Davy's First Rejection

As witnessed and recorded by Collin:

During priesthood hour at church today, Davy made his first attempt at impressing a girl. He was strolling along around the back of the room when he spotted a pretty, little blond girl about 9 months old. She was minding her own business and crawling around her daddy's feet when Davy spotted her. Making the first mistake many a man has made when trying to capture the interest of a female, Davy decided he would pretend that he enjoys doing the same things she does. (As a aside warning to any unmarried males out there -- never, under any circumstance try to tell your date that Gilmore Girls is your favorite show, too.) So, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled over next to her to see if she would notice. She did, and proceeded to crawl away from him.

By no means discouraged, Davy made the next move by walking back over to his diaper bag to see what cool possessions he could impress her with. After much deliberation, he went with the crunchy veggie sticks (the ones that taste exactly like potato chips but actually have a minuscule percentage of a daily serving of spinach and tomato). While walking back over to the girl, Davy realized that he didn't quite have the strength or dexterity to open the ziploc bag. Of course, he couldn't go ask his daddy to open the bag for him. He's no fool. A woman wants a man who can handle their own ziploc bag. So the next best alternative was to just offer her the bag and see if she could open it for him. Unsure of what Davy was trying to do by offering her this bag, the little girl just looked at him and waited. Davy panicked and decided to just drop the bag in front of her. When this also failed to inspire a reaction from the girl, Davy stood there like a deer in headlights. The girl eventually crawled away again, leaving Davy to wonder what went wrong.

This is when Davy made the second mistake made by most of his male progenitors -- he tried again. The same thing. Just picked up the bag, walked over to her again, and dropped it in front of her face. After all, she couldn't be rejecting the veggie sticks, could she? Did she not know what they were? Maybe she was too young. For sure, any 14-month old would have seen it as a sign of affluence. But not this girl. She backed up, moved to the side of the bag and went on her way. Having abandoned all hope, Davy ran for the door.

Keep trying, Davy. One day, you'll fill out and be able to woo 'em just like your ol' man here.

Daddy's Boy

We've been having so much fun having Dad home earlier (before bedtime) and on the weekends. I know it was only a few weeks of late nights and Saturday work days, but wow, we sure notice and appreciate the difference when busy season is over! Daddy is so helpful whenever he is home, insisting on doing diaper duty (even the stinky ones!) and the bedtime ritual and just everything so that I get a little break. I am the luckiest woman in the world to be married to Collin, and Davy's pretty lucky too, with his great dad. Well, I'd better save some of these types of raptures for Father's Day in a couple months . . .



Delving into Dad's wallet and finding all the good stuff, like the AmEx card . . .


Davy's been in a cleaning-up phase lately. He puts away his books (getting very frustrated when they immediately slide back out because the balance isn't quite right), gets out the broom and sweeps, helps mop up spilled breakfast milk with his pajama sleeve, picks up Cheerios off the floor (again, dropped during breakfast and never cleaned up by Mom--who instead crashes on the sofa for a while) for a mid-morning snack.


Collin and I were invited to a nice wedding dinner that was held in a beautiful old hotel with a gorgeous view of the coast and ocean (hence the name Ocean View Resort) in Gloucester. It was quite a drive, and the evening was a tad longer than we anticipated (thank you to our good friends who baby-sat Davy for a long and very awake time). It was so nice to have a real date--no baby, nice conversation, a great dinner, and some entertainment and even a little dancing! Collin made some new friends with his mad Haitian Creole skills. The wedding was for the daughter of the woman I visit teach, who is Haitian. The daughter was marrying a nice white man, so the guests were definitely mixed. We were lucky enough to be at a table with a Haitian-American family. Collin, of course, charmed them with his language ability and knowledge and love of Haitian food.




This video is for Davy's Dollahite uncles, who keep wanting to see Davy hyper on sugar. So this is him after drinking juice. He's not crazy running around high-on-sugar like you think he should be (like you are . . .) but this is about as funny wild as he gets. It's funnier in real life.

From Farms to Mansions

The first day of spring couldn't have been more spring-y. The 70-degree weather and sunshine was all too enticing, so we shed our coats and headed outdoors for a walk around Gore Mansion (no, a different Gore). This mansion sits on 15 acres of wide open fields, gardens, and grassy hills to walk around. We didn't go inside the mansion so as to avoid the $10 tour admission, but instead walked around the grounds and visited the farm down the hill (which is free and more fun for anyone under the age of 18 or named Collin).

Davy is very good at pointing. He also is daily practicing and expanding his vocabulary. Words all sound the same from him, but we're starting to get the nuances of different meanings (already I can see a few years of being a toddler translator ahead). His pointing also really helps in figuring out what he is talking about. He also knows a few important signs, like more, eat/snack, milk, and water. And I am constantly amazed by how much he seems to understand when we're talking. I guess like learning any language, you usually catch on to what is said by fluent speakers long before you can communicate back with the same fluency.


Davy got new shoes this week. We have a fantastic children's consignment/gently used clothing and toy store a short walk from our house that is far too tempting for a bargain hunter like me. I was so good this time, though. I just got Davy a pair of jeans that he really needed (that I really needed for him . . .) and a cute pair of "real" shoes for the summer. I wish I'd had the video camera when I first put the shoes on to capture his funny high-stepping walk. He has been so used to bare feet around the house and soft, supple Robeez slippers outside that these shoes (even though I picked the most flexible soft sole available) were like moon boots or something in comparison.



Despite our best warnings and hand-grabbing, two seconds after this video Davy's finger was taken for food and pecked at by a chicken. Ouch.





Between garage sailing (definition: hopping from yard sale to yard sale around the neighborhood picking up great deals on mostly unnecessary but ultimately essential items), an afternoon nap, and a pleasant afternoon at the Gore Place, today really was an auspicious beginning to the new season. Happy Spring!

This is Davy's blanket. He has two special soft ones: one for mommy time in the living room (either nursing or reading stories or having a little rest on the floor) and one that remains in his bed. So far these blankets do not go anywhere else with us, and I am all for it staying that way. I have enough laundry without "blankie" being dragged through the grocery store, to the park, and all around the town. Any advice on keeping this budding attachment within reasonable bounds?



A little showing off some of Davy's skills.

Out and About

Last Saturday through Wednesday were beautiful, unseasonably warm, Spring-fever inducing days. We spent as much time as we could outside walking on the grass (or what will someday become grass), playing at the park, stroller rides, and taking rides in our "new" Radio Flyer wagon (the one rescued from the trash a few weeks ago). A jacket was still necessary, but oh, the promise of warmer days to come!



I love this picture of my little prince on his throne. What a sweet face!


Like his cousin, Evan, Davy has recently discovered the delights of escaping from Mom or Dad during changes and bedtime. The chase is on!


Grammy sent some wicked shades this week and my, aren't they the hit at our house! Tara has been bringing her sunglasses over when I baby-sit and we have a couple of cool kids. Playing going to the beach has been a big deal, as well, ever since Wednesday when the temperatures hit 65 and the bathing suits came out at Tara's insistence. You can see we Bostonians are a very hopeful bunch.


We were invited to our friends' house for dinner and we brought brownies. I let Davy lick the spatula and wow, that was a very quiet and concentrated five minutes!


Saturday was very rainy, but we still got out and about into the city for a Deloitte Parents' Network activity at the aquarium. Davy has this book that we read repeatedly that has the children copy some action that an animal does (you'll see some in the video below). Davy associates the name of the animal with the action now, and so when I was prepping him in the car saying, "we're going to see some penguins and some seals!" Davy would do the actions (turning your head like a penguin, clapping your hands like a seal). Pretty cute. Even more cute to see his excitement at seeing live, moving creatures. He was glued to the windows of the tank watching the fish, sharks, and turtles.

Groovy

This is our love child (born in wedlock). He takes after his great-aunt who is a genuine hippie in California. Thanks to grandpa for the peace-symbol necklace. Davy loves playing with it almost as much as he loves walking around the house naked. No worries, man.



Ready to go outside!



We received our AmEx cash-back reward coupon from Costco in the mail and decided to go cash in as part of our weekend adventures. The weather was beautiful, and we were happy just to be out of the house for a change. Our cheap little RadioShack DVD player died on us, so we decided to use our "free money" on a Blu-ray player. No, we don't actually own any Blu-rays. But we figured the quality of the machine was probably better overall and it'd be nice to have the option if we ever do buy/rent a Blu-ray movie.

Collin took this picture because he loved seeing first hand how a mother multi-tasks throughout her day. We had to keep Davy in the shopping cart so he wouldn't keep reaching for the delicious berry smoothie. He loves those things (as do we)! He practically downed half of it himself! He had a tooth coming in that day, so we indulged him, figuring the ice-cold drink would help with the pain.



I got a new diaper bag! It was custom made by one of my sister-in-law's friends, Kelly Standiford, who has started her own in-home business. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I was able to pick the colors I wanted and select from the available styles of fabric that Kelly found. She did an awesome job, and everything from the stitching to the snap button is top quality! If you'd like to see her blog, let me know and I'll send you her information.

Rock and Roll Baby

The other day Davy and I were hanging out in the car at the church parking lot waiting for someone to open the doors for Activity Days. Davy found Collin's sunglasses and was highly entertained and entertaining for the whole time we were waiting.