steveprattfamily.com The adventures of the Pratt family in Vancouver - Steve, Lisa, Cedar, Dawson, and Sandy (the dog).

It is Cedar’s 6th birthday today and I have not yet put up pictures from Dawson’s 3rd birthday, which took place over  a MONTH ago.  Feeling veeeeery guilty.  In fact, now that I think about it, I’ve also forgotten to put up pics from his first day of preschool…

…and his recent SURGERY!  (What’s wrong with me???)

Since his birthday, he’s had surgery to repair a ‘hydrocele’, which, like a hernia, is basically a hole somewhere in his guts that was leaking into his body.

Fun.

I had a hernia when I was in my late teens and I was hunched over for a week, wincing in pain every time I coughed, sneezed, or laughed.  Dawson has a nice scar on his abdomen now, too, but on the afternoon he got home, he was dancing around acting like nothing had happened and within a day, was back to full activities.  He didn’t even need any pain medication!

Anyway, back to birthday time…

Last year, when Dawson turned 2, he still wasn’t eating solid food.  He stared at his cake, everyone around him ate like fiends, and never touched it.  Only weeks later, everything changed and he began eating - the reason for the change still bewilders us, but we’re certainly not complaining.

This year, he’s grown a ton, turned into sporting superstar (soccer, hockey, golf, frisbee, bike riding - you name it), started pre-school, and is kicking everyone’s butt at Memory Game.

The best part of the birthday (and the development of his personality over the last year) was his sense of humour.  He decided that for every present he opened, he’d make this ridiculous face and dance around the room in celebration.  Here’s the evidence…

Posted under Dawson News

Dawson is officially very funny for a 2 1/2 year old.  He makes me laugh out loud all the time now, mostly mimicking things I say back to me in a ridiculous tone of voice, but his killer move is a facial expression he puts on quite regularly.  It’s mock-surprise / shock and it I find it funny every single time.  The pic doesn’t really do it justice, because he kind of shakes his head in disbelief before he stops and hits you with this:

Posted under Dawson News

After looking at Dawson today while playing toy cars with him, I quite randomly decided to give him a haircut.  Lisa’s given him his only two previous haircuts, as he’s been freaked out by barbers, hair salons, etc, every time he’s gone near one.  However, Lisa was not home, I was bored, and I just did it.
Bad call.  I had no idea what I was doing and now he looks like Jim Carrey from Dumb & Dumber.
Before:

After:

Jim Carrey:

Posted under Dawson News

Fairy madness continued past the birthday and into Halloween.  Cedar added on to the original costume with a giant blonde wig and looked Fairylicious. 

This was Dawson’s first real year dressing up and understanding what it was all about.  He wanted to be a hockey player, so we stuffed paper into the shoulders of his sweatshirt, put a helmet on him, and gave him a black eye and the piece de resistance - a handlebar mustache. 

The night was lots of fun.  Maggot and I both took turns taking them out trick or treating.  Dawson was hilarious - he just squeezed through all the other kids waiting at each door until he got to the front, and when the door opened, he just raised up his candy bag until he got the goods, and then tore back to the sidewalk, never once uttering a sound. 

The night ended on a bit of a sour note, though.  We passed by a house in our neighbourhood called the "House of Death."  It featured a giant, one-storey painting of a bloody skull and was designed as a spookfest.  Cedar saw the skull and completely lost it.  She backed into a tree, where a guy from the house was hiding, dressed up in tree parts (like a mask made of bark with creepy eye holes cut out).  She screamed again.  And then someone let off a firecracker in the street and a HUGE band exploded and both the kids basically crapped their drawers.  End of Halloween.

Posted under Cedar News, Children, Dawson News

Not to overdramatize the situation, but Dawson is FINALLY eating something regularly.  He happily eats gobs of whipped cream, cream cheese, boursin cheese, lentil soup, and tea.  While not exactly a balanced diet (whipped cream at every meal - cripes), it’s a HUGE step forward in our quest to get him eating on his own.  Woohoo!

Posted under Dawson News

Last weekend, Dawson had his 2nd birthday party and it was great.  Mostly organized by Lisa, (god bless her party-organizing soul) we had about 30 people (!) over, lots of very nice presents, and little cakes that looked like toy cars.  Party highlights included a boy getting bashed in the head with a fire truck, another boy getting beaned by a flying ball, and the other kids improvising some bizarre bondage scene where everyone got tied up with a skipping rope.  Below are pics of the cake, his new tool set, and his first hockey stick, which, much to Lisa’s regret, is made of plastic.

Posted under Dawson News

Posted under Children, Dawson News, Humour

Don’t have to exercise the dog ourselves anymore because today Dawson learned to throw balls for Sandy at the beach…

(how has he learned to do this, but he hasn’t learned to eat solid food yet?
what’s wrong with this kid?)

Posted under Dawson News

We had a big family birthday out here in Vancouver this weekend - my parents and my brother all flew into town because we all have birthdays within a month and all live in different cities, so a two-day b-day extravaganza is a great idea.

The only hitch this weekend was that Dawson appears to fear and loathe my brother, Brian (’The Beef’).  It’s all very strange, because Brian is a terrific new parent himself and he’s great with our kids - Cedar has LOVED having him around this weekend.  Dawson… no so much.  Maybe it’s an odour or something, but I know I’m not crazy - photos don’t lie.

Posted under Dawson News

Maybe conversations is a little bit strong, but we’re now able to do basic Q&A sessions with Dawson.  As long as you phrase it as a yes or no question, you can carry on for a long time with him. 
His ‘no’ is fairly assertive and curt - ‘No!’  His ‘yes’ is like some sketch character, all drawn out - "yyyyyeah" - accompanied by a big wide eyes and constant nodding.

Sometimes our little Q&A is fruitful:

‘Do you need your diaper changed?’
‘Yyyyyeah’
‘Are you thirsty’
‘NO!’

Sometimes it’s apparent that he can only understand the tone of what we’re saying, knows it’s a yes or no question, and responds randomly:

‘Dawson, are you a 20 foot tall polar bear named Dr. Growlie?’
‘Yyyyyeah’
‘Do you have 12 eyes?’
‘Yyyyyeah’
‘Would you like us to strap you to our roof and leave you our there overnight in the rain?’
‘Yyyyyeah’

P.S. We are horrible parents who laugh and find this hysterically funny.

Posted under Dawson News, Humour