afternoons

These pictures are so random. I just had to laugh as I looked through them. 

 Daddy doing the weekly nail trim. Isn't it funny how you just develop certain roles in your marriage or in parenting? Cutting the nails is Daddy's job. 

 Mine is tickling my little guy until he can barely breath. I just love his delirious laugh during our tickle fests. They inevitably end with Donovan getting a case of the hiccups every. single. time. Donovan now tells me, "Mommy stop. I get hippups." PS look how unamused our Molly is in the background. 

 Poor, Molly. She's the most docile, easy going pup in the whole wide world. On this particular afternoon she could not have guessed what her creative little side-kick was dreaming up. 

 Mommy bought him a whole book of Thomas the Train stickers at the store. 

 And after getting bored of simply petting Moll Molls...

 Donovan decided that she deserved some of his new stickers. 

And pretty soon she was wearing the whole page. She never even budged. 

Just another lazy afternoon in Donovan's room. What will this child come up with next? 

Catching Up

Happy New Year, all! I hope 2013 is off to a positive start for you. It's been a very slow and relaxing start for us and I've been soaking up every minute while we're still on vacation. 

I thought it was about time for me to catch you up on lots of the little things that have been going on around here lately. For starters... pictures of Christmas and lots of "Donovanisms" to share. It's been so long since I shared what he's been up to that I've had to start jotting notes as I think of them so that I wouldn't forget. 

Saying: 

Donovan's vocabulary seems to double in size each week. It's been especially wonderful to be home with him the last few weeks to play and hear him chatting away. He's now speaking in little sentences. 

He got a tool bench for Christmas that he LOVES and now he uses all of the names of his tools correctly. He'll say, "Mom, I need hammer" or "Where my screwdriver?" Whenever he makes something at his tool bench he'll try to get our attention, clap for himself, and then say, "I did that!" He cracked us up last week while his Uncle Dave was visiting. Uncle Dave always comes for a visit and then helps us do jobs around the house. On this visit, he worked on drywalling the garage and painting it. Whenever Donovan would notice that Uncle Dave wasn't within view sight, he'd turn and ask me, "Mommy, Uncle Dave at Home Depot?" We practically rolled on the ground laughing the first time we heard him say it. Now, even after Uncle Dave's gone home to Sacramento, Donovan can be heard saying, "Uncle Dave... Home Depot" all the time.

Donovan refers to himself as "Donvan" now instead of "Buddy." When we drive home from somewhere and turn the corner so that our house is in sight he'll loudly announce, "DONVAN'S HOUSE!" Or if he's climbing up the stairs and I ask him where he's going, he'll tell me, "I play Donvan's room." 

What he's into: 

Aside from his love of the tool bench, Dono is still obsessed with trains. He calls it a "choo choo." He is also really into reading books now. Much more than he ever has been before. He'll bring me book after book and sit patiently while I read it cover to cover. He likes to repeat words after I read them... especially when reading Goodnight Moon. Bedtime now has to have a minimum of 3 books read aloud and then we'll give him a book to read to his stuffed animals in bed. 

Donovan also enjoys being outside. He loves playing baseball with his Daddy. So far he's a left handed batter which makes his Dad very proud. 

  The not so nice stuff: 

I really can't complain. Donovan is such an easy going, sweet little guy. He melts our heart on the daily. But he definitely has his moments where he's flexing his independence and acting out on his frustrations. He still loves to say "NO." Although now, he's pretty sly and if he doesn't want to do something we ask, he'll sweetly say, "No thank you Mommy/Daddy." 

His biggest naughty things are throwing (toys) and HITTING! The hitting's a little concerning. But I realize it's in his moments of major frustration where he can't get his feeling across. For example if he's throwing something, and I take it away from him quickly and sternly, he'll respond by trying to hit me back. Yikes! 

 We've started doing Time Outs by having him sit quietly in the corner by the front door, facing the wall, and sitting criss-cross. He's great about the whole concept. He does timeouts at Miss Cindy's so it's not a new concept to him... however it's not working quite the way we want it to. 

For example: recently he threw a hot wheels car across the family room. So we did  a time out. I put him in the corner, I told him why he had time out, he sat quietly, and in one minute I came back and gave him a hug after he apologized. 5 seconds later he was up and running, picked up the car, threw it again and then ran back to the corner announcing... "MOMMY!!! I IN TIME OUT!!!!" 

Hmmm, not exactly how it's supposed to go. But we're learning right along with him. 

More Random Stuff:

I love this picture of him above. The last few weeks being home with him have been so special. My favorite time of the day is when he wakes up from nap time. He usually goes down around 1:30 and wakes up 2 hours later. He always seems so out of it, so I'll pick him up and take him downstairs where he'll ask to cuddle with me on the couch. I wrap him in a blanket, put on some Disney cartoons, and give him a little treat and we'll happily sit together for 30 minutes or so before he wants to be up and running again. 

Our Growing Family: 

 So far with this pregnancy, Donovan's seemed pretty oblivious to it all. But now that my belly is growing more noticeably, he seems a little more interested. He'll touch my belly and say hi to the baby. He gives the "baby" kisses every once in awhile. It makes my heart so happy!

And this poor little pup has no idea what's ahead of her. Another little one to chase her around and tug and pull on her. I rarely mention Molly on my blog anymore but she is seriously THE best dog EVER!

So that's all for now... I think I've caught you up to speed. Donovan went back to Miss Cindy's today and Dustin and I are still off through next Monday. It was so hard to say goodbye to him this morning but he was so excited to see his little buddies again and Daddy and I have LOTS to do around the house to get ready for our return to full time work again next week. We've been tackling lots of organizing projects and have lots of ideas for future projects including converting Donovan's room into a big boy room and getting ready for little sister's nursery. 

Speaking of which, I had my 20 week ultrasound this morning and confirmed that it is most definitely a baby girl occupying my growing belly. I still can't believe it! Next up, choosing a name which has proven much more challenging this time around. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

caught red handed

There are many things that I swore I would or would not do as a mom... before I was a mom of course. A year before Donovan became a part of our family there was just Molly. (aka the world's greatest dog.) Everyone tells us how well behaved she is and what a sweet dog she is. Being the proud parents that we are, we've always soaked up all of the Molly compliments and attributed most of them to our awesome dog training. Ha! One of the things we swore Molly would never ever do is eat people food. This was a very strict rule around these parts for a long time. (Just ask my poor Dad who attempted to break the rule on more than one occasion and was quickly scolded by his annoying, over the top, type a daughter) 

Then came our real baby. The ultimate rule bender. It's been nearly impossible to keep our "Mollyisms" in tact with this toddler around. These pictures are proof of yet another parenting rule that flew out the window as we actually experienced parenthood. 

 Here Moll Molls...

Oops! Mom is watching. 

Donovan... are you feeding Molly?????

How could you be mad at this face?

And so it continues.  Feeding time for both of our kids. 

At least he's sharing right? See, we really are good parents after all. 

summer time in the yard

There is nothing easier than entertaining our little guy in the back yard. Lately I've been turning on the sprinklers and letting him have at it. It's made for some very sweet days spent together. Last weekend, Dustin and I spent a little time sprucing up the yard. We planted some new plants and spread out some fresh mulch. It's amazing what a difference that alone can make. Dustin set up his new hammock... a Father's Day gift that we have all been enjoying!

Molly seems pretty happy out there too. 

 Especially when her best buddy is throwing her the ball. 

 I am getting pretty used to this staying home business!

 Cheers, to the official first day of summer!

Date Night with my 14 Month Old

That's right friends. My little man is 14 months old now. And I know I say it in every other blog post but he is just such a big boy now!

Tonight he and I went for a walk (Molly too) and then I sat down to have dinner with him after one of the longest and busiest weeks EVER! I felt like tonight was the first time in awhile where I had the time to just sit and watch Donovan and bask in his cuteness. 

Is it possible that he could change so much in just one week's time? 

 I prayed before I ate. Dono had already been going strong for a few minutes while I made myself dinner. When I closed the prayer with an extended, "AAAAAAmen." He shouted right back. "Mmmmeh" Which to you, might not seem like much. But, I knew it was the first time he'd attempted the word. I laughed and he loved that I reacted so he kept right on going... "MMMMMMeh, MMMMMMMeh, MMMMMMMeh." 

 He's learning everything so quickly now! When Donovan was just beginning to eat solids and we started the whole high chair routine I used to be really good about trying to sign with him. He was too small when I started and I don't think he even noticed what I was doing at the time. I gave up on it and it's been months since I signed anything to him... but the last few weeks here and there I've seen him doing the sign for more. At first I thought it was a fluke but then I saw him do it more often. Each time I'd spurt out, "Dustin, did you see that? He did it again."

Eating with this little one tonight I am now certain that he knows exactly what that sign means. I was feeding him frozen blueberries (God-Send for teething toddlers) and he clearly made the sign and said "muh." What? Grammie, was this your doing? Maybe he picked it up at day care? 

When we went up for his bath and I was changing him, I gave him a zerbert on his tummy and he laughed so hard and then signed more again and again and again until he got the hiccups from laughing so hard. These little things amaze me. 

 Other than impressing his crazy in love Mommy, he has been busy with other past times too. Mainly beating up on poor Molly, throwing things across the room, and flushing the toilets incessantly. He's a true boy. Enough said. 

And this little pup has become a frequent visitor of Donovan's high chair. They seem to have a special arrangement going. She happily devours every crumb he tosses in her direction. 

Ahhhh, the relief sets in. Spring Break is here and maybe, just maybe I'll blog more than once this week? We'll see!

Proof of Purchase

(This one's for you Holls.) So I mentioned my Anthro goodies the other day. I had to take a pic of the red numbers slashed through to make room for more red numbers and so on.

$9.95 for this skirt.

And more markdowns. Personal satisfaction at it's best.

Originally $188 marked down to $19.95.

But I didn't wear either of these finds to the date night on Friday. Instead I opted for this one below. Mostly because when I tried it on, Dustin said, "Wear that one tonight." When he has an opinion, which is pretty much never, I listen.

We had a fun night on Friday. It was great to be out of the house for a few hours, together, sans Dono. But I also couldn't wait to get home and peek in on him to see him dreaming away in his crib. It is insane how much love I have for that boy. Literally, it's crazy! I never knew my heart could love that much!

On Saturday I had to grab my camera for an impromptu photo session. Donovan was playing in our room and just looked too cute to pass up the photo opportunity.

I tried to get a picture of him crawling on our bed... but this was as close as I got. He's quick and he also looks like he's doing push ups. Definitely the son of a PE teacher.

Then we moved to the floor where innocent Molly became the object of interest.

Here she is saying, "Seriously, do we have to do this again?"

Scooting himself over to play with his favorite friend.

Shaking

And the full on grab attack. Good thing she's a lover of a dog. He has a crazy strong grip... but so far she doesn't seem to mind.

And that was our weekend. Hope you had a lovely one too.

Random

These pictures are all just random snap shots... but before I forget about these mini milestones I wanted to post the things that have been making me smile lately.

The last few weeks Donovan LOVES to be in the standing position. He always tries to pull himself up when you're holding him and if you hold him in the standing position he looks so proud of himself.

Don't mind that I'm nursing my main man in this picture... Dustin snapped this to show Molly's latest hang out place. Every night before Donovan is going to bed, Molly sneaks in and lays behind the glider. Then, when Donovan's finished eating, and I put him down in his crib, Molly gets up and walks out of the room right next to me. Poor Molls has been so neglected lately. She loves Donovan and is always close by him. She's the best dog! (Just extremely neglected as of late) Does any one else suffer from ignoring your doggie guilt? Our whole world revolved around Molls just a few short months ago... my, how things have changed.

And we finally got a picture of what I had mentioned in little man's 4 month post. I LOVE that he always has his tiny hand on our faces when we hold him lately. It is so sweet! He laughs when I kiss or "zerbert" his hand or he'll just fall asleep brushing it through my hair or across my cheek.

He does it to Daddy too.

And this is D's favorite hang out spot these days. My talented Momma made this wrap for me. I think it's a lot more comfortable than the Baby Bjorn and it saves my arms from having to rock this ever growing boy.

And finally just a random picture of when Grammie was here. Dustin had been going through all of his old clothes in our big spring cleaning of the closets phase. He even put one of his shirts on Dono and Molls.

Sometimes I think we're probably the weirdest family ever... but I love us that way.