daltonvancharlson
stories

news of the boy

Friday - June 24, 2005

Happy Birthday, Boy!

Yes, it's Dalton's 3rd birthday and Mommy made him a special "Thomas the Tank Engine" birthday cake. Wow, Mommy!

More details later -- but The Boy came out of his room this morning, and when he saw the cake he looked at it for a while... then moved to one side and looked at it some more... then finally went up to it and started talking to Thomas and telling stories. Thomas is his friend, but that didn't stop The Boy from picking off bits of frosting and eating it. Yum!

 

Thursday - April 14, 2005

Yes, it's been months. You know all the excuses, and they're all true, so there's no point in boring you to tears with them here. But to make up for it, there are a whole bunch of new pictures to look at, courtesy of Mommy.

The Boy's obsession these days is "Thomas the Tank Engine." Ever since his Auntie Karen gave him a wooden train set for Christmas, and Mommy and Daddy bought him a Thomas & Friends DVD, he's been a train junkie. The bright passion for "Blue's Clues" has faded away to a distant second place in his life. Dalton still loves his Thinking Chair and talks to the Sidetable Drawer that Santa made him for Christmas, but these days almost all the "clues" in his Notebooks are trains. The fondness for Blue also shows when he sits down to "read" a book to us. Whatever the book, his opening line is "I have a friend whose name is Blue. She's cute and funny and (garble-babble)..."

His little sister likes Blue, so perhaps his Blue's Clues stuff will eventually keep Lexie amused, too. She already likes to play around with his notebooks (but she'll eat the crayons, so none for her). Dalton will usually watch Blue's Clues if it's on TV, but he'd much rather see Thomas the Tank Engine. The Boy has many (if not all) of the episodes memorized and during the day will randomly "narrate" Thomas scenes:

"'All aboard!' said the conductor."

"'Down a mine, is he?' laughed Gordon. 'What a joke!'"

The fact that he attributes the speech, just like in the program, is terribly amusing. We've perhaps overindulged his fixation a bit -- his train tracks and accessories can take up nearly the entire living room, if the layout stays on a single level and doesn't loop back much. But Daddy has finished the built-in bookcase in the kitchen for Mommy's cookbooks, so his next project is to build a train table for Dalton. Those things are like 200 bucks if you buy 'em -- and we're thinking a nice one can be done for about a quarter of that. We'll see.

In any case, after Mommy's various frenzied purchases on e-Bay, The Boy has got one serious, dee-luxe-oh train set to play with. Lexie likes to play with his trains, too -- she especially likes the engine tenders and the cargo boxes and coal from some of the freight cars - but she's mighty hard on the old layout. As Lexie crawls across the setup, she tears up the track, knocks over bridges, buildings and cars. Daddy at one point told Dalton to "watch out for Boozilla" and The Boy has picked up on that. As Lexie wreaks havoc among his trains on the Island of Sodor, Dalton wails plaintively, "No, Boozilla! Noooo!" It's a helluva way to run a railroad, Boy. Once the tracks are fixed on a table, it shouldn't be so much of a problem for him.

The other major news in Dalton's life is his success with potty training. Thomas the Tank Engine played a major role in that effort -- in mid-January, Mommy bought him a package of Thomas underwear, and The Boy went for 'em in a big, big way. He wanted to wear a pair right away that night, and of course, he peed the bed. He didn't like that, and he was told that he couldn't wear his Thomas under-roos unless he was a Big Boy and used the potty. Being able to wear his Thomas 'roos was a powerful motivator for him, and he has been diaper-free since the beginning of February. Mommy told him that Lexie was going to get all his diapers, since he was a Big Boy now.

It took about two weeks of intense work on Mommy's part until he was dry through the entire day. The Boy has always been a drinking fool -- he sucks down a LOT of liquid during the day -- and it took a while for him to learn bladder control. There were the usual accidents. But once he had it down during the day, it took maybe another week's worth of pull-ups at night and we realized he was waking up dry in the mornings, so he just wears his jammies to bed now.

The Boy announces his urges -- at night, or during the day when he's tired, he affects a rather funny accent as he says, "I hafta go pwah-teeee!" When he's finished, he happily broadcasts the news. "I went pee and poop in the potty!" This has proved mildly embarrassing as we walk back into the church service in mid-sermon, but he's justifiably proud of himself (as well he should be).

On the Food Front, Dalton has acquired a fondness for cereal -- he'd eat Cocoa Puffs for every meal, if allowed. The new General Mills cereals with 75% less sugar are the latest staple in the household. He's good about eating other stuff, too, especially veggies and fruits. The Boy has discovered candy, though we usually don't have much of it about (lest Mommy and Daddy eat too much of it!). Mommy took some of her patented Double-Fudge Cream Cheese brownies from the freezer recently, and though Daddy had plans to eat at least one of them, The Boy and Boo beat him to it. Dalton calls them "gooeys" -- so he says to Mommy, "I want a gooey!" and thus the kids have managed to polish off the small container of brownies without Daddy getting so much as a taste. Not that he's bitter about that or anything.

On the Danger Front, The Boy can open doors now -- including the front door of the house. He can reach the deadbolt and operate it, and has no trouble with turning the doorknob and pulling the door open. The slip-on doorknob covers that are supposed to prevent little hands from turning knobs don't pose a problem for him in the slightest. Dalton had a near-escape, where he made it to the porch, left the front door open and had Lexie hot on his heels -- and Mommy gave him 30 Days in the Cooler for that stunt. Well, maybe more like 30 minutes in his bedroom, but no one has ever escaped from Stalag 13, Boy! Remember that! He seems to have gotten the picture, but we'll have to keep the watchtowers and searchlights manned for a while to make sure.

Dalton's first Easter egg hunt taught him a lesson, too. On the Saturday before Easter, we took The Boy to the special kids' session at church, where they'd learn about Easter, do some crafts, have lunch and end with an egg hunt. Well, the Easter history lessons weren't quite geared for a not-yet 3-year-old, so we had a little trouble keeping him interested -- except for when it came time to go into the "empty tomb." He loved that. One of the parents asked us if Dalton would be afraid of the dark. Not a bit. After he'd been in and out several times, we finally had to drag him away from there so some other kids could have a chance.

Anyway, he enjoyed the painting, and decorating his own cross-shaped cookie, and running around in general with the other kiddies. When it came time for the egg hunt, the kids were separated into age groups, to give the wee ones a fighting chance at some eggs, and the area designated for Dalton's group was in a little section of the church's school playground. Toys were scattered about the place, and plastic eggs were hidden amongst the toys as well as in plain sight. At the "Go!" signal, The Boy grabbed the first two eggs right at his feet, put them in his basket and then spied the pedal car in the far corner of the playground. The egg hunt was effectively over for him at that point, as he ran over, climbed in the car and drove around while the other kids found the rest of the eggs. When we got back inside the church he opened his pair o' eggs, saw the chocolate kiss inside each one and figured out that he'd missed out on a rather good thing. He was later seen roaming around trying to mooch candy from the other kids -- some of the older kids took pity on him and Dalton got a few more sweets, but he'd learned about Easter eggs.

On Easter Sunday afternoon, one of our neighbors had an egg hunt in their backyard, and The Boy didn't make the same mistakes twice. This time he ran around like a maniac picking up all the eggs he could find. There wasn't a car there to distract him this time, so it's not an exact comparison, but still -- he ended up with a basketful of jellybeans.

He loved roaming around the yard, climbing up into the fort and zooming down the slide, and when we put him on the trampoline, it was nearly impossible to get him back out of there. Dalton called it "spiderweb," since there was saftey netting all around the perimeter of the trampoline. As we were leaving, he kept asking to go back into the "spiderweb."

We had a family egg decoration event on the front porch before Easter. 18 eggs, dyed and painted, without any serious incidents. Gotta love it. Both Dalton and Lexie were very talented and creative with their eggs.

During the NCAA basketball tournament, the Boy was helping us root for UNC. Mommy taught him the "tag" for the Tar Heels, and it's very cute to hear him sing "Rah, rah Car-lina, 'lina -- go... Tar... Heels!" Lexie waves her arms when she hears the tune, also very cute.

 

Tuesday - November 23, 2004

Sometimes things don't work out quite the way they're planned. Case in point:

Mommy was cruising e-Bay, as she is wont to do, and came across an Actual, Official, Blue's Clues Thinking Chair, toddler-sized. Being the Loving Mommy that she is, and knowing that The Boy would be thrilled beyond belief, she entered into the bidding. The chair is an actual upholstered piece of furniture, and the item description noted that shipping would likely be in the neighborhood of 100 bucks -- except that the seller was in Tennessee, and within fairly close driving distance for us. Well, Mommy's tactical knowledge of e-Bay bidding paid off, and she was victorious. The seller was happy to arrange for a chair pick-up, and a few days later Mommy, Dalton and Lexie were off to Tennessee.

The Plan was to try and keep The Boy from seeing the Thinking Chair, and keep it for a Christmas present. Seriously. Mommy arrived at the designated fast food parking lot early, and parked the Explorer in a way that Dalton would be facing the other way in his car seat and wouldn't be able to see what was loaded in the back and covered with a blanket. However, an ill-timed trip to the restroom was the downfall of the carefully crafted plan. As Mommy and the kids emerged from the restaurant, the seller had arrived and removed the Thinking Chair from the vehicle, and Dalton spotted it immediately.

He was simply beaming as he paused for a moment, then ran over to the Thinking Chair. Eventually, the chair was put in the truck, but even then, it was another 45 minutes before The Boy could be pried out of it for the trip back home.

The Thinking Chair now resides in Dalton's room, and he loves it. He'll come into the living room with one of his Handy-Dandy Notebooks and announce, "We have all three clues! Now what do we do?"

Whatever our reply, he'll say "Thinking Chair! Right!" and dash off to his room to hop into the chair and "think." Repeat several times, as needed. He'll even share his chair, if somewhat unwillingly, with Lexie, although she's mostly just interested in grabbing him or his Notebook.

So Christmas came early for The Boy, although he doesn't know it. He will still have a wonderful surprise waiting for him, though. His grandparents were visiting from Minnesota and before they left, Daddy made a request to Grandpobbies to make Dalton a Sidetable Drawer to go with his Thinking Chair. Dalton has been using his imagination with a little basketball goal in his room, calling it "Sidetable" and placing his Notebook in the hoop ... so he's going to love having an actual Sidetable Drawer to use. It should be pretty wonderful for him.

Grandma and Granpobbies were down not just to visit us, but to go to Cousin Isabel's baptism. We all trekked down the mountain and while we were there, we went to the fair. Auntie Karen had flown in for the festivities, and we shared a hotel suite with her. There were some Sleep Issues to deal with, but we had a good time. Anyway, the State Fair is always jammed on a weekend, and the weather was perfect so that only added to the throng. Parking was an issue, since there was a football game at the stadium, which removed the usual parking spaces from the equation, but we had the double-stroller along for the mile-plus walk to the midway. A fine time was had by all, The Boy got to feed the goats again, play on some tractors, see a camel and even milk a cow! He also went on his very first rides at the fair: twice on the Merry-Go-Round (which he really enjoyed) and once on a train.

We went to Uncle Mark and Aunt Jamie's house and Dalton played in the back with Auntie Karen, who kindly blew bubbles for him as Daddy drew "clues" with chalk on the patio. Jamie's folks, George and Nita showed up, and we all walked to a nearby park, where Dalton put the guys to work pushing cars, swings, and see-saws for him. Isabel's baptism was lovely, and Dalton was pretty well-behaved (for a two-year-old boy) during the service. He enjoyed the choir, and even waved his arms to mimic the director.

Which bring us to Plans Go Awry, Case in Point Number Two: Halloween.

Mommy got a Blue's Clues costume for Dalton for Halloween, but he didn't want to wear it -- crying, screaming, general unhappiness. Maybe Lexie will wear it in a couple of years. So Mommy hit e-Bay once again, and came up with a couple of Blue's Clues shirts just like the ones that Steve and Joe wear. So, a shirt, pair of khakis and a Handy-Dandy Notebook later, and the Boy was "Steve" from Blue's Clues for Halloween. I'm not sure he even knew he was "in costume" -- the only difference for him was the actual shirt, since he pretty much runs around with Notebook in hand looking for "clues" anyway. He was happy, and Mommy found a little "Blue" costume for Lexie, so they were an adorable, coordinated little pair for Halloween.

We took him to a "trunk-or-treat" event at a church parking lot, where people park their vehicles and then give out candy from the backs of the cars. Some of the trunk setups are pretty elaborate, although it's certainly not the house-to-house adventure that Halloween used to be. Dalton had no idea what was going on -- he would approach someone and we told him to say "Trick or treat!" The person would hand him a goodie, and he'd promptly put it in some other kid's bag! The Boy loves to put things into containers, so that was a natural move for him. We helped him out and after a while he started to grasp the concept, so by the end of the evening was trick-or-treating like a little pro.

It'll be interesting to see how much he understands about Christmas this year. He was only 18 months old before, and while he enjoyed tearing paper off gifts, he was too young to know what was going on. He may still be too young for much of the holiday this year, too, but we'll see.

 

Wednesday - October 6, 2004

It's just been one adventure after another 'round these parts, and the Boy's updates have been a long time coming, so pour yourself a cup and settle in for a lengthy read.

July
On the 13th of July, Dalton went pee in the Big Potty for the first time since about a year ago, when he was scared by the flush. Potty Training is coming along slowly; the Boy flunked the "Potty Training in One Day" effort in a matter of hours. So we're proceeding down that path more slowly, and there is some progress.

As long as the topic is "wetness," we all went to see the Asheville Tourists play baseball on the 17th, but it rained, and rained and rained some more, and an hour after the game was supposed to start, it was cancelled. So the Boy has yet to see his first ballgame. It's entirely possible that he wouldn't have seen this game, even if it had been played -- Dalton spent most of the time touring the stadium with Daddy in tow, checking out the vendors and food stands and climbing up and down the stairs. He had fun, regardless of the rain.

The weather cooperated for our excursion to downtown Asheville and the Belle Chere street festival. It was a beautiful sunny day and we arrived early enough in the morning to find a fairly decent parking spot on a side street (in the shade, even!). There was a special area set up for kids, with plenty of activities, games, toys, and also the chance to meet Bob the Builder. Now, the Boy likes Bob on TV, alright, but wasn't exactly thrilled to meet him in person. The live Bob was a lot bigger than he looks, and Dalton held on tight to Daddy, but didn't cry or make a fuss about it.

He didn't want to stick around, however, so we walked down the street a bit to a bench where a bubble-making activity was staged. Plenty of bubble-liquid and wands of different shapes and colors were available, and the Boy had a blast. He spent quite a while making bubbles and wasn't happy when we decided to move on. Mommy and Lexie were waiting in the shade of a few evergreens near a tent full of toys. There was also a kid-sized plastic log cabin, which Dalton occupied immediately, opening and closing the shutters and peeking out of the windows. He wasn't happy when we had to leave here, either.

We wandered around a bit more, the Boy playing with some balls and running around looking at everything and everyone. After a couple hours, it was getting warmer and approaching lunch time so we headed back to the truck and hit the road.

At the end of July, Cousin Sarah came back to visit for a week, so the Boy had a partner in crime, and loved it. Luckily, the two of them get along well, and as one might expect from a pair of two-year-olds, there was much running, shrieking and giggling throughout the house.

Dalton made his first trip to the dentist on the 29th. He has all 20 of his baby teeth, and they look good. He's good about brushing his teeth, and we're hoping he picks up that as a lifelong habit.

 

August
August took us all away from home a few times. First, we all drove to Atlanta for a birthday party. One of Mommy's friends has a boy who turned two, and we were invited to come to the party and then stay for dinner. A fine time was had by all -- the Boy enjoys running around with other kids, and there were kiddie pools and hot dogs and cake and all the other things expected at a birthday party. At the end of the day, Dalton made his first use of his new Bob the Builder all-in-one sleeping bag once he was too tired to keep his eyes open any longer.

Towards the middle of the month, we had a week-long camping trip planned at Kerr Lake, which was put into doubt as Hurricane Charley blew through the eastern part of the state. As it turned out, we were able to get into the campground late Sunday afternoon, August 15, and it was a race to set up the camp (in the rain, of course) before darkness fell. We had that particular area of the campground all to ourselves, due to the storm perhaps. The next three days were wonderful -- sunny, low 80s, low humidity -- the weather was more like late September rather than mid-August. Simply superb, and The Boy made the most of it. He played in the water and the sand, went on long boat rides with Mommy, ate camp grub, ran around and explored the area. In short, he had a blast.

Except when bedtime rolled around. Unless Dalton was ready to collapse from the day's efforts, he wasn't at all ready to go into the tent and go to sleep, especially when it was still light outside. Mommy made every effort to ease the Boy into the Land of Nod with songs and caresses, but even so, there were often Tears of Frustration from the Boy as he fought the need for sleep. Of course, having Lexie around didn't make things any easier, since one of the kids would often wake up the other. Sleeping on an air mattress doesn't provide the best night's sleep in the world, and the fact that Dalton is a very early riser meant that Mommy and Daddy were pretty tired during the week. It was a fun vacation, but not a restful one.

On the way back home, we stopped in Raleigh to visit Uncle Mark, Aunt Jamie and Cousin Isabel, who we had never met. Their house was built in 1926, in a Spanish style complete with clay roof tiles. Very nice, and Dalton spent a lot of time playing ball on the stairs with Uncle Mark and Daddy. He also engaged Uncle Mark in a wrestling match, and wore him out. The Boy helped himself to several of Isabel's toys, including an abacus that he really liked. We made the three children pose for photos on the couch, and they didn't seem to mind much.

 

September
The Boy spent almost a week with Granni Bobbi and Pop-Pop while Daddy was off playing cowboy at the North Carolina state SASS championships. Mommy and Lexie came along for a couple days, too, and so Dalton got to play with Cousin Sarah again.

Mommy took Dalton and Lexie to the Mountain State Fair on the 13th, and though the Boy had a good time there last year, it took him a while to warm up to the place this time. He didn't care much for the hurley-burley of the midway, but once again loved the tractors on display. He happily checked out each and every one of them. One of the goodies that Mommy picked up at the fair was a candied apple, but she wisely waited until returning home before letting the Boy tear into it. Dalton looked like a toddler vampire afterwards, with most of his face and upper torso covered with bright red candied slobber. Yum-yum!

 

Now
Which brings us to the current state of affairs. The Boy is still a certified Blue's Clues addict. He sings the songs, has several of his favorite episodes virtually memorized, and runs around the house with his "handy-dandy notebook" looking for "clues." One of the programs has a "Tall Clue" -- and Dalton is scared of it, for some reason. When that particular show comes on, he knows that the Tall Clue is going to appear, and he runs out of the room.

One night he woke up crying, and we asked him what the matter was. "A Tall Clue," he said, sniffling.

"Were you scared of the Tall Clue?"

"Yeah."

Oddly enough, he asks us to draw "Tall Clues" in his notebook all the time. Why they scare him in some instances but not in others, there's no telling.

Since he's such a little Blue's Clues freak, Mommy thought he might like to be Blue for Halloween this year. She got him a furry Blue suit, but he hates it. The costume has a hood shaped like Blue's doggy head, and The Boy can't stand having anything on his head (which is a bummer, since he won't wear baseball caps or cowboy hats or anything). He screams "Noooo!" when we try to put the hood up. "I doan wannit!"

Oh well. It'll probably still fit next year, if he's still into the whole Clue deal.

As you might guess, Dalton's language skills continue to improve. He started using pronouns in July, saying "I love you" and "I love Lexie" -- which is a vast improvement over ignoring her, as he previously did. He really likes it when Mommy and Lexie chase him around the house, laughing and giggling.

The Boy often speaks in extended (two-year-old) sentences now, though there are still times when we can't understand what he's saying. He makes his opinions known, telling us "I don't like that." He talks to the dog, too, saying "Hi, Annie" when he sees her. The two of them play ball occasionally, and the Boy is getting an arm on him. He throws pretty well, for a Wee Boy.

One of the Boy's surprising new talents is his ability to count to 10 in Spanish. He bowled us over when he did it the first time, because we didn't teach him that. Evidently his watching Dora the Explorer has some educational benefits after all. Dalton uses Spanish words every now and then, but the fact that he not only picked up the Spanish numbers but knew their order and how to use them to count something was pretty impressive.

Dalton is singing more now, though he's usually rather tentative about it. He likes "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Happy Birthday" and of course, the songs from Blue's Clues but has picked up a song from one of the Veggie Tales DVDs that he really likes: "His Cheeseburger." We're not sure The Boy is old enough to grasp all that's going on in the Veggie Tales stories and songs, but he is showing more interest in them now than he did a couple months ago.

 

Wednesday - July 7, 2004

So Dalton is officially Two Years Old, which puts him out of the "toddler" realm and into "pre-schooler" territory, at least according to something his Mommy read the other day. She's not ready to give up her "toddler" yet, even though the Baby Girl will be coming into that stage sooner than we expect, so the Boy is probably still going to be a "toddler" for a while around here.

Speaking of growing up, Dalton is moving into his "Big Boy Bed" and out of the crib. One morning a couple weeks ago, as Daddy was walking into Dalton's room, he saw Dalton taking his final step from the outside of the crib down to the floor. The Boy hasn't done that again, but he obviously can if he decides to. And since Lexie will be needing the crib soon, it seemed like the perfect time to make the transition.

The other weekend, Mommy's sister brought up one of the toddler beds that she wasn't using anymore, and we set it up in the Boy's room -- leaving the crib in place, just in case. On the following Monday, we asked him if he wanted to sleep in the Crib or in the Big Boy Bed, and he chose the bed. We put him in there, and he slept just fine. The next morning, he hopped out of his bed and came running out of the room, happy as can be. That was repeated until Friday, when he apparently realized that he could get out of bed anytime he wanted!.

That night, he lasted all of 30 seconds in bed before he came cruising back out to the living room. We put him back in bed, told him goodnight, and he was out of bed again almost immediately. He asked for something to drink, and we let him stay up with his cup for a little bit (mistake) and tried the bed once more. Out came the Boy, and that was it. Into the crib he went, and there he spent the night. This drama went on for a couple more nights, although we implemented a "two strikes" rule -- after the second time out of bed, he went into the crib.

The issue may have been resolved when Mommy installed a new bed rail. Initially, we didn't think he needed one, since the mattress is all of six inches off the floor, but once the rail was on the bed, he slept in it just fine. If he'll keep that up, we'll be able to move the crib into the other bedroom and then let Lexie use it in a month or so, which will avoid any jealousy (we hope).

Dalton is starting to use full sentences now -- if you count three or four words as "full" sentences -- in addition to the usual long-winded babble he still enjoys. If he doesn't see us, he'll call out, "Mommy (or Daddy), where arrrrre you?" It's very cute. His one-and-only knock-knock "joke" is still as incomprehensible to us as it ever was, and we have no idea where he got it:

Boy: Knock-knock. (as he knocks on a door)
Us: Who's there?
Boy: Candy who?

No clue on that one, really. "Candy?" Who?? What??? But he loves to tell it. Oh, well...

In other news, the past couple months have just been jam-packed around here. Take a look at the Major Events recently:

• Item: Dalton's baby sister Lexie was baptized on May 16, and Aunt Karen and Grandma & "GrandPobbies" Charlson were down from Minnesota for that, along with Granni Bobbi and "Pop-Pop" Billy. We'd planned to go up to Craggy Gardens for a nice picnic afterwards, and let the Boy run around to his heart's delight, but we were seriously (and I do mean seriously) rained out of that. Big bummer.

• Item: Dalton got an Early Birthday Party that weekend, too, since everybody was around and he doesn't know what the heck "birthday" means anyway. He'll probably have a grasp of it next year, so the Poor Boy will have to make do with just the one party. He took great joy in the "Blue's Clues" birthday cake that Mommy and Auntie Karen made for him. He lives for Blue's Clues, and constantly spouts phrases from the TV show. "A clue! A clue!" He makes us draw "clues" in his "handy-dandy notebook." Mostly it's pretty cute, but there are days when he screams that stuff at the top of his lungs and we'd just like him to put a sock in it.

• Item: We all trekked down the mountains in early June to stay a few days with Mommy's folks (and also to let Daddy pick out his own Father's Day present at Perry's in Wendell). One of the highlights of the trip (for the Boy, at least) was the trip to the park, where Dalton got to run around and climb on the playground equipment. The last time he was there, he was too little to do that -- the Boy loves going to the park. He got to play with his cousins, and there were a bunch of other kids he ran around with, too. It's amusing to watch him attempt to interact with bigger children -- he mostly ignores other kids younger than he is. Perhaps he knows that the bigger kids can do stuff and that makes them interesting. Of course, the big kids don't particularly want a little baby following them around, and they aren't patient enough to sit and figure out what Dalton is trying to say to them. Still, he tries, and sometimes he'll find a momentary friend at the park -- other times, the boy gets the brush-off and then goes and continues to play by himself.

• Item: It was time for the Boy's checkup with the doctor, and we thought he might have been due for a shot (or two). We scheduled Dalton & Lexie for back-to-back appointments, which was convenient for us, and they were both very good for the whole thing. Lexie was the victim of the shot, but the Boy didn't get let off the hook -- he had a hemoglobin test, which involved the nurse jabbing his finger and then piping up some blood. I thought he might cry about it, but he never made a peep: he just watched the whole process very intently. He's such a Curious Boy...
  
  Here are his stats, as of Age Two:
  
  • Weight: 26 pounds, 13 ounces (25-50th percentile)
  • Length: 33 1/4 inches (25th percentile)
  • Head Circumference: 19 inches (25th percentile)
  
  He's gotten a little taller and slimmed down some, so he no longer bears such a striking resemblance to the Michelin Man -- although he's still a Rather Small Boy. Being a handsome devil makes up for a lot, however.

• Item: The Boy's cousin Sarah (who's six months older, but quite a bit smaller, if you can believe that) came to stay with us for a week while her Mom was at UNC-Asheville taking some sort of refresher course. Dalton and Sarah had an absolute blast playing with each other and running around, even if Sarah did give the Boy a shove or two on occasion. Mommy inflated the kiddie pool for them, and they had backyard pool parties in the afternoons. Sometimes he got a little pouty about sharing some of his stuff -- he is only two, after all -- but he really enjoyed having someone to play with all day long. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts once his sister is out of the "just lays there" phase and can play with him.

Life goes on....

 

Saturday - May 8, 2004

EXTRA! EXTRA! BOY's WORLD IS ROCKED!

It's tough being The Boy these days. He has a new baby sister, and he's not overly thrilled with that fact of life. He tries mostly to ignore Lexie, and will usually scream if he's forced to acknowledge her, though a few times we've managed to get him to give his sister a kiss. We've been trying to give him extra attention and reassurance to show him he isn't being "forgotten" in all of the New Baby Hubbub. Daddy has been home all week and The Boy has been extra clingy. We'll get through it all, and he'll warm up to her soon enough, we hope.

Dalton says his "ADC's" QuickTime file (701kb)

Grandpa Billy, Grannie Bobbi and Cousin Joshua were all up here to watch Dalton while we were at the hospital with Lexie, and he showed them a bunch of his latest tricks. As mentioned before, Dalton knows a ton of shapes and colors as well as his alphabet (he likes to sing the "ABC song," though he still calls them the "ADC's") and numbers (he counts things all the time, and can go up to 20 -- though he skips a couple of the teens). The Boy will also grab an adult by the finger and pull him or her where he wants them to go, which is usually the bedroom with the iMac and his computer games.

Dalton is quickly becoming a Computer Genius.™ Grandma & Grandpa Charlson gave us their iMac a couple of years ago — the hard drive had died, and the Ethernet port didn't work, but otherwise it was fine. We put in a new disk, maxed out the RAM for cheapy-cheap and used it occasionally as a stand-alone computer. But Dalton has taken it over, and it now belongs to him. He started playing on the iMac by himself near the end of March and within about three weeks he had mastered using the mouse and clicking on things. We were amazed. When Grandpa Billy and Grannie Bobbi came up to babysit The Boy while we were at the hospital with Lexie, they were stunned. We didn't leave them any instructions on The Boy's use of the iMac, and they don't know anything about Macintosh computers, but Dalton had it all well in hand. All he needed was someone to open the door to the computer room, and he took it from there. He knows how to turn the computer on, and although he hasn't quite grasped the "double-click" concept for the program icons, he knows the icons for the games he wants to play and will point to them or say the name of the game. Once the program is launched, we can let him alone, as he uses the mouse to navigate and play his games, and loves it. He'd play for hours at a time if we let him.

If you need some more serious Boy Action, here are a couple of QuickTime film clips of Dalton playing on the computer:

iMac Boy
pluto QuickTime file (839kb)	hearts QuickTime file (1.7mb)

He's very good at playing by himself, whether it's on the computer, or coloring pictures or playing with his cars (he's a big-time car guy -- he loves his Hot Wheels cars and trucks). The Boy has some favorite TV shows, besides Sesame Street, he really likes Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Wiggles, and (heaven help us) Teletubbies.

On the food front, The Boy has become more picky these days -- he still eats most anything we give him, especially fruit, but he's been less inclined to eat hamburger than he used to. So protein-wise, he likes hot dogs, chicken, and fish sticks. He is learning to drink from a "big boy cup" -- and there haven't been too many spills in the process. But we don't give him very much at a time, so that helps. Dalton will ask for milk or juice, depending on what he's in the mood for. The Boy can also identify iced tea, Dr Pepper and ice water (he really enjoys chewing on crushed ice that he gets from Mommy's tea or water glass). Dalton also has started eating his own cold cereal from a bowl, with milk. He loves his cereal... and Mommy has already taught him the bad habit of drinking the remaining milk from the bowl. Yay. He's getting better and better about being human at the dinner table -- using his fork and spoon, keeping his plate on the table, etc., although when he decides he's finished eating, he'll start to play with his utensils, and at that point they're taken away.

Mommy is thrilled that every now and then she is addressed as "Mommy" instead of "Mamma" these days. Daddy has been "Daddy" for quite some time now. He has a large single-word vocabulary and has a handful of actual sentences he uses, including "I'm happy now!" when he is, indeed, feeling good.

He also likes to play the "Night-night Game" where he lays down on a pillow (and insists on having a blanket, too) and makes Mommy or Daddy lay down. Then he says "Night-night" and snores a bit. Suddenly, he'll pop up and yell "Wate Up!!" (Wake Up) and laugh.

Speaking of laughing, his favorite "joke" these days is to call out "Mamma!" or "Daddy!" and when we answer he says, "Oh... ha ha ha."

Very funny, Boy.

 

Wednesday - March 10, 2004
Well, we experienced our first "Nose Incident" (at least, the first to our knowledge) the other night at dinner. The Boy was happily chowing down on a plate full of food which included a pile o' Mac-N-Cheese and also one of his favorite veggies, Green Beans.

Some of you already know where this is going.

Dalton grabbed a bean and waved it around, as he tends to do when he gets towards the end of the meal and starts to play more than he eats. What random synapse in his brain fired and caused the urge, we'll never know -- but the green bean made entry into The Boy's nostril. Just enough so that it hung there from his nose as he looked around.

Now, Daddy was happy that he didn't have a mouthful of milk, or everyone at the table would have been treated to a sprayed dairy shower. As it was, it was difficult for us to suppress our laughter. It was quite amusing and Daddy thought it might be a fine idea to go grab the digital camera for a picture. Details are sketchy, but either Mommy or Dalton himself quickly removed the Nostril Bean, and The Boy was told he shouldn't try that trick anymore.

Well, he didn't try it again -- not exactly. That random synapse has a retarded cousin up there that must have told Dalton "If a Green Bean fit in your nostril, I bet a Macaroni Noodle would, too. Try it and see!" Which he did.

This time, it wasn't nearly as funny. He put the noodle in his nostril and, before we could stop him, pushed the macaroni all the way into his nose.

Mommy couldn't pull it out with her fingers, so she attempted to use a tweezers. The noodle was too soft and the tweezer just broke off a part of it. Dalton didn't seem to be in any kind of distress over the Noodle Nose -- and we didn't have an immediate solution, so he hopped down and went off to play while we pondered our options.

It was, of course, a Friday and well past 5:00 p.m. Kids never seem to do these kinds of things when the doctor's office is actually open. A visit to the Emergency Room seemed a little extreme, given The Boy's carefree attitude about the whole thing. We didn't want it to sit up there in his nose all night, though, and give him a sinus infection or something.

Dalton came cruising by and rubbed his nose; well, he knew something was in there, at least. Mommy tried to get him to "blow his nose" -- but he doesn't have the concept yet. He just blew with his mouth, which was cute but ineffective. He ran off again to his room, happy as could be.

Eventually, we decided that we should give the Squeezy Rubber Nose Bulb a shot. You're probably familiar with this Medieval Torture Device: reddish, rubber, with a big bulb on one end and a thin little tube on the other. Kind of like a mini rubber turkey baster. It works for sucking snot out of kids' noses, so perhaps it would do the trick on soft macaroni. We grabbed Dalton, Mommy stuck the tube up his nose and gave a squeeze. After a couple of squeezes, POP! Out came the noodle, and the crisis was over.

At least until next time...

 

Wednesday - February 18, 2004
We won't comment on the unfounded allegations of "slackness" involved in the diminished frequency of updates on this site, because that might force us to admit that such slackness is indeed the case. But Dalton, at least, has certainly been busy.

From the previous update, you may remember that The Boy was learning to count and recognize a few letters. Well, he knows the alphabet now. And his numbers up to 20.

Yes, we were surprised, too.

We weren't quite sure where he was picking all this information up, since we don't sit him down and drill him on it for hours on end. But he does have foam-rubber numbers and letters that he loves to play with in the tub, and of course when he picks them up we always tell him what a particular character is. He also has several (very loud) electronic toys that have numbers (a cash register that he loves) and letters (an alphabet "radio") involved. Dalton also loves to watch Sesame Street, and the Count is using numbers up to 20 these days, so that could be where he's grabbed the info on numbers above 10...

The Boy still doesn't have a firm grasp on the actual order that the numbers really go in -- he's got "One, two three" down pretty pat, but after that, it's all over the place:

"Oneee, toooo, fiiive, fitteeeen, ayyteeeen..."

He loves to count things -- anything, anywhere, anytime, he'll point at a group of somethings and launch into a random sequence of numbers.

With help and prompting, Dalton can go through the entire alphabet (although at 20 months, his pronunciation of some of the letters is about what you might expect: "W" is "dub," etc.). He enjoys singing the "ABC Song," and does so on his own, but he usually "skips to the good part" about mid-way through:

"...Ellemmennoh, Peeee. Noweye know aybeesee..." and the rest degenerates more or less into his cute little babble, which he still does all the time. He's still a babbling little chatterbox, but he is learning new words and skills at an incredibly rapid pace.

Dalton loves to color, he has a few coloring books, several blank notebooks and a set of crayons (which are mostly broken in half now, but he doesn't care) and he'll sit at his little table and just draw and scribble away. After a few efforts at drawing murals on the living room walls, we've taken the crayons away and put them up high so he now has to ask to use them (walking to his table and saying "Cuh!" = "color") and then he is supervised closely while doing so. Gratuitous Product Plug: if you've seen the ads for the Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser," they aren't kidding. Swish-swipe, and the crayon came off the walls instantly. Whatever VooDoo they've put in that thing is officially Good Stuff™.

When Dalton needs (wants) help with something, he'll shout "He'p!" If we're not in the room with him, he'll come find one of us, grab our hand and lead us to where he wants us to go. Very amusing. The Boy is learning his manners, too -- he now says "please" and "thank you" (although it sounds like "peeease" and "foo-foo") and is doing so without prompting on occasion. Go Boy, go!

We think his official first full sentence that would be understandable to most normal people is "More juice, please!" ("More joose peas!"). He calls Annie by her real name now, instead of just saying "Ahhh!" Jessie isn't quite so fortunate yet; he doesn't call her name -- but then again, Jess spends most of her time asleep in the walk-in closet, so that's not much of a surprise.

Dalton says "Hi" to his baby sister and kisses Mommy's tummy, but we think he'll figure out more full sentences just in time to say "Put it back!" when the girl is born. It'll be interesting, for sure...

 

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