Bonding Extravaganza: Tuesday

I would just like you to note that today is October 5... John Dickson's half birthday! Happy 2.5 to him!!! It also happens to be Adam's cousin Jackson's 20th birthday! Happy 20 to him!!



And the best part of it all is that they got to celebrate together. We met up with the Griffeths (less Kirkley and Will) at the Esso Club for lunch today. It was Henry's first time.



Well, it was John Dickson's first time too, but he wasn't the one sitting next to the sign. Anyhoo, we had a delicious lunch followed by some awesome homemade zucchini bread. Both boys were angels, despite sitting there for an hour and a half. I was impressed.

We decided to go to PetSmart to check out the animals and buy crickets for our gecko, who, by the way, does NOT have an english accent. I feel mislead. Anyway, I know that doesn't really sound like extravaganza material, but John Dickson loves it! Check him out.




Are you as in love with his new hat as I am??? I don't know what I'm going to do when his head gets bigger... he is in the biggest size at Janie and Jack... I'm going to have to find a new place to buy adorable hats. Not an easy feat when you are looking for adorable boy hats.

We wrapped up the afternoon of day 2 by playing on the playset that is now 2/3 of the way together. John Dickson is sort of afraid of the slide, and so "playing" consisted of him climbing up and jumping to me from every side. I so wish I had 48 hour days - 24 with Hen and 24 with John Dickson. I love so much to be with them and give them my full attention, but juggling the two of them is hard. Anyway, John Dickson and I had fun outside while Henry took a little snooze. And then we made some pretty awesome potato heads, if we do say so ourselves.

Bonding Extravaganza: Monday

John Dickson is staying home this week for Mommy/John Dickson/Henry bonding extravaganza (who doesn't love an extravaganza?). So naturally, we are trying to stay busy and cram as much as we can into this week. It's harder than it sounds, since everything we do has to revolve around where half decent toilets are (Did I mention John Dickson hasn't worn a diaper, other than to bed, in a MONTH??), Henry's mood and the amount of time I can leave him in his infant carrier, and of course we live about 20-30 minutes from everything fun... but we are troopers :-) So to kick off bonding week, we bundled up for the chilly weather and headed out.



First stop: Story time at the library, complete with a guest appearance from the local firemen and a tour of a real truck. I didn't think John Dickson would get on the truck - he has had a few experiences with sirens scaring him - but he was all over it. Literally.






After story time, we made our way to get John Dickson's haircut. Now I know that doesn't sound like much fun, but he's been asking for it for a week, and he got a sucker. Who doesn't like suckers?? (Well, I don't, but thats beside the point).

We wrapped up the afternoon by watching Cars, and then John Dickson spent the early evening "helping" Adam put together his new play set. I'll put some pictures up when it's finished.

Tummy Time Pt Deux

Henry reminds me of Ross when he finds his old report card:

Math: A
Science: A
History: A
Reading: A
Gym: ...



Come on Hen... or "Dr. Henry Kelley" as you will one day insist that we call you.

A John Dickson Update

Does it seem like we go to the doctor a lot? I mean, none of us has been sick in over 6 months, and yet, I counted up our doctor and dentist appointments in the last 2.5 months... thirteen. In the words of Brian Fellow, "that's crazy!!" For those of you Safari Planet lovers, you should also know that John Dickson identified "a dawg, and a baby dawg!!" yesterday. So proud.



Also proud of that.

Anyhoo, the good news is that John Dickson does not have allergies. The bad news is that he has had a sinus infection for probably more than a year. He acts perfectly fine and never has ear infections or a sore throat or any of that mess, he just has a cough and a chronic runny nose. The allergist said that a normal round of antibiotics probably made it better, but was never enough to kick it, and so it has never gone away. I feel terrible that this has been going on so long, but its not for lack of us trying to identify the problem! So he's on a 3 week round of antibiotics, and hopefully we can kick this gunk once and for all.

That's all.

Who are you wearing??

Of Mice and Men

We love downtown Greenville. We could spend all day down there, and have many times! One thing we have never attempted, however, is to find the mice on Main Street... until yesterday... dun dun dun. There are 9 bronze mice hidden around Main Street. We've come across the same one several times and we always say we need to do that one day, so we finally did. Well, we failed. We only found 8 (thanks to Papa for phoning in the clues), but now we have something to do next time we go back!



We took pictures with all of the mice, but it was just not a photogenic day for the Kelley fam.



John Dickson was too serious in his hunt to crack any smiles. Only John Dickson wasn't just hunting mice... he was also hunting men.




He found two.

Henry did this:

The John Dickson Fridays

Oh, John Dickson... John Dickson, John Dickson, John Dickson... I could go on and on just saying his name and shaking my head, but that's no fun to read. What have we gotten ourselves into?? This kid is too smart. Seriously.

So, as you may know, I have John Dickson and Henry all to myself Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. In order for this to work, John Dickson has to be cooperative. Has to "listen", if you will. He, however, has decided to do everything in his power to do just the opposite. Consequences? HA, he says. Take for example, last night. He had to go to his room for a little bit, so he went, without so much as protesting. Then he threw his fan down. When this didn't get me in there, he peed, on purpose. He then slid his underwear out under the door and said "need to put this in the dryer, Mama".

Later last night, he was supposed to be sleeping. He wanted to come out and play. So... he says "I pee pee jammies, Mama". So I open the door, and he is holding his diaper and his pajama pants. I felt his pants, and they were dry, so I told him we would put on a new diaper. I then walked past him to get the new diaper, and he runs out of the room as fast as he can.

He also has this ability to turn control back to him. I don't know how he does it, but I don't even realize it has happened until I realize what I have just said. He's like a wizard. So, we will put him in his room, and he will stay there for a good maybe 10 minutes. Then, when we go to get him out, he says no, and he slams the door in our faces. Then I find myself asking him permission for me to come in his room!! It's insane.

If you know John Dickson, you know he is nothing if not a milkaholic. So last night, when we were going to get him milk, and he decided not to listen, he got water instead. He had water for dinner, and was told if he listened, he would get milk after his bath. He was totally cool with that. This child has NEVER been cool with not having milk. It's totally worth it to him, if it means he can do the opposite of what I want him to do.

We're running out of ideas... and no, we do not, nor will we, do spankings. So if you've got some better suggestions, we'd love to hear them. In the meantime, John Dickson will just continue to drink water, not watch "Old NcNonald", not take baths, go to bed early, spend time in his room, and sleep without his tower fan. And he'll be A-ok with that... that's the challenge.

On an unrelated note, I asked John Dickson last night if he was my baby. He told me he had a booger in his nose. Good times.

Hen

Who wants to hear the stats when there is no precious picture to accompany them? My bad. The best part about this outfit is when you rub the bird, Hen smiles.



How about that blonde hair coming in??

Henry - The Stats

Weight - 13 lbs 7.5 oz (JD was 13 lbs 8.5 oz)& 79th percentile
Height - 25 inches (JD was 23.5) & 95th percentile
Head - 97th percentile

Henry still has his two holes in his heart, but they haven't gotten any bigger, and the cardiologist says he doesn't need to see him back for 2 years. He still expects them to close on their own, but doesn't think they will cause problems if they do not. Adam got some blood sent off to begin the genetic testing for HCM (totally unrelated to Henry's murmur), and so the visits were both positive. I asked the pediatrician how to make Henry sleep... we were hoping for a gin vs. bourbon kind of recommendation, but she actually didn't have much to offer. Ol Hen goes to sleep pretty easily, he just doesn't stay asleep, and there's not a whole lot we can do about that.

However, Henry chose last night to go 10 hours with only one time waking up in the middle. And seeing as how I also went to bed at 8:30, it was wonderful. And today he is taking a record long nap in his crib. We've been trying to get him to nap there instead of just the swing or on us, and today he finally gave in. Whoo hoo!!!

A Couple More

My sweet sweet boys. Do you know what they are doing here?

This is John Dickson touching Henry's face in the sweet way he always touches Henry.



This is John Dickson reading Henry a book.



This is John Dickson giving Henry a kiss.



These are best buds.



This is a proud big brother.