Vote for SMA!

Last October, a friend of mine's beautiful baby daughter was diagnosed with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) at birth, and in three short weeks passed away from this horrible disease. There's a great thing happening on facebook, where Chase Community Giving is giving money to charitable organizations based on how many votes the organizations can get from facebook users. The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, a grassroots organization committed to finding a cure for SMA, made it through the first round of voting (and received $25,000, which they promptly donated in its entirety to SMA research), but needs your help to make it to the top 5. If you have a facebook account, please go to voteforsma.com and vote for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation!

If you'd like more information on SMA, visit my friend Molly's blog: http://bootsieandbull.blogspot.com/2010/01/please-vote_16.html
or go to the website for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation: http://www.gwendolynstrong.com/

Vote! It's FREE and easy, and by voting you could help fund the research that will find a cure for a devastating disease.

"Open, open, open, close the door"

Last night as I was just about to fall asleep I heard some faint mewings over the baby monitor. It went on for a while, so after I made sure Dashiell wasn't actually awake I turned up the volume on the monitor to see if he was saying anything worthwhile...sneaky I know. :) Most of what he was saying was just babbling, and I'm sure if I was seeing what he was seeing I probably could have figured out what he was talking about since a lot of it sounded like he was trying to say actual words. The thing I did catch was him saying "open, open, open" (pronounced "opeen, opeen, opeen), followed by "close the door" (pronounced "clos-dado"). He says this all day long, anytime he needs help opening something, or if he wants a door open, or if he thinks something should open even though it can't. And "close the door" is universal to anything that needs closing, not just doors.

He sleeps as he lives--opening and closing things. :)

Sorry no picture today but I couldn't find a suitable "sleeping" picture--I know Rick has a bunch of them on his phone but I currently don't have access to them.

Vroom!

This is the last Christmas post, I swear. But we haven't been taking many pictures since then so I have to rely xmas photos to get us through!

Dashiell finally received a Cozy Coupe from Santa this year (I say "finally" since it seems that other kids got their coupes at a much younger age, but poor D had to wait). He LOVES LOVES LOVES getting in and out of it, steering it, and saying "car! car! car!" (he can never say it just once, it has to be three times). He'll even "wash" his car if he gets his hands on a paper towel, dust rag, or Kleenex.

He hasn't figured out how to make it move forward while he's in it, but since the coupe is currently house-bound that's okay by me. I'm sure by spring he'll be zipping around the neighborhood in it--I predict trouble ahead!

What I Like About You, Part II

I just thought of a few more fun things that Dashiell does and wanted to add them to the list!

-When we tickle Dashiell, he'll laugh and squirm away, then come right back for more, saying "again, again!". Sometimes he grabs our hands and puts them right back on the place last tickled, just to make sure we understand him. :) It's really the funniest thing.

-After we watched the Steve Martin episode of the Muppet Show (think 1970's Steve Martin), Dash thought it was HILARIOUS to say "excuuuuse me!", which sounded more like "schooozee-ee", but I got it. See how refined his sense of humor is already? ;)

-He says "I love you" quite often, which is nice to hear (that one sounds more like a drawn out "olive-vu"). We have a book titled "I Love You Through and Through", so sometimes he says "olive-vu-thu" instead.

The above photo was taken at my parents' house over Christmas. D was pretending to be a dog while playing with Lisa's dog Idgie. I think Idgie might have been a bit worn out at this point.