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.

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...

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.

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?

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!