Monday, April 27, 2009

Language Explosion

Woah. Wow. Phew. This kid can talk! In the last 36 hours, I swear, he has learned a couple dozen new words. I'm not kidding. Something must have clicked in his brain a couple days ago because there's no shutting this kid up now. He is repeating every word I say and then using it correctly (while pointing to the correct object) again later in the day. It's incredible. In the past day and half, we have added the following words to his already strong 18 month old repertoire:

table, water, cereal, spoon, pineapple, watermelon, tiger, window, rug, turtle, piano, bus, truck, dirty, cold, bag, bread, bib, flower, yogurt

"Dirty" is my current favorite - he says it with a strong American accent and he definitely understands what it is. He went to a spot on the kitchen floor that had caked food on it and pointed, saying "Dirty, dirty." It was great. We just need to get him a mop now.

He has repeated numerous other words - he's mimicking EVERYTHING - so it will be interesting to see what else he has retained.

Wow! It's amazing! I told you this kid was a genius!

Friday, April 24, 2009

18 Months Old

These pictures were taken on Dor's 18 month "birthday" in his new trendy hippie clothes. James goes on tour and the first thing I do is take Dori and I shopping! We both got new clothes (I worked overtime the last couple weeks of tax season and we got a big tax refund so I was able to justify it to myself). I just love buying clothes for Dorian because we don't do it very often. Hannah gives us a lot of hand-me-downs from Rowan and Joshy, and my mom loves to bring home an item or two of clothing every now and then. We also have bought a bag of clothes each year at the White Elephant Sale since Dorian was born (we spend like $15 for a massive garbage bag full of used clothes). But Dorian needed a swimsuit and I couldn't resist buying these cool hippie-style shorts, brown polo shirt (I love the chocolate browns on little boys!), and surfer top while we were out. And I got him to smile for the pictures too...guess how? He has learned to say "Cheese" for the camera and he thinks it's hilarious!









Note: If this weren't a picture of a child, I'd love for someone to photoshop a joint in D's hand - the expression on his face looks like he just took a big drag out of a joint and is holding it in (coupled with the position of his fingers, the hippie top, and just chilling on the sidewalk - it would make an awesome pic!)

Catch Up

As usual, time passes by. I know you're all thinking, "How very profound - I now remember why I visit this blog." Okay, that was supposed to be funny. Was it? Or is my shameless effort at humor funny in and of itself? Or am I failing miserably? I know this is not my complaining blog anymore (visit www.becomingabetterkelly.blogspot.com later tonight for complaints and vents) but let me just say this: I am tired. It is hard, hard work caring for a toddler on your own. James gets back in 1 week, 2 days and I can not freaking wait. Thank goodness for my friends Nathalie and Kate, and both sets of grandparents. Graham and Jenny watched Dorian the first 2 days James was away. Nathalie & her husband took Dorian for part of last Sunday (along with their 2 kids!) and Kate watched Dorian 2 six hour days for me this week. My parents are going to help out this week-end and I have Kate and another friend lined up to help out next week. I simply can't do 14-16 waking hours every day (plus broken nights) for 19 days straight on my own. I don't know how people do it. I would literally go insane. Anyway, enough complaining! Poor little Dor has been cutting his last two teeth the past week so I know that added to the poor sleeping. And he does miss his Dad - he keeps running around the house, opening doors and calling out "Dada." It's very sweet. When James talks to him on the phone, he calms right down and just listens wistfully. I am so glad those two have bonded. I really do feel like James and I are equal parents now. In the beginning, it was all about me because I was the milk machine. I liked that at first, to be honest, but now that we have temper tantrums and still sleep issues to deal with, I'm glad James is as responsible for him as I am!

Dorian is a handful right now because his sleep is still so wacked and temper tantrums can be plentiful when he's tired. But, let's put all that aside for the moment and focus on the wonder that is this child. He went to the pediatrician this week for his 18 month check up. The pediatrician was very impressed with Dorian - he told me Dorian was without a doubt the smartest child he'd seen in years and a bonified child prodigy. Dorian measured 34 inches long, which is more than half my height now, and the 90th percentile for his age. He was 26 pounds which was about the 50th percentile for his age. Nice and healthy. He got a couple shots, the last to come for about a year or so.

Dorian has a vocabulary that grows by the day. Today he said 5 new words! Amazing. I'm sure I'll forget some but his vocabulary now includes: more, dog, duck, owl, chocolate, apple, cracker, cookie, banana, poopoo, uh oh, chair, book, guitar, car, ball, cup, bowl, bubble, eye, nose, bottom, hair, ear, shoe, sock, hat, light, choo choo (for train, obviously), up, down, hot, cheese, cream cheese, waffle, Teletubbies. He can point to all his basic body parts (I'm working on teaching him the major bones now: femur, tibia, clavicle, etc but he doesn't seem to be catching on yet). He puts his hands on his bottom and says "Uh oh" and/or "Poopoo" when he has a bowel movement. Sometimes he'll also go grab us the wet wipes. He's started doing this when he pees too! (We're going to start potty training when James returns.) He makes a lot of animal noises too - dog, cow, sheep, tiger and bird noises. He sings songs now - he actually sings the melody to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and does all the hand movements. He understands so much now. We can give him directions and he'll follow them like the obedient child he always is - ie "Get your shoes," "Close the door," "Turn off the light," "Sit down," "Arms up," "Bathtime," "Please get me a pen," etc. He is so sweet - he knows I need my glasses first thing in the morning, so the first thing he does when he gets out of bed is find them and give them to me. He plays games all the time now. He was pretending to pluck the spoon out of the bowl of mush in "Goodnight Moon" the other night and then pretended to feed me with it while making eating noises. He kisses his stuffed animals all the time and tries to feed them real food. He loves giving cuddles and hugs. He has been happy as a clam in the jogging stroller so I can run every other day. He is really a joy to be with when he is rested.

I will post a series of photos over the next few days. First one to come tonight.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tour

I've been very lax keeping up with this blog while Kel is working, sorry. I promise not to let it die when she starts nursing school. Since my parents came over they, Dori and I have: driven to Bakersfield for a Tempest gig (pictures in the previous post); visited Mendacino for a few days by the coast; been to to Oakland zoo, Fairyland, Studio Grow, Lotus Bloom playgroup, Gymbouree and Golden Gate park; had an Easter egg hunt; and visited countless playgrounds and parks. Way too busy to blog! My parents have been taking pictures as have I, so expect a major photo post soon. Over to you, Kel! I left for the East coast on Wednesday as Tempest has a three-week spring tour. I write this at 2 in the morning after our first gig (very well, thanks for asking) and should probably get some sleep, we have a 5 hour drive to a gig in Iowa tomorrow.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Family Day

James' parents arrived last week from England and will be staying with us until April 20th. Dorian remembered them when they got off the plane - he got a really big smile on his face and gave them both big hugs! We were so thrilled about this. He last saw them about 2.5 months ago and he is still just a baby, so it is great that he remembered them.

On Saturday, I had the day off, so Jenny, Graham, Dorian and I accompanied James to one of his gigs. We all had a wonderful day in Bakersfield. (There's a sentence that doesn't get said very often). The weather was perfect - about 75 with crystal clear skies, radiant sunshine and just a very gentle breeze. It was glorious!

The highlights: James and Tempest played well, as usual, and the crowd loved them. It was the first time Jenny and Graham saw James perform live with this band so I was relieved there were no mishaps or broken amps or anything like that. They were very impressed with their son's playing and his rock star moves (as was I, of course). Graham got very sunburnt (he was so red by the end of the day, he literally looked like a lobster) but he was drinking so I don't think he minded. Anyone could tell he was a Brit by the end of the day. He was completely sunburnt, drinking his lager, drooling over fish and chips...Jenny and I watched him sit at a table and hungrily watch a family eat fish and chips for about 10 minutes - it was hilarious! We love you, Graham! Jenny was interviewed by a television station and was soooooo excited about it. You have to remember, they're from a tiny village in England and TV crews don't tend to frequent Bridestowe. As she was telling us about her interview, she talked it down saying, "Oh you know, I am sure it was only a local station." We laughed so hard at that one. (Like a Scottish festival in Bakersfield would have made national news!) We love you, Jen!

Dorian was amazingly happy all day...no temper tantrums, no crying, no crankiness, no tired signs. Just smiles, giggles and running around (of course, the usual story -Dori isn't smiling in any of the photos!). It was a wonderful day. The perfect day. Seriously, it was the best day I've had in ages and reminded me how lucky I am to have the best family in the world (in-laws definitely included).























Facebook

I regularly post photos of Dorian to my Facebook page. If you are on Facebook and not already one of my friends, leave a comment with your email address and I'll add you (or look me up). If you are not on Facebook yet, what is wrong with you??? I love Facebook. It is awesome. Get on it already! We are taking so many photos of Dorian, it is easier to upload them all to Facebook (you can do a whole folder of photos at once). This site is great and I love blogging, but it takes ages to get photos up!