DAKOTAH IS 5 YEARS, 3 MONTHS OLD TODAY

I can't believe that my little boy is 5 years and 3 months old today. Some days, it seems like he just entered this world yesterday and other days, It feels as if he has been here forever. I really don't remember much about how my life felt without him in it. My life has been forever changed by the presence of this beautiful soul!!!

Current Stats:

46.5 inches tall
44 pounds
Size 6 clothes
Size 13 shoe
He's SOOOOO adorable.

I am hoping to start blogging again......well, we'll see how that works out!!!!

Fun at the fair

AWESOME DAY AT THE STATE FAIR

So, we started the day yesterday wanting to head to OMSI or to the Children's museum....figured out both are closed on Mondays so we decided to hit up the last day of the Oregon State Fair and I am so glad we did. We arrived at the fair at about 12:30 and left at almost 8 p.m. We had a BLAST! We rode kiddie rides, ate cotton candy (NEVER before eaten by the boy but he always wants to get it but mean ole mama won't let him). We decided that Cotton Candy will be our once a year special treat at the State fair (there is something to say for traditions). Dakotah did tell me that he thought it was gross that it was spun sugar (but he still happily ate his 2 handfuls).

We watched a kids circus performance, saw the dinosaur exhibit and played on the skate ramps. It was a beautiful day and now we have more memories to add to the memory pool.

The ride home consisted of a passed out boy who stayed asleep while being carried in the house, held in one arm while bed covers were being pulled back, pants being taken off and light on so mama could turn the fan on.......ZONKED......that's a sign of a GREAT day at the fair. Can't wait until next year!

The Reptile man visits Harmony....D was so into it and not afraid AT ALL. He saw some super cool creatures.
The coil snake was a hit....
D playin' his guitar outside our house. Notice the bucket...that was in case "people walk by and wanna give me some money". He still wants to take his bucket drums that gramma made downtown this summer and play. He says he will make music for people and they can give him money in his bucket. We owe this to "Funk Plastic" (D met him downtown last summer and he let D rock his bucket drums on the corner.D strikin' a pose for me...what a HAM and a cute HAM too!!!!!!

and more oldies..

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL JUNE 22ND, 2009....
18 MONTHS OLD...A ROCKER ALREADY
ON HIS 2ND BIRTHDAY..THE DRUMS WERE HIS PRESENT AND HE WAS WONDERING ABOUT "THE TOY DRUM SET"playing piano with gramma at 26 months old

an true artist.....................about 15 months old.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE OLDIES.....AWWWW!

2 years old at auntie bev's house with her guitar
17 months old already shooting for the big hoop at the park
first time at mamas hair salon (just a bang trim)

7 month old CUTE PIE

Where are we now?

DAKOTAH AND HIS BFF, OWEN JUST CHILLIN'

DAKOTAH AND WILLIAM AT OMSIDAKOTAH AND JAKE AT THE END OF A LONG PLAY DATE


Dakotah will be 4 years old on July 11th. I can't hardly believe it. It has been an incredible journey so far. I have stayed at home with him and am VERY fortunate. He started school in late June of last year and currently goes 4 days a week 4 hours a day. His school is a Montessori school just 1/4 mile form our house. He loves to ride his bike to school and has currently been wanting to stay at school for longer. He is extremely social and has a wonderful close network of friends. His "brothers" as he calls them are Jake, William and his BFF since birth, Owen . These boys are developing wonderful relationships and they make Dakotah a happy little boy.

Current Stats:
he is 42 1/2 inches
Weighs 42 pounds
Blonde/blue eyed
is a lefty but throws and eats right handed. Plays guitar and writes/draws left handed.

Current Interests:
Loves all things music and is especially good on the drums and has his own drum set, electric guitar and keyboard. His current musical plan for himself is to have a band called "3 brothers" with William and Jake. He says he will write the music and play the drums. He loves Adam Lambert and Lady Gaga and is also very fond of Elvis.

He loves playing basketball and golf, skateboarding, riding his bike and anything else that involves the outdoors and physical activity.

He absolutely LOVES school and looks forward to it everyday. He thrives in the Montessori environment and has great friends and teachers. He is VERY social and of course his favorite part of the day is "playground time".

Things that Dakotah likes to do at home:

He loves taking care of Sage and the fish in our outdoor pond.

He loves to invent his own games and loves board games and puzzles.

Books, arts and crafts and cooking are on his list of things to do if he isn't begging to go outside and play basketball, or garden, or weed, or well just be outside RAIN OR SHINE. I'm pretty sure if allowed to he would live outside. He is a very good helper and loves to do "chores". He recently has given himself the job of setting the table for dinner. He also loves to do laundry and vacuum. A WELL ROUNDED KID FOR SURE and seriously at almost 4 years old, he can do anything he puts his mind to.

He is EXTREMELY independent and finds great joy in accomplishing things on his own. He also is VERY snuggly and cuddly and loves his quiet time with mama and mima. He still sleeps in our bed most of the time although he has been in his own bed since about 17 months. He now finds that snuggling in between the two of us in a King size bed is much more his style. Who can blame him?

More to come SOON but now it is 1:30 am and this mama must go to bed!!

DAKOTAH'S ARTWORK

I'm back in the blogging game.....after only a YEAR

So, my friend from LA inspired me to restart my blog....soooooooooooo, I'll will being just that!!!! However, I would NEVER be able to catch up with the past year of our life but I'll try

More on Birthfamily

Dakotah has been really into "loaning" and "borrowing" things lately...Gramma was over last night to color Easter Eggs and he asked her "hey, Gramma, do you wanna borrow something"?. Gramma says sure! and he grabs the photo of R and W (his birthparents) holding him at entrustment and tells gramma she can borrow THIS.

He looks at Gramma and says "that's me when I was a little baby, SEE"..and gramma says "oh, yeah and who is that" (pointing to R picture")..and he says that's my "mom" and I said "yeah, baby that is your birthmom...did you grow in her belly"..and he says "YEP, i DID".. I ask him: "did you grow in mama's belly" and he say's "nope, I didn't".....I seriously am amazed at his level of understanding of his story....he never repeats what we say, he talks about it in his own way and uses his own words......I LOVE THIS CHILD SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

Understanding his story and his family

We were laying in bed the other night reading a book...the book was talking about all kinds of animals and asking the question "do you have a mommy"?.........somewhere in the midst of the book I asked Dakotah "how many mommies do you have Dakotah"..(I will often ask him this to gauge his understanding of our family structure)....he counts me ONE...Mima TWO.."I have 2 mommies"..he says with what seems like a sense of pride and as I always say..."yep, you have two mommies, arent' you lucky"..then I say "do you have a daddy" and he looks at me like "MOM!!!!!!!.....and says NOPE, I don't..." so I say "Do you have a birth daddy"? and he says "yep, I do"..I say "Oh, yeah, what is your birthdaddies name"? and Dakotah says "WESTON".... .......so I melt with pride that our son has been processing and listening when we tell the story of his family and where he came from. He can also identify the pictures we have of his birthparents and often will ask to look at them......my heart is holding onto hope that we will see them one day and that Dakotah will be honored and blessed to know his birth family...

Empathy at it's best

I woke up yesterday morning feeling very ill. I told Dakotah that I felt sick and needed to lay down. He asked me "why you sick mama?" and was watching me very intently. He then went into the bathroom where Mima was getting ready for work and I heard him telling her "Mima, mama is sick, I need to get her some medicine"..he came out of the bathroom with a package that had a tooth cleaner in it and was trying very hard to open it and said "Mama I have some medicine for you, I need to open it" (as he was trying with all of his might to wrestle the package open)...A little later, he saw HIS medicine in the cabinet and said "OH, mama that is the medicine I was looking for, you need to take some of that medicine").

Later in the day I had the unfortunate blessing of throwing up..Dakotah was out in the living room and when I came out he told me he was drawing me a picture of me when I'm not sick. Then to top off his sweetness, he followed me into the bathroom later and sat on his little stool next to me as I was sitting on the stool by the toilet and he was patting my arm and my leg and he said " mama are you okay, do you need some water, I'm going to go get you my cup and give you some water"..he marched out in the living room where our 2 wonderful friends were who had stopped by to check on me and he told them "I'm getting mama some water", He marched back up to the bathroom and yelled down to the girls "don't come in here cuz mama is sick", he slammed the door and came over to me and put his sippy cup up to my mouth and said " I brought you some water.... and he said "DRINK" as he put the cup up to my mouth...)...I realized at that moment that he did every thing that I do for him when he is sick........I delighted in this small bit of evidence that everything we do as mothers really does matter.......My little 2 1/2 year old was showing empathy which is an amazing virture to be emerging at his young age!!!! I'm still smiling thinking about it!!!!

Just a little funny story

Dakotah woke up this morning and asked mima to get him some milk. He said that he would please like it in a glass cup....YIPPEE HOOORRAYY, he's asking for a cup..usually he says I want some milk IN A BOTTLE please...just in case that we have forgotton that he is NOT ready to give his bottles up to the "bottle fairy" quite yet...so mima gets his milk and I bring it to him in the living room..he looks at me with a big smile on his face and says "REALLY, I WANT MY MILK IN A BOTTLE"..AND he smirks that cute little smirk of his!!! :):) Oh, I love this boy!!!!!

Baby Genius?

NAH, just a really smart boy!

So, last week I went in D's room and asked Carrie "where is Dakotah's
M-I-L-K(that means I was spelling it not saying it)....?"....and Dakotah says "yeah, where's my MILK (saying it not spelling it)"?..and starts looking for his milk where it usually sits..."oh, you can spell MILK now" I say...and D responds...."hee,hee, where's my M-I-L-K"? (spelling it).....guess, we can't spell MILK anymore if we are trying to be secretive!! sheesh!!

Superbowl Sunday we are leaving auntie Donna's house and Sam say's to D..."hey, D how do you spell milk...and he looks at her like, ARE YO SERIOUS?...and says..M-I-L-K!!! like duh SAM!!!! OMG, this kid!!!

Birthparents..............

Dakotah has been looking at pictures of his birth parents, R and W since he was born...we have pictures in his room, in the kitchen, and in his photo book. Once in awhile he wants to get the picture down that is in his room and look at it ....he stares intensely at it and puts it back. He has been talking a lot lately about "his daddy".....yesterday, he was talking about his "daddy" and Mima asked him if he wanted to see a picture of his birth dad and he said YES....she showed him the picture of R and W holding him on entrustment day July 26th, 2006 ...she said their names and told him that the little baby was him...he seems that he is really starting to "get" it...it's ...it's intense and it's awesome.....this little 2 1/2 year old boy will continue to learn his story, he will know his story and he will know that we love and admire his birthparents SO much..I want him to know who they are, who his birth brother is....if not only in face but in spirit but from our stories..... I hope we do it the right way!!!!

More "random" things from the mouths of babes...

So I tell Dakotah last Saturday that his friend Bryson will be going to the same school as he will go to....
Mama: Hey, D, Bryson is going to go to the same school as you..isn't that COOL?
D: MY SCHOOL?, yeah!!! I'm gonna go to MY school and learn somethin' real quick and use the big boy potty!!!

Oh, he is taking ownership and seems to "get" what school is.....my boy is growing up...I cried!

Dakotah sees his backpack that I drug out of the closet:
Mama: Hey, look at this COOL backpack, you can carry this to school
D: YEAH, let's put it on! He puts it on and goes out and gets on his bike...
D: "which way is my school mama, on Burnside?.....OMG, I'm melting....then he proceeds to pretend that he is going to school...runs in the bedroom and sits by his puzzle and says "I'm gonna learn somethin' REAL QUICK okay"...... MAMA IS SO NOT READY FOR THIS!!!!!!

BUCKET DRUMS

Dakotah is totally taken with the "bucket drummers" that are on the corners in downtown portland..he informed his Mima today that he wanted to go downtown to burnside to see the drummers....she asked him how he knew they were on burnside and he said "that's where gramma said they were"...Gramma made D a set of bucket drums for Christmas and he was so excited that he didn't even see the black football helmet that he had asked Santa for for 2 months and was so excited about...it was precious how he walked past the toys, the helmet, the stocking straight to those drums...he LOVES them and everyday he wants to do something to them so they are "like the drummer downtown".....we will be riding the train downtown tomorrow to see the drummers and maybe, just maybe, one of them will let D play again..he got to play some when we went down in on one of the snow days...he looked like a pro........you think they would call DHS on me if I let my son sit on the street corner in downtown pdx and play his bucket drums?? HMMM, I wonder??

RANDOM CUTENESS

I LOVE all of the RANDOM, smart, witty, funny things that Dakotah says and does....if I don't write them down then surely I will forget and they are just too precious to forget...

One of our favorite books is "I Love you More"..it's a cute story of a mother and a son answering the question "Do you know how much I love you"?...with responses such as "I love you higher than the highest mountain and I love you bigger that the biggest bubble"...so we are driving along the other day and I ask Dakotah "do you know how much I love you"? and he says to me " YOU SAY IT" so I say " I love you brighter than the brightest sun" and he say's "I love you longer than the longest straw".....now we play this "game" every day and it melts my heart.....

Dakotah now know's his ABC'S so of course I have been asking him if he wants to say them for poeple....(I should know that my son does not like being a show monkey)..so I asked him last weekend if he wanted to say the ABC's for his cousin Sam and he goes thru them and gets to LMNO..and then says PISS and laughs his head off!!! LMNOPISS(I'm certain he doesn't even know what that word means ) I know, not technically FUNNY BUT coming out of the mouth of a tired, giddy 2 1/2 year old...IT'S FUNNY!!!

I LOVE that every time I tell Dakotah..."oh, mommy can't do that because (fill in the blank)....he says "WELL YOU BETTER TRY"!!!!! I guess we've taught him well.

Dakotah has taken to wanting to give people haircuts.....he was "giving me a haircut today" and he says "I'm giving you some color and cutting your hair like you do at work"..AH!!! my little man knows what mama does at work besides "make money"...

The BIG BOY potty

In june, Dakotah was showing a lot of interest in the potty..he used it a couple of times a day for a few days....then BAM..he decided I DON'T WANT TO USE THE POTTY so we layed off...we knew that when he was ready it would happen and we knew that HE knew when he had to go and that he COULD use the potty so we just decided that when he was ready he would be ready...no hurry...he wasn't even 2 yet!!!! *that's him in the picture above in June the first time he went pee in the BIG boy potty

FAST FORWARD to 6 months later: Dakotah is officially potty trained....he decided 13 days ago that he wanted to use the potty first thing when he woke up, mama pulled up his pants and that was the end of the diapers...we sported pull ups the first 2 days in public and went commando in sweats the rest of the time...after 2 days of reminding him about every 15 to 30 minutes that he didn't have a diaper on and to let me know if he needed to use the potty, he had the hang of it...he still wasn't sure about the big POOP in the potty on a regular basis but he has it down now and is quite PROUD of himself...he has only had a handful of accidents....stays dry most nights..(we still put a pull-up on at night JUST IN CASE)..but he is officially in BIG BOY UNDERWEAR......no diapers, no pull ups during the day and WOW am I proud of him....he can even hold it in the store, restaraunt etc..until we get to the bathroom....HE'S A BIG BOY NOW.............and he is 2 1/2 TODAY!!!!

SNOW ANGELS

It's been snowy and cold..........................5 oclock today we are sitting at the front window watching our neighbors shovel snow out of their driveway....I ask Dakotah if he wants to go outside.......YEAH!!!! he squeals with such delight and happiness........I LOVE BEING HIS MAMA!!!! We had so much fun! His little face was SO cold..I finally convinced him to put on the face mask..SUCH AN ADVENTUROUS LITTLE BOY!!!!