Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas 2010

Merry belated Christmas everyone! We had a great (and tiring) one and hope all of you did as well. Donovan was so excited for it that he got up at 6:30! Waaaayyy to early for mommy and daddy so we talked him in to snuggling in our bed from 7-7:45 then we started the day. Auntie Jenna, or "Zenna" as Donovan calls her, had spent the night and we had a great morning, taking turns opening our presents and watching Donovan play with all his new toys. Donovan got a car slide tower from Santa and it was his favorite gift, tied with a new hockey goal that came with 2 new hockey sticks that Tom and I got him. This Christmas Donovan really started to finally get how to open a present. He thinks that tearing and throwing the wrapping paper all over is great! After all the opening was done we had our breakfast casserole, which Jenna makes and has become a tradition that we will have to continue.

Around 11:00 Tom, Dono and I headed over to Tom's parents to do our exchange with Tom's side of the family. Unfortunately my parents were unable to come in this year so that was sad but Tom having such a wonderful family definitely helps distract from that fact. Donovan made out like a bandit again! Tom's brother Nick and his girlfriend Anna definitely went way overboard with their gifts for Donovan. He is one lucky and loved boy! The rest of the day we spent with Tom's family including his grandmother who is 96 years old, Tom's other grandmother, and two (well one is an honorary) aunts. It was a great visit but by the end of the evening we were all feeling exhausted. We were home by 6, Tom was asleep by 7:45, Donovan by 8:20 and me by 9:30. I am sure they will only get crazier from here too! Next year we will have two little bugs to help us celebrate the holidays.

We were total slackers on pictures after we got the presents open, and didn't take a single one at Tom's parents. Shame on us. Here are a few from Christmas morning though.

Our happy family picture. Donovan was annoyed we were making him pause his playing with the new car slide. As I said earlier, it was a hit. Good work Santa.
The favorite gift. We like it too because it is not too loud and it keeps him busy.
This is Donovan's "cheese" face. When we take a picture and ask him to say "Cheese!" he usually does and this is what you see.
Sipping some juice, eating some goldfish crackers he got in his stocking. Doesn't get much better than that.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Random factoid

Today Donovan turned 20 months old and I was exactly 20 weeks pregnant. Isn't that weird?

Donovan celebrated by screaming/crying from 12:30am-2:30am unless being held by myself of Tom. We both rocked him back to sleep only to have him wake back up and scream all over again. Then we let him scream it out, for an hour, at which point I picked him up and rocked him again. Each time he settled down as soon as we picked him up. Finally after rocking him asleep the third total time, I walked back to our room, got half way there and heard screaming. So guess who slept in our bed last night, between Tom and I? Yes, Mr. Donovan. I slept great but Tom woke up twice, once with Donovan's foot down the back of his shorts and another with Donovan's leg over his face. Donovan gets his weird sleep habits from his dad so serves him right. I have woken up with Tom's leg over my chest before so he deserves some payback. Of the 20 month old kind apparently.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Half way point

Tomorrow (12/22/10) marks the half way point of my pregnancy. I will be exactly 20 weeks along. For anyone that has been pregnant recently you know that it also means you get your second, and a really important ultrasound (US). It is where you get to make sure everything is developing like it should be and the baby has all the parts you are expecting it to have at this point. I was supposed to have this US done last Thursday but as I was brushing my teeth before grabbing Donovan and walking out the door, the doctor's office called to say that my doctor had to do a delivery and would have to reschedule. The next day she was available was the 30th, which I have to work, and then the 3rd of Jan, which I also work. So the alternative was to send me to the Perinatal center today at the hospital I work at and have them do my US. This is all they do there so I felt confident that I would get someone that would be more than capable of telling what was going on with the baby.

The US went lovely. It took about 3 times as long as I remember the 20 week US with Donovan taking (which also could have been because I had a 20 month old sitting on the table with me, trying his best to get in the gel and in the way in general) but I was loving every minute. I haven't really talked much about this pregnancy on here because this pregnancy is so different. For some reason, maybe because the pregnancy came a little earlier than we had planned, I have a hard time believing this is really all happening. I think part of it is I am so busy with Donovan that I don't have time to obsess over the pregnancy, like you tend to do with the first one. Also I feel like talking about it might jinx our good fortune. I know how blessed I am to have one healthy and happy child and I feel like there is no way I can hit that lottery again. It is probably just my profession that has me feeling this, but I have also had several people I know have bad things happen to their pregnancies or young children so I think I am also just afraid to open myself up and fall as hopelessly in love with this baby like I did for Donovan. I am just terrified, and waiting for some bad news, or something bad to happen. It feels all to good to be true.

Well today at the US I feel like I finally am starting to believe it and I have finally opened myself up to the fact that we are parents of two now. Not when I deliver, but now. There is a baby in me that I love hopelessly already. At Donovan's 20 week US we didn't really get all that many good views of the baby or pictures really at all. It was all about anatomy and checking everything. God blessed us this time with an ultrasonographer who is also a nurse who I sort of know. She is the writer of the Hawn blog I follow and link to my blog. She has lived enough in this life for 10 people and is wonderfully compassionate. I mentioned I was worried about the baby's heart being ok, and she spent tons of time looking it over for me. She also must have somehow known I needed to see some cute views of the baby to help everything sink in, because she gave us some really great ones. She was also so enthusiastic about little things, like the baby's cute feet or pike position of it's legs at one point, and it was just what I needed. After she pointed out the baby stretching out it's legs perfectly straight, I just started crying, and basically didn't stop until the US was over a few minutes later. It just finally felt real, like I could let go of all the worry (ok well some of it at least, let's not get all crazy) and just be happy for us and our family. Donovan is going to be a big brother and Tom and I are going to have another son or daughter! It is wonderful and such a miracle. When I saw the baby's profile, I could see Donovan in it and I think that was what really got me. We love Donovan so much, and his personality is so fun, what is this baby going to be like? I am so excited to find out.

We did mention to the nurse that we definitely did not want to see the sex of the baby so she had us turn away several different times. Once I was sure I saw a boy part, and I even said "Can I see the boy or girl parts now?" and she pointed right to what I was referring to and said it was the insertion of the umbilical cord. So this time I have no idea, not even a peak, of what we are having. Having said that though, after seeing the profile of the face I can only picture this being a boy since I think it looks so much like Donovan. I don't care what it is, I just want it to be healthy. I has been fun to speculate though. This pregnancy has been soooooo incredibly different from my first. With the first I had cramping and breast pain (sorry men who read this who are not my husband) right away, I had to go pee all the time, I lost 13lbs I was so sick, and I had the acne of a 14 year old boy in the midst of puberty. This time I was sick, but not nearly as bad (only lost a few pounds) and have had none of the other symptoms. So if you went from that, this is a girl. But lots of people I know have had same sex children and totally different pregnancies. So it could just be a trickster boy.

Anyways, I have digressed a million times but I needed to get that off my chest. Bottom line though, was that everything looked wonderful and our baby looks very healthy. Thank you God. Now we pray it stays that way and that I stay pregnant at least 17 more weeks, but less than 21 :)

Oh and I will try to put some pictures up from the US at a later date. They all have my last name on them and I try to keep that off the blog so I might have to talk the hubby into cropping some so I can post them. For now you will have to take my word, they are great!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Dad Post! Bathtub Learnin'

Howdy y'all, it's been a while since Dad posted about Donovan, but I had a startling discovery while giving him a bath tonight and I just had to share.

Now, Donovan knows some letters and will point out the ones he knows to you over and over again throughout the day. I'm speaking mostly of the P-E-A-C-E stocking holders we have sitting on our mantle. Many times per day he will point up to them and say "PEEEEEE!" or "CCCEEEEEE!" So we are well aware of the fact that he recognizes certain letters, but we have not exactly been quizzing him with flashcards or anything.

Well, during bath time tonight he was playing with all of these little foam letters and numbers that we had floating in the tub. I knew that he recognized some of them so I was pulling those out and asking him. He of course would tell me what each of those letters were (P, C, E, etc). He was doing so well that I just kept pulling them out of the water, holding them up and asking him what each of them was. If he got it right I put it down on the bath mat and if he got it wrong I threw it back into the water. I was shocked at how well he was doing and how many he knew. I had no idea! I yelled to Ellen that he was a genius and she was a little dismissive at first because I call him a genius all of the time, but then I made her come look at the bath mat. See below:


Needless to say she was as shocked as I was! How in the heck does he know all of those!? I was laughing out loud with each new letter I picked up once I got past about seven or eight of them. I was thinking to myself, "surely he has no clue what a Y is." And then "Y!" comes out of his mouth! WHAT!? How do you know that!? Where did you learn it!? He truly amazed me this evening and I couldn't be happier. What a wonderful little boy he is.

Here's my little genius after his outstanding display of mental prowess.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Denver or bust!

This past (extended) weekend Donovan and I packed our bags and flew to Denver to visit my parents. I have no idea why I thought taking a 19 month old on 2 flights by myself was a good idea but we did it and I am so glad we did, we had a great time!

The trip out on Friday was a doozy. Donovan did pretty well in the airport but was near traumatized to death by the hand dryer in the bathroom due to its noise level (this kid does not do well with sudden loud noises). He did very well not wandering too far from me and thought all the airplanes were pretty cool but the trucks (baggage carts and what nots) were the best. He loved them. Boarding the plane was bit of a hassle because I had to many things to carry so Donovan needed to walk down the plane isle and that was too much for him to handle so luckily someone helped me out and carried his seat so I could carry him. We got settled in the plane and pulled out for take off, and then... pulled right back into the hanger. Not a good sign. Turns out the pilot's radio was not working and after maintenance came to check on it it was determined that they could not fix it and we had to deplane and find a new plane. Aaaaahhhhhh! Did they not understand I am pregnant traveling with a toddler by myself? This was too much and coupled with some technical difficulties from the cool roller thingy I had for Donovan's car seat (it turns his seat into rolling luggage and is worth every cent of it's 80$ cost) I was in tears. Luckily though after 5 minutes off the plane, I fixed the seat and they had found us a new flight. All in all it only delayed us 1hr 30 min and by the time we got to Denver and deplaned again, I was a pro! Donovan did great on the plane. The first time we were just sitting there waiting for the plane to taxi he kept saying "Go! Go!". Then when we actually took off (in the second plane) he was asleep in 5 minutes. Turns out plane engines are great white-noise machines. He only slept for 45 min out of the 2hr 20ish min flight but the rest we spent looking at books and watching Sesame Street on his personal DVD player. Thank the lord for that.

We were able to spend the rest of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then into the afternoon Monday in Denver. It was so nice to see my parents and Donovan needed a break from St Louis because other then sleeping poorly the whole time we were there, he was on his best behavior. He played lots of "Neigh" with my mom. "Neigh" means "get out your i-touch and lets play games like animal sounds or pop the bubble wrap". He also got to watch and play lots of "hockey", still an obsession for him. We also took him out to eat several times and apart from destroying the clean floors, he did well there too. My highlight was Sat when we ran 3 plus hours worth of errands and got Donovan in and out of the car lots of times and he was so well behaved! We went to DSW and I was looking at shoes and my parents were in the front of the store with Dono. 15 min later I expected some exasperated grandparents to be giving me evil stares but they weren't so I had to check out what they were doing and Donovan was laying on a low shelf underneath a purse display just kicking his legs and looking adorable. He was crawling all over and running and having a great time. And I haven't run that many errands in one day since B.D. (Before Donovan).

It was wonderful just to have a low key weekend and spend time with my parents. Donovan enjoyed hanging out with "Paw Paw" and "Bama" too. And yes! The grandma's have names now! They are called "Bama" and it is adorable. Donovan got to meet his great Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck and second cousin Friday night for a little bit too. And we got to add another state he has been to to the list. All in all a great trip.

Originally when my parents asked us if we could come out for a visit they asked if all three of us wanted to come or just Donovan and I if Tom didn't think he could swing it. I wanted to give Tom a break since he took such good care of both Donovan and I while I wasn't feeling so hot with my pregnancy so I told him I would take Donovan by myself and give him a little vacation. Well it turns out, all he needed was a night because by Saturday he was texting and calling a lot and obviously missing Donovan (and me a little I am sure). Here I thought he was going to have himself a little bachelor weekend and he was bored and missing his wife and kid. What a nice hubby I have :)

The flight home on Monday was great. The best part of the whole experience though was that my mom was able to get a gate pass, something neither of us knew even existed anymore, and they let her go all the way with us until we boarded. Awesome! It was great to have the help while we ate and did bathroom trips and what not. We ended up having to hurry at the end because as we were dilly dallying to our gate my mom read it was boarding already. Oops. It turns out people were just lined up so we got in our place in line and there was very little waiting. Donovan was HYPER in capital letters on the ride home but he helped me eat a chocolate muffin so that kept his mouth shut for 10 min and then we watched Elmo for the remainder of the time. Occasionally he would let out a yelp of joy but it was just too cute to get annoyed with. Before we knew it we were home and seeing daddy again.

Well on to the part most people tune in for, the pictures.

Donovan and I after finally getting to Denver. The rolly thing that you attach to the car seat was a lifesaver! He liked it too. He would say "weeeeeee!" as I pushed him around.

Eating breakfast our first morning in Denver. Blueberry muffins that were all over the place by the end of the meal. Dixie loved it though because she doesn't normally get so much dropped food. She ate like a queen! I just love how expressive he is in these three pictures. He must have been telling a story.


Donovan and grandpa playing with the ever-popular i-touch. By the way as I type this Donovan is watching over my shoulder and pointed at my dad and said "Paw-Paw". He loves his paw paw B.

My mom picked up these awesome crayons that you use on windows. We had a lot of fun playing with those.
Looking into flashlights is fun too.
One night when we were eating dinner my mom started shushing Donovan because he was being too loud. Donovan thought she was hilarious with her futile shushing efforts. So they played "Shush" back and forth for a while and he cracked up the whole time. (By the way, these next two pictures is how Donovan shushes you).

For some reason which is beyond me, Donovan found Dixie's leash and really wanted to walk her. He would go get it and bring it to you and say "Walk". When it was too cold we would put the leash on Dixie inside and let him walk her around. It is an extendable leash but when we locked it so it was short he could pull her and when she walked too far away, she would pull him, which he thought was hilarious. This is the one and only walk he got to take Dixie on outside. Pretty adorable. (You might have to enlarge the pic but he is holding the leash by himself).
Playing at the park with "bama" and Dixie.
Fun times and Mohawks in the bathtub.
And nothing like a little naked time to dry off and run around like a crazy man after a bath.
And what does one little boy do when he is naked? Well read a book of course!

All in all a very enjoyable trip. We are glad to be home but miss my parents already. Time for them to move back I guess :)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Past week plus update

Well we have had quite the doozie of a past week so sorry for the lack of posting. I will catch everybody up on what's been going on around here in the Q household.

The weekend directly following Thanksgiving was all about Donovan and Ian getting some quality playtime. We hung out with the M family both Saturday and Sunday and the boys were so cute together. Saturday Ian brought his parents over here and they stayed for a long time and got some great quality playing in.
Donovan wanted to do or have whatever Ian did. Including his food. With the toys this got a little hairy but with the food it worked out nicely, Ian just decided to hand feed Donovan, and Donovan loved it too!


They also watched some Elmo together. Elmo is a big hit with both of the boys. Thank the Lord for Elmo. What did parents used to do without him?


The cutest part of our get togethers with Ian man on Saturday was that when we were all downstairs playing, Donovan would just randomly go up to Ian and give him a big hug! Sometimes the hugs were so big both boys would end up on the floor all tangled up but for the most part they were just good old' best friend, adorable hugs. We were not prompting Donovan for the majority of them either. He probably hugged him 10 times while playing. Of course my camera was upstairs so I was kicking myself for not getting it every time he did it again.

Sunday we went to Ian's house for a short hangout. The boys played again and it made Tom and I realize that we finally have to admit that our little boy has become a non-sharer. For so long we were so impressed and bragged about Donovan that he didn't really care if kids took his toys and was such a great sharer. Well that ship has sailed and sailed far, far away. Now he hoards toys just so Ian won't play with them. He will have 5 trucks in his arms and as Ian would reach for another truck, Donovan would grab it so Ian couldn't have it. Needless to say we need to work on our sharing skills.

So that was the fun part of past week, but now to the doozie part. Emily and John had told us that Ian had the stomach flu on the previous Sunday and that they both got it on Monday but since it was just a 24 hour bug and it had been multiple days we were not concerned about it. Monday morning Tom woke me up at 6:30 before he left for work saying that Donovan had thrown up in his crib overnight and that we needed to clean him up. Poor guy was sound asleep when we went in there but he needed to be changed because he was covered, his friends were covered (blankets and animals) and the sheets were covered in the previous nights dinner. Donovan woke up super happy when I changed him and I managed to get him back to sleep after 30 min or so but at one point he almost threw up again but managed to fight it off. That was the first time he had ever thrown up and it was probably in his sleep so when he almost did it again he looked so scared. The rest of the day was pretty good. Donovan acted normal and happy but didn't have an appetite and so he didn't eat anything all day but I was just fine with that. He did have three bouts of diarrhea in the afternoon but then he was really acting fine.

So that night (monday) around 7:15 we were playing and Donovan pulled on one of the stockings hanging on the mantle. This pulled down the heavy stocking holder right on his head and split his head open right below his hairline. He screamed, he bled, and we called the Dr's exchange and talked to our Dr who told us to go to the ER. So to the ER we went. The ER was pretty deserted, well the adult one was, but the Ped's ER was hopping. I was nervous about being there because Dono had just had the stomach bug so I was assuming his immune system was down, and there were tons of sick kids in there. I wished we could have been in a little germ free bubble. So after waiting about 20 min, they called us back to triage and they put a bandage with numbing gel on it on his owie. Then back to the waiting room for another 15 before they called us back to the room. The Dr decided to do glue instead of stitches which I was a little hesitant about because anyone who knows Donovan knows he is a bruiser and a rambunctious child and I was worried about the glue being strong enough but I thought, "She knows best". So to get Donovan still enough to do this we had to put his arms straight down and behind him in a pillow case, then we wrapped him in a blanket and then I gave him a bear hug. Then Tom held his head. Poor kid cried so hard when the Dr was messing with him I started tearing up. I felt so bad for him. Long story long, Dono got the glue and we were out of there after about 2 hours total. The Dr said not to really do anything to the site and that the glue would come off 7-10 days later. Wrong.

Sometime overnight Dono's head split back open. Aaaaahhhhh!!!! It is so frustrating because a) we subjected him to all those germs in the waiting room for nothing, b) we tortured him and messed up his schedule for nothing and c) now he is going to have a big scar. I should have gone with my gut and insisted on stitches but I am a rookie so I didn't but now I am kicking myself. We went and saw our pediatrician to see what he thought we should do next, whether it should be stitched or we should just leave it and he said once it opens up just leave it. Plus it is right at his hair line and he said as he grows it will grow into his hair. But still, frustrating!

Anyways that was unfortunately not the end of our doozie week, over night on monday/tues Tom started with the stomach bug (vomiting, diarrhea) and then at 7am I started too. It was awful! We were both laid up and pathetic and it would have been impossible to care for Donovan that day so like the angel she is, Tom's mom came and took Donovan for the day so Tom could recoup and I could continue getting sick. We both had to call in sick that day too. By the end of the day Tom was feeling his normal self but I was on knocked on my butt through wed. The other unfortunate thing was Wed was Tom's birthday and we had a babysitter (my sister) lined up and everything so that we could go to dinner and we had to cancel since I felt so bad still. Dono and I did manage to bake Tom a cake and Donovan helped me decorate it with sprinkles. And by help decorate I mean he ate the sprinkles and put his fingers in the icing. Here are the pictures of that after I had moved the cake out of arms reach.



Finally on Friday we got back to having fun and had a few friends and family over for Tom's birthday celebration. We kept it to small to close family and friends that we had already exposed our germy selves to in case we were still contagious. We had pizza, presents, cake and good company. Of course Ian man was there are we did manage to get some shots of the boys taking turns hugging each other. Too cute! And you will notice they were wearing matching jammies. Once we saw what they had brought for Ian to wear we couldn't help ourselves putting Donovan in his matching ones.





And that is what we have been doing this past week. I hope this next one is much less eventful!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone from our turkey to yours!

Playing with mommy's mittens on Thanksgiving night. (He throws a fit if you try to put his mittens on him but he loves wearing big people's gloves and mittens)

Playing in the clean clothes on Friday morning.


We have been having a great and low-key thanksgiving weekend so far. On Thanksgiving day I had to work so the boys had to fend for themselves. They were planning on going to Tom's parents for some chili and visiting but the weather got a little nasty and they decided to stay home. I brought Tom some food home from work so he ended up getting turkey on that day anyways. On friday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Tom's family since both myself and his brother worked on the actual day. It was a nice day filled with yummy food, good company and a well behaved boy (for the most part). We spent the night at Tom's parents and stayed up playing games til 12 and then talking til 12:30. I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late for pleasure and not work purposes! It was a fun day. We did manage to get a couple sweet pictures of our little man.
Donovan cuddling up to Great-Grandma Q (she's 96!) while he was drinking his milk. He did it all on his own and she was loving it.


The four generations. Tom's grandma Dode, Tom's mom, Tom, and Dono of course. This was the best we could do at the time because Donovan was NOT in the mood for pictures. We got him to smile by doing the "Lady horse" with him and snapping the picture right after it.

Donovan getting tickled by his mama. He hated it obviously.


We have so much to be thankful for: a wonderful family, a happy and healthy son, wonderful friends, our jobs, house and health, our baby on the way, and last but not least the return of my energy and the leaving of my nausea. We hope everyone had a great thanksgiving too!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Just because

Mister Silly

On thursday we headed over to the house of some of our friends for dinner and visiting. They are getting married in September and (gasp!) don't have any kids so we packed for our ADHD-like child like we were leaving for the week. One of the things we brought was a booster seat so Donovan had a place to eat. While we were gathering all of the stuff Donovan decided to take a seat in his chair and play cars in it. He insisted on me buckling him in too, which is funny because I never buckle him in his chair at home so I don't know why he wanted to be buckled. This is Donovan playing in his booster seat.



Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tom and his mini Tom

Donovan has been so cute lately, he is imitating up a storm and his favorite person to imitate is his daddy. Watching hockey games with them is my favorite. Any time Tom makes a sound, whether it be for a goal, a bad call or a near miss get ready to hear an 18 month old's version of that sound right after it comes out of Tom's mouth. It is adorable. In fact Donovan now tries to say "Nice" and "Awesome" because his daddy does it. That is the one good thing about me not feeling well this pregnancy, Donovan has gotten to have lots of good daddy time.

Yesterday Donovan, Petey and I got locked out of the house at 9:15 in our jammies and sock feet. So we hung out and played at the neighbors house until Tom came home from work to rescue us. Tom then worked from home the rest of the day and Donovan decided to help him.



In other exciting news Donovan got his first hockey stick last night. For the past few days Donovan has been dragging around a wiffle ball bat and trying to hit balls on the ground with it. We thought it would be great to get him a kid hockey stick or golf club so that he could hit the balls a little easier and at first we thought we could get it for him for Christmas but then we decided he needed a hockey stick now. So we got him one from Target and he loves it. He can say "Hockey" so clearly and this morning when we woke up and went to the family room that was the first thing he grabbed and said "Hockey" of course. These are some pictures from last night when we were playing hockey.

Looking like quite the pro.

Still going back to the old, trusty bat every once in a while.


Also, yesterday marked the first time Donovan got put in time out. Not the first time he should have been, but the first time I actually did it. After getting home from Target last night I had the mail in my hands and his bunny and blanket and Donovan decided to run into the street even after I told him to stop. Then he proceeded to run down the middle of the street so I grabbed him and drug him to the side of the street where he proceeded to sit down. So I picked him up, with my full hands, and he grabbed the mail and threw it all over the street. So I took him inside and put him in his crib and left him for about a minute. He of course cried the whole time, and when I went to get him I tried to make him say "Sorry" told him we do not go in the street and then that I loved him. As soon as I put him down he was over it. We have to think of what to do about time outs from here on out because there really isn't any great place to put him to make him sit and even if we did there is no way he will stay there. So the crib seems like the no brainer but I want him to like his crib, not think of it as a punishment. So we will see.

In big brother news Donovan looks like he will be a great one. Last Sunday our friends Kris and Lynn brought their 5 month old daughter Penelope over. Donovan was very gentle with her, touching the side of her face very nicely. Penelope likes to pull up her dress so Donovan got to see her belly button, which he is currently obsessed with so he poked that a few times and told us all about it and thought it was great. Then later when Lynn was burping Penelope after she drank some milk Donovan came over and helped pat her on the back. So sweet. Hopefully the novelty does not wear off when the baby never leaves.

One last note, Donovan has been talking about his "owies" a lot lately. His owies are usually on his legs or hands and are so tiny you can barely see them, but adjust your eyes and sure enough there is a little scab or scrape there. Last night laying in bed Tom said to me "Donovan's owies are the size of three molecules" and I burst out laughing. Between my husbands non-standard way of measurement (may I remind you of his "three pennies width" measurement from long ago) and my son's tiny owies it is just too much. It was good because it was a laugh I really needed.

Ok and on one last, last note I found out last night that my college friend Josh's 2 year old son that has been battling leukemia only has a few days left here on earth. Nothing makes you both sadder (for that family), and thankful (for your own family's health) at the same time. So last night was a sad time for me, thinking about what they are and have been going through for the last 7 months. I told Tom I just wanted to get Donovan out of bed and have him sleep with us that night so we could be near him, and breath in his smell and just be near the person that is our whole world. Well this morning Donovan was up and crying really early and Tom got him back to sleep before he left for work but then at 6:40 he was crying again. So I got him out of bed and brought him in bed with me, fingers crossed he would sleep since I haven't tried that in probably 4 months and it hasn't worked in about 10. He slept like an angel. On my chest for the first 20 min and then the rest cuddled up next to me until 8:05. Then he woke up so happy. It was just what I needed after being so sad. I just pray that Lucas and his parents get to have some quality time like that before he goes to a better place.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Elmo jammies

Donovan got some pretty cool jammies from his Grammie Q last week and they are definitely our new favorite. The day I took these pictures I heard him wake up and instead of fussing to let us know he was up I heard him say, "HI!" then after a few seconds "Elmo". The jammies have different pictures of Elmo sleeping on them and moons and stars as well, which are two of Donovan's other favorite things to tell us about. I think he looks like such a big boy in his jammies. I think we will have to get him some more in this style. Oh and in case you couldn't tell he is wearing his Elmo socks to complete the outfit too.



Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Happy belated Halloween ery-body! Our Halloween stunk. Donovan took an early nap then was crabby at night. He also was running to see his friends down the street and tripped and fell and cut his upper lip and jarred his left front tooth so much it was bloody along the gum line behind the tooth. I was worried that tooth was going to die but I think it looks fine now so hopefully he will be ok. Donovan had a melt down that night too and was in bed asleep at 7:38pm. So needless to say we are looking forward to next year's Halloween already. Hopefully it will be much better than this one was.
The Monday before Halloween when my parents were in town we had a pumpkin carving night and Elmo fashion show since my parents wouldn't be in town to see it on the real night. Donovan would not touch the pumpkin guts that we were trying to get him to touch. He would just look at it and say "Yucky!". He loved modeling his Elmo costume for us. Tom dressed him in it in his room after his bath and he came sprinting out into the family room to show us all, so proud! Then he wanted to see himself in the mirror and he thought that Elmo was so cute! He kept the costume on for a pretty long time, which made up for Halloween when he left the head on for a total of 10 seconds. Oh well. Here are some of the pictures from the previous Monday.

Lately Donovan crosses his arms across his chest randomly and it is adorable. He is probably telling us how "yucky" the pumpkin is right now.

"What is in there mom?"

Tom would threaten to "get" Donovan with the pumpkin guts and Donovan thought it was hilarious. This is him trying to get away from Tom.
Checking out that handsome Elmo.

I absolutely love this picture of him. It is too cute.
We can't get the dang kid to lay on the quilt when we want him to for his month pictures but when it's his idea, he does it wonderfully. What a silly silly.