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.

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.

Hairs cuts number 2

This past monday while my parents were in town I took Donovan to get his second haircut. We went to a very kid friendly place but it didn't matter in the end. As good as he was for his first cut was as bad as he was for his second. We put him in a car to sit for the haircut and the meltdown began. Then we switched to him on my lap. The lady who cut his hair was very nice and accomodating but it is never a good sign when you are starting the haircut and the lady that deals with kids everyday says "If we get the haircut done, we wash all kids hair afterwards for free." IF? If you get the hair cut done? Not a good start. We eventually did get through the trauma of the haircut and Donovan looks so handsome and grown-up to me. We did pull out all the stops including: Elmo video, puffs to eat, bus toy, bubbles, looking at "Dono" pictures (pictures my dad had just taken on Donovan on the display of his camera), and finally a sucker. I don't know when we will have to cut his hair again but hopefully next time he will have some pitty on us and give us a little break.

Starting out, shaggy and mad. He refused to wear a smock of course.

"Oooooooooo, bubbles."
"Why won't she leave me alone?"

I was shocked how much hair he had to cut off. It was covering us both by the end of the experience.

Satisfied, for the time being, with a sucker.

Looking pretty sharp.

"Why aren't we done yet?"

Done with the haircut and exhausted. Notice my hair is crazy. I had several sticky areas in my hair where the sucker had been held against me in the fit. Lovely.

What could evoke such a response?

First the pictures. Then the answer.





Answer: Mommy was taking too long to heat up more buffalo chicken dip. Yeah that's right, I said BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP! Turns out if you give your child something that you are sure they will not like just because they are begging for it, you should be prepared just in case they decide it is the best thing they have ever tasted. I gave him a tiny amount on a chip at first because I thought he would hate it but he ate the dip, left the chip and started furiously signing "more". So I gave him more on another chip and it was devoured in less than a minute. Then I took one of the empty chips he already had and put more dip on it. From then on he would eat the dip, and then hand me his empty chip for a refill. At one point the chip he was handing back for more was the size of a dime. Who knew an 18 month old would like something so spicy? If it weren't for his blond hair and blue eyes, I would swear he was part Mexican.

18 month update

Donovan's 18 month birthday came and went as of last friday but we were so busy we didn't get to update about it so I will now. We had Donovan's 18 month doctor's appointment that day and his stats are as follows:

Weight: 27lbs 5 oz- 70%
Height: 32 and 1/4 inches- 50%
Head circumference: 19 and 3/4 inches- 97%

So he has kinda slowed way down on the height but I always take their measurements with a grain of salt as he is a wiggle worm and it's not easy to measure a worm. Overall he did so much better this check up! Lots of protesting with the measuring but no out and out fits. When Dr Rezabeck came in he picked Donovan right up, laid him on his back and had me hold his arms above his head. Donovan was in a little baby trance and just laid there like a perfect little gentleman. He said Donovan was doing very well and really had no concerns for us. Dono did get half of his flu shot, screamed bloody murder for 7 seconds then was over it. He is so tough.

In other Dono news we are trying to get him off his morning sippy cup. Or maybe he is trying to get us off that, it is really hard to say. In recent weeks Donovan has continued to get up for his 6ish am sippy but stopped taking it from me. So it has become a daddy only activity. Then in the past week he has skipped it several times by getting up and getting a new diaper but then falling asleep before drinking his milk. That happened twice and he woke up at 8:20 both days, awesome! Then yesterday he would not take the milk for his daddy even and was pretty crabby but then finally fell asleep until 8:45 and then took it then. On these mornings he drinks his milk really slow too, not like he is dying of thirst. So yesterday we decided we should be all the way done with the morning sippy. So far so good! We are just going to let him cry it out if he gets up early and today I didn't hear him until 8:45! Yippie! I have always said any major changes we do that I am worried about Donovan has let me know when he is ready and really just does it himself and here again it looks like what he is doing. Such a big boy we have on our hands. Hopefully he keeps up the good work because it would be lovely to only have one child to be waking up to feed soon.

We also got Donovan a very adorable, big boy looking haircut on Monday. Pictures and horror story to follow soon but suffice to say he is the best looking child on the planet now but now he looks like a little boy as opposed to a baby. I joke that he looks so much older that he should be acting so much older and honestly I feel like he agreed and is doing just that! Here are some examples from the past few days.

~Donovan ate his breakfast on Tues at the table sitting on a regular chair like a big boy. He climbed right up there and sat there so I brought him breakfast on a plate and he ate it perfect!




~Donovan walked up the stairs all by himself tues, not crawling or using my hand one time. He used the wall and just walked up no problem!
~Donovan is a very poor hand holder. He does not do it unless he needs you to help him but for safety's sake, forget about it. Tues though he was walking down the sidewalk and raised his hand so I could hold it. After I picked myself off of the floor from shock, I held his hand and we walked down the sidewalk, across the street and up the sidewalk a little all the while holding hands. It was all I could do not to cry. Then we had to go back and he didn't want to so I picked him up but then put him back down once we got across the street. He started walking back by himself but then I said "Can you hold my hand?" and what do I see but his adorable chubby hand go up in the air for me to grab. Freaking adorable.
~Donovan is also starting to say "Love you!". It sounds more like "luh-looo" but I know what it means and it is so cute.

One last funny story is that Tom's mom gave Donovan a card for his half-birthday and she signed it "Love, ? and Paw Paw". I was very confused what that meant and then she said Donovan will never call her anything or even respond to different names for her. Sure enough we tested it and he would never look at her when we asked where Grammie or Grandma was. Then with my parents we tested it again. I asked Donovan where Paw Paw was and he looked and pointed right at my dad. When I asked about Grammie B and then Grandma B he just ignored us and continued to play. So apparently someone has a mental block about who those ladies are that he loves playing with and in Tom's mom's case watches him 2-3 times a week. So now I just tell Donovan "Go to that strange lady" or "Gives kisses to that lady" just for fun. He sure loves his grammies, he just isn't committing to what he wants to call them just yet.

Out takes from the month photo shoot.


What is funny is since the shoot where we were acting like fools to get him to lay down he has gone over to that specific quilt and laid down on it like he was getting his picture taken again. So silly!

Punkin patch

This blog is over a week too late but better late then never right? On October 16th we made out annual trip to Stuckmeyer's pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day and we went with our friends Tom, Maria and one of Donovan's girlfriends, Claire. Donovan thought the pumpkin patch was... just ok. We started the day looking at the animals and while we did a rooster crowed, twice and I think it was down hill from there. Dono was pretty clingy and fussy but warmed up once we got to the playground area. He loved the hay ride too but was not a fan of the wait for it to start. Right before we left we played in the pumpkin patch and he really loved running from pumpkin to pumpkin. So next year I think we shall start there. Here are some of the pictures from the day

"Umm, is this supposed to be fun guys?"

Extreme close up.

Running through the corn maze with Claire.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Dono is really into slides so he chose this one to go down first. I think the angle was a good 60 degrees so it was a good slope and Donovan shot down it and flipped over, hitting his head at the end, which is the only thing Tom captured with this picture. He wasn't seriously hurt but the look on his face after he realized what happened, as he was rubbing his head was priceless. He was like "What the hockey sticks just happened to me? One second I was going to go down the slide, the next I am on the ground and my head hurts." It was hilarious.
Checking out the pumpkins with Claire. Well, Claire is checking out the pumpkins, Donovan is pointing at the tractor!

Our little handsome man!

Ring pop

I have a couple cute photos of my man to post tonight but first I want to apologize for the lack of posts. You see, the nausea, progressively gets worse over the day so by the time night rolls around I am not feeling up to doing much more than laying on the couch or going to bed early. And usually when I blog, I do it after Donovan goes to bed. So therefore I have not blogged as much as I would like to. The nausea is getting better these past few days. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come. I did have a doctor's appointment today, which was pretty boring. I got the results of my routine prenatal blood work and it was good but that was about it. Donovan made me laugh though because I gave him his breakfast bar that he eats every morning for breakfast while I was in my appointment because I thought that would keep him quiet. Well it did and worked like a champ but the Midwife that I see must have some weird effect on him. Last visit with her he fell asleep in my lap listening to her. This time he ate his breakfast bar hunched over in my lap, head down like he was protecting it from her. He was scrunched in half, acting like such a weirdo. It made me laugh. I kept trying to straighten him out but he wouldn't have any of it. Then after a few minutes of talking, the midwife asked me if I wanted a kleenex for him for cleanup. So I thought, "Oh no he made a mess". But no, she was just worried because he had apparently shoved about 5 bites worth of breakfast bar in his mouth at once and he was chewing and could not even close his lips. I promised her that he loves those bars so much that he wouldn't spit it out and would find a way to eat it all and he didn't disappoint. What a silly silly.

Another funny thing he did that made me laugh today was at lunch he would take his turkey and put it in his mouth so most of it was hanging out and then he would close his eyes and shake his head back and forth like a great white shark. Of course when I got the video out he stopped immediately and insisted I show him "Dono".

Ok so on to the cute pictures. Grammie Q had given Donovan a ring pop a little while ago and he liked it so on Tues when we went to the grocery store and he was being a pill I decided to get him one so that I could do some banking in peace after I checked out. After I gave it to him I didn't hear a peep so it is our go to for when we need a quiet child, but definitely not a clean child. Here are some pictures of him in the car after we got home. He let me unload the car, let the dog out, put the cold groceries away all while still hanging in the car seat, eating the ring pop. I love how blue his eyes look in the pictures. And about all 4 of the pictures, I can never decide which one I like the best, so that's why I just post them all.

"Q" the baby

"Q" baby number two.

We are very excited to announce that we are expecting Donovan's new little brother or sister sometime around May 11th 2011.

I have been pretty nauseated and I get sick sometimes but overall this baby is being a lot nicer to me than Donovan was at his age. Must be a girl. And no we are not going to find out the sex. Please keep us in your prayers for a very boring rest of the pregnancy and a healthy delivery.

My little "Arteeest"

Recently I thought it would be fun to try out some different kinds of art with Donovan. We started with baby steps.... and crayons. Turns out Donovan likes eating them much more than he likes coloring with them. It is like a compulsion for him, he can't not take a bite out of the end of a crayon no matter how hard he tries. So we moved on to markers. The first night I let him try them was right after he had soaked his onsie from my water cup so I stripped him down and let him scribble. Here is the end product.

Nothing to see here...

Oh wait, there it is! I see art! On a belly?

All this drawing makes a boy hungry for a snack!


As you can see there is no paper in this picture, only a colored pot belly of one Mr. Donovan Q. Turns out your own fingers and belly are way more fun to color on than some stupid ol' paper. Don't worry the markers were non-toxic and washable. So after we completed a few pieces of art we put away the crayons and markers. To be tried again with a more interested, older Donovan.

Playground time

Lately we have been taking lots of trips to the playground since the weather has been so great. Donovan definitely loves one playground more then the rest. It has a sport court floor instead of mulch or rocks and the openings on the flooring of the actual playground is small so he doesn't get all confused with his depth perception. But more importantly it has four slides, or "SIDES" if you ask Dono. I finally took the camera tonight and got a few pictures of the little man having a great time. Most of them were too blurry to share since he doesn't stay still for a second but some came out ok.

Running around the perimeter.

Climbing up the stairs.

Favorite part... the "SIDE"!!!!!!