Art for art's sake

Dori had a wonderful time at the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) last week. When we walked in there were lots of kids painting, drawing, making crafts and sculpting. Firstly, Dori wanted to make a design using felt-tip pens and ink stamps.

The teacher shows Dori how to use the pen.

Normally, I'd praise him for eating his greens.

After half an hour of very careful drawing and stamping he made a lovely scroll to send to Nana. I helped him get enough ink on the stamps, but Dori chose which stamps to use and where they should go.

He enjoyed it so much, he wanted to do another.

Next was painting. Let's start with some bold, red lines.

Add some more colours, then have fun with a roller.

Dori repeated the names of the colours as I said them to him. Since then, he has been able to show me red, blue, green and yellow when asked.

The finished piece, to be framed and hung in his room:

Unfortunately, true art has no boundries.
Here's Dor the very next day...

At the wheel

The see food diet.

This morning Dori ate:

1 large bowl of porridge;

1 pear;

1 banana;

1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich;

1/2 dozen grapes;

1 dozen blueberries;

1 strawberry;

1 cracker;

1 stick of Mozzerella cheese;

3 slices of Cheddar cheese;

1 handful of sand from the beach.

He's not a hungry little caterpillar anymore!

Busy, busy, busy.

Life has been hectic for Dorian recently...

Hanging out with friends.

Finding a place to nap.

Taking a spot of lunch...

...can also make you sleepy!

A quick joke with Grandpa...

...then, back to bed!

Sitting around in the sun...

...can really be a drain on the energy.

Maybe all the sleep training has gone too far!

A New Morning (one that doesn't start at 4:30AM)

So, Dori has grown up a lot recently. He says 'pee-pee' or 'poo-poo' when...well, you know when... and successfully uses his potty (if we get there in time). He says new words every day and sings along to Twinkle Twinkle and Old MacDonald with vigor. And he sleeps! 12 hours, in his own bed and with no crying. Real sleep! I wish I knew what prompted the change. What if he reverts to sleeplessness? Not sure I want to be back on square one. I won't complain though; he wakes up in a good mood and so do we. Maybe it's food? He has been eating well recently. Here he is helping to make cookies:

'That looks good'

'Anyone looking?'

'Just a spoonful'

I managed to save some mixture.

'let's see'

'not sure, let's get a second opinion'.

Maybe the change is from being so active?

He's been horseriding;

practicing scales;

rehearsing his country-rock duo;

working on his fine motor skills, stacking creamer, and making a mess -all at the same time;

swimming lengths in the lake;

and deliberately moving sand from one random place to another...over and over again.

Maybe it's love? he did just discover girls:

Whatever it is, he's so happy to be finally sleeping, he can't even pass a bed without taking a lie down.

Our Ikea trip took an hour longer than it should have. Dori had to try every single bed.

Stepping Down

I am officially passing this blog on to James. I may make guest appearances every now and then, but if you want Dori updates, pester Mr. Dad! I start my Accelerated (12 month) Bachelor of Science in Nursing program tomorrow morning. I hope to update my personal blog more than I have been lately - I know a lot of you are going to want updates on school so I'll do my best. However, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Facebook is the best way to keep up with my news (I'm a status update junkie!) and keep in touch with me now. If you want to be my friend on Facebook, look up Kelly Crocker (there are 56 of us but if you specify "East Bay" network, I'm the only one who comes up). See you all in a year!

Family Portrait

sleeping update

Obviously there has been a lot about sleep on this blog. It is the one area where Dori isn't 'The Most Perfect Baby In The World'. Of course, if he slept like a baby (oh, the irony of that phrase!) we'd have trouble getting him to eat, he'd be antisocial, he'd still be crawling, or something else would fill the void. But with D it's sleep. The worst part is that when he doesn't sleep, neither do we. Actually, Kel has it worse; I'm a deeper sleeper and can ignore some of the low-level screaming. But we wouldn't have gone hungry had Dor resisted solid foods and I know I would have continued to walk upright had he remained carpet bound. His sleepless night is our sleepless night and it affects everything. That's why so many of our blogs, facebook updates and conversations involve napping schedules and different sleep strategies; it's such a big part of our lives as well as Dori's.

So, I am happy to report great progress. Last night he went to sleep at 6:15pm, woke at 4:50am and (once I'd led him back to his bed) slept on until 7am. When he woke he started singing in bed - very cute. When he finally climbed out to come and get us he was in a great mood. The best news? This isn't a one-off! Last week he slept in his own bed almost every night. He went to sleep easily and when he did walk to our room I led him back to bed (with what I call the 'bad date' method: no eye contact, no inflection in my voice, no physical contact), he resumed sleep immediately. The only problems we've had are when Kel tries to put him down. For some reason he plays her up. She has to lead him back over and over for 90+ minutes before he'll fall asleep. With me it's been once or twice and no crying. So I'm on sleep duty from now on. If we can get D to stay asleep to 7am every day we'll all be singing in the mornings.

Mother's Day

Blog City!

This is the sixth, yes SIXTH, blog I've posted tonight so be sure to keep scrolling down after each of the below blogs to get your full Dori fix. LOTS OF PICTURES! I will post a blog with the remaining pictures from Jenny and Grae's visit sometime this week - then we will finally be caught up. I fell behind while working during tax season, then I was too exhausted while James was gone to properly blog. I hate not keeping my readers happy. I start nursing school in less than 3 weeks - James is going to have to take over. I told him this and he said, "Maybe I'll just delete the blog." (I won't let that happen.)

Daddy is Home

James returned home on Sunday and it was wonderful - Dorian remembered him and the boys played for hours. Lots of cuddles and giggles. Of course, Mama had to take lots of pictures of the sweet event! It's amazing how those boys look so much alike - if Dori didn't have my coloring, you wouldn't know we were related. I love how in all the pictures, they even have the exact same expression on their faces!





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Dorian At His Finest