Out of the Mouth of Babes...

While at a resturaunt for Mom's birthday, Dallas had some deep conversations with his uncle Dane...

Dane: Yeah, we were just talking about stocks and stuff. Dallas what are your thoughts about the economy?

Dallas: (after a short pause) Uh-oh.

Now That is Talent

This was taken the last Sunday in June. Our church is from 11-2, prime lunch and nap time for Dallas. When we get home we stuff some lunch into him and try to get him in bed quickly. Once and a while (when we are unlucky) he falls asleep in the car home and is a mess until he is able to go back to sleep (or he catches his second wind and refuses to go back to sleep at all).

The last Sunday in June was an interesting case...

Bed Time

Dallas tends to fight going to bed, but really what kid doesn't? Cam and I try to have a routine around bed time of: cleaning up, putting on pj's, brushing teeth, reading books, and saying prayers before putting (locking) him in his room.

It has become a family affair with Chelane joining in on the fun; although she escapes the teeth brushing (which we should start soon) and usually is spared being locked in the room right away. She even participates in the cleaning up by putting toys in their bins. It can be the cutest thing you have ever seen a 9 month-old do.

Anyway, the book-reading and prayer-saying takes place on Dallas' bed, which can barely accommodate one adult, let alone an adult and two children.


Chelane tends to smack Dallas when they are in such close quarters. Dallas usually just says something like "no, ses" ("no Chelane" or "no sister"... we aren't too sure which one) and moves her hand away. Other times he just takes it and doesn't complain. He is a great older brother.


Cam has been laying off the drugs since that last picture was taken, I promise...

Dallas enjoys putting baby leg-warmers on his arms. I think he is trying to start a trend.

Another nighttime ritual on Wednesdays is a bath. We used to bathe the kids separately, but since Chelane is sitting up just fine, we decided to see how they fair together.

They have a blast splashing and dumping water on each other. Chelane has picked up how to drink bath water from a cup thanks to Dallas' great example...

Miss Independent

Chelane has started waving her arms frantically around after a only a few spoonfuls of food, inevitably hitting the spoon and sending food flying onto her tray and face. The frustrating thing is that she is isn't doing this because she is full, oh no, on the contrary she is still hungry. Someone is starting to not want to be fed anymore (or at least that is my diagnosis).

So, Cam and I decided to stop fighting it. Last night for dinner and this morning for breakfast Chelane has fed herself finger food. She seems to enjoy doing things herself. We set up Dallas and Chelane's chairs right next to each other as well to encourage Dallas to share.

Last night dinner consisted of some cut up canned pears, peas, half a cheese stick, and cheerios. Normally we give Dallas his peas frozen but, since his sister was trying solid peas for the first time (and she only has two and a half teeth), we heated the peas to room temperature. Chelane decided she really liked peas. She has the cutest little pincer grasp and shoveles those peas right in.

Cam and I discovered Dallas should only be fed frozen peas. He discovered how far you can launch the insides of peas by pinching their shells... he almost shot one into the living room.

Our Little Problem Solver

Dallas has been keeping us on our toes pretty much since birth. He got mobile early on in his career and hasn't ever seemed to stop moving, exploring, and breaking through boundaries except to sleep.

Cam has started to tape the childproof doorknobs together with packing tape because Dallas has popping those things off the door down to a science. Dallas has also been known to improvise and use baby-wipe containers to give him that little extra boost to - among other things - reach light switches or climb into his sister's crib.

His ingenuity exasperates and excites us. The other day he topped himself. He was carrying in a bag of three cereal boxes from the car. The cereal was stretching the bag to its limits; Dallas had to hold each bag handle with one hand. When he got to the garage stairs he reached a seeming impasse: the stairs are a little farther apart than normal steps and Dallas needs a free hand to steady himself. Dallas tried to hold the bag with one hand by stretching his thumb and pinky to their extremes. It worked for a moment and then his pinky popped out.

At this point I overtook Dallas and continued into the house thinking, "If he hasn't come in by the time I get the milk put away in the fridge, I'll come back and help him." Before I had gotten the fridge door closed Dallas came tromping in the house carrying one box of cereal. Without any prompting he set the box on the table, turned around and proceeded to bring in the other two boxes.

I guess this probably doesn't seem like much to many people, but I am proud of my two and a half year-old for thinking outside the box and getting his task done against all odds!