Lansing Men Engrossed in Legos

Despite his exhaustion after Chuck-E-Cheese, Dex opened his birthday gifts from Grandma and Gunker when we got home. Legos!

Gunker, Daddy, and Dex went to town on the legos - all three of them probably could have stayed up all night building structures and vehicles!

Gone Goofy with His Crown

Dexter was pretty much delirious by the end of the party. He started getting really goofy with his special Chuck-E-Cheese birthday boy crown.

When we noticed Dexter could no longer focus his eyes, we knew it was time to head home.

Ticket Mania

We were a little concerned about Dexter going into the ticket-blowing booth at Chuck-E-Cheese. He gets "concerned" about loud noises (when he goes to a public restroom, he keeps his ears covered for of someone flushing!). So we brought along his sound-muffling headphones and hoped for the best. Turns out he loved it!  

Birthday Pandemonium

Dex and Ian had a great time at their Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party!

 Playing games with his good friend from Tae Kwon Do, Tabitha.

A little apprehensive playing the balloon popping game with Daddy.

Excited to dig into cake!

Shushing at Daddy's Church Gig

Grandma and Gunker took Dex to Ben's church gig Sunday morning while I stayed at home to work on a presentation for school. They reported that Dexter was very good during the service - he remained quiet and still throughout the service.



There was one instance of reciprocal shushing between Dex and little boy sitting in front of him - even though Ben could hear it from up front, it wasn't very disruptive and Grandma reeled in Dex pretty quickly.

Drum Cakes

Dex helped decorate the birthday cakes by putting the round balls around the top and bottom edges.

Birthday Cakes Egg-Cracker

Dexter helped make the birthday cakes for his and Ian's joint birthday party by cracking the eggs. He did a great job for his first-ever egg-cracking effort!

Gunker-Time

Dex had a great time hanging out with (and on) Gunker!

My Bologna got all sort of excited when Gunker started tossing Dex around.

Grandma Couldn't Be Happier

Ben's parents came to visit for the weekend and Grandma showed up with her styling scissors and styling products. She went to town cutting Dexter's hair. He got a little antsy (the three times I've cut his hair, it's taken less than 5 minutes) but she managed give him a stylin' do in about 15 minutes. Grandma was in her element and Dexter was tolerant.

He Doesn't Say How He's Going to Catch It

But he describes in detail how it should be prepared.

Thanksgiving at Pre-K

Dex had a Thanksgiving luncheon at school this week. It was for all students and their mother or another "important woman in their lives." Unfortunately, I had to give a presentation at school and Elissa had to work and Grandma wouldn't be arriving until the next day. So Ben went and represented all the significant women in Dex's life. 

The students and their "moms" also had to bring in something to share with the class related to their nationalities. Ben and Dexter performed an Irish tune with Ben on Octave mandolin and Dexy on shakers.

The kids all performed a few songs and everyone enjoyed a pot luck meal.

Thank you, Daddy, for taking pictures of our little pilgrim (and of the special turkey he made!).

I Love Hot Dogs

The other day, Dex told Ben that he wanted to write a message for Mommy. Ben suggested he write it on the chalkboard. When I came home that evening, Dex excitedly showed me the message he wrote. We have no idea how he came up with the idea (or why this was a message for Mommy) but the message is clear.

Jenga Skyscraper

Dex is pretty good at the game, Jenga. He and Ben play fairly often (it's way too nerve racking for me!). But Dex also loves to use the Jenga blocks for building skyscrapers with fantastic "decorations" on top. I tried to convince him to call it a spire so that it would count for the height of the building but he insisted it was just a decoration.

Riding Out the Storm

While Dex and I were watching the weather on the TV last weekend when the state was plagued with horrible storms and tornadoes. Dex heard the weathercaster recommend that people protect their heads with bike helmets and go to the basement if a tornado warning was activated for their area. Dex heeded his instructions even though we were spared an actual tornado warning.

Making Progress?

Dex is still keeping up the swimming lessons but his enthusiasm is waning. He worries about getting his face wet and water in his nose. He also insists that the instructor hold onto him the whole time for fear of sinking (something that he didn't used to do).  

There are four kids in the class - two of them are fearless swimmers already. It can get a little chaotic!

Dexter's favorite swimming instructor is Jose but Dex insists on calling Rose. We can't convince him otherwise.

Dylan's Rambunctious Birthday Party

Dexy's friend, Dylan, had his 5th birthday party at an outlet for a place that manufactures monstrous backyard play sets.

Dex enjoyed swinging on a tire swing for the very first time,

Sliding, and

Climbing the rope ladder!

Battery-Free Entertainment

The other day Dex chose the etch-a-sketch over his electronic learning games when he was looking for something to do. He was engrossed with it for a good 20 minutes.

"Take a picture of my design, Mommy!"

Unexpected Pattern

Dex has been suffering from a cold so a couple of nights ago, we got some wonton soup for him. Dexter likes to separate his "broth" from the "noodles" so he had a bowl of each in front of him and went back and forth eating a spoonful of broth then a spoonful of noodles.  In the midst of this he said, "Broth, noodles, broth. That's a pattern!" "That's right!" Ben and I replied.  Ben then asked him what came next in that pattern to which Dex replied without hesitation, "Ice cream sandwich".

Fast Hands Trophy

For all of the Tiny Tigers, the "judges" did not give a score but rather gave them feedback about something they thought the child performed really well. In Dexter's case, they liked his "fast hands".  At the end, all the kids received a (huge) trophy. Dexter's trophy did not have his name on it but it did indicate his "fast hands" accomplishment. When I asked Dexy later what his favorite part of the tournament was, he replied, without missing a beat, "Getting the trophy."

Songahm One

A couple of weeks ago, I took Dexter to his first ever Tae Kwon Do tournament. He "competed" in the Tiny Tigers ring where he went through his Songahm One form. His regular instructor, Ms. Garcia, was a "judge" in his ring but another judge helped him through his form (all of the Tiny Tigers had a helper leading them through the form). "Give it up for Dexter!!!"

Measurement Error

A few nights back, as Ben and I were silently laying in bed waiting for sweet sleep, Ben said, "Dex was in the bathroom today and he said, 'Daddy, it's 16 squares from the toilet paper roll to the bathtub.'" I burst out laughing imagining the bathroom scene with Dex pulling the toilet paper over to the tub and counting the squares. Then Ben said, "And then Dex said, 'Daddy, the potty is clogged.'" The next day when I was home with Dex, he went to the bathroom and announced from behind the closed bathroom door, "Mommy, it's 22 squares from the toilet paper roll to the bathtub."  "Don't put that in the toilet!" I shouted. We're proud that he figured out how to use the toilet paper squares as a unit of measurement but I'm a little concerned about the size of his measurement error.

Enjoying the Fruits of His Labor

I think eating his candy was the least exciting aspect of Halloween for Dex. He ate some on Halloween night but was less excited than I expected.

The following day he really enjoyed making another "costume" with some Halloween goodies he collected. Centipede on head, funny glasses and nose, fangs, and spooky finger.

Trick-Or-Treating (with Help)

Dex loved trick-or-treating in his ghost costume. He would announce, "Trick or treat! I'm Dexter and I'm a ghost!" at every house. Ben and I had to guide him down the sidewalk (no peripheral vision) and Ben had to carry him up and down the front steps to ring doorbells (tripping on the costume and couldn't see his feet).

Enthusiastic Distributor

I had class until 5pm on Halloween which meant I didn't make it home until about 7pm. Dex didn't mind waiting to go out trick-or-treating - when I got home, he was out on the front porch, enthusiastically handing out candy to trick-or-treaters AND their parents...

and shouting at passing cars to stop for candy.  He wanted to show me how to hand out the candy and when I did, he looked at me and said (beaming with pride), "Great job, Mommy!"

Oh My Monster

Dexter loved practicing this at home with Mommy and Daddy (I can no longer remember the real words to "Clementine"!). He was very adamant that we all do the finger waving at the appropriate time in the song. "When we sing 'don't come near me', you have to put up your pointer finger and make it go left and right and left and right and left and right."

Grand Entrance at the School Halloween Production

Concentrating on Pumpkin Carving

Dex got really into designing and carving the jack-o-lanterns this year:

Dex drew the face onto the pumpkin...

 Daddy carved...

 Dex poked the pieces out.

We each created a jack-o-lanterns. Mine used an earlier design of Dexter's that had a large diamond eye and a small triangle eye, Daddy's was a dog jack-o-lantern, and Dex's had two different shaped eyes, "one like a duck and one like an 8".

Tae Kwon Do Halloween Disadvantage

When the instructor said that the kids should dress up in their costumes for the class Halloween party at Tae Kwon Do, I didn't think they would be doing Tae Kwon Do.  They actually mixed proper Tae Kwon Do moves with some games.

Poor Dex! He could barely see and his movements were thwarted by the fabric covering his whole body! Still, he gave it his all.

 The instructor could not stop laughing because every time Dex fell - and he fell plenty, tripping over his costume - he said in a resigned tone, "[Sigh]. Not again..."

He was a little sweat-ball covered in cloth with his eye holes above his eyebrows by the time class was done.

Shaming Mommy and Daddy?

The other day we were at a restaurant with Dexter and he asked if he could order chocolate milk (damn those kids' menus that have pictures!). He had been good all day so we let him get chocolate milk. Towards the end of our meal, Dex turned around in his chair to a family sitting at a table behind us and announced, "My name is Dexter. I'm four years old, almost five. This is the first time I have had chocolate milk at a restaurant."  The parents cracked up and Ben and I turned bright red. I was shocked at how ashamed I felt, like we had been depriving Dex of something all his life! Even though Dexter's tone wasn't accusatory (it was a matter of fact announcement) and even though I feel glad that we don't get him chocolate milk at restaurants, it still felt a little like he was publicly shaming us.

Hoop Kicks and Dodge

Bear Walk