First Day of School!!!

OK, OK, so I know I was supposed to blog all this awesome summer stuff, and I am still planning on doing it, but I HAVE to blog this.  Guess what Monday was?



FIRST DAY OF PRE-K! (dun dun dun....)

You may notice a conspicuous absence of photos here.  See, I have a lovely one I wanted to upload, but guess what?  Blogger is being a jerk and won't let me upload photos for some inexplicable--and probably stupid--reason.

So, you will just have to imagine how happy he was.  While getting ready, he told me, "I'm so excited!"

We got there and played with play-doh for the first little while, then headed to lunch, which he refused to eat (not atypical...he won't eat in unfamiliar situations).  But he had fun watching the other kids eating and having one of the little girls boss him around. 

After, they had recess while he stayed inside (too hot), and then a few activities.  It is a half day class, and I think that is just right for him right now. 

Anyway, it went well!  I didn't go the next two days, but Dakin's nurse tells me it is going well.  The kids are trying to interact with him, which makes me happy, and one of them has proclaimed Dakin to be her friend, which gives me little glowy feelings inside.  :)  I love four year olds...they are so blind to everything that adults see as reason to separate people. 

So yay.  I think for now this was the right decision.  We will continue to see how it goes.  I have to say that it was immensely satisfying to take him to his first day of school--a day I wasn't sure we would get to.  I was having a hard time keeping the grin off my face.

You may feel free to suck it, SMARD.

:)



 

(I will try to get Blogger to call off its vendetta against me and allow me to post photos.)

And a bit of Dakinisms for your enjoyment:

Me: "You need to realize you aren't master of the universe."
Dakin: :"Well, I thought it was a brilliant idea."


Dakin to Daddy in the van: "Why are you going so slow?"
Daddy: "Because I have to go slow.  I can't go faster than the speed limit."
Dakin: :"But Mommy can."
(That's right.  He understands. :)  )

Berry Picking

OK, so we went berry picking like the 4th of June. And here we are near the end of July.  Where on EARTH has this summer gone?!?!!

ANYWAY.  Berry picking day was one of the best days ever.  I loaded Dakin up and headed to the walking path, and then met one of my best friends and her son K, who is Dakin's best buddy.  We headed out the berry patch.

It took us about 2 months to get there, since people in East Texas can't give directions worth a darn ("Turn left at the tree the lightning split in two in 1912, go til you see where Old McDonald's farm used to be...").  We finally found the patch and headed in!

All direction jokes aside, this patch was beautiful.  There were gorgeous flowers and rows and rows of berries.  So we just loaded our baskets up.  I am kicking myself for not having like 50 arms that I could have picked more blackberries with.  They were DELISH.  And far too few in number.

So we had a lovely time with our friends.  We headed home, saw a deer, got stopped for forever at a train crossing, and then was haunted by the same train on the way home (Dakin LOVED that.  He HATES train horns.)

It was a bit of a drive home, so Dakin sampled some berries!  Yes, he actually ATE some blackberries!  And we had fun jamming to "Drive By" by Train--he knows the words and he and I were just singing and jamming and eating blackberries.

It was a beautiful day.  One of the best.  And then when we got home he told me he was mad because I didn't let him pick any.  (I just wasn't thinking!!! ACK!  He was helping hold the baskets!) So I guess we just get to go back next year.  :)

Dakin and best buddy K

Blackberry face!

Bits and Bobs

And another 'My-kid-is-so-cute-and-I-just-have-to-post-every-last-little-thing' post.
 
Today was a gold mine of Dakinisms. I love seeing how his little mind works. I did something that was annoying him, and he was wiggling closer to me to lick me (his only form of self defense haha), and I fixed him with a stink eye or said something...can't remember which. He looked at me for a second, started wiggling back, saying, 'beep, beep.' (like a truck backing up...perhaps you had to be there but it was hilarious).

We were talking about one of his newest favorite subjects-dinosaurs. We were discussing the Confucisornis, and whether it was nocturnal. I said 'If it was nocturnal, it slept during the day. Like Mommy. Mommy is very tired today.' He responds, 'Confucisornis is tireder than you, Mommy.' Well, excuuuuuse me.

He was so silly today, but a little whiny, so I pointed it out to him, saying, 'you are very cute and very whiny.' He says, 'Hmmmmm. That is not how that goes.' I laughed and said, 'Ok, you are very cute and...' He piped in with 'smart.'

Ok. TOMORROW, I WILL blog about our blackberry picking trip, which was one of the awesomest days EVER.

Happy 4th!

Hope you had a fantastic 4th!!

 Captain America Dakin--I made his shirt from this tutorial I found on Pinterest.  I was happy with how it turned out!  The silly face is his 'mirror face'--the face he makes in the mirror when we carry him to the bathtub.  No, he doesn't think much of himself at all.  Eye roll.  :)

This 4th was also a first (see what I did there!? Oh, I kill me) in that we did sparklers for the first time with Dakin.  He LOVED it.  This is something I have been planning for years, but we just never did.  A huge grin lit up his face the whole time as he requested different colors and had fun waving the sparklers.  Definitely one of those top ten memories. 

No other fireworks for us, though...Dakin has this massive noise phobia that will occasionally lead to tears and demands to be taken somewhere he deems safe, and it is usually so hellishly, bibically, devilishly, who-opened-the-portal-to-hell hot warm here at this time of year we have never tried a real fireworks show.  But the sparklers were enough for us this year.  Awesome. 

Summer Sun...Something's Begun

Hello! Long time, no see! (Where you been, anyhow??) 

So it is summer.  My LEAST favorite time of year.  It is too dang hot around here. 

However, this summer is special, because it is the LAST summer that my boy will NOT be in school.

That's right.  At the END of this summer, Dakin will go into PreK. 

Yikes.

So while I am collecting the pieces of my heart from the floor (and trying to breathe), I am trying desperately to have the BEST SUMMER EVER.  Which around here means to do something amazingly awesome EVERY DAY.


Fortunately, I have been cyber-hoarding ideas on Pinterest for just such a situation.

So, we have been making bird feeders for the fat cardinal who lives in the backyard with his girlfriend..

And we have been painting on the driveway...

And using monster trucks to paint...

 And applying tattoo after tattoo.  This is the first year Dakin has actually been into them...and of course they are of his beloved monster trucks. 

We have also randomly been making Halloween stuff.  Well, ok, only one Halloween stuff, but you know how we are around here (only four and a half months to go!!!!).  Dakin saw me looking through my Pinterest page and saw this skeleton--he declared he wanted to make it.  So we did.

He named the skeleton Witch.

So this is the first of much awesomeness to come.  Brace yourself. Hold on to your hats.  It's getting crazy up in here.

(Also, the latest Dakinisms:

Daddy was pretending to bite me and Dakin says, "NO! She's my best friend!!" ((AW, heart melted!))

We were putting him to bed and he was asking what everything was saying (he is at a stage where he thinks things talk...).

Dakin: "What is the sun saying?"
Me: "The sun is saying it's time to go to bed."
Dakin:"What is the sky saying?"
Me: "The sky is saying it's time for bed."
Dakin: "What is the [ceiling] fan saying?"
Me: "The fan is saying it's time for bed."
Dakin: "No, the fan is saying WHEEEEE!"

haha)

Big Boy...Sometimes

I was attempting--in vain-- today to snuggle with my little man. He refused. When I asked him why, he said' "I'm a big boy." However, that didn't stop him from snuggling later and asking me to sing our secret song while burying his head in my neck. It was an absolutely glorious moment.

I win.

Other little gems from Dakin lately include: Him getting annoyed with me about not getting to play Angry Birds, and saying, "Devon. I have a question. Angry Birds. That's it." (Devon? When did we get on a first name basis??)

Following that conversation, when I asked him what Daddy's first name was, he informed me it is Superman. (which is true, incidentally, though he would never admit it.)

Dakin wanted me to buy him Angry Birds Rio two days ago, and I kept refusing. He said, "It's Mothers' Day. You HAVE to get Rio."

We were watching ABC World News the other night when they did a story on sleep apnea. He asked what it was about and I told him it was about people who couldn't breathe when they slept and that they needed to do something about it. He said, "Get a trach!" HA.

His new thing is saying that he is trying to make me laugh, which he does a good job of...he is hilarious right now.

Lastly, his nurse had just gotten done suctioning him and evidently the vent wasn't making him happy. He fussed about it to his nurse and he finally said, "Va, (that's his nurse Jane.) I'm supposed to BREATHE."

The Zoo (Revisited)

Earlier this month we took advantage of the nice weather to visit the zoo once before it gets devilishly hot around here.  It was just Daddy, Dakin and Mommy this time.  Dakin had a great time.

This little otter had so much fun going back and forth with Dakin.  It so so fun to see Dakin enjoying these experiences...it is a blessing and a joy.

After, we visited a store and had some lunch.  Unfortunately, the zoo air plus a lot of suctioning that weekend led to a lousy breathing weekend for Dakin...but he is better now, thankfully.