Pumpkin Pancakes

Yesterday morning we made some really delicious pumpkin pancakes for breakfast...

If you like pumpkin, you should really try them. They're so delicious. Actually, Dave's not such a pumpkin fan and he loved them too. Thanks to my friend Mikal for this recipe; I'll be making it a lot!

1 cup flour
2 TBS packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp each baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup plain or vanilla low fat yogurt
2TBS butter melted
1 large egg
mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
wisk pumpkin, milk, yogurt, butter, and egg in large bowl until blended.
add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir just until mixed (will be thick).
heat griddle over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and oil grill lightly. for each pancake pour about 1/4 cup batter on griddle. Cook 3 to 4 minutes until lightly browned on underside and bubbles appear on surface. Turn and cook til browned on bottom.

Doctor, Doctor!

It seems like I have been to the doctor so many times lately. I am just not used to it. We went about a month ago for flu shots, again two weeks ago when Charlie had a cold that wasn't going away/getting worse, and then were back again last week for a double well check.

Davey has always been a very healthy child and Charlie's medical history doesn't contain anything serious, so I know we are blessed. But it was still very strange to me when we were sent home from that check up about the cold with a prescription for amoxicillin and a non-specific diagnosis, but the antibiotic did seem to take care of whatever was bothering him.

The day before the well check-ups, Charlie woke up from a nap with some strange bumps on his face. They looked like a mosquito bite looks when you first get it: white, raised and irregular-shaped with red around it. But they were gone within the hour so I just forgot about it. The next morning, he had the same thing but on his thighs and covering a much larger area, also disappearing within an hour. Luckily we had an appointment already with the doctor that day, so when I asked her about it she said it sounded like hives, an allergic reaction to something. She thought it was strange the way it showed up when he slept but said just to watch it but not be too concerned unless it returned with regularity or more severely.

That afternoon we were at the park and it showed up again, only this time all over his body. When we got home and I went to give him a bath, it was gone from the skin that had been exposed, but was very severe under his diaper and part of his back. It looked like big red welts all over him. This picture is about 20 minutes later when it was much improved...

I contacted the doctor who recommended giving him children's Zyrtec, so that's what we did. I'm still wondering what it could be, since I haven't given it to him the last two days and we haven't seen it again. I'm thinking maybe Davey tracked something in his crib from outside (he loves to climb inside his crib and play with him) and then we encountered whatever it was at the park, too. I'm thinking of taking him to an allergist to see, since the last reaction was so bad it scared me.

As for the stats from the check-ups, they aren't very reliable. They told me Charlie was 19 lbs 14 oz but I don't think there's any way he's that heavy. The next day I compared him against my friend's boy who weighs just over 16 lbs and Charlie felt lighter. They also weighed Davey at 30 pounds, but the scale was already reading 3 lbs when he got on. When I weight him at home, it reads 28 (15%), so I'm going to go with that. As for height, Charlie is 28.25 (40%) in and Davey is 37.5 (40%).

And just for fun, some silly pictures of the boys...

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...

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!