Last full week of March

Well it was the last week of March as you know and MLS started up on Saturday, so of course Brad had to watch some games. He decided to subscribe to MLS Live because it is only $20 for the whole season. I was a little annoyed since he spends most of his time at work, soccer practice, or doing homework but he insists that it will be bonding time for him and Donovan...He lasted about 5 minutes before he started to squirm. Bradley and his soccer...oy.They do have a lot of fun together though, Donovan loves when Daddy comes home for lunch or on a break. He usually gets sad when he leaves again. Brad plays the fun games with him, he really likes to get thrown around and I just can't do it the way Brad does.
As you can see, he can beat up on Bradley. At least one of us can keep him in line!Donovan is starting to have a little more fun at bath time because he can sit up and swim like his cousin Mason. I used to get so nervous when he would lean forward too far, but now I know he can handle himself. We still watch him pretty closely in the tub because he still tries to stand up, if I do leave the room it is not for very long.
We tried him on some table foods this weekend. He did pretty well. I was nervous that he would choke on bread, but he didn't even gag. He enjoyed every minute of it. He liked bananas too. He even ate some of Mason's Marshmallow Matey's at church. It was interesting because just the other day I had tried him on a little banana and he gagged on it, so I was a little apprehensive and nervous about him choking, but Brad gave him the bread and he went to town!
We had a nice day Friday, so Donovan and I went over to the soccer field. It seemed like a longer walk than I had anticipated, but it was nice to get out of the apartment.
Donovan was in heaven because they had just aerated the field so he had lots of little "turds" to play with. Don't worry, I paid pretty close attention so he didn't get any in his mouth.
At least he is small compared to a soccer goal!

Oh my, he loves to be naked. When we get him out of the tub, he automatically flips his little body and crawls away. He is so smart, he has figured out how to sit up from the crawling position, he is working pretty hard on standing from the crawling position, but has no luck unless he has something to pull himself up on.I need to rearrange his room now that he can reach all of these things.
He is pulling himself up on pretty much everything in the apartment. Even if it is too short to stand up all the way, he will put his little tush in the air. Of course he has had multiple falls, but nothing serious, he is learning how to control his limbs pretty well and usually catches himself to soften the landing.

Here is Donovan crawling, he has figured out how to crawl for real, but still slithers when he wants to go fast. He is learning and figuring out so many things! I am going to have to start watching him a little more carefully!!!

Easter egg hunt and a new car

This week has been pretty busy. Brad started coaching at Glenwood High School this week and so far he is enjoying it. Their first game is Monday March 31, so we will see how they do.

Donovan is still up to his old tricks. He can't sit still and be happy about it. I think he is the most fidgety and vocal when we are at church. He usually isn't too loud during Sacrament Meeting, but we do get grins and chuckles from a lot of the people around us...mostly Lenna and Scott and sometimes Hannah. He is also fairly loud when he eats. If you have seen "What about Bob?" you will know what we are talking about when we call him Bob at the dinner table.


He may be loud and obnoxious, but he is still our sweet little baby boy and we love him no matter what.

Donovan really enjoys lounging in his high chair. We let him play with his spoon after he was done eating so we could eat and he just chilled and watched us while he chewed on the spoon.

In other news, I finally completed one of Donovan's baby quilts. Brad's mom, sister, and sisters in law had already sewn most of it together, my job was to sew the outside edge and snip all the edges to make them fray...Tia brought it to me shortly after Donovan was born and I just finished it last night, how sad is that? Lenna was the one who finally motivated me to finish. I had most of the snipping done, I just had to sew around and snip the outer edge. We were going over there yesterday so she put white thread in her machine so I could get it done. Thanks Lenna! It turned out really cute, I even washed it last night so I could snip off the loose strings, and I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a nice Easter present for Donovan. He really likes it. He was staring at it and feeling the frayed edges this morning. After I showed him his quilt, I let him open an egg with a biter biscuit inside, but then I was mean and wouldn't let him eat it.

We had an Easter Egg hunt at David and Joyce Hanks' house with Donovan and Mason yesterday. Hannah was the Easter Bunny and "hid" all the eggs for the little boys in the yard. It was sprinkling and cold, but it was still fun to watch Mason. Donovan mostly just tried to grab sticks and grass, he wasn't too interested in the eggs. We still managed to get some fun pictures. Lenna has the pictures of our family and Donovan opening Easter gifts from his Granny on her camera and I have her pictures of Mason opening eggs, so we will have to swap at dinner tonight or something and I can post it later. It was nice to see David and Joyce and nice of them to let us use their yard!

You can see that I dyed my hair darker, is it okay ShayLea? I still need to chop it, but I am going on step at a time.

Donovan is starting to get into things. We try to play in his room most of the time because I don't care so much about what he gets into there, but he has found a favorite spot in our living/front room. He always goes for our basket of books and will sometimes crawl under our table full of pictures. His favorite place in his room is the bucket I put his washcloths and towels in. He loves to pull everything out and hit the bucket against things to make a noise.

And finally, here are pictures of our new car. We have been talking about getting a second car for a while now and finally had a little time to look for one. It is an '07 Hyundai Sonata Limited Edition (so it has leather heated seats, etc.) We got a very good deal on it because our Stake President is the owner of one of many different types of dealerships. He is a very generous man and we really appreciated his time in helping us find the vehicle that we felt was a good match for us. It is in very good condition and has less miles on it than a lot of the other '07 models we were looking at. We like it a lot and feel very good about our purchase.

New tricks and fun sounds

I finally captured Donovan kicking the ball, he still gets distracted by the camera so this is the best we could get.


He is getting much faster at sliding around on his belly. I will look away for 2 seconds and he will be across the room. He especially likes to go to the door which isn't good because Brad often comes home at random times during the day. He almost hit Donovan with the door while I was eating breakfast this morning.

One of Donovan's most favorite things to do is stand up and walk around. He is so funny when we try to sit him down, he will keep his legs straight or walk backwards until we finally lay him on his back...then he just gets mad.

He is getting pretty good at holding himself up on different objects. The only time he falls is when he tries to turn around. He is already trying to be independent. He has even figured out how to lead us in the direction he wants to go when we are "walking" him. I have no doubt that he is going to be a handful. I like where he is now, because he will stand in his exersaucer while I work out in the morning and watch Baby Einstein. I guess I just might get enough of a work out running around trying to keep him out of stuff.

He is already showing us his big personality, he is going to be so much fun when he can talk. I can only imagine all the embarrassing and rude things he is going to say to people, especially if he listens to the things his dad says under his breath. He is just like Brad in almost every way, they both have fun personalities and they are both so silly and cute. They were so cute the other day, He was watching the Baby Einstein puppet show with his daddy and couldn't sit still, so he got stuck.Look at that face, how can you not fall in love with that?

Brad recently taught him a fun noise. He used to take Donovan's hand and do this to himself, so now Donovan does it by himself.


He is such a good looking little boy, I don't know if any girl will ever be good enough. Brad has already admitted that Donovan is already too cool for him and that he is going to be a total stud with the ladies...but I hope he ignores them all, in fact, I don't even want him to notice girls until he is at least 21.

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Check out this army crawl...


Our child is a stud.

Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures

I am sure my mom would like to see what we did with Donovan's room, so here are some pictures. We finally set it up the way we want it.Don't mind the wood in the hallway. We had been using part of an old bunk bed from Brad's parents, but when we got our new bedroom set we decided we would take the old bed to Goodwill since Brad's family won't use it...as you can see, we have not taken it yet.

Donovan got to try a biter biscuit the other day, you can tell by the mess that he thoroughly enjoyed it.
No, our child is not a Muslim. He is learning how to get in the crawl stance. Once he gets there, he usually rocks back and forth for a little while before his arms give out.

I love Donovan's teeth, they are so adorable. His top teeth are giving him some problems. They have been swollen for a couple of weeks now but haven't cut through and I can tell it has been painful for him, especially at night. We have finally gotten him to sleep through the night without a feeding, but sometimes he will wake up screaming from tooth pain. I usually give him some teething tablets or tylenol and rub his back. He usually falls back asleep within 10-15 minutes, sometimes sooner. We still struggle a bit at nap time, but it is getting better. He is such a good baby.

He likes to chomp down on his teeth. Sometimes it looks like he is mad because he will make this face and clench his fists. It looks like he is trying to throw a tantrum, it's hilarious.

He is such a stud. And no, his cheeks are not full of cereal...it's all natural baby!He is really starting to enjoy cell phones...oh joy... When I am on the phone he always has his mouth open and tries to grab it, so we let him play with Bradley's old phone sometimes. What do babies find so fascinating about cell phones? Donovan's cousin Mason loves them too and gets mad if someone takes them away. Whenever he comes to our house, he says "pfo, pfo" (that is the closest I could come to what it sounds like. He is getting better at it though, I am sure he gets a lot of practice).

Happy sweet 16 Aunt ShayLea!!!

Yes, Donovan's aunt is 16 years old today. He wanted me to post a message for her, but it took a while because Brad was busy with homework for his online classes that he had procrastinated until today.

It translates to: "Happy Birthday ShayLea, I am so angry and sad that I can't be with you today." We are mean parents...

Not too busy this week. Donovan is starting to learn all sorts of new tricks. He is getting better at scooting forward instead of in circles and he likes to rock back and forth in the crawling position, it is pretty funny when he sticks his little tush in the air. I don't have any video yet, they are fairly new developments and I haven't had my trusty camera by my side...but soon! Donovan can also kick a soccer ball. We started out making him walk into it, but now he actually lifts his foot and kicks, it is pretty sweet. He is going to be a master dribbler before he is 2. I will capture it this week to prove it.

He is starting to figure out his sippy cup, finally, but we do have to lean his chair back for him to tip it back, otherwise he just chews on it.

I wish I could post more, but without being able to upload any pics, what is the point? Maybe later this week...sorry all, but at least you will have some totally awesome videos to watch until then.

What a strong little boy,,,

I think Donovan is learning how to do things out of order...and way too fast!!

He tries to scoot, but is only able to turn in circles, but he can pull himself up in the bath tub.

And forget about walking, this baby is ready to run!

At least now I will have a running buddy.

Donovan's poopy mess...

Some of you may have already read about this on Hannah's blog, but I thought I would share with everyone else. Yesterday was a fun day for Donovan. First, he took 4, 20 minute naps (he refused to sleep any longer) and then, he decided to squish out the biggest poop of his life...He hadn't pooped up the back for months, I had been hopeful that he was done with that phase, boy was I wrong.

We had asked Hannah to come over before dinner to play with Donovan so we could get some work done (without his naps, he was being very needy and wanted to play). She got him down for a nap and went to see some of her friends in the building, Donovan woke up about 10 minutes after she left. So I entertained him until she got back. About 5 minutes later, she walked to the living room/dining area holding Donovan on his stomach so we could see the green poopy through his nice white onesie. It took all three of us to get him on the changing table to attempt a cleanup. I was holding him by the legs and was just about to wipe when he peed all over my hand and arm, I reacted too quickly and dropped his legs, which proceeded to land in his poopy diaper...yum, getting a visual? Brad finally grabbed him and took him to the tub. We laid him down and he screamed harder than I have ever heard him scream before. When I sat him up to take off the onesie he was fine and when we got all of the poop cleaned out of the tub, he played for a few minutes. After that he was happy as could be and sat in his exersaucer while we ate.

This week wasn't too eventful, except that it was 62 degrees yesterday!! I got a chance to go running for the first time since before Donovan was born (I know, I am a slacker). I didn't last very long, and my quads are pretty sore, but it felt good. I started a new workout on Friday that made me sore as well...I am out of shape! My goal is to be as close as possible to the way I was pre-pregnancy before summer...wish me luck!

Donovan struggled to keep up with good sleeping habits. It is pretty frustrating, one night he does great and wakes up at about 5:00 but goes right to sleep after a bottle of diluted formula and sleeps another 2 hours or so. Other nights, we are not so fortunate, like last night. He will wake up after only 2-4 hours of sleep and scream, even if we cave in and give him a bottle, he screams after it is gone. I am at a loss as to what needs to be done. We have tried to let him scream and cry himself to sleep, I have even been giving him Tylenol this week because I know his top teeth are starting to come in, but nothing seems to soothe him, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

We got the rest of the pictures from Lenna and Scott. I know I said this, but we had a lot of fun. We are excited for the next trip when we hopefully get to go with everyone...think you will be up to it Kirsta and Heather? If my family liked amusement parks, we would try to go with them, but alas, they prefer the quiet beach...I love both!!

I took Donovan to the park yesterday. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't have the camera with me, but we had fun. He played on the swings, went down slides, and played on those rocking horse things. One day, when he can walk it will be a little more fun. We also sat outside and watched Bradley play soccer with some of the kids on the soccer team. He enjoyed that very much. He loves to watch people and grin at them until he gets a reaction. He is so funny. I love to watch him interact with little babies close to his age. It seems like he is so much more active than all of them! We are going to have a very rambunctious child. Even when he is asleep we can hear him kicking his legs, or maybe he is banging his head...he is so much like his dad that head banging wouldn't surprise me!

Donovan had his first bubble bath the other night, I didn't do too many bubbles because I was afraid he would eat them, but he seemed to have fun.