Halloween 2011

This Halloween was the year of many costumes. Three to be exact. Here is how it happened.

We started out with something Dave absolutely loves...The Map from Dora. So I took a plain thermal and ironed on some pictures of The Map I found from the internet and printed. Really seemed like a good idea, but turned out kinda blah.





The Map costume.






So onto idea #2. Diego. Of course! Dave loves Diego. He'll be so pumped to be dressed up as him. Wrong.




Here's the costume. We had it all on hand, and the vest is made from a pair of Josh's old corduroy pants.











Here's Dave in the costume. And this is by far the best picture. He hated it. The vest was a battle, and it ended up in the trash after Dave tore it off. It was very much like the incredible hulk.







So we were back to square one. No costume. Thankfully, last time we visited Evansville we snagged the suit my brother wore in a wedding when he was Dave's age. Perfect! Somehow Josh put it on Dave without him throwing a fit.





Dave and all the awesomeness that is a baby in a vest!













Looking so handsome. We decided to say he was a preacher. Other people thought that he was a mafia guy.












Strutting his stuff around the trunk or treat event we had on campus.












After one too many suckers...and a visit with the Lauers and their puppies!







Hopefully somebody made it through all of those costume changes! I think Dave was happy in the end with his cool suit-he received lots of attention all night.

23 months old!

Well, we are one short month away from Dave's second birthday. It just doesn't seem possible!




The only way I could get him to sit still was to have him read a book in his favorite chair.






I thought that this month I would show some of Dave's favorite things through pictures.





This shows Dave saying "What's this?", his all time favorite phrase.
He will ask this a million times a day. Thankfully it's still cute. We'll see how long I say that!







Grandma Divana got him started on building big towers with his legos. Every time he sees the legos he says "big tower" and dumps out the entire box. He is actually getting very good at building towers, but is also fond of tearing down the cool ones that we build.








It is hard to tell, but this is a picture of him dancing with daddy. I guess Josh has some dance moves that I didn't come programmed with, because Dave always chooses him over me. Oh well, it's nice to not have him yelling "mommy, mommy" once in a while!









Flying Dave. Of course he loves this!









And finally, no list of Dave's favorite things would be complete without including ranch. He eats it with everything imaginable: carrots, any kind of meat, cantaloupe, grapes...you name it, he's tried it.




Well there you have it, Dave's favorite things.

As far as other recent updates, he's still completely clingy to me, but we're working on it. He talks almost completely in full sentences (with lots of gibberish for filler). And he has a very active imagination-he likes to make cookies and crackers with dishes from the kitchen, and he talks to the baby doll that Josh's mom gave him a couple days ago. It's really cool to see him pretend like that.

We have been very busy this past week! On Wednesday, Josh took Dave to visit with his family in Logansport. Then on Thursday I met my grandma Colleen in Indy (she was visiting in Indiana last week). I also stopped by to hang out with Josh's sisters and the kids. A long day of driving, but we had fun.

We've also kept busy keeping Dave entertained indoors. The weather has been up and down lately, so Dave's outdoor time has been very limited.





Playing with his indoor playground. We've been leaving it out the past week instead of putting it up every night.












Dave took his socks off then smelled his feet since they were stinky.









Pumped about stinky feet!






Thankfully, the weekend was gorgeous. Dave and I went out to hang out with Josh's family to celebrate his grandpa's birthday. We met up at a campground and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (muckamellows to Dave).





Everybody kept giving Dave chocolate. He didn't mind.













Dave and the great-grandparents. Love the expressions here.







I have been letting Dave get more involved with cooking lately. On Sunday, he helped me make pancakes for the boys.





Mixing up the batter.











His favorite part was the chocolate chips.






And here's a video of Dave picking out a book. I can't believe I got this on video...he says "ABC" in this one! I knew there was a reason I was recording him.

Visit in Columbus

Last Friday we headed to Columbus to hang out with my mom and Andrew. Josh's parents followed us as far as Columbus because they were going to a cabin in Ohio for the weekend (and to watch the Bengals/Colts game). We stopped for breakfast at a really cute town called Celina, Ohio. Highly recommended if you like little lake towns. I forgot to take pictures, but I'm sure you can google it!


Friday we hung out and Josh and I did a little bit of shopping.





Mom and Dave playing with finger puppets she found at Ikea. They always have the coolest stuff.




On Saturday we headed to the COSI, a science museum in Columbus. They had a Diego/Dora exhibit on loan from Indianapolis, so that was our main reason for going. It turned out to be one of the coolest museum's we had been to.





Dave was so pumped about Dora and Diego he wouldn't sit still for a picture.







There was a cool Oceans exhibit where you got to play with water in all sorts of ways and see a submarine. This water feature let out smoke whenever you broke the surface of the bell shape.










Josh and Dave outside the submarine area.










There were balloons that you raised up by pushing buttons and then they would fall back down. This is mom and Dave telling the balloons to "go down".





After the museum, mom took Dave and Josh and I went off to the outlets to do some shopping. Beautiful day for the outlets and we got a lot of Christmas shopping done. Very successful! Then Sunday we headed back home to prepare for work.

That about wraps up our last week. And here's a video of Dave and I playing "boo!".

Sophie and Dave at the Petting Zoo

On Sunday, Josh's mom went to get Sophie for the night, and we came over to play (it was our half day off Sunday). We hung out and had dinner, mostly just let the kids play. They are really loving building things with Legos these days.




My attempt at a cute fall shot including a pumpkin.






On Monday, Josh needed some time to prepare for a class he's teaching here at work, so Divana and I took the kids to the petting zoo in Gas City again. Of course, they had a blast, but he llamas didn't appreciate our food this time-who knew they wouldn't like potato chips?





Sophie feeding some goats. Video of the kids feeding animals.











There is a really nice playground within the park, so we took the kids there to burn off some energy.









My little daredevil. He did get stuck and had to get help to get down. Almost made it though!










Looks like they're coming up with some kind of plan here.





Josh's sister came up with the rest of her family for dinner.






Finally got a picture of Caleb smiling! So cute.




Tomorrow we're off to Columbus to hang out with my mom for the weekend. We're hopefully going to the Dora and Diego exhibit that is at their science museum right now, and Josh and I will be going outlet shopping on Saturday. I wish the weather forecast looked a little better, but we'll make the most of it!

Photo Shoot at the Park

On Sunday, I took Dave over to the park and while there took a bunch of pictures. Dave gets a little neglected when we are on duty all weekend, so I try to take him to the park (on campus) to give him a little mom time.





He started off great on the swing. Of course, there are two swings and he feels the need to have to swing in both of them. Because that must make perfect since to a 2 year old.











Here's what happened when I tried to convince him that both swings did the same thing. I won't be having this conversation anymore...so much easier just to stick him in the other swing!











He recovered quickly from his mini meltdown.












Of course he has to be a daredevil everywhere we go. At least this little slide thing isn't very high off the ground!












Super cheese! I didn't even pose him for this. I know, hard to believe.

Gas City Petting Zoo

On Thursday we took Dave to Gas City's petting zoo. I guess it's run by the city or something, it's randomly located in a city park. Anyway, free entertainment-and you get to bring your own stuff to feed the animals. So we packed up a gallon baggie of stale cereal and Dave had a blast.




Look! More awesome animals. (He actually does say awesome now, which is hilarious)












Josh, Dave, and a deer.










Dave checking out the llamas. He calls them mamas though because of the book Is Your Mama a Llama? Great book by the way.








The only mishap of the day was when Dave got nipped by one of the turkeys. Since they don't have long tongues to grab the food, it was trying to bite at the food in Dave's hand. Dave handled it very well and was more scared by it than anything.





Feeding the goats. Here's a video from the petting zoo.






Other than the petting zoo, we haven't been doing a whole lot lately. Just enjoying this awesome weather that we've been blessed with this past week.





Dave cheesing out from being tickled.










This is his TV watching post. Not at all dangerous or anything.











And this is what happens when he falls. So far, he's fallen that direction. It really is only a matter of time before he breaks something.

New skills

This face either means he's being super cute or is calculating his next move.





We have had a very eventful week in terms of Dave developments. The biggest one being that he can now climb out of everything. Cribs, highchairs, pack-n-plays. He is quite the climber and goes around saying "I climb!". My favorite so far was when he tried to climb up the oven.




He climbed into his toy basket to watch tv.






Obviously, his new climbing skill has been a bit of a challenge, especially when it comes to naps and bedtime. He has pretty much stopped taking naps at Josh's parents' house because he either gets his legs stuck in the bars or climbs out (which is a pretty far drop for him). At home, I just have a conversation with him about not climbing out before I lay him down. It's been pretty successful so far-only one break out attempt since we started the pep talks.

He also learned to say "I love you" this week. Sometimes he repeats it to me after I say it to him. Other times I just tell him to say it because it's ridiculously adorable. It certainly helps to hear after all the trouble he's been getting into lately!


Last Thursday we took yet another trip to the pumpkin patch. Hey, it's free and Dave loves it.





Here's how we get Dave to smile for family pictures.









It takes a lot of work to get him to smile at the camera!









Dave in the maze of giant pumpkins.









Loving the tractor. Here's a video of him "driving".






And another video...attacking his play gym.