Columbus and Visits with Sophie

Sorry for still slacking in the post department. We've been getting everything ready for Florida (we leave in less than 48 hours!!!).





Dave insisted on wearing his new swim trunks (thanks Lauers!) in the bath last week. He must sense that we'll be heading to a warmer climate.






This past weekend we had our half friday, followed by Saturday and Sunday off. So we headed over to Columbus to visit my mom. Saturday morning we got up and headed down to Cinci to check out Ikea. First, we met Josh's friend Dave and his wife for lunch at Smokey Bones (yum). Then we joined the masses at Ikea-it was crazy packed of course.




Mom and Dave playing surprise in the aisles.





We bought a couple things, mostly stuff for Dave's new room and a new coffee table. Josh put it all together and it all looks great.




Mom and Dave feeding the ducks and geese off her balcony.





On Sunday, we left Columbus and went to hang out at Josh's parents since they had Sophie for the evening.




Sophie must've said something funny.









Drawing back for a punch? I wouldn't mess with her!









The kids convinced the grandparents to give piggy back rides.









Love this pic of Sophie and grandma.









Sophie got some new earrings.





On Monday, Sophie and grandma came over to visit with us, but Sophie wasn't feeling so hot, so I don't have any good pictures of that. Here are a few more of Dave.




Playing in his toy room. You can see one of our Ikea purchases behind him-more toy storage! Maybe we just need less toys...









Dave loves his train track from Josh's parents. Here's a video of him playing conductor.





Well, next time you hear from us, we'll either be in Florida, or just returning. I'm hoping to post at least once while we're there. Either way, we'll look more tan!

Transitioning

Since we moved over, Dave has had a bit of a rough time adjusting. I think we're getting through it now, but the last week has been trying our patience!

I think we are very close to successful "big boy bed" sleeping. The first week was terrible, and it was mostly my fault. I was staying with him until he fell asleep, which really did seem like a good idea. However, he would wake up and notice I was missing and get really upset. The last few nights I've been letting him fuss without me and it's gone much better.




Dave's having a love-hate relationship with the big boy bed.






The other day I was out watching the cottage when I kept hearing a weird noise from our apartment. Turns out Dave invented a new game in one of our closets.





I believe he's calling it Hit the Hangers with a Curtain Rod. Gonna be a big hit.






He's really been enjoying his new space out in the cottage.





Running around with one of his many wheeled toys. If it's not the stroller, it's a shopping cart, or a toy from when he was first walking. He sprints around yelling "I can't stop!".










He's taken to playing chess.









Very concentrated.










Couple more pictures of the new place. This is our living room.











Love the photo wall that Josh's parents put together of all of our travel pictures.










Dave being surprised by Josh.







Well, this weekend we're heading to Columbus to see my mom. We're going down to Ikea on Saturday to score some new furniture, so we're looking forward to that. Otherwise, we're just excited to get 2 1/2 days off! Then we only have a week left til Florida. Definitely can't wait for that, our weather has been so dreary lately.

And finally, I forgot to post about Dave's progress in my last post. So, here are some updates... he loves to sing, definitely knows all of his letters, working on the numbers now, loves going to the library (mostly to play with puzzles), and has rediscovered the book Things That Go. We read it every single night. Not that I'm tired of it or anything!

The Big Move

Sorry I've been missing from the blog the past week-we just finished our move over to cottage 2, and boy am I glad that's over! We started packing last week and were able to move stuff over starting on Thursday, so that made the transition a little easier.





Here's Dave "helping" pack up the spare room.














Hiding in an empty closet.









This was from the first wave of moving (and by far the most organized).







Josh's parents took Dave into Logansport on Thursday, so that gave me the opportunity to start unloading boxes at our new place. I love being able to do that so it's not as overwhelming. Then my mom came in on Thursday night to help us over the weekend, when we moved the bulk of our furniture and bigger items. Our guys pitched in and made the move very smooth.

So now we are all (well, mostly) unpacked and loving our new space. Josh's parents came over again yesterday and helped with placing furniture and hanging pictures. As I finish stuff up, I'll post pictures of our finished rooms, but for now I have Dave's new playroom.











I think it turned out cute, and I have a couple more pictures to hang.

I have a couple of pictures from the past week, so here they are.




Dave jamming on Josh's drum set. We finally are able to set it up again!











Dave loves putting on other people's shoes.








We had a really nice day last Tuesday so we took playgroup outside to the playground.


















Loving the swings.







The night before the move, Dave had an awful night sleep-wise. Josh ended up getting up with him at 3:30 and letting him just hang out for a while before we went back to sleep. While he was up, Josh took some hilarious videos of Dave acting super goofy. Let's go find the flashlight. and Animal noises at 3 A.M.

Last video...my mom entertained Dave with a new game at bath time. Fun with letters.

Trip to Evansville

Last weekend we took an extra day to extend our weekend and bopped on down to Evansville to hang out with my family. We spent a lot of time relaxing and kept pretty busy. While we were there mom gave us a new toy-a little HD camcorder/camera. The first few pictures are taken with it-it does a pretty good job!



Dave helped Kyra make cakes.







She even trusted him with dumping in the flour.







Cute picture of Dave and Tony.







Dave and dad goofing off in the kitchen.





Our big reasons for going down there this weekend were food related. Dad and Kyra saved back a prime rib to cook for us, and we had a gift card to a Japanese steakhouse to use up. Unfortunately, I came down with the stomach flu and all of are (my) dreams of eating vanished.
I am feeling much better now, but it was touch and go there for a while.






Dave and grandpa Dave right before we took off to come back home.




We made it home safely, though the car trip did seem endless.




Playing in his new tent (courtesy of Gamma).









Pretending his tent is a rocket ship. It also turns into a plane.






Lots of great updates to mention! We are moving!!! We finally got the approval to move our entire cottage over to cottage 2-it's right next door. Our apartment will have....wait for it...SIX bedrooms. I cannot wait to get over there. Hopefully we'll move in the next couple of weeks.

Another update-Dave knows his letters! He has started pointing them out to us and gets 90% correct. He has a little trouble with B vs D and Y vs V, stuff like that. I am giving Word World (Dave's favorite show right now) all the credit. Seriously, it's a super-cute show and is extremely educational.

Otherwise, Dave continues to improve in his speech-he routinely comes up and asks me "what you eating there mom?" and then tries to steal all of my food. I think we may be past the climbing out of crib phase, at least for now. Bedtime has been a little rough the past few weeks. But I think when we move we're going to make him a big kid room and ditch the crib. I'll report on how that works :)

Keeping busy on cold winter days

The weather lately has been crazy-warmish one day and then frigid the next. So, we are doing anything that we can think of to keep Dave entertained. It's not going very well...Florida can't come soon enough!

On Friday, we had the lovely Corabelle over so her parents could go out for a much deserved evening out. Dave did pretty well while she was here, but it took a couple days to get him to stop pointing at me and saying "this is my mommy?!".



Of course the only picture I took all night wasn't the greatest. Corabelle looks pretty concerned about Dave.










You know, just hanging out in his M&M shirt (thanks Lauers) and camo cowboy hat. This boy has style.












He actually kept the hat on! Here he is playing with his ramps.







I wanted to get Dave the real Legos for Christmas, but they conveniently ran out of all kinds right before I could get any. They came back in stock, and arrived in the mail today. Now Dave can build big towers to his heart's content!





Building his towers (and tunnels now, very advanced) while watching Wild Kratts.







As I have mentioned before, our garage is heated. Dave is in love with playing in the car right now. He likes to drive and order me to sit in certain seats. Josh said he played drive-thru with him the other day and Dave thought it was hilarious.





While he was on a drive. I can't get over how much he looks like Josh in this picture.





Finally, here's a video of him "riding" his tricycle. He insists on wearing either my huge bike helmet or some kind of hat while operating riding toys. I give Dora all the credit on this one, she's always wearing her seat belt or helmets, "so we can be safe!". Riding the trike.

Mechanic in Training

Not a whole lot going on around here lately. We started our new schedule and I'm really liking it so far. Oh, and we booked our tickets to fly to Florida at the end of February. Very pumped about that! I'll just get on with the pictures, since I'm sure that's what everybody is waiting for anyway :)





Dave has discovered celery in the past couple of weeks. I'm not even forcing it on him, this is what he wanted for lunch.









He upgraded to car repair this week. Here's a video of our little mechanic in action.




We had great weather over the weekend. Dave and I went out for a walk on Friday afternoon, and I used it as an opportunity for some photos.





Posing on the rock. He was actually playing hide and seek and I caught him taking a breather.












Hitting the big tree with a stick. Dave is so proud to be a Hoosier this year. I have him in his throwback jacket pretty much everyday.











Playing in the tub. He now lays down in the tub and pretends it's a pool. I think he's getting excited about Florida.









We got the turtles out to play today. Here's an up close picture of Shelly. She loves the spotlight.





And I'll leave you with a video of him climbing out of his crib. He's really quite good at it.

Happy New Year!

Dave and I have been a little under the weather lately. He has an ear infection (he's on medication, and it's quite the struggle to get him to take it), and I just have a bad cold. I think we're over the worst of it now.




Here's Dave from earlier in the week. Looking a little rough.












Still pretty smiley though.







On Wednesday, my dad and Kyra came up to visit with us and celebrate Christmas. They cooked dinner for the cottage on Wednesday night (ham, mac and cheese, and corn, yum!).





Dave giving his approval of the delicious ham.













Dad and Dave doing story time. He had to read the same book over and over.






They left on Friday, and then we have worked the rest of the weekend. It's our last three day weekend since we start our new schedule tomorrow. Can't wait!!

I thought since I am not doing Dave's monthly pictures anymore, I'd do an update on the first of the month with what he's been up to.

He is now pretty consistently counting to 10. He even gets three in there now (he used to skip it all the time). He talks all the time and I think he's to the point that most people can understand him. I realized yesterday that I completely rely on language when communicating with him now. Pretty cool. A lot less frustrating then guessing.

He has stopped using his highchair for the most part and instead sits at a table and chairs set he got for Christmas. Other than that, he's really into trains lately, will sit for a long time with his train and tracks.




I found him stacking his cars on top of the new ramp he got for Christmas. He was so proud of himself!









He loves looking through this red plate.













Dave's styling in his new batman pj's from Dad and Kyra.







Hope everyone had a great New Years! We were working, so just came in after we were off for the night and watched the ball drop. Pretty uneventful, but about all you can do when you have to work the next day.