The Intoxicating Aroma of Dog Kibble?

We have a fairly regular ritual in our house that has been going on for years. Every night Paul takes the boys out to feed the dogs. Each of them get s a cup of dog food and carries it from the garage to the back door. Lately, Hunter has decided that dog kibble smells really, really good. I was sitting on the couch the other day. On his way to the back door, he brought the cup of dog food and stood in front of me. He took a giant whiff and said "Mmmmmm, 'mell Mom, 'mell!" (he doesn't say the "s" in smell) I tried to politely decline, but was incredibly persistant. Reluctantly, I took a very small sniff. It smells just the way I remembered and it definitely didn't smell good! Dakota used to like to smell my scented candles... Hunter likes to smell dog kibble!

Star of the Week: Day 2

On the 2nd day as Star of the Week, Dakota got to choose a book to bring in and read to the rest of the class. He mentioned that he wanted to bring a Star Wars book (of course), but I pointed out to him that it would be difficult for him to read and if even if Mrs. Nelson read it, she probably would not be able to finish the book because it is so long. He chose I'm Taking a Trip on My Train. It's a great book with lots of good rhyming. I think we got it from a Scholastic book order when he was in pre-school. He had memorized a lot of it when we first started reading it, but now he is actually able to decode most of the words!

This is the email that we received from his teacher this afternoon: "Hi Lanphears,Dakota did a great job reading his special book the class today! Awesome!Mrs. Nelson"

Star of the Week!

Okay, one last post tonight. (It's been a busy week... and it's only Monday!) Dakota was chosen as "Star of the Week" in his class. The teacher randomly chooses a name. Even though it is an honor based purely on chance, it is incredibly important to the kids. They bring home a folder and a special bag and have something special all about them each day. Today Dakota got to bring in items to share with the class, like a show and tell. He chose to bring in a light saber and Star Wars cards (do you see a theme here? it seems like our family revolves around Star Wars!).

Dinner

I was trying to get a picture of Hunter refusing to eat his dinner for this post, but as soon as he saw me with the camera, he had to run over and get his Star Wars gun! Oh well... maybe someday I will be able to get some candid shots that don't have anything to do with Star Wars.

Hunter has become incredibly difficult and picky, especially around dinner time. He will hardly eat anything and then wants Daddy to "help him". Which basically means to feed him (how we regressed back to that is a whole other story, and Daddy, albeit, well meaning, instigated this new ritual).

Tonight we had my best attemp at Chipotle burritos. They turned out pretty good, but not nearly as good as Chipotle. Hunter, of course, made us scrape everything off of the tortilla so he could eat it plain. While I was doing the dishes, Paul was helping him eat some of the filling. When Paul tried to get him to eat the rice, Hunter said "OOOOOO, THAT WILL MAKE YOU SICK!" He has had rice before, and he did like it! And just for the record, it DID NOT make anybody sick! :)

Loose tooth!

About 3 years ago, when he was about 3 1/2, Dakota saw an episode of Calliou in which a kid gets a loose tooth. He immediately started feeling around in his mouth for loose teeth. He would constantly tell me about his "loose tooth", which was never the same tooth and sometimes more than one tooth and there definitely was never a loose tooth. This went on for several months, constantly, until he finally found something else to think about. And even after he became preoccupied with other things, every so often he would still tell me he had a loose tooth. He has been waiting for a loose tooth for 3 years.

Yesterday, 10/26/08 was the day. Dakota FINALLY has a loose tooth. I came home from the grocery store to the announcement. Apparently, there were some issues and some tears, but by the time I got home it was just excitement. His first idea was that the tooth fairy will bring him $10. I told him that I thought that was a little high and he told me then she would bring him $8. I'm not sure exactly what a tooth goes for these days, but I don't think inflation has brought the rate up to $10... or even $8 for that matter!

It's the one on the bottom left (your left, not his), on the left side of the small gap. The tooth has always been a little bit crooked, so when I asked Paul which tooth, he told me the crooked one. Dakota then told me it was his "cavity tooth". He has never had a cavity (knock on wood) so I'm not sure why he gave it that name. If I were a dentist, or a dental assistant for that matter, I could give you a number for the tooth, but I'm not, so I can't. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Report Card

We are so proud of Dakota. We had his parent teacher conference and got his report card for the first quarter of first grade a couple of weeks ago. He got all 3's and 4's (Mesa uses the number system for grades, just like they did when I attended school in Mesa a FEW years ago in 5th-7th grade). He did get one "2", for demonstrates self-control, which was due to the fact that he needs to talk about everything. Mrs. Nelson mentioned that it seems to be that he gets so excited about nearly everything, he just needs to ask a question or make a comment and he forgets to raise his hand. His behavior (and by behavior, I mostly mean talking) has really improved this year. He has only been on "yellow" 2 or 3 times this whole year, and green the rest of the days! Academically, he is doing great. He is very smart, as if you didn't already know! He loves math and science... and pretty much all of the other subjects, too!
Dakota is such a great kid. I hear from people all of the time what a big impact he has on them. Mrs. Nelson mentioned that everyone looks forward to seeing Dakota, he talks to everyone and his enthusiasm about everything can be contagious. She loves how he gets so excited about classroom activities and always wants to actively participate. The cafeteria workers love seeing him, apparently he gets very excited about the choices at lunch, as well! Last year when he was in Kindergarten in AJ, the district where Paul and I work, I brought him to school and walked him to his class. He knew everyone we encountered: other kids his age, older kids, teachers, playground aides, all of them said "hi" to him. Towards the end of his kindergarten year, the district started advertising a summer science program for elementary aged kids. I had never met the teacher who was running it, in fact I think she was at one of the middle schools. When I emailed her with a question about whether it would be appropriate for "my son" (those were my words, I didn't use his name) because he was so young, she replied back "You don't know me, but I know Dakota!" At the beginning of this school year, the ELL (English Language Learner) teacher asked me, "Is Dakota your son?". I told her he was, and she said she knew him, too! When he was in baseball, the parents and coaches from the other teams were always rooting for Dakota. He is such a special kid, he really does put a smile on the face of everyone he meets!

Hunter is 3!

Hunter's 2nd Birthday
Hunter's 1st Birthday. I think he actually ate an entire piece of cake! You can kinda tell by the look on his face!

From a beautiful baby...
To my handsome, little man.
Hunter's 3rd Birthday (thanks to Kevin and Amanda for the Darth Vader costume!)

We celebrated Hunter's 3rd birthday last Saturday. It was a blast. He had such a great time. As you can tell, he is obsessed with Star Wars, a gene which he inherited from his dad (Dakota got that gene as well). He is such a great kid, but he's growing up so fast! He was not just a big baby, but a HUGE baby. At 4 months he was over 20 lbs! At 18 months, he was almost the exact height and weight that Dakota was at 3 years! He is no longer that yummy, chubby little baby, but he is still quite tall for his age. There are so many things we love about Hunter.

He loves to jump, we can't go through a parking lot or the mall without him looking for something to jump over. I think it's a Tigger thing. Even though he is obsessed with Star Wars (he frequently tells me he is Anakin) he still loves Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.

He has a great sense of humor. He came up with this joke on his own. He says, "Knock, knock". We say, "Who's there?" He says, "Pumkinhead, ahahahahahaha!" He doesn't quite get the punchline, but he cracks us up nonetheless!

Although he does have his moments, he is generally happy and pretty well-behaved. We can take him pretty much anywhere and he seems to enjoy himself.

He still sleeps with his blankey and Snoopy, and when he starts to get tired he still asks for them. Snoopy is a stuffed animal that Daddy brought back from a school trip to California 2 years ago. Blankey (aka Bah) is a crocheted baby blanket that Paul's and Cindy actually made for Dakota. He has loved it since he was a baby!

When I drop him off at the Elaine's (his sitter), one of the other kids she watches calls me mommy. He always responds, and very forcefully I might add, "NO KENDA, that's not your mommy, that's MY mommy." That's my boy!

He loves his big brother and wants to do EVERYTHING that his brother does. He really thinks that he can do pretty much anything.

When he watches any kind of Star Wars show, he always has his light sabers and re-enacts the light saber seens along with the characters. If I'm sitting there with him, he will give me a light saber and watches to make sure that I am doing the right moves. When they start swinging the light sabers on t.v., he says "Shoot, Mom, shoot!"

Whenever I go somewhere, he ALWAYS wants to go with me. Even though I can't always take him, it makes me feel good that he wants to be with me. I'm sure he'll outgrow it be the time he's twelve.