28 Days of Gratitude Day 24

Day 24

I am grateful for our little friend, Dexter Joe. I loved having him in our home last year. I love that he became like my 5th baby. He is such a sweet boy and my kids love him so much. I am grateful that I had him to take care of and focus on while we went through some tough stuff last year. I totally let people who didn't know us believe that he was mine. It was such a treat for Easton and I to spend our days with him. He brought such a sweet spirit into our home. I sure miss him now that I don't watch him anymore. I love you Dexican.

Baby Oliver

For those of your who know about our little friend, Dex. You probably know how much a part of this family he has become, and you have probably heard about how much we have missed him these past few weeks. We haven't watched Dex for awhile because he has been staying home with his mom and his brand new baby brother, Oliver. Oliver was born on June 22nd and we were FINALLY able to go meet him last night. Our kids couldn't decide if they were more excited to see Dex or meet Oly. Dex was so cute and everything he did made us laugh, but Oly on the other hand, was so tiny and warm and cuddly. Apparently he is an even better baby than Dex was, which is hard for me to imagine, but I hope it holds true since I will be watching both Dex and Oly next month when Tristian goes back to work. I have thought from the time that Dex was just tiny that he looked more like Tristian. Well, Oly looks exactly like Harold. It cracks me up that they have a mini Tristian and a mini Harold in their family. It'll be fun to see if these boys' personalities end up taking after one parent more than the other too...

Dexter's Birthday Lunch

After the twins' Kindergarten Program we took Dex out for his Birthday lunch. Dex turned 1 on April 6th and we were unable to attend his Birthday Party so we wanted to do something special for him. We decided to take him to lunch and let him play around on the playground at McDonald's. He was cracking us up with how he hoarded his fries. That boy takes after his babysitter when it comes to his love for fries. It doesn't matter how healthy I eat, I can never ever resist fries. And apparently, neither can Dex. He was double fisting it, trying to shove as many fries in his mouth as he could! He was also providing a lot of entertainment when it came to his lemonade. He would take a drink and then spit it like a camel across the table. I'm not sure if that meant he didn't like it or if that was just his immediate reaction to a cold, sweet drink, but it was making us laugh so hard.

Dex has been so much fun these past few weeks. He's starting to act more and more like a toddler and it makes it easier to communicate with him and do things with him. I love that he is walking now. He does make me nervous near the top of our stairs but he is so much happier now that he can play like a big boy outside and walk from room to room on his own. He keeps us smiling with his funny little dance moves and the boys and I like to place bets each day on whether or not he'll eat his lunch or paint the dog with it. He is obsessed with our bathroom and cries when we go in there without him. He is sleeping so good for me lately. I don't think he's cried himself to sleep in over a month now. And he is not the least bit camera shy, which makes him fit in perfectly with our brood. His "say cheese" face makes us laugh so hard that sometimes we trick him and pretend we are taking a picture with a phone, a book or even a remote control just so we can get him to do his cheesy smile. He is just a joy to have around and we sure love him! We were happy to be able to do a Birthday lunch for him.

 

The clean cut Dexican

Dex was sick last week and it was the first week since I started watching him (last June) that we went more than 2 or 3 days without seeing him for any other reason than a vacation. It was weird. We all missed him and went through some serious cuddling withdrawals.

When Harold dropped him off yesterday, he not only looked like a big boy because of his cool cat jacket and the fact that he has now ditched the infant car seat, but his hair had gotten so long! I personally loved it. I loved to spike it up and play with it. But Harold made the comment that it was bugging Tristian and that she wanted Harold to shave it off, but Harold wouldn't. So I offered up Kendrick's barber skills, totally not thinking he would take us up on it, but he did! Harold was all for Kendrick trimming Dexter's hair.

So after his lunchtime bottle when he fell asleep, we attempted to start Dex's first haircut. He woke up after we took off his jacket though so for the first part of the haircut we were dealing with one uber-drowsy baby. Which I think made the whole thing go much smoother since he was sort of out of it. Dex's first haircut was the easiest baby haircut that Kendrick has ever done! He was so chill. He just laid against my chest and cuddled me while Kendrick cut. Occasionally he would try to look up at the scissors but luckily that didn't mess anything up. He cracked us up when Kendrick pulled out the razor to trim the sides-he had such a serious look on his face. That is so unlike our boys. They are so ticklish that the minute they even hear the razor they turn into turtles who try to hide their heads inside their necks and start giggling uncontrollably.

We've also have never had a boy not have a spiky haircut. It is my favorite look for my boys, so other than a buzz cut, it is all we have ever done. I loved seeing the results of Dex's clean cut haircut! He looks so big now. I have to admit though, I was kind of having anxiety over the fact that we were giving Dex his first haircut. I didn't want to steal any milestones from Tristian and Harold and I'm sincerely hoping that when Tristian reads this she won't have cutters remorse and hate me for offering to have Kendrick cut Dex's hair in the first place...;) If she does, pretend this post never existed.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Dex!

The Dexican

Dex is often featured in our random monthly picture posts and sometimes mentioned in other posts and it dawned on me that some of ya'll might not know who he is. So this is our little friend/honorary brother/surrogate baby, Dexter Joseph. Or as Kendrick likes to call him, "Our Little Dexican."

Dex was born in April to our friends, Tristian and Harold and I started watching him in June. I watch him 4 days a week and in the amount of time we've had him with us he has managed to squirm his way into our hearts and routine and is now considered part of the family. Our kids love him. They get excited every day that he comes over and they whine and complain on the days he doesn't. Jack smothers him to death nearly every day. Myles is convinced that he, and only he, can understand Dex's every squeak and squeal. Easton treats him like his baby brother. And Tay doesn't get to see him too much because she is at school all day, so when she does see him she loves to mother him and carry him around on her little hip.

Dex has been the easiest baby I have ever watched. He is so chill. We go through phases where he doesn't want to sleep or he gets crabby. And he has worried me plenty of times by not eating. But overall he is so easy. Even now that he's mobile and into everything, he's still pretty chill. He is starting to voice his opinion a lot more than he used to and he has a little bit of an angry streak when you do something he doesn't like (like buckle him in his car seat or try to keep a hat on him) but he is still our little sweetheart and we sure love having him with us!