Rollin' and Chillin'

Stratton has been working determinedly on his rolling skills and this week he finally figured it out. He can now do front to back and back to front. Dawson and I were cheering him on when he did his first one. One time, I set him down to go to the bathroom and when I came back he had moved about 4 feet! Below you can see him doing his latest trick - the back to front roll.


After a nap this week, it was a beautiful day and I gave Dawson his snack on a plate. I mentioned how nice it would be to sit out on the porch and read a book. Next thing I knew, I turned around to find he had made himself quite comfortable - his snack perched on a chair within arm's reach, a drink tucked by his side, a book on his lap and his feet kicked up on a neighboring chair.
Surgery Footnote - Is this normal??
The night of Dawson's surgery, we went to get him dressed for bed only to find he still had the sticky electrode things on his chest and side. Is it normal to leave them on or did they forget?!?

Ear Tube Surgery

BEFORE

AFTER

Dawson's ear tube placement surgery went well today. They drained fluid from one ear and put tubes in both. He says he can hear better - we hope that is really the case. The surgery was really fast - he was gone for about 30 minutes (including 15 minutes sitting in the recovery room by himself). That part really bothered me because at one point I think we heard him screaming and afterwards they said he was crying to see us (well, Daddy, actually). He was certainly not his bubbly self when they brought him out, but he's gotten better all day. At first he was really subdued, then he went through a silly/drunk kind of stage, and by lunchtime he seemed almost back to normal.

Stratton, on the other hand, was feeling very photogenic at the hospital.

Eric's Birthday

Chocolate cupcakes were part of the celebration for Eric's birthday this weekend. Dawson enjoyed them thoroughly.











Stratton as usual, awestruck by Dawson's antics...













This pile of shoes is evidence of the 9 kids and about a dozen adults who came over for a BBQ dinner on Saturday to celebrate Eric's 33rd!

Easter Weekend Pictures

Spring Has Sprung

These beautiful daffodils that my mom helped plant last fall came up en masse a few weeks ago - a sure sign that we're on the tail end of winter.



Memorable Quote:
I had to work hard not to burst out laughing at the dinner table last night. I made mahi-mahi for the first time and had been telling Dawson earlier in the day that we were going to have fish for dinner. He was pleasantly excited about trying a new food and after taking his first bite, he pondered and then said, "Mmmm. That kinda tastes like chicken." No joke. Neither Eric nor I had ever said that to him. He came to that one all by himself.

Adventures in Babysitting
The other day, I had left Stratton in his bouncy seat in Dawson's room and walked across the hall to get something. When I came back, about 10 seconds later, Dawson beamed at me and said, "Mommy, I was the babysitter!" He seemed to relish the idea that he was second in command when I was out of the room. Since then he has found opportunities to be the "self-proclaimed babysitter" by showing Stratton a toy or otherwise entertaining him. The two pictures below illustrate...

Stratton has almost mastered rolling over back to front - you can see how twisted around he is in this shot!

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Thunder and lightning

Watching OSU lose their last basketball game of the season : (

Brothers

Dawson and Stratton enjoyed a lazy morning in their PJs today. It works well so far, because Stratton actually enjoys watching Dawson play with his (Stratton's) toys. I know that will not last forever...!
This was on a particularly warm day last week - we all enjoyed getting outside and kicking our shoes and socks off. Dawson just wanted to take it one step further.

Snow Day!!!!

It's March, so apparently it was time for Richmond to get some way overdue snow that we haven't seen in years. Yesterday morning, we woke up to about 8 inches of white fluffy stuff - plenty to shut down all schools and most work places. Eric got the day off work (we couldn't have gotten out of our neighborhood anyway) and was here to play outside with Dawson. Stratton has now gotten a cold, so I couldn't take him out, but while he napped, I did sneak out for a few minutes of playtime. I (stupidly) had left the camera on a close-up setting, so most of our shots from yesterday were blurry. I think I have a few good ones to share... (Just for the record, we did NOT all go and buy matching jackets. It was completely random that we all ended up with spectacularly matching royal blue ski jackets!)

Dawson is sitting on top of the snow turtle we made.

There was some good sledding in the morning on the road in our neighborhood.

Kind of blurry (and I can't figure out how to turn it on this site - sorry!)

It didn't take any coaching whatsover for Dawson to figure out how to throw, jump in, roll in, and generally, revel in, the snow!