Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate

Arthur (7): 49 pounds (41%), 4’2” (83%)
Sienna (10): 59 pounds (12%), 4’8” (75%)
Dalton (13): 85 pounds (16%), 5’3” (61%)

He planned an outing with some classmates. He organized everything, texting his friends, researching how much things would cost. They went to the spectrum and had wetzels pretzels for lunch, played games at Dave and Busters, and got Yogurtland for a treat. I was really proud that he did that all on his own.

We also opted for the inaugural city Pride event instead of church this morning. It was small, but fun. Came home with stickers, flags, bracelets, and bellies full of donuts.

Dalton has been doing city tennis classes for a while, but we signed him up for a league. They’ve been practicing and organizing teams and today were his first official matches. He played a singles (lost 3-6) and a doubles won (6-1). He has been loving tennis lately.

Also today was Maggie’s first high school swim meet. It was a tri-meet at OCC. Maggie swam Four freestyle races (50 and 100, and two relays). They shaved a couple seconds off their previous 50 free time that was last recorded in the summer, So that’s pretty great. And had fun with their two swim team friends. I’m excited they have friends.

After the swim meet, we went to a ward social with our new ward. It was so nice to be surrounded by people, and people our own age! People I can relate to about high school registration, and youth activities, and piano lessons and outdoor ed.

The YW learned an after school snack recipe and Dalton said he’d have much rather done that. I know, buddy.

Maggie’s x ray showed minor scoliosis, but the visible concern is postural. We will need to make physical therapy visits. And do yoga.

We noticed a while ago that all of Dalton’s fingers on one hand were the same length. The middle finger is now shorter than the other two. X ray confirmed that some of his metacarpals (hand bones) are growing more slowly. It’s nothing to worry about, and also can’t be fixed. It’s related to the same thing I have, with the short third joint on the thumb, but his hand bones are the ones affected. So eventually it will be even more obvious that he has a hand difference. But hopefully it won’t affect much and he doesn’t seem embarrassed about it.

What actually happened: he came up to our room in the middle of the night, and we were in such a deep sleep and he was talking so quietly that it took me forever to figure out what he was even saying. I think it was about helping with his Nintendo DS Pokémon game. I finally told him in was the middle of the night and he couldn’t play his game, and he needed to go back to bed. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I probably should have made sure he made it safely back to bed, but I was so tired it didn’t even occur to me.

D: the walk board is more un dangerous.

Dalton: I had the best food I ever heard of.
Maggie: they taste like real crepes (after turning her nose up because they were folded instead of rolled.

Dalton: Dalt: mm hmm. They don't have ice cream trucks in America. You just drive yourself to the store

You are a animal
Pink unicorns are coming to attack you
You will die young
You are dumd (sic)
You are awesome
You are a alien
It will rain tacos
You won’t get married
He came in while I was typing this and tried to throw it away again. Future Dalton, I hope you appreciate that I’m preserving this.

Then I also had to explain the different pronunciation of Carribean for Pirates of the Carribean.

Afterwards, we stayed and helped put chairs away and clean up. I couldn't believe the amount of trash left lying around, but I was pleasantly surprised by random families (not just the usual PTA and LDS crew (it was held at the Stake Center)) who stayed to help.

I have a little sister Sienna, baby Arthur is super cute, mom and dad are super nice, big Sister Maggie plays with me a lot.

Favorite scripture story: The one when they lower the man through the roof because it was so crowded. Because it’s funny they went through the roof.

Favorite song: Gethsemane

His unique talent is swimming.

Special qualities that prepared him for baptism are that he’s kind and forgives right away.

I had a dream that Skyler and I were playing outside and we saw one of those bunnies that bites and pees poisonous wolfblood.

What?!

He didn't say "wolfblood", it was some made up word. But we couldn't remember exactly in the daylight.

I told him that rabbits don't bite and took him back to bed. "But what about other animals that pee poisonous wolfblood?"

There's no such thing! Animals pee pee. There's no poisonous animals around here anyway. Etc.

By this point, he's woken up Arthur who was then awake for an hour and a half.

I texted John when Dalton won his 25 Fly heat at his swim meet later that morning. He responded: Way to go! Must be the poison wolf pee.

Update: Some time later, Dalton told me it was like "the place we were going to stay with the water slides." Great Wolf Lodge. He was saying "wolfslodge".

Me: Dalt, everything I do, all day long, every day is for you.

Dalt: loooong pause. ... It's hard to think of something [that's not for him].

Me: Do you ever know what a VCR is?
Dalt: It's how they used to make movies. Like a projector.

Dalton lost his second tooth yesterday. The permanent tooth had emerged behind it some time ago and is now very far back. I hope it moves into place quickly, but I think our kids are going to need braces for sure.

Dalton loves ponies, school, learning, helping, swimming, scootering, fulfilling responsibilities, being a big brother and making lists. He is always making lists of things he wants to do and then bothering me about doing something on his list every day. He loves getting jobs or assignments and then tackling them, especially if it means he can earn ipad time.

He has started that annoying kid thing whether they bother other people on purpose, but inside he is still our sweetest kid. He gives snuggles, apologizes and forgives easily, and loves everyone. He seems to recognizes when things are crazy and is often the one to make peace and calm things down.

He is brave enough to do what he wants without regards to what "everyone else" is doing, but he is still quite sensitive. He's cried to me more than once about kids that won't play with him - most of his friends are girls and sometimes they just want to play with other girls.

With shoes, and napkins, Dalton is over 48" now and can go on the scary rides at Knott's. He doesn't love them as much as Maggie, but puts on a brave face and I'm proud of him for trying. Love my Dalton-tin.

He wrote a note to the tooth fairy. "Dear tooth fairy I lost u tooth."

This morning he found a dollar under his pillow. As he was putting it in his money pouch he said, "I knew it wouldn't be four quarters because fairies are small and she might be struggling by carrying them."

In related news, when I examined his super loose tooth, I discovered the permanent tooth next to the missing one has already emerged behind the baby tooth. Shark teeth!

It's like all your parenting lies get exposed when your kid learns how to read.

What I want for my birthday is for nobody to ever get sick again.

broccimoli (guacamole)
Rain nacho (poncho)
Ohming (aiming)
Lala (voila)
Google quack (googolplex)

He also still says "keycause" which is the cutest ever. Whenever Maggie corrects his pronunciation on something we say, "Be piet, Maggie!" She hates it, haha.

A couple other Daltonisms: My eyes is all spiced up.
I want a bacon bite with smashed tomatoes.

I also made friends with two other moms who have had Dalton over for play dates already. He loves that, and it was nice to get Sienna down for a nap earlier/get stuff done. I think next time, I will take her to Disneyland when it opens.

Dalton: It's on blu-Ray!

Dalton: What are those CD glasses for? (3D glasses)

He wasn't able to walk on it, and he was crying very hard and very loud. After about 5 minutes of trying to figure out how I was going to get everyone and everything home, a kind woman offered to help me by wearing her baby and putting Sienna in her stroller. Then I was able to push Dalton in the tricycle and carry his scooter while Maggie scootered home. Whew.

The next morning Dalton still couldn't walk on his foot, so I took him to the pediatrician who sent him downstairs for an x-ray. I was surprised to discover that the hospital didn't have Dalton in their system. Which means it's been over 2 years since he had a crash. Luckily, there wasn't a fracture, so it was just a sprain. We wrapped it up, and he's been enjoying the attention of hobbling around school with one shoe.

He is really enjoying school. He loves telling me what he did every day, showing me his worksheets, practicing making patterns and writing letters. And making friends.

For Dalton's birthday, I made BYU mint brownies, frosted like Mike and Sulley from the Monsters movies. We had some friends over for brownies that night, but his "party" was doing to Disneyland with a friend after school the next day. I bought them treats and let him pick all the rides and they had a good time.

He got a new two-wheeled scooter from us and his grandparents. We also got him some Berenstain Bears books, a Snoopy shirt, an Olaf shirt (and a matching one for Sienna) and a Monsters University hat, which is also part of his Halloween costume. He looks adorable in it. His friend who came to Disneyland gave him a little battery-powered shark that swims around in the bathtub, an aquarium, or the pool. The kids love it.

Apparently, replacement springs are only $.97 at Walmart. Good to know.

Dalton mentioned that his money bank wouldn't close. The lid kept popping off (it's one of those tootsie roll banks.) I told him I'd get him an envelope for his dollars and I pulled them out of the bank. He had $41, including a $20 and $10. Hmm. I asked him if he took it from Maggie, which he denied.
At my school my teacher gave me lots of dollars.
Tell me the truth.
That is the truth.
Well, if that's the truth, your teacher is in trouble.
Then... there is no truth!

Eventually, he admitted to taking it from Maggie. I made him give it back to her and apologize. Luckily, I warned her what had happened and told her to be nice to him, so she was done being angry by the time he gave it back.

Sienna threw Maggie's coin bank down the stairs. I heard Dalton helping her clean it up and talking in his baby voice about "big and little circles" and "silver and bronze."

I was so tired that I dozed on the way home, and just wanted to take a real nap. Instead, I took Dalton swimming. He recently reached level 4 at swim lessons, but had yet to put it to the test in real life. It took him a while to warm up to the pool and be willing to swim on his own, but I was able to get him to cross the width of the pool on his own, with some strong arms and a couple rollovers. We called it "Mommy level 3." Then we hung out in the hot tub. Love my good swimmer boy.

Hey! Let's sleep to the Daddy after this! I want to get dressed a new green water park.

We've been swimming for 4 days! I'm so happy with my dad that I could paint a slide.

Did you see my dive off of the swimming pool? I practiced it about 4 times, until I could snuggle Daddy through the air like a crocodile and a shark.

Yeah! That was green! Teach us how to play games on the computer it but let's give my dad hugs and kisses some chocolate toast first!

We should try to type an underwater snackbar someday so that we never have to run or practice cartwheels out of the pool!

Shhhh! Quiet! You made me want to take off my shoes.

I was quite surprised to observe Dalton willingly swimming under water during play time while waiting for his lesson. It kind of reminded me of the time Maggie suddenly figured out how to keep water out of her nose and burst into her swimming skill. Suspiciously enough.

Sure enough, when it was Dalton's turn in his lesson, he just busted it out and swam the entire width of the pool. The instructor and I looked at each other in pleasant surprise, and he did it three or four more times. Level 3!

He is so proud of himself. I praised him for setting a goal (and explained what that was), trying his best, and succeeding.

When I picked him up, she asked if he was coming back the next day. I told her he'd be here for summer camp. I'm sure he'll be looking out for her practicing during his class, as well.

Oh, and I saw another teenage girl CARRYING him around the gym. What a schmoozer.

One funny thing is that sometimes John and I will be downstairs watching TV and we can hear Dalton not going to bed. We'll come up and see him asleep in our bed, or on the floor, or somewhere silly.

He also comes into our room in the night, which had stopped for some time. Last night I heard him tell John that he'd had a bad dream. We usually let him sleep in our bed until the teeth gnashing drives me crazy and I put him back in bed. The other night when I was sick, I had to wake John up to put him back in bed.

Part of the reason is this so annoying is that I've long felt Dalton doesn't get enough sleep. He often acts irritable, the kind of irritable that comes from an empty belly or an afternoon slump. The irritable of a two year old who's missed his nap. So, when he has trouble going to sleep at night, I have trouble with him behaving the next day.

On the bright side, he's had nearly all dry diapers at night all of a sudden. I've been buying the little packs of 23, but I got a good deal, so I bought two big bags of pull-ups. He's on his last one or two diapers before I open those packs. It's like he was waiting for me to invest in his bed wetting.

Survive preschool
Do laundry
Make dinner

I got all that accomplished with the added bonus of finding the other piece of Dalton's scooter at school (yep) and reading lots of books with the kids. Preschool was actually really fun. We had yummy treats, made fun crafts and played with homemade slime. And dinner was good too. I made homemade pizza, half with just pesto and cheese and it was yummy.

Dalton is actually suddenly amazing at memorizing them as well. That's why the CD was on in the car. He'll have no trouble getting it memorized in two weeks. I've also enjoyed explaining to him what it means. We believe in being good! He loves the word "benevolent" but today he said, "I don't want to be nice to mean people." I reminded him of a story we read together in The Friend of someone being nice to a mean person who is later nice to them. He pondered that.

This is my favorite Article of Faith. It's another explanation of why Mormons are so nice. I feel like it justifies my creative impulses, including child-rearing. I'm seeking after things virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy. If my own children can fit that definition, I think I'll have done well on this earth.

Some older Dalton sillies I wrote down.

Correcting Maggie on what Sienna was eating: Not sweet potatoes. Ma Tate Toes. (tomatoes)

Me: How's your cherry ice cream?
Dalton: Good, but I don't like the craisins.

He's sweet and kind and thoughtful. He's funny. He likes to snuggle. I love spending time with him and I'm going to miss it when he goes to school every day! I'm keeping him.

Want to know what my dream was about? Kate was over and an alligator was chasing us. It took a bite of my towel. It took a bite on the hood.

I grabbed him under the arms and pulled him on the bed to snuggle me where he immediately fell asleep. After a few minutes I carried him back to his bed, reassuring him I would snuggle him there.

He fell right back asleep, breathing quickly and his abdomen rising and falling in telltale signs of labored breathing and decreased oxygen intake. Boo.

Dalton's Girl Friend: That's girly. And you're a boy. ... It's pink.
Dalton: No, I got it from Chuck E. Cheese.
He looked a little confused and looked over at me. I was tempted to interrupt with my "There are no girl toys and boy toys speech" but I let him handle it. A few minutes later his friend turned to me.
Friend: Is that Dalton's?
Me: Yes, he and Maggie both got one from Chuck E. Cheese.
They were both satisfied and moved on.

Last night, the kids and I were walking through a parking lot holding hands. My purse had fallen to my hand and when Dalton yanked, it fell off onto his arm. I pulled it up over his neck so I could open the car door and Maggie said, "Dalton, you're a girl!" She said she called him that because girls use purses. We discussed how a purse is a bag and is not an absolute Girl or Boy thing (a discussion we've had before about lots of items). Then I asked her, "Is being a girl a bad thing? Are you calling Dalton a mean name when you say he's a girl?" She has a point about the purse, but the word "girl" should not be used as an insult! Especially by another girl.

Another more difficult situation appeared last week. One of Dalton's friends (a girl) said that he wasn't her friend because her dad told her she wasn't allowed to have boyfriends until she's 20! At least she was being obedient: she didn't even say it to Dalton, but to the adults nearby. A few days later, at the beach, the same thing happened in front of several other little girls. As I've mentioned, nearly all of Dalton's friends are girls and I didn't want this spreading around. I mentioned it to her mom. On Sunday, the girl's dad told me that he'd talked to her and told her it was ok to be friends with Dalton and she agreed. Whew! Now Dalton can have his friends.

Dalton's pretty in touch with his... non-gendered side.

Couple other Dalton notes. He loves to open the gates for me when we walk to school. He has also started telling me when he wants to get on and off the stroller (instead of annoying hop on hop off.)

What I want for Christmas is a phone that when it's time to wake up it makes a sound and you put your hand on it and it stops making a sound.
You mean an alarm clock?

Maggie also offered him money from her piggy bank to play with her. (He recently acquired a juice jar from otter J preschool). Anyway, they played really well all afternoon. First they went camping in the closet. Sienna was a bear. Then they played Angry Birds. Despite anything they may say, the Angry Birds stuffed animals are the clear favorite toy from Christmas. When John took Sienna for a walk this evening, the kids wanted to go too so we took Red and Leia to the park in the dark. They had a nice time.

I gave Dalton a haircut tonight. It's been a long time and I just trimmed around his ears last time. He hates haircuts and I have to full-on bribe him with treats. I went back to the #2 all over to make it quick and last longer.

We're so glad we bought plane tickets to Utah. It was nice not to dread the drive the night before, nor the drive home the entire time here. The kids were good on the airplane, though they kept asking John if we were there yet. Nice little practice trip of our trip to Europe soon.

On Sunday night we went to Temple Square. We took TRAX, saw the lights and watched part of a concert Jodi was participating in. We also ran into a sister missionary serving from Bangalore. Sister Serah was in the primary with me. So fun to see her.

The only other thing we've really done was visit dad. Most of which time I have officially spent in the car. Susan and I cooked today. Between us we made clam chowder, cheese ball, jello jigglers, pumpkin roll and John made a big tray of fresh berries. Were ready for the big Holbrook Christmas party after the visit with Dad.

puzzle
Nerf gun
wagon
pokey ball
doctor toys
bed stuffed animal (a stuffed bed...)

Dalton had his eyesight and hearing tested (he can see that thing better than I can with my glasses on). He is 33 1/2 pounds (28%) and 40 3/4" tall (56%). He just needs one more shot before Kinder. Ack! (Even though he has another year before Kinder, he has to has them to register for TK.)

Sienna is tall and skinny (gasp) at 17 lb 10 oz (17%) and 29 3/4" (71%).

Maggie will also be going in for a flu mist after school. Hopefully she takes it better than last year when she cried so hard they had to give her a shot instead. EDIT: Maggie handled her nose squirt very well. She weighs 41 lbs.

They grow so fast and time passes so quickly. Dalton is really loving preschool. He feels so important going to "preschool" at a friend's house every week, and Maggie helps it along by being genuinely interested in what he did while she was at school. This week is my turn and we're going to do G is for Glow! I have some blacklight and glow-in-the-dark activities planned.

It's amazing to watch Maggie learn how to read. And play the piano. And play soccer. And do gymnastics. She is expanding her capabilities in every direction and it's astounding.

Sienna is a crazy face who won't nap half the time. But she is soooo cute and snuggly, I just love her so much. She just got her 5th and 6th teeth - 6 more teeth than either of the other kids had at her age! She puts everything in her mouth, loves exploring and is a quick crawler. She is starting to cruise and consider standing, but won't be walking anytime soon. I have enough trouble keeping up with her as it is, so that's fine by me!

When is the last day?
What happens when there's no more tomorrows?
How much are we going to be dead?

Do you think he knows something we don't?

Fire Indian (Fire Engine)
Candy Cot (Handicapped - as in Handicapped Ticket for a parking spot)
Fruit Bear (Root Beer - can I have a fruit bear float?)

Harry and David: a free chocolate truffle each
See's: three free samples plus we bought some marzipan for John.
Disney Store: checked out some new toys (Try Me Now!) and played with the interactive displays.
Lego Store: Dalton built a race at the play table while I looked around. I discovered a bald eagle set for $5 with the fall/Thanksgiving sets so I got it for Margaret who looooves eagles.
Carousel: it was only $1 and Sienna was free if I held her. I found it a lot easier to justify now that we don't have Disney passes. The $15 animal balloons, not so much.
Corner Bakery: I told Dalton, let's go get lunch, and he didn't want to go. Then he realized we were getting lunch at the mall! score!

We spent slightly more than the $20 I'll be reimbursed but we had a great morning.

When we walked to school I told Dalton we had to look for cars before crossing and he said "my mommy doesn't do that."

He loves the color green.
He loves playing racing, dinosaur agent, kitty and roadrunner, owls and eagles and other pretend games with his sister, usually involving imaginary light sabers.
He goes to gymnastics.
He is sweet, kind, and thoughtful.
His baby sister has wormed her way into his heart and he gives her kisses and fights to see her first after naptime.
He will eat nearly everything, including most vegetables.
He does NOT like cheese and fish.
He likes Angry Birds, playing iPad, and playing Mickey Mouse and Dinosaur Games on the computer.
He likes just about any movie he watches.
He likes to run around at the park with friends.
He wants to be a big kid (or a girl - whichever gets him more privileges).
He picks our his own clothes every day and likes to wear a single color (red shirt, red shorts, red underwear).

For his birthday, Dalton got running clothes like Daddy, an Angry Birds Halloween shirt, a Jack Skellington shirt, and a Perry the Platypus shirt. He also got a lava lamp and Halloween ghost lights, a Halloween Lego set and Lego magnets.

We went to Pump it Up with a couple friends, and I made him a Swampy cake (Disney Where's My Water?) as requested. His friend Adrienne came over to have cake with us.

I can pick ice cream flavors, play games, play on the iPad, take a bath...

The boy has some talents. Then we had to list things we can't do. Neither of us can drive a FedEx truck, of which we saw dozens. Dalton can't drive a FedNext truck either.

Dalton learned his lesson after getting lost at school the other day. We played at the playground before Maggie's soccer class on Tuesday. Then we stopped at the car to get her soccer socks on and Dalton kept going. I watched him run to the to the field then turn around and go stand by a light pole and ask another parent where his mommy was. Good boy.

More Dalton cuteness:

Dalton: Can I play on the macuter after you're done?
Me: Macuter?
Maggie: I forgot how to say it. Pacuter?
Dalton: Zoocuter!!

Dalton: dotter-dotter (dot to dot)
Dalton: Pump Dump (Pump it Up - bouncy place)

Crayola crayon maker (they saw this in an abandoned cart at Target)
"baby toy where the dolphin goes into a circle" (from a Baby Einstein show)
another new car (ok that one's fine)
Angry Birds racing (I thought this was on clearance at Target and almost bought it, but then I realized it was full-price, for a junky track and an Angry Birds car we already have).

What we are looking at getting him is a trip to Disneyland (his ticket is still valid) and a lava lamp.

Dalton: The sun! The sun! It's giving us light!

And a few moments later: It's that how much down.

If only we could all have such zest.

Also, from Rachel's Facebook page: Researching gender in the British Library. We asked my nephew if he wanted to be a flower guy. Answer: yes. My niece asked if she can be a flower GIRL. "I can help Dalton," she offered.

Dalton is super excited to "hold the green and throw the flowers at Aunt Reechel's wedding."

The lady was actually not even that old...

He made it to level 3 in swimming lessons this week. Just now in the bath I heard him giving swimming lessons to the ducks and dinosaurs. "Eyes Down. Rollll. 1 2 3 4 5, Eyes down."

Dalton: Can I watch the one that says, "What? A llama! He's 'apposed to be dead!" (The Emperor's New Groove)

M: When it's scratch paper, it'll be blabby blobby.
D: We don't say those words.

Dalton is always very impressed when Sienna smiles at him and he says, "She gave me a mile!"

Am I a man or a muffet? I want to be a muffet.

Me: Do you want to walk or drive to school?
Dalton: Drive. Walking is not easy. (He always thinks I mean WALK though we've never not taken the stroller.

I explained to Dalton that some babies (like Maggie) spit up a lot and some babies (like Sienna) don't spit up much at all. He said, "Baby Jesus didn't spit at all."

Some cute word mispronunciations:
grils (girls)
nest (net - as in basketball)
Newtah (Utah)
Posco (Costco - this is where he usually pretends he's going in his ride-on car, or where Alligator is going if he's hanging around)
cramra (camera)
beebee (nickname for baby)

One of the most adorable things Dalton is doing right now is kissing himself better. I laughed out loud when he tried to kiss his elbow after bumping his funny bone on the table. If he can't reach, he kisses his fingers and gives the kiss to his owie.

He has renamed his stuffed alligator Swampy after the character in "Where's My Water?" This has been his favorite "guy" for a long time. The other stuffie he currently sleeps with is a stuffed deer from Aunt Erin.

Me: Don't lick Maggie's homework.

He put on a pair of shorts I got out for the warm weather: "What! There's pockets." He walked out of the room mumbling to himself, "I need to find something to put in beese pockets." I don't like you when you die. Are you going to die soon?

Maggie has been memorizing the Articles of Faith. She already knows four of them. The easy four, of course, but she is able to memorize them pretty well.

Then, at gymnastics we heard the bell ring and looked up to see that it was Maggie! She showed off her new "trick" for everyone, a forward roll on the bar. Ironically, I have a series of pictures of her doing this at her last gymnastics class, but since that class was a make-up, she didn't have her regular coach. The coach told me and her that if she works hard and practices at home building up her arm strength, she will probably get to move up the next time they do evaluations. So, Maggie came home and practiced in the living room for half an hour. I caught a glace of one of her cartwheels and was very impressed! She also always wins the "quiet contest" in gymnastics class, and I think she's brought a star student certificate the last four classes in a row.

Not to leave Dalton out, he has gotten the hand-foot placement of the cartwheel down. There's just not much wheeling involved yet. He's great on the trampoline, though! One of the things his class does is kick bean bags off the balance beam as they walk, and he's great at that.

Very proud of my kids today.

5 minutes later, he interrupted a story I was telling about baby Dalton. "I were a gril baby." Sure you were, boy.

The contacts on my phone mysteriously disappeared. I looked for a delete all button and couldn't see one so I don't know how it happened. But the disappearance of two Angry Birds apps on the iPad was not mysterious and was in fact accompanied by much screaming, crying, and yelling (respectively) and a time out and two days of no iPad for Dalton. It was actually nice to see him play with toys for a change.

The other night, Dalton prayed about not getting a piggy back ride. What!? We can't have that. I put Sienna in bed and went back in the kids' room to surprise him with a quick ride. He was thrilled. "I love you forever and ever, Mommy." I love you, too, sweet boy.

At Disneyland this week, Dalton made friends with two Chinese girls. He narrated Pirates for them which, other than being cute, was useless as I only heard them say seven words in English: be careful, the end, thank you and picture? Picture? Of course! They seemed really surprised I let them. On the tram, he deliberately cuted at two more Chinese girls across from us. What a flirt.

And from a recent Facebook status: Dalton, I love that you're friendly, but I'm going to draw the line at playing Angry Birds on a stranger's phone at the park.

We visited John at work for lunch one day. The next day we got on the freeway as if going to Daddy's work, but got off and headed in the opposite direction.
D: Let's play I spy. I go first. I spy something that's big and tall and it's Daddy's work. I spy a eat lunch and it's Daddy's work. I spy a drink of water and it's Daddy's work. I spy a treat and a poptart and it's Daddy's work. (He got a treat and a granola bar when we went).
Etc. So cute!

D: Are these socks clean?
Me: No, they're dirty. We need to wash them, then they'll be clean and you can wear them again.
Next thing I know, Dalton is in the bathroom washing his socks in the sink! I explained that Mommy washes clothes in the washing machine and that's what "laundry" is. Apparently, I usually just say "laundry" rather than washing clothes. He seriously thought we had to go wash his socks.

Another I Spy.
M, not wanting to play: I spy nothing.
D: Is it a bus?

The kids put up some foam ABCs on the bathtub door. Dalton was pointing to them and reading, "Don't put lolli pop in blue water." I let him take his lollipop in the bathtub and told him it'd turn the water red if he put it in.

M: "Mary Poppins are a good rhymer." Well, she's right.

M: "Why are there water falling from the sky?" Oh, you mean the rain??

M: Dad, your ideas are rude.

M, in regards to the "missing links" line in The Monkey's Uncle. "What does it mean 'missing legs?'"

Dalton calls helicopter "rawrcopter". One day he insisted he saw a Fleece Rawrcopter and it took me forever to realize he was saying "Police helicopter." He uses F a lot when there are double consonants.

D: Because = "keycause" So cute.

ETA: At the exact moment I hit "publish" on this post a loud MEOW! came from the other room where Dalton is sleeping.

Dalton has started asking why. Five times in a row. I can only boil down 3 or 4 whys. After that, it's too complex.

"Look! I see wum lake!" He says "one" instead of "a".

"A blue pretzel!" (sprinkle) He also says ketchup instead of syrup. You know, for waffles. Yuck.

Maggie and I convinced Dalton that the silver and blue sneakers were Star Tours shoes, so he would get over not getting the shiny silver and neon green light-up shoes with shark teeth (eew). Except now he thinks he is tall enough to go on Star Tours, with his new shoes.

More imaginative Dalton: One day, Winnie-the-Pooh went to school with us to pick up Maggie. He drove a purple car there, and a green car home. He was very careful to hold hands in the parking lot.

This week, he's been pretending to be a kitty or a doggie. Kind of cute, seeing him crawling around meowing. Today he set up a pillow store for me to shop at.

The neat thing is that these are all things he's done independent of Maggie, as opposed to serving up the same pretend soup that she does.

D: I'm not tired anymore.
Me: Well, you can either go in your bed, or go snuggle Daddy.
D: Um... nobody? (he says this for "nothing", or in this case, "Those options suck, Mom.")
Me: It's bedtime. You can go to bed, or you can snuggle Daddy.
D: Um... go to bed?
Me: Ok, let's go.

I sent Dalton to get into his bed and went to get his guys* from our bed. John was still resting there.

Me: Dalton says he's not tired anymore.
John: I know. I told him to go play with Mommy. I can't believe he fell for it!

*Dalton calls his stuffed animals "guys".

It was dark so the pictures aren't great, but we had so much fun. The kids loved trick-or-treating at the treat trails around Disneyland. The atmosphere was really fun, and we also saw the Halloween parade and fireworks show. Dalton crashed in the stroller on the way back to the car, but Maggie almost made it until we got home, after 10 pm.

Dalton, finding himself stranded on a large rock at the park called out, "Hey dad, come here! It's me, Dalton."

As we were leaving the grocery store, Dalton asked me, "which one is grandma and grandpa's car?" What? "Your" Grandma and Grandpa?" I asked. "My friend," he replied. Aha. An old man in an electric cart was chatting him up at the grocery store, and apparently left quite an impression.

D N (the end)

A hort, a set, go! Maggie realizes this is wrong and occasionally corrects herself and says "on your bark."

On the bookmark phone: Hello? Once upon a time there was a cow. Hah! I said "a cow!"

I took the sheets off the kids' beds to wash them. Dalton went into his room and said, "which one is my bed??"

Me: What's your favorite part? (of the painful elimination round obstacle course.)
Dalton: My favorite part is not going on it.

Oh, Dalton. He loves to copy everything Maggie does, but I've noticed he's not really feeling it. Today she was scared to go to swimming lessons because she didn't want to go to the deep pool. So Dalton starting saying he was scared, too. Lessons came; Maggie talked her teacher into the shallow pool. Dalton's lesson is after hers and he dragged his teacher over to the deep pool, where kids his age don't usually go. He outsmarted himself, I think. (And swam great, by the way.)

I am almost done with his Incredibles Halloween costume. He is going to be so adorable. He's so adorable anyway. At the ward FHE at the park today, he went around handing out pinches of sand to everyone. Dozens of people got a bit of sand, thanks to Dalton. Nice of him to share.

Last night, he climbed into Maggie's bed to listen to Daddy read a story and the kids ended up sleeping in each others' beds. Which they found hilarious. In the morning, they collaborated on a bed with about 15 "guys" (stuffed animals (or cars, as the case may be)) and both of their pillows. Yep - they're sleeping together tonight. Maggie looks a little squished. We might have to move Dalton back to his bed.

Today he cried when we dropped Maggie off at Kindergarten. It might have been because I left him in the car, but when I asked if he was crying because he missed Maggie he said, "yes! I miss her!" We went to Target and he soon forgot all about it. When we left Target, he carefully stood up on the seat of the cart and waited for me to get him down, while yelling, "I'm King Dalton!" After Target we got a car wash. He giggled the whole time.

Kitty ride (Alice in Wonderland)
Train ride (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which he is too small to go on)
Us-side down ho-coaster (California Screamin')
Magic ho-coaster (Gadget's Go-coaster)
Mamarail (Monorail) Bumpy Tars (Tuck & Roll's bumper cars)
Tires Game (Luigi's Flying Tires, which had giant beach balls as part of it for the first couple weeks)
Racing (Autopia)
Yellow Car (Roger Rabbit)
Ha-pillar (Heimlich's Chew Chew Train)
And a new one: Halloween ride (Haunted Mansion Holiday)

From Maggie:
Doors ride (Monsters, Inc.)
Dumbo that flies (as opposed to the Dumbo train, Casey Jr.)
Time Tunnel (Disneyland Railroad)
Mickey's Fun Wheel (Mickey's Fun Wheel - she picked up on the actual name of the Ferris Wheel while waiting in line)

Somewhat relatedly, today we took the kids on a walk just down the path a bit and under the road to what they call the "Echo Bridge". We stood there yelling (and echoing) for 5 or 10 minutes. They love it.

Dalton still worries about alligators in the closet. When we put him to bed, we tell the alligators to go back to the zoo, then shut the closet door. That seems to work just fine. Last night I went into the kids' room to put some laundry away after they went to bed and I left the closet door open. Maybe that's what spurred my bedmate last night.

Also, Leonard commented previously about an alligator story about Dad, which he later emailed to me.

This was before Dad went into the hospital, but he didn't get out of bed much. One day he and I were the only ones home. He called me in and said "there's an alligator outside. chase it away." I was terrified because either a) Dad had finally gone totally crazy, or b) there was an alligator outside and I had to chase it away.

Well, I went and checked, and surprise, there was no alligator. So I told him this and he kind of nodded and went to sleep.

Maggie: It was an accident!
Me: What happened?
Maggie: I was shaking his head-
Me: This does not sound like an accident.

Maggie: Dad, I have a really fun game for you! It's special just for you. You can clean up all the pieces back in the box.

Maggie: You're bothering me. You know what bother means? Bother means I'm going to get mad at you.

"King Maggie saves the day!" The kids say this while jumping off the bean bag chair.

"Whatasmic!" What Maggie calls the Fantasmic song.

Maggie knew that some popsicle sticks have jokes on them. She held a popsicle up to her ear to listen for the joke. Not sure where that came from.

Speaking of jokes, she also laughs before the joke punchline. Ie. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "hahahahaha!"

"Pirates is my favorite ride now." Even though we dragged her kicking and screaming.

M: "I want to tell you something. I think I do like the farmer's market now." Then she covered her ears so she couldn't hear me laughing and praising her.

"I know exactly how to stop the car. You take your foot off the pedal."

Dalton woke up in the night talking loudly about a Ferris wheel.

Both of the kids have developed an obsession with the color of cars, stemming from John's fancy blue car. Dalton calls brown cars "chocolate" colored.

Dalton is very interested in Pirates. He loves that ride and he asked to see the movie. We watched an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates instead. One of his favorite parts of the ride is the macaw at the front yelling "Yo ho!" Dalton says "no ho!" and he says it loudly, and he says it during Sacrament Meeting.

Here are some older quotes from the kids I found.

6/8: Maggie names her My Little Ponies "My Little Whatever's-on-the-butt" For example, My Little Birthday and My Little Worm.
6/8: I asked Maggie what she learned in Primary and she answered "A Book of Mormon story." When I asked which story she launched into an episode of someone's car breaking down and his phone didn't work and he had to climb the mountain. Finally I said, "did he pray?" "Yes!"
6/10: Maggie calls the bombs in Fruit Ninja "buns."
6/15: Inside the tunnel at Snowbird: "The echo dripped on me!" Also, about the whole day: "It was almost a good idea to go there."

6/11: Dalton, calling out in his sleep: Daddy! I wanna play. (games on the iPhone.
Dalton calls the scroll bar on the computer an "elevator." He's kind of right...

"Over there!" he said.
"Did you have a scary dream?"
"Yes! By the closet!"

So I pretended to make whatever it was go away (though in the night, in the dark, I was getting scared myself!) He was still scared so we said a prayer. I snuggled him for a minute, then went back to bed. I had to get up a few minutes later and comfort him again, but he was more sleepy that time, and just wanted a hug.

When he woke up in the morning, I asked if he had a scary dream. I couldn't believe he remembered.

"Yes. Alligators."
"What were they doing?"
"They were scary."
"Were they in the closet?"
"Alligators in my clothes!"

It all seemed pretty funny by the light of day - and if I'd known in the night that he was afraid of alligators in his clothes, I might have found it funny then, too. Silly boy.

3/19: Dalton: Pizza!
Maggie: I smell pizza. Yuck.
Dalton: No, pizza yum. *microwave beeps* Pizza ready! I have some, too.

(Maggie actually does not like pizza. We thought for a long time that she didn't like Swiss cheese, but apparently she doesn't like "squished" (melted) cheese.)

3/19: Maggie: Dalton are stink and cute.

4/23: Maggie, with Rachel in the room: When is she leaving Mommy?
Me: 3 days.
Maggie: I like her!

Rachel is really good at pretending to talk on the phone. The kids thought it was hilarious and kept asking her to do it again. At one point Maggie whispered, "Aunt Rachel, do it funny!"

4/24: Me: I'm not laughing at you; I'm laughing with you!
Rachel: I wasn't laughing!
Me: You are now.

4/26: Maggie: Are we going home or to Daddy's house?

4/26: Maggie: Boys don't get married.

5/4: Maggie, to Dalton: I have an idea! Let's whine about it.

5/9: Maggie, kind of out of nowhere: I understand, but I'm not going to listen to your words.

5/9: Dalton keeps bringing me playdough food and felt food meals, then insisting we pray before we pretend to eat it. He kept snatching the playdough bites away from me and saying "prayer" over and over until I figured out what he was saying.

Dalton loves eating ice cream cones. Not ice cream, ice cream cones. The yucky cake kind. He tries to bite it before eating all the ice cream on top.

Maggie's favorite rides at Disney are Star Tours and Soarin' Over California.

5/26: Dalton, in the car: Whee!
Maggie: No, "Whee" is for going up.
Dalton: no, down whee!
Maggie: No, whee up!

5/26: Me: You need to go to sleep when you go to bed. It's late.
Maggie: But I always stay awake for a little bit. Just for a little bit to talk to myself.

Maggie's pronunciation of the word "quiet" has evolved from "piet" to "pwiet."

5/29: I've been waking Maggie up to go potty before I go to bed. One night she started whispering loudly to me.
Maggie: Mom! What are you doing?!
Me: I'm taking you potty.
Maggie: Mom! Hedo! (Hello)

The kids think the opposite of "Never!" is "Yessir!"

Maggie started calling Dalton "Dalt and Tin". Recently, this lead to Daddy being called "Daddy Tin" which is super cute.

Primary Children's didn't end up sedating him anyway. He was so calm they decided to try it with just the shots. They just straight-jacketed him with a pillow case, wrapped him up like a burrito, and had a nurse hold his head while they gave him a couple shots and stitched him up. Oh, and they put on Toy Story and brought someone in to blow bubbles (seriously). He actually almost cried at one point, then I suggested busting out the bubbles and that worked. He kicked at them with his feet while the doctor finished stitching.

The head ER guy kept thanking me for letting them do it without sedation (I guess some moms can't stand to watch their kid be awake while being poked?) and for not making them do a CT scan when he was obviously fine.

3/8: 9 kids at birthday party. One drink spilled. One Dalton sitting at the table. Two drinks spilled. This is why we still use sippy cups.

3/8: (re: chocolate cake) Milk! Want milk on it, too. (We know he's in the right family)

3/17: It's sand! It's sand! (In Moab at Sand Dune Arch)

3/17: Hiking to Delicate Arch: Edna Mode. Edna Mode. (Dalton's favorite character in The Incredibles.)

4/20: M, handing out pretend hot dogs: Do you want mustard or ketchup on yours?
D: On yours.

2/14: Bye guys! Dinosaur man! Hour! (Maggie got in the habit of saying "bye house see you in half a hour" whenever we leave. And "Dinosaur man" is "We're going to the Dinosaur Museum."

2/14: Mommy, happy face! Which was his way of asking for lip gloss.

The kids have a new game for the car where we each take turns picking a song and then we all sing it. This may or may not have been born out of hearing "Songs! Wiggles!" requested too many times. Dalton invariably chooses "Jingle Bells" or "ABCs". We sang ABCs twice on the way home from preschool today. Except once he said, "Cake." "Cake song?" "Cake." Okaaaay. So I sang "Happy Birthday."

His favorite Wiggles song is "Gulp, Gulp, Drink Some Water." He also really likes "it's a small world" and I've overheard him singing it to himself a few times.

2/21: Dalton burst into tears when he got up and found out Daddy was "on an airplane."

2/22: Every time I notice that Dalton is sitting nicely at the table I realize it's because I buckled him in.

He says "kitty" super cute still. It sounds more like "teeny" or "teengy". Video here.

We watched Kyli today. Maggie was at school and Ky and Dalton played so well together. Kyli says "Dalton" so cute. They both sat down on matching blue chairs watching "Dumbo" while each holding their elephant snugglies.

Also today, Dalton made the smallest mess possible involving a boy and an open container of Vaseline.

Dalton: A food! Food! Hat food.
Me: Oh, that's Pizza Hut.
Dalton: Pizza. Hat.
Me: Yeah, they're asking for that.

John: Look, there's the geese!
Dalton: Geese! Geese! Geese! Geese!
Maggie: Stop, Dalton!
a few minutes pass.
Dalton: red car!
Maggie: Stop, Dalton!
Dalton: Geese!

The doctor said that Dalton had an ear infection and RSV. Luckily his oxygen levels were fine, we just need to watch our for labored breathing. He's just 5 or 6 months older than Maggie was when she was hospitalized with RSV. I guess that "over 2" makes a big difference.

The doctor wrote a prescription for Dalton. Then Maggie threw up on the floor.
"That's why we switched to hardwood floors," the doctor said.
Good idea.

A few weeks ago, he saw me cleaning the toilets for the first time (we had a maid in India, remember?) He was very intrigued and shortly after started asking to sit on the potty a few times. Kyli is using our potty seat right now, so I had to hold him there until he got tired of it, which took a surprisingly long time. Today while I was changing a wet diaper, he hopped up and ran to the bathroom and wanted to be put on. And what do you know, he actually peed.

Dalton is about a month shy of the age when I trained Maggie. I don't know if I want to do this yet, though!

Me: Hey, who's that?
Dalton: Um. Baby... Baby... Jesus!
Me: Baby Jesus? That's you! And that was three days ago.

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer "Reindeer!"
Had a very shiny nose "nose!"
And if you ever saw it "saw it!"
You would even say it glows "glows!"

Cuteness ad infinitum. Maybe I'll catch a video.

He is a brilliant boy and knows hundreds of words as well as the ABCs, colors, a few shapes and numbers, and how to be completely adorable. He still uses signs, too, mostly "please" and animal signs. Unlike Maggie at age 2, he likes to feed himself, he sleeps through the night, he tries to get himself undressed, and he is friendly.

When Dalton is frightened, he prances over and hides behind my legs. He is afraid of animatronic dinosaurs, animals outside the zoo (ie. monkeys on the balcony) and strange noises.

He loves to "watch". TV. Anywhere. He likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Blue's Clues and Dora, but he will watch anything. The toy store in Dubai had TVs playing commercials - one playing a Barbie ad in the Barbie room, etc. Dalton wanted to watch them all. I am looking forward to having the TV all the way downstairs once we get home, so he won't always be turning it on.

Maggie likes to make up new dinosaurs and describe them to us. Some of them include "Dinosaurasaurus", "Whatasaurus" and, my favorite, "Pteranodon Rex." She's quite a clever girl.

Dalton, somewhere, has learned the number 4 and started pointing it out everywhere. Meanwhile, Maggie has learned to add. I introduced the concept a while ago using some activities from the summer program I bought, and now she's got the concept down and loves to practice. She asks me addition questions all the time.

"Where are you going?" John asked.

"Airplane." Of course.

I got a good snuggle out of it, though!

19 books read in August.

I heard screaming this afternoon. Dalton. Real crying, so I went to see what Maggie had done to him. He was stuck in the hiking carrier. I got him out, and realized he was holding all of his stuffed animals. Maggie was packing hers into the bag attached to the carrier. Apparently they were taking a trip!

"Mommy, do you think Heavenly Father can fix Grandma June?" Out of nowhere, in the car. By the time I was done explaining, she was telling me about the latest dinosaur place.

He repeats any word I say to him, so he is always learning new words. Some of my favorite things he does/says are:

"Right there!"
Leaning out the car window to wave at people.
"Lighting McQueen" (A boo-ing)
"Yay!" and cheer whenever I sing ABCs to him.
"bep bep" (the sound cars make. He says this not only in pretend play, but when we're driving.)
"Yeah"
"uh in" (Muffin)
"Heh Hep. Bawoo!" (Elephant)

Some new words: rock, help, stop, wait, and "night night", which is especially cute when he pretends to sleep, or tucks Pooh into bed. Oh, and "head", as in "head shoulders knees and toes." He also says "Dinosaurs" but it sounds like "iss", which is also what he says for Maggie (sis).

Con: Poor Sick Baby.
Pro: Sick Baby likes to snuggle.
Con: Snuggly Baby is hot.
Pro: Hot Baby sleeps off fever.
Con: Fever-free Baby up all night? Time will tell.

This morning we read Goodnight Moon. Or, he flipped the pages (usually backwards) as quickly as he could while I tried to keep up. He repeated and signed as much as he could. He recently learned the sign for mouse, which is brushing your finger on the tip of your nose twice. Now he has a sign for "hush" which is sticking his finger up his nose.

Now he is pretending a tube of oragel is a car. Crazy boy.

Dalton, watching from the sidelines, said, "Da Da Tuh!" Which of course means, "Please carry me around like a bird after Maggie is finished" or "Dalton's turn!" It didn't sound like much, but I know that's what he said because the day before I said, "Dalton's turn?" and he repeated it back to me. He repeats everything. Be warned.

I am amazed at how friendly that boy is. So happy to see people, so willing to sit with them, go to them, wave to them, yell "Die!" at them, blow them kisses. The ladies just love him, and so do I.

Dalton is really into cars. Really. Other than the occasional book, ball, and of course his stuffed animals, he really just wants to play cars. He lines them up, tucks their front ends under pillows, and drives them up and down my arms. He has started asking for some to sleep with. Of course I let him have some. Not only does it keep him playing quietly in his crib for a while but I seem to recall Maggie sleeping with 5 Piglets and 3 books, one of which had to be Goodnight Moon. And if any of those items fell of her bed in the night, we'd never hear the end of it until we moved her bed away from the wall and dug her book out. I can handle a couple of cars.

We joked that he learned the sign for Train on our trip to Hampi, the word Boat in Hong Kong and the word Airplane in Goa. Since then he's learned Bus. Bus this, bus that. There are a LOT of busses in Bangalore and Dalton points out every single one. I was picturing him as a baby and have a hard time remembering a time when he didn't point at everything and yell out it's name. Bus! Dog! Airplane! Bus! Bus! Maggie thinks it's hilarious and sometimes imitates him doing it.

Anyway, here is Dalton this morning: He's hiding in the curtain wearing Buzz & Woody jammies and Mickey Mouse sunglasses and holding a Lightning McQueen frisbee.

He's starting insisting on sleeping with cars. The first time I said, "No! I don't want you to get into that habit." Then I remembered that Maggie used to insist on, not only 5 Piglets, but three books, one of which had to be Goodnight Moon. And if the book fell down behind the bed in the night, we'd have to crawl under and get it out. So I let Dalton have his cars. He plays quietly before falling asleep and after waking up. Yay.

We think Dalton might call Maggie "iss" for Sissy, but I'm not 100% sure.

Anyway, back to listing all the words Dalton can say. In the five minutes it took me to type the above, he repeated paint and green and said: on, off, please and color.
car
ball
Pooh
this
please
milk
juice
cracker (he was saying this around his 1st birthday)
cheese
book
woah
sandwich
chocolate
egg
dressed
change
dirty
water
drink
bath
duck
on
off
mama
dada
papa
fish
giraffe
paper
bird
kiss
empty
all gone/all done
boat
light
hi
bye
hot
banana
wash
up
rock
bye
star(this is the only shape he knows)
He can also make the sound of each letter of the alphabet (by sight or letter name) and name many of the letters.

Typing all this makes me think maybe it's time to try a video again, so here you go! Here's the "baby Maggie" words video, taken a couple weeks before her first real word.

Update: Last night after I posted this, Dalton started labeling all the green things "geen".

He loves cars. He has started lining them up.
He can sign a couple dozen words.
He is very interested in animals. He always notices birds (and signs "bird" and says "caw" if it's a crow making that sound) and dogs (and signs "dog" and says "woof") and cows (and signs "horse" and says "moo") and bugs (and says "guck").
He knows animals sounds and makes them with a passion.
Dalton knows the sounds of all 26 letters.
He loves to color.
He loves to go for walks. If he hears me mention it, he will bring his shoes over. "gack!"
He is not as snuggly as his sister. When we read books, he likes to sit next to me rather than on my lap.
He is very friendly and outgoing and still lets random Indians pick him up.
He just cut his 10th tooth (5 times as many as Maggie had at this age).
He wakes up too early.
He jumps down small steps.
He likes Ring Around the Rosie and other dancing games.
He says "uh oh!" when the power goes out.

This weekend (pictures here, here, and here), both of the kids learned new words. Dalton learned the sign for "train" and Maggie learned about the word "ruins." I first defined a ruin as a really old building that no one lives in anymore. I was wrong.

Oh, let me interrupt this post with a white people joke. The other day we were going to a grocery store in the vicinity of this park (a tourist area) and I said, "hey, look a white person!" Maggie jumped up and said, "where? Where??" When I finished laughing, I asked, "Maggie, what color are you?" "Pink," she answered. Of course.

Back to my post. We have really cute kids and everyone loves to see them, talk to them, touch them, hold them etc. Not really a huge deal, and we knew this would happen ahead of time. Everyone here, especially young men, loves our kids. Dalton bears the brunt of it, but since I am often holding him in the sling, Maggie gets her fair share of attention.

Maggie has started yelling, "No!" if someone approaches her. I don't think she minds talking to people, shaking their hands or whatever, but she's been pinched on the cheeks a few too many times. Dalton, on the other hand, LOVES the attention. He is usually happy to go to anyone who wants to hold him - for a minute at least. The sling helps here; it's a lot harder to take him from me if he's in the sling and I'm holding on tight. Saying "no" doesn't work, though Maggie has demonstrated that yelling it does.

Neither of them minds posing for pictures. Oh, and Dalton has started waving to everyone who looks at him. He can just tell when he is the object of attention, and he turns and waves his adorable baby wave. Sometimes he will bury his head against me, but it's so cute that he's hiding that he gets "awwws" of attention and turns right back out to acknowledge them.

Maggie is not entirely unfriendly. As John wrote, she made friends with a gaggle of boys on a school trip. They all passed the playground where we were and waved from the train yelling "Hi, Maggie!"

Attachment disorder reminds me of Mom who liberally applied the term to victims of divorce and naughty dogs.

We walked home from lunch with John today. Our driver has Fridays off and one of the auto drivers near the office thinks he has a monopoly on charging me too much. It only took about 20 minutes and Dalton enjoyed being outside. We didn't have any trouble, even crossing the busy street, until we were nearly home. A woman ran across the street toward us saying the four English words she knew. Hallo! Thank you! Jesus! She said Jesus over and over and then put coconut oil on our heads. If I'd know she was going to do that, I'd have just walked away. Ugh.

Also, he loves to dance. He dances to The Hotdog Dance on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and the Handy Manny songs. The other day he smacked the keyboard at Kerri's house and turned on "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Immediately, he got up and started dancing to "This is Halloween."

He's been really grumpy the past few days, but I wore him out shopping this morning, then lunch and a visit to John's work, so he got a late nap. Hopefully that will reset his schedule.

We are definitely ready to move on with our life. It has been 16 months since we first applied for this opportunity. We're tired of waiting! During the waiting, we just discovered, Dalton outgrew the height requirement for the airline bassinets. Luckily, we were able to buy him a seat with our flight allowance.

Speaking of Dalton, he elicited a phone call to Poison Control the other day. Somehow the kids got a hold of and opened a bottle of Excedrin. Maggie played "snow" with it, then brought it to me in Mr. Potato Head's hat and asked, "Mom, what are these green things?" Pretty sure Dalton didn't eat any. I found another one on the floor today, and I know we'd used some, so he can't have had more than one.

Anyway, back to India. We leave December 2nd. There are no good flight options for taking two kids overseas. We'll be flying over two nights with a 10 hour layover in NYC. And drugging our kids with Benadryl if necessary (I already cleared this with the pediatrician).

John has been gone teaching new hires this entire week. Since he left, Dalton: started drinking whole milk; took real first steps; cut a new tooth (we're up to three now - and one more on the way); passed out again; and signed "please" for the first time. That's our boy.

I posted recently some of the sign language words Dalton has learned. He uses "nurse" all the time (sigh), but his real favorite word is "dog". That boy loves animals so much! He uses it for Princess (the cat) and he also used it the other day while pointing at a picture of a horse.

He has started to show interest in walking, and took his first few steps on Monday. It will be a while yet. I can't wait - hopefully his hands will stay cleaner and he won't be constantly getting sick. Plus, it may slow him down temporarily. I can barely keep up. I took all three kids (I care for my 3 month old niece, Kyli, most days) to the library today and it was our best visit since Dalton started crawling. I buckled him into the stroller and left him there the whole time! He only managed to pull 2 books off the shelf.

For Dalton's birthday we had two mini-parties with his grandparents. Ice cream and Halloween Peeps. Dalton thought it was so silly to see all of us singing. On his birthday, we went to Park City to buy hiking shoes. We had a little picnic, but it was chilly, and we were all still recovering from the stomach bug we had last week. We also decorated pumpkins with finger paint. We've never used finger paint before, so the kids found it pretty fascinating.

But first I screamed and called 911. I decided that this time they were coming whether they liked it or not. And come they did. I'm not at all surprised that Susan heard the news first from neighbors when she got home. The police, ambulance, fire truck and 15 EMTs were at the house.

John had the car - and the carseats - and was on his way to a job interview in Provo. Ack! Luckily Franco had the day off work and even had a Dalton-sized car seat. The funniest part of the story is that when Franco got out of the car and was bringing the carseat in, one of the guys took it to put it in the ambulance not realizing Kyli was still in it!

After a few minutes lying in my arms and looking really pale, Dalton starting acting fine and was standing on the couch waving by the time the fire truck pulled up. The ambulance had a Maggie-sized car seat that folded down out of the seat. She really enjoyed the ride. Dalton had refused to take a morning nap and was now missing his lunch so he wasn't in as good a mood. They strapped the carseat onto the gurney for him. John swung by on his way and traded cars with Franco so he could come get us when we finished.

So, Maggie, Dalton and I got to ride in an ambulance for the first time. The diagnosis is pallid breath-holding spells, an instinctive reaction to pain, fear, anger etc that he should outgrow by age 2. The doctor said my clear description of his reaction made it easy to diagnose.

Franco ended up having to drive Brook and Erin to the airport last minute and then brought Ember to pick us up at the hospital. We got all four kids in the car and got home before John did. Dalton and Kyli looked so cute sleeping in each others car seats. Pictures here.

Thanks to John for stopping by on the way to his job interview, and to Franco for basically wasting his afternoon for us - including dropping everything to answer my incoherent phone call.

Sumana, you'll be glad to know that I got a privacy practice notice from the fire department.

He can say two words: Dada (Daddy, Doggie) and Mama (Mommy) or Ma (Grandma, More). He also says something that approximates his name - Dat-uh - but he may be saying That. He learned four new signs this week: Dog, Cheese, Sleep, and Baby. He can also say Eat, Water (which he first signed in the pool), More, All Done, Alligator, and Milk/Nurse.

Maggie's learned lots of new signs lately too - all the ones I am teaching Dalton. Bath, Airplane, Bug, Train, Car, Dinosaur, Outside, and Bread.

Dalton is cruising like a pro and standing alone for a moment, but won't be walking for a little while still.

I think he might have also had a febrile seizure. Our first night in California, he fell off the bed, then passed out. He was limp, non-responsive and his eyes rolled into his head. We called 911, but he came around and started acting ok. That was right before he got sick.

This post is really about Dalton, though. I have been teaching him some baby sign language. He has learned "eat" "more" and "all done". I've shown him a few others like "milk" "cat" and "alligator" (for stuffed animal he chews on when he falls asleep), but he is still learning the difference between "eat" and "more". He was babbling to himself in the car with his hands, and Ember asked what his signs meant.

Dalton loves animals. He gets so excited when he sees a dog or a cat. He looks eagerly and grunts at them. We went over to Brook and Erin's house last night to get Ember, and he followed Jazzy around. He will learn those signs quickly, I think!

Maggie: Says "piet" for "quiet", "banquet" for "blanket", "pack" for "quack", "now" instead of "then" or "next", "last night" for anything that happened in the past ("remember I did [cute thing] last night?") and "bis a minute" (which you can hear in the video of Dalton walking behind the stool.

Today Dalton started pulling himself to standing. Just like with crawling, he suddenly started doing it and hasn't stopped since. He first did it in the shopping cart at Target, then practiced on me and on Grandma's coffee table.

Monday was the free day at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Maggie got to go with Colette this time. I didn't have a ton of fun because Maggie was being ornery and I was being short on patience. We left because she was trying to climb into an exhibit. Also, I purposely didn't bring my camera so I wouldn't feel like I had to post pictures on my picture blog. So sorry to all you people who only look at that blog (guess they wouldn't be reading this). I have too much going on.

Today I focused on getting some sewing projects out of the way. I used up a lot of fabric scraps. I also finished going through my scrapbooking stuff and posted some stuff to sell and give away. Hopefully that stuff is out of my life soon. I have been scrapbooking like mad over the past week, trying to finish the pictures I printed so those can all be put away. I'll be done soon.

We are at that point in packing where we've pretty much packed everything not in use. Most of the house is pretty bare, except for the storage room, and, by extension, the office/craft room. Which is where we spend most of our inside time, now that it's hot. I fished a piece of felt out of Dalton's mouth today. Twice.

As for kid updates, I have two big ones: Dalton is CRAWLING. When Maggie started crawling, she scooted forward a bit, and just did that for a while. Dalton all of a sudden started crawling on Saturday, and he just took off. It is so cute to hear the pitter patter of little knees around the house.

As for Maggie: the girl can do 100 piece puzzles (or at least the one we have).

Also, Leonard is visiting. Pictures of related fun coming soon.

Dalton sits up very well, loves to chew on books, and thinks his big sister is hilarious. He is a happy-go-lucky boy, and perfectly content to sit and play with toys. He has a big smile that he shows off to anyone who gives him one, but he saves his biggest smiles for when Daddy gets home from work.

Dalton sleeps about 10 hours at night. Yay! He nurses 5 times a day, and eats one meal of baby food. He likes baby food, lean towards it and grabs the spoon, but hasn't figured out the opening his mouth part yet.

And his eyes change color every day. A sort of blue-hazely-green.

After swimming, we went to Target and storytime at the library, then to Dalton's 4 month Happointment. He weighs 13 pounds, 10 ounces and was 25 1/4 inches long. He went down in percentiles, but nothing to be worried about.e is doing fabulous in all other aspects, such as sleeping, playing with toys, drooling, not crying, big smiles, and general adorableness.

We got home from the doctor with about 10 minutes to clean up the house and have a snack before piano lessons. Yikes. Also, Maggie has a little cold and is grumpy. Early bedtime tonight.

I'm not sure it gets much cuter than a cute baby in a cute, fuzzy outfit.

He is such a happy and sweet boy. He is always smiling and hardly ever grumpy. He lets us put him down in his crib for naps and at bedtime so well. He is the perfect compliment to his big sister.

At John's work party the other night, we were talking about how dismal January is. The holidays are over. Work becomes busy. The weather is crappy. And there's nothing to look forward to - the next day off John gets is Memorial Day. John is once again going to Orange County to work on a project for a client down there who keeps requesting him. And this year we are going, too! We will be in California for 10 days. We're going to get 6 day passes to Disneyland, and I'm planning to take the kids (during the week when John is working) up to Pat's house to see my family. I'm very excited.

After Sacrament Meeting, we came back to our house for lunch. I made 4 lbs of penne (just enough for the 29 of us and John's lunch tomorrow!), pesto, and a butternut squash sauce. We also had red sauce, some delicious salads, rice krispy treats, and garlic bread. Simple, yet delicious.

There were three babies blessed in our ward, but that hardly compared to Tyler's baptism yesterday - he was among 8 children to be baptized in his stake! We all made the drive up to Logan. Jodi and Franco almost didn't make it and we ended up picking them up in our car halfway there. There was some snow, and a LOT of accidents. But we were all safe and able to be there to support Tyler.

We are having the last nice days of fall, I think. Yesterday, I loaded the kids into our new stroller (a fabulous Christmas present from Leonard and Sumana, and took them for a walk around the neighborhood. We went down to the park so Maggie could swing for a bit. She noticed some construction workers had "colored" on the street and sidewalk, so when we got home, I got out some chalk for her to color on the driveway. She loved it.

ETA: John and I also got H1N1 vaccines today. We had an easier time getting these than the seasonal flu. Who knew.

Dalton is named after my Grandpa Richardson, and we picked William out of the Chadwick family names. We thought that was only fair since Maggie got a name from each of our mothers' sides of the family.

Erin picked me up a little after 7 am and took me to the hospital to be induced. “We told you so” to all the people who thought he might come on time – 6 days late this time. Erin waited with me until John got there around 9:30 or 10. They started the drugs at 9 and it was a boring few hours. John was afraid we’d have another middle-of-the-night baby, but when things happened, they happened fast.

I got an epidural around 12:15, and another one around 4, 45 minutes after the first one stopped working on one side. Ouchie. Once the second one kicked in, we were ready to go, and 5 pushes later, Dalton came right out. I kept saying “that was so easy!” because I expected to be pushing for an hour. The second epidural was a lot stronger than the first. I was so proud that I could twitch my toe by the time they moved me to my room!

I really love my doctor. I felt like he was more involved and more communicative than the doctor who delivered Maggie. He cleaned Dalton up and let me hold him for a minute – I didn’t get to see Maggie for quite a while, until they tried to make me nurse her but I was too busy throwing up. That was probably NICU’s doing though. Dalton was a great nurser right off the bat. He came out pretty hungry.

He’s got adorable spikey hair, and looks a lot like his daddy’s baby picture, except he has a little Susie nose, we think. He’s a good sleeper, during the day at least, a pretty good eater, and a great snuggler.

Maggie’s been pretty grumpy, between being dragged all over the place, Mommy being gone, and not getting much sleep. I don’t know how much of it is because of the baby – she always wants to snuggle me when I am nursing Dalton, but she slept right through his crying all night last night. She's somewhat better today. We spent the whole day at home, other than John brought Grandma June to meet the baby.

Thanks to Mom, Brook, Erin, Jodi and Franco for watching/entertaining Maggie, Erin for taking me to the hospital, everyone for visiting and calling, and honorable mention to Franco for stopping by the day before and finishing off my “nesting” list by leveling out the ground in our side yard.