Ode to Dallin

Today I am feeling reflective about my beautiful son, Dallin. It seems I never really understood growing up when my mom would say that it hurt her when I was hurt. I suppose I just thought that it bothered her like a passing annoyance. I never realized the true heartbreak that a parent can experience when their child is hurt, judged, or not accepted (as must be the case in the course of life) by another human being until my Dallin came along. As he grows older and his amazing personality develops, he is also venturing little by little into the world where I can not always shelter him from the hurt of not being adored by everyone as much as I adore him, and I do not always think that I am ready for the small steps that he has begun to take. I have never been more proud, as he begins to assert his independence, of anything in my entire life (nor have I been more embarrased on occasion, amused, concerned, and even scared). Now, I am acutely aware that my red haired boy is not perfect. He can butt heads with me and make me more angry and upset than I thought a 2 year old was capable of, but his heart is so pure that it can send my heart up into my throat when I can see that not everyone is enamored as his less than helpful attempts at being helpful or when he looks completely bewildered that his loving action was met with rejection by another adult or even a child. I am not a perfect parent, but the midst of all the "No"s and the times I lose my temper or make mistakes I hope I can help him clearly hear and feel all of the "I love yous". I want to be his soft place when the world lets him down, and I thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity I have, in such a small degree, to understand the great love He has for us and to know how He hurts when we hurt. My Dallin, my Dallin....I love you.
Dallin Christopher...how do I love thee....let me count the ways
1. Because of you, I became "mom"
2. Because of you, I have a greater understanding of the Savior's love and the sacrifice of the atonement.
3. Because of you, I want to be better every day.
4. Your laugh that comes all the way from your belly--especially when you slap your leg with your hand.
5. Your beautiful red hair and brown eyes. I always wanted red hair!
6. How much you love your little sister. While you don't always understand that her needs can't wait, you have always been a good brother to Kate. You are the first to come running with diapers, wipes, ointment, medicine, blankies, pacies, or whatever you think may help when she cries and you are always giving her little lovies throughout the day.

7. The way you say "Uh oh!" even when it was on purpose!
8. That you finally peed in the potty when mommy bribed you with a gift. You are so smart!
9. The way your eyes light up and you can barely get over your own feet when someone wants to go play in your room.

10. The way you use your ASL signs to tell me what you want. They always look cuter when you do them.
11. The way you give longwinded explanations that no one can understand to any question you are asked, complete with hand motions.
12. The way you don't quite understand why your cousin, Caleb, can't get up and play with you so you try to "help" him get up or give him a push to get him crawling.

13. The way you show me every person in the Higgison family Christmas card and then give it a kiss.
14. The way you pat my back and say "ahhhh" when you give me hugs.

15. The way you will just turn around and give me a big unprompted kiss
16. The way you LOVE your blankie and drag it everywhere....just like your mommy.

17. The way you can sleep in the most uncomfortable positions.
18. The way you say "No" to everything...even when you really mean yes.
19. The way you love everyone and want to help and be everyone's friend...even when they don't feel the same about you.
20. The way you say "ow" and point to your hurt places...then demand that I kiss it so it can feel better.
21. The way you beg to read scriptures and have family prayer. You pass out the entire family's scriptures and get tickled pink and you are always the first one on your knees for family prayer after we read. It always amazes me that someone 3 feet tall can be such a spiritual example to me.

22. The way you love to read and can anticipate all your favorite parts in your favorite books..like when you giggle your head off at "Elmo Loves You!"
23. The way you frantically sign "baby" until I give in and let you watch Baby Signing Time.
24. The way you love to be with Emma and Luke...especially when you are all holding hands walking into a store...you all look so big.

25. The way you can eat adults under the table!!! 4 slices of pizza!!
26. The way you make a whine/chirp to get my attention when you want something. LOL What is that?
27. The way you want me to be proud of you.
28. The way you are obsessed with baths...although you don't really want to be bathed.
29. The way you talk to your Papa on the the phone.
30. The way you can make sure there is room for you on a lap or chair...whether it looked like there was or not.
31. The way you love to help with dishes...getting yourself and everything near you wet and putting dirty dishes in the clean sink, clean in the dirty but having a great time.
32. The way you will vacuum the house for an HOUR! (but only with a REAL vacuum)
33. The way you are not embarrassed (well not yet) to carry a pink purse, wear girls tap shoes, and run around the house in your diaper. It is your element!
33. The way you lay right down and go to bed...even if you don't want to.
34. The way you smell EVERYTHING...food, diapers, playdough, shoes, just like mom!
35. The way you put your hand over your mouth when you laugh and your brown eyes twinkle!
36. The way you are willing to try anything.

37. The way you run into the doctors office and hop right up on the scale like a big boy (even when we are not there for you!)
38. The way you surprise me with new words and phrases everyday.
39. The way you walk around the house with your arms up saying "Where's Moe?...Moe? Moe?" and look under couch cushions whenever anything is lost. Thank you Doodlebops.
40. The way you have to have your alone time to "talk" before you get up.
42. The way you LOVE to wear sunglasses and put your nose WAY up in the air when you have them on!
Millions of more reasons...it would take a lifetime to list them all (and you are up from your nap! Today you learned how to get out of your crib!) I love you Dallin!

Bumbo Seats ROCK!!!!

Last night my brother, Will, and his wife, Tammy, came over to our house for dinner and to have some fun hanging out. They brought over a Bumbo seat for Kate. I had never seen one of these before and only heard about it from Will and Tammy. Basically, it allows babies to sit up starting at 3 months old and it helps to strengthen their neck muscles. A lot of babies REALLY like it because they can sit up and look around.
Kate's Bumbo seat is purple and she LOVES it! She looks so cute and funny sitting up in it and looking all around. She is so excited to be able to be a part of everything, and we think that it actually helps her reflux and gas to be able to sit up like that. We kept laughing all night because she was sooo alert and attentive, and it just looked so funny to come in the room and see this teeny tiny baby sitting there and turning her head to look at you! LOL We took all kinds of pictures of Kate chillin in her Bumbo chair and it is a definite winner for a baby gift for people you know. You can buy them at Target.
Dallin also loved the Bumbo chair. Although, he seems to have it confused with a potty chair. He kept signing "potty" and then he would go over and plop himself down in it. One time, he even started to take off his clothes. Today Dallin was in the Bumbo chair and Christopher asked him if he could get out and let Kate have a turn. Dallin said "No". Then Christopher asked if Kate could have a turn now. Again Dallin said "No" So Christopher told Dallin to let him know when he was finished so that Kate could use the chair and Dallin said "Yeah" So apparently the Bumbo seat is the most popular chair in the house now!
Dallin is growing up so very quickly, he is changing so much every single day lately. In the past week, he has started saying "cheese" and "cookie", and he will now imitate any ASL sign that we do when we are watching the Signing Time show. He has also started saying "No", but most of the time he will still do what you want him to do without a huge fit. LOL We love him so much!!

SUCCCESS!! Dallin Pees in the Potty!!!

He did it! Dallin peed in his potty! We are so proud of him (and frankly completely shocked). Dallin is still so young (only 22 months old) so although we have wanted to start potty training (his poops are INHUMAN!) we haven't pushed him AT ALL. We bought him his own potty and Elmo potty chair about 5 months ago just so that we could start talking to him about it. We also started making a big deal of mommy and daddy going potty in the toilet (and pretty much anyone else), and put some wrapped gifts/bribes on the back of the toilet for when he used his potty.
He didn't seem very interested, except that the toilet could also be used as a step stool to get into things. Then about 2 months ago, he started to want to sit on the big toilet. One day, he just climbed up into/onto it. His pajamas were on and one foot of them was completely wet, but he was on the toilet and he was so proud. At that point he started showing interest in sitting on the big toilet, which progressed into interest in sitting on his little potty. Within the last month, he wanted me to take off his diaper so he could sit on his little potty and taking off his diaper or grabbing at it when it was wet or dirty. All the while, we kept getting more excited because we could see we were getting closer and closer, but we still didn't want to push it.
So, this week, Dallin started doing the ASL for potty and then grabbing his diaper and going to the bathroom door. Today, I finally gave in and thought "what the heck" . I let him go into the bathroom, took off his diaper, and let him sit on his potty chair when he signed "potty". He sat there giggling and so excited so I decided to sweeten the deal....literally. Dallin could have a popsicle if he sat on his potty to eat it. So, Dallin and I sat on toilets, facing each other, eating orange popsicles. Then I read him a few stories while he sat on his potty. I also reminded him a few times that he could get a present for going pee or poop in the potty. After the books though he was ready to leave and so we put his diaper back on and went out. I thought nothing else of it. I was just happy that he was starting to sit on the potty for an extended period of time. Then later in the evening, he signed potty again and I thought that I would let him go sit in there again. This time, he could call whoever he wanted on the phone and talk to them as long as he sat on his potty, and he could drink all the juice he wanted (normally he can only have a set amount of juice a day) in a special bottle. He called Papa, he called Daddy, and he called Grandma K. While he was on the phone (and between calls), he drank juice and we talked about how he could have a present if he peed in the potty. After he talked to Grandma K, he got up off the potty and to my surprise...there was PEE IN THE POTTY!!! I showed Dallin and there was lots of high fives and "I'm so proud of you"...all the while I was completely shocked telling Christopher's mom what had just happened. I was so excited, I was jumping up and down and doing a "pee pee dance", all while making a HUGE deal of Dallin going potty in the little potty! He was giggling and excited. Dallin called Papa and Daddy and got to tell everyone his big news, and (of course) he got to open a present. We are so excited and surprised. We still don't plan on pushing anything, but he seems to be really taking to this on his own...so who knows!? It took me FOREVER to find my camera, but I did and here are some proof positive pictures.
1.....Dallin checks out his pee in the potty!
2.......Dallin tells mommy about how he peed in the potty (notice how he points! LOL)
3.....Dallin "reads" the special book that he got as his present for going pee in the potty
4......Dallin empties his potty for the first time

Family Day at Kangaroo Zoo

We celebrated our 2nd annual family day by going to Kangaroo Zoo. Kangaroo Zoo is located in Pleasant Grove and is a really cool indoor inflatable play area. Dallin just loves it. He jumps and runs and is exhausted by the time he has been there for an hour. The pictures here are from when we went to Kangaroo Zoo about a week earlier with my cousin, Jenn, and her kids. The inflatable pictured here is HUGE! It is about 2 stories tall, but that doesn't stop our little monkey man. He climbed it all by himself and slides down, giggling his head off. Dallin made all kinds of friends at Kangaroo Zoo, especially one older boy who helped him up and down most of the steep inflatables. It was really sweet.

Our First Post

Yeah! We are part of the information super highway (thanks to our sister in law Tammy :) ) Welcome to our spot! Our family is busy and growing.

Christopher is still working FT at Smiths in Provo. He is taking the summer off of school and will continue next fall. He has changed his major to History in hopes of eventually becoming a history professor at a university. We would like to move to Texas while he teaches at the middle school/high school level in a few years. He is hoping to graduate in 3 years with his BA.
Valerie is back at Hogi Yogi after taking time off with baby Kate. She now goes in at 5:30 instead of 4 and works 6 mornings a week making sure that all 18 SLC Hogi Yogis get the correct order everyday, doing cleanup, etc. Valerie is also busy chasing kids...of course and loving every minute of it.

Dallin is growing right up! He is 21 mo old now, but we have already hit the terrible 2s! He has started nursery and can make it half way through it without mom. All of the sudden he has started talking up a storm and acting all grown up. Our favorite words and phrases are "Where's Moe?" (from DoodleBops), "scriptures", and "I did that!" He got his first set of 4 stitches in June when he jumped from a 5 ft concrete platform at the city park and landed on his chin. He is definitely our little daredevil.

Kate is 2 1/2 months old now and weighs 11 whole pounds! She is our sweet pea and loves to be held and smile. She will even coo and babble every once in a while. She has now officially rolled over from front to back (although our pediatrician is convinced that Dallin in fact rolled her over.)
So, we are planning on updating our blog frequently with pictures and family events, so be sure to check back often and drop us a line!