Dingoden Family Outback Yapper: 07/2007

Digging in the dry Todd River bed, a kid's paradise.

Shelly and Connell help Lexi dig for fossils

Jesse, Seth, and Alex are loading up as well.

Bradon gets himself a REAL FIND!

Bradon opens presents

Delenn maintains utmost control as she launches a rocket from the pad

A great Birthday picnic was had by all

Yet more presents as the other kids salivate for some themselves

Alex and Shelly give Bradon a beautiful hand-made dinosaur painting

The birthday cake brought out the roaring dinosaur in everyone

Our Latest Main Family Dingo Pup Ultrasound Pictures

(Above) 12 Week ultrasound of our Pup's arm. Everything looked great and development is proceeding normally. We are extremely excited to make it this far with no issues other than Mommy fatigue and emotional puppetry.

(Above) 12 Week ultrasound of our Pup's Face. We are in awe of it's rugged good looks ;-)

(Above) 12 Week ultrasound side-view of our Pup. The heartbeat was good and strong even when taking it easy on Mom's internal Lazy-boy recliner.

(Above) 8 Week ultrasound of a barely visible young Pup. While the ultrasound indicates 2nd Trimester, this is incorrect, we assure you! Poor Pup won't get the single cell photo that it's older Brother and Sister had when we underwent IVF. But this one is ALL NATURAL!

Clean up time

Putting things away this evening, we found several pots and pans each
with a stuffed animal laid gently in it. Delenn sure is nurturing.
Meanwhile Logan is just as likely to have lego or kinnex creations
stashed around to protect us from incoming star fighters!

The Chatter Increases

Delenn has really improved immensely in speaking. Her signs are
excellent too; she has been adding some of the more intricate signs.
Meanwhile, she can talk in three to five word sentences (though
they're word by word, rather than fluent as an adult would string them
together). She is very interested in letters and colors, but cannot yet
identify them on her own (without help). Delenn understands and uses
the word *time* as in 'book time,' 'nap time' or 'bed time.' Mommy
chuckles when she also announces when it is 'eat time' or 'Mommy milk
time.' Delenn is quite the little singer -- doing a nice rendition of
Old MacDonald: "E-I-E-I-O horse neigh neigh" or "E-I-E-I-O moo moo cow."
We often hear her singing when she's in a room by herself. She enjoys
singing Row Row Row your Boat as well, which is quite funny because she
sings "Row row row row Happy" because Mommy sings and signs the song
and uses the sign "happy" for "merrily."

Just before we went away to Cairns to meet up with Daddy, Delenn did
something funny. One evening Mommy told Delenn that it was time for bed
and there were no more books. Delenn started fussing and Mommy said,
"Oh, Delenn is sad." Delenn looked at Mommy with a wrinkle on her
forehead and said "NO! Lenny MAD" (and signed it by bringing her hand
up to her face and pulling her fingers together to make a claw shape).
Mommy was so surprised, she had a hard time not bursting out into
laughter! Delenn had never used the word or the sign (for mad) before
that -- but now Delenn will frequently tell us how she's feeling.
"Lenny crying" she'll say as she signs the word, tracing imaginary tears
down her face. Or "Lenny MAD" -- with the proper 'grr' kind of
inflection and that sign I mentioned above.

The biggest challenge here in the DingoDen has been naptime. Most days,
Delenn has decided that she WILL NOT NAP! AHHHhhhh... (That's Mom
screaming insanely in the background!) We think it's a bit of rebellion
("you can't control me!"). So we've resorted to taking afternoon walks
(and she'll fall asleep in the double stroller) or letting her sleep in
the car. Thank goodness the highs are around 70degrees F rather than
105! Today, Delenn actually *did* nap (gasp!), but she insisted on
sleeping in Logan's bed. She went to sleep after Mommy carried her back
to bed four times. We will probably request a 'big girl bed' for her
from Intown Housing next week.

Bedtime is better. As always, Delenn is quite easy to put into bed. She
no longer nurses at night, but she climbs out of her crib most every
night around 3:45, traipses down the hallway picking up a portable
glowing egg/night light in the hallway as she makes her way down to Mom
and Dad. Mommy immediately picks her up. Delenn plops her head down
on Mommy's shoulder as she is carried back to bed. She snuggles back
into her crib and goes back to sleep until 5:30 or 5:45am when she gets up
for the day.

Logan is as creative and imaginative as ever, but unfortunately he uses
this creativity to stretch the truth. We have now had to begin dealing
with small lies -- like yes I brushed my teeth already or that kind of
thing. He's also uses a word he shouldn't (luckily Mom and Dad don't
curse!) -- he is often saying "pooh-head" and knows that it's impolite
and not acceptable, but still pushes the boundary as much as he can.

We've enjoyed getting together frequently with the Melissa, Jesse and
the boys. Most every morning Logan asks if he can go over to Bradon's
house to play. He really enjoys spending time with his buddy. We've
done all sorts of things together -- like going to the park, playground,
Sammie's Pizza, Show Days, on a bike ride (for the older boys)/walk (for
the younger ones) to feed the geese, a hike and so forth.

Delenn takes good care of her stuffed animals. She helps
herself to the washclothes (in the drawer behind) and uses
them as blankets to put her animals to bed.

She does the same thing with nappy wipes as well! Notice
Pooh bear has been covered for a long winter's nap.

Now for some cute shots of Delenn (says the doting
Mother!)

Logan wanted me to take a picture of his cool moves!

Space

We borrowed a big wagon from the toy library. Logan packed up a grocery
bag of supplies (like hats and plastic bins for his toys and his light
saber) and we went off in search of the space shuttle somewhere in the
neighborhoods nearby. We walked and walked but never found the space
shuttle. Logan was very distressed and had big crocodile tears because
"We *have* to go into space." Delenn then started to cry too (complete
with big rolling tears) and kept saying "space, space, space." Luckily
everyone has to eat before they can travel up into space so we're taking
a break to have some tuna sandwiches to get some energy for going to
outer space.

Logan and Delenn enjoy some quiet time together on their
little couch.

Mad driver on the loose!

Delenn takes a turn driving (Logan obviously didn't
enjoy that quite as much!)

Mess or Creativity?

"Logan," Mommy says. "We need to be a bit more careful about getting
cracker crumbs all over the floor."

"NO! That was my way of getting out of the spooky woods."

"Spooky woods?" asks Mommy.

"Yes, spooky woods," says Logan.

"Oh--do you mean like Hansel and Gretel?"

"YEAH!"

The artists hard at work!

Logan and Delenn do some serious painting.

Playing in the sand box area while the paintings dried.

Logan and Delenn decorate their paintings with glue, glitter,
foam creatures and feathers.

Delenn really enjoyed doing the painting and gluing. In fact,
she lasted quite a bit longer than Logan -- painting 4 pictures
to Logan's two and decorating two pictures (as opposed to Logan's
one)

Delenn has been crawling into Logan's bed lately and curling
up with a good book or two. If it goes quiet in the house, we
know where she's gone! Delenn really likes Logan's bed and
we think it's a matter of time before she insists on being in a
big girl bed. She easily climbs in and out of her crib (to find
Mom and Dad in the middle of the night) so perhaps a big
bed will be in order sometime soon.

Delenn has some farmyard fun!

Logan makes some "play batter" -- a concoction of flour, salt
and sugar.

Logan shows off his culinary skills.

Delenn joins in the doughy fun!

Delenn dresses up some magnetic dolls -- while Daddy
daydreams about a cuter wardrobe for himself.

Climbing the boulders at the Telegraph Station (Alex and Logan)

Delenn was determined to climb just as
high as her brother.

One morning we stayed at home and did all sorts of activities. It
took us girls until 11:00am to get dressed we were having so much
fun. (Logan puts on his own clothes first thing when he wakes up!)

Working hard on some puzzles

Logan spends time flying Thunderbird 2.

Good hand-eye coordination!

The kids helped me make playdough -- measuring out all the
ingredients and choosing the dye color (green and blue). Then
they got to work making things. Logan very proudly made a
"Beaver Submarine with guns."

Our kids sure get along (most of the time!)

Logan kept popping crackers in his mouth right before I'd snap
a picture. Luckily for you, I didn't include most of these shots!

We organized a hike at Simpson's Gap Park. We climbed up
Cassia Hill. Everyone's stretching out for the hike up the hill!
Back: Porta, Alana, Lexi, Alexi (hanging), Sydney, Logan, Bradon
Seth in front (Delenn in Mommy's arms!)