4/27

Donovan is standing!  He can just stand up from anywhere, without even pulling up on things.  And he stands for long periods of time too.  Sometimes he’ll take a tiny little step, but then he almost immediately drops to his hands and knees to crawl like lightning.  It’s just faster that way, and who can blame him?  He sometimes walks just holding one hand, off to my side now, which is SO nice.  Sometimes he doesn’t like that, but he doesn’t really need the help for anything but speed.

He’s added more words to his vocabulary!  Donovan said touch very clearly when we were doing one of his texture board books and hat when he picked up Serenity’s princess crown. Two more words to the list.

Which starts with 1.) Ball  2.) Roll 3.) Baf (bath) and 4.) Vrooom

Plus Mama and Dada.  Although half the time when he sees Eric he says Ball.  He’s said Papa a few times too =)

He’s pretty happy to go to Papa whenever he sees him.  And the other day Jen and I were chatting in the parking lot.  He didn’t want to go to her at first, but then he didn’t want to come back to Mama!  It was too funny, he really pushed my hands away when I tried to take him.  Jen said he was being so sweet to her, and then he cried when she left.

He’s started vrooming cars around the room.  I got it on video, it’s so cute!

4/29

So, this is one story Donovan may be embarrassed about having in his book.  When Little Casey was a toddler, he used to want to hold Jen’s nose whenever she was carrying him.  I thought at the time that it was probably a little awkward.  Well, Donovan likes to have his hand in my cleavage.  Yeah, may have issues weaning him, we’ll see. =)

5/1

I feel like he’s really trying to talk the last few days.  He repeats so many sounds we say.  Yesterday I swear he was trying to say Serenity.  It sounded like “ssssss tee” but he said it several times as his sister was jumping around trying to get his attention, so it was obvious he was trying to say her name.  Or I guess sister.  Today Eric asked if he wanted a drink and he piped right back with “dink!” He’s also getting fluent in dog, as his says “Daw!” for dog and repeats sounds that sound like “woof,” and “bow wow” when we’re reading those animal books.  It’s so much fun!  He’ll say all done and more now, which is a relief as mealtime is still an ongoing issue.

5/9

I think I’ve finally figured out why Donovan has turned into such a wiggle monster when I’m trying to change his diaper.  He sits still and calm while I take off the old diaper and then wipe him.  And then suddenly, wham!  He flips and starts crawling like lightning.  Today he was so deceptive I wasn’t even trying to hold onto him, and he made it all the way into the bathroom chanting “Baf baf baf!”  Evidently anytime he’s naked it’s time to get in the tub.

He is walking more every day!  Today he made it all the way across the living room all by himself.  He’s still toddling and unstable, but he’s getting secure enough that he tries to walk without fear.  He has no problems walking holding just one hand, which is awesome.  It’s so much easier to walk around with him holding one hand to the side than two hands right in front of you.

I’m starting to work on his birthday party, and I think it’s going to be fun!  Water and sprinklers, (since he loves the bath) and lots and lots of balls!

We’ve turned a corner with eating solid foods.  Now he’ll eat pretty much any chunk of fruit I put in front of him.  He adores grapes, strawberries, and bananas.  He loves pretty much any bread product, especially crackers and pizza crusts.  He’ll take small tastes of protein, like hamburger if we’re eating it, spaghetti sauce, and bits of chicken.  I still haven’t managed to find a vegetable he’ll eat!  And he still has almost zero tolerance for purees.  He’ll let me do a spoonful or two and then he wants control of the spoon.  So far he won’t do peas, edamame, carrot chunks, green beans, or broccoli.  He will do sweet potato fries but that doesn’t really count.  So I have a feeling I’m going to have to start researching ways to sneak vegetables and different ways to prepare them.  In the meantime I’ll just keep offering them and sweeping them up off the floor.

Parents too cheap to buy me a walker? I'll just use this basket to walk. **ETA Papa has gotten me a walker now, thanks =)

He gives big smiles to everyone! He just loves people, and his face lights up when he smiles. =) He smiles so big his eyes scrunch up now.

VROOOOOM. Cars are a big deal now. He loves to say vroom and roll them around already. Who even taught him that?

This is Donovan's favorite book, "Have You Ever Tickled a Tiger." He loves to feel the different textures, and he says "Touch!"

Egg Hunt Map!

5/1

April!  Serenity is just so much fun.  I love all the funny things she says and does.  She is still narrating her story.  She says things like, “Serenity ran and twirled as she said “I looooove you!”  And then the other day, “According to my legend, I jumped into the pond with all the other fishies!”  She also uses the word “certainly” a lot.  I ask her if she can take something to her brother, and she’ll respond cheerfully, “I certainly will!”  =)  It’s so cute when she says it.

We had a lot of fun with our Easter traditions this year.  We colored eggs.  Serenity chose her own egg kit, and she picked on with lots of glitter!  We colored the eggs and then hid them repeatedly in the backyard.  It’s getting fun as she’s at the age where she can actually find them when they’re in difficult spots.  Although, if it takes her too long to find them, she asks for clues.  This led to our newest Easter game, the Easter Egg Map.  I drew up three maps of our upstairs, downstairs, and yard.  I put them in page protectors and put little egg stickers where I hid the eggs.  This was AWESOME.  We could hide things in really evil spots and she had clues right in front of her to find them.  Eric hid one behind all the books on her bookshelf.  We put one between the mattresses of her bed.  So much fun!  She loved it and wanted to play it again right away.  She’s still so addicted to maps and her atlas, this was just the perfect game for her.  Inside the eggs she had some gummy snacks along with some awesome coupons that we had a blast redeeming.  So very light on the sugar =)  The coupons included “stay up past bedtime” which meant we had a sleepover downstairs. We went all out, had makeovers, danced, watched movies, and snuggled on the couch as late as she wanted.  Which was later than me, I fell asleep by midnight.  Amazingly, she was really pretty good the next day, so we can maybe do this again sometime.  She also got to go out for ice cream, choose what we had for dinner, have 30 minutes of Undivided Attention, and a few other treats.  I love the coupons, and will probably do this every year.
We also did our traditional Easter Bunny scavenger hunt.  We hid all the bunnies in the house and wrote clues for her to find and rescue them.  She managed it easily, and asked me to write more clues for her again later in the month.

She got a bike from John and Ann when they came to visit.  She’s actually riding it!  She had a little tricycle before but never really showed much interest in it, possibly because she couldn’t really do much just riding in circles around our yard.  Now we go for walks together and she rides her bike around the neighborhood!  She has had one major wipeout, but was wearing a helmet.  She went pretty slow the next few times but is now back to going “moderato.”  Yeah, she’s been watching little Einsteins so her speed is either adagio, moderato, allegro and presto.  The bike has wonderful fairy sounds (it’s a Tinkerbell bike) so she pushes one to make her go whatever speed she chooses.  It means she loses her momentum a lot as she has to push the buttons while she’s riding, but it’s fun and we’re able to keep up with her on foot for now.
These days Serenity only wants to wear purple clothes.  She pretends she’s June from the little Einsteins, and dances all over the house.  She has one dress that Patricia got her that  I barely have time to wash before she wants to wear it again.  It’s a fun stage =)  I signed her up for dancing in the summer.  Dad is also taping her episodes of Sid the Science Kid, which I am also enjoying.  They do fun science stuff!

She loves climbing on that bucket =)

Bump on the nose and forehead from the wipeout

After our makeovers, getting ready for "Stay Up Past Bedtime" night

Finding the next clue for the Bunny Scavenger Hunt

Twirl! This is the best twirly dress, and it's purple just like June's

Earth Day Crafting with Daddy (coffee filter maps)

Wearing her newest twirly skirt, purchased in the hopes that I could cycle the laundry a little better. Playing with her cool new play-doh tool, the cake decorator thingy.

Ten Months! Loves cruising, crawling, and can stand for several seconds at a time, but not interested in walking alone!

3/29

Donovan has settled on his first word, and no one that knows Eric will be surprised.  Yes, he is saying “ball!” nonstop =)  It sounds more like “ba!” but there is no doubt what he means, as he spends the majority of his playtime chasing balls.  When we’re at the park he stares at kids playing soccer, his little head bouncing back and forth like a real sports fan.  He especially loves the big beach balls we have around the house.  And anytime you want him to giggle, bouncing a ball while repeating “bounce!” gets him every time. =)

He’s starting to get a bit attached to Mama and Daddy.  He does this cute thing where he reaches for you with one hand while pointing at you with the other.  He also loves to give pats.  In the less cute column, he tries to bite a lot.  His seventh and eighth tooth are coming down, so that could be the reason.  It’s also possible this is karma for his sister, who has bitten him recently as well. Sigh.

He crawls super fast and can climb up the whole staircase now.  So we are being mindful of the gates.

He likes solid food now!  At least he’ll open his mouth for bites of the pureed stuff, but he gets annoyed if you’re eating regular food and not sharing with him.  He loves burritos!  We went out for burritos and I gave him a taste, and he LOVED it!  It’s so adorable.  We had burritos again today and I turned my back on him for a second and he got ahold of a whole burrito.  Yes, as you imagine, it was a huge mess but he was sooo happy.  He also loves pizza crusts and any carbohydrate he can get ahold of.  He doesn’t really like to pick up fruit or other slimy things, but he will eat banana slices and avocado.

Burrito Baby!!!

4/7

So many things are changing for Donovan now!  He outgrew the chair.  The same thing happened with Serenity, when she got too big to sleep comfortably with me in the chair, it was sleep training time.  So now Donovan is sleeping at night in his own crib instead of the pack n play, so I’m not tempted to get up with him in the night and feed him in the chair.  It’s the third night, and last night he stayed there till 5:30 am, which is great!

I am kind of wishing he would take a pacifier right now.  At around nine months, Serenity got addicted to her paci.  When she gave it up, we had problems with her biting.  Well, we’re having problems with Donovan biting right now!  So I wish he’d chew on the paci instead of us =)  It’s not all the time but it’s enough to make you wary of his mouth getting too close!

Feeding him solid food is still a challenge. Occasionally he acts like he likes the pureed food, and the rest of the time it’s like trying to sneak a golf ball past the windmill in mini-golf, you have to time that spoon just right for the split second openings.

He is absolutely addicted to balls.  Eric isn’t Dada anymore, he’s Ball. Which is appropriate actually, Donovan is quite intuitive =)  It’s funny though, his first word is definitely “ball” and today he said “roll!”  And he actually rolled the ball when he said it!  Two times.  So we know he’s already wanting to talk to Daddy about playing ball.  =)

He loves playing switch person right now too.  When he sees Daddy he goes right to him, and then he wants to go back to Mama, and back and forth as long as we’ll play.  He’s such a sweet, snuggly baby.  He lays his head on you and gives sweet pats.  He might give kisses if we weren’t so scared of his teeth.  Oh!  And he gives five =)

He looks so big in this outfit! It's 18 months. He loves the maracas, drumsticks, and bells. Can't wait to start music class!

I love seeing them enjoy each other so much =)

Using the stick to hit the ball. Just like Daddy =)

At the zoo with Papa

Love that eyebrow =)

With Cousin Braley =)