Spring Break

This is our week for Spring Break at Roanoke College so we're visiting Cathy's parents. The trip actually represents a surprising level of conventional and rational behavior for us. We actually went to Florida when it was cold outside.

Dalton is having a great time. He's pictured here showing his Great Grandpa Art how to blow up a balloon. The balloon is actually already blown up and left over from Art's 85th birthday party.

We also found a dead rat today. It didn't faze Dalton at all. His reaction was...well I don't remember the exact words, but it was akin to "Hey! Look at that." I suppose an aversion to dead animals is an acquired trait...even for vegetarians.

Bouncy

Howdy! Long time no post. I've been waiting for inspiration. I suppose some blame could be placed on various video game addictions as well. Anyhow, I figured I'd get a picture up of Dalton. He's continuing to grow. Here he is jumping on the mattress in the nursery. In most people's homes, this is the place where the infant sleeps in a crib. Eventually, the infant grow up some and it gets converted into their bedroom.

This is, of course, our house. The nursery finally got some use as a bedroom this month. Not surprisingly, it's use involved pulling in a mattress, Cathy, and TY. I even joined the rest of the family in there a few times. It is quite a warm little room.

I think I was posting about all Dalton's new words last December. We had him playing word games and watching educational word videos. I figured he'd be taking over the posting come February.

Since then we have gone into a word drought. Dalton has shown no interest in words until the last week. We managed to catch his interest by playing some games with letters. Essentially, I have a set of cards with letters that I turn over and use to play concentration. I managed to grab Dalton's interest and he started playing with me. It wasn't words, but it worked memory so I was happy.

Dalton then changed the rules of the game. Now we have to get the cards out and put them in piles of matching letters. We then draw the letters one at the time and call them by names that are related to a card game he has seen us play at parties (Dominion). I draw an "A" and call it an "Estate". He calls an "E" and calls it an "Ironworks". I would draw letters in order and spell words on my side of the table. Dalton tried to take draw some of my letters and I made the game more educational by requiring that he tell me what word he was drawing it from. This lasted about one game before he realized I was attempting to teach him something and he started demanding I steal his letters instead. Sigh! He's a bright kid. He catches on very quickly when I'm trying to make something an educational activity. I also have a terrible poker face.

Oh well, he's bound to hit another sensitive period for words sometime. Maybe it will be when he's through with his current sensitive period for sewing and cooking.

Snow? Oh yes, we have snow

Photos over here

Dalty health and Tantive IV updates

Dalton has continued to heal from his fall on Monday. The swelling peaked on Friday. While we still have all sorts of interesting colors in and on his face, the shape of his face is approaching normal.

We had an additional scare yesterday when Dalton woke up with a substantial limp and refused to walk in the morning. Cathy got on the phone with our family doctor who told us to give him ibuprofen and see if it improves. He steadily improved over yesterday and there is no sign of limp today.

We don't know what happened with the limp. Friday was date night so Dalton was at school until about 8:30 pm. He was lying down in a room with a bunch of other kids watching a movie when we arrived. He complained lightly about his leg hurting on the way home and then more so over the sleeping hours. We initially assumed that his overalls were too tight. He claimed that a hammer hit him or a friend made a hammer with his or her hand and hit him while he was laying down at school. There was no mark. We assume he pulled something somehow. We'll ask at school tomorrow, but he is better in any case.

Hopefully, next week will go better. We essentially had our biggest injuries for the year packed into last week.

We've been working on the Tantive IV over the last week and competed it on Saturday. It was a fun activity for Dalton and I. I think it has contributed to a substantial increase in my popularity this week. Dalton has been requesting I sit in the back seat with him on our trips to and from school. I have also started talking through a horse puppet with him during some of our playtime. That has been a huge hit. He tells me I do the voice right (did I mention my sore throat). Today has been pretty much chain demands to play with Horsie. It has been great for learning words as that is Horsie's favorite game. We've added "boy" and "girl" to his vocabulary today.

So here are the pictures of our progress on the Tantive IV over the past week. Dalton placed over half the bricks.

Oh, we're a no guns family so if Dalton asks, those turrets are hair dryers.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday
No Work on Friday (Date Night)

Saturday (Extra bricks are in front)

LEGO update

Here is today's update on the Tantive IV.

I wish I could say that this was the big event of the day. Dalton fell down at school and hit his head on the concrete. School called me (they never call). When I arrived to pick him up, he had the biggest bump I have ever seen in the middle of his forehead. It was scraped up and bloody for extra effect. We picked up Cathy and headed out immediately to see our pediatrician.

While it looked really bad and Dalton was very upset, he was also very lucid. Our doctor did the standard neurological tests for a 3 year old (how old are you, can you spell your name, what's the square root of negative one) and Dalton seemed fine. He sent us off with advice not to panic if Dalton had black eyes or discoloration on his neck in the next week or two.

In any case, he was completely his normal self tonight including being a turkey about bedtime. We even made some good progress on the Tantive IV.

More LEGOs

We have a long and distinguished history of opening Christmas gifts early in our house (provided they are LEGOs). The latest installment is shown at the left.

I haven't quite been bitten by the LEGO bug like Cathy has, however, I do think the Tantive IV is cool. Not having any better large gift ideas for Christmas and under a constant barrage of requests to update my list, I asked Cathy for this set.

Cathy bought this and my big LEGO gift for her during the Black Friday sales. The two sets arrived in the mail shortly after and I broke mine out on Sunday. It has turned into very nice Dalton and Daddy time. I generally pick out the LEGOs and he puts them on. I'd say he's placed over 60% of the LEGOS so far.

Here's a picture of Sunday's progress. The figures aren't supposed to be in it yet, but Dalton wanted them there. It has already been flying around the room despite the lack of thrusters. I'm thinking of daily updates as long as he's interested.

Snow!

We are currently receiving an abundance of snow. This resulted in our annual ritual of building a snow family. Poor TY never seems to get his own snowman. Maybe we'll go back out and rectify that later. You will notice that we went all out this year and even sprung for carrots.

Dalton had a great time. In addition to the snow family he made snow angles, snow people and snow brooms. He also helped shovel and sweep the walk.

For those of you who are global warming skeptics, please note that the arms are branches from our rose bushes with full blooms on them. It has been quite the warm winter thus far.