Friday, April 29, 2011

Our 2 year old

Big boy looking handsome (and grown up) at Easter with Bammie Q.


Stats from the 2 year well visit:

Weight: 29 1/2 lbs- 69th %
Height: 34 3/4 inches- 61st%
Head circumference: 20inches- 93rd%

Our two year appointment went well, and what I mean by that is it went exactly as I expected. Donovan behaved well until they asked him to step on the scale, and for those that don't know this is the first thing they ask you to do at the Dr's, so the remaining time was me trying to wrangle a 2 year old who was convinced he was being tortured to death and he wanted everyone to know. So I am taking both the height and head circumference with a grain of salt as we had a hard time keeping him still enough to get an accurate measurement. The doctor had no concerns for Dono and aside from his little eczema patches I really had no concerns for him either. He had to get two shots and I knew this so I promised him a chocolate shake after we were done. Poor kid thought the lady coming in to give him the shots was bringing in his chocolate shake. Rude reality. He did well considering everything with the shots, was pumped that he got some Thomas the train stickers and was happy as a clam after we got his chocolate shake. All in all, a success.

On to other reviews about what our 2 year old is doing now:

Talking: Donovan is talking up a storm. A few months ago we estimated he had somewhere around 175-200 words and now it seems like he has at least 50% more than that and he is saying short sentences. Some of his favorites are "I caught it!", "I did it!", "I got it!", "I see you.", "I get the (insert word here)", "I fick(fix) it", "Oh my goodness" (adorable), "Hit the ball", "Swing the bat" and his personal favorite and one that we cringe at every time, "Oh my God!". No one is taking credit for teaching him that last one and he says it a lot. Every time he says it we correct him and say "oh my goodness" but he doesn't care. Just today he started saying "Oh my gosh!" which is a much better choice so we are encouraging that. Another thing he says that we all love is "Hmmmmmmm, less-see (let's see)". He does this when he is looking for something and it is adorable as well. It is so nice that his vocab has gotten so great because it definitely lessens his frustration level. And most of his words are getting clearer as well so we can almost understand everything he says. Life with a talker you can understand is much better.

Smarts: As we said before he knows all his ABC's (although G and J he occasionally still messes up), and numbers 1-10. He counts on his own but now skips 3 and 4. I guess he wanted 4 to have a friend to be left out with. His favorite number is 2, he wants two of everything and he usually correctly counts 2 things. When it is more then two, it is five according to Donovan counting. So you either have two things, or five things. He also still insists on double fisting everything so if you give him one cookie, be prepared to give him two unless you want him to throw a fit. If you do not have 2 cookies he will accept you breaking the one cooking into two. Just please let both hands have the same thing. We can't have them getting jealous of each other.

Colors are a different story. For a while everything was red, then everything was blue and now they are usually either or. Some days he hands you a green and yellow car and tells you as such, but then you will ask him later and he says "red". Then he will point out a orange balloon, a pink crayon, a white ball but then you ask again later and he says "blue" to all three. So he has to be in the mood and be the one to bring it up to you, otherwise the colors are all off. Shapes he does pretty well with. He knows circle, triangle, square and oval. He had jelly beans with his friend Ian the other day for the first time and he asked for more saying "More oval". He has yet to repeat his pee pee performance and will barely sit on the toilet anymore. I think we need to take the batteries out because he always points to it and says "Noise". Once that is disabled he may be more willing to put his naked butt back on there.

Favorites: Donovan is still a hockey fan, but the hysteria has died down and he is now a baseball fanatic. He says "Bye, bye Carnals (cardinals)" to our garage as we pull out of the driveway as his daddy has several cardinals posters. He roots them on with fist pumps and "Go, go Carnals" as well. He requests to watch the games and loves to swing the bat and hit the ball. He has a tee downstairs that he uses but sometimes he prefers to throw the ball up to himself and swing. He also likes you to pitch the ball to him and shockingly, he hits it about 30-50% of the time (same with him pitching it up to himself). Crazy kid. He is also still very much into cars, trains and airplanes. He likes Sesame Street but loooooooooves Mickey Mouse clubhouse and requests it often. He was in a Veggie Tales phase a few weeks back but "Bob" as he calls them have taken a back seat to Mickey. He is also very much into birthdays still and often sings the song randomly. He also still prefers the company of his Auntie Jenna and his Bammie Q to most other people. Not that I can blame him, they are pretty cool ladies. He also loves hanging out with his "buddies" across the street, and somedays, I swear we are there more than we are at our own house.

Eats: As far as foods, he loves fries, ice cream, cake, "mama juice" (Gatorade), milk and crackers and would live on a diet strictly of those things if it were up to him. But it's not so he also eats black beans, green beans, mac and cheese, chicken, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, berries (black, blue, straw and rasp), cheerios, peppers, beans and wienies, toast, waffles, eggs and more. Overall I can't complain. He is an ok breakfast eater, lunch is pretty much non-existent and a good dinner and dessert eater. My parents brought a step-stool big boy chair for him to sit in at the table when they visited 2 weeks ago and ever since then, that is where he eats the majority of his meals.

Sleep: Donovan usually gets up anywhere from 8:15 to 9, takes an hour and a half to 2 hour nap around 1 or 2pm and usually is in bed anywhere from 8:45-9:15 depending on the night. Of course no day is ever the same so some days he's up at 7:10 (ahem, like today), takes an hour 40 min nap, is in bed at 8:35 and doesn't fall asleep until 9:20. He usually talks himself to sleep and wakes up talking to himself too. He loves his crib so until the baby needs to kick him out he won't be moving to his big boy bed. (knock on wood) He has yet to climb out of his crib either and he has plenty of things he could stack to make a step where it would be an easy feat. Usually in the mornings, I go in to get him but he wants to still hang in the crib so I get my juice (Gatorade) and sometimes bring my computer and sit in the glider and rock and just talk to my little man until he is ready to get out. He often requests books to read in the crib, or he wants to throw his multiple guys at me, or he wants Petey in the bed so he can pet him. "Tee tee bed" as he pats his bed. Petey has recently given up on life/decided it's better to let Donovan get his pets out and is actually pretty good about it. He doesn't run away when Donovan is trying to get him and lets Donovan hug and pet all over him. On occasion Tom and I will bring Dono into our bed when we think he is up too early and might go back to be if he is snuggling with us. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but when it does, I am in heaven.

Sacked out in mommy and daddy's bed. (Mommy had just snuck out).



Other stats:
Diaper size: 5 (Luvs for days, Huggies overnights for naps and night-time)
Shoes size: some 6's but mostly 7's now
Clothes sizes: 24 months-2T depending on the brand

I am sure I am forgetting something I wanted to mention. I know this is long but it is how I record what we are up to so most of this is mostly for me, and the grandparents of course. For everyone else who stuck with this whole post, God bless! You are a trooper and Donovan thanks you for being that interested in his life.

Daddy and Dono. Dono had a wipeout yesterday and got an owie on his cheek.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

38 weeks (almost)

Tomorrow I will be 38 weeks pregnant and considering I haven't said anything about my pregnancy in a couple months I figure this is long over due. Overall I am feeling great! After the aches and pains that had me so rattled in the early 30ish weeks of my pregnancy, I didn't even know if I would make it here but here I am and I feel like I have several more weeks in me. My back pain is much, much better. In fact in the past few weeks I haven't had much at all. I remember it getting better toward the end of my pregnancy last time too, I am just thankful it went that way again. The general belly muscle pain is gone too. Now I just have occasional contractions (much less than I had last pregnancy) and pains from this baby trying it's darnedest to karate chop it's way out. I also have sciatic pain that I never had before. For anyone that has never had it, it is so strange. It is like a lightning bolt of pain that shoots from your tailbone, down your legs and it buckles my knees when it hits it is so painful. But the good news is, it leaves about as quick as it comes. So I just end up looking like I am having some sort of weird fit when the pain hits. And it is a very recent thing so I can handle it for the remaining time.

But overall really I couldn't ask to be feeling any better at the stage I am. I am still able to pick up and hold Donovan when I need to so I am thankful for that. I still don't have my bags packed for the hospital and tonight I finally threw all the baby clothes in the wash so tomorrow will be full of lots of folding tiny, adorable onsies and such. I have been having the strangest pregnancy dreams and I think that our lack of preparedness is giving me anxiety. Several recent nights I have woken up in an almost anxiety attack, and had to talk myself into relaxing and being able to go to bed. Tom brought up the cradle tonight and I got all the car seat bases out so I feel a little closer to prepared. Tomorrow I will also pack a labor bag. Hopefully after all that I will have less anxiety about not being ready when the baby comes.

I had my 38 week appointment today (Donovan had his 2 yr well check but I will save that post for another night, everything went well though) and I am 1cm dilated, not very effaced at all (they rudely called me 10%, lets just say "thick" ok?), and the baby is not as sky high as it was at my 36 week appointment. Honestly I feel like I will be pregnant until they evict this baby at 41 weeks of pregnancy (with an induction). I just have nothing going on as far as contractions go, which is so strange since last pregnancy I was contracting all the time. I am ok with being pregnant for a few more weeks. The longer I stay pregnant the less chance the baby will have breathing and feeding issues, the longer I have with Donovan all to myself, and the more time we have to get things done around here. It seems like our to do list never shortens.

The one thing I can't wait for though is to finally find out the sex of this baby! Last time I had a strong suspicion (read: I accidentally saw something at 16 weeks on US) what we were having but this time, nothing. And it is killing me! It seems the closer I get to the due date the more I want to just look and know. Of course I will wait til the actual delivery to find out but I feel like a kid on Christmas eve. If I was a betting girl, I would say this is a girl simply because my pregnancies have been so different. But I would not be shocked if a little stinker boy popped out and said "I tricked you!" Either way, I will be happy. We are just praying for a healthy mom and baby at this point.

These are my most recent pregnancy pictures from 2 weeks ago at 36 weeks.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Sorry baby

This is a three part story. Part one: Donovan has a new bedtime routine. It involves throwing all of his entourage guys into his bed right before his daddy changes him and puts him to bed. His entourage is now HUGE. The small tag blanket has been replaced by a small/medium sized blanket that he now drags around like Linus. Also a monkey, a yellow blanket and a cardinals pillow pet have been added. Anyways, he has to "tha-row-a" them all into the crib one at a time. Then he is happy.

Second part: Our parents as teachers lady had recommended to us to get a baby doll for Donovan to prepare him for when the baby comes. She suggested we pretend it is a real baby as far as how we treat it (ie gently) and do things with it (with Donovan) that we will be doing with a real baby (laying it in a crib or car seat). Then when the real baby comes Donovan could have his own baby. So we decided to give it to Donovan yesterday as part of his birthday present. We got it at a resale shop for 1$ because we were pretty sure Donovan would hate the idea as he has a girl friend, Claire, with baby dolls and has never shown any interest in them. So as he was opening his two presents last night he got to the baby doll, picked it out of the bag and immediately threw it aside in search of something less boring. Bad start. Then tonight we got the baby back out and talked about the baby, and held the baby like a real baby will be held in hopes of interesting Donovan in it. He showed a little interest which seemed promising until...

Third part: Night time. When we gathered all Donovan's guys and were walking into his room he stopped and grabbed the baby off the couch. We tried to get him to hold it nicely, but instead baby was swung around by the leg as we walked into the room. Donovan then proclaimed he was going to do exactly the opposite of what we were hoping. "A-tha-row-a baby". "No Donovan we don't throw the baby, we have to be gentle with the baby". To which he responded "A-tha-row-a baby" as he chucked the baby into the bed, baby hitting it's face as it slid down the back of the crib rail. Lovely start to the baby bonding. Let's hope he is better with a real baby.

Two!

Donovan turned two yesterday and we had a great, low key day! I walked in to Donovan's room in the morning and instead of saying "Good morning" like I normally do I said "Happy birthday Donovan" to which he responded "Presents?". I had to break it to him that we opened most of his presents at his party and he took it like a champ. Dono's best friend Ian and Ian's mommy came over for an after noon play time and the boys had a blast playing in the basement, eating lunch and then taking a bath together. I wonder if this is the last year 2 boys in a bath will be no big deal. This was the first time in a while that we hung out Ian (not counting both of their b-day parties last week) and it was nice to see how they interacted. Dono did really well sharing his toys with Ian and when they were eating lunch next to each other Donovan was cracking Ian up. He would lean over to him and say "Wokka, Wokka" and Ian and him would giggle giggle giggle. Then they played hide and seek at the table and made each other laugh. It is so fun that they are getting older.

Dono and Ian at their lunch date.


Then after a short 1 hour nap (thanks for that Dono) we played until daddy got home, at which time Dono and daddy went across the street to play with Dono's "buddies". Tyler and Trevor are Donovan's best buddies, and they all call each other that too, it is adorable. It is wonderful because we love Tyler and Trevor's parents and they have a great front yard with lots of fun toys so if it is nice outside, there is a good chance we are over there playing. After playing Auntie Jenna and her boyfriend "Why-nan" (Ryan) came over and played. Then Dono's buddies came over and we had a pizza and playing night before more cake and ice cream. Donovan loved being sung too again so his night was perfect!

Dono and his buddies. Trevor (3.5 yo) on left and Tyler (20 months old) on right.



We go to the doctor on Tues for Donovan's well visit so I will put all his 2 year old stats and what he is up to on a post with all his health info once I know it all.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

2nd Birthday party

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Last week Donovan and mommy (me) came down with a cold (which I am still fighting) and this past weekend we celebrated Donovan's second birthday with a party with some of our family and friends. We tried to keep it small this year since I am very pregnant and we have lots of other stuff to do, but it just seemed as big as last years after all. My parents got to come in town for the celebration which was nice, and other than it being a little chilly that day, the weather cooperated nicely. Donovan was still napping as people arrived so he was a little surprised when he woke up that there were so many people here. After he saw his Bammies were there though he warmed right up and had a great time the rest of the day. Here are some of the photo highlights of the day.

Opening presents. He was very happy with all the presents he got and still is saying "Presents?". Sorry buddy, you opened them all. He needed help with the wrapping paper but the presents in bags he did well getting out. These are his new mickey mouse summer jammies he has already tried out. He loves them!

New Blues chair.

You can barely see it in this picture but he got about a dozen rubber duckies in hockey attire and tried to hold most of them during the opening of the presents. I guess he was making sure he didn't have to share them.

Taking a break from opening with his new pillow pet "Cardinals" as he calls it.

Reading a card with mommy.

Ian checking out the new set of wheels Dono got from his Q grandparents. He is gonna score so many chicks with that car.

The other new set of wheels he got from his B grandparents. This boy is styling.


Donovan recently got really into birthdays: watching his video's from his first, practicing blowing out birthday candles on a leap frog birthday cake, and singing "Happy birthday". He got to help his Auntie Jenna blow out her candles last month and loved every second of us singing to her. I knew he would be so happy when it came time to sing to him, and he did not disappoint. His face lit up and was the epitome of joy. We had to sing to him twice due to my sister not having the video tape recording the first time, but I think it was for the best because he soaked every second up. Both times he blew out the candle right away (two tries the first round, one the second) and pretended to hide for a second or two during the song. The pictures of it are first, and the video last.







I could watch this video a million times and not get sick of it. He is just too dang cute.

You have to click on the title of the video and watch it on the youtube window otherwise you can't see Donovan.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Big (boy) news

The update on Dono's new room can wait, we have big news to report... Donovan went potty on his big boy potty tonight for the first time!!!!! His naked butt has been on that potty before and after just about every bath for the last month or so but never has a drop of pee hit the potty (no, he prefers to wait until he is streaking around the house and can bend over to watch himself pee on the carpet) until tonight! We weren't even taking a bath but I stripped him naked, or "nakey, nakey" as he likes to call it, before I changed him into pj's and I thought, "why not give it another try before he pees on the carpet and I get reprimanded by my husband". So Donovan agreed to try, sat down and about 20 seconds later I heard the tune that the potty plays when pee hits the bowl. It startled both Donovan and I but I quickly realized what that meant as Donovan was leaping off the toilet to get away from the frightening sound. Lots of praise and several high fives were sent Donovan's way as we both marveled at the 1/8 of a teaspoon of urine that had collected in the potty. You gotta start somewhere right? Poor daddy missed the event so I tried to get Donovan to repeat his performance but he had no interest. So we dumped the pee in the big potty and Donovan had the pleasure of flushing down the pee pee as we all waved and said "bye bye pee pee". It was quite the big event.

Pictures of the big boy after the big event. The funny face is because he is trying to smile and say cheese and watch the cardinals game on the tv behind me all at the same time.

Now lets be honest, I have no expectations that this means potty training is close, or even on our horizon but it was fun non-the-less. I have known he had this in him for about 6 months now because he loves to a) be naked and then b) bend over, look at his weenie, and then pee but I just could never convince him that doing this on the toilet would be better for his daddy's blood pressure then him doing it on the carpet. Me, I just giggle and clean it up, Tom, he yells at me for letting him run naked through the house. So ultimately a potty trained boy would be great for our marriage. But Donovan really shows no other signs of wanting to be potty trained. He still hides when he poops and never wakes up with a dry diaper. So for now, the potty will just be an extracurricular activity should he feel the urge to use it. We will encourage him anytime he does use it though, but we feel no need to rush the potty training issue. Especially with a baby on the way.

In other big boy news, Donovan is really asserting his independence. And he is doing this in a manner that is very upsetting to his mother. Since putting him to bed (and the bedtime routine) has gotten too hard on my back, I was left to enjoy the wind-down time before bed time with Donovan instead. This consisted of us snuggling on the couch, watching videos on the computer together as Dono drank his milk. I loved our snuggle time but ever since about the first of April he has decided that he is too big for this and needs his own space. So he now climbs up in our leather recliner and snuggles with his "guys" and will watch the video's from the comfort of his own chair. Just today, I got him up from his nap and he was still a tad sleepy, I brought him to the couch and sat down with him and said "Let's snuggle". No sooner had those words passed my lips he was jumping off my lap saying "down", grabbing his guys and climbing into his chair. No one consulted my feelings about this. I'm not ready to stop snuggling cold-turkey. I guess it is for the best since breast feeding probably isn't the easiest when a 2 year old is trying to jockey for the best snuggle position but I just wish my feelings had been considered.

Dono and his chair.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Video

Yesterday Dono and I were hanging out yesterday morning (in our jammies) and I decided to video tape him. Then he of course wants to watch it as you are making the video so we ended up making a video of both of us so he could watch it as we were making it. Anyways, it is nothing special, it is just us hanging out but it makes me smile. Especially the very last part when he sings "Happy birthday". He is getting so big :)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Oh well

I know I said I was going to do a post on Donovan's new big boy room today but it is late and I am too tired so I lied. Sorry.

On a separate note, Donovan's behavior towards sleeping is completely bipolar depending on the week, day, hour, minute, and way the wind is blowing. No sooner had I written that last post about how well he was doing, he was back to major stall and throw a fit before every nap and night time. Grrrr. Just when I think we are getting somewhere. Then tonight I am prepared to call him out on the blog for his naughty behavior before bed and he goes to bed like a champ, doesn't make a peep after he lays down, and seemingly goes straight to sleep. I give up. Some days he's an angel, some days the he's not. I guess that comes with the territory. Oh to be a toddler.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Our cutie


Donovan wanted me to take a picture of him on his new big boy hockey bed this morning. (He doesn't sleep in it yet, it is just set up already.) More on his new room tomorrow but for now just wanted to share the picture of our sweet little man.