JD's Favorite Modes of Transportation

First of all, I wanted to comment that Davis has grown quite attached to a blankie that his Grandma Brown gave him. It is soft, blue fleece on one side and blue silk on the other side. He looks so cute carrying it around. He will actually lay on the ground with it and try to take a nap on the hardwood. He is also growing quite attached to his paci. I have taken great pride in the fact that he has been perfectly content all these months without a major security "crutch" but man they work in moments of stress. I know that I am probably creating a bad habit, but who cares if it makes him happy! I have some smaller "woobies" that I am trying to get him used to so we don't drag a big blankie around all the time. (Sorry for the red eyes, didn't go in and edit.) We have had so much rain over the last week or so! It seems like the sun is never going to shine again for a significant amount of time. Well, those of you that know our property, knows that we are prone to puddling... well, okay flooding. We have not had many issues since 2005 when we had all the hurricanes, but this past wave of thunderstorms created quite the lake in our front yard. I blew up the float Sunday morning and put little man in it. I laughed hysterically (thank goodness my neighbors did not see, they might have called DHR on me), but Davis seemed to have fun. I only let him play for about 5 minutes because he started to get too curious and even though the water was only about 3 inches deep, I'm sure it wasn't the cleanest of "pools". Our neighbor's children have fun in our driveway after storms like this. I joked that I was going to start charging admission :-)

As for Davis' other favorite mode of transportation, he loves his car! Grandmommy and Pa-paw gave him this for his birthday and he really hasn't paid much attention to it until this past week. He would push the horn, which plays little songs, but he recently figured out how to get in and out of it. He will push it around a little in the den, but does not get too far before he gets bored. What is really funny about the car though is that he gets in it Dukes of Hazard style and gets out like he is checking the oil under the hood (see the video). I will try to catch him crawling in soon.

The Girlfriend Story and Time for Tubes :-(

I do not have any new pictures to download right now (it has not stopped raining long enough to get outside) but I wanted to tell everyone about Davis's girlfriend Heidi. Davis has graduated from the infant room at day care to Suite B which is a transitional room until they are about 18 months old. From there they transition to Suite C until they are potty trained and then they move to Classroom 1. Anyway, we thought the transition would be terrible because they are not allowed bottles, lunch is at 10:30 and they only nap one time from 11-1 (on a cot, no less). He has done wonderful! I started only offering the sippy cup to him at about 10 1/2 months and it only took him about 3 weeks to transition solely to sippy cup. He totally forgot about the bottle overnight. He is always super tired and starving when he gets home, but I let him take a cat nap from like 5:30-6 before we eat dinner. Everyday at school I ask about his day and the only shortcoming he has is naptime. He will sleep great for about an hour and then he gets up and wants to play, which disturbs the others. Well, about 3 weeks ago when he woke up from his nap he crawled into the cot with Heidi and started cuddling with her. The teachers thought it was sweet, so they just let them lay there. Then when everyone started waking up they noticed that Heidi and Davis were lip locked!!!! From that point on Heidi and Davis have been a little munchkin couple, haha. They really are always together it is hysterical. There is another couple in the class, Kate and Brody. Those two even hold hands and will get jealous if the other is playing with someone else. They act like they are married. Who knew 13 and 14 month olds could have such behaviors.

Moving on to a not-so-fun subject... Davis had another ear Monday which makes about 6 in that many months. We had an appointment with Dr. McWilliams, ENT on Wednesday and he recommended beyond a shadow of a doubt that we get tubes. As a matter of fact, the right ear was infected on Monday but the left looked great and even after a shot of Rocephin the left ear still got infected. Every parent that has had them on their children say it makes a world of difference. The tube itself is smaller than a "braces" rubber band and they are only under anesthesia for about 5 minutes. Dr. McWilliams said he will even be able to go back to school the next day. The surgery is scheduled for April 7 so hopefully after that we will have no more ear infections!

Playing Catch Up

My poor baby has another ear infection! This makes 5 in the last 6 months so we are definitely looking at tubes. We have an appointment with the ENT on Wednesday and will get all the details then. I went ahead and took off today so I could take him to see his pediatrician. Davis was coughing all weekend and had a low grade temp, but woke up with 102 this morning. His pediatrician treated him with an antibiotic shot and he is already feeling better! He is napping right now, so I wanted to take the time to upload some new pics.

These 2 pics were taken on The Ryals boat. They are friends of ours from Birmingham that were in town for their Spring Break. There was enough room in the cabin for JD's pack and play so we had a very nice relaxing afternoon on the water. Notice in the first pic how he is trying to get to the water. I swear he is part fish!

I love this picture! Harborwalk Marina had a big to-do on St. Patty's day, so after work on Tuesday, I picked up JD and met some friends down there so we could see the action. JD made friends all over the place. He is such the social butterfly.

Probably running to go say hey to someone else. He may be Destin's future mayor.

(Pics got out of order but this is him napping on the Ryals boat. Sleeping Angel.

JD's new sunglasses, which NEVER stay on. Kinda like his shoes.

JD loves rolling his tongue! He will look in the mirror while he is in the car and do this for at least 5 minutes after school. He thinks it is hilarious. Notice the "drool!" He has also picked up a "cute" trick of taking a full sip from his sippy and spitting out a full mouth full. That is why all of his pictures show him with a wet shirt.

Again, out of order, but another pic from the boat last weekend.

These were at his 1 Year Well Check. He loves playing with the tongue depressors.

Last but not least..... I finally got him blowing kisses on video. He will never do it as well in front of the camera as he does when he is just hamming it up, but nevertheless it is still really cute.

Gotta go for now, he is waking up. I will try to post the story about his girlfriend at school as soon as I get a chance, it is so funny!

12 Month Checkup

My goodness it seems like only yesterday we were going to Dr. FitzHarris for Davis's 1 Week checkup. This year has absolutely flown by! Davis is always such a good boy at the doctor's office. Nurse Charlene and Nurse Karen love him and are so good with him. Dr. Suzie is amazing. She has such a great touch with him and he never seems the least bit scared when he is there. We experienced a couple of milestones at the visit today: we weighed on the big kid scale (standing instead of sitting), we got his height on the wall ruler as opposed to laying down and we almost got a successful temperature reading with the Oral thermometer! Poor thing had to get 4 shots and at least 2 of them were the bad, stingy ones. He cried for a little bit and then pouted on the way back to school. It broke my heart but he has already forgotten about it and is back to my sweet little man. He did spike a fever this afternoon so I had to pick him up from school a little early, but it is normal again thanks to tylenol.

Dr. Suzie always asks me what my favorite thing about Davis. I think they ask this to make sure you don't have any postpartum issues because she asks it so routinely and always makes notes. But I remember on our very first well check, all I could say is "Everything!" I felt so cliche' but I truly did love everything about him! I couldn't pick one quality. (Plus I didn't sleep much so I couldn't think too methodically). The subsequent well visits I always had something new that would come to mind like his first laugh, his "gummy" smile, his hugs. But today after all the changes that have happened since our last well check, I get back to "Everything!" I could have said how he runs across the room for me with his arms spread for a hug, how he dances at the first sound of a good beat, how he lays in my lap and will go limp while I rub his back, how he comes towards me for an open mouth forehead kiss, how he claps his hands when I say his name, but truly... it is just every single thing that he does and is that makes me so unbelievably happy! We love Davis so much and cannot imagine life before him! We are so blessed and thank God every day for him!!!

Oh yeah, one last thing.... measurements

Height- 29 3/4 inches (but they said since he was a little bowlegged we should probably add an inch, hehe). He was in the 50th percentile

Weight- a whopping 26.6 pounds which puts him in the 90th percentile

Head circumference- I forget the exact measurement, but was in the 90th percentile

An Afternoon at the Beach

The weather this weekend was wonderful! It was still a little windy, but it was definitely time to get outside and enjoy the beach. After Davis' 3 hour post party nap, we packed up and went to the Whales Tail for a couple of hours. Davis had fun, but was dying to get in the water (which is obviously still freezing!) We had a great day hanging out with the fam. How could you not enjoy spending your afternoon like this!

Yes this is Davis! He got a little fussy after about 2 hours, so I covered him up and he slept for at least 45 minutes just like this. He did have an opening on the other side... I promise I didn't smother him :-)

Kiersten Martin's Birthday Party

Our friend Kiersten Martin turned 3 this week and we got to celebrate her birthday last Saturday at her house. She had people come to help all of the children finger paint and the little kids were able to do their handprint which the helpers made look like jellyfish. It was such a neat idea and the kids seemed to love it! Davis wanted to stay outside the whole time because that is where all the big boys were playing. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture with the birthday girl because she was "working the party". We had so much fun! Thank you Kris and Erin for inviting us!

Davis eyed Mia the whole time.... or was it just the tricycle?

My bow-legged big boy! Starting to get a little sleepy here...

Keep in mind... we only live about 5 minutes from the Martins. Davis was out! He kept falling asleep on the way home with his sippy in his mouth. When we got home from the party, he took a 3 hour nap! Good times!

1 Year, 1 week and 1 day ago today

So I wanted to do this on JD's birthday but as always I'm a few days late and a couple dollars short. But better late than never! This time last year (well like I said, 1 year, 1 week and 1 day ago).... sweet baby Davis was brought into this world by Dr. Petrac in Destin, FL at 7:09 pm on Saturday February 23, 2008. He weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long. My labor was fast and furious, but we were so thankful to have a healthy, happy, beautiful baby boy and never knew just how wonderful life would be from that day on. John and I never knew the joy that a baby would truly bring into our lives until we look at our precious angel. JD amazes us daily and we have enjoyed every single minute that he has been a part of our lives. The amount of love that you feel for your child is truly unimaginable. People told us time and time again, you will never understand how much you can love until you have a child. They were all right! They were also right when they say that every stage gets better and better. Even though I wish I could freeze each stage of his life, I find myself loving each milestone that he reaches and get excited about the next stage to come. Tonight he started trying to crawl up on the couch with daddy and I... you would have thought it was a pep rally with us cheering him up to join us. Davis is such a blessing! He has taught us so much about ourselves, about life and about the devout love that truly exists between a son and his parents. He makes us laugh daily and stop to appreciate the small things in life. We love him more than anything in this world and thank God that he has given us the opportunity to raise this precious boy!

Now that Davis is really starting to show his personality, I find it a good time to "introduce" him to everyone. Davis is part Labrador retriever.... he could eat anything and everything put in front of him and he absolutely loves the water! He will literally put his entire head under the faucet during bath time just to get the optimum H2O exposure. He loves to dance! His favorite artists are Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Bob Marley... the kid's got rhythm. John and I will come home from work and crank up the IPod (forget Barney and the Wiggles) and he will dance till its time to go night night. Davis loves to sleep! I swear, he is the easiest child when it comes to bedtime or nighttime.... all it takes is a few cues of rubbing his eyes and yawning and he will go right down. Bedtime prayers + paci and he is golden. He gets that from his daddy. And he loves to make everyone laugh! (he gets that from his mommy) Whether he is trying to talk to us, dance with us or just his stinking cute waddle, JD makes us belly laugh every single day which further makes us realize what a blessing we have in front of us when all can seem so gloomy at times. I hope we can slow down this next year of his life and it will not go by so fast. Happy Birthday (late Birthday) Davis! We love you sooooooooo very much!

Happy Birthday to JD!!!!

JD had his first birthday party this past weekend. We had such a good time with family and friends. He was a perfect angel and napped about 2 hours prior to the party so he was in a great mood for the entire time. The hat didn't stay on for long but at least I got one good picture with it. He was too cute peeking around the corner, it was like it was a Surprise Party. He couldn't quite figure out why everyone was here......

One of the handful of pictures we have with all 3 of us. We have got to get better about that.

He looks like such a little man here in his big boy chair that his grandmommy and papaw got for him.

Opening presents is a tough job... Where is the cake???

It was so much fun watching all of the kids interact. I hope everyone had a good time, I know I had a blast watching them.

DRUMROLLLLLLL.................... CAKE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the last picture snapped before we snatched him up to give him a bath. Poor thing. He got it all over him!

Playing with Pa-Paw and Uncle Bubs

JD got some really nice things. He got a car, a lot of beach toys, a bubble lawnmower, trucks, blocks, books and swimming lessons. We are so thankful for all of our sweet friends and family. Thank you all for coming and you did way too much! I want to personally thank all of you who had to drive to come celebrate with us. Thank you mom and dad, Mack and Debby, Uncle Steve, Brit and Jason. It would not have been the same without you here and am so thankful you all made the trip! Love ya'll!

I copied my friend Barkley's cake idea. This is actually cupcakes which made it very easy! I thought it turned out so cute and it was very yummy too! The circle cake up top was JD's personal smash cake.

Of course I got him on video!

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa Brown

Grandma and Grandpa Brown got to stay a little longer than everyone after the party. Unfortunately Grandma Brown was sick so we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked. They came over for dinner one night and we got to visit. Here are some pictures of everyone playing. Davis loves his grandparents so much!