Dallas and Books

Dallas has always been a go-go-go sort of child. Even when he was little(r) he wanted to be down on the floor moving, not held and cuddled. He started rolling over, crawling, and walking fairly early. In fact his speech delay could probably be fully attributed to his lack of slowing down. He wouldn't sit still and watch us when we talked to him, he wasn't figuring out how to make the sounds with his mouth (plus the signing - talking by moving - was right up his alley).

Now-a-days he is still a go-er and do-er with one exception: books. He really loves books. And he sits still to look at them. Naptime and bedtime, better known as "quiet time" around these parts, always includes books for Dallas to look at, and often me reading to him as well. His taste is leaning towards longer and longer books.

The other day I read him Pooh's Heffalump Movie Book word-for-word and asked him questions about the pictures ("Who is hiding?" "How is Tigger feeling?") making the book take close to fifteen minutes. He wasn't the slightest bit ansy, even at the end. If you have had the pleasure of experiencing Dallas first-hand, you know him sitting still that long is a pretty big deal.

I hope when I check on him at night in the future I will be greeted by more scenes like this.

That Test

I figured I would put a little update in about that test I took a month ago that I was complaining about over two months ago.

Apparently there was a need to complain and not a need to worry.

I passed.

The scoring was 100-300 with anything over 240 passing. The test was broken up into three sub-tests: reading, writing, and mathematics. I passed all of them by a wide margin, acing the math portion.

After I got my scores in the mail I just had to show it to Cam. Then, like a little kid, I had to go tell my mom and dad how well I did. I guess you are never too old for some parental praise.

Christmas PJ's

I have a sometimes bad habit of taking pictures of things with the intent to blog... and then it doesn't happen. I happened upon this beauty:



It is a family tradition (like in many families I am realizing) to make (or purchase) new PJ's for Christmas. This year Cameron and I braved the early morning Black Friday at JoAnne's Fabric (where we spent two and a half hours, split between the cutting line and the register) to buy flannel at $1.50/yd.

Dallas has been into rockets and things "blasting off" ever since this summer. It may have had something to do with launching homemade model rockets on the Fourth of July... even though, at the time, the sound was very scary to him.

Cam and I count to three after we ask Dallas to stop doing something before we enforce (you know, the time you give the child to make the correct choice on their own... or maybe it is the time you give yourself, silently pleading that they WILL do the right thing on their own so you don't have to get up and clean up yet another mess...). At times Dallas will end our stern "three" with a "blast off" or a blast-off sound.

So when we were in JoAnne's and I found an amazing spaceship/rocket/outer-space themed flannel print, I was ecstatic.

At home when I pulled all the flannel out and started making Chelane's pair, Dallas moseyed over and saw his print. He didn't let go of it for well over an hour.

I was thinking "SCORE!" If only I can be this in tune with what he likes once he hits his teenage years...

Baby Songs

Anyone ever watch "Baby Songs" back in the day? It is a compilation of songs with catchy lyrics (scroll down on the linked page and read "Security" if nothing else... it is totally Dallas), upbeat music, with fun (usually related) skits all written by some dude named Hap Palmer and a lady named Martha Cheney. I remember there being three volumes and I loved them when I was little.

While looking through my parents' video cabinet I found one volume survived my sister's mass de-junking and put it on for Dallas.

I have very mixed feelings about the video:

1) Dallas requests to watch it at least once a day since I made him watch it the first time.

2) Dallas is trying to (and does a very good job many times) sing along. He tries to match the words and the notes, since he is still barely talking, this is AWESOME!

3) I knew all the songs when I was little and it only took one go-through to remember them and now they are always stuck in my head. This is not so awesome.

Luckily this lone surviving video is NOT the one with the freaky monkey-highchair skit, but does have the disturbing alien-bathtub scene.

You win some, you loose some.

The English Language

Dallas has been going through a contrary phase for, well, ever. With his increasing verbal skills his protests to "Dallas please help me" have gone from "no" to "no mommy" to "no help me, mommy" (the "no help me, mommy" is him negating what I ask him to do... he isn't asking for me to help him instead).

This morning, before breakfast, we were cleaning up last night's mess (Dallas had a bit of a melt down on the way to bed last night, so not much cleaning got done). I asked Dallas to help me, par always, and got the, "No help me, mommy. No help me. No help... you. No help you, mommy."

At least he is using proper pronouns when he protests now...

Chelane, on the other hand, is a helper. She love to put things "in," many people mistake this for loving to clean-up, which she doesn't always want to do.

However yesterday, with Dallas being contrary, I asked him to put his blanket, which was out in the family room, on his bed. Dallas refused and walked away. Exasperated, I turned to Chelane and said, "Chelane can you go put Dallas' blanket on his bed?" and she did. I will admit I was not expecting it. This morning Chelane also put her binkie and stuffed Nemo fish back in her crib on the first request.

I am amazed at her receptive comprehension and of her willingness to obey. Please tell me this isn't just a phase.