although, Dawson does have his own potty and we talk about it in order to get him used to the idea. Last week though we did have a success sitting on the potty...not to go into too much detail! :)
Well, here are some recent photos of Dawson at 18 months (how is this possible?!?). Enjoy the pictures of our 18 month-old baby below! :)

Above: One afternoon Dawson and I made this hat

for Thanksgiving. I cut out the leaves and head band,

Dawson colored them, and then he helped me glue

the leaves on the head band. I really wanted

a Thanksgiving picture of Dawson in this headband

sitting beside a pumpkin, but he was not interested

in cooperating, so I settled for this cute picture

of my little Indian swinging in our backyard.

Above: Dawson did an awesome job coloring

the feathers!

Above: When he got tired of wearing it
he threw it on the ground and stomped it!
It was a small fit, but later he wanted the
hat back again!

Above: This was my ideal picture...
Dawson wearing the hat and sitting beside the
pumpkin, but he decided it would be fun to try
to pick up the pumpkin.

Above: But then he got upset because it was
too heavy for him to carry! I couldn't resist
taking this picture, he was so frustrated
and making such funny faces!

Above: Almost the ideal picture, but he took

off his hat and got his cup! Silly boy was

not in the mood to cooperate!

Above: This afternoon was another nice

one so Dawson and I went back to Kid's Kingdom

at Dublin Park, and had a great time. This is Dawson running

to the gate where you go in, he recognized it when

we pulled up and started clapping! :)

Above: Dawson has never had a stuffed animal

or blanket that he has been attached to and we

have never pushed one on him, which is why John

and I were surprised when about a week ago he started

carrying this bunny around hugging it all the time. Lolly

gave him this bunny in February, and he has always enjoyed

playing with it. It sings, counts, and few more things, which

he has always enjoyed. Suddenly though, he LOVES this bunny.

It isn't the softest thing for him to sleep with since it has wires

and a battery box in-side, but he has been cuddling up

with it at bed time. The other night I tried to put him to bed

without it and he kept moving all of his covers around the bed looking

for his bunny, so he may have his very own "night bear" after all.

Here is a picture of Dawson taken tonight at bed time laying in bed

beside his Bedtime Bunny.

Above: Then he realized he could

be cheesy for the camera and get to

stay awake a few extra minutes. :)

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.