Happy 2nd Birthday!

Dave's birthday was so much fun this year. He seemed to really understand what was going on (at least as far as the presents and cake!).




He woke up extra early to soak in all of his birthday festivities.






We went over to hang out with my dad and Kyra in the morning. Dad made a delicious cheese ball, and Dave just had to help.





Dad started dipping ham in the cream cheese for Dave to eat. Apparently it's a great combination.





Then we all headed back to my mom's to get ready for the party. Dave took a snooze in the car and was still asleep when I got there, so we left him to sleep and just checked on him frequently. He was still sleeping when his party was scheduled to start!





Had to get him to pose for his last monthly picture. I have decided to stop taking them at the two year mark.










Here's the awesome cake that Kyra made for Dave. I didn't get a picture of Tony's (his birthday was on Thanksgiving), but it was great too.









With Dad, Kyra, and Tony.










Mom's side of the family.










After blowing out the candles. He made us sing Happy Birthday to him 3 times. After the first round, he just kept saying "more!". Who can resist the birthday boy? Here's the video of us singing.











Dave "helping" Tony open up his presents.






Overall, a fabulous 2nd birthday! He is talking in sentences most of the time now. In fact this morning he told that he needed his milk out of the fridge. He also used his potty all by himself without prompting yesterday. Baby stepping to potty training! Of course he hasn't tried again, but maybe soon.

I can't believe how much he has changed in the last year! This age is definitely my favorite so far, even if he can be a little difficult now and then. We are very much looking forward to the next year and can't wait to see what he'll be like at three.

Turkey Week

We had a great time hanging out with my family down in Evansville for the week. We were able to spend lots of time with everybody, and enjoyed relaxing and eating copious amounts of good food. Here's a recap of what we did...






Dave spent a lot of time in the kitchen. He loves doing dishes now (hoping to encourage this as he gets older), and was a ton of help all week.










He's also a great taste-tester. Kyra was making a cake for her niece and Dave gave it his stamp of approval. Here's a video of Dave sampling his own birthday cake.








Of course he spent quite a bit of time taking breaks to eat crackers and M&Ms. Everyone was happy to provide him with lots of treats.










Being cute with grandpa Charlie.











A bunch of Kyra's family came in for Thanksgiving. Dave was crazy good with all the new people and made a lot of new friends.











Here he is coloring at Gamma's house. This used to be mine and my brother's when we were little. Here's a video of him using the markers.











Being carried around like a sack of taters. He's much easier to handle like this.





So as you can see we had a blast! Josh and I were able to leave Dave with anyone who was willing and get some shopping done and even go out one night. It is so nice that Dave really gets who everyone is and gets excited to go to different people's houses.

Visits before Thanksgiving

Since we are visiting my family for Thanksgiving, we went around to see everyone in the Northern Indiana area before we left for vacation. This included going to see Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dave (who will be leaving for sunny Florida after Thanksgiving, jealous) and Grandma Bertie.

We had great visits with everybody. Dave absolutely loves playing with the matchbox cars and tractor at Grandma Bertie's and then he goes over to his other grandparents and plays with blocks and a big fire truck. Dave thinks this arrangement is quite awesome.

Here he is having fun with great-grandpa Dave.








We then made a trip over to Cottage 6 (we work in Cottage 1) to visit with the Lauers. They had been very excited to give Dave his birthday presents. I think his favorite present was the fork and spoon set that have wheels that work on the ends. Kind of hard to visualize, but they are awesome and he insists to use them at every meal!




Dave with the Lauers (Mike and Jean Ann). I get stuck in a habit of referring to everyone by their last names because of our job.






Then Josh's parents came by on Friday to hang out with Dave a little since they won't be seeing him for a week. We'll be celebrating his birthday with them when we come back next Sunday.

That's it as far as visiting goes. Here's a couple random pictures of Dave in his sock hat.


























And playing peak-a-boo with his slide.

Getting Creative

With the weather turning cold, we have become very creative with Dave's playtime. Over the weekend, I converted the garage (which is heated, so awesome!) into a playroom one afternoon.





He was really upset at first that he wasn't able to actually go outside. But he warmed up to the idea that he could still play with his outside toys.












Riding around on his trike.








I recently made some playdoh to go along with a gift that I'm making our niece Sophie for Christmas. Dave absolutely loves it. It's nice because it's made with ingredients that are edible, though you wouldn't want to eat it-very salty!



Taking a bite of the playdoh. Here's a video of him playing.









He loves when I make him snakes out of the playdoh. It's really the only animal I can make, but he doesn't have to know that! This is of him trying to get me to fix a snake that he cut in half.





We also took a twin bed that we had hanging out in Dave's room and put it in our spare room. Now Dave has lots of space to play, and we put some of his favorite bigger toys in there.





Goofing around with mom.











Building a big tower with his wooden blocks. Note the concentration!













His favorite part is knocking the tower down once it's too high for him to reach. Never fails to get a laugh out of him.






And here's another video. This one is of him doing an assortment of things in his room. He's easily distracted! Playing in room video.

This next week we are traveling to visit my family down in Evansville for Thanksgiving. Can't wait, it's been too long since we last came down there! We'll also be celebrating Dave's birthday (can he really be two?!) so I should have lots of updates either while we're there or once we get back. Hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving!

Life's a scream

The past couple of weeks Dave has really enjoyed letting loose a good scream. Anytime he is excited, upset, etc., he feels the need to scream at the top of his lungs. So far, we haven't been too successful in stopping him from doing this, but it's a work in progress.




Instead of smiling for pictures, he now does this scream face.







Our last week was pretty uneventful...lots of time off which is nice!





Josh and Dave playing the up down game.







Josh's parents kept Sophie overnight on Friday, and watched Dave for us so we could go out to eat.




The cousins enjoying some time together.









Here's another scream picture.








Dave reading his jack and the beanstalk book. It's his latest obsession. Here's a video of him reading it.





And here's proof of his full sentence talking. Telling the plane story. Wait til the end...it's hilarious!

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.