4th of July Berry Flag

Dexter was proud of the fact that he made the blue icing and constructed his own berry flag in celebration of this nation's birthday.

Hotel Adventure: Bedtime Musings

I actually enjoyed Dexter's inability to fall asleep in the hotel bed because he was perfectly content to lay in bed sharing his musings, questions, and suggestions for updating a lullaby.  

And then the storm will put down the electricity to go down the steps and the elevator.

 We drove such a long way to see some taxis and a sign on a cactus? (looking up at the two pieces of "art" in the hotel room)

Rock a bye, deer
On the tree top under the water
He catches a duck and he catches a bird
He catches a fox and he catches a fish
And he goes to sleep
Rock a bye, deer

Making the Most of It

Despite the air conditioning at the hotel not being fully functional, and despite the small size of the room (especially when we pulled out the sleeper bed that Dexter would be sleeping on), we all managed to make the best of it.

The Unexpected Hotel Adventure

Poor Dexter thought he would be going to Jump Zone on Tuesday morning but our plans unexpectedly changed.  At a little past 5pm on Monday, our power went out.  This was more than 24 hours after a crazy storm went through the area causing lots of other folks in the Chicago area to lose power.  During the 95 degree heat on Monday, as I was listening to stories of power outages on the radio, I felt bad for how many folks were probably sweltering in the weather, I was grateful that we had dodged the bullet with air conditioning in tact.  I would not have immediately noticed that our power went out had it not been for Dexter's "hollerer" (the baby-monitor) beeping due to losing its connection to its base.  It still took me a while to get what was really happening - I thought the hollerer was broken and told Dexy that Daddy would fix it when he got home.  It wasn't until I glanced at the digital clock to check on my timing for Dexter's bedtime routine that I realized we were screwed. I told Dexy that we were having a "no power adventure" and that we had to hurry up his bedtime routine so that we could read books by the sunlight. Dexter was curious about the electricity asking all sorts of interesting questions about wires, lights, and electricity. When he fell asleep, I was still hopeful the power would come back on momentarily.  This was not to be the case.

The next morning, we woke up sweaty and determined to find a cool (hoping for frigid, actually) place for us to spend the night (communications from Com Ed indicated power would be back July 4 or July 5). At Starbucks, Dexter, Daddy, and I looked for nearby, reasonably priced hotels that acccepted pets.  During all of this, Dexter excitedly told anybody who would listen, "We have no power! We are going to have a hotel adventure!" We all ended up cooling off at a Hampton Inn in a far south suburb. While Dexter managed to experience it as an adventure, Mommy was at her wits end, stuck in a tiny hotel room with a three year old and a nervous dog when daddy went to work.

Making Imagination Come to Life

I am constantly amazed by Dexter's  ability to translate the world inside his head into reality. He's got a great imagination and, despite our efforts at keeping the blocks and cars and trains and tracks contained in the corner of our living room called "Railroad City", Dexter continually finds more challenging terrain for the manifestations of his imaginings.

Happy Half-Birthday (Not)!

On Friday, my officemate noted that it was Dexter's half-birthday and asked if I would be getting him a half-birthday cake.  Frankly, I hadn't thought about it before but liked the idea of recognizing that Dexter was now 3 and a half - mostly because I saw it as an opportunity to promote the fact that he is becoming a "big boy" and all the big boy things that come along with that (poops on the potty, falling to sleep by himself).  When I got home from work, I made a big deal to Dexter about his half-birthday and Daddy and I took him to Two Toots restaurant - one of those Old-Timey restaurants where the model trains deliver the food to the tables. On the ride to Two Toots, however, I started counting the months and realized that we were a month late - Dexter turned three and a half on May 29th, not June 29th.  Whoops. Nonetheless, Dexter had a wonderful not half-birthday (he still thought it was his half-birthday).