Jason, come and look at your son!

That's what I said to Jason the other night when I found Dawson sitting in his crib with his pants pulled halfway down to his knees.

So Jason comes running in to see what Dawson is up to and Dawson sees that we are making a big fuss about him stripping down. So he pulls his pants right off and starts swinging them around.

Thankfully he hasn't made this a habit.

Huckleberry Finn

My little cutie muffin had taken his socks off and he followed me into the bathroom. So I scooped him up and rolled up  his pant legs and sat him on the sink just for fun. My very own little huckleberry finn.

Then he wanted to turn the water on, but once he saw himself in the mirror he was enamored with his own good looks. Then he saw the hair dryer. Huckleberry Finn's are not allowed to play with hair dryers while sitting on bathroom sinks.

So playtime was over and I had to get some socks to cover those Huckleberry feet. Of course when he got down he wanted to play in the toilet. So I just had to resign myself to removing him from the bathroom altogether. Once he learned to spin the toilet paper roll, the bathroom became off-limits until he's potty trained.

Newsflash

Two remarkable events have taken place in Dawson's life.

1. He has said his first word: "uh-oh"
2. He has taken his first 2 steps.

I had noticed lately that Dawson was saying "uh" the prefix to "oh" a lot. (how do you language buffs out there like that little word "prefix"? Nice huh?) So yesterday Jason was holding Dawson and there were playing tug-o-war with a straw and I started saying uh-oh and Dawson imitated me. Then Jason did it and he imitated him.

 

STEPS

 

Dawson has been daring and adventurous lately. He will hold on to a table or something for balance and let go for a split second and stand all by himself.  This morning I was dropping him off at daycare and rather than sitting he stood for a few seconds and took 2 steps toward me. The he plopped to the ground and crawled over to something else. His teacher and I were freaking out and clapping. He thought nothing of it and went about his m merry way. I'm not ready for him to walk yet. sigh. 



Sunday:

The ZimmerMEN...

Amy and Bryan are friends of ours from our small group bible study at church. They have triplet boys that were born 3 months too early. Bryson, Drew and Cody. For the longest time the babies were kept in the hospital and were finally released to come home just a few weeks ago. They are all on monitors, though we hope that at least 2 of them will get to be taken off soon. Our small group decided to try and help them out by taking shifts over the weekends and staying with them to help feed babies, do laundry, dishes or anything else they might need. Jason and I have been going over there after church on Sundays. Bryan is deaf but he can read lips really well.

We actually enjoy going over there and helping out. I love babies. In the picture with me and Cody-the pack I have over my shoulder is actually the monitor bag. It's hard work because you have to take that with you anytime you move a baby. I don't know how Amy and Bryan do it. But they are wonderful parents and we love them. As you can see in the picture below, Jason made us lunch while we were there. Good job hon.

Gramma KK

Saturday Morning.. Mom called and asked if she could come over and play with Dawson. to which we replied, yes of course. Jason and I got up and went to the Y to workout and gramma KK watched Dawson. She brought him blue juice! He was really rather animated while he drank it. She also brought him 2 cute outfits.

 Saturday evening, we had our first babysitters come over. This is Rachel and her younger sister Miranda. I met their mom at work and I absolutely adore her, so I figured hey, what the heck, I may as well like her kids too. Jason and I went out with some friends of ours to Cabella's and then to Best Buy to look at washers/dryers. What a date. We came home and Dawson loved Rachel and her sister. So we're keeping them.

A Closer Look

Not much time but I wanted to at least get a picture posted. I've got several good ones of Dawson with Gramps and the cookie he got AFTER the dog ate his other one...

Story

I've been trying to post a picture all afternoon, but the server was down (do you like how I know my internet terms? And I'm not even a nerd!) At least, until now and now I don't have any time to post pictures! So I'm going to just tell this quick story.

I was visiting Dawson over my lunch break, like I always do. There is another boy the same age as Dawson in the infant room, only he (his name is Evan) is a few weeks younger than Dawson. There are 2 walkers in the room, so I stood them both up to the walkers and helped them get started so that they could race. (Aren't I fun?!) The next thing I know, they've only gone a few inches and both boys are throwing a fit because each one wants the other's walker. They are both pushing the same walker and yet trying to knock the other person down so that they can have it.

Before I go, one of the babies in the infant room needs to be in time out. Dawson has "suddenly" learned how to pull his socks off. His teacher told me that on occasion he will take them off and throw them out of is crib. Who is the mother that needs to start disciplining her son?

Baby Jason

Jason's Aunt Diana sent us an email and she attached a picture she found of Jason when he was a baby. I can't believe how much Jason and Dawson look alike.

I don't have a baby picture to post of me at this point, but I can say I don't look that much like Dawson in my baby pictures. I had a crooked nose. But I had blue eyes. Blue eyes and a crooked nose. -what's not to love?

I think Jason's mom Gloria, told me she actually still has this little Christmas outfit that Jason was wearing in this picture. How fun!

Growing Up Dawson

I ran out of pictures to post because I will have to get the camera and upload more to the computer. So I grabbed the little book of things Jason and I had written down about Dawson complete with a bunch of his little quirks. Some things were just things we remembered and really have nothing to do with his personality. Since he has gotten older and has so much more personality now, we are noticing many more fun things about him. Maybe I'll just start from when he was born and work my way up...

• We had a little cat attached to Dawson's car seat that vibrated and rattled when you pulled its tail. Dawson couldn't reach it so when he cried and cried we would pull it and he would calm down instantly. Then one day when he was about 6 months old, we were driving and all of a sudden we hear this rattle noise over and over and over -Dawson had learned to pull the cat's tail like he was ADD.
• Jason has a remote controlled jeep at home. He thought Dawson would like to play with his so he sat him in the middle of the living room and Jason got the jeep out, then made it drive around Dawson. Dawson started screaming. He didn't like the jeep. So I held him and he watched it, but still didn't like it. We did this for several days. Then one day I happened to be video taping when Jason had the jeep out. Dawson looked like he was about to panic as the jeep drove toward him. Then he looked up at me and grinned and grabbed the jeep and started eating the antenna.
• One time he went 5 days without pooping.
• The first time I fed him solid food he grabbed the spoon from my hand and gagged himself.
• There was one day I was giving him a bath and had to change the bath water 3 times because he pooped. Jason does that too.
• Just recently he has gotten stranger anxiety.
• He knocks down anything that is stacked.
• If he's standing at the bookshelf or the cart we have his toys in right now, he doesn't play with anything. Instead, he grabs everything out and throws it on the floor.
• He is very serious about his food.
• He's ticklish on his legs and neck.
• He's learned to throw a fit if he wants something.
• If he hears the phone ring he gets excited.

Gosh, I guess I could keep going! My hands are getting tired. It's great to have these memories and be able to share them when he gets older. And of course the wedding day blackmail. Thank you God for our sweet precious little boy!

Come On In!

Living room and hallway when you first walk in:

All different views of the kitchen. I love the wood laminate floor.

The 2 smaller bedrooms are just the same. Only facing different directions. Bathroom one has a tub and a shower.

This is our bedroom connected to our bathroom. Our bathroom has a shower only.

Guest Bathroom

Garage

P.J.'s

Dawson got new Toy Story pajamas. They have Buzz LightYear on them. He does not care about them. Quite frankly, I can put anything on him and he doesn't care, except for his winter hat. He hates wearing his hat when we go bye-bye. We hold it on his head until we get to the car and then when we arrive at our destination, we usually find his hat thrown across the back seat. But I was talking about his cute pajamas so let's get back on topic. What else is there to say about pajamas? He wears them to bed...

Okay new subject. I have noticed that Dawson is talking more. Especially when he's really upset. When he's crying I scoop him up and make him cuddle and he goes on and on about his problems. Most of the syllables come out in the form of "da da" and I usually tell him I know it's not all da da's fault.

I think this picture says "aww shucks guys, I'm not that funny".

Robinson Crusoe

Speaking of pajamas....

Jason had a hole in the knee of one of his pairs of pajama pants so he decided to just go ahead and rip the whole thing off at the knee. Because he liked the result of the first leg, he did likewise to the other leg. Then, being the funny guy that he is,  he jacked up  his socks and put on slippers and called himself a pirate. I, on the other hand, told him he more represents Robinson Crusoe.

Speaking of pirates...

Since many of you know how much I absolutely love Pirates of the Caribbean, I was thinking my sister Bobbie was on to something when she dais I should go with that theme for Dawson's birthday. Get the eye patch, the wooden leg, teach Dawson the accent-the whole 9 yards. Where did that phrase come from anyway, "the whole 9 yards". Anyway, now that Jason is all set with the pirate garb this should work well.

Convertible

Dawson’s walker converts into an off-road Jeep Rubicon complete with independent front suspension and portable dvd player. No mud flaps. We won’t let him take it outside. See how he grips the roll bar? That’s our boy! He’s not nearly as thrilled about riding on his little car as he is when it’s a walker. But maybe once he can get his feet coordinated enough to push it himself he’ll perk up a bit. I just can’t wait until we finally get moved into our new house and he’ll have so much room to play he won’t know what to do. That, and he’ll finally have his own room to be banished to when he’s naughty. Okay, so maybe not that. But I really am excited that we’ll have a kitchen table with chairs to sit at and eat dinner. Last night we sat on the floor at the coffee table to eat and Dawson crawled over and kept slapping Jason’s steak. Dawson! Don’t slap daddy’s steak!

Vroooom Vrooom!

Baby On a Mission!

Go Baby Go!

 I love this picture because Dawson looks so excited.

This past weekend we bought Dawson a walker. He LOVES it! He doesn’t have much room in our apartment to walk with it though, so once he runs into something we have to turn him around immediately or else. He gets pretty determined once he’s up and going. Sometimes he even runs because he’s trying to go faster than his legs can take him.

I dropped him off at daycare one day this week and his eyes just lit up with excitement. He was so anxious to get out of his car seat and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I saw his teacher had the umbrella stroller in the middle of the room because she was going to take her kids for a walk through the building. As soon as Dawson was out of his car seat he crawled like lightning over to the stroller, grabbed it and looked back at me like "wow mom! This is the ultimate walker!"

Traits

 I have to wonder... what qualities will Dawson take from his mom and dad? Will he pick up on his dad's gift of timing? ..."Hey, how's your rash?" (as we just step onto the elevator.) Or will he be musical like both of us? Will he be loud and obnoxious like his mom? What qualities will he have that will be all his own? One thing I know, that the most important thing to me is for him to have a heart that loves Jesus.

When I was pregnant, I used to play worship music on the mp3 player Jason got me for my birthday and I would stick the headphones on my stomach so that Dawson could have a little jam session of his own. I should have had an ultrasound during those times! Sucking his thumb in praise... Oh and I hope he likes to read. I love to read, but Jason... not so much. I can read about 3 books in a week while Jason starts about 10. And most of those are laying on the floor on his side of the bed.

At least we know Dawson will be cute like me.

*wink*

Genius

Last weekend we had some friends over-Andrew & Ashley, to hang out. Dawson wanted to be a part of the festivities but he got sent to his crib because he was trying to eat the playing cards and the board game. So we put some toys in his crib to keep him company. We heard him chattering away and Jason happened to notice that Dawson was a few inches taller -as you could see his little eyes peering out over the top of the crib! So we pulled the blanket back which revealed a little genius who had figured out that if he stood on top of his toy he could be just tall enough to get in on the action.

Our House

For those of you who don't know, we are in the process of buying our first house. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 car garage. Se below for the WHOLE story...

I love the sliding glass door!



The back of the house. Our bedroom and Dawson's room



This is our back yard.

 We had been shopping for a house for quite a while because we felt Dawson needed his own apartment. His stuff sure wasn't fitting in ours! We hadn't gotten a realtor, we did all of the looking on our own. Finally we decided we would really like to stay in Avilla if we could. We like the area, we'd be closer to my family, and we like the Kendallville YMCA and WALMART.-can I get an amen on that one? You gotta have your favorite Wal-Mart. There is a newer subdivision in Avilla which is where this house is located. However, it was a foreclosed home. We had no clue about foreclosed homes. But we got serious about it. In December Jason found a realtor. Kathy Aldrich. Great lady! We found out the asking price that HUD put on it was $101,000. Not bad for a newer home. Kathy let us in to see the house and explained the bidding process to us. The house looked brand new. We looked around and liked it. It had been a model home for about 8 months, and then it was purchased by a couple that lived in it for only about 2 weeks and then foreclosed.  Then it sat for almost a year when the government took it over. Jason and I went home, talked it over and decided to go for it. (Christmas happens) The day after Christmas Kathy came over and we told her we wanted to make a bid for $95,000 with them paying $1,000 in closing costs. We filled out the paperwork. And waited. The next day we left for a ski trip with Youth For Christ and long story short we found out that they accepted our bid.  We got a loan, and found out from the inspector that the house in great condition Spit Spot (I just watched Mary Poppins) and we're ready to move in! Right Now. We're just waiting to close. We are setting up a fund in memory of our apartment called "Jason and Joy need something other than inflatable furniture". All donations and proceeds can be made to Jason and Joy Wilkins.

We thanked God for this wonderful home and were amazed at how quickly it all happened.