Underpanties

For awhile now Luke has been wearing big boy underwear around the house at night, and doing a pretty good job with it.  Last Thursday his teachers at school thought he was ready to go full on at school, so we sent them in, along with 5 changes of clothes.  He did pretty good Friday and Monday, with two accidents both days, and then yesterday he was accident free all day!  I always call undergarments panties, which is what Luke was doing too.  We've been trying to curb that so now he's saying underpanties...which is pretty darn cute!

Last weekend I worked my first competition of the season and so it began!  I have two more the last two weekends in February, and then our big nationals in March.  I'll also start judging dance team tryouts, and then it will slide on into choreography for the summer, our staff training in Salado, then on in to summer camps!  This time of year always goes super fast!  Between dance on the weekends and getting ready for the TAKS during the week, I'm pretty much tied to my 8:00 bedtime!

John is uber busy at work too!  The Green Mile will be featured in a burlesque dancer's video intro in Vegas soon (no autographs please), and we're excited about heading to the Lone Star Roundup in Austin in April.  My amazing husband bought me a brand new Volkswagen CC for my birthday and I am loving it!  It's so fun and sporty, and gets way better gas mileage than the Tahoe.

All in all, it's the same ol' things in the Dodson house!  Luke is really into birthday parties right now and keeps talking about having his...which is only a mere two and a half months away!

Have a great Valentine's Day!  Hugs and kisses!

Hello Out There!

Whoohoo, I'm blogging!  Here's some pics from the tonight (Christmas Eve).  My Grandmother made Hannah and Luke matching Christmas pajamas like she always did for my sisters and I when we were little.  They got to open one present, Hannah's was a facial spa thing, and Luke got drums.  Why I thought he needed drums I don't know, but he loves them, I'm sure I'll regret it in the next few days!

I promise to post more pics after the craziness of tomorrow, and in case you don't know, it's SNOWING!!!!

Checkup

Luke had his two year checkup this afternoon, and everything is great. He weighs 31 pounds (80th percentile) and is 3 feet tall (90th percentile). He didn't have to get any shots, and won't until he's 4. We went to the Flower Mound location of his pediatrician's office and I have to say, I liked it a whole lot more than the Lewisville location we usually go to. The wait was about 3 minutes, compared to the 5-10 as usual, then the wait in the room was about 5 minutes, compared to the usual 10-15...it was excellent!

Mother's Day was fabulous yesterday. My family came over and we had chili and spaghetti, one of my favorite meals growing up. John, Luke, and I spent the whole weekend together hanging around the house, it was absolutely fabulous.

That's all for now, making Luke dinner, while he waits ever so patiently...oh, the dog just stole his cheese by the way.

New Words

Like I've said, Luke comes up with a new word every day it seems like. He's starting to put small phrases together, and we've been working on things like "more please". Tonight he was eating yogurt and struggling to get it out of the bottom of the container, so I said let Mommy help, and he said "I do". It was so cute, and I was so proud...and he totally got all of the yogurt out by the way.

Then, the three ring circus that was me folding and hanging up his laundry in his room. I sorted the clothes into piles and solicited his help in this for about 10 seconds, then he started picking up clothes and rearraning piles, then taking things into the hallway, and just being Luke in general. Then he opens up a box of Legos he got for his birthday and spreads them throughout the clean clothes. I'm finally getting everything put up and I tell him to start cleaning up, he says no several times, which isn't usually like him, so I sang the clean up song which usually always kicks him into gear, still wasn't having it. I told him again that he needed to go pick up all his toys and he sits down and tells me "I can't".

Yaay for bed time.

Two Year Pics

Luke had his two year old pictures done this morning, and they turned out so great!! He was (is) the cutest little guy! He was so well-behaved, and just did a great job. I will definitely be going back to Portrait Innovations in Highland Village. I got tons of pictures for a great price, and they were ready about 20 minutes after we picked out what we wanted!!

Side note, I just went to post the pictures from the CD they gave me. I thought it had just the 6 poses I picked on it, NO, it has ALL 72 shots they took today, how freakin' awesome is that!!!

OMG

So, I spent about 45 minutes blogging at school today while my kids were watching Finding Nemo (and listing all of the invertebrates and vertebrates they saw in the movie). Well, I go to publish, and the LISD network says nope, and the whole thing gets eaten in cyberspace...I wanted to cry. On the 17th our computers were migrated from Groupwise to Outlook, and ever since then I can hardly get on to a wireless network on my laptop at home, and our desktop is a POS. I have to pause every few sentences to let it catch up to my superhuman typing skills. So, here's my blog on what's been going on with us Dodsons since my last post around Valentine's Day...get comfy.

John worked every night from the middle of January to the weekend after Easter getting his car ready for the Lone Star Roundup. It's an annual carshow in Austin that celebrates the "Rockabilly" Kustom car culture lifestyle. All of the cars are 1963 or older, and it is a really great time. The show is at the Expo Center, and then everyone hangs out and cruises up and down Congress Street at night. The last time we went was two years ago when I was 8 months pregnant! Anywho, John built a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood station wagon. If you know him, you know he has a thing for wagons. He kept it's original paint, just put a shiny coat of clear on it, lowered it on air bags, new interior, and voila! He got SO many compliments on it, and even an offer to buy it. I was so proud of him, and watching all of the people that admire the thing that he loves to do. He is so creative and mechanically genious, I think he could make anything!! He was coming home every night between 2 and 4am, but ever since the show, he's been home after work, and Luke and I really love having him back!

I've finished up dance competitions and choreographing routines. I'm judging teams' tryouts and getting ready to teach summer camps. In a couple of weeks I'll go to Salado for the weekend and we will shoot the video of routines that we offer at camps. School has been insane, my mind is fried, just like all of the kids. We had the writing TAKS the first week of March, Open House the next week, and then this week was the math and reading TAKS. Field Day was supposed to be today, but it was canceled due to the district not wanting students and visitors congregating because of the Swine Flu. But then, the BEST thing happened this afternoon...LISD closed all schools for the entire upcoming week!!! So I'm on a paid vacation that we don't have to make up, whoohoo!!!

Hannah is doing fabulously in third grade!! She's been having a great year, and is really maturing socially and doing very well academically. They have to pass the reading TAKS to go to 4th grade...not only did she pass it, not only did she receive Commended Recognition, she got a PERFECT SCORE!!! We are all so proud of her hard work. She took the math test earlier this week, results will come back at the end of the month. She is such a great big sister to Luke. He loves his Eena. He'll pick up something around the house that belongs to her, or even see something in a store that looks like it would be hers and he starts saying her name and looking for her. When she's here, she wakes up with him and changes his diaper and gets him breakfast, and plays with him non-stop. She gave him a bath tonight and got him reafy for bed, and he can't get enough. She's growing her hair out again, and is getting so tall, Daddy is going to have to fight off the boys in Rockwall and Lake Dallas!

And then, there's the Lukester. My heartbeat, my tension headaches, my comic relief, my need for margaritas. This kid does not stop all day long! I'm going to go ahead and diagnose him ADHD right now. He is Mr. Independent and will throw a fit with a quickness if he doesn't get what he wants. He loves to climb, in fact he can climb right out of his crib that is on the lowest setting. He thinks he's so darn cute, he'll do stuff he's not supposed to and just smile at you while he's doing it. In the grocery store, when other people walk by, he'll grab my waist and hug me and say "awww", and of course he gets the reaction he's looking for from the unsuspecting passerbys. He has a new word almost every day, and I have been told several times that he has good "diction". This means that you can understand what he says, especially the things he shouldn't say...like when you go over a bump in the road and he says "oh shee". Mom of the year right here!

So, do you feel all caught up on the Dodson Fam? Luke turns 2 this Sunday, I can believe it...and I can't. We're having Elmopalooza at the house with family and close friends. Tomorrow we're going to go take 2 year old pictures, I can't wait. Cross your fingers he's in a say "chee" kind of mood!

Did I mention I don't have to work all next week? Happy May!

It Begins...

No pics, well I do have pics but I think they would be considered indecent because the kid won't keep his pants on. Luke was about to get in the bathtub tonight and he was looking in the toilet and saying "peepee". So I sat him up there and he tried for a little bit and in a moment he tinkled. LOL. I know you're so interested. He would go a little bit and I would cheer and he would get all excited, and then in a bit he'd go a little more. He was so proud of himself, hehe. Not really time to start potty training, but several people have told me that it's a good thing he's interested in the potty and knows what is supposed to go on in there. So anyway, my little genius! (INTENSE sarcasm here.) Like I said, he he won't even keep his pants on.

Besides that, he has had an upper respiratory infection and an ear infection this week. He has horrible drainage that results in a constant runny nose and a horrendous cough that makes him gag. Good times in the Dodson household. Happy Valentine's Day everyone, we love you all, and wish you all the mushy, gushy stuff you want this weekend. XOXO.