Toddlin' Two's!

Yesterday was Dexter's first day of "school". OK, not really "school". OK, not really "day". Dexter started a twice a week, hour and a half drop-off class for two year olds run by our town's park district. Ben dropped him off, no problems. In fact, Dexter saw the train set and took off running as Daddy was trying to say good-bye. When Ben came back to pick him up an hour and a half later, he could see through the door into the classroom and Dexter was playing by himself at a table of games. Then the "teacher" herded him over to sit in a circle with about 12 other toddling two's. She opened the door to let the parents collect their kids and Dexter saw Ben, smiled, pointed, and yelled, "Daddy!" The teacher told Ben she couldn't believe this was Dexter's first time without us - he did great. We're so glad he seems to like it and hope that the socializing with other kids and time away from us will be good for him. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

F-Hole

Ben has been teaching Dexter all sorts of guitar terminology. Today's new word was "f-hole", the hole cut into the front of hollow body electric guitars. Am I impressed with Dexter's expanding vocabulary? Yes! Am I concerned that others who are unfamiliar with the term may hear something other than "f-hole" when he says it? Yes!

Tumble

This afternoon as we left the house to get Mommy's apres-snack/pre-dinner latte, Dexter tumbled down the 6 steps from our back door to the backyard. He had taken the first step without holding onto the railing and as I was going to grab hold of his hand, he took another step, lost his footing, and rolled on his side down the rest of the steps to the ground. Thinking back on it now, he really fell like a pro - he tucked his head and arms in and just rolled. The look on his face was total confusion. Needless to say, when he came to rest at the bottom of the stairs, he was not happy about what had just happened. Neither was I! I was terrified but didn't want to cause any further alarm. I picked him up and hugged him, rubbed his little body, and told him that he was going to be OK, it was just a fall. After a couple minutes of screaming, he walked to the garage and got in the car, no problem. The problem came when we returned home and it was time to climb back up the stairs. Dexter refused. I thought it was important that he face his fear so I "assisted" him by walking right behind him to make him feel safe and "helping" him put one foot in front of the other. We were successful and he is happily running around and shooting hoops right now. I'm just so relieved that it wasn't worse.

Beh Beh Cheese and Acker

Although not a flood of expanded vocabulary, we have definitely seen a steady dribble of new words coming out of Dexter since his second birthday. He's been randomly, and not so randomly, spouting a bunch of new words - mostly for objects that he is familiar with. He's also been stringing together words like, "Daddy up," and, "Mama home." On Christmas Eve day, we all took a family walk in the neighborhood and when Dexter pointed out a "beh beh" in a manger on someone's front lawn (there are lots of Christmas decorations in our neighbors' front yards), I said, "That's Baby Jesus," and Dexter said, "Beh beh Cheese." Yesterday, Ben, Dexter and I drove through our local Starbucks around 6:30pm only to find that they had closed early for New Year's Eve. I said, "slackers," and Dexter repeated (kind of), "Acker". I was so thankful that I didn't use a stronger word to express my disappointment at not getting an evening Starbucks treat!