Is it Friday yet?

It feels like it should be Friday. All of February has gone by so fast, but this week just seems to be dragging on. Maybe it's because I'm looking forward to spring and no more snow. I think it's supposed to snow at least once in March...I'm so excited. It's going to take all Spring to melt all this snow! It melts a little and then we get more snow to replace what melted!! This is probably my least favorite thing about living in the Midwest. Once it snows, it's here until Spring, it freezes over and refuses to melt! This is by far the worst winter I have ever experienced.

I will move on to a much more pleasant topic...my adorable little boy! Right now he's busy playing Cootie Bugs so I decided to blog while he's entertained and before Addi comes over.

Donovan is Brad. He is generally in a good mood and is always ready to meet new people. I have watched him go up to strangers many times and strike up a conversation (as well as a 2 year old can) and it reminds me of Bradley. He has little or no fear of people which worries me a little. I was always terrified of people I didn't know, especially old people! There are very few people Donovan has backed away from. He had a brief shy stage about a year ago but he is definitely over it! He loves nursery so much! He could care less that I'm in the classroom next door. He'll come in once in a while, but he prefers to play by himself in nursery (he is often the only one in there). They bring the nursery into singing time because there are usually only one or two of them in there and Donovan usually ignores me and sings! He is getting really good at doing the actions and singing along. Not as good as Mason was, but he's getting there! It's so fun to watch him learn new things.
Donovan wouldn't take a nap last Thursday because he wasn't feeling well and Addi was over. When Brad got home though, they snuggled to watch "Up" and they both fell asleep. Donovan loves snuggling on the couch and watching shows with his daddy.
Our new favorite game. "Build a house". He likes to put pillows together to make a "house". Carver came up with the idea when he and Brad came over for lunch and Donovan was building pillow towers. Now that's all Donovan wants to do. We have pillows and blankets all over the living room. I think we'll try out some forts this weekend.
I made cookies the other night and Donovan was kind enough to help me by throwing ingredients in the bowl after I would measure them. He stopped helping me as soon as I gave him the spatula to lick. I see how it is.
We went grocery shopping on Tuesday and since we had Addi, Donovan couldn't sit in the cart. He did a really good job staying with me though, so I told him we could pick out a fun shirt. He spotted Thomas jammies and that was it, he said, "Thomas shirt". So instead of a shirt he got pj's. They were pretty cheap, but he still says "Thomas shirt" when he wants to wear them. He wore them Tuesday night and last night. I am washing them today so I'm sure he'll want to wear them again tonight! He gets so attached to pajamas!!

Another "house" we built. This one is easier because he doesn't get mad when the pillows fall. He likes to jump off the couch into it.
I finally got the motivation to make more puppets. I got more stuff for them over a year ago and haven't made any more. I've decided to do 2 a week and I should be done in a month or so. It's not great, but I did it freehand, I still haven't been able to find a pattern so I make it up as I go. I think it looks like a dog with a trunk, but Donovan likes it and that's all that matters!

Last but not least, Donovan's new favorite snack. "Treat Crackers". They are treats because we put Nutella and peanut butter on graham crackers. They are really good and Donovan gets them at least once a week. He gets nice and messy and he LOVES them!Donovan is feeling much better! We are almost done with the amoxicillin for his ear infection and then no more medicine!! It was torture getting him to take the steroid for the croup, I'm really glad that one is done!

Brad has recruits today and tomorrow so he won't be home until around 10:30 tonight and tomorrow night. It kind of stinks, but I try to enjoy the time to myself when Donovan goes to bed. I've already decided that instead of watching tv, I'm going to make another puppet or do yoga. Something productive!!

Donovan Update

Once again, Donovan got croup. It happened Thursday night so I took him into the doctor on Friday so we wouldn't have to make an ER trip over the weekend if it got worse. I'm glad I took him in because on top of his croup, he had a nasty infection in his right ear. Thursday night was AWFUL. He woke up about 4 times. I was so grateful to get medicine for him (even though it cost us $50...I hate our prescription coverage) so he could breath and feel better. He ended up sleeping really well on Friday night and even slept in a little. The steroid he got for the croup has messed him up a little, but Dr. Jones warned us about that. Sometimes kids can get a little more aggressive and naughty when they're on steroids. He finished taking it last night so I'm just waiting for it to get through him system so he'll be my sweet little boy again. His emotions have been a little extreme the last few days so we've had to be really patient. He is feeling much better though and isn't even really coughing anymore!

Donovan is really starting to pay more attention to things for longer periods of time. We used to get through half a book before he wanted to look at it himself or move onto the next one, but we read for almost 45 minutes straight today! He wanted me to read some of the books twice! I love reading and it's so much fun to read to him and hear his reactions to what's going on with the illustrations and to hear him repeat what I read. He is getting very into singing and reading along to things. He loves to sing the songs on his shows and has watched one show so many times that he tries to say what the little girl is saying along with her. He's really getting good at forming full sentences on his own too. This evening, he asked Brad for some juice and Brad said, "How about some water with ice in it?" and Donovan said, "What about juice with ice?" It was so stinking cute!!! He is learning to negotiate and that scares me a little, but it was still adorable and very unexpected!

I don't have the time or patience to upload pictures right now, sorry. I hope this will do for a few days.

Happy Late Valentine's Day

I'm not convinced that Valentine's Day is a real holiday, but it is a fun reason to get my boy and husband fun treats. Donovan and I got Brad Lego Batman for the Wii. He really enjoyed borrowing Lego Indiana Jones from Scott over the holidays so we thought it would be fun for him. We also bought some Diego and Dora chocolate that Donovan picked out. He loves his Dora. At this point I'm not too concerned about it being a girl's show. He can like whatever he wants. Brad and I went out on Saturday night. It was great, we had an awesome dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and went to a movie. It was fun to spend some time alone with him, he gets really busy so it's hard to plan dates sometimes! I got Donovan a shirt and some new Sunday socks he was in desperate need of. He also got stuff from his Granny Tia and Papa Sam (we all know it was Tia :)). He got a fun pillow case (something he really needed, he didn't have one of his very own), a couple of books and a fun card. He LOVES the Baby Einstein counting book. Numbers are one of his favorite things right now, he counts just about everything.

"wook a dat"




Donovan loves when we draw pictures for him on his doodle pad. He really likes it when we trace his hands. I just thought this was a cute picture of him and his daddy.

Brad was really excited when he found out this shirt still fit Donovan. Now they both have RSL shirts, they can match! I told Brad he should put his shirt on too, but I couldn't convince him. He loves mommy's cookies!! I love that precious little face.Donovan really likes making his animals and toys talk now. I guess I started it, but it's so darn cute!


My child speaks Chinese, what can your kid do?

Not really, but he really likes Nie Hao Kailan and Dora and repeats a lot of stuff they say...not that he knows what they mean, obviously.

And the last video, one of Donovan's favorite games. He loves crawling all over us! He's such a little monkey. Usually he climbs on our backs and jumps off over our heads.

Videos

This is the best I could do. He makes me have both dogs on my hands so I had to set it up somewhere. You get the idea though.




Classic Donovan face. His finger is constantly in his nose. I also forgot to mention that Donovan is really good at finding shapes. He knows most of their names, including an octagon (only because we've associated it with a stop sign, but that's how you learn, right?). He finds shapes in his toys, blankets, and books we read. One thing he can't figure out though are colors. We go over colors almost everyday but he just can't grasp it. He knows pink, black, and white, but he gets green and blue confused a lot and says that red is also pink. We'll just keep working on it and hopefully it will click soon! He loves to look at his color and shape cards so at least he's having fun. He's also starting to pick up on words in songs and will sing the last word of the phrase while we're in the car. So far he likes Dave (Matthews), Miley Cyrus (boo), and basically anything that's fun and upbeat. He really likes to dance, but will only let me dance occasionally. I guess I already embarrass him.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the videos, sorry you can't really see the book. It's the best I could do. I will try to get Brad to video so we can get a better view.

Nothing Much...

There isn't much to blog about, and I haven't taken many pictures recently. I guess I will just give you a Donovan update, I know the Grandma's always like to hear about him.

Donovan really has a soft spot in his heart for Jordan's girlfriend, Kolay. He LOVES her! I think this might be his first crush and I'm not sure how I feel about that! It usually takes some prodding to get him to hug people that come over, but when Kolay walks through the door he runs straight to her. He's such a stinkin cutie. She came over on Saturday so we could do some baking and cookie decorating. Donovan didn't take a nap that day because he wanted to be able to see her. While we watched the Super Bowl, he had to take his plate of food and sit by her on the floor. And of course he gets really sad whenever she leaves. Anyway, enough about his new found love. Donovan has been talking up a storm! He loves to tell me everything that he's doing and if he's watching a show and he thinks something is funny he will come up and tell me what they did or said to make sure I didn't miss it. He also likes to read to his stuffed animals and makes sure they know what they are looking at, "look Wocky (Rocky), a fwog (frog)". He always leans toward them and looks them in the eye to make sure they see what he's trying to show them. The first time he did it I was grinning from ear to ear, that was all I could do, it was so cute I wanted to cry but that would have been silly so I just grinned like an idiot. He is turning into such a snuggler, unless he is busy, then you can forget about it! But after his naps, he has to snuggle with mommy for at least 10 minutes. He walks out of his room, finds me, gives me a grin and climbs on my lap. I love it. It's probably my most favorite time of the day, it makes being a mommy and staying home with him all worth it. No matter what I'm doing, I just stop and we have our quiet special time where he likes to have his back scratched and get kisses that he doesn't even wipe off. Did I mention that he is a tease and likes to wipe off our kisses? One day he gave me a kiss and wiped it off my face, he doesn't give kisses very freely anymore so I like to keep them!! I have turned him into a bit of a wimp, I need to stop making a big deal of little bumps and bruises unless he is genuinely upset...I just like that he needs his mommy when he gets hurt so I go ahead and give him all the hugs and kisses he wants. He used to always ask for "egg a toast" in the mornings but now it's "ceyo (cereal)"...I guess I should stop getting the sugary good stuff, but that's what Brad and I like too! He's starting to get particular about what he wears so I've been giving him 2 or 3 choices when he picks out his pajamas or the shirt he's going to wear for the day. I need to go through his stuff because he always tries to pick things that are too small for him before I have a chance to give him his options. Then we have the "that doesn't fit, it's too small" conversation, so when I pick something out he says, "it fits?" and I assure him it does. It hasn't become a power struggle yet, but his true stubborn colors are starting to shine through and I have no doubt we will have plenty of those.

This is long enough and I'm tired.

There's always next year....

Even though they played a crappy game, we still love the Colts.

GO COLTS!!

Surprise, surprise, we will be cheering for the Colts on Sunday. Brad has invited the girls on his team and Jordan and Kolay will be there too. I've never hosted a Super Bowl party before and I'm really excited, I'm really glad I have Kolay to help me! Good luck Colts! And if you're not a fan, keep it to yourself...Brad gets really annoyed with people that bash his Colts and his hero Peyton Manning. GO COLTS!!!!!!! Boo Saints.