Sweet Little Linebacker

My little Daxton was the sweetest, mellowest little baby you ever saw. He was completely content to sit in his bouncy chair and kick his little baby legs and smile and giggle at everyone and everything. As long as he was fed, he was happy. Once he became mobile, a flip switched somewhere in his little boy brain and he became a CAVEMAN. For real. He just had these powerful manly urges to do manly things like HIT and STOMP and WRESTLE anything that moved. After what seems like hundreds of these:

(Sad Dax in a time-out)

Dax has learned to (partially) control these urges. He no longer tackles every kid he sees. First, he stopped tackling anyone under the age of 2 or over the age of 9. Next, he decided he would only tackle boys (other than Arden of course). Then he decided he would mostly limit his tackling to kids he knew. Now that he is approaching the ripe old age of 3, he mostly only tackles Arden. (This rule does not apply if he is really tired...the tireder Dax is, the more indiscriminate his tackling becomes....too bad his nursery class falls right during naptime).

The fact that he usually only tackles Arden is great news! Unless, of course, you are Arden. That poor girl gets tackled and wrestled to the ground about 17 times a day, whether she likes it or not. When Dax was small, Arden loved to wrestle with him and tickle him, and she was probably the person who taught him how to tackle in the first place. I remember warning her that someday she would be sorry because Dax was going to be bigger than her someday. Dax still isn't quite as tall as Arden, but he weighs almost the same. And the bigger Dax gets, the less fun Arden seems to be having during these tackling sessions. She still laughs and plays along sometimes, but others times she doesn't appreciate being pulled to the ground and sat upon. This kid needs an outlet for all of these manly tackling urges, and apparently I can't sign him up for football until he is 8 years old. Do any of you out there who have survived little boy toddlerhood have any suggestions for me?

When he isn't tackling, he is so sweet. The other day I was feeling pretty worn out and I was sitting on the floor while the kids were playing in the playroom. Dax came over and snuggled in my lap and said, "Mom, don't be sad cuz I will hug you!" and then he laid his head on my shoulder gave me a hug. Awwwww! The next moment he was chasing Cora around and making her scream, but those little moments make all of the tackling and time-outs worth it.

We FINALLY took away his binkie for good and all after we got back from our trip last week and he has been doing pretty good without it. I let him keep it for way too long...I loved that thing at least as much as he did. At least I can say I took his binkie away when he was two years old instead of three since he doesn't turn three until next week. Three....

Can my baby boy really be three? Say it isn't so! He still looks so much like a baby while he sleeps:

(yes, he is wearing flannel snowman pajamas in mid-May...it is freezing!)