Super Stretchy ABC

Lately we have really gotten into playing games with Davey and it's so fun! Our favorite right now is Super Stretchy ABC, which is kind of like Twister. We finally invited a friend over for Davey to play it with so we didn't have to get all crazy contorted ourselves. They are really good at it!

A Visit from Meta

My very good friend, Meta, from junior high and high school came to visit us a couple days after Labor Day. It was so much fun to get to spend some quality time with her!

The first day we hung out at home and then went for some dessert at Ooh La La with Mendy in the evening. It was so nice to have some time to chat with girlfriends sans kids! Plus, their desserts are sooo good.

Thursday we took a little trip to none other than... the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory!

Ready for the tour!

Fun making footprints from the puddles on the Blue Bell grounds.

Luckily Dave had the day off on Friday so we took the opportunity to take Meta to a Houston attraction we hadn't yet visited - the Johnson Space Center. Right at the entrance they had a super-fun space-themed play structure...

Dave even climbed up through the very small openings to get to the slide.

The major event of a visit to NASA is the tram tour where you see the rockets and offices. Of course I thought it would be quick and we just hopped on without bringing along Charlie's lunch... Houston, we had a problem! Needless to say I missed some of the tour.

The old Control Room

(They don't let you see the current one anymore)

Listening to the guide.

A replica of the International Space Station

I think this is an overall view of the Space Station

Need to ask Dave...

The Mercury/Redstone rocket

Performed the first U.S. manned space flight

The Saturn V rocket was very impressive, too. I'll have to get some pictures from Meta that we took of that... our camera died!

The following day was Meta's last with us and we were able to meet up with an old friend from BYU, Thanh, and his family for lunch in Chinatown. We had a nice time visiting with them and had fun exploring Chinatown - which is way larger than we had thought.

Meta's visit was also punctuated with a couple nights of game playing and chocolate-chip cookie and donut eating (they apparently don't have any good donut shops in D.C. and yes, I think I gained 5 pounds in 4 days).

Thanks, Meta, for coming to visit - we had so much fun with you!

Chuck E Cheese

This weekend Davey was invited to LuLu's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. He was excited! I was interested to see if he'd enjoy it more than the last time I'd taken him about a year ago, when he didn't want to do any of the rides or games, except one water spraying one. He did much better than last time...

He enjoyed a ride on the carousel and the

Bob the Builder and Barney rides.

His favorite game was watching and trying to control the electric train set and he also enjoyed two basketball games and tried to but couldn't figure out ski ball. The rest of the games were probably my fault, but I couldn't figure most of them out! We couldn't even get the wheel in the Wheel of Fortune game to spin. Poor Davey has a lame mommy!

Lydia and Davey enjoying cake as the birthday

girl opens her gifts.

Somehow we managed to pick up 31 tickets and Davey enjoyed picking out his prizes...

Hmmmm....

A blue tootsie pop and a tic-tac-toe game

All in all, a fun morning! Happy birthday LuLu!

Knock on your Wife

For Christmas, Davey's Aunt Katie and Uncle Bryan gave him Lightning McQueen and Mack Truck toys from the movie Cars. He enjoys playing with them so much that we bought him the movie for his birthday, and he loves to watch it. 

A few days ago, Davey climbs in the car, I put Charlie in and walk around the car to buckle Davey in. When I open the door, Davey is laughing and says, "I said 'knock on your wife' while you were out there." Then there was me all "Huh?"

Over the next few days, the same scene happens over and over, with Davey apparently saying that phrase only at those times (after he's in, I've put Charlie in, and while I walk around the back of the car) and always laughing and telling me about it. Finally when I challenge Davey on what he is talking about, he says, "Lightning McQueen says 'knock on your wife' when he's inside Mack." I try to convince him that Lightning McQueen must have said 'not on your life,' but Davey remains completely unconvinced. "No. Knock on your wife!"

Joy School

Every Monday and Wednesday from 9 to noon, Davey is so excited to attend preschool. He never looks back or misses me at all. I put a lot of thought into the decision of sending him to a traditional preschool vs. doing the Joy School co-op thing and decided in the end that I wanted to be involved in his learning and fun, as well as know the kids he was with all morning, so we're following the Joy School curriculum and doing it with three of his best buds from nursery.

Davey all ready for his first day of preschool.

Amazingly, he loves his fire truck lunch pail 

more than his Thomas backpack!

Lauren, Davey, Sammy and Avery

on their mats and ready to begin!

When we arrived to pick up the kiddos the had obviously

thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were running off

their energy back and forth in the hall.

The happy bunch.

Before they walked out the door, they closed 

their window of the schoolhouse.

Later in the day, Davey was standing on the couch falling over while yelling, "September!!!" I asked had they learned about the month of September at preschool? Yes. When he kept yelling September and falling over, I figured he must have heard someone yelling (or seen it on a show, really) Timber! as they cut down a tree, stored it in his memory, and then when he learned September, put the two together and figured that was what they were saying.

The Trampoline

I have this old rebounding trampoline that Davey loves us to pull out for him every once in a while. Luckily Dave caught him on video jumping on it because we never get a chance to get Davey talking on video - which, I know, is hard to believe since he talks all the time, but anytime we pull it out, all he says is, "I wanna see!" before we get to film anything. This was taken a month or two ago...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Davey at Three

You may think that I've already written plenty about Davey and his birthday lately, but... here's more! I want to remember the little things he is doing lately that make Davey, well, Davey :)

• He loves to pretend to be an animal. Always a crocodile, tiger or snake.
• Along with the sounds associated with being an animal, he loves to make all kinds of sound effects: cars, airplanes, thunder, lightning, etc. I think he's pretty good at it and I always chuckle to myself at how he is so much like his daddy.
• His favorite movie these days is Top Gun (Dave is very proud of this).
• He loves to drink at the same time as other people. If you eat dinner with us, you'll hear over and over, "Let's drink together," and we all have to raise our glasses at the same time. I often pretend and keep chewing my food.
• I found him the other day having a busy party with his toys. "Are you at the busy party?" "Yes; are you busy?" "Yes, I'm busy; are you busy?"
• He thinks he's pretty funny and is always asking us after he says or does something, "Isn't that funny?" or "Isn't that silly?"
• Davey still makes his "going to sleep" noise. He has been doing it since he was only a few weeks old and I have expected it to disappear over and over, but it persists. It's kind of a hum oscillating between high and low pitch and I guess somehow soothes him to sleep.
• He likes to stay busy. I need to find more projects that he can do on his own. He is constantly asking, "Do you wanna play with me?"
• I am figuring out that Davey can't carry a tune. Hopefully this will change with time, but he has never liked to sing, though he loves us to sing to him. These days he will sometimes attempt a song, but it never sounds much like music. ;)
• If you try to tell him he is a big boy, he responds by saying, "No. I'm a little boy." He loves to be little and slow, often asking us to slow down as we drive.
• Davey loves his little brother. He loves to tickle him and blow on his belly. He does have a harder time with him now that he his mobile and likes to share toys, but mostly he is very sweet and loving with him.
• He does not like to eat. At least anything besides the typical kid foods like mac & cheese and chicken nuggets. Dinner time is not fun around our house these days (any suggestions on this... feel free to share).
• He is in that hard time when he still needs naps sometimes but almost always doesn't take them. This means his attitude and demeanor are mostly not so sweet and obedient as they have been in the past since he is almost always overtired. We're still figuring out how to deal with this one as well. Hopefully the phase will pass soon.

Mostly, we just laugh at Davey and think he is great. We love listening to his little conversations and it is so fun now that we can begin to play little games with him (favorite of ours is the "Super Stretchy ABC" game he got for his birthday).

We love our three-year-old Davey!