The Dickinson Boys: February 2012

Big Luke is 8 months old as of yesterday! Hard to believe in just 4 months he'll be digging into some birthday cake! Luke's big news is that he has tooth number 3 popping through! He was a little bit of a grouch a couple of days ago but not too bad. We've also discovered that switching him to a different formula has really helped his eczema. It's been less than a week, and it's not completely gone, but it is much improved. I think we'll still have to deal with it a little bit but our goal is to control it enough to keep him off the steroid creams. Check out some of the before and after pictures in this post! He continues to grow like a weed. This past week I had to dig out and wash our 18-month clothing. He is sleeping pretty well- usually only up once to eat in the middle of the night. He is to the point now where we can feed him and put him in bed still awake and he'll put himself to sleep. It's a big help to not have to rock him all the way to sleep.

Will has been funny as always. He has discovered the beauty of compound words and it's been a riot to hear what he comes up with. It started a few weeks back when he saw a car with a flashing light on it and called it a "fire car." Since then, he thinks he can make any vehicle or object like a fire truck by making a siren noise and calling it a "fire bus" or a "fire tractor." He's played with a "fire bike," a "fire plane" and, my personal favorite, a "fire blimp." He likes trash trucks too and today he was talking about a "trash plane" and "trash helicopter."

Will has been speaking in full sentences on occasion. Last week I was starting dinner and he came up to me and said, "Hey, Dude, what are you cooking?" I don't know what shocked me more, the astute question, the full sentence or the fact that he called me "Dude." He also has learned that Daddy's name is "David" and for a couple of days he kept calling him David. We met David at the food court on base for lunch last week and when David left the table to get a drink Will stood up and yelled "David, come back...come back, David." For a while he called us "Mom and Dad" like he was very mature. But we're back to Mommy and Daddy now. Will also surprises me sometimes with what he remembers. Like the other day I told him to stop playing with a couple of coffee mugs because they could break. Then he looked and me and said, "fragile." I don't remember when he learned that but it must have been a while ago. And he also remembers a few details from our trip to Montgomery.

Will loves snow, even though he's only seen snow a few times. A few nights ago he was putting a bunch of letter magnets on the fridge, being very particular about where they went. He kept talking about a snowman and I gathered he was trying to make a snowman out of letters on the fridge. Then he took a big elephant magnet, put it on top and called it the snowman's hat. I thought it was really cute...until he picked up a bunch of magnets, threw them across the kitchen and yelled, "SNOWBALL!" Hard to not laugh at that. We're supposed to get some snow tomorrow so maybe he'll get to play in it.

My attempt at a football cake for the Super Bowl.

Will didn't mind the look of the cake- he just wanted to dig in.

Little Luke, our smiley boy.

Will likes to rub Luke's head. No one can resist the hair!

Cute boy- even with the eczema

Check out those eyes!

Enjoying a snack and a show.

Will has his own reading corner in the playroom and often enjoys a few books in his chair.

Here's is Luke eczema free after switching formulas!

Happy Groundhog's Day! We didn't pay much attention to the groundhog...it's spring here already. Unfortunately we've also had some rain but we sure are enjoying the warmer weather! Last week we took out trip to Montgomery, AL to do some house-hunting. The drive is about 14 hours from here. On the way there we stopped for the night in Durham, NC and then went to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh the next morning. It was quite a place. Two stories full of activities for kids. There was so much to do it would have taken more than one day to really see it all. Will was very excited about the front half of a full size city bus they had. We could hardly get him out of it to see other things. He also spent some time at the train tables, water tables, large pirate ship and sports center upstairs. But he loved the bus the most! The museum even had a baby area for Luke! The boys were both up very early that morning so they both got tired very quickly and we were back on the road by noon. We stayed that night in Greenville, SC and then got to Montgomery on day 3.

We had houses lined up to see over the first two days were were there. The first morning, last Monday, there were severe storms and even tornadoes up in Birmingham. Luckily, our first house was at 10:00 and the tornado watches and warnings were over with by then. It was a reminder that we're moving back to a part of the country where tornadoes are a problem. That just wasn't an issue in San Antonio or Charleston. I'm not quite sure about Maryland- we've never had a spring here!

Anyway, we looked at houses on the east side of Montgomery and in two suburbs north of the city- Prattville and Millbrook. After seeing several houses we found one we really liked in Millbrook. We've signed a lease so it's pretty much a done deal. I'm really excited about it. It has plenty of space and a nice, big fenced in yard with a play set for the boys. The boys will have a big playroom upstairs and it's in a nice, quiet neighborhood. It's not far from a YMCA that has a pool and splash park for kids. The only downside of Millbrook is that there's not much there. We'll have to go to Prattville to do most things, but Prattville is only about ten minutes away.

Since we got our "job" done in the first two days we had day three to relax a little. We went to the base and walked Will around the static aircraft displays, which he loved. We saw a huge B-52 but it was so big I didn't get very good pictures of it. It was about 50 yards wide- half the size of a football field! Needless to say, Will looked very small standing underneath it!

The drive back home was a little rough because we did it in just two days. The boys are really great travelers but it was a lot to ask of them. Especially since our time in Alabama was spent mostly driving around. We made it back here last Friday and have been getting back into our routine since. It's a relief to have a good house lined up and to be a little more familiar with the area. I think we'll do just fine in Alabama. And the move has to be easier since we won't have a newborn for this move!

Will has been a classic toddler lately- hilarious and delightful between tantrums. He continues making some progress with his talking. I'd tell him we were going to Montgomery, Alabama and he'd talk about "'gomery, Alagama." Atlanta was "Lanta." The hotel coffee table was the "poppy table." David's coffee is "Daddy's hot chocolate." The Hawaiian shirt David's Aunt Judie sent for Will for Christmas is his "Hawine shirt." Some mornings in the hotel, Will would yell "time to wake up!" when he was ready to get up- even if it was 4:30 or 5:30 in the morning! (The time difference between Eastern and Central meant that we were getting up VERY early).

Will has had a recent fascination with gas stations and parking garages. Every time we pass one he gets excited and yells "gas station!" or "parking garage!". In the hotel Will kept lifting up the skirt on the couch and looking underneath. Then we'd hear him talking about a ladybug. He finally did it often enough David looked under the couch and turns out there was an unpopped pocorn kernal there. Will was calling it his ladybug! When Will colors he always draws circles and calls the picture a "blimp." It's either a "black blimp" or a "blue blimp" or whatever color he wants to draw with. But always a blimp.

Will tends to not eat much when we're not at home. We had trouble getting him to eat enough. We did discover, however, that he likes Arby's roast beef sandwiches. He also got excited walking into Texas Roadhouse and yelled "peanuts!" before we even walked in the door. He loves peanuts- but only if he gets to shell them himself.

During his nap time Will likes to pull out his books and pretend to read. There is one book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" that he has memorized. He'll recite the story and turn the pages at the correct time. He actually sounds like he's reading...but he just has it memorized (it's very repetitive). It's still fun to watch! Finally, Will loves to set the table. He often finds objects and puts them around the table- one at every seat. At the moment every place at the table has a puzzle piece. Sometimes he uses his plastic dishes and plastic food to set the table. Sometimes I let him help set the table for real, which he thinks is fun. I give him one dish at a time and tell him where it goes (Daddy's plate, Mommy's fork, etc). One night he set the entire table!

We've been feeling him out to decide whether he's ready to potty train. He's sat on the potty a few times...and had one accident on the floor. He takes his diaper off whenever he feels like it, even if it is... shall we say...full. But sometimes when I try to get him to use his potty he gets a little anxious and asks for a diaper. We're taking baby steps and trying to get him interested in it.

Luke is growing at an unbelievable pace. He looks so big all of the sudden! He has turned into a very hearty eater. He's eating meat now and loves yogurt. He is always enthusiastic about eating but sometimes he overdoes it and has some tummy problems. He loves feeding himself and has been eating Mum Mums (a rice wafer that dissolves easily). Will calls the Mum Mums "Cookie's crackers." You would think with all of that food that Luke would sleep through the night, but no dice. He usually goes to bed around 7:00 and is up to eat usually between midnight and 1:30. Then he'll sleep until 6:30- 7:30. I guess, medically speaking, doctors call a 5-hour stretch "sleeping through the night" but it's little consolation when we're still getting out of bed in the middle of the night to feed the eating machine.

Luke is rolling all over the place and is very close to being on the move. He hasn't quite intentionally rolled to get somewhere specific but he'll often end up pretty far from where he started out. He rolls over in bed now and sometimes sleeps on his tummy. He's become very vocal and is making all sorts of new sounds, including "ma ma" and "da da." He doesn't yet equate those terms with us but he says them pretty frequently. He likes to "talk." He's also at the age when a lot of babies develop some stranger anxiety...and Luke surely has. We've had some problems at the church and gym nurseries. There's nothing "wrong" with him- he just screams when I'm not there. Then I come back and he's happy and smiling...until I leave again. He just doesn't understand why I'm not right in front of him 24/7. But this too shall pass...