Wednesday, December 31, 2008

John Dickson's First 1st Christmas

When you think of a baby's stereotypical 1st Christmas, John Dickson nailed it on the head! He got a ton of great presents from everybody and got to use his beautiful cross-stitched-by-Grandma stocking, but was really only interested in trash and bows. And also a glasses case that was a gift to his Aunt Lauren. (Sorry Aunt Lauren!) Since we've come home he has had a lot of fun playing with all of his new toys, which are especially appealing now that they are in baskets that he can turn over :-) Here are a few highlights from his first Christmas (spent with all of the people from his first Christmas Eve)




John Dickson Pre-Christmas Action

Ok, so the past few weeks have been some of the busiest of our lives I think! John Dickson and I were sick together for about 2 weeks (always fun - thank God for 2 grandmas!!!) and then we had Christmas in Columbia and then again in Winston Salem. In the meantime a tornado went through our house (the figurative kind) and we are just now getting life to return to normal. So back to blogging!

EY Christmas party - AKA John Dickson's night to live it up with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Jarey! They let him stay up late, watch R rated movies, eat sugar straight from the bag and drink some beer. All in all he had a terrific time with 1 of his 2 favorite sets of aunts and uncles!! PS Uncle Jarey - if you're reading... I had my first Krystal burger the other day and these are my thoughts:
1. I was very impressed the "Krystal" came the exact way I order my burgers - Mustard, pickle and onion (but hey, I dont have to tell you that, right?) And NO KETCHUP!!! ROCK MY WORLD!!! (Yep, I said it)
2. Otherwise, gross city. Sorry.



John Dickson playing with the bow from Great Grandy's present. The bow did not have a tail when I wrapped presents, but somehow it got longer and longer every day. During John Dickson's sick couple of weeks, this was one of the very few things that made him happy. (Can you tell he doesn't feel so great?!?) Also below is a picture of him on his worst sick day... pathetic, right?





Feeling good again and enjoying the tree. We had to move all of the ornaments to about 2 feet off the ground.



Christmas Eve outfit. I could just eat him up!! John Dickson had a super fun first Christmas Eve at Aunt Lauren's house where he had his first Chanakuristmaseve dinner. Yep, that's right! And it was deeelicious. He also had fun playing with his Great Uncle Mike, Great Aunt Marianne, Great Mimi, Great Grandy, Pop Pop, Granny Pants and Uncle Jarey.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The good news and the bad news...

We'll start with the bad news...

John Dickson went to the doctor again yesterday for what the doctor initially thought might be pneumonia. After a chest x ray she decided it was bronchitis and possibly early pneumonia. He had a fever over 103, was throwing up and refused to drink very much. It was pitiful. On top of that, he never responded to his antibiotic from before, so his ear was still infected, and he has a tooth that is so close to popping that you can see it through his gums. It was a rough day for such a little body. But by about 9:00 last night he was coming to life again, and at midnight he sucked down 4 ounces. After a good night's sleep he woke up this morning cool as a cucumber. It was such a relief... We put him in the bath to try and cool him off last night and before we could even get a diaper on him afterwards he had conked out. Fortunately for his mommy there were no accidents :-)

The good news...

"Dada"
"Mama"
"Nana"
and a growl of some sort

We'll have to get it on video to share... he has the sweetest little voice! After 8 months of nothing but "eh" he has decided he loves talking! He whispers "dada" to himself when he is really concentrating on something, and he likes to hit the vacuum and call it dada too.

And in other news, we experienced a harsh reality yesterday that went like this...

Dr. Greene: Do you have infant tylenol or children's tylenol?
Me: Infant
Dr. Greene: He needs 4 ml of children's tylenol
Me: Children's??
Dr. Greene: He's not really an infant anymore
Me: :-(

I promise to post pictures soon... maybe even Part II to John Dickson meeting Santa...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Activity Update

John Dickson has once again been busy at school... we found out what his "Christmas project" was - an ornament with his precious thumbprint on it! Also, he has been reading Christmas books, and today he sang Jingle Bells and then played with bells. Too cute.

He has also been battling an ear infection and we are in the process of trying to determine whether or not he has allergies. His doctor thinks maybe so... she said "it could be pets." Uh oh.

No pictures today - it has been a CRAZY 2 weeks. Until next time just imagine the sweet smell of baby, the feel of baby cuddles & the sounds of that precious laugh.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Learning a lot at school

I picked up John Dickson from school today and his daily sheet, for the first time, had a comment on the "activities" line.

"Worked on a Christmas project"

Pretty advanced for 8 months, huh?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A few more

Here are a few more shots of John Dickson in Christmas mode.


Family Crimmus






John Dickson with his Daddy & his Papa



::gasp::

Christmaserize!

Anybody who knows me knows I'm pretty huge into the Christmas holiday... so I've pretty much been anticipating John Dickson's first Christmas tree since around August 19 of last year when all 4 of those tests came back positive. I had a few ornament collections growing up, and I couldn't wait to start one for John Dickson. We picked out a first in series ornament for the little dude, wrapped it up, helped him unwrap it, and tried to let him participate in hanging it on the tree. It is now in 2 pieces. Ahh well, you live and learn. He likes the tree, but wasn't quite as excited about it as he was the ones in Lowes and in Kohls... EVEN THOUGH I guarantee you our tree had more lights ;-) His Big Linda, Granny Banany, Gram Grams, Grammy, Riddler, Nana, Grandma, whatever she finally decides on, has spent half the year cross stitching John Dickson an extra special stocking & I cant wait to show off a picture of it when it is all sewn together.

In the meantime, enjoy some Christmas action shots of our monkey.





Must...stand...up...

Our little boy has been pulling up on anything and everything, with the exception of his crib. Until now. On Sunday we watched him pull up for the first time, and we were afraid he may never go to sleep again! That night he pulled up over and over again until after an hour and a half he must have decided his chubby little legs were tired, and he finally drifted off to sleep. The next morning he was standing again, resting his head on top of the rail with his eyes only half open. I think he woke up and just said "Must...stand...up..."

Look at that proud face!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

A tribute to Will

John Dickson feels like he has a special bond with Will due to what is inarguably the best part of Hop on Pop...

Hill, Will
Will went up hill
Will, Hill, Still
Will is up hill still


Here he is - John Dickson with his good buddy Will


John Dickson with the Griffeths



Some more Turkey Day

John Dickson with Bobbie



John Dickson with Jack, who light sabers him with his iphone & will someday teach him to dance (hopefully)



John Dickson with Granna and Jamie



John Dickson with Susan



And finally, with Gus

Thanksgiving!

Just a little peek into John Dickson's first Thanksgiving... with extra special thanks to Randy for all of the pictures!



John Dickson enjoying his feast



John Dickson enjoying his leftovers (note the wardrobe change... that first feast was maybe just a little too delicious)



John Dickson with his Granna, laughing at Bryan over on the side



And John Dickson with Papa and Granna, who look too young to be grandparents (brownie points!)

Monday, November 24, 2008

Another John Dickson gift

I've been searching high and low for a dress to wear to a party we have coming up, with absolutely no luck... except for the one dress I absolutely loved... the one that I wouldn't even let myself try on because it was so far out of my price range...

I picked up John Dickson tonight and went home to an empty house where there was a beautiful present on the counter with a card "for the most beautifulest mommy ever" from John Dickson, Bear, Ellie, Miles (our gecko who shops at Belk) and my wonderful husband. And inside was my dress.

Just thought I'd share :-D

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Update and a new video

Here's a new video of me and John Dickson's daily routine when I get home from work and then some great shots of him cracking up at Amanda. I'm working on a video of his different phases of crawling to his current Speed Racer state. Hopefully that'll be up sometime this week before Turkey Day.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

John Dickson's "first Thanksgiving"

John Dickson had Thanksgiving at his "school" today... at 10:30 am... talk about a sleepy rest of the day! He pretty much sat in my lap and "read" a plastic book while I ate turkey, but it was fun anyway! The other babies were getting samples of the feast, but after John Dickson's experience with Gerber puffs, we thought he might not be quite ready yet. I wish we had it on video... we put a puff on John Dickson's tray, and he didn't seem to know what to do with it (everything else goes straight to the mouth, but this puff was intriguing...)so Adam put it on John Dickson's tongue. That little man looked at us like we were crazy, opened his mouth wide, and tried to make the puff just fall out, but it was stuck to his tongue. He was so confused!

Otherwise, he is eating like a champ, but seems to be allergic to a few foods. We're pretty sure he's allergic to prunes and apricots, but he had a reaction 2 days ago to something he's had before, so we aren't too sure what it was. So long as his cheeks are back to normal tomorrow, he'll be having turkey in preparation for Thanksgiving. He's got baby green bean casserole, apple turkey cranberry, and cinnamon sweet potatoes for the big day. And, of course, a baby's first Thanksgiving bib. 7 days and counting!

And on the daycare front, John Dickson is doing great! He's graduated to the infant 2 room, where they had had him a couple of days when he wasn't feeling well (several weeks ago). They're shocked at how little he cries when he actually feels well, and every day they keep telling me how amazed they are by his crawling. Most of the other babies are crawling too, but John Dickson is crawling at Greyhound speed! Now that he's with babies who are more age appropriate for him, he's fascinated and having a great time. He doesn't care when we leave, and is busy when we return. I couldn't find him the other day because he was camping out under the entertainer at daycare. They said that's what he wants to do all day, and he loves sitting in it as well. Apparently he crawls over to it and hits it until they put him in. I was really frustrated with the last room he was in because they just wouldn't listen to me about his feeding schedule. But these girls actively try to do what we want them to, and everyday they are asking new questions. He's still on the waitlist for another place, but we're happy until then.

We have a hilarious video to share as soon as Adam gets some free time - its a John Dickson laughter extravaganza. Until then...

Monday, November 17, 2008

John Dickson Meets Zoe

John Dickson met Zoe this past weekend. First, he tried out her crate to see just how big she would be. He decided nothing smaller than him could possibly be that bad...



So he decided to make her his own...




Until she bit him on the bootay...



Haha, no, Zoe is adorable. She's just a tad exhausting.

Another "Milestone"

A little known fact about Adam Kelley:
A shower is not complete without a shampooey haired mohawk.

Last night I was called into the bathroom to see John Dickson's latest "milestone." I present to you, for the very first time, a John Dickson bath mohawk.


John Dickson and Kendall...the love story begins.

Hey, are you one of me?



Ok, we can be friends!



So long as you dont steal my Big Linda!



Please don't leave me Kendall!



We can grow old together watching Clemson football on Gram Gram's tv!

Man I love that shirt!

I bought John Dickson this little shirt with a happy dinosaur on it, and everytime I would show it to him he would grin ear to ear! These pictures are all different times I showed it to him (note the hanger in the corner). Its like he just cant believe how great this shirt is... I could just eat his cute little face up!!!!!