Just Davey and Me

Busy, busy, busy!

2012-01-30T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, sorry it has been so long since I've posted here! It has been a little crazy this semester juggling mine and Davey's busy schedule! School started 3 weeks ago, but I missed my first few classes from being sick, first from my asthma being so bad and then a migraine one day. I'm caught up in 3 of my classes, but missing so much algebra was a huge mistake and I got so far behind there was no way I was going to catch up, and it doesn't help that it has been over 10 years since I have taken algebra - I was completely lost! I can't drop the class because I already dropped a class the first week and if I drop algebra I will be part time and I have to stay full time because of financial aid and housing. So I am just continuing to miss class and will take an F for absences. It's not really a big deal because I can retake it in the fall and cancel out that F. The class I dropped the first week was English. I had decided to take it online and when I looked at the class the first week I realized I'd rather take it with a different teacher in class. This online teacher gives the topic for all the papers, and all the topics were about the Mississippi Delta, including one based on an interview about the Delta and I know nothing at all about the Delta! I plan to take it this summer hopefully with my teacher from last semester who lets you pick your topics. I wish I hadn't dropped it though so I could drop algebra! I also officially changed my major to psychology last week. I had decided at the end of last semester that I still have that longing to be a psychologist and work with adolescents. I'm taking general psychology this semester and will be meeting with my new adviser on Tuesday after class. I'm thinking about transferring to Mississippi State or Ole Miss next year in the Fall because they offer so much more as far as psychology classes than Delta State does. It will probably be Ole Miss because after visiting Mississippi State I was a little overwhelmed by how huge the campus is!

Anyway, besides school we are keeping busy with Davey's schedule. He has been in speech and physical (occupational) therapy since October and is really improving a lot! His speech has been getting much better because his teacher and the director at daycare work with him a lot, along with him being in therapy. I can now understand most of what he says, compared to a few months ago when I couldn't understand half of what he said! Since he turns 3 this Saturday he will be switching to working with the school district for his therapy. He is going to continue physical therapy where he's at because the school district doesn't offer that unless he goes to their preschool, and his insurance is covering it. The school district will start doing language therapy twice a week at his daycare. They said he qualified for their preschool but the problem is he would get out for the summer and I have to take summer classes so that won't work out.

A few weeks ago we also started going to Mississippi State to start his evaluation there. It will take several sessions but they did say at his initial appointment that they don't think he is autistic because he doesn't have any social impairment that they could see. Though from looking at the rating scales his daycare teacher and the director filled out I did see that he doesn't interact with the other kids how he should, so not sure what they will say about that. They said they would probably call it PDDNOS (I think that stands for pervasive developmental delays not otherwise specified) and possibly ADHD because he is so hyperactive. They said they don't like to actually diagnose ADHD this young though because the main treatment for it is medication and they don't think kids this young should be on medication for it, and I agree! They will be starting some type of behavioral therapy after the evaluation is done, and they said that could help with ADHD as well if he has it. I am looking forward to the behavioral therapy because it will teach me how to deal with his tantrums and stuff. His tantrums have improved a little since I last posted... he still has them quite a bit, but they are nothing like they were. I figured out I think part of the problem was his teacher at the time who I found out after she was fired that she had gotten written up for yelling at the kids twice, and she was also sitting Davey on the potty for 15 minutes at a time while he was screaming the whole time and I found out she hadn't stopped when I asked her to!

Speaking of sitting on the potty, Davey recently started asking his new teacher to put him on the potty. He occasionally asks at home too, but he still hasn't actually gone potty in the potty. It is a big improvement that he is at least asking to sit on it though! He sees the other kids sitting on the potty at daycare and wants to do it because they are. At home he usually only asks when I give him a bath or sometimes when we're getting ready for bed. I don't push it, just put him on it when he asks.

I have a few pictures for y'all this time... Davey found the boxes of his birthday presents in my room over the weekend and thought they were toys that I had taken away from him and boxed up... he started asking for those toys and I made the mistake of telling him that's not what they were, that they were his birthday presents he gets next weekend. He repeated "presents" but didn't say anything else until about 10 minutes later he was insisting on opening presents! I gave in, since what difference does a week make when he doesn't even understand he is getting them early? So I wrapped them up in Christmas paper since I didn't have any birthday paper and gave them to him early. He was pretty excited about his Toy Story comforter and rug and he also got some new Sandra Boynton books, which he added to the pile I have to tuck him in with at night every night!

Davey has also recently started asking me to take pictures of him, though he doesn't really understand he has to stand away from me to take the picture and then he can see it on the camera! This picture he wouldn't get out of my lap so I had to hold the camera out and take a picture of us together:

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

2011-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

2011-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I realized it is about time for another update on here! School is going pretty well and for the most part I'm still enjoying my classes. Government class is still pretty interesting, and my French teacher makes class fun, although I am usually a little bored by the work because I work ahead a few lessons. My French professor actually wants me to try to work through the whole book by the end of the holidays and then skip French 102 and 201 and start with French 202 next semester. I think I can do it... the work is pretty easy because French has always come easily to me. It is just a matter of making the time to work ahead! English class is boring and feels like a waste of time... we get out early every day which is nice at least. I am going to look into CLEPing out of ENG 102 next semester so I don't have to write research papers. My computer applications class is fairly easy but very time consuming. We use blackboard for some of the work and another site called SAM for training exercises and tests. The training exercises take up a whole lot of time so this is one class I don't want to leave my work until the last minute! I actually dropped my history class a few weeks ago because I've been having problems with Davey and have been kind of stressed out and history has always been my hardest subject and this class had a lot of reading outside of class that I was having a hard time getting done and remembering what I read. But I am still full time, 12 hours, which I have to stay full time for my grant and to stay in family housing.

The problems with Davey are mostly his temper tantrums getting out of hand. It seems like everything I do (or don't do) sets him off screaming. Sometimes he starts screaming for no apparent reason and nothing calms him down. We went through about a week when he got a new daycare teacher where he screamed from the time he woke up in the morning until the time he went to sleep at night, and believe me, I am not exaggerating at all! He is also VERY set on routine and if I do anything at all differently than usual it sets off a tantrum. His doctor was concerned about his speech problem as well and I decided to see the doctor about getting him in speech therapy thinking maybe if he has more language skills he could tell me what is wrong and his tantrums won't be so bad. We also decided on getting a developmental evaluation done for him because I realized that in some ways he is developmentally delayed as well but I just didn't realize it because I am not around other kids to compare him to. His teacher at daycare said he is behind the other kids in school developmentally and the tantrums are bad at daycare too, not just at home. He also won't sit still at daycare to learn anything and she has to spend extra time with him to get him to do anything he is supposed to do. I can tell from the artwork they send home that he is not even doing most the artwork. The teacher is apparently doing it for him or holding his hand and doing it. There have been a couple of things he scribbled all over, but he is not tracing shapes or letters like the other kids are. I also can't get him to tell me anything he did at daycare because he won't answer questions, and my friend said he should be able to tell me at least one thing he did at daycare. All he does is repeat my questions and doesn't answer them. Anyway, his doctor wanted him to go to the medical university in Jackson for the evaluation but said it could take up to 6 weeks for them to even call me about the appointment and then at least another 2 months to get in for the evaluation. I didn't want to wait that long because I seriously need help figuring out how to deal with him, especially with the tantrums. I'm having a little success with timeout but we do several timeouts a day on the weekends which include me putting him in his room until he stops screaming, usually about 30 minutes. So a couple of weeks ago I called Early Intervention at the health department and his evaluation is this Thursday. I am sure they will at least put him in speech therapy if nothing else but I think he probably needs some occupational therapy as well. I am looking forward to finally getting some answers Thursday.

I've also made a new friend here finally - my next door neighbor. She has 2 kids that are 1 and 3, and the 3-year-old is in Davey's class at daycare and they are really good friends. She actually took Davey to the park with her kids one day just after we met, and we have taken them to the park together too, and she comes over sometimes in the afternoons while the kids are still at daycare. We're already making plans for her husband to watch the kids while we go see Breaking Dawn next month! :)

Fall break is coming up next week and we will be going to OB to see everyone, and also making the trip out to Tiplersville one of those days to see Teresa and her kids! I can't wait and I'm sure Davey will be excited to see everyone!

I'll try to post more often so my posts aren't so extremely long :)

School, daycare, and we're sick!

2011-09-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been quite some time since I've posted on this blog.... I keep pretty busy with Mommy and Me Giveaways although I haven't even really been doing my fair share over there lately. We got settled in at Delta State last month and classes started and Davey started daycare. So far I'm loving school, especially my French and American Government classes... which is good considering those are classes for my majors! Davey loves daycare so much that he usually throws a little tantrum when I pick him up because he doesn't want to go home.

After 1 week in daycare Davey came home with a runny nose. It got better last week, then started up again Friday along with diarrhea all weekend. Monday and Tuesday his stomach seemed better but this morning he woke up with diarrhea again. He didn't have a fever so I sent him on to daycare and just told them he can't have any milk. When I picked him up they said he had diarrhea all day and he threw up once. So I came home and looked up a doctor for him and will call first thing in the morning and see if they can fit him in.

I am catching whatever he has with the congestion and sinus drainage. Thankfully I haven't caught whatever is wrong with his stomach! Also last Saturday I had to go to the minor med while I was in Olive Branch because of a toothache. I have a wisdom tooth that is chipped at the gums and got infected. They put me on antibiotics and gave me pain killers and thankfully by Tuesday it wasn't hurting anymore. I had an appointment with a dentist today, so I knew I would miss History class. I went to French and then headed to my appointment. I had hoped I would be back in time for English, but I wound up being there for 5 hours just for them to tell me they couldn't pull it and they wanted me to go to an oral surgeon. So they gave me the name and number of someone to go to that I have to call tomorrow.

Tomorrow, on top of taking Davey to the doctor, I have an appointment in the afternoon to get my inhaler refilled because I can't get Primatene Mist over-the-counter inhalers here. They don't work that well anyway and always stop spraying right before they run out so last night I had to do a breathing treatment which I haven't had to do in a long time just so I could go to sleep. I made my doctor appointment for after class, but with having to take Davey to the doctor I think I will be missing government class which really stinks because we're supposed to find out what groups we'll be in for our group project we're doing soon.

Then Friday after class I have to rush to the mental health center to see my new psychiatrist so I can get refills on my bipolar meds. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate doctors? And now I'm spending half my time at doctor's offices this week! I am exhausted from this cold or whatever I've got and last night I actually went to bed at 7pm and slept until 6:30. I woke up feeling a little better but after sitting in a dentist's office all day long and then dealing with Davey being cranky when I picked him up, I am pretty tired again and I think I will be going to bed early again tonight.

I'll try to post more often here, and hopefully posts with happier news! :)

It's been awhile...

2011-05-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if anyone is even still subscribed to this blog, if so, sorry for the lack of updates! Mommy and Me Giveaways keeps me so busy that when it comes to blogging I just don't have much time for other blogs usually. I have, however, started a new blog. It is a travel blog - Just Us on the Road. It is sort of for practice for later on, if I ever wind up working for a travel magazine, which is one of my dreams. That is another thing keeping me busy -- getting everything lined up to start school this fall! Ever since high school it has been my dream to go to Delta State to study foreign language. I almost did just that when I graduated but I chickened out and stayed home and got married instead. I had been scared of leaving my family, leaving Brad, leaving everything I was comfortable with. It didn't help that my social anxiety was so bad back then that I had a hard time going to class and that is why I failed or withdrew from every class at Northwest my first year of college. I am doing a little better with my anxiety now. Having Davey made me grow out of a little of it. Davey gives me something to talk to people about when we meet and makes me feel a little less uncomfortable. Delta State is a pretty small school, with much smaller classes. I think it will have the feeling like Harding of being a "family" rather than an institution. Northwest had pretty big classes and I couldn't even bring myself to go into class because I would have panic attacks.

So anyway, a few weeks ago I applied for Pell Grant, MS state grants, put in my application to Delta State, printed out housing and childcare applications, signed up for orientation which I am going to on June 9th, and have been emailing with the recruiter and my advisers. I will be doing a double major in French and Journalism. Maybe I sound like an overachiever there, but actually with Journalism you have to focus on a language too, so most of my classes will overlap. My advisers said I should be able to finish in 4 years even wtih a double major. I picked out all the classes I would need to get my degree, and found out I could finish in 4 years, but I am going to need to take summer classes one year to fit in just a few extra classes I feel I'll need such as European history classes and Geography of Europe. There are no actual French history classes available so European will have to do. Unfortunately my required history classes for the general ed requirements have to be American History so I have 3 extra history classes I will have to take. I figure it is a necessity if there is any chance I will travel to Europe after graduation. Or if I decide to do an exchange program if that is even a possibility for me with having Davey! We will be living on campus at Delta State in family housing which winds up being cheaper than my expenses where I'm at now even though I don't pay rent here. Utilities, phone, cable TV, and internet are all included in my rent so it winds up being a good deal. Except I have to give up my animals. I already found a home for Grover, my miniature goat, and am looking for a home for Duke, my husky. My best friend Teresa is going to take Callie so that I will be able to still see her and hopefully take her back when I graduate or if I move off campus.

My plans when I graduate are to either move to France and teach English to elementary school kids, or to write for a travel magazine. Some people have asked if I work for a travel magazine what will I do with Davey... well I would take him with me of course! And I would home school him. Just imagine the kind of education he would get traveling around the world! And I am already trying to teach him some French and will be teaching him as I learn, so if we do actually move to France he will be ready. I know some people say French people don't like Americans and all that, but I have heard if I'm working in education there people will like me more. We'll see... I am not sure how much of a possibility that even is. But I do have a friend from high school who is teaching English in China right now and loves it!

So enough about me... How is Davey doing? Davey has been amazing me with how much he is learning lately! He surprised me by counting to 3 in Spanish one day, which started me on trying to teach him French. He watches Dora and Diego and repeats a lot of Spanish. He also watches Ni Hao Kai Lan and repeats a lot of Chinese too, and just started counting to 3 in Chinese and I think understanding what he is saying. He knows most shapes and we're working on colors. He is saying more and more understandable words now -- I mean that more people than just myself can understand! I have been able to understand a lot of what he says for quite awhile but everyone else would claim it is just jibberjabber lol We are no where near potty training... when I change his diaper I tell him he is supposed to say "Mommy I'm poopy!" when he goes poo poo, and he will repeat me right then, but he still won't tell me when he actually is. I'm not pushing it. He is so stubborn that if I try to push him into it it will just take that much longer to potty train him.

I took Davey and the dogs on their first camping trip a couple of weeks ago to Petit Jean in Arkansas and we had a great time! You can read a little about it on Just Us on the Road. I'm also planning a "review vacation" in July where I'll be taking Davey and my best friend's 2 teenagers to Charleston! We are getting to stay in a luxury hotel for 2 nights for free in exchange for a review and ad space on our blog! I'm trying to line up reviews for some tourist attractions and restaurants as well. I'm also hoping we can spend a couple of days in Myrtle Beach which is only 2 hours away from Charleston. I was planning a big vacation doing a big loop around the South but time is getting short and still the only thing we have lined up is Charleston. Plus I realized how much more gas money what I was planning would take, not to mention the length of time it would make our trip (about a week and a half) which would be too long of a trip with a 2 year old. So it is starting to look like it will just be Charleston, hopefully Myrtle Beach, and maybe we can stop in Savannah, GA and Huntsville, AL on the way there or back. I am trying to get free admission to the Space Center in Huntsville for us but haven't heard back yet. If this trip works out well I will be planning more summer vacations for us to take. This will give me practice for if I ever work for a travel magazine!

New year, new things!

2011-01-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything here (besides the Birthday Party post I just posted lol)! Things got crazy over the holidays with our Christmas Countdown on Mommy and Me Giveaways -- we did daily giveaways through November that ended every day in December leading up to Christmas! Then in December I had to post winners every day, and Amy was so busy with the holidays and her daughter that she couldn't help with the blog much. I didn't even email any companies to try to get more giveaways lined up in December! So with the new year we brought on new bloggers -- there are 6 of us now -- which has been a HUGE help! Mommy and Me Giveaways is going to be busy this year! We have TONS of giveaways lined up already! :)

Another addition with the new year is our new puppy, Duke Gareth of Naxen! :) The breeder had already named him Duke, and when I went to register him with the CKC I knew most people register their dogs with fancy names, so I gave him the name of a character in one of my favorite fantasy series lol He is a Siberian Husky and is about 10 1/2 weeks old and 8 pounds at the last vet appointment. Thankfully the breeder already had him pee pad trained, I keep a pee pad by the back door in the kitchen. We have had a few accidents but mostly right next to the pee pad so at least it is not on the wood floors! He is doing better with letting me know he needs to go outside, and most nights he is holding it all night. I don't leave him long during the day, but he is holding it while I am out too. I am crate training him. I bought a crate bigger than he really needs for crate training, but I am putting a pee pad in the crate and it still leaves him enough room to lie down in there. A couple of times he has shredded the pee pad in the crate when I left him during the day, but at least he didn't need to use it!

Part of why I got Duke is because Callie has seemed to be getting more depressed. I have thought about getting another dog off and on for the past several months. I couldn't get her to play anymore, I bought her toys and she wouldn't touch them. She would run around for a minute or two when I tried to play with her outside but that was it. I have seen an amazing change in her since I got Duke! She wasn't so sure about him the first couple of days, but then she started trying to play with him. She actually scared Duke at first but now they wrestle and play tug-o-war all the time. Callie is finally happy again! I am pretty happy with having Duke too, and with seeing Callie and Duke play together so well! Callie wasn't the only one feeling depressed... I have been having a lot of ups and downs since Dad died last year and the holidays were pretty rough for me. Now between Davey, Callie, Duke, and my blog I am keeping plenty busy and it keeps my mind off things.

Davey absolutely loves Duke too, they play chase around the house a lot! Duke knows when I let Davey out of his room in the morning or after his nap Davey is going to take off running to the kitchen so Duke follows me to Davey's door and then takes off after him! Today Davey was crawling around the house on his hands and knees and Duke was chasing after him lol Duke does really well with Davey, which surprised me because puppies tend to nip and bite when they're playing, but he hasn't with Davey at all!

We got quite a bit of snow earlier this week... Davey did not care for it much, but the dogs loved it! I took Davey outside and he looked around at the snow, took off running and fell down in it! He got some snow on his hand and did not like it at all! Too cold! The dogs ran around and played in it most the day. Whenever I let them outside I had a hard time getting Duke to come back in! Hopefully Davey will enjoy the snow next time. I need to get him some of those mittens that have the band around them to keep the kids from puling them off. I didn't even try mittens this year because he would not keep them on last year. I guess that is another company I should email about doing a giveaway! :)

Birthday Party on a dime

2011-01-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

I posted this on our blog, Mommy and Me Giveaways, but wanted to cross-post it here to have in personal blog as well... planning for Davey's birthday party! :)

Davey’s birthday is coming up on February 4th… he’ll be 2 years old! For his first birthday I wanted to have a Blue’s Clues birthday party because that was the only show he would watch. We watched Blue’s Clues every day back then! So I started searching around for Blue’s Clues party supplies, and there really is not much out there. I realize Blue’s Clues is an old show. My 16 year old brother watched it when he was little. When I have looked for Blue’s Clues stuff, mostly it is that yucky “Blue’s Room” stuff, not the original Blue’s Clues. I did find some Blue’s Clues party supplies last year, but I would have to buy this huge birthday party pack that had way more than I needed and would have cost an arm and a leg. We wound up having a Winnie-the-Pooh birthday party with stuff I could find at Walmart, and I still wound up spending quite a bit on his birthday!

This year I’ve decided to get creative and Davey is going to get his Blue’s Clues birthday party! One of the Blue’s Clues DVDs we have has a Blue’s Birthday episode on it where the cake is a pawprint – a round cake with 4 cupcakes iced in blue. As soon as I saw that episode I knew that was what I was going to do for his Blue’s Clues party! I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to get plain old blue decorations – balloons, streamers, plates, napkins, etc and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to make it look like a Blue’s Clues theme. I got bright blue and light blue balloons and streamers, bright blue table cloth, light blue plates and napkins, bright blue plasticware. I had a $5 off coupon code for Birthday Express so I wound up getting all the party supplies for about $20.

But I still didn’t have anything very special besides the cake. There are all kinds of banners, wall stickers, pinatas, etc for the other birthday themes… I also didn’t know what I’d do for invitations. I figured I’d just have to get something generic because I couldn’t find any Blue’s Clues invitations last year when I was searching. Tonight I decided to go on Nick Jr.’s website because there were a few crafts I’d found before that I thought I would make tonight. I found those and printed them out, then started looking through the other crafts. I decided to see what Blue’s Clues stuff they had…. and guess what? They have printable Blue’s Clues birthday invitations! Plus they had pictures I could print and cut out, I think they were to make puppets, but I printed off a few copies and am going to scatter them on the table cloth. I only wish they had Steve along with Joe!

They also had huge pawprints to print out, and I have searched so many times for a Blue’s Clues tshirt for Davey to no avail. I have some iron on transfer paper so I printed out a big pawprint on that and ironed it on to a shirt for him to wear for his party! It took me 2 tries… it always helps to read the instructions lol I thought I knew what I was doing and wound up ironing the pawprint on backwards so it was just a big white shape on the shirt! I looked up the instructions and grabbed another shirt and managed to get it right the 2nd time.

I printed out 3 more pawprints and I’m going to see if I can make a “Happy Birthday” banner using them. So all the decorations came from stuff I already had on hand, and a little help from Nick Jr.! I will still have the cost of cake mix and icing and snacks, but I think this year’s party is coming out a bit cheaper than last year’s, not to mention making the decorations myself makes it a little more special I’ll post a picture when we decorate for his party next month!

Feelin' Crafty!

2010-10-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Fall is finally here... the nights are chilly, and sometimes even the days are, so it's time to get Davey's winter clothes ready! I bought him a few shirts at Old Navy, and got some solid color shirts as well, and then went to Joann's and bought fleece to match his shirts. I've gotten one outfit made so far, which is similar to one I made last year except I used a red shirt this time because white shirts tend to look dingy before the season is over. I think it turned out pretty well! He is using them as pajamas tonight because he was being difficult when I tried the outfit on him and I didn't want to fight him to get it off and put his PJ's on!

Sewing has always frustrated me... I know I just need more practice on the machine to feel more comfortable with it, but it stresses me out so much that I don't practice enough! Last night I was trying to make an iPod sleeve for a giveaway winner and I haven't quite figured out how much seam allowance I need on these. I cut it out and started sewing it, got the sides and bottom seams done, and it was too small. That's when I switched to Davey's outfit, because I've made pants plenty of times and know how to do them. Well I messed up the waistband on them so that they were puckered because I did not stretch it evenly while sewing it on. So today I ripped out that seam and redid it. Today was a much better sewing day!

I have also found out in the past few days that I love, love, LOVE sewing by hand! It is so relaxing! I think I should just start sewing everything by hand! lol I found a neat craft idea in this month's Family Fun magazine -- Felt food cornucopia for Thanksgiving!

I worked on this for the past couple of days and had so much fun sewing it! It was all done by hand, the most stressful part of it actually was cutting out all the pieces! I am making another one to do a Thanksgiving giveaway on Mommy and Me Giveaways! And I've been searching for more felt food templates and so far have found fortune cookies, doughnuts, saltine crackers, cookies, cherry pie, and a sack lunch with a sandwich and chips! Some of these say to sew with the sewing machine but I plan to do it all by hand. This is my new form of relaxation!

Now it's time to try making the iPod sleeve again and some more outfits!

From crib to bed

2010-10-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Davey is in a big boy bed now! Last week I went to get him up one morning and he had moved his crib halfway across the room by jumping in it! He had done this before, but he had never gotten it that far! So I decided it was time to take the crib apart and put him in a big boy bed. I rearranged his room and took his crib apart while he was having breakfast and brought my mattress into his room and put it on the floor because I could not move the bed in there myself and would have to wait for Mom to come help me with that. That afternoon I put him down for a nap on the mattress and he cried and then played with toys and did not take a nap. That night he cried and cried and I could not get him to go to sleep. Mom wound up bringing the playpen over for him to sleep in. I had a problem with him unplugging his lamp and sound machine too so I decided to let him sleep in the playpen a few nights without his sound machine to get him used to that so that nothing would be plugged in when I put him in his bed again. Mom came over and helped move the bunk bed pieces into his room and we are using the top bunk on the floor so he has rails around him, and I set up his toys on the desk and shelf that go with it.

I kept putting him in the playpen for a few days to get him used to everything and then Sunday night I put him to bed in the playpen and he was pulling the mat up off the bottom and crying so after a couple of times of velroing the mat back down I put him in his big boy bed, laid there for a little while and let him play with his stuffed animals in his bed and then left the room, leaving the top half of his door open. He cried for a few minutes, and then I heard him playing with toys for a little while, then I heard him turn his bedtime music back on, on his My Pal Scout stuffed animal and get quiet. I checked on him a little later and he was asleep...

He woke up later that night crying though, just as I was going to bed, and I made the mistake of lying down with him which made him cry more when I got up and left the room. I am sick with a cold and had already taken Nyquil or I would have just stayed in his bed but I did not want to sleep with him when I would probably be sleeping very sound. I fell asleep before he did that night. The next night he did not give me any problems really. He played with his toys awhile, fussed a little bit, and then went on to sleep.

I'm still alive... lol

2010-09-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

It has been quite awhile since I've posted anything! I am still having a sort of rough time since Dad died. We adjusted my medication but it still does not seem to be quite right. Lately I am going back and forth between mild depression and mild mania. The mania has helped me get a lot of things accomplished lately though, such as work on my other blog, Mommy and Me Giveaways! We have a new blog design that is a little more "grown up" than our previous design because my best friend Teresa has joined our blog and she has 2 teenagers. So we are now hosting giveaways for products for the whole family and not just our little ones! The downside to the mania is I have been on a little bit of a spending spree lately and am now reining myself in. But I have set some money back in savings, which I think is a first for me! lol I finally got a bedding set I love, even if it is a bit teenager-ish lol I have been searching for something for about 6 years now and never finding anything I liked enough that was affordable. Up until this I was still using the bedding set I had when I was 15 lol I love all the cute owl stuff that's out this year, and this comforter even says "Go Green" on it!

I lost my job at SOAP at the end of July. I was having a really hard time with the depression and even though they let me take a lot of time off work when Dad died, it was not long enough. I started calling in sick a lot because I didn't feel up to working. But I just got another job which is much more ideal... I was going to have to put Davey in daycare if I stayed at SOAP because Mom is looking for a job and couldn't babysit anymore. Well with my new job with Princeton Transcription Inc. I will be an independent contractor and can work my own hours. They will send me my work in the morning each day, Monday through Friday, and I will have 24 hours to get it done. I will only be working part time. They go by minutes of dictation, so I will have 40 minutes of dictation to type each day which they estimate will be about 4 hours a day starting out but I will get faster and it won't take as long.

My reason for only working part time is I am starting to make things to sell online. I got a serger which means there are so many more things I can make, much more quickly than with a regular sewing machine! I have several ideas in my mind, including reusable sandwich bags, crayon rolls, crayon aprons, fleece sleeves for small electronics like the Kindle (I made one for myself and Teresa and it worked out great!). Everybody makes reusable sandwich bags, crayon rolls, and crayon aprons on etsy. I think those things will sell better at crafts fairs than listing them online.

Anyway, enough about me... I know you all want to hear about Davey instead! :) Davey is learning so much lately, he amazes me! He is talking so much, repeating things, singing songs... He now sings "Old McDonald Had a Farm," it goes something like this: *baby talk* EIEIO, *babytalk* EIEIO, Woof Woof Woof EIEIO, Cluck Cluck Cluck EIEIO, *baby talk* EIEIO. It is too cute! He also says "cheese!" for the camera and I get these horrible fake smiles:

Davey will finally watch stuff besides Blue's Clues! Mostly just if it has a lot of music and singing in it, like his Veggie Tales movie, Jonah. But right now he's watching Dora the Explorer. He never watches a full episode of anything but plays and just watches for a few minutes, but before he was ignoring pretty much anything besides Blue's Clues. I tried so many Disney movies and he didn't care for them. He did watch a little of Toy Story. I had figured out he just didn't like animated stuff. Blue's Clues has Steve or Joe in it and they are real people and he has always liked that. He used to watch the news, football, and wheel of fortune with Grandpa Al, which of course had real people in it. He will watch Harry Potter and actually seems to really like those! But he just didn't like all animated stuff. Well he is watching more stuff finally, I was getting sick of Blue's Clues! Here's a picture of him watching Ice Age:

I am going to try to post on here a little more often, especially as I get busy with my craft ideas!

Dad

2010-07-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty rough couple of weeks... Dad lost his battle with esophageal cancer at 12:23 a.m. on Saturday, July 3, 2010. Lynette, Larry, and I were able to spend a lot of time with Dad over the last week, and I even took Davey to see him a couple of times and I think that made Dad happy. Larry and Tracy were with Dad, holding his hands, at the end. The memorial service was yesterday. I was not sure how I would handle it, but it wound up truly being a celebration of Dad's life, with memories shared and plenty of laughter. I think it hasn't quite sunk in yet for me... I have not really cried yet, but I know it will hit me at some point. The company I work for has been great, they had been praying for my dad, and for all of us. They let me take off work last week, and told me to take as much time as I need this week. I plan to go back Friday. I wanted a couple of days to myself before starting work again.

Tracy's family put together the slide show to play at Dad's memorial service. I just got it uploaded to Facebook and you can see it if you are one of my friends or "friend of friends." I don't like making things public to everyone, but I figure "friend of friends" would at least make it so all family can see it. Initially I put it on YouTube but apparently there was a copyright issue with the songs and it took the sound out of the video.

Davey watched the slide show with me the other day and I pointed at a couple of the pictures and said "Grandpa" and then after a bit Davey pointed at the slide show and said "Grandpa" along with some jibber jabber and smiled at Dad's pictures. I wonder what he was saying about Grandpa Raymond... That is only the 2nd time he has said Grandpa. He did finally say it once for Dad on Father's Day weekend. Davey loved his Grandpa Raymond very much, and even though he is so young that he won't remember Dad I will keep his memory alive telling Davey about his Grandpa Raymond and showing him pictures as he grows up.

Amy put this scripture in her post about Dad on our giveaway blog and I really like it... the song Turn, Turn, Turn, which comes from this, was played at Dad's memorial service and is a song that always makes me think of Dad and our weekend trips to see Grandma, listening to 60s music on the way home... Dad always said there was no good music after the 60s. lol

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

Labels

2010-06-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to write a quick post. If you subscribe by email it might possibly show that there are a whole lot of new posts; I'm not sure... I went through all my posts and added labels so the labels show up in my sidebar and link to all posts with those labels. To do this I had to hit "publish post" to save them with their labels, and I am not sure if that means they will show as new posts in the email that gets sent out. Anyway, if it does, there are only actually 2 new posts. This one, and one I posted earlier this morning!

Work and stuff...

2010-06-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

Today I will be waiting on a call from Sarah, my old supervisor at SOAP Transcription. We emailed last week and it looks like they are going to hire me back, with the hours I want. We were able to work out a split shift schedule, which I will be getting the details of today. I asked for the hours noon to 3:30pm and 8:30 or 9pm to midnight or 12:30am, or something close to those hours, and she said she thinks they have something available that will work for me. So today we'll be getting all the details straightened out, plus I'll have an over-the-phone agreement I have to make. Then they'll send me paperwork which I will have to fill out and send back. Then they'll send my computer and once that is set up I should be able to start! I am excited that they are taking me back! I was pretty sure they would, considering how well I was doing last fall and how they did not want me to leave and were hoping I would come back if I had carpal tunnel surgery. Well surgery was not an option, but I think I can manage a split shift with such short shifts. It will be two 3.5 hour shifts each day 5 days per week. This is such a great company to work for, and I am really thankful they are willing to work on getting me a schedule I can handle!

Davey is teething really bad. He is about to get his upper canine teeth I think. One is just right under the surface. So it has been a rough few days. He has rarely gotten this bad with teething, but there have been a couple of times it has gotten pretty bad. The last couple of days he has taken good naps at least, although he still got pretty cranky later in the afternoon. I am going to have to change his sleeping schedule a little bit before I start working so he'll sleep a little later than he has been. He has been going to bed really early because of how cranky he has been, and getting up anytime between 7 and 8am usually. I will be wanting him to sleep just a little later than that when I am working!

I am looking for a home for 2 of our furry family members... my cats are driving me up the wall. Last year we took them to the animal shelter when I had the bad flea infestation, but then my dad felt bad about the fact that they might get separated, or put down if no one adopts them, so he got them back and kept them at his office for a long time. I didn't really want them back, but I started getting mice in the house again so I brought the cats home. Well they didn't really help, I still had to put poison out. They have pretty much taken over my bedroom and make more of a mess of it than I ever have by knocking things off my shelves, pulling my quilt off my bed, kicking stuff out of the litter box, plus Jimmy has a sensitive stomach and his favorite place to get sick is on my bed. I can't even sleep in there anymore and am tired of washing my sheets all the time and cleaning up the mess they make! So I just put an ad on Craigslist looking for homes for them. I won't take them back to the shelter... They have been together since Ribbit was a little kitten and I really do not want to separate them. It is going to be hard finding someone to take them though because they are older cats and because I want them to stay together. If any of my readers in the Memphis area are interested, please let me know! Normally they really aren't so bad... I think it is just bad because they stay in my room all the time to keep away from Davey, and 2 cats mostly living in just one bedroom can be a disaster!

Dealing with Dad's Cancer

2010-05-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago we found out my dad's esophageal cancer had come back and spread to one of his lungs, lymph nodes, and spine. He had been cancer free for just over a year then. I have to admit I have been pretty stressed out and depressed since getting this news. I wouldn't admit I was depressed... I kept saying "I'm just really stressed out" but would not let that awful word "depressed" come out of my mouth until I saw my doctor last Monday and told him I thought I needed to see a psychiatrist to manage my meds. I had seen my doctor a month before that and told him I'd been really stressed out and was having a lot of anxiety and trouble sleeping, and he gave me some medicine to help with the anxiety, plus a sleeping pill and last Monday was a followup appointment. He did not like that I am needing the sleeping pill most nights, nor that I am needing the anxiety medicine to handle my stress and not just my social anxiety. He asked if I had been depressed and I had to admit I had been. That is something really hard for me to admit after doing so well for so long. I know I have a perfectly good reason to be depressed, especially considering I am bipolar and prone to depression anyway, but I had been doing so well for months since we got my post partum depression under control!

So a couple of days ago I found a psychiatrist that takes Medicare and Medicaid, and I also emailed my old counselor I have seen off and on since I was 15, and although he is all the way in Bartlett, I am going to start seeing him every other week. I did not feel comfortable finding someone new, and my old counselor already knows my history and that will make things easier. I had been feeling so much worse just since admitting I was depressed. For the past 2 months any time I started to feel sad or felt like I wanted to cry, I'd find something to keep myself busy so I wouldn't have to think about anything or feel anything. In this past week I have been letting myself feel and cry though. I guess that is good for me though, the more I avoided how I was feeling the more stressed out I felt.

We did get some good news this week though. My dad had a CT scan and it showed that the cancer was stable and has not grown or spread any! I actually feel a whole lot better after hearing that news, as I'm sure everyone else does too, I know we had all been worried about what the CT scan would show! I also started to feel a lot better just getting things set up to see my counselor... I tend to avoid talking about how I am really feeling and bottle most things up, and I think talking to my counselor will relieve a lot of my stress, which will make me feel better, help me to be a better mom to Davey, and help me to work on following through with some goals I have had about finding a job again, which I admit lately I have not been putting much effort into.

Anyway, I have started to make a post similar to this several times and never could bring myself to really write about how I am feeling or talk about my dad's cancer... But when I decided I wanted to post something today, this is what came out. Sorry this is not really a "Davey post", but since this new blog is "Just Davey and Me" instead of "Davey Updates" I do plan to occasionally have posts about my own feelings or whatever is going on with us, as I said, instead of just general monthly updates on Davey! Davey is doing fine though, still being a wild child, climbing on everything, walking (almost running) and talking with some occasional new words! Larry was teaching him last night to bang on his chest and yell like Tarzan and had him laughing so much! lol I'm using the TV as a babysitter more than I would like to admit (I swore I would never do that!) but Davey at least does not watch it constantly and plays with his toys a lot too and brings me books to read to him... he just likes for the TV to be on and when it is not on he bangs on it, opens the door where the dvd player is, and sometimes brings me his Blue beanie baby to tell me he wants me to turn on Blue's Clues! He has also gotten really good about giving me kisses when I make kissy noises at him and once I get one kiss from him he wants to keep kissing me over and over! He is such a smart, sweet little baby that no matter how bad I am feeling he can always manage to bring a smile to my face :)

My little monkey

2010-05-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

Davey has always been a handful... he is a wild child, stubborn, hard-headed... Mom says it is payback (as most parents like to say) and that he is just like I was! I've heard enough about how I was as a baby, so I believe it! Mom didn't have to baby-proof with any of her children except for me. With me, she even had to wire the Christmas tree to the wall so I wouldn't pull it over (and I will probably have to do that this year with Davey)! Well I have definitely had to baby-proof with Davey, and every day he gets into something new that I never thought to baby-proof!

Now that Davey is walking he gets into even more stuff and now life is about to get even more interesting! He is becoming a little monkey, learning to climb on everything now... for several days he was climbing up onto the couch by pulling on my hand or grabbing my leg to pull up. Yesterday I went into the kitchen to throw something away, and heard Davey laugh in the living room... I turned around and there he was sitting on the couch; he got up there all by himself! He has done this a couple more times since then, and this is definitely going to be a problem! He loves to jump and roll around on the couch, and usually I am sitting right there to catch him and keep him from falling off. Several times he has wound up hanging off the couch with me just holding him by his ankle! Well now I am going to have to really keep my eye on him! He just does not understand that it is a long way down from the couch or a bed!

He has also climbed up on his potty chair a couple of times. The first time he climbed onto the seat, and then was about to climb on the back of it, which is even with the top of the tub and I pulled him off. Then he leaned on the tub and started pulling himself up to go into the tub head first and threw a fit when I pulled him away from it! Thankfully this shouldn't be too much of a problem... My bathroom door stays shut unless I am in there with him.

He also tries to climb out of the playpen when I put him in time-out, and manages to pull himself up onto the side a little bit. I am just waiting for him to figure that out and how to get out of his crib! Mom said I was climbing out of my crib at 18 months and she had to put me in a bed then. I am starting to wonder if Davey will be doing it earlier than that! I don't even want to think of the trouble he will get into when I switch him to a toddler bed!

Don't get me wrong -- Davey is a sweet, lovable child and I love him to death... but he is definitely a wild one! This song comes to mine and my mom's head often with Davey - "She's a wild one, with an angel's face..." Describes him perfectly! He will definitely make the next several years really interesting for me!

New blog... let's see how this goes!

2010-05-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well I have had my "Davey Updates!" blog since Davey was born, and only used it to post updates every now and then about checkups or milestones mostly. If you subscribed by email on that blog, you will now be getting emails of posts on this blog and I imported all my posts from that blog to this one. I have been reading so many "mama blogs" that I love, that are updated often with various things going on in their lives, about their children, crafts they are working on, or just daily life. I love reading these blogs and would like my blog to be a little more like that. So on this blog I will still be posting about Davey's checkups and milestones, but plan to post more often about things that are going on in our lives, or crafts I am working on, etc, and not just compile it all into one post every month or so like I had been doing. There is a great network of mama blogs online that I would love to be a part of! Also there are neat weekly posts I would like to take part in, such as "Wordless Wednesday" and "Works for Me Wednesday" so look forward to seeing those on here as well, and if you know of other fun weekly posts done on blogs, please let me know about it!

I hope all my family and friends who have been following Davey Updates! will enjoy reading this blog and hearing more often about what is going on in our lives. For any new followers who stumble across my blog, I hope you enjoy it as well! I plan to post links on my sidebar to other mama blogs I read, and if you have a blog I hope you will link to mine as well! If you want me to put your blog button on my blog, just let me know! I will be creating a blog button for this blog soon with a code to post it on your blog.

Also don't forget to check out my other blog that I run with my friend Amy -- Mommy and Me Giveaways. Our blog button is in my sidebar... we host lots of great giveaways, especially lots of cloth diaper giveaways, so check it out!

2010-04-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

Davey and I took our first trip alone at the beginning of this month. Easter weekend we went to Clarendon, AR for a family get-together! Davey actually did really well considering he did not get a nap all day. We left to head out there at his naptime thinking he would sleep on the way there, but he didn't. I bought a portable DVD player for the trip though and he watched Blue's Clues all the way there and did not make a sound! On the way home, as soon as I started the car his eyes started drooping and he was asleep just as we were getting out of town!

Davey finally had his 1-year checkup a few days ago now that he finally has health insurance again. I took him to a new doctor, my old pediatrician, whom I like much more than his old one! His last doctor never did as thorough an exam as his new doctor did, and I also found out she had not given him 2 vaccines he was supposed to have, so he had to get an extra shot and will have to have an extra shot at his 18 month checkup to get caught up. He weighs 22 lb 4 oz and is 30.5 inches tall! He is growing so much!

Davey is walking very well now! He still occasionally loses his balance, and when he throws a fit he sometimes throws himself backwards and falls! He's got such a temper! Lately his favorite thing to do is terrorize our dog, Callie! Callie doesn't mind him too much, but she did growl at him once when he was using her ears to pull up! I had to set up his playpen to put him in time-out when he is bothering her too much... it is coming in handy at other times too! He had a few time-outs today because he was getting into everything!

We have been trying out all kinds of products to review on mine and my friend's giveaway blog, Mommy and Me Giveaways! Our blog is doing much better than we expected it would, and have even recently had a couple of companies contact us asking us to review their products! A company in Sweden even contacted us about reviewing their beanie and bandana bib, which we tried out today... Davey did not care much for the beanie, it took several attempts to get a picture of him in it because he kept taking it off! Amy and I are having so much fun reviewing all kinds of products though!

We had some sad news at the end of last month... my dad's esophageal cancer has come back, and has spread to one of his lungs, his spine, and his lymph nodes. Right now I think he is leaning towards not doing chemo, as it will probably only give him a little more time and he might get sick from the chemo. He will have a CT scan next month to see how quickly the cancer is progressing which will give us a better idea of how much time he will have left with us... Davey and I plan to spend as much time as we can with him and Tracy this year.

2010-03-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

It is still hard for me to believe that Davey is over a year old now; time has really flown by since he was born! Lately he is growing and learning so much between walking and becoming much more verbal! He is continuing to take a few steps at a time, but in the past couple of days he is doing it much more often. Today he took a few steps from the ottoman to the TV, then 3 steps at Grandpa Raymond's office, then I managed to get a video of him taking a few steps this afternoon, and after that he took 5 steps from the kitchen cabinet to where I was standing!

He is talking so much and repeating things now! He points at the cats and says Kitty... and growls at them lol Whenever he sees any animal, whether it is a real one, a picture of one, a stuffed animal, or one on TV, he starts growling at them! Except for owls... one episode of Blue's Clues has an owl on it and Davey repeats its hooting. He is starting to repeat dogs barking too... he used to do this when he was younger, he would hear Callie and say "wuh wuh" (woof) but then he stopped doing it and just recently started again. He says "bird" when he sees them outside. He has gone from calling Daniel "Daniel" (he used to say it clearly) to Nnnya for some reason lol He also says "bite" when I'm feeding him, and he points at things and makes a sound that I think means "that". Oh and he "talks" like Blue in Blue's Clues, and tries to sing the mail song!

Davey with his Blue's Clues beanie baby, watching Blue's Clues:

He says "good job" (or a sound similar to it) when he does things like turn off the lights or put toys away! And that is a new accomplishment as well -- putting toys away. I had given up on picking up toys because as soon as I put the toys in his bins he would pull them right back out. He has always had to have all his toys out where he can see them whether he is playing with them or not. But now I hand him a toy and he puts it in the bin, and after putting a couple of toys away he starts looking around to find other toys to put away himself!

One thing Davey is driving me crazy with lately is his favorite puppy... he has never taken a pacifier, but had his 3 favorite stuffed animals he would suck on... and they would get gross and need washing very often. But with 3 animals it wasn't a problem, I could wash 2 and he would still have one of his favorites. Well a couple of weeks ago he decided he only wants his FAO Schwarz puppy and it is so nasty now it needs washing nearly every day! So Mom suggested I get him another just like it... so I went to the FAO Schwarz website, found the same puppy and ordered it. And guess what? He won't take the new one! He knows it's different! I have been trying for a week now to get him to take the new puppy so I can give his old puppy a good stripping but he just won't take it... It is the first animal he throws out of his crib when I put him down for naps or put him to bed! Crazy kid... lol We have had bad colds so I have not pushed the issue too much, but now Davey is better... and once I'm better I think we'll just have to have a rough day without the old puppy so I can strip it... but I'm not quite up to that just yet!

Davey with his old nasty puppy lol

2010-03-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

Davey has been taking more steps lately... 5 together is the most he has done! I think he realizes he is much faster crawling though because he'll take a couple of steps and then get down and crawl! We are going through some bad teething lately; he is getting his molars, and considering I have not had my wisdom teeth taken out, I know how bad that can feel! He was running a fever last night from it, but was fine this morning when he woke up.

My friend Amy and I have been busy with our blog, Mommy and Me Giveaways... we are sent products to try out and review, and usually the company will sponsor a giveaway to go along with our reviews! It is a lot of fun, and of course exciting to get free stuff in the mail! I have received clothes, toys, and cloth diapers, and a few other things that will be posted soon!

Davey in a shirt and diaper we received:

I have gotten into sewing lately and have made Davey some fleece pants to use as diaper covers, and a soaker, though I really need more practice on making the soakers! I just got some bamboo fabric to make some diapers for Davey, and hopefully should have enough fabric left to sell some! I am planning to get a serger which is the quickest, easiest way to make diapers so that I can list some on Etsy to sell!

Davey crawling away in his fleece soaker:

I've started a March photo album, though there is not much in there yet.

Davey is 1 year old!

2010-02-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been quite some time since I've posted on here... Davey just turned 1 last week! I can't believe it, this year has really flown by! We had a Winnie-the-Pooh birthday party for him at Grandma Sharon's house, and he at least helped open a couple of presents, pulling the tissue paper out of the bags, he did much better than at Christmas! We let him dig into his cake with his hands... he was a mess!

Davey is starting to take some steps... usually just 1 step and he falls on his second step, but a couple of times now he's managed 2 steps! He will be walking on his own before too long! He walks all over the house holding on to furniture and the walls, and he also pushes his walker around the house, but I can't get him to push his walk 'n ride toy around!

Davey now has 8 teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom! And I measured him against the wall yesterday and he is 29 1/4 inches tall now! He's growing so much! His 1 year checkup is coming up soon, I just applied for health insurance for Davey since he was kicked off Medicaid last month, and as soon as he is approved I'll make an appointment for him.

Here are the pictures I've taken since I last posted:

February

January

December

Christmas!

2009-12-28T04:40:00.000-08:00

Davey has now had both his flu shots and 1 H1N1 shot. At his last appointment he weighed 21 pounds 3 ounces and was 28.5 inches! He sure is growing like a weed! He goes back in January for his 2nd H1N1 shot, then hopefully no more appointments until his 1 year checkup!

Davey and I had a great Christmas! On Christmas Eve we went to Mom's for a little while, and were supposed to go to church with Tracy and then open presents with her and Dad after church, but Davey wouldn't take a nap that afternoon so we went to Dad and Tracy's before church for him to open presents and planned to go to church if he wasn't too fussy. Well he made it until just about time to go and then was too fussy and tired and I had to bring him home. He did not show any interest in opening presents this year... I'm sure next year he will though! So I had to open them all for him. He got a Leap Frog music table from Grandpa Raymond and Grandma Tracy and he LOVES it! I think it is his favorite toy right now! I know William, Julia, and Ava all loved it too when they were younger. When we went home, Davey took a nap and when he got up I let him open 1 present from me, like we always did when I was a kid. Well, I opened it for him anyway and then we played with his new presents until bedtime!

Christmas morning we opened presents at home, Davey at least pulled his toys out of his stocking and he played with his toy piano Santa brought! I opened his presents for him since he wouldn't, and he loved the toys once they were out of the box at least! lol Then we went to Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Al's to open presents and spent the day there.

Davey is definitely all set on toys now! lol I had to rearrange his room a bit to fit everything in because he has so many big toys that can't be put in his toy drawers! His birthday wishlist is mostly going to consist of DVDs and books and maybe a couple of little toys that could go in his drawers! lol

Davey got some Dora, Kai-Lan, and Blue's Clues DVDs for Christmas... he'll really pay attention and watch them for a few minutes, but then he's off getting into stuff. I don't get it, at Grandma Sharon's he'll watch TV quite a bit, and it's not even cartoons! His favorite show is Wheel of Fortune, and I can't get that on DVD LOL I'm sure as he gets older he'll watch them more though. We were watching Ni Hao Kai-Lan last night and he pulled up on the TV and was jumping and dancing when they were singing a song, it was so cute! :)

I don't have the Christmas pictures from Dad and Tracy's yet, but HERE are the pictures from Christmas morning at home, and HERE are the pictures from Mom's house.

9 month checkup

2009-11-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

Davey had his 9 month checkup today. He weighs 20 pounds 1.5 ounces (37th percentile) and is 27.5 inches (17th percentile). His head circumference was 18 cm which is the 57th percentile... does that mean he has a big head? LOL I suppose babies are just extremely huge nowadays, because Davey is below the 50th percentile in height and weight but he's in 12-18 month clothes! Well, the 18 month pants is because of his cloth diapers.

Davey got his first flu shot today, and will get the 2nd dose in a month. He goes back in 2 weeks for the H1N1 vaccine.

Davey said his first word, "Bye!" Well, Mom says he has been saying "baba" for bottle, though he never really did it with me and makes the "ba" sound all the time, but anyway, "Bye" was his first word he said clearly anyway. And my first word was "Hi" so I thought that was kinda funny that his was "Bye" :) We also got him to start repeating "Lalalalala," it's really cute! Still working on getting him to say Grandma and Grandpa, but those are a bit harder :)

November pictures are HERE

Oh, and if you know anyone that cloth diapers, or is interested in cloth diapers, I have started doing giveaways for diapers and baby things on my other blog, Davey's Diapers. Spread the word! The more followers I have the more likely companies will sponsor giveaways! I posted my first review and giveaway last week, and already received the product for the next review and am trying it out, and have 1 more giveaway lined up!

2009-11-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here! I've been busy with my new job, plus Davey keeps me busy all day now! Davey started crawling last month, so I spend my days following him around the house. Now that he can get around on his own, he's not very interested in his toys and prefers exploring and finding things to get into, plus he is quite happy playing with plastic bowls, cups, and muffin pans in the kitchen floor! :) He also doesn't like being stuck in his jumparoo for very long anymore, he'd rather be moving around. Grandma Tracy got him a walker for at their house, and she's going to look at yard sales this weekend to see if she can find another for my house.

Davey has 6 teeth now, it seems like they're coming in every day! lol He actually did get his last 2 teeth 2 days in a row! He's got more getting ready to come in, he's been pretty fussy and acting like his gums are hurting. New teeth means he gets to eat all kinds of foods now! He loves having cheerios for breakfast, and we're trying out some of the Gerber Graduate snacks.

I took Davey trick-or-treating to just a few houses... he was good and kept his head piece on all night! He was an Ewok from Star Wars... which means he pretty much looked like a teddy bear lol He didn't really like the dark, he was ok when we got on people's porches with the lights on, but was kinda fussy in between houses. Plus he was getting sleepy, so we didn't stay out very long.

Davey has been saying "Mama" for quite awhile, now I've been working on getting him to say "Grandma" and I think he actually tried to say it once. He crawled after Grandma Sharon that day saying "Ga! Ga!" :)

October pictures are HERE. I'll start a November album pretty soon.

2nd Tooth!

2009-10-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Davey is getting his second tooth! I thought babies usually get their front top and bottom teeth first... his first was the bottom front right tooth. His second is on the top to the right of where his front 2 teeth should be. I'm thinking this might be why he had been so cranky and not sleeping for a few days. He's a little cranky this afternoon too, just had to give him some Tylenol.

Davey is getting much better about getting into the sitting position by himself now! This morning when I went to get him up he was sitting up in his crib playing with his stuffed animals. When I put him down for his last nap he sat right up when I left the room and played, and that's what he's doing right now instead of trying to go to sleep lol Well at least he is good about having rest time, even when he doesn't nap. Sometimes he'll talk and play with his animals for an hour without fussing if he doesn't want to sleep. I had to lower his crib mattress today, now that he's sitting up on his own, and is starting to pull up. He hasn't pulled up in his crib yet, but I'm sure that's coming soon! I also moved his shelves further away from his crib, but I still need to figure out what to do with all the stuff on top of his shelves that he doesn't need to reach and get into.

Learning new things!

2009-09-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

For the past week or so I've been trying to get Davey to repeat "mama", well actually I'd say "mamamamama" because that's what he does, and he would come back with "babababababa" instead lol So when I went to get him up from his nap earlier, I played for a little while with him in his crib, and I started saying "say mama" and he finally repeated it! I got him to say it a few times! I always call myself "mommy" to him, so I'm not sure he understands "mama" is me, he was just repeating.

He also pulled himself up from lying down to sitting up all by himself! He's been sitting up for awhile, but I've always had to put him in the sitting position. Recently he started going from sitting to lying down, and finally today from lying down to sitting up! Then we were playing on the couch and he was sitting in front of me and grabbed my shirt and pulled up to standing all by himself!

So many new things in one day! He's really growing up fast, I can't believe nearly 8 months has flown by like this! He's still working on crawling... he'll move just a little but then he stops trying or falls down, it won't be too much longer though! I've started baby-proofing already. Got all the outlet covers in, and sometime soon I'll lower his crib mattress... I'm sure he won't start climbing out this early, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!