Brother Bonding

I love to see these little guys laughing and playing together. I am really enjoying watching their relationship blossom and how Charlie tries to copy Davey and how Davey is learning to share and put up with Charlie following him and ruining train track set ups, etc. 

(Yes, that is gum in Davey's mouth. I can't believe I let him chew it. It's so weird to look at him and see him chewing gum. Especially since I hate to be around people when they're chewing it. But it's one little treat I can give him when he asks and not feel like I'm always saying no and don't have to feel too guilty about a lot of sugar. When he stops being obedient about spitting it out we'll stop the habit.)

Last night I let them bathe together for the first time. They loved it!

"Talking" - so cute!

They were both all over the place. Luckily there weren't any collisions.

They had so much fun that now I fear I won't be able to bathe Charlie without Davey climbing in. It's a little tricky to get them both out and dried on my own... (Since Charlie goes to bed at 6pm, I can't do it with both of them after Dave is home.)

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...

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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!

Charlie is 8 Months!

Look at the happy little darling!

Our sweet little Charlie bear is 8 months old! The time is going by so fast and he is doing new things all of the time. At his 6 month check up (yeah a while ago, I know), Charlie was 16 lbs 5 oz (30th percentile) and 26.5 in long (50th percentile) and his head is 17.5 in (50th percentile). I've never tracked my children's head size before but I was curious because Charlie's head always seems HUGE compared to most kids his age. But it didn't really show up on the percentile ranking as being big I guess because his head is really taller than most, not really wide, as would be measured.

Charlie always has the biggest and brightest smiles for everyone. His personality just draws you in. He is cuddly and sure loves his Mommy. I guess I should say that he has bright smiles for everyone so long as he is giving them from Mommy's arms. He's really funny about going to people - some people he screams every time they hold him and others he is fine with. There are a couple ladies at church who he always screams when they hold him. Last week one was laughing as he would

Charlie got his bottom two teeth in at 5 months and two more on the top at 7 that are still descending. It looks like one of his top incisors is about to pop through any day now. Teething has been quite difficult for us around here and always sets us back greatly with sleeping patterns, eating patterns and his willingness to be happy playing on his own.

Charlie-goo (as Davey nick-named him) is sitting well now on his own and has always loved to arch his back, doing it very notably from the womb. A couple months ago he began arching his back and lifting his belly off the floor to let me know he wanted to be picked up. It was kind of a funny little motion, his belly pumping up and down so quickly. Then it turned into this...

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Needless to say, I found it entertaining, but didn't want this to be his primary mode of transportation. I was relieved when soon thereafter he started doing a real scoot on his belly. Here's a capture of his second attempt...

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Now he has mastered it and gets around rather handily. He is just now starting to pick his belly up and try to move on his knees/feet. He also loves to stand, often refusing to sit, and since he has no balance at all, it is funny to see him wobble all around.

And that is most of what Charlie is up to these days! We love you Charlie!

August 17th

August 17, 2006. The day I became a mother. Mother to a difficult though darling infant and now a delightful little three year old. Motherhood has been a challenging journey, but such a rewarding one as well. Every day that passes I love my children more and more and love to witness every little thing they do as they grow and develop. I revel in their happiness and can't get enough of watching them at play. It is so cute to watch Davey interact with his friends and listen to them have conversations and imagine little scenarios.

Call me indulgent, but since the actual day of Davey's birthday wasn't busy with preparations for a party, I asked Dave to stay home from work so we could spend the day with Davey doing the things he loves.

First, I took Davey to Panera Bread for breakfast. He picked out a poppy seed muffin/cake and couldn't resist just picking up the whole thing and diving in...

... and had no idea how silly and cute he looked with a face full

of powdered sugar :)

Next, Dave took him to jump at Pump It Up (the other thing he asked to do for his birthday party that I chose not to do). They invited MacKenzie and her mom since they weren't able to make it to the party.

Not a great picture, but the two had a grand time jumping around.

Next, Charlie and I met them at Chick-fil-A for lunch and then it was home to open more presents!

Davey loves his Home Depot tool box and tools.

He always wants to "fix someping."

He was sooo excited to get the movie Cars.

Showing it off to MacKenzie.

He got so many fun and cool toys from all of his loving family that he has been so happily playing with ever since. The one we were most excited to give him, however, was... a bike!

He loved his first bike ride!

(Dave has since fixed the seat so he doesn't have to ride so funny.)

After a rest (naps are scarce these days), it was off to another party, but not for him. Our good friends' son Jared has the same birthday as Davey.

Happy Birthday boys!!