The Great Escape.

Little Houdini thought he could stow away in grandpa's suitcase. But if he had thought about it, children 2 and under fly free.

Day at the Park.

While Grandpa Greg was here we went to Bixler lake to enjoy the park.

Dawson acted tired so I laid his seat back in his stroller. He didn't complain.

This is a bug.

Look! He's can't take his sunglasses off if he has to hold onto the swing!

Grandpa's Visit

Okay,

I know I have a lot of catching up to do. Grandpa Greg visited us on Memorial Day. That was a month ago. Here are some pictures and stories from that visit...

Dawson loves to be read to. So by did have a good time with grandpa! Grandpa makes sound effects! Good one's! How do you type sound effects?

I believe this picture was taken the day I had Greg help me sneak sunglasses on Dawson. They are standing in front of our house. I have more pictures from our time together. The day at the park, but I'll post those in another blog. Dawson told me that grandpa looks like Juan Valdez. I wish he would give us free coffee. Speaking of which, Jenessa, where is the "Greg doll"? Jenessa found a  baby doll one time that looked like Juan Valdez/Greg minus the mustache. She scribbled one on it with permanent marker and every now and then Greg gets the doll for Christmas.

Good times with the Wilkins.

Old Man Pants.

Jason thinks it's funny to pull Dawson's pants way up over his belly button.

Evidently, Dawson doesn't like that.

I BELIEVE I CAN FLY.

I Can Do it Myself!

Dawson is going through the stage where he doesn't need or want anyone's help. They must have started letting the toddlers feed themselves during lunch time. Which is wonderful FOR THEM. But I get home and he's having macaroni and cheese and 90% of it is on his head, face, clothes and hands! This actually made me a proud mommy until it took me 5 minutes to clean him each time he eats. Really, it is pretty cute watching him dip his spoon in his bowl and bring it up to his mouth practically nothing on it and chomp away like he managed to scoop up the ocean and fill his mouth. Then he sticks his other hand AND the spoon in the bowl. Usually something from the bowl ends up in his mouth when he does that. Then when he's finished he takes both hands and smears his food all over the tray and smashes his vegetables. If I had known he wanted them pureed, I could have done that beforehand.



Sometimes he's willing to share his food with others.

As far as stages go, he's doing some pretty funny things right now.  When I went to pick him up at daycare after work, one of his daycare teachers was leaving and she said to me on her way out "Have Dawson sing E-I-E-IO for you!" I was stunned. Dawson doesn't know his vowel sounds yet! So I replied " what?!" And she told me that she was playing the Old McDonald cd in their room and in the middle of the song Dawson just busts out with EIEIO!I got him home after repeating it to him 100 times and never getting so much as a peep and he said it for me while he was in the bathtub! Then I decided it was time to break out the animal sounds. I said "Dawson a duck says quack quack. He says "ka ka" Wonderful! "Dawson a cow says moo moo" He says "mooooo". Stupendous! I'm enrolling him in kindergarten. Jason's mom Gloria is with him today. She is here visiting and they went out for lunch at McDonald's. Dawson was dipping his French fries in ketchup! Now where have I been? Both of us wanted to know who taught  that. I don't dip my fries in ketchup.

Ahh.. I think I'll teach him to dip his focaccia bread in olive oil. So ha!

Lastly..

He loves to sit on things. He just plops down.

Funny boy.

Kazlan's Recital.

 A few weekends ago, we attended the dance recital of my niece Kazlan. 

She was so cute! And all her little ballerina girlfriends were just adorable. I didn't get to see her before she danced in order to get her picture and autograph, but I caught her right after she danced. All I had to do was pound on the dressing room door and then yell "KAREN" several times until she could hear me amidst 100 excited, giddy little dancing girls. Doesn't she just look so cutie-muffin in her little outfit? I'm gonna get Dawson of those...

The zoo-zoo zoobilee zoo!

That's a quote from an Everybody Love's Raymond episode. What can I say? I'm an addict.

This is like a blogger marathon! I had a really busy week this week, so I had no time to blog. Thought I better squeeze a few in before the weekend.

Okey-doke-

For being a zoo, Dawson sure was pretty serious the whole day. (see picture below) I was thinking maybe it was because he was taking it all in. Here he is, this little 15 month old in the midst of all these animals. (And I'm just referring to all the crazy people we had to maneuver around that day!)

This peacock was ready to beat me up. I tried pushing him in the lake. just kidding. Oh and the monkey was getting fed and he flung poop at Jason. just kidding again.

Dawson just decided to plop right down on my foot and pet the goat. If you look closely at the first goat picture you can see the goat eating some lady's bag. I wanted to try a bite myself, actually.

It's probably Gucci.

There's daddy, showing Dawson the bird. Wait. That doesn't sound right. Dawson actually was scared of him at first. I guess I think all animals at the zoo are boys, because I keep referring to them as "he's". Someone, somewhere probably has a problem with that. It's okay! I know that all animals are created equal. All in all, it was a great day at he zoo. Dawson was exhausted by the time we got home. I'm hoping to take him to the Colorado Springs zoo when we go to Colorado in July. At that zoo you can feed the giraffes. Here giraffe! Yummy-yummy buffalo wings (well, they give you this biscuit to fee them, but giraffes probably imagine that it's buffalo wings.)

The Sunglasses

Why won't Dawson wear sunglasses?!

One afternoon while Greg was here visiting, we spent a good 20 minutes trying to get Dawson to keep sunglasses on. You might be asking "Why did they waste so much time and effort making that poor child wear sunglasses if he didn't want to?"

Well-BECAUSE THEY'RE CUTE! DUH!

Greg figured out that if you do a "sneak attack" and get them on without him knowing you're doing it, he'd keep them on for at least 10 seconds. That's better than the average 2 seconds I was getting from him. I timed it.

It also worked well when I had Greg hold Dawson's hands down so  that I could take a picture...

Sunglasses are a blessing from the Lord. I believe that's in the bible somewhere.

Dawson, I was just trying to be a blessing.

I BELIEVE I CAN DRIVE.

"No officer, I wasn't speeding."

Mommy's Little Helper

Several weeks ago, we finally bought a nice basket to keep in the living room for Dawson's toys. Dawson walks over to the basket and throws his toys out. 

Huh! Being the neat freak I am-of course I'm going to have to use this as a teachable moment and begin showing him how to put ALL HIS TOYS BACK IN. So he works with me. 

 

Later that evening I was doing laundry. 

Dawson kept wanting to walk ON the clothes instead of around the clothes. After I finished getting it all put away and got Dawson put to bed I went back to the living room and started cleaning up.

Look what I found in Dawsn's toy box:

My socks and underwear! I guess he did learn from his teachable moment earlier that day. He really is my "mini-me". He even wears my shirts.