Hooray for Disneyland!! Boo for Iowa and snow!!

So Disneyland was pretty great, granted we had our moments of stress and anxiety that go along with infants and toddlers, but for the most part it was an enjoyable vacation away from Iowa. It was definitely more stressful than the last time we went in '06, but we still had a lot of fun. I can't post all of the pictures today, Lenna and Scott have half of them. I will post a few today and maybe some at the end of the week when we are able to swap pic CD's.

Donovan loved being around so many people, and he loved the characters. Of course, everyone who saw him thought he was adorable and he gave most of them his cutest grin. Even the characters couldn't keep their hands off him. During the parade, Doc (one of the seven dwarfs, for those of you who don't know) came over to where we were sitting to see Donovan and play with him for a few seconds. It was very cute, but unfortunately, I had just taken a picture of something else and our camera took too long to process so I couldn't catch it in time. Just know it was cute and Donovan loved it.

I think the kids had the most fun in Toon Town, at least Donovan did. There is a little playground and you can also go into Goofy's house where there is a piano that makes silly noises. Here is our little Mozart.

I love that Disneyland has rides that everyone can ride. That made it fun for Mason and Donovan because they weren't left out of all the fun. I know I have said it before, but Donovan adores his cousin Mason. I think Mason gets all of his best smiles. They liked to play with each others hands, and we liked it because it looked like they were holding hands and it was adorable.

We didn't get Donovan any mouse ears. We borrowed Mason's for the picture. Don't worry though, he got plenty of spoils from Disneyland. Don't ask how much we spent on three little stuffed toys. If you'll notice, Mickey has a soccer ball, we couldn't pass it up!He likes them and they make him smile and that is all that matters. As soon as we have the whole collection of male Disney characters, we will stop. If we ever have a girl, we will get her all of the princesses to make it even.

We went on Pirates of the Caribbean a few times. Wouldn't Donovan make a scary pirate with his big grin and his shirt covered in drool?

Hopefully I can get the rest of the pictures and get them posted sometime this week.

One Last Post before Disneyland

I thought I would post the pictures of this week so far so we can have plenty of room in our camera for this weekend. Just a few hours to go!!

I was able to get a decent picture of Donovan's teeth, hopefully you can see them. He is so funny. He is always trying to bite everything now, especially his spoons. He gets the silliest look on his face when he bites down, like he is overexerting himself. I can't catch it on camera because he always smiles when he sees it.

My Dad is going to cringe when he hears this, but Donovan has been watching a little bit of Baby Einstein. I don't turn it on very often, but when I do he loves to watch the little puppets, he could care less about the rest of it. Does anyone know where I can find some cute animal hand puppets?

Donovan loves his bedtime baths. He also loves the faucet.

More Donovan

More Donovan and Mason.

Donovan is loving to play "peek-a-boo". Brad will take him around the corner and he will peek around at me. He is getting so smart!

This was our attempt at eating ham. The second bite was of ham if you can't tell.

Donovan can roll from front to back now. I don't have it on video yet because we have only seen him do it once, but we will try to get it this week. I was very excited though. Brad put him on our bed this afternoon and when he left he was on his stomach. He went back a few seconds later and he was on his back again. So we rolled him onto his stomach and cheered for him until he did it. It was a struggle, but he made it!

He is my little buddy, it seems like we do just about everything together. He especially likes to help me with the laundry

Donovan is getting very good at putting himself to sleep. We have a pretty set routine for bedtime so he knows what is going on. He will whimper or scream for about 10 minutes before he will let himself go to sleep. He is still inconsistent when it comes to sleeping all night. Some nights, he won't wake up and others he wakes up at least twice. I cheated last night and gave him a bottle. I was exhausted and didn't want to fall asleep at church today. We may have to cheat and be inconsistent this week, because we are going to....DISNEYLAND!!! That's right, we will be spending some time at the happiest place on earth. We leave Wednesday evening and get back Sunday. We are very excited about 60 degree weather. We are going with Lenna, Scott, and Mason and we will be sharing a room. I don't want Donovan to keep everyone awake and miserable, so if he wakes up in the middle of the night, I will do what I have to do to keep everyone happy. Don't worry, we will take plenty of pictures to make you all jealous.


Mason came over to our house on Monday and we got some fun pictures and video of Mason reading and Donovan trying to be destructive.

We also had The Hiatt's over for dinner last night and Mason got in the tub with Donovan...Donovan didn't mind it, but Mason wasn't happy.

Donovan has been making strides when it comes to eating. We have cut back on his formula a little and he has been eating breakfast and dinner. We have started on 2nd foods which includes pureed meats...yum! We tried ham the other day and he HATED it. It was the first food I have seen him respond so negatively to. He is so funny when he eats now. He tries to chew the baby food, so I think I might try those biter biscuits soon. I don't want to rush things, but he seems ready to chew!

I know I have mentioned that Donovan loves his soccer ball, this proves it!! Don't ask me what he is doing, I really don't know.

A couple more silly pictures of Donovan, he has recently discovered his tongue and wants everyone to see it!

Now he is really 6 months old!

Donovan and I just went to see Dr. Jones today and everything went well, even the shots weren't too bad. Donovan is very healthy. He is exactly 20 lbs and 28 1/2 inches long. 90th percentile in weight, 95th in height and only 30th in head circumference. I can't imagine how big his head would be if it were in the 90's as well...oy. Anyway, the Dr. said he was doing great and that his genetics should start taking over his weight and height...but we will see about that. It is time to stop night feedings, so we are in for a rough few nights, Donovan is not going to like that at all!

Donovan is 6 months old!! ...in three days

Wow, I took way too many pictures this week. I had a hard time choosing the cutest ones, they were all so adorable!

This week wasn't too bad. Donovan's other tooth still hasn't cut through. It was swollen for a while and we could tell it was sore, he wouldn't let us anywhere near his mouth. The swelling seems to have gone down and he has become a little more pleasant the last couple of days. I wish I could have taken a picture of his current tooth, but it is hard to get him to open his mouth. He can breathe again which was a big relief to me. The humidifier has definitely helped. He still has a cough, but it sounds much better than it did at the beginning of the week. My cold only lasted for a couple of days, but Brad wasn't feeling well Friday night and most of yesterday (Saturday). For now, we are all feeling pretty good...knock on wood.

It hasn't been a very fun week for sleep. I get Donovan down between 8 and 9, but I can't fall asleep until around 11 or 12 and he likes to wake up anywhere from 5 (that was a bad morning) and 7. I try to go to bed earlier, but I can't fall asleep. So I don't get enough sleep most of the time, but waking up 1 to 3 times during the night doesn't help. I am really lucky to have Brad though. He knows when I have had just about enough and he will take over when I need him to, even though he usually has to go to work the next morning. His mother taught him well and I appreciate that!

Anyway, we had a few fun adventures this week. Donovan and I really needed to get out of the house on Wednesday and it wasn't too cold outside, so we went to the park to give Donovan his first taste of the swing. He loved it! We even let him play in the snow, even though it was cold, he really seemed to enjoy it. We didn't stay long, but it was pretty fun to see him enjoy the swing so much. It got me really excited for the summer when we will be able to walk to the park or to Mason's house.

We watched Mason on Saturday so Lenna and Scott could go out and as always, Donovan loved to watch him. He is so funny with other people. He loves other babies especially. We had a baby sit next to us at church and he laughed and grinned for 5 minutes straight while the other baby just stared at him. I think he just likes other faces.

We let Donovan chew on some licorice the other day, he enjoyed that. He cried when we took it away. We also put him in the baby carrier that he has never liked...and he loves it now. Another thing he loves right now is his soccer ball, thank goodness! Not that we have been pushing it or anything...

Donovan is the sweetest little baby in the world...most of the time (Brad always has to add that disclaimer). He is getting to be so much fun. He loves to take baths which gets us excited about taking him to the pool, and he looooooves to eat! He has been eating more solid foods lately, we are up to breakfast and lunch consistently and he loves every minute of it. He makes the mmmm noises and everything. Sometimes we can't feed him fast enough! He usually doesn't get too messy, but I fed him prunes (never again) the other day and he was a mess. He is so funny when it is gone, he starts to whimper a little like he wants more (after 2 jars) so I clap and cheer for him and he smiles and lets me clean up his face. He is so chill (most of the time), I love it. I am sure I will be fine when we have more kids, but for now, I can't imagine loving anyone else as much as I love my little Donovan. He cracks me up and drives me crazy at the same time! But I love him more than anything. I just want to cuddle him and kiss his little cheeks all the time, but I know that won't last because he is going to be way too independent to be a momma's boy. He already tries to lunge out of our arms and gets frustrated when he realizes he can't move anywhere by himself. He still loves to look at his reflection, no matter how mad he gets, if I put him in front of our mirror (we just got a new bedroom set so we have a mirror in our room now) he instantly lights up with a big grin on his face and has to touch our reflections.

We love our little boy, even when he is pouty.

Anyway, I will send an update after Donovan's 6 month checkup on Wednesday.

Longest week of my life...

Well, this week started out pretty good. Donovan was happy and slept for almost 12 hours Monday and Tuesday night. I have been putting him to bed while he is still awake and he jabbers and squeals until he falls asleep. On Monday, Brad went to check on him before we went to bed and he was on his stomach sleeping. I had put him in bed on his back in the middle of the crib and he ended up like this. He is such a little squirmer! He still doesn't roll from his front to his back, but he does move around as much as his little arms and legs will let him. He learned a new trick this week too. He was standing and bouncing as usual and I tried to put him down, but he kept his arms straight and bent his little legs.

Anyway, like I said, Donovan was happy at the beginning of the week, but then he started teething...He was not a happy camper. He had two teeth coming in and one finally cut through on Friday. The other one is trying to poke through but hasn't quite made it. I would send pictures, but you can't see the tooth yet, you can only feel it. He has been a real pill the last few days. He has been crying more than usually and he hasn't had a good nap in days. He takes four twenty minute naps. I don't know what to do to get him to sleep longer and it's driving me crazy. This week is going to be rough too, Donovan got sick last night and I started getting sick Saturday night. He can't breath very well and he has a pretty bad cough. We are hoping a humidifier will work at least during the night. I have the feeling I am going to go insane. It is so difficult to be patient when I am sleep deprived. I know I shouldn't complain, I am sure every mom has the same struggles, probably worse than mine, but it doesn't make it easier. Brad was really helpful this weekend. He let me sleep in yesterday while he took care of Donovan. He also let me take a nap yesterday afternoon. I am really lucky to have such a helpful and understanding husband.

I will finish with Donovan being his happy self.