14 months (and 100th post!)

This is the 100th post for the Bowyers-time sure flies! Today also marks Dave's 14 month birthday, here's his monthly picture.




He loves to play on our couch. It is super nerve-racking for me, but occupies him for minutes on end.








Hanging out before the Bears game on Sunday.








Dave rediscovered his infant tub. He likes to stand up in it and surf.










Doesn't he look adorable in this sweatshirt?







I finally captured all of Dave's tricks on video. Dave's tricks.

Sorry for the short post! We've been really busy and I'm trying to capitalize on Dave's afternoon nap by cleaning up house :) Have a great week!

Visit in Evansville

We left Thursday night with one of our guys in tow to head to Evansville. He's from there, so we get paid to drive him down, rather than someone from White's driving him or his family having to drive all the way up and back. Anyway, we rode down in style in the new van-makes such a difference!

Once we got there, Dave immediately remembered where all the toys are kept at Gamma's and of course wanted to play (it was about 2 AM our time). We hung out Friday, met my bro for lunch, then had dinner at my mom's.

That evening began the great mouse hunt of 2011. Mom and Andrew's house backs up to a field so they've had a bit of a mouse problem this year. We all pitched in to try to catch some of their infamous mice (they have waited at the door to come inside and gotten into mom's Dustbuster). Anyway, after much excitement, Andrew's son ended up killing two! It was an excellent family bonding moment.







Here's Josh, Tony, and Andrew trying to trap one behind the TV. Those mice were very tricky!









Family picture. Dave loves wearing his hat backwards!





We hung out a bunch at my dad's house too (lots of food was involved!). Josh and Tony put together Dad and Kyra's new treadmill.




The boys very proud of their accomplishment. Dave really liked playing on the treadmill. Uncle Tony pushed him up and back like a conveyor built-very exciting for a one year old.








And keeping with the exercise theme-Dave loved jumping on their mini trampoline. Here's a video my dad took of him. Jumping on trampoline.






Josh came down with bronchitis/respiratory infection on Sunday and spent the day at the med clinic and in bed. So Dave and I hung out at Dad's and watched football. Josh is feeling better now, but I'm pretty sure he gave me a nasty cold.

Once we were home, Dave was so excited to see all his stuff. Josh asked him where his pumpkin book was, and he started looking for it and found it. So, of course, we tried to recreate this scene and video tape it. Well, it actually worked. Here's the video: Pumpkin book.





And finally, a picture of Dave vacuuming. He's very concentrated when cleaning!

Something new every day

We have definitely come to a point where Dave amazes us with a new word or new action every day. His vocabulary now consists of: cracker (he says this a thousand times a day), car, kitty cat, dada, juice, keys, cheese, and this. Still no momma, but hopefully he'll say it someday!

If you ask him to go get something, he recognizes what you are asking for and goes to find it. About 90% of the time he retrieves the right thing. I'm always impressed by this trick.

In other development news, he is learning how to eat by himself. Or, I should say, we are letting him eat by himself now. I'm sure he would've figured it out if we allowed him to do it sooner, I just wasn't ready for all the mess!






He started off by playing in the yogurt (of course) and using his right hand.








But when he really got serious, he favored his left. Southpaw? Look how serious he is. He's not the most accurate yet-check out the yogurt in his hair.




And here's a video of him eating oatmeal. Eating by himself.


He also loves to climb on anything. We've been working with playing on his gym.




Hiding from mom. And a video. Playing on the gym.







My grandpa is an avid gun shooter. He goes to shoot skeet (and shoot the breeze!) at least once a week. So, I always knew he would buy Dave a gun some day. Little did I know it would be so soon :) Josh was especially excited since he loves to shoot as well and can't wait to take Dave (in a few years) out to shoot.





Opening up the BB gun. Papaw really wrapped it up tight!









His very own gun! And before we put it away, we got a video of him "playing" with the gun. Adult supervision was close at hand, and the gun was definitely not loaded! Dave's new gun. If you watch closely, you can see he was paying attention when Josh was showing him how to use it.

Happy New Year!

First of all, here are the videos I owe from my last post.

Dave and Sophie opening presents.

Dave chatting on the cottage phone.


We didn't really celebrate the New Year in style, but we're happy it's here! Tony came up to visit with us (I think he may have stayed up until midnight) and we worked through the weekend.






Dave and Uncle Tony.







We've been thinking about buying a van for a very long time. Well, last Wednesday we finally did it. We bought a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country (Touring...very fancy, ha). I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I'll post one after I do. We absolutely love it. It has the seats that fold down into the belly of the van, so it's very convenient.

Otherwise, we've just been working and hanging out with Dave. We work this weekend again and then are finally off for an entire weekend on Jan 14th. Can't wait!

Okay, more pictures of the Davester:



Dad makes a good stepping stool.











Dave and his frog pull toy. He about has this thing figured out.












I guess the oven drawer is a fun place to hang out.











It was bound to happen. He figured out how to climb onto the bed we keep in his room. He especially loves to run headfirst off of it and dive onto the floor. Do not worry, no injuries yet!






And finally, a couple of videos.

In the first, you can see that Dave has mastered the child-proof locks that we placed on the chemicals in the kitchen. We haven't figured out what we're going to do about this yet. For now, we just turn his attention away from them.

Locks.

Over the past week, we taught Dave to put both his hands on his face whenever we prompt him. We think it's super cute, so here's a video.

Hands on Face.