Oh boy!

Dashiell is developing quite an impressive "boy" sense of humor, and, well, I'm outnumbered!  Farts are incredibly funny, as are burps.  I'm not sure exactly how this started, but at some point Rick started saying "fooooot" (not "foot"--more of a long "o") anytime he or Dashiell passed gas, which would always send Dashiell into fits of giggles.  So, every night that Rick is working, Dashiell and I call him up right before bedtime so Rick can say goodnight to him.  About a week or so ago, Dashiell got on the phone and said "Hi daddy, fooooot!" and laughed and laughed...now it's a regular part of his greeting.  :)

Then the other day I belched and said to Dashiell, "excuse me, I burped", which was the funniest thing to him!  He kept repeating it and laughing, and now every once in a while he'll bust out an "excuse me I burped" out of no where, and crack himself up!  And he loves the part in Yertle the Turtle, when that plain little turtle named Mack burps and causes Yertle's throne to collapse.  I have to stop when it gets to the burp part so he can say "burp" in this raspy low-register voice that he uses for such occasions.  Always makes him smile.  And I admit it, I always smile too...

Once again the picture I'm posting is completely unrelated, but I feel like pictures are always necessary.  This one is Dashiell reading one of the new books his aunt Terri sent him for his birthday while eating dinner.  A habit he picked up from both Rick and me, I'm sure (reading and eating, that is).  We hadn't even read this book to him yet so he has no idea what's happening in it, but the pictures are very fun and expressive and you can see that he's enjoying it!  For the record, it's Mo Willems, "I am Invited to a Party!"  Awesome book.

Maybe not...

Funny story from last night:  We were having dinner, and Dashiell was gobbling up his pasta like crazy.  Rick said to him, "Why don't you have a bite of your green beans?" so Dashiell picked up a green bean and said "green bean really really good!"  Then he took a bite, got this grossed-out look on his face, and said "Maybe not," and put the green bean back onto his plate.  I tried so hard not to laugh, but man was it funny!  We thanked him for trying it and said it was okay if he didn't want to eat anymore. :)  For the record, he's had green beans before and liked them, though there have been other times he hasn't liked them so I think it just depends on his mood.  Green beans aren't always my favorite either, so I can't hold it against him.

Attached are a couple of pictures of Dashiell doing his new favorite outside activity: watering the plants.  Which also includes watering the sidewalk, the driveway, and his shoes.  This is a daily (if not twice daily) activity for him.  I'm hoping this will inspire me to actually do something with my yard this year!

Cause and Effect

I'm bummed to report that I finally had to give Dashiell his first time out this week.  For weeks he's been standing on his chair during meals, but usually will sit back down if I tell him to.  However the other morning, he continued to stand, saying "no dancing on chair", despite my asking him to sit down and telling him that I didn't want him to fall.  I gave him two warnings and told him if he didn't sit down he'd get a time out (not that he knew what that really was since he's never had one before).  So after the second warning I took him out of the chair and made him sit on the kitchen floor.  It involved a lot of screaming (by him) and me trying to get him to sit still, and lasted a very long 20 seconds or so.  It really wasn't fun for either of us.  But after he calmed down a bit I gave him a hug and reassured him that I still loved him and explained why he got a time out, just in case he didn't understand why it happened.

Since then, every time he stands on a chair and I ask him to sit down, he'll sit, say "time out", let out a fake cry (and it's obviously fake), then say "hug mommy" and come over and give me a hug.  So did I just teach him that time outs lead to hugs from mommy?  I mean, I guess he also understands that time outs lead to crying.  I just hope that he realizes that many other GOOD things lead to hugs from mommy, not just time outs! 

Since I didn't take any pictures of Dashiell dancing on his chair (boy would that send mixed messages!), here are a couple of random photos I took recently.  First, I bought Dashiell some new sunglasses the other day, and he's super excited about them!  I think it helps that Rick and I both wear glasses all day every day, so now he has his own glasses!  Plus after I took this picture I raved about how cool he looked and showed him the picture--which he kept wanted to look at over and over--so now it's not too difficult to get him to wear his cool new sunglasses:

The next picture I'm posting is mostly for my friend Molly and those who follow her blog.  She had JUST posted pictures of her daughter putting a bucket over her head, and the next day Dashiell (who did not see the pictures) decided to walk around the house with this wicker basket on his head.  So I guess great toddler minds think alike!  As you can see from the blurriness of the picture he was a boy on the move!  He seemed to be able to see just fine--he walked from the dining room to the kitchen and didn't bump into anything! 

What's up, Doc?

Just a quick, 5-second video--the other morning Dashiell picked up a play carrot and out of the blue said, "What's up, doc?".  Yes he has watched Bugs Bunny, and the Porky Pig book he has also features Bugs, so I guess he picked it up from one of those sources, but we've never pointed out the connection between Bugs and carrots, nor did we prompt him in any way.  He ending up repeating this pretty much continually for about 2 days.



And yes, that was a little burp beforehand. :-P