Dinner Party

Dexter and I had a dinner party the other night with Elissa and Ian. We ordered in pizza and sat around the table discussing our days. After dinner, the boys were non-stop. They were racing back and forth through the house, pretending to be race cars (Dexter has his "blinkers" on in the picture). Every once in a while, one of them would decide there was a red light and they both would stop and wait until it turned green. I served as the gas station and Elissa was the place where they changed tires. It gave Elissa and me a chance to catch up a little bit. Then, Ian discovered the Monkey Wagon and wanted a ride. Elissa was kind enough to help them get all the monkeys out and take them for a ride through the house. Our house is pretty small and I don't think she expected to be making so many 80 point turns!

Elmo's Potty Coaster

Elissa gave Dexter Ian's old Elmo's Potty to help Dexter learn about going potty (Dexy's been sitting on the potty but not going on the potty). Dexter really enjoyed playing with Elmo for a few minutes: "feeding" Elmo then getting him onto his potty when he said he had to go. Soon enough, Dexter seemed to realize that this was not just a game but an example and decided he didn't want to help Elmo go potty anymore. Later that day, I noticed that Dexter had turned Elmo's potty into his own personal drink coaster.

Bonk

Dexter made it three weeks in his big boy bed without incident (besides the croup scare). Then, one night, Ben and I were in the living room and we heard a loud bonk. Then quiet. Then whimpering. We went into Dexter's room and found him sitting on the floor with Bear Bear towards the foot of his bed. His paci, blanket, and Quackers were on the floor by the head of the bed. Apparently, he had grabbed Bear Bear on his way down.

Going Fast!

We also took Dexter out to the hill by the Riverside Library for sledding fun. He LOVED going fast down the hill and, suprisingly to me, wanted to walk back up the hill himself rather than be pulled up in the sled by Daddy. Go figure.

Snow!!

We finally got a few inches - first time this season despite all the predictions of a snowier winter than last year. Dexter got to bundle up, take a ride in his sled on his walk with My Bologna, and build a snowman in the back yard.

Croup

It was New Year's Eve and Dexter fell right asleep in his brand new big boy bed. Ben and I settled in for a low-key, relaxing New Year's celebration and started our new Netflix series, "Big Love". In the middle of the first episode, we heard awful noises coming from Dexter's room and ran to see what was going on. We found Dexter sitting up in bed, red faced, gasping for breath - it was terrifying! I remembered my mother telling me about bringing the child into the bathroom steamed up with hot water from the shower to relieve croup symptoms. So we tried that. It didn't do any good and seemed to only make Dexter more upset (which made Mommy and Daddy more upset). We brought him back to his room and Ben watched Dexter while I called the doctor. Dexter's doctor had just gotten home from a party and, after hearing Dexter's symptoms, immediately diagnosed Croup and gave us the option of getting some steroids to reduce the inflammation in his bronchial tubes so he would breath more comfortably. We took that option and right at midnight, Dexter got his medication. Mommy and Daddy didn't sleep much that night. Not the rocking nights we used to have and not the relaxing evening we had planned...Happy New Year, parents everywhere!