Can you spot the difference?

Something is different with Donovan... can you spot the difference?

Although the overalls are new (and cute) that is not what I am talking about. The difference is that you are looking at the new proud owner of a TOOTH! Ok, so you can't see it (we barely can after wrestling with him) but it is exciting non-the less.

Donovan has been a little more cranky lately, nothing too big but we were attributing it to a cold that he caught last week. In the back of our minds we were hoping that part of the crabbiness was due to an erupting tooth but I could never feel any bumps or see any other warning signs and as I did not get my first tooth until 11 months, we were not holding our breath. Today I was off work and Donovan was a little crabbier than usual and was also really into chewing on anything hard he could get his hands on. So when we went downstairs to play in the afternoon I thought I would just see if I could feel any bumps on his gums and low and behold I felt something sharp! It is barely above surface level but it is through the gum so it is official. The left lower tooth has erupted! It will be quite sometime before we get a picture of it though so you will just have to take our word for it for now.

Here are some more pictures I took of Donovan tonight in is overalls with his new tooth.


Donovan likes to help his daddy play guitar. He's pretty good at it.

Mmmm. Guitars feel good on my new tooth!


PS. Donovan also stood for about 7 seconds without holding onto anything! He was chewing on a toy and didn't realize I had moved his support (my knee). As soon as he realized he wasn't near anything to catch himself he flopped down on his butt. Silly.

9 months old

Believe it or not, this was the best picture we got for the 9 month shot...


And here are the out-takes.




This month has been a very fun and active one in our household. I have many topics to touch on so lets begin with the exciting things that have happened this past month.

1)Freckle- Donovan has his first freckle and it is adorable! I noticed it on his right shoulder during a bath a few weeks ago and after a little scrubbing determined that no, infact it was not dirt, and yes, in fact it was his very first freckle. It is about the size of a pinhead so you really have to squint to see it but I know it is there and I love it. Tom has tons of freckles on his shoulders and back and I have always loved them so I would not mind if Donovan got that trait for his daddy.

2)Dada- Donovan is officially saying "Dada"! I don't think he associates it with Tom but then again I didn't think he would repeat it if he heard it until 2 days ago when he did just that so who knows. He first said it last friday (the 15th) when Tom was at work (unfortunately) and is getting better and better at saying it more often ever since. He has said "Yaya" for a while and now also says "baba". He has always been a talker but his talking is usually just grunts and various funny noises or squeals so I was worried that he was never going to start saying all those cute baby words but last friday that all changed. It is funny how one day the light switches on and then they never look back. He can talk all he wants, I love hearing anything that comes out of his mouth.

3)Cruising- So the fact that he is pulling up is old news but now he is starting to walk along holding onto things. Mostly he does this around our couches and the ottoman and he is doing it more and more every day. His balance is so much better than it used to be too. He used to look like a little hula dancer when he was first standing by himself, but now he only looks like that when he is really excited and is "dancing". Now he will pull up using only one hand so he can use the other to carry a toy and then he will stand holding on with only one hand too. Occasionally he will let go for a second and he will stand perfectly fine until he realizes he is not holding onto anything, then he grabs hurriedly at the nearest object to hold onto.

4)Eating and sleeping schedules- Donovan still does not have a schedule per se, for when he sleeps and eats each day but we do have a good pattern going. Beginning from when he wakes up for the day you can count on putting him down for a nap 3 hours later. And he usually drinks a bottle every 4ish hours. The actual times change each day because he still goes to bed at different times (anywhere between 8:30 to 9:30) and wakes up at different times (usally he wakes for a first bottle anywhere from 4:30-7:15, however generally between 6-7). His naps were 1,000% better during the majority of the last month, lasting usually at least an hour... occasionally even two but the last few days he has gone back to his 30 minute max naps. Oh how I hope we get the long ones back! When he does the long ones, we only do two and it seems to work out better for our schedules, plus I get more done and get to take naps myself! I did forget to mention that between the last nap and when he goes down to sleep for the night he does usually stay up for longer, sometimes close to 5 hours! He is a crazy boy!

5)Playing with Petey- Donovan recently has also realized how he can get more attention from Petey. Petey has this little toy carrot that he is obsessed with, so Donovan knows that if he gets Petey's carrot and holds onto it, there is a good chance Petey will come and try to get it out of his hand. Then when Petey gets it and runs away he just smiles and laughs. He is just so happy that Petey was close to him for that little bit. Also if you take Petey's carrot and squeek it as you are poking Donovan in the stomach, he giggles and giggles. He thinks it is hilarious and so do we.

6)Blowing lips- For some reason Donovan has developed a habit of moving air in and out of his lips noiselessly and it is so cute. He just sucks in, and then blows out...little lips flapping away the whole time. It is hard to describe, it is just better if we demonstrate it for you or you see it yourself so you will just have to take my word for it, it is so silly and funny.

Enough talking, onto the pictures.

Donovan and Mommy in our PJs.

Looking out the window- his favorite thing recently since it is too cold to actually go outside. On yeah, and licking the window isn't so bad either.




Happy 9 month birthday Donovan, I love you!

9 month Dr's check up

Today we had Donovan's 9 month doctors visit. And the stats are... (drumroll please)

Head: 18 and a half inches- 95th percentile
Height: 29 and 1/4 inches- 92nd percentile
Weight: 22lbs- 88th percentile

The doctor was impressed when we told her that Donovan is crawling all over the place and pulling up and starting to cruise. Other than that the visit was very uneventful. Donovan would probably beg to differ though as he was traumatized from the shot and finger prick they had to do today. I think the worst part of the finger stick was that the nurse was restricting his hand for about a minute and he does NOT like it when he can't wiggle away. It was sad, he had multiple tears coming out of each eye. Not to worry though, 3 minutes after the pricks he forgot all about what had just happened. The nice part of the visit though was that Tom was able to leave work early so he was able to join us for only the second time since Donovan was born (since I work only 3 days a week I usually just take him myself early in the day). It was nice to have Tom there for help and extra moral support.

On a disappointing note todays visit pretty much confirmed what I have been thinking for a while now in that we need to find a different pediatrician. I chose our ped. as she was my sister and my ped. from when we were young until we turned 18. I remember thinking of her so fondly and I was so excited that we were going to use her for Donovan. However, ever since the first visit I feel like I leave there with more questions than I came with. I just don't think she listens as much as we need her too, especially about the sleep issues that we still have with Donovan. She has a quick answer for everything and it feels as though when you are trying to explain what is going on she starts talking over you to solve it before all the details are even discussed. And I always feel like our visit is rushed and I need more time. I have been feeling this way for a while but having Tom there and having him feel the same thing just solidified the fact that we need to find someone we love. There are plenty of pediatricians out there so there is no reason that we need to stay somewhere where we leave unhappy. Part of me is sad to leave her, but I think that we should love our ped. and as of now and the last 9 months, we don't. I would like to find someone we rave about to other people and that I want to take all of my future children too.

On a happier note here are some recent pictures of little man man...

Some playtime in his diaper.


Looking out the sliding glass door. I love how he sits back on his legs and just takes it all in.

Another extreeme close up. I get a lot of these since he tries to eat the camera every time I get it out.

This is my attempt to get a picture of Donovan croutching by his kitchen. His kitchen has a light and he croutches down (when he is standing) so that he can look up at it. It is so cute and he does it so controlled nowadays.

And finally, sometimes the best toys aren't toys at all.

Crib time

Donovan has been pulling, well actually pushing up for several weeks now but just this past Wednesday he finally found out how to pull himself up in his crib. Now this is what I get to see when I go to get him up in the morning or after his naps.



Recently he has also started making these funny faces when he is either really excited about something (ie. getting picked up from his crib prison) or is no longer interested in eating what you are trying to put in his mouth. Luckily I managed to capture one of these funny faces while I was snapping some shots of him standing in his crib. What a silly.


You may have noticed in the pictures that he is standing on the side of his crib. That is the only place I ever see him standing when I come to get him because that is the closest side to the door so he can stand there and look out the door so that he can see if anyone is coming to answer his cries. What a smart baby.

In other exciting news Donovan is now a stair climber as of Wed (it was kind of a big day). I ran some errands that night in preparation for a snow storm we were going to get and Tom texted me a picture of Donovan on the second stair. He said he just climbed right up there like he has been doing it for years. Sure enough, he did it for me the next night too. He has gotten as far as the third step and does it with ease, but then seems to lose interest in going any further. Today he was on the first step and instead of turning around and launching himself at me to get him off and put him on the ground, he just straightened his legs and slid down the step on his belly until he got to the ground. It may have been just a freak occurrence but I like to think that he is learning.

As I mentioned in the first sentence of this post Donovan is a great pusher (not puller) upper. I specify the pushing versus pulling because Donovan doesn't really grab and grip things to stand up (except for people's pants), he just pushes against or on top of things and then uses his leg muscles to push himself up. He uses just about anything to push himself up into a standing position: a stool, the ottoman, the sofa, the toilet, the bathtub, his toy basket, dressers, people's legs, the WALL. If anything is more than a few inches off the floor he is trying to push up off of it. It was funny the first time he crawled over to the wall and tried to push up. I was like "No way dude, you cannot use the wall, you don't have anything to grip". Well he wasn't listening so he crawled on over, got into a kneeling position and pushed up against the wall and was standing. He is so strong. The funniest things he has tried to push up off of have been his friends. He played with his new friend Brady yesterday, and Brady is 7 months old. Unfortunately for Brady, when he is on all fours, Donovan thinks that his head is the perfect height to help him get into the standing position. Poor Brady was basically getting dunked on dry land. Then today Donovan saw his friend Aubrey, who is 15 months. Well he figured he pushes up on people's legs all the time why not try her. She is at most 5 pounds heavier than him so she of course tumbled right over. Hopefully for his friends' sakes he will be walking soon.

And last I will leave you with a sweet picture my sister took of Donovan as he was eating last night.

Just chewin on a spoon