Donovan's Birthday and other misc.

I love Chamae's toothy grin, she is so fun.

I think he was trying to convince me to take a picture of the big spider he found... I won't post that one.

Since Brad was going out of town, we celebrated his and Donovan's birthdays as a family by going to Texas Roadhouse. It was delish as always. Even Chamae ate some of my sweet potato. She also had some of her puffs and rice rusks. She loves her finger foods. She gets mad when I cut her off.

She makes it easy to love her. She's so stinkin' cute.

Donovan wouldn't pose for a picture, so I was waiting patiently for the perfect opportunity to catch him. Unfortunately, Brad wasn't ready...but he still looks handsome:)

They got to sit on the saddle together and got some ice cream for their birthdays.

Brad is impossible to buy gifts for, so I tried to be thoughtful this year. We always have to get a mug or 2 when we go to Disneyland and he actually uses mugs in his office to hold pens and other things, so I made him a mug on Snapfish with our family pictures on it. I also made him a calendar for his office. He seemed to like them and they were a total surprise...I win.

I love getting Chamae dressed. Much more than I like getting myself dressed, that's for sure. I find myself buying her leggings...they just look so cute on those chubby legs!

Donovan decided he wanted to be like his Aunt ShayLea the other day. He gave himself a super awesome haircut that could only be fixed by shaving the rest of it off. So depressing, I love his dark hair with those blue eyes. Someone at church said he was adorable with a shaved head, and of course he is, but I miss his hair!! It will grow back, I know. He rubs his head a lot now.

Here's my little pirate baby. She cracks me up. The little stinker will not sit in the tub. Once I set her in, she's trying to pull herself up.

She thinks she's pretty awesome.

My crazy hairless child. Love him.

Chamae in her "jeggings". I used to think these were so lame. Wrong-o. They are perfect for baby girls! They have the adorableness of jeans, but they're way more comfortable and she can move so easily in them! She's obviously happy about it too.

And now, to my little 4 year old. I can't believe he's 4 and going to preschool in a few days! He is such a sweet heart. Yes, we have our ups and downs, we always will, but at the end of the day, he is my baby boy and I love him so much! I think I can speak for both Brad and myself when I say he has been a huge blessing in our lives. There are so many memories we will always cherish and can't wait for what lies ahead with this little man. He's a great big brother and a good friend (most of the time). He loves his daddy and gets really sad when he has to go on long trips. When I told him Brad would be gone for a week, he said, "That will be sad, I don't want him to be lost." This little boy is so compassionate. It's a little silly sometimes. I had cut up some jalepenos for dinner the other day and said something about it burning my skin. He got a serious sad face and said, "I'm really sorry that you got burned. That must hurt." He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. He's not always this in tune with other's feelings, but when he is, it's very sweet. He is extremely curious about everything. From our bodies to geography, he wants to know everything about everything and will ask a million questions everyday. I'm a little worried about him being overbearing in school because he is so talkative and inquisitive. I hope they teach him to raise his hand and speak in turn. I haven't been successful. He is learning a lot in Sunbeams. He always asks me questions about Jesus and Heavenly Father, but they aren't always easy to answer. He's a fun little boy and we love him!!

Where do these questions come from?!

My conversation with Donovan the other day:

Donovan: How do you get babies out of your tummy?
Me: The Dr takes it out.
Donovan: How does the Dr get it out?
Me: Sometimes you have to have surgery and he cuts your tummy open and sometimes it slides out.
Donovan: How does it slide out?
Me: The Dr pulls it.
Donovan: Where does it come out?
Me: I'm not sure I should tell you that.
Donovan: Why?
Me: I don't want you to tell your Sunbeam class.
Donovan: Why?
Me: I might get in trouble with other moms. Do you want me to get in trouble?
Donovan: Yeah.

Somehow I got out of it after that. He got distracted. I didn't know what else to say. I would probably just tell him, but I think he's a little young and he'd go around repeating it to everyone. Thankfully he's more concerned about getting the baby out than he is about how it got there in the first place. I'm sure that day will come before I'm ready.

Adorable

Sometimes I wonder how my kids got so cute. And how they got the same mix of genes from Brad and me. They look so much alike, it's crazy. Donovan's friend Sydney came over one day and we have a picture of Donovan in Disneyland when he was 6 months old on our fridge. She looked at it and said, "There's Chamae!" The differences in them are pretty subtle, besides their obvious difference in hair color. Either way, they're both stinking adorable.

Chamae only seems to want to stand in the tub, but she's starting to pull herself up on other things. This picture was a little staged...

She's pretty stylish for her age. She definitely knows how to rock the leggings.

I love her adorable grin. She's so happy these days, I'm loving it!
She actually likes to wear this headwrap too, which is great because it goes really well with her gorgeous blue eyes.

She chews on everything...of course.

We celebrated Donovan's birthday early since Brad will be out of town that day and will leave for a week long trip the next day. Donovan and I finally agreed on a Cars, racetrack theme. It was super easy and it turned out pretty cute. And he got 2 new cars out of it so he was happy.

He's so incredibly excited...can't you tell?

He got pretty spoiled this year. We need to get a new toy organizer so their toys all have a home again.

"I'm a pretty little princess." He wanted to play with the tutu I made for his sister. He's pretty silly that way. If it's new, he has to try it out.

Pretty Stoked

Thanks to his Aunt Lenna, this handsome little boy will be going to preschool this Fall! Woot! He's getting pretty excited. I told him yesterday afternoon after I was sure he got in. The first thing he said to me was, "Do I get to go right now?!" He's ready for preschool...or just ready to be away from his mommy and sister for a few hours every day. He's going to do great, I think it's going to be good for him. I'm also trying to get him in some sort of tumbling or gymnastics class. He's so active and loves people so much, it's time for him to get out and do some fun stuff with kids his age!

Check ups

Chamae went in for her 6 month check up (at 7 months...oops) and Donovan went in for his 4 year check up. Here are the stats:

Chamae:

Height: 18lbs 14oz-80th% (Donovan was 20lbs at 6 months)

Weight: 28 1/2 in-98th%(exact height as Donovan at 6 months)

Donovan:

Height: 42 3/4 in-95th%

Weight: 43 lbs-95th%

They're both healthy and happy and growing like crazy!

Things Chamae can do: She is sitting up all by herself like a pro. She rolls and twists all over and occasionally gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. She'd rather walk around holding mommy's fingers than learn how to crawl. She pulled herself up in the tub yesterday and often gets up on her hands and feet like Mowgli. It doesn't last long, but she can do it. She is very opinionated and demanding already, but she has to be to get her share of attention with a crazy brother around! She loves to imitate noises and loves to grab people and pull them right up to her face. She also loves to stick everything in her mouth, especially Donovan's toys. She is up to 2 meals a day, consistently and still prefers nursing to a bottle...although she doesn't really get a bottle very often, nursing is so much more convenient! She is still a terrible sleeper, but I've gotten over it and I work around it as much as I can. I'm supposed to stop feeding her at night so she'll start sleeping through, but that's not going to be easy...she's very loud. She is a lot like Donovan was/is, no sense of Stranger Danger. We're around so many different people, I think they both find it pretty normal to be around people they don't know. She will give her smiles pretty freely, but she is not much of a laugher. She's very stingy with her giggles. She makes the "dadada" sound and grunts and squeals all the time. She has happy squeals and angry squeals, you can tell the difference when you see her face. She let out some pretty loud happy squeals in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. She's pretty adorable:)

Things Donovan can do: Donovan can button up his Sunday shirts all by himself (he even gets them lined up right). He counts to 20 consistently and we're working on counting higher. He knows all of the letters in the Alphabet and their sounds. He can write a few letters including, P A O E D I. I think there are more, but that's all I can think of right now. He tries to argue and reason with us about everything and likes to get the last word in. He loves to do somersaults and really wants to do a backwards somersault but can't quite figure it out without a little help. He blows bubbles for his sister and draws awesome stick figures everywhere (Chamae has stick figures on her Bumbo). He's very thoughtful and likes to do things for other people. He loves to draw pictures and always wants to send them to his grandparents and friends. I usually drop the ball on that one... He is very active and loves to be moving, even when he's watching TV. His imagination is pretty awesome. I love to listen to the make-believe games he comes up with. His most recent imaginary friend is named, "Flimp" and he talks about him quite often. His Aunt Lenna is his Sunbeam teacher and has heard about him a few times. He loves people and waves to everyone he sees. When they don't wave back he always tells me, "they didn't wave back to me, I guess they didn't see me." He's very excited about his birthday. I have been asking him what kind of cake he wants. It changes almost daily. So far, he has thought of, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America (because he likes the shield), Dinosaurs, and Buzz and Woody. I'm still not sure what we're going to do because Brad will be gone for his actual birthday. I may just celebrate with family on Sunday and then have a little friend get-together when Brad is gone...still not sure.

Anyway, even though I vent a little about the negative side of parenting, I do love my kids and I love the stages they are in. I love Chamae's slobbery kisses and noise imitations and I love Donovan's imagination, independence, and energy! Brad and I both love them so much. I love to watch Brad with them. He doesn't get to be around as much as we'd like during this time of year, but they soak in every moment with him! I sneak over to the school quite a bit during his office hours...the people in the office probably get annoyed with us, but Donovan loves going over there to see his Daddy and it gives him a chance to see Chamae since she's usually asleep when he gets home.