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.