Happy 21 Months, Dresden Grey!

Because of raging illness for the past week and a half now, these are the only pictures I have of Dresden on his 21-month birthday...

It's almost like he's already a teenager, sleeping the day away on the couch! The first one was right after he said he wanted to eat some oatmeal at 9:30 this morning. I went to fix it, and looked back in the living room and he was out. The second one was around 5:00 this afternoon. This is just NOT my son! As if teething (the horrible canines are battling their way through on the bottom) wasn't bad enough, he had to go and get a virus on top of that. I said it before, that while it might seem nice to have a kid who sleeps all day and only wants to lay around and watch t.v., when it is not their normal behavior it is awful! Not to mention the clingy-ness (Stage 5 Clinger, for certain) that accompanies all this mess grows less and less endearing by the day. Above all though, I am so tired of seeing this little boy in pain, and hearing him beg for water because his fever makes him feel like he's been wandering a desert for days on end. It is horrible. Did I mention the sleepless nights? Because, oh yeah, there's been a LOT of those too. I'm fairly exhausted, not going to lie. But not so exhausted that I can't post some 21-month old tidbits! Ha!

• I'm fairly convinced Dresden will be in a Size 3 diaper until he goes off to college. Okay, fine, high school. But seriously - will somebody get this kid a sandwich? It doesn't help that his normally tiny appetite has shrunk to nearly non-existent this week. He weighed only 23 pounds at the doctor's office yesterday. I'm hoping he will have a renewed joie de vivre toward eating after he finally fights this thing completely.
• He talks more every day. Tonight he said "Are you?" (Where are you?) when looking for Alex, and said "There are" (he leaves out the 'you') when he found him. One small step for Dresden-kind, I realize, but one giant leap closer to coherent questions and comments and opinions! 
• Reading books is back on the table after holding no joy for such a long time, but you better make sure the subject matter rests on either trains or elephants. Elephants riding trains would really be ideal. Any ideas how to make that happen?
• Who knows where his appetite will be after this whole thing, but before, he was enjoying guacamole, tacos (which we make with tortilla chips/meat/cheese/salsa), oatmeal, chicken noodle soup and yogurt. His token fruit and vegetable are the banana and the green bean, respectively. He will not touch anything else Not a huge repertoire for this guy, but that's okay.
• When we point, he names out loud more than a dozen animals. He loves hippos, rhinos, elephants and horses. He's also into dinosaurs now, which makes me happy.
• Still loves trains, may be adding boats to his list of "likes"
• Loves to play the game "cuck" ("stuck") where he gets himself wedged in between cushions or pillows, or really nothing at all, and yell "cuuuuck!" until we un-stick him. It lost its ever-waning charm for me the other morning at 2 a.m. when he decided it was prime-time for a game. Um, no.

And with that, I must close, because the very same 21-month-old in question is throwing a massive, horrific tantrum on our bed. (This all transpired within the last five minutes. His teeth are killing him despite the tylenol :-( ) Yay teeth! (Insert huge sigh of exhausted exasperation).

Hopefully more to report on the Happy/Healthy front in the next few days!

Love,

Cassie, Alex and Dresden

P.S. - Oh, and to clarify because I mistyped/used confusing wording in my last post, no, my mother would NEVER tire of pictures of Dresden. :-D