Outside play time

These pictures are from Easter, so you might recognize the outfits on the kiddos.


Look at how teener she looks!




This is her latest love. She does not want to get off the tricycle. She just wants us to push her around and around and around. So we do. Then we get her off, and she throws a fit a tries to climb back on. Loves it.

What a man! He does it all.

This is her other new love for outside. Being pulled around in the wagon. It was nice for taking a walk with both kids in it the other night too. Except it needs seat belts for Reese because she is so little and lights and gets tossed all around over the sidewalk bumps. But since there aren't any seat belts, one parent pulls the wagon, and the other walks behind the wagon, waiting to catch any wagon riders that are in danger of being tossed out.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter yesterday. We spent the morning exploring Easter basket goodies and hunting for eggs that the Easter bunny hid down stairs. Even Reese got in on the action! We let her go first, and shockingly Donovan did not throw a fit and just stood looking around at all the eggs while she wandered around and Tom helped her find her first egg. After that we let Donovan go and much to our surprise, Reese picked up where her daddy left off. She ended up finding 6 eggs! She was adorable. She would get one in each hand and shake them, then hold them straight up in the air and walk around shouting victoriously. So cute! Then we got ready and headed over to Tom's parents where there was more baskets and eggs in the front yard. Reese didn't do as well there because, well, there is grass in the front yard and she isn't so used to walking on that stuff yet. My sister and parents joined us after that. Then we played at the local playground and Donovan peddled his tricycle all the way there and back. Next was Donovan melt down, followed by a late lunch, dessert, and heading home. Donovan figured a big day like that deserved no nap so after we were home we played out side until it was time to go to bed. Which was earlier then normal due to no nap...and Donovan was asleep by 7:15! All in a wonderful, and beautiful day spent with people we love the most!

"You want me to WALK in that green stuff? I don't think so."

This is how Reese looks the majority of the time if my mom or Tom's mom are around. All of the time she is on the ground she spends walking to one of the grandma's and blocking them from moving anywhere until they pick her up. If this doesn't work (it always does with the grandma's) she will resort to throwing herself on the floor and writhing around while screaming. She is rarely on the floor around her grandparents.Oh look, she's walking. There must not have been a grandma nearby.

TOOTH!

No she doesn't have a new one, but her lonely tooth is finally sticking out enough we get to see it fairly regularly and just now got it on film.

Donovan tonight

Tonight as Donovan was peddling his bike in our driveway (he does that now! for the last couple weeks) he said to me, "This is a movie, about going in circles."

Then when we were taking a walk tonight, he was in a wagon with Reese and they both had a few toys they were playing with and he throwing down on the floor of the wagon occasionally and he says to me, "Mommy, this is a movie about throwing things."

Where does he come up with this stuff?

First trip to the dentist!

Well we put it off long enough considering Donovan turns 3 in 2 weeks and they recommend you go by their 1st birthday, but we finally did it! The juice stains on his front two teeth finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get him there. Today I had the day off work so I had Tom take Reese to Grammie Q's like normal and I took Donovan to his dentist appointment. I was VERY nervous about how he would do. A couple weeks ago when I started talking up the idea to him I asked him, "Do you want to go to the dentist?" to which he responded in a weak, pathetic sounding voice, "No, I'll just brush my teeth more." Unfortunately for him, I was not taking no for an answer. After doing research on dentists offices, then our insurance, we found this husband and wife team of dentists only 15 minutes away. I read that little kids do better in the morning so I luckily got him into a 8am spot less than a week after I had called the office. For the past week I have been hyping up this day. How it is "so exciting" that he gets to go to the dentist and have his teeth looked at and and how they were going to take pictures of his teeth and make them all shiny and pretty. It also helped that I added that after the dentist he would get to go to Grammie Q's and then spend the night at Grandma's and Grandpa's house.

So this morning he woke up on his own at 7:15 (which is a good sleep in for him) and actually sounded a little excited to go to the dentist. We got there a little early so he could get used to the idea of being there before anyone did anything to him, just like I had read to do. I also let him bring his 2 blankets and pillow in (his guys) for comfort in case he needed them (never touched them once we got in and he handed them to me!). They had an aquarium in the office so we looked at the fish and got to see a shrimp, which was Donovan's favorite. They had "A bugs life" playing so we watched a few minutes of that and he that got him laughing. Then it was time to go back. Ms. Lauren was our hygienist, and when she called his name he went right up to her, didn't pause and wait for me or anything. She introduced herself to him and asked him if he had a tractor on his shirt (it was an excavator, geez Ms. Lauren, don't you know anything?) to which he replied, "No. I rode on a tractor when we went apple picking." Where does this kid come up with this stuff? His memory is insane. We did ride a tractor when we went apple picking... IN OCTOBER, but I don't think we have talked about it since. Crazy.

So we went on back and first we had to get x-rays of his teeth. They had him put on the heavy vest to protect his body and then he had to wait like that for several minutes while they found the piece of the machine they needed. I was nervous that he would get antsy but he held still just perfect (see below). Then they had him put the thingy in his mouth and they had him hold his head down for the first picture and up for the second. She put the camera on his face and he tolerated it just fine. Perfect gentleman.

Then she took us over to the teeth cleaning area where first she just sat him so she could show him all her cool tools and tell him what they would do with those tools. She asked his toothpaste flavor preference and in a shock to no one that knows him, he picked chocolate. The thing they use to polish your teeth looked like a penguin so she told him she was going to put chocolate on the penguins nose and then tickle his teeth, and she let him feel on his hand what the tickle was going to feel like. Then she laid him on back and started working on him. He did everything she asked and never once whined or cried. It also helped that they had T.V.'s hanging from the ceiling that were showing the bug movie still.









After Ms. Lauren was done, she gave Dono some cool sunglasses to wear for when Dr. Lindsey came over so she could use her "sun" light. Dr. Lindsey was very nice. She encouraged me to make sure we were brushing his teeth twice a day every day, not just when we can remember which is what we do now (mornings our our week point). Also we need to stop sippys, which we already had in motion for his 3 yr birthday (because at 3, you are big so you don't need sippys and you give them all to your baby sister). Also we are to cut back on his juice even more and try to only give it with meals if at all. He probably gets around 8 oz a day now, over 4 servings and it is the first thing he asks for when he gets up and the last before he goes to bed (before he brushes his teeth) so it is going to be hard but I think with cutting out the sippys soon, it will be a little easier.

All in all Donovan did AMAZING!!!! I was so proud of him and he got lots of compliments from the Dr. and from the other girls. In 6 months I take him back, but next time Reese gets to go to for a baby appointment so big brother gets to show her the ropes since he is a pro! That will be interesting.

Dono stories I need to remember

The other day on the way to daycare Donovan was telling me a story about his Grammie Q. He said:
D: "Mommy, Grammie Q went 'wheeeeeesh'(makes sweeping arm across chest, then out motion) with the roast beef."
Me: "She did what?"
D: "She went 'wheeeeesh' with the roast beef"
Me: "Oh yeah, Grammie Q throws the Frisbee. I see. You are right, she does throw it like that."

Side note that makes me laugh: he was mentioning that story because he is really into the Frisbee right now and Grammie Q told him she was good in college.

After that conversation I tried to teach him it was actually called a "Frizzz-bee" and not "roast beef".

So the next conversation we have about the Frisbee, he says, "I was throwing the fris-beef outside". So we are getting there.

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Coming home from work and school one day I decided to make the executive decision that we were getting fast food for dinner since dad had plans and we were bare bonesing it in the pantry at home. So we talked about what to get, and settled on him getting some "chicken nuggies" at the restaurant in the drive through. Now for those of you not around Donovan regularly, you should know that he tells you things, you have already told him, like you had never heard it before or it wasn't you who alerted him to the idea. (As in, "Donovan, look there is a train with two engines!" Donovan: "Mommy, look, a train with two engines!) So he says to me:
D: "We are going to go get some chicken at the drive thru at the astronaut"
Which he then repeats several times as I try to realize what he is really saying which of course leads me to realize astronaut=restaurant.

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On the potty training front, Donovan still has accidents fairly regularly (avg is one a day). He usually tells you when he has to pee, but it is usually either as he is going a little bit in his underwear, or right afterwards. So then we ask him why he peed in his pants and that conversation always goes like this:

Me: "Donovan, did you pee in your underwear?"
D: "Yes. (Very happily answering, nodding, as if he had done something good)
Me: "Why Donovan? Why didn't you tell me BEFORE you went in your underwear?"
D: "Because."
Me: "Because why?"
D: "Because."
Me: "Donovan why did you have an accident in your pants?"
D: (finally answering and getting to the bottom of it) "Bee-caaaaaaause...(5 second pause)....I DID!"

Also, the "bee-caaaaaause" is to be read very melodically with lots of different notes going high, low, high, low all in that one word.

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Sometimes when Donovan has an accident and I don't want to put new undies on him because he is going to bed, or getting a bath soon, I just tell him he can run around with out them. And Donovan refers to this time as wearing just his "penis." The other day he peed in his underwear at a friends house and I told him we only had one change of clothes (I lied) so he couldn't have any more accidents. So he asked me me what we were going to do if he had another accident by saying, "I have to wear just my penis?"

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Donovan was yelling at Petey for barking on Saturday morning and we hear this:
D: "Shush Petey. (long pause) You are annoying". Oops. Guess we need to stop telling Petey that because someone is listening.

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Last Monday Donovan had his first sick day from school. He was acting a little off in the morning as we were getting ready, but only after I had him strapped in his car seat and looked back at him did I realize that he was sick. Just in time to run out of the car and around to him and catch his throw up in my hands. Being a mom is glamorous. So I stayed home with him and we took 2 naps together in my bed and by the afternoon he was much better. But I would ask him, "Is your tummy still hurtin' Donovan, or are you feeling better?" and he would pretty much tell me what I thought he was going to say, depending on how he was acting. The next morning he was totally back to normal, acting fine. We get to school and the teachers ask him if he is feeling better to which he responds (to SEVERAL different teachers at different times), "No. I'm still huhr-tin". Oh great, now the teachers think I have pushed a sick kid back to school too early. Thanks Dono.

Then wed morning we went to school to make up for the day we missed, which Donovan was all fine with until he realized he wasn't going to get to hang with Grammie Q. At which point he started screaming, "I'm still huhr-tin', I'm still huhr-tin!"

Then last night he asked us if it was a school day tomorrow as he often does by saying, "We don't have to go to school tomorrow? It's not a school day?" When we said, "No, it is a school day tomorrow," he didn't miss a beat, started looking a little pathetic and said, "I'm still hurtin mommy. I need to stay to stay home from school. I'm sick." Hookey starts early.

Easter egg dyeing

Today we dyed our first ever Easter eggs. We had a lot of fun and Donovan was surprisingly gentle with the eggs. We ended up with 3 cracked ones and 2 of them were my fault. Tomorrow we will add some stickers to them to finalize the decorating.

Reese

Just some pictures I took following Reese around like paparazzi today. I just love her shoes and Capri's. I could not get enough.






This one is blurry but I still like it because it shows her pretty necklace. These past couple days, if I have been carrying her and we walk past my necklace tree in my room, she almost throws herself out of my arms, trying to get them. So I give her this one, put it around her neck and she is happy as can be.

Siblings

A few nights ago, Tom was getting Donovan ready for bed and I was getting Reese ready for bed. We all walked out of the kids rooms at the same time and realized that we had unknowingly, dressed the kids in matching clothes. So we had to document it. This was the best we got. You should have seen the other 10 pictures. Doozies.


Then yesterday morning when Reese needed to drink some milk, I asked Donovan if he wanted to hold Reese and feed her and much to my surprise, he agreed. In all fairness he has been much nicer and more patient with her these past few days so I guess I should not have been shocked. She holds her own bottle now so I figured he didn't really have to do much except stay still, which he did. It was cute. I love how she looks almost as big as him in this angle. When you see them standing side by side the difference is big but sitting like this, there is not as much.

On line shopping fun

I love a good deal and I also love online shopping for the kids. It is so easy. Yesterday we got a package from Old Navy with a bunch of stuff for the kids. Donovan was so pumped about the new stuff. He helped me pull them all out of their individual packages, and pull all the tags of. Then he insisted on trying on his new shirt. Then he insisted on trying on all 4 of his new shirts. At the SAME TIME. So he did. And he wore all 4 of his new shirts, outside in the hot air for a few minutes. Because that is what you do when you are almost three and excited about your new shirts.