John Dickson

Watching the rain and thinking about Mickey Mouse and cookies.

Zoo Trip #459

and it never gets old. Especially when you meet this guy!



Hands down my most favoritest animal.



He let me touch him. Because he knew I thought he was awesome. And he returned the sentiment. Ever since I realized the exhibit at the Greenville Zoo was roughly the size of our backyard, I have been determined to have a giraffe of my own. (These pictures are from Riverbanks - a close toss up, but slightly better than the Greenville Zoo)

Oh, and John Dickson got to ride a Zebra!



And a tiger!



But seriously. The giraffe was awesome.

More Space Kidets

Still to come - zoo pictures (we went to the zoo? Whaaa?? That doesn't sound like us), and pictures from our latest adventure, THE BEACH!!!!!!

A Can't Miss

If you don't normally watch the videos on here, normally being a relative term, as videos are few and far between, you definitely should not miss this one. It's a slow start, but the ending is well worth it. You should know that Adam thought he was recording climbing. He did not realize what was going to happen next.



Also, check out John Dickson doing his first round of putt putt.



And for all you people who seem to think there are too many words and not enough pictures on this blog, ahem, Jared, I hope my 17 posts tonight will hold you over for a while.

Father's Day 2010

We spent the weekend in Winston Salem for Father's Day before Adam and his dad made the trek to Maryland, where, by the way, Adam had a good check up. I was soooo not looking forward to 12 hours in the car, but did not want Adam to go it alone, so it was pretty awesome when his dad volunteered to go. What I mean by that is, it was a really tough decision, but I could tell how important it was to Glen, so I obliged... yeah...

Anyway, Father's Day was spent enjoying a yummy brunch with Adam's parents, Erin, Jason and Ella, followed by like a 4 hour nap by yours truly, followed by me getting denied lottery tickets at TWO locations because I did not have my ID. Side note: Yes, I look young. However, I am hugely pregnant - at least give me the benefit of the doubt. Don't want to sell me alcohol? No tobacco products? No firearms? That's ok. But a piece of paper? I think I'll be ok. End side note. We finished up the night with some wings and a trip to Target to get some diapers, where somehow, ahem, John Dickson left with new toys. He's quite good at that.

But probably most importantly, Father's Day was spent wearing Papa's goggles. A lot.





I'd say this sums up the day nicely.



I only wish we could have been with my dad too! At least we got to celebrate with him the weekend before - fried pickle style.

Granna & Papa's - Pt II

John Dickson didn't just lounge about with Ella all day - he also spent some quality time with his Aunt Erin and Uncle Jason.





This picture is in fact what it seems. That little man "jumped" off of the diving board down to Aunt Erin. Can I tell you how much I love having doctors for in-laws? One to catch and one on standby.





Now you might be wondering... where is Amanda in all of these pool pictures? When do we get to see a belly shot? Well, here it is at 36 weeks.



I am just not one of those people who embraces the pregnant look. It turns out when you are 5 foot 2-is-generous-but-really-its-probably-one(and-three-quarters), you don't look like you shoved a basketball up your shirt - you just look like a basketball. So I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like when this basketball fell down the stairs today. Yep, I fell at work while pregnant with John Dickson (I was 12 weeks, there was no excuse), and I fell again at work today while pregnant with Henry. It's like my thing. The stairs were carpeted and my heel got caught - I went down a few steps on my feet and then fell onto my shins, burning off some huge patches of skin on my shins, and then managed to catch myself, while throwing my laptop down the stairs, just in time to avoid landing on Henry. It certainly could have been worse. But I'd also argue that not falling would have been both ideal and more grown-up-ly.

Granna & Papa's - Pt I

John Dickson managed to make it out to the pool 3 times while at Granna & Papa's. It was about 1,000 degrees out, but since when does that slow that little man down? Answer: Never.

Turns out Papa makes a great water horsey



And Granna is good for practicing your kicks



And this elephant watering can?



Obsession.

But what is even cuter than all of that? I'll give you a hint: It involves sweet baby rolls.



It's John Dickson and his little cousin Ella. How stinkin cute is that??

Leslie's Awesome Pool

So... this is the kiddie pool in Leslie's neighborhood. I'm not gonna lie - I'd like to play in that pool. You mean with John Dickson? Yeah, yeah... sure...

"Ohn Daason Hiding"

The Big Jump

Mimi's Pool

John Dickson had a blast at his Great Mimi & Great Grandy's jumping in the pool, and more importantly, watching Daddy jump into the pool.

I Don't Mean to Brag...

but we've been spending quite a lot of time at the pool lately.








And John Dickson doesn't mean to brag, but he's got some mad speed and aim...



AND he's been swimming with Elf's brother.



Thanks again Aunt Erin & Uncle Jason!!

Baybulls & Carousels

You might wonder why the blog posts are so few and far between... well, you see, there is a slight holdup. We moved our computer from what is now set up to be Henry's room to our bedroom. For some reason, our neighbor's internet doesn't seem to reach quite that far. We can do the basics, but it's pretty hard to upload adorable pictures and videos. But we'll work on it. In the meantime, a list of things to come:

1. John Dickson hanging out in his froggy pool
2. John Dickson swimming and some jumping into the pool videos from Mimi's house
3. John Dickson swimming at Leslie's kiddie pool
4. John Dickson swimming at Granna & Papa's with Ella
5. John Dickson toddling around in the kiddie pool at Granna & Papa's
6. John Dickson toddling around in the kiddie pool while Ella swims like a big girl at Granna & Papa's.

Are we noticing a theme?

7. Super cute pictures from fathers day
8. Some great pictures and videos of John Dickson at Space Kidets, where he took some amazing spills down gigantic slides and loved every minute of it.
9. A video from Space Kidets, where John Dickson got his first hole in 5.
10. John Dickson at Riverbanks Zoo within 2 feet of a giraffe. He touched him, but we didn't get that exact moment on camera. I touched him too. Just sayin.

And if you're really good (i.e. if I get everything hung on the walls), you may see some pictures of Henry's new digs.

And in case you were wondering what kind of cuteness John Dickson has been up to, well -

1. He woke up at 1:30 the other night and got up 5 times before we realized he wanted his bucket. He then slept with his bucket.
2. John Dickson thinks I work at the carousel. He told us he was going to work the other day, and when I asked him where, he said "I go horsey round and round up and down". Now when I tell him I am going to work, he says "Mommy go horsey round and round." Mommy wishes, buddy. Mommy wishes.
3. Bagel = "baybull"
4. I called Jared in search of Lauren the other night (Aunt La La) and John Dickson about ripped the phone out of my hands, saying "La La? La La?"
5. We don't do a whooooole lot of the "where's Henry" business with John Dickson. So it was really sweet the other night when I told him to give Henry a kiss and he did, and then said "Ohn Daason big brother."
6. John Dickson has been doing a LOT of pretending lately, which mainly revolves around cooking supper and disciplining his toys. Oh, and he makes bess-es in the bath (breakfast). He keeps telling us things are hot, and the other day he told me "Don't touch that bucket. No sir! Don't touch that." He has also been overheard telling Elmo "Dont do that Elmo. That no nice." And then there was the whale who was in timeout for touching the cup that apparently had apples in it.
7. We brought John Dickson's big boy bed up the other weekend, but we've been gone since, so on Wednesday morning I told him about his bed, which was in Henry's room up on its side.
"Do you want to have a big bed?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you want to go see your big bed?"
"Yeah!"
"Here it is, this is your new bed!"
::funny looks from John Dickson::
"No. I no like that."
It turns out he was, we believe, confused by the vertical bed, because after we got it put together, he had a blast playing on it, and has very much enjoyed sleeping on it. He will call Adam from the other room and tell him to come sit on his bed so they can play together. It is quite cute. Quite.
8. John Dickson was playing with Ellie the other day, and then he ran off and came back with his vet kit and proceeded to examine her ears. She let him.

Stay tuned for more cuteness. I promise the pictures are coming!

By Request

This chick leaning on the slide - one of my favoritest people in the entire world. (Sorry, I dont have a better picture on hand) So when she asks for the latest John Dickson-isms, I'm powerless to say no. And Karin, if you are reading, you might as well skip this post because I am totally copying and pasting from my last email. It's how I roll.



Before we get to John Dickson though, a quick update on Henry Bear. We have been finally getting a nursery ready, and I'm hoping it will be done next week. We painted a few weeks ago (sidenote: no, we didn't use Powder Puff - we went with Fledgling, which I let Adam choose; the compromise was that I got to get this perfect lamp from Target that was chocolate brown and cream with stripes of varying width - it really was perfect - so we went to Target, picked up the lamp, which was wrapped in plastic, and nearly got up to checkout before I realized it was not in fact chocolate brown, it was black. Sad day and Henry does not have a lamp yet)and Tuesday night we got everything down from the attic and set up the crib. It doesn't have a mattress yet because we have to bring up John Dickson's new bed from Columbia so we can snag his mattress, but that is the plan for this weekend. He likes his glider, but we got him really excited about replacing it with his pottery barn chair, and he thought that was a great idea. So the glider is in the living room for another week or so so that he doesn't notice the direct movement from his room to Henry's :-) And hopefully tonight we will exchange his changing table for a toybox. So far he is being a good sport. I think the worst will be the diaper genie. We haven't used it in a year probably, but it is still in his room and he has recently decided it is his personal trashcan. We ask him to throw something away in the kitchen, and he says "dat one" and points to his diaper genie, and I just really don't have the heart to tell him no. I really think he is going to miss it.

In other Henry news, we had a very non-eventful doctors appointment on Tuesday. No news to report, which is good news. For the first time this pregnancy, I am measuring where I should be and not ahead of schedule, so maybe this little guy won't be so big afterall. Except... have you seen his dad? I mean, I'm not hopeful. And all of the food I either eat or think about all day long cant be helping.

On to the little dude -

John Dickson has been very full of himself this week. He was in the bath the other day and he was playing with his bath crayons, which I kept twisting the crayons up in for him, and he lined them all up on the edge of the tub and then started to turn to get a toy, turned back around, pointed to his crayons and said "Mommy dont touch this." Little stinker.

He also, I think, had a dream the other night (in our bed where he ended up after he stumbled out of his room, knocked down the vacuum cleaner and started to cry "hurt hurt") about the zoo. He was talking in his sleep - precious - and then when he woke up, the first thing he said was "I see big birds. I see elephants. I go zoo." We plan to take him to Riverbanks this weekend, where he will also now have to go to Monkey Joes, as I told him maybe Nana would take him and he has since talked about it nonstop. You're welcome Nana :-) He will also be riding in Grumps new truck, which he has also talked a lot about, except that sometimes John Dickson thinks that John Dickson got a new truck, so he and Grumps may have to have a little chat about that. He has gotten quite chatty about all of his grandparents lately, saying "I want Nana/Grumps/Granna/Papa" or talking about the things he is going to do with them. I'm not making that up to flatter anybody, its true. We also got to watch him on his video monitor the other night walking around his room in nothing but a diaper and his "Grumps hat". He tried to sleep in it, but sleeping in a cowboy hat is a difficult feat.

One day John Dickson will kill me for posting this story, but by then, blogs and computers will be obsolete, so maybe he'll never know. I hear John Dickson and Adam in the bath the other night - John Dickson apparently had a bit of an invisible injury, and I heard him in there - "pee pee hurt. Kiss it." Then hysterical laughter from Adam and telling him no, and of course John Dickson didnt understand, so finally Adam told him to "ask mommy." So he comes in our room, nothing on - "pee pee hurt. kiss it." And still couldn't understand, so finally I blew him a kiss and he was satisfied. Darned if you do, darned if you dont, I tell ya!

John Dickson for a while there was pretty obsessed with his tricycle helmet, and he would refuse to take it off. He would wear it for an entire weekend. He would wear it in the car... I'm pretty sure people thought we were super overprotective with our child riding in the car wearing a helmet. Either that or they assumed he was "special." The other day I was outside with John Dickson on his "bicycle" wearing his "hemmet" when the whole thing started to turn over. I grabbed his arm and managed to keep him from hitting the pavement, but he was sort of hanging there. He goes "ooooh no!! Upside down!!" It was quite hilarious.

We've been pretty relaxed with the potty training, probably because he doesn't really do it at school (he sits, but they say he doesnt go), and so I'm not in a big hurry. And he decided he would refuse to wear underwear, so he's been wearing diapers, but keeping them dry. We finally switched from jelly beans to skittles and he agreed to wear his underwear for a skittle. He went all day Sunday with only 1 tiny accident. So I think he is doing pretty well! The problem is probably going to be me not wanting him to wear underwear in public just so he doesnt have to use public bathrooms. Its just gross.

And he is FINALLY starting to sleep! (I think I've said that several times though, so maybe not). He still wakes up about once a night but goes right back to sleep, but he is quietly reading books in his bed before drifting off. Sometimes he has something weird that he wants, like one night we didnt duct tape him and he was sobbing in there holding the roll of tape, but for the most part, he either doesn't make a sound or quiets down after he gets whatever he needs. Another night he needed a book turned to a certain page - its like 100 pages and he wanted the one page that had a soccer game on it. If he could just sleep through the night... and he's starting to sleep in a little longer like he use to. For a while there he was waking up at 6 or 6:30, and now he's back to 7:30 or 8. Or in the case of last weekend, 8:45. Heaven. My goal is to have him sleeping through the night before Henry comes, but I'm pretty sure Henry will probably sleep through the night before John Dickson.

In other news, if you hear John Dickson pointing out "mommy's boobies-es", you can just ignore that. Thanks.

Absentee Bloggers

We haven't been good at blogging lately, but that's because it would be endless posts and pictures of us sitting around sweating in our sweltering house where the air conditioner has quit working, for good. So be grateful that you have been spared. Stay tuned, however; this weekend is Zoo Tots - the 2nd and final installment, and Touch a Truck. Jealous? You should be. Cept for the heat.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations on how to keep Ellie from sleeping right up alongside me, between me and the fan of mercy, I'd love the suggestions. And if your suggestions are to lock her out, you might need to talk to John Dickson about that one, since he opens our door during the night approximately every 3 hours.

Thanks.