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!!!!