Two teeth on the bottom!

1/7/12

Donovan is seven months old!  He’s soo close to crawling.  He used to sit for long periods of time playing, delighted that he could sit up on his own.  But now he must feel he’s mastered that and it’s time to move on, because he lands in tummy time almost immediately when I set him down these days.  He’ll reach for a toy that’s just too far, and be almost on hands and knees.  He’s not quite there though.  He’s also very happy to stand if you help balance him by holding his hands or waist.  He just wants to move!

He’s been eating solid foods for a month now.  By that I mean he sits in his high chair at regular intervals grinning at me with his mouth closed.  I feel like I’m trying to sneak in bites when he tries to talk.  It’s like playing mini-golf and trying to get the ball past a door that only opens for a second.  The first day he opened his mouth wide for the spoon, but since then he’s just not that interested in baby food.  The one exception was baby bananas.  When I gave him that he actually finished an entire jar!  I’m not sure they sat well with him though so we’re taking a break from that.  Ironically, he’ll open his mouth if Serenity is holding the spoon.  So she’s fed him a time or two.  He loves puffs and is getting pretty good at picking them up.  We might just need to try him with tiny chunks of actual food, maybe it’s just the baby food he’s not a fan of.  Not even applesauce!

He’s talking up a storm these days, lots of Mamamama (which he said for the first time over Christmas), Dadada and Bababa!.  And Hi =)  Eric thought he might be trying to use Mama the right way, but I don’t think you can really tell for sure yet.

His favorite toys are still his crayons.  They are just right for gnawing on.  He is drooling like crazy so probably teething, although he is still pretty calm about it. He wakes up pretty early wanting to snuggle Mama, but he calms easily once I get him.

Mmmm Dr. Pepper

Can almost stand holding onto the couch... but when I let go it's a spectacular wipeout =)

December 31^st: New Years Eve

Countdown gymnastics style

We tried something new this year!  We turned our Christmas tree into a New Years Tree!  I hope this helps me get motivated to clean things up a little bit sooner, as I’ve been known to leave the tree up until February sometimes.  With kids around, I want the space back a little sooner.

Our New Years Tree

Daddy and Serenity are still camping out

Giggling children, my happiest sound =)

It was a lot of fun!  Serenity helped me pull all the old ornaments off the tree, except for the blue balls.  Then we added some blue lights and a ton of streamers we inherited from Don.  One rainbow ball at the top and the tree was done!  It was so much fun Daddy added a wall of streamers for us to run through.  Later in the evening we made party hats, and we celebrated the New Years Countdown Rio De Janeiro style.  Serenity loved watching the minutes and then the seconds count down to zero!  She wanted a round number =)

We also did some shopping with the Christmas gift card Papa got Serenity to Toys R Us.  We went through the whole store letting her pick whatever she wanted, and then we lined it all up to choose things that added up to the amount on the gift card.  We loved what she chose!  Chutes and Ladders (princess style.  She originally had super heroes but then Daddy offered the princess one and she went with that)  The Richard Scarry airplane game, which we put away for a couple of weeks so we have something new when the weather turns bad.  A book, a Dora puzzle, and a pool/slide for her Strawberry Shortcake girls.  Oh, and a craft kit.  Great fun!!!  Thanks Papa!

We also had lunch at Olive Garden.  Both kids were awesome, although I think Donovan made the most noise I’ve ever heard out of him, they were all happy noises.  The restaurant was noisy and I think it made him excited. =)  Serenity loved choosing her food from the menu, and she ate with a fork and everything.  Yay!

12/30: Mostly Errands =)

Well, the fun part of daily December is that after Christmas is over, we get to see a pretty typical day =)  We fixed eggs for breakfast, Donovan took his morning nap, and then we left to run errands.  I’d planned to go to the library and the grocery store, but after the library I realized that I hadn’t ordered my new glasses and I had to get that done before January to get this year’s discount!  So I dragged my poor children shopping for frames.  They were really good.  Serenity handed me every pair of purple glasses in the place to try on =)  I was tired after we managed that activity, so I was going to skip the grocery store.  I asked Serenity, “do you want to go to Wendy’s or to the grocery store?”  I figured she wouldn’t want to go to the grocery store, but no, she remembered that we were out of peach juice so I had to do it. =)  Then we drove by Daddy’s work for a visit and a snack.  Then it was home for a long nap for Donovan and some snuggly library book reading for the girls.  I actually cooked dinner with Serenity’s help, and then we just hung out waiting for Daddy to come home!  Then it was bedtime.  Donovan wasn’t sleepy but Serenity really was, so we all read books on the couch.  Daddy read a book for Serenity, one for Tyrone, one for Tasha, and one for Dora.  I read several as well =)  I ended up sleeping with Donovan, he’s having a little trouble sleeping on his own.  Maybe teeth.  All it takes is holding him, so I still consider us pretty lucky on the soothing scale. =)

Serenity fed Donovan his dinner!  He actually opens his mouth for her, wonder if she’d do it every night =)