2009 Was a Great Year

It's hard to believe that 2009 has come and gone and Davey is 18 months old! Time really does fly when you're having fun... If that is the right word for it. :) Thank you to all of the people who made this year so much better for the 3 of us. We've definitely had our ups and downs (as most do), but our friends and family have made it an enjoyable ride!

Davey is getting bigger and smarter every day... learning all kinds of new tricks to impress us. His words are becoming much more clear and he's repeating almost everything that we say to him. I guess I need to start watching my potty mouth before he embarrasses me by repeating something naughty! He's still running and jumping and climbing and driving mommy up the wall with his constant energy. I am still grateful for a happy and healthy baby, even if he is "spirited"!

I will start my new job at Crossroads Chiropractic on January 4th and I am excited, but a little nervous too. I was very disappointed to have to leave Linda at Precious Memories, but I was going crazy trying to support my family without full-time pay or benefits. Davey loves Ms.Geneva, his care-giver while I'm at work, and he has adjusted well to seeing her everyday. It also makes my time with him more special. (And easier for both of us too!)

Mark has just a few more months of law school and he will start prepping for the Bar Exam this summer. We will not receive his results back from the Bar until about October or November of next year. I can't wait to have it all behind us! He's ready to enjoy being home for a while too, although with his friend/neighbor Josh moving away, I don't know what he'll do with himself. He got a golf membership to Cannongate for Christmas... I guess he'll have to find another golf buddy to hit the links with around here. :)

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2010 is fantastic for all of us!

August 2009

So many teeth!!! He's had 8 teeth for about 5-6 months and is now getting 9!! teeth all at once.... Can you imagine?! With all these teeth coming in, the nursing has gotten a little difficult lately and we've had a couple of "incidents", so I've decided to wean. It's a lot easier this time than the last time, even though he has asked for it a couple of times. We doing really well with it... just in time for my trip to Santa Barbara! :)

Davey's newest thing is accessorizing. He loves to wear my flip flops or daddy's shoes around the house, although I think he prefers mine. (only because they fit him better) The other day he was walking around the house with my black flip flops on, a blue ribbon around his neck, carrying a blue and green basket. I WISH I had taken a picture of that! It was so funny! We bought him his own pair of flip flops the other day, but he still seems to find mine the most comfortable.

The doctor told us that his development is at a 20-month old's level, which is probably why we are going through the signs of the "terrible twos"... temper tantrums, biting, hitting, and pitching fits. Luckily, he's a pretty happy baby when he has 100% of your attention and loves to be in the middle of things. Such a ham, this one! He must get that from his daddy!!

Davey the Toddler

So, my big man is officially ONE! I truly marvel at how much he has grown and changed over the past year... it's just AMAZING! He has gone from a tiny, helpless creature to an smart, independent child in just a few months. Davey, here are some of my favorite memories this year (in chronological order):
- Learning to nurse and having milk everywhere while we try to get ready for your first doctor's appointment
- You pooping and peeing on daddy during your first portraits at Mrs. Linda's
- Our trip to St.Louis with GiGi (Grammy) and how worried I was to give you formula for the first time (You were a champ about it, by the way.)
- Learning the ins and outs of cloth diapering
- Your baptism with Father Jim, who is a Georgia fan
- Our trip to Disney where you marveled at the lights and fountains
- Your first time in the pool with PawPaw Buddy, looking for hot chicks
- Teaching you to crawl and luring you across the room with the camera case
- Your first experience with bubbles while we did bath portraits at Mrs. Linda's... you were not too impressed and we couldn't get you to grab at them
- Your sweet hugs and kisses
- Trying to lure you into taking your first steps using the remote control as bait
- The first steps that I witnessed at Nanny and PawPaw's house, even though you walked for daddy earlier in the day
- Buying your first pair of shoes at Ansley's Attic and laughing as you squeaked around the floor... man, you thought those squeaky shoes were the coolest thing!

Those are the things that stick out to me the most. I wish I had time to write a blog post about each and every one!




The birthday party was fantastic. We had a sailboat/beach theme at the pool and all of the kids had a super time. I was so busy that I didn't even get any pictures, but luckily someone snagged my camera and took some shots for me after all of the fun in the pool. (IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS POOL PICS, PLEASE EMAIL THEM TO ME!!) We had a great bar-b-que lunch and then Davey helped open cards and presents. He was SO exhausted as you can tell in the pictures! Davey got lots of cool toys, some shoes and clothes, a potty, and plenty of money to pay for his slide and new zoo-themed bedroom decor (very inexpensive at ikea-yay!). We also received a couple of gift cards from his favorite aunts and uncles so that we can shop for new toys and books as we see fit. Thanks!

Poor baby was so tired after all of that excitement. As soon as he was buckled into his carseat, he was out like a light! Mommy and daddy wished that they could take a nap too, but alas, there was too much cleaning and unpacking to be done.

Walking Tall

So sorry for the delay in posting... so much has changed! On April 11, 2009 (a day after Davey turned 10 months old), he took his very first steps all by himself. Yay! Mark was home that Saturday morning while I was at work when it happened. Of course, as soon as I walked in the boys were showing off their new trick. That's been almost 2 months ago and he has really taken off now... it's more of a sprint than a walk now.
We bought him a pair of squeaky shoes at Ansley's Attic Children's Boutique that he absolutely LOVES. He'll walk around in circles just to hear himself squeak. It's the cutest thing!

April 2009

This first pic is of Ben and Davey in a tickle fight! Ben is my friend AJ's son. They are visiting a neighbor of ours from an army base in Germany. Her husband David is stationed in Iraq and headed back this week. Keep this family in your prayers!


These next two are images of Davey at swim lessons. He's my little water baby! He had such a good time getting comfortable in the water and learning to chase noodles. We can't wait to enjoy the pools this summer!

So much has happened in a month! The last pic is one of my favorites and here's the story... If you know Grammy (GiGi), you know that her puppies are like her children. They know that she will always be there to love on them, pamper them, and of course, feed them from the table! Davey caught on quickly! This pic is of Davey and the four dogs begging for food in GiGi's kitchen.

New sounds

Davey is really experimenting with sounds. He still mostly say da-da-da, but he has learned to change the shape of his mouth to make new sounds too. Still no sign of anything that sounds like mama, oh well. The pictures here are of Davey saying "ooooooo" (as in moo, maybe?).
Another really cute thing that he's been doing lately is dancing in his high chair during dinner, unaccompanied by music, I might add. He will growl or grunt at Mark, take a bite of dinner, and then bop along in his chair as he chews. He really marches to the beat of a different drum. :-)

Davey is a smartey!

Davey has been watching the Your Baby Can Read DVDs for almost 2 months and it is really helping him with his developmental milestones! He can clap and wave with the video and has even been doing it on command for a couple of weeks. He also seems to know "toes" and "yes" and "no", but of course he will only do these when he thinks we are not looking.

I will post some other videos and pictures that we took yesterday as well... it was a snow day here so we had a lot of fun indoors! Don't you just LOVE the monkey hat? :-)

My BIG boy...

A few months ago, I got Davey the cutest whale thing to chart his growth throughout the years. I knew that I wanted to keep up with it for at least several years and perhaps even multiple kids, so I didn't want to apply it directly to my wall. I like our house, but I am pretty sure we will be moving within the next few years, especially if we have another baby. So, I went to Lowe's and bought a piece of acrylic today and put it all together. Davey helped as you can see. I just LOVE it! I wrote down the last couple of measurements from the doctor's office. It's amazing how much he's grown since birth! Before long we'll be planning his birthday party. I just can't believe it!

Sweet baby Davey

Davey is doing so well! We started a play group last week and he just loves playing with all of the babies. He'll finally have some little boys to play with too! He's almost done with the first month of Your Baby Can Read and he's already finished reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Well, not exactly. But, he has started to clap and wave at the appropriate times when he is watching the video so, I have seen some progress.

I joined Facebook yesterday... finally! So, look me up if you're on there too. It's neat to see what everyone's up to. My friends say that it is addictive, but I am determined that it will not become an addiction for me- I just don't have the time!

Fast as fast can be...

Davey has really taken off! He's crawling so much faster and has started to pull up on everything and even stand by himself for a few seconds. This video shows him crawling, standing and laughing at mama. Daddy still gets the best laughs, but I can usually illicit a chuckle or two.

He has at least 5 more teeth that I can see coming in right now, so he's really not been himself the past week or so and his sleeping patterns have gotten very sporadic. Last night he was up at 12pm, 2am, 3am, 5am, and 7am. He only stays up for a minute but it really takes a toll on me the next morning! Those sweet baby smiles and giggles the next day totally make up for it. :-)

He's having his 9 month portraits done at the end of February, a couple of weeks early, because he will have nearly outgrown the cute outfits that I got for him. Plus, we're doing pictures with the live bunnies for Easter at Precious Memories too. I will have to get a picture from Linda to post on my blog. They are SOOOO cute!

Box baby

Since my last post, I've decided that I really need to update my blog more often so that I don't get overwhelmed by trying to catch up on 1 or 2 months at a time. So, I'm going to try to do a short post each week with pictures. I feel like I'll forget all of the little details otherwise.

So, this week Davey has discovered boxes. We invested in a learning program called "Your Baby Can Read" which came in a Davey-sized white box that he just loved! he likes the sound that the flaps make when he beats on them!

As I was doing laundry today I decided to put him in the laundry basket to see if he liked it and he did. There were no flaps to beat on, but he loved putting his mouth on the sides. He sat in the laundry basket for 20 minutes while he watched his DVD and looked in the mirror. What a cutey!

Crawling

Yes, we have a crawling baby! Well, he is starting to at least... I took this video today and just HAD to post it so that the world can see how advanced my child is! (That's a joke, btw. I'm not one of THOSE parents.) Davey has grown so much. He has the cutest little laugh and daddy is best at getting it out of him. I'll have to upload a video of it sometime so that you can hear him... it's TOO cute! I can hardly believe the little man that he is turning into before my eyes. I see him change every single day

Major Updating

31 weeks

30 weeks

29 weeks

28 weeks, Merry Christmas!

27 weeks kissing Claire

Disney

26 weeks, yes those are pants on his head

25 weeks, Thanksgiving

24 weeks

23 weeks

22 weeks

21 weeks

Well, I guess I'm not getting blogger-of-the-year awards for 2008... Can you believe it's been over 2 months since my last post? He's already over 7 months old! Those of you who know me well can certainly believe it. I'm going to try much harder to keep things current this year! So, these are the pics of Davey for all of the weeks I've missed. At least I remembered to take his picture, right? :-D

New pics

Hey, hey! He's a monkey!


Halloween w/ Claire

Week 20- 2 teeth!!

Week 19 w/ Camper-bear

4 months... What a BIG boy!

18 weeks
17 weeks
16 weeks
15 weeks
14 weeks

I just can't believe how much he has changed and how quickly! He's a chunky little booger, isn't he? So... things are going well with Davey- he's reaching new milestones every week. He's just recently found his little monkey toes, but has not put them in his mouth yet. He has rolled over both front to back and back to front, but has not rolled off the bed or couch yet. Thank goodness! He likes to sit up, but has a bad case of what his nanny, Jenn, calls the round bottoms where he kinda tumbles over without support.

As for breastfeeding: he is still doing pretty well. In the past few weeks I've had clogged milk ducts several times, which are very painful. And for the past week or so he has seemed a little disinterested in nursing during the day. I guess there's too much other stuff to do and look at! He is still solely on breast milk, but the fewer feedings during the day don't seem to be bothering him at all. He's certainly not loosing any weight as you can see in his pics!

As for cloth diapering: we're still doing pretty well. He wears cloth diapers most of the time when I'm home with him between Thursday - Monday. We still use disposable at night and when we're out and about. I think we save ourselves 10-15 diapers a week at this point.

Enjoy the pics! More to come very soon!

Rollin' right along...

13 weeks

GO DAWGS!
12 weeks
11 weeks

So, today is Davey's 3 month milestone. It feels like he's been part of our life forever. And I can't believe how big he's getting! Carolyn and I have an ongoing joke about how "advanced" our little ones are. Although he's not as dexterous as Claire (Carolyn's 15 week old), he's rolling over (video soon to come) and showing a lot of strength in his neck and kicking his legs. He loves to walk up and down mommy's tummy!

Davey is my little morning lark and is happiest around 6 a.m. He laughs and talks and giggles at us in bed as we struggle to wake up. I'm a morning person anyway, so I'm okay to be up with him. Daddy's a little tougher to rouse that early, but I've never seen him more thrilled to be awake than when his baby boy is laughing at him.

I finally feel like we're getting into the grove of things. We are not on a "schedule" per se because our lifestyle doesn't require that, but we are definitely communicating with each other and the baby more effectively. I can't wait to hear him say "I love you." I think those will be his first words because he hears them SO much! Mommy-hood definitely suits me and I'm eager to have another baby as soon as possible. For now, I am thoroughly enjoying the one that I have.

Whatta Cutie!

Sitting in BUMPO









10 weeks









Sleepy-Heads












9 weeks

Well, Baby Davey is doing pretty good... He's been up at 2-3 a.m. the past couple of mornings and doesn't want to go back to sleep though. It's frustrating! But, when I see those beautiful smiles I can't help but love him anyway. Man, am I tired though!