Random Pictures

This is how Dawson greets me almost every morning. :-)


He's kneeling, he has only pulled himself all the way up once and that was a few weeks ago so I think it was a fluke. That picture was taken a couple days ago.

This picture was taken today, after his morning nap. He is waving hi to me.


If I'm ever having a bad day, he can always cheer me up in a second!

Today was the first time he took a bath in the tub without his seat! He's been trying to climb out of it lately so I figured it's time to pack the seat away.



What a big boy! At first he seemed like he didn't know what to do. That only lasted a minute or two and then he started splashing more than I have ever seen him splash before!



He absolutely LOVED to move around and splash up a storm!

One of his new favorite things to do is climb up on the tv stand and pull down all the Wii games.


He pulls them down, I put them back...

...and he pulls them down again!


"What mom?" *lol* What a cute face!

Surrounded by puppies and dinosaurs! He's in heaven!



Can you find Dawson in this next picture? Where is he???


Peek-a-boo! There he is!!! :-)

Yokosuka, Japan

I asked Dave to send me something to put in our blog after each one of their stops, here's his first post! :-)

I spent 4ish days in Yokosuka . The first few hours of the first day I sat next to a HUGE anchor looking at the base out one of the holes the lines go through to moor the ship to the pier. Once I was done with that my buddy and I went to the Exchange (store) and outdoor rec. place so we could get our gear for the Mount Fuji trip the next day. We had to come back to the ship to drop off the stuff and got stuck! They were having the change of command ceremony for the new Commanding Officer and the only way on or off the ship is where they were having it.

That finally got done around 3 so we headed out to meet some of the others that weren’t stuck on the ship to check out the town a little. After a little walk and a stop at a 7-11 we found one of my favorite types of restaurants I used to go to in Okinawa . You just order a bunch of any kind of meat you want and they bring it to you raw. Then you just throw it on a grill in the middle of the table. I wish there were more places like that in the states, hell I don’t think I’ve been to any.


From there we walked around a little more until we got to a Karaoke bar! Not exactly what I was looking to do, but it was private rooms, not a huge bar so it wasn’t quite as bad. I still mostly just listened and told everyone how bad they sounded. I did make an attempt at Bon Jovi, Blaze of Glory. Saying it didn’t go well would be an understatement! I think I was the only one that got “the hook”. Still had fun though!


A couple of us left at about 8 to head back to the ship though. We had to be on the bus to go to Fuji at 130 in the morning! I still didn’t get to bed until almost 12, since someone needed an X-Ray and I was the only one here that knew how to do it, and a new guy showed up and I had to show him around a little. I did get to sleep on the bus for 3 hours though. I even got lucky enough to be the only one on the bus with my own seat. That was nice!

On to conquer Mount Fuji !

We started off at about 6am, I had no clue what to expect really. The first ½ mile or so wasn’t bad at all. Then we got here.

That’s where it started to actually ascend, along with our heart rates and muscle fatigue. The next 30 minutes or so was having us wondering if we were going to make it at all. After a while I think we just got into a groove though. Little did we know we still had barely started. An hour and a half or so in we got to our first “hut”.

That’s where we get our stamps for the walking stick you buy at the bottom of the mountain. Other than the summit the huts are sort of what keep you going. Getting to the next one is what motivates you to keep going. Here’s the stick with the stamps flag and bell.


Every now and then they tease you with what looks like it could be the end.


I couldn’t resist when I had the opportunity to show of my Captain Morgan pose.


Another, this time contemplative…I think


And finally, after almost 6 ½ hours we made the summit! Don’t mind the gut, between the back pack pulling on me and basically being held up only by my skeleton, I don’t think I could have held it in if I tried.


Not done yet though! A short walk once on the summit you get to the heart of the volcano. They say technically it’s still considered active, but it hasn’t erupted in about 300 years.


So that’s it, my trip up Mount Fuji . I’ll never forget it and I’ll NEVER do it again! I wish I could say that was it. They don’t have some fancy ride for you to get down in though. You get down the way you got up, walk it. It’s a different route though. They bull dozed a series of switch backs to make it easier. It’s supposed to be 10 miles of walking round trip, the first 5 up took 6 ½ hours and the next 5 down took 4. We had a couple people with us that had trouble with the loose rocks, we eventually went ahead of them and started going a lot faster after that. It’s by far the longest 10 miles I’ve ever walked, evident by this last picture.


That look familiar? It’s the same sign we took a picture at just before the climb up really started. We were much happier than we looked to see it.

The next day I had duty so I stayed on the ship and the day after that I went out on base to do a little laundry, shopping and send some stuff home to Jamie & Dawson. I found some friends and crashed their BBQ for a few and had a couple beers and went to see G.I. Joe on base before heading back to the ship. The movie was better than what I expected but isn’t going to win any Oscars.

I spent the next morning the same way I started the first day, just watching the base get farther away instead of closer. The same way I’ll spend every morning we pull into or out of a port.

See you next time, I’d tell you where we’re going but then they might have to kill me!

Kissing Cousins

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. Her birthday isn't until September 1st, but my aunt Stephanie is visiting from Washington and wanted to be here when we celebrated, so we did it a little early.

A bunch of my family went and Dawson had another baby to hang out with! My aunt Jennifer has a baby girl named Analia, she'll be 7 months old in a couple of days. Analia and Dawson really liked each other. They kept reaching out to touch one another, it was really cute. Analia just started giving kisses, so I thought I'd see if she would give Dawson a kiss. And she did! Dawson loves giving kisses, too.

How sweet is this?!


Aww! They love each other. It's so cute.

Finally! Surprise #1

I have been waiting SO long to write this blog! I sent Dave a package over 3 weeks ago and he FINALLY got it a few days ago! Yay!

I decided that I am going to send him one surprise a month. He knows he's going to be getting things like shirts, gum, granola bars, kettle corn, etc. But I thought it would be fun to put something special in there from me and Dawson.

Here is what I came up with for his first surprise:


It turned out just as I imagined! And Dave LOVED it!

The sailor suit that Dawson is wearing is extra special too. I think I have mentioned before that my grandpa was also a corpsman in the Navy. Well, when my dad and his brothers were kids (a year or two older than Dawson is now) they got their picture taken in the sailor suit that Dawson is wearing. The suit is over 50 years old! How neat is that?! It was a little big on Dawson but we (my sister and I) made it work so you can't really tell, except for maybe the sleeves. :-P

Here is a picture of my dad when he was wearing it next to Dawson wearing it. My dad thinks he was 2 or 3 years old in this picture:


We are hoping to get a better copy of my dad's picture, but isn't that so neat?! I wish that I was able to keep the outfit but it belongs to my uncle. I am so happy that he let me borrow it at least!

Here are a few other pictures that I took of him in it:

10 Months Old

Our baby boy is 10 months old today! I can't believe it! In a couple of months I am going to be able to say I have a 1 year old. That seems crazy to me! He's learning so much and getting so big.

A couple weeks ago he started pulling himself up. He usually only pulls himself up to his knees, but one day last week, after I put him to bed he started crying a little bit. I went to see what was wrong and when I opened his bedroom door he was standing up! It was so cute. I wish I had my camera with me! That was almost a week ago and he hasn't done it since, but I'm sure it wont be long before he gets the hang of it and I'll walk in to him standing up again.

He still is not crawling but I think he could be in the Guinness World Record book for the fastest army crawler. *lol* I've been trying to teach him how to crawl by holding him up so his hands and knees are on the floor, but so far I have had no luck with that. All that I got out of it was a backache for leaning over and holding him up. The other day I balled up one of his blankets and used another blanket to tie around him to hold the balled up blanket on his chest. I thought maybe that would help. I couldn't stop laughing after I did it. He didn't seem to mind and it didn't work out at all how I had planned. The balled up blanket ended up on his side and he was army crawlin' around as if there was nothing there.

He loves to stand up! He'll spend a good amount of time standing at his musical table or standing against the couch, playing with whatever I put in front of him. I need to stop standing him up and maybe he'll start pulling himself up. :-P

He has started eating a lot more table foods. In fact I have almost completely given up on baby food. I will try to feed it to him every now and then but he doesn't like me feeding him. He likes to feed himself. Here are some of the new things he has tried:

Toast
Waffles (Regular and Blueberry)
Diced apples, peaches, cantaloupe and plums
Ground beef
Chicken
Broccoli Alfredo
Spaghetti
Mashed Potatoes
Blueberry Muffin
Chicken Noodle
Pot Roast w/veggies
Tater tots
Egg Yolks
Pancakes

I'm sure there is more but that is all that I can think of right now.

He has learned a couple new words, too. Lately his favorite word is "wassat" (what's that). There is a video of his saying it in my previous post in case you missed it. ;-) It's so cute when he says it, he kind of whispers it. :-) He has also started saying "done" although it sounds more like "duh". Whenever he is finished with the food that he gets in his highchair I ask him if he's all done. If I don't notice and ask him right away he says "duh" letting me know that he is finished. :-) And of course he still says mama, dada, and hi! ("Hi" is only every once in awhile) He says a few other things like "ba" and stuff, but they have no meaning as far as I know.

He loves to play patty cake and peek-a-boo. And he loves to give me kisses! He's been giving kisses for months now, but they were few and far between. But lately I have gotten a few kisses everyday for at least the last week! I love it!!! Sometimes I don't even need to ask for one, he just kisses me. (He doesn't actaully kiss, he just opens his mouth and puts it on my lips. The sweetest kisses in the world!) I love it when I'm reading a book to him and there will be a picture of somebody giving kisses, I always make sure to say "Aww! Look they give kisses" as I point to the picture and Dawson will lean over and give me a kiss. Too sweet!

If you are on Twitter and want to know what is going on with Dave's ship you should follow USS_Nimitz. I've been following him for awhile now and he posts some pretty neat stuff. The other day he had a link that showed video of some jets taking off and landing on the ship. I've seen video of it before but it's still so cool to watch!

The Nimitz is in Japan and Dave climbed Mount Fuji yesterday! As soon as he sends me the pictures, I will definitely be putting them in the blog.

I haven't gotten any pictures of Dawson yet today, but I took this picture yesterday during his afternoon nap. He must have been playing with Tigger before he fell asleep.

Wassat

Dawson's new favorite thing to say now is "what's that?" Of course it doesn't quite sound like "what's that" but he sounds pretty darn cute when he says it anyway. I got him saying it on video this morning, he usually says it a little better but that's ok.

Peek-a-boo!

I've been meaning to post this video for a couple days now but we've been busy! It's just a short video of Dawson playing peek-a-boo with me. He does this almost everyday and I think it's cute. One day we played for a good 5 minutes! I was surprised that he kept going.

In other news, today is my birthday! My family threw me a surprise party last night and I was really surprised! This is 2 years in a row that they got me! (Last year we were down here visiting from San Diego and they through me a surprise party.)

I seriously had no idea. My sister told me that some lady was having a scrapbooking party at the condo clubhouse and she didn't want to go by herself, so she asked if I would go with her. I of course said yes.

I was supposed to meet her at her condo at 6:30. At about 5:30 I was pretty bored and I had some stuff that I needed to drop off at my mom's house and I needed to go buy some light bulbs, so Dawson and I headed over to my mom's. When we got there my dad's truck was in the driveway so I assumed at least he was home. I took Dawson out of his car seat and knocked on the door. And then knocked again. And then knocked again. No answer.

So I went back to the truck, put Dawson in the front seat as I stood by the truck door and I called my dad. No answer. I called my mom. No answer. Then I got a text message from my sister telling me that mom was probably going to go to the scrapbooking party, too. I sent a message back asking where mom was and my sister replied telling me that she was probably out for a run.

Then I called my other sister and asked where everybody was. She said mom was probably running and if dad didn't answer he was probably asleep.

So I got Dawson back in his car seat and went to the store for light bulbs. By the time we were finished at the store, it was time to go to my sisters. I met her at her condo and we walked to the clubhouse. When we walked in I saw a bunch of birthday decorations and even a banner that said surprise, and it still didn't hit me what was going on! Nor did I realize that the scrapbooking stuff wasn't there! *lol* Then my whole family (about 15 people) jumped out from behind a wall and yelled "SURPRISE!" Dawson and I were both surprised! Poor little guy got scared and started crying. :-( It was a lot of fun though! We ate dinner, opened presents, went swimming and then came back to my apartment for cake and ice cream. It was a fun night. Thank you all for everything!

He's Still Our Little Monkey

I'm almost completely convinced that our son is a monkey! I've posted about this before, clear back in April, and he's still our little monkey! (Click here to see which post I am referring to.)

When Dawson is playing with a toy he is almost always laying down and holding onto it with his feet. I've tried sitting him up so he can play but he always lays himself back down. My family always gets a kick out of it when they come over and see him holding something with his feet. *lol*

A couple of days ago I decided to make sure that I had the camera handy so every time I saw Dawson using his feet to play with a toy, I could snap a quick picture! Some of the pictures are a little blurry because my phone was the closest camera to me at the time. :-)

Anyway, here is the evidence that I am raising a monkey!

"Look Mom! I have 4 hands!"


Holding the book with his feet so he can turn the pages with his hands! Not only is he a monkey, he's a genius, too!


Reading another book:


I really don't like it when he holds heavy/hard toys with his feet. Since he likes to let go with his hands, and he doesn't always have the best grip with his feet, I've seen him drop way too many toys on his head. :-(


Soft toys are much better!


Look! No hands!


This is usually what he does with his toys, holds on with his feet so he can hit it with his hands, doesn't matter whether it's his drum or not.


And last but not least, showing off that he can still hold his bottle with his feet!


I got some really cute video of him tonight but I'll save it for a post later this week. (Maybe tomorrow!)

Getting so BIG!

Dawson LOVES to stand up lately. He is really good at it now too, as long as he has something to hold on to, of course. Just about any time I try to put him on the floor, he straightens out his legs so I can't sit him down. I have to hold on to him while he stands for awhile. He's been trying to pull himself up to the standing position for a couple of days now, but he can't quite make it past his knees yet.

I remember when I first started standing him up, he would only last a few seconds. Now I can stand him up next to his musical table and he'll stand there and play for 10 minutes! That's without any support from me, either. He knows how to use the table or couch or whatever he is standing by as support. (A little off topic but I would also like to mention that he has completely mastered sitting himself up! I love it! One minute he's crawling around, the next minute he's sitting up playing with a toy. )

He also likes to stand in front of my while I am sitting on the couch. I had the camera right next to me today while he was standing there so I decided to snap a few pictures. When I came to look at them later I noticed I got a really good shot of his teeth!

Check out these pearly whites!


Here is a picture of him standing at his musical table:


And I've also got some video to share. Whenever I say "I'm gonna get you!" Dawson takes off crawling and laughing because he knows I am coming! Today I decided to be the tickle monster and come after him. He thought it was extremely funny! I love his little laugh so I decided to break out the video camera! We went up and down the hall a few times and I must say I was exhausted after we were done playing! *lol* And my throat hurts from my "monster sounds." It was fun though. I like chasing him around. :-D

Got Spoon?

Lately Dawson has been eating less and less baby food. Up until a few days ago he had been eating about 3 jars a day. He hardly ever finished an entire jar, but pretty close. He gets some in the morning, some in the afternoon and some in the evening. But lately he has only been eating about 3 bites out of each jar and then he decides he is finished. I think I know why he does this...it's because when he is finished with the baby food, he gets to feed himself finger foods!

I was unsure whether he just liked the snacks better, OR if it was the fact that he was feeding himself the finger foods. So tonight I decided to try something different. I decided to let him feed himself with a spoon! And he loved it! He did pretty good too! At least for the first 10 or so bites, after that he started swinging the spoon around and food was flying every where. Thank goodness for the plastic mat that we have under his high chair to protect the carpet!

I got a little bit of video of him feeding himself with a spoon for the first time. (If I sound a little stuffy, it's because I am! *lol*)

Pictures

There isn't a lot going on today. Dawson and I both have colds so we're being super lazy today.

I do have a few pictures that I want to share though. The first ones are Dawson playing with his Daddy Doll. Before I grabbed the camera he gave Dave 2 BIG kisses! It was so sweet. I tried to get him to do it again for the camera but of course he didn't want to. He did play with it for 5-10 minutes which is about the maximum time that he will play with ANY toy.


These last pictures I took today, yes, we stay in our pajamas a lot. :-P I was trying to clean up the kitchen and Dawson was at my feet the whole time so I decided to give him a little snack to keep him busy while I finished up. Here he is enjoying some yogurt melts and a few puffs.



Look mom, all done!



He did really good keeping everything in the bowl. This is the first time I have let him eat when he wasn't sitting in his high chair. I definitely wont make a habit of letting him sit on the floor to eat but it was neat to see how good he did. :-)

I'll probably do quite a few random picture posts since it's the easiest way for me to share pictures with Dave. :-) If I email them to him I have to go through and resize them all and that takes awhile when I have a lot of pictures.

Dawson the Dinosaur

I took this video yesterday and thought I would share. The first part of the video is Dawson chasing after me. I was trying to get video of him going down the hall because he likes to knock on the closed doors and I think it's cute, but once he saw I had the video camera he turned around and came after me.

Then the second part of the video I was trying to get Dawson to make his dinosaur sounds. He was doing it a lot before I pulled out the camera. I did manage to get a little "rawr" from him but you'll have to listen carefully, he only does it for a second.

I'm going to have to get video of his latest trick...he likes to bang his head against the sliding glass door! I have had to pull him away from it so many times in the last 2 days! I try to play with him or give him something to play with to distract him but as soon I pull him away, he crawls right back to do it again! Our love seat can not get here soon enough (it will finally be here on Thursday! Yay!) I am totally putting it in front of the sliding door, I don't care how stupid the living room looks afterwards. *lol*