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Helping Mama feel better when she was sick

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8 months!

Woah! Another month has flown by already and Dax has been in our lives for 8 months now. We don't have "official" stats from the doctor, but here are some things you should know about our little one this month:

* Dax had his first haircut! (See previous post)

You can't really tell in this picture, but for most of the cut, Dax had a handful of hair that kept growing with each snip as he quickly collected the little locks that fell

* The 8th month also brought on his first cold. :( In the beginning we were unsure about whether or not the runny/stuffy nose was from teething, but as it persisted for over a week and he started coughing, we realized Dax was sick for the first time. We had a few rough nights and moments, but even through the cold, he was laughing, playing, and learning so much. We are lucky to have such a good boy and grateful that he was healthy for as long as he was.

* Though the runny nose was from his cold, we do think he has been hardcore teething. He can drool through any bib, soaks his clothes, and we can see the little teeth just under the surface. The last couple of days our daycare provider Denise has said she could feel a tooth at different times, but we have not yet seen it. Stubborn little tooth/teeth.

The drool is just dripping out of his mouth!

Notice the soaked shirt :)

* Our sweet boy is already learning a lot from daycare. It is funny to see and hear the things that he imitates from his friends. He shakes his head back and forth (they probably do it to say no, he just does it for fun) and talks even more than he was before - no new words, but TONS of babbling, growling and other noises. One of our favorites is his dancing. If he's sitting up and we turn on any kind of music, he will immediately start to groove. It is so cute! How could you not love this sweet little bug?

* Dax is still a great eater. He has loved pretty much everything we have given him and makes what we call "involuntary yummy sounds" through almost every meal. It is so sweet. He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, sweet potato, apple, pear, plum, avocado, green beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, peach, butternut squash, banana, and asparagus. (It is strange to literally know everything he has eaten in his little life!) Even though his teeth aren't quite in, we just started to give him some baby puffs to snack on. He isn't great at getting them to his mouth on his own yet, but learned very quickly to chew.

* After many months of showing indifference toward animals, Dax has started to LOVE them. He is especially fond of dogs (no, we aren't planning to get one anytime soon) and if there is a dog in the room, he will not look at anything else and laughs hysterically the entire time.

Loving his time with Grandpa Mick and "aunt" Maggie

* He's on the move! He still loves to walk run around in his walker and has gotten really good at it. He takes corners like a champ, reverses if he gets into a sticky situation, follows us around the dining room and learned to get over the small lip into the kitchen, and entertains himself the whole time. This has also led to him being a really strong walker if we just hold his hands to provide him with a little balance. And last weekend he even took a couple of steps without our support, though we're pretty sure it was a fluke. We also now think he will crawl first based upon his persistence on the floor. If he's sitting he will lean as far as he can to reach anything around him until he falls into crawl position and eventually lands on his tummy. He will also roll around (tummy to back and back to tummy), squirm, stretch, and do everything he can to reach his toys. It's not pretty, but he always gets there!

* Every photo shoot from here on out is going to be trickier and trickier ;) 

And, our little boy is constantly growing and changing right before our eyes!

Big boy

I have mixed feelings about this post. While I think it was time, I am feeling a little sad. We finally did it. We gave Dax a haircut. I was NOT ready for him to trade his baby face for a little boy look. However, I was tired of brushing his hair out of his eyes and I know he was tired of it, too. We considered trimming it ourselves and I'm sure Jake would have done a great job, but we were (I was) concerned that our little man would not only look old, but would also look ridiculous. So we found a place that specializes in cutting children's hair and took the plunge. It was slightly less painful than I thought it would be - Dax looked so sweet in the chair and did not make a peep for most of the cut - but he did come out of it looking so much older than going in. Luckily, he's still the cutest (almost) 8 month old we know!

Before

During

After

Handsome little man with Mama

Road Trip!

Last weekend we traveled to southern Minnesota for my good friend Elizabeth's wedding. While Dax is usually okay on short trips, the car is not his favorite place. And while he is typically happy, when he's not, he's REALLY not. We have taken several hour-long trips in which he cried most of the way. Then, a couple days before leaving, Dax got his first cold. (I'd like to say that we can thank daycare for this, but I think he actually got it from me!) Needless to say, we were nervous about three plus hours in the car with a little guy who was not feeling his best.

As it turned out, Dax could not have been a better traveler. He slept and chattered the entire way down and did the same when we returned home on Sunday. We were able to enjoy the beautiful ceremony and, even though we had to leave earlier than we would have liked, had fun at the reception! Congrats Elizabeth and Matt! Thanks for a fun weekend!

Our sick (and teething - note the drool!) little love

Happy traveler

Mommy and Daddy ready to celebrate

Weekends

Time is flying by! I cannot believe that I have been back to work 3 weeks already. As I said in the last post, my hope is to soak up as much Dax time as possible on the weekends. Our goal has been to just lay low and enjoy family time over those short two days away from work, but so far that is not working out. We are having too much fun to complain about being busy, though!

One of my students invited me to the Bloomington Heritage Days parade where she would be supporting her dad's company - KD Painting. I thought it would be pretty small and expected it to be lame, but thought Dax would still enjoy being outside and people watching. Boy was I wrong! It was a HUGE parade. We found the perfect shady spot right at the start. There were so many different groups involved and it was really fun to watch, but about an hour in, Dax was starting to show signs that he was done. We had to walk past those lined up to join the parade route on our way back to the car and it appeared that we had only seen half of the people involved at that point. It was way more impressive than I anticipated and may have to become an annual event for our family. This year we enjoyed a little bit of candy, waved at a few current and former students who ended up being part of it, and brought home a couple of new balls for Dax. I am glad that my kindergarten friend invited me!

Holding on tight to his beach ball.

Thanks for the football KD Painting!

Then we joined some of the Olsons to cheer for my cousin Nathan at the UMD vs. Concordia St. Paul football game. It was nice that he was playing in town because we had a great time! It was a complete blowout: 70-24 (UMD scored on EVERY possession) and Nathan made some big tackles. Dax again enjoyed the people watching and had fun seeing some of the family members that we don't see very often. 

Playing with Grandpa

One of UMD's smallest fans!

Fall Fun

After the first week back teaching, I was excited to spend time with Dax and Jake this weekend. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and soaked up some fall fun.

On Saturday, we went to the St. Bonaventure carnival in Bloomington. It is just a few blocks from where I grew up so we met Grandpa and Grandma and headed over. On the way, it was fun to reminisce about going there every year as a child myself and hoping so badly to win a fish. That was not the goal this year. Instead, we checked out the silent auction, bought a few pull tabs, played several games of BINGO, and laughed as people frantically chased (and ran away from) the mouse that freed itself from the mouse-a-rama game. It was a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Is it a winner?

Dax's first carnival game

Family photo

 

We took advantage of the perfect sunny fall-ish day and did some raking at home on Sunday. While he cannot be super helpful yet, Dax joined us outside and spent a little time playing in the leaves. He was interested in the sound that they made when he smashed them and liked to touch the pile, but was not happy when we laid him in the leaves for what we hoped would be a cute photo. Maybe next year he will be jumping in the pile instead!

What are you guys doing?

Helping

Get me outta here!

Blessed

I mentioned in a previous post that Dax had been trying out daycare. Well, now it's the real thing. Our new reality. The approach of fall and back to school will be different for me from now on. I not only begin a new year of teaching, but I also must leave my little man after a summer with so much time spent together. While it was tough the first few days and is definitely sad to think that he spends more awake time away from us than with us during the week, we have been blessed in many ways and that is what we are trying to focus on...

1. Dax did not have to go to daycare until he was almost 7 months old! I am so grateful to love a job that allows me to have summers with my sweet little bug.

2. I really do love my job! As much as I was dreading leaving Dax, when the calendar turned to August and I started to anticipate the beginning of school I was excited to go back and meet my new kindergartners. Now that school has started, I am equally excited to see what this new year will bring and am truly happy to be teaching.

3. We LOVE Dax's daycare. Denise opens her home to 6 sweet, wild, funny, active, loving little boys (yep, all boys!) every day and we are so happy to have found her. She periodically sends pictures throughout the day, which make it so much easier to know he's doing well when I am thinking about him at work and all the other boys are so kind to Dax. He will learn so much from them and seems really happy when he is there. Yay!

Enjoying daycare

Having fun with some of his friends - doesn't he look big?!

In an ideal world I would be able to bring Dax to school with me. Since that can't happen, though, I can be content knowing that we have been truly blessed in our daycare situation.