Pictures for Dad

Dear Dad,

When you left me on Sunday, the thought was too much to bear, so I took a nap.



It was soon after that that things started falling apart. Mom dropped me off somewhere with lots of other babies. The adults ignored my pleas to be held at all times. I wound up in something that looked like my entertainer, but only had this duck.



When I got home, I was craving some comfort food, so mom whipped me up some dinner. There's some on my forehead again.



"Peas" come home daddy, I miss you.



Love,
Your Buddy, John Dickson

P.S. Did mom tell you Woof Woof stole the duck off my stroller?

Daycare... Ugh

So I was doing pretty good about John Dickson starting daycare this morning - didnt even cry! Adam and I had been joking about John Dickson being nervous or excited about his first day of "school," and when I opened the door to get John Dickson out of the car, he just had this huge grin on his face and let out a big squeal. It was like the moment hed been waiting for had finally arrived... he's quite good at the comedic timing.

So I took him in and said he would be in the 6-12 month room (he turns 6 months in 6 days...), but they had him down as in the 0-6 month room. For anyone that knows me and knows how much I struggle with simple changes such as a new seat at the kitchen table, this was not the best news. I did, however, think it might be to his advantage, as there were fewer babies in there, and the babies who were there were so young I figured they would sleep more... allowing John Dickson to have more attention. There was one lady in there, with a 2nd one on the way, and she was probably in her 60s or so. She told me to feel free to stop by anytime or to call and check on him. At lunch I called, and the conversation went like this...

"Hi, this is Amanda Kelley, John Dickson's mom"
"Who???"
"John Dickson's mom"
"Oh. Does he have a pacifier?"
"He wont take one... how is he doing?"
"He's still new. He'll learn."
The end.

The laid back mom in me vanished in an instant and I burst into tears... at work... it was lovely. For starters, I had filled out an information sheet with his feeding schedule, nap schedule, and special instructions. It asked if he took a paci and when, to which I answered no. Apparently it never made it back to the infant I room... Secondly, when a mom leaves her 6 month old with a stranger for the first time, the proper response is "Hello". NOT "Where is his paci?". Poor little man... So far, Daycare 1 John Dickson 0.

Thanks Dr Aunt Erin!

I love my Hippo PJs!!! Also thanks to Granna - I love my giraffe outfit too (its in my laughing video)

First Solids - Rice Cereal

Adam finally started on rice cereal last week! And so did John Dickson.

First Solids - The Appetizer

There's a video below where you can watch John Dickson in action, but here are some other pictures. The 3rd picture is a shot of John Dickson covering his eyes while he eats... which he did without fail during every bottle. Now he only covers his eyes most of the time. I guess eating is becoming less scary.

Labor Day

First Football Game

Sorry, these pictures are a little late... This is John Dickson's first Clemson game. (On tv... he hasn't yet experienced the real thing). Believe it or not, he does close his mouth now from time to time!

Some More Videos

Here are a couple of long videos (the first one is 8 minutes) of our little dude and some of his recent developments. The first one is sitting up and eating solid food for the first time, the next is Amanda and I working our butts off to actually catch him laughing on film (a daunting task), and last his a bit of his visit to Gainesville. In other John Dickson news, yesterday he somehow managed to completely destroy my cell phone in under two minutes. I do not know how, but now all the lights flicker, the buttons do not perform their currect functions, the microphone is inoperable, and the camera/video camera will not only come on by itself but will also record and save images. All in all, a very thorough job by the littlest Kelley. (On a side note, for the time being email is probably your best bet to get hold of me). Crawling also seems to be not far away, as evidenced last night by him sitting on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth for the better part of an hour. We thought the pack 'n play might collapse. We'll try and get video if he does it again tonight.

Pictureless update

I dont have any pictures readily available to post, so those will have to come later... in the meantime I thought I'd give an update on the little monkey.

We noticed he's been coughing a lot in his sleep, and the past 2 nights coughing and congestion has woken him up, so he went back to the doctor, where, of course, he got a clean bill of health. It reminded me of the time I took Ellie to the doctor because I thought she had nose fungus and it turned out Maggie had bitten her on the nose. You know theyre laughing at you when you dont even get charged for the visit... but I'd still rather hear John Dickson is healthy. Dr Song attributed it to drainage when he's lying down. She suggested propping up one end of the crib mattress so he is sleeping on an incline, but the little booger moves around so much he would wind up tilted in the wrong direction. But he has had his first experience with the aspirator and oh man does he hate it! He's gained almost 2 lbs and is up to the 60th-ish percentile, so the doctor was pleased with that.

In other medical related news - Ellie got a pretty serious cut on the back of her ear, and after a week of it not healing the vet decided to put the dreaded cone on her. Bless her heart. She does not sleep, she hardly eats, and she wont go to the bathroom for fear she wont be able to get back on the deck, or through the doorway for that matter. When I brought her home from the vet yesterday Bear took one look at her and jumped 10 feet backwards as if he was being attacked by the evil vacuum. He then proceded to hide from Ellie. All in all it was a pretty sad day for the girl.

John Dickson gets better everyday at sitting up! We got him a cookie jar toy where you drop in the different shapes, and holding onto that he can sit for about 10 or 15minutes while he plays with it. And in what is possibly even bigger news... the little man finally has... A FRIEND!!! Our almost 2 year old neighbor, Sarah Grace, has befriended John Dickson. She tries to share her food with him, constantly pulls leaves off our bushes and gives them to him, and tries to share a random assortment of other toys. While John Dickson was having a diaper change the other day, Sarah Grace grabbed a toy out of his box and tried to hand it up to him on the changing table... too sweet. She doesn't understand that John Dickson doesn't always know how to take things from her (especially the tiny berries from one of the shrubs), but when I try to take it from her she informs me its intended for "baby".

John Dickson had his first football game a few weeks ago, of which we will post the pictures soon. He slept through the entire thing, but with that stomping from Alabama, who could blame him? I slept too. He got mad the second time we tried to put his orange overalls on him, so he may be turning against his team. Only time will tell.

Jessica came to visit the other weekend, bringing with her the usual truckload of clothes for John Dickson. If she emails me the pictures (hint hint) I'll be sure to post them. She got to spend some quality time babysitting the little monkey while we went out on a big kid date. Then Leslie and Nick came, and John Dickson finally said his first word... "Nick." Nick came in the room and I said "who's that? Is that Nick?" to which John Dickson replied "Ni..." We know it was completely coincidental, but the timing couldnt have been better. We had the spanish word for yellow pegged as his first word (I'd spell it out but it would be a disaster). Guess we were wrong... did not see that coming...haha.

Other than that, John Dickson is trying hard to work on his motor skills so he can finally get his workman's bench. His Nana has him practicing all of his gymnastics routines, including the balance beam (someone, please stop Nana...) and John Dickson has continued to win the gold medal in every event, as well as the all around. We are so proud... and worried...haha. He has also become a CHAMP at the spinning thingamajig on his entertainer, and that little arm goes 100 times a minute, spinning those things as spastically as possible. We'll get that on video for you soon.

In non-John Dickson news, Adam got a job offer this morning. I'll let him tell you about it if he ever resumes his position as JohnDicksonWeekly poster. Cough cough.

For Halloween, John Dickson will be..........

Drumroll please...




He cant wait.