Dallin

I want to take a minute and just talk about Dallin. Sometime he gets pushed aside in my life, but I am in love with this little boy. He is the best! He is very serious and doesn't laugh as often or as easily as my other kids. He sits aside a lot and just watches people and thinks about things.  I think this is why he is starting to seem so much older. Everyone is always shocked when I comment that is just barely 18 months this week. 

He is sensitive. When you scold him or he thinks I'm mad, he just gets genuinely sad. Doesn't cry, just looks at me. This picture captured it perfectly. 

When he gets scared, he just drops to the floor. He plays in the front a lot, runs in the road, and if he sees a car coming, he just sits. Scares me to death. But, funny at the same time.  He has been my earliest talker and says several phrases. "that's my bike", "i want apple juice", "STOP!" < That's his favorite. He says "mom" over and over. As annoying as it sometimes, I love it. His other favorite word is "what?". This started because it's tommie's habitual response to anything you say to him. But, Dallin's is a sweet "What?" and i like it way more. :) He is way loud at church, but polite in what he is saying. "more crackers mom? mom, please?". I sent him to nursery a month early. I just couldn't handle doing it all while James taught sunday school anymore. I was always in there anyways...trying to nurse while on the ground. Sis. Farnsworth was nice enough to just take him for me and it was the smoothest transition. Thanks to Tommie being in there, he never cares that we leave. I am recognizing this is a major advantage of having kids so close in age. i am so lucky they spend most of their day together playing and not fighting.  He idolizes tommie but doesn't try everything tommie does yet...thank goodness! They are best friends, and I love watching them together. 

Sometimes he climbs out of his crib, or Jackson will get him out. He will come to the side of my bed and not say anything. It sometimes takes me a while to notice him, but I love the way he peeks over at me.  It seems like it took him forever to learn to sleep good on his own. Now he is perfect...goes to sleep on his own, takes long naps and sleeps in later than the other kids. He sometimes wakes up screaming, i think he must have bad dreams, but he'll go right back to sleep if you tell him it's ok and give him a binky. Sometimes he tells me he's tired... "mom, bed mom". So cute. 

 


 He is very creative in finding ways to help himself. Sadly, this could be because I can't always give him the attention he deserves. He pushes chairs around everywhere, climbs up to eat food, get drinks, etc. This makes him seem so old to me. He reminds me so much of James when he eats. Totally engrossed in the experience... looks over the food first and totally enjoys it.  He still loves his "Dee-dee" pinky and always has one in his hand, pocket, or mouth. If he happens to lose that, he goes straight to Bryce and steals his.

He will sit in the swings FOREVER at the park. He loves it. But, I am terrible at being a good pusher. I get so bored and hate standing there holding another baby. When he is not swinging, he going down the slide over and over by himself. Cute to see that he smiles to himself every time too. 

First ice cream cone. Next time, we won't give it to him in the car. Huge mess!