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.

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year (and we aren't technically done quite yet-Dad and Kyra are coming in on Wednesday). It was one of our weekends on duty, so we didn't spend a lot of time out of the cottage, but we were able to head over to hang out with Josh's family for a little bit.

Sophie and Dave had a blast opening up presents.




Sophie smirking at Uncle Josh.









Check out what I got!










Best picture of Dave from present opening. A little rough, but he was very serious about getting into his gifts and didn't look up very often for photo opportunities.












Sophie received an awesome tent/tunnel from her parents for Christmas. The kids absolutely loved it-video of playing in tent.











Dave in the tunnel.










Dave helping my mom work while she was watching him last week. Unrelated to this picture, but here's a video of Dave dancing.











Enjoying his new cars table and chairs set from the Lauers. He has sat at it for every meal for three days straight now.








I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I will leave you with a video of Dave playing in the bathtub.

Bowyer Family Christmas

Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas at Josh's Grandma Bertie's. Anybody who is available flies or drives in to hang out the weekend before Christmas. We eat a lot and people participate in the annual Family Feud game.





Dave playing in the kids area.









Sophie being tickled by one of Josh's cousins.










We didn't bring Dave a coat, so he had to borrow one of Sophie's when they went outside. I think he's rocking that white pea coat.













Grandma Bertie and Caleb.










Grandkids and great-grandkids.










Sophie and Dave had fun passing out presents. I think many were half opened by the time they made it to the correct person.









On Wednesday and Thursday, Josh and I took a little getaway up to Amish Acres in Nappanee. My mom came over with my stepbrothers Justin and Tim to watch Dave for us.




As part of the package we had tickets to see A Christmas Carol at the Round Barn Theater. They did an excellent job and we had great seats!







We also had lunch and dinner in their restaurant barn. The Thresher's Dinner was crazy delicious with a ton of fabulous food (family style all you can eat). This picture is from our table-it was beautifully decorated.









Mom and the boys gave Dave his Christmas present while they were here-an easel with all the fixings!












Maybe this artwork will be worth a lot of money someday.








Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! We have to work, but will be celebrating Christmas morning with Josh's family (our case manager is watching the boys for us).

Trip to Columbus

We decided to go hang out with my mom and Andrew for part of our weekend off. Mom cleverly offered us babysitting and movie tickets, how could we say no?





Dave sporting the awesome IU jacket I found for $1.50 at a thrift store. He totally has Hoosier Hysteria this year.







We mostly hung out with mom on this trip-we were only there from Friday-lunchtime on Saturday. One of the reasons we wanted to get over to Columbus was that the zoo there is open for the Christmas season with tons of lights everywhere.





Kind of a blurry picture, but this is at the lake before it got very dark. There was a light show here every half hour.












Dave absolutely loved it. The entire zoo was lit up, it must have taken forever to set it all up.







I don't have any more pictures of the weekend because the batteries died in my camera. But that was about all we did. A short trip, but very relaxing and we were able to sleep in, love doing that!


Here are a couple other pictures from earlier this week.





Dave loves helping Josh make toast in the morning. His favorite part of the process is getting to hold the knife.











Here he is jamming on Josh's keyboard. Of course I took a video of him. Singing jingle bells.





When we came back from Columbus, Josh's parents watched Dave for us so we could do a little shopping for the cottage (we got a couple of new guys this past week). They took Dave and Sophie to check out the Walkway of Lights in Marion. Have I mentioned that Dave loves lights?

Tomorrow we are heading to Josh's grandma Bertie's for her Christmas party. Should be pretty fun and Dave is pumped about going over there to play with her huge assortment of matchbox cars (and see people of course).

One more video, Dave talking in the bath.

Tis the Season

Dave is really getting in the Christmas spirit this year. He loves all the lights and decorations, and seems less afraid of Santa Claus. I don't think he understands the real meaning of the holiday yet, but he will say baby Jesus on occasion.





He loved the tree so much that we got him a set of lights out to play with. Really, it's to keep him from destroying our ornaments, but he's having a blast regardless.












I taught him to lay under the tree and gaze up at the lights. Since we can't put out presents yet (he's already opened some I put under the tree in the cottage), he has plenty of room to sprawl and enjoy.










You can't see the tree, but he's standing next to it and was showing me all the ornaments. Here's a video. Oh, and at the end of the video you can faintly hear him so "no way!". It's his favorite phrase lately.







We haven't really been doing a lot lately, just hanging out and trying to keep Dave entertained inside. Thankfully, Dave does love to play in his room. We're working on getting him to share his toys with us since he forces us to sit and play with him...not that much fun if we just have to sit there (he assigns us places to sit!).




Here he is enjoying one of his birthday presents from my dad and Kyra. It's a little big yet, but he climbs onto an old ottoman and then can dunk. I see a future Hoosier!









Helping me make eggs for the cottage last Sunday. Check out his awesome Bears jersey from Josh's parents.





And here's a video Josh took of Dave in his room. I need to get the baby


I almost forgot-we decided to skip Dave's 2 year appointment (they never tell us anything important anyway) and weighed and measured him here at home. He is 33.5 inches tall (25th percentile), weighs 24.5 lbs (10th percentile), and has a head circumference of 19 inches (35th percentile).

First Snow of the Year

We put up all of our Christmas decorations on Monday while we were still on vacation. Our house is so pretty with all the lights and Dave loves testing the boundaries of touching the tree.





Family picture in front of the tree. I think it's time to get a bigger one-our ornaments are starting to get pretty crowded.






On Tuesday we had our first snow! I think we ended up with about 4 inches or so. And it was still pretty warm out, so Dave was able to go out and enjoy it.





Love the snowsuit. Dave picked out his shoes of course. He insisted on wearing rain boots when he owns two pairs of snowshoes. Here's a video of his reaction to the snow.









So if you watched the video, you know that Dave was asking for his mower. Here he is mowing the snow.












Super pumped about the snowflakes.








On Wednesday Josh's sister Brittany brought her kids up so I could take some pictures of them for Christmas cards. We had a great time visiting, and I think she had a couple decent pictures to use.





Not from the photo shoot, but look how cute Caleb is!










Here's Dave trying to participate. I wanted to get a picture of the three cousins, but that didn't happen.











Sophie looking adorable. Props to Josh for snapping this picture while Brittany and I were out shopping!





And finally a video of Dave and Sophie dancing. Too funny!