Memorial Day Fun

We had so much fun this morning having a picnic and birthday party for a little girl turning 2. The family is moving in a few days and we will miss them! So we were thrilled to spend a beautiful day at the park with them before they leave. Davy had lots of fun with Dad, who is so much more entertaining than Mom at the playground.

Davy's going through a very friendly, gregarious phase. He seems fearless of people, and definitely has his favorites apart from Mom and Dad. He spots them in a crowd, like church or at a party, beelines for them and then monopolizes them. Luckily his favorites are our friends and don't mind this. On Saturday we were heading out to the parking lot after a baptism and Davy went up to a "grandpa", took his hand, and basically dragged him around where he wanted to go. The man was President Clark, so this was safe, but I worry that this friendliness could get us into trouble. Anyway, Davy is just too cute to resist!


The splash park section of the playground opened for the summer today as well. Davy jumped right in, even though the water was cold and even some of the older kids weren't as brave. Love the lower lip on this one!


Davy crashed on the five minute drive home. He likes to put his hands behind his head like this, for a pillow. Even in his bed I'll find him asleep this way.


We decided after dinner that Memorial Day was not complete without a visit to the cemetery. We don't have family close by (although I guess I do have Richard Kimball buried in Ipswich--we might have to make a pilgrimage there next year), so we just went for a walk in our favorite local burial ground, Mt Auburn Cemetery. Davy loved the old trees, the ducks in the pond, and the fancy monuments that are supposed to be climbed on!





Enough pictures already, Ma!

More Puddles

Welcome to Hicksville, MA. I guess that is not a very PC thing to post, so apologies to any red-necks who read our blog. When we attired Davy in his shortalls sans shirt and shoes to go play in the puddles all I could think of was some kid living in the back woods of the south and having way more fun than many of the pampered and ultra-supervised kids in our little part of the suburbs. So here are pictures of a supervised and orchestrated childhood delight.

And here is Davy watching UP, otherwise known as the "balloon movie." He also is working on mastering the Rubik's cube.

Town Day and "Camping"

On Friday, Collin took Davy up to the church-owned camp in New Hampshire where the stake Fathers and Sons outing was going on. We figured we didn't want to try having Davy stay the night just yet (plus, we don't own any camping gear, though many thoughtful members offered space in their tents), so they went up for an hour or so and then drove back home. Before the trip, Davy climbed all around inside the car -- and now wants to everytime we try to put him in his car seat.



In fact, he climbs over, into, through and onto everything now! This particular feat below that he likes to repeat every now and then makes us a little nervous, but there's no denying the boy his freedom (from staying on the ground and from clothes).


Saturday was "Town Day" in Belmont. They closed off the town center to traffic and had booths, a live band, and fair rides set up for people to enjoy. Davy's favorite part was visiting the fire station. Collin's was the fried dough and powdered sugar.

Afterwards, we enjoyed some time at home doing . . . well . . . see for yourself:

We weren't wholly unproductive, however. We managed to finally clean out our garage (not our stuff, but the former tenant's random junk). Now we actually have enough room to drive all the way into the garage and can get out of the car on both sides! To think we never managed to do this for two years . . . .

Peacefield

Friday was a crazy day. Normally it's our "day off", but this week we had two baby-sitting gigs, one right after the other. Davy was a real sport throughout the day--being away from home all day, sharing toys with other kids, not having his full afternoon nap or afternoon snack. By the time we were getting home we were both a little tired and even after ordering pizza, dinner seemed a long way off. The evidence of this pre-dinner cookie (in the living room!) is proof of the desperate mother I became:

Saturday we drove down to Quincy to see John Adams and John Quincy Adams birthplaces and their family home, Peacefield. The only way to see the homes is to be on a 2 hour guided tour with National Park rangers. This is all well and good, for those who don't have toddlers. All things considered, though, Davy did pretty well. He loved the trolley ride between the two locations (the birthplaces are about a 100 yards from each other, but Peacefield is across town, so there is a trolley ride included in the admission fee). He was amazingly good the first hour and a bit of the tour, but after that he let everyone know he was done. Collin took him out in the lovely gardens so I could enjoy the rest of the tour in the house. Sticks and rocks are apparently more interesting than paintings and furniture. Go figure.


John Adams birthplace. Yay for going to toursity places where people are expecting to swap for pictures of the whole family.


PB and J sandwich while waiting for the trolley. I've tried to convince Davy that the point of a sandwich is to keep the messy sticky stuff in between two slices of neat dry bread, as the Duke of Sandwich well knew. Davy doesn't subscribe to that method, though. Instead he prefers to open the sandwich and then lick the filling out of the bread, getting jam all over his nose, cheeks, and fingers.


The driveway and paths were gravel, so Davy had a fun time showing Dad all the rocks.


Use the force.


At Peacefield.


The gardens were really beautiful, and worth going back to Peacefield just to enjoy the grounds. And I guess here's another belly shot. At the temple the other night a nice lady worker asked how far along I was. I replied "halfway," and she said, "but you're stretched out from your first, aren't you." And here I thought I was carrying so well. Better go a bit easier on those chips and salsa binges at 9:00 pm. :)

Here is a silly face that I haven't seen before or since this video a few nights ago. He was mimicking an expression I had made when he did something that surprised me. I hope I didn't look quite like his version.

Puddles and Lilacs

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing women--mothers yet-to-be, moms, grandmas, etc. There have been so many incredible ladies who have been a part of Collin's and my life. I am so grateful to think, too, of all the women who will be part of Davy's life to help him grow into a good and righteous man.

Here's the all-boy side of Davy:


Yelling as trucks, cars, and dogs go by. There is endless entertainment in the front of our house.




More bubbles, mom? Davy, like every kid, loves the magic of bubbles. We got this great big bee bubble wand at Target for $1 and it actually works! We went through a whole bottle of bubbles, but Davy would have kept going if we could have.


What, mom? Can't you let a guy splash in peace?



With perfect toddler radar, Davy quickly honed in on the muddiest puddle in the vicinity.

Every year just in time for Mother's Day the lilacs in Boston bloom. The Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain has a special Lilac Sunday where the main attraction is hundreds of flowering lilac bushes. The air smells amazing and the purple and white hues of the blossoms are impossibly elegant. We enjoyed our stroll through the Arboretum and being part of this Boston tradition. Davy thought the dogs were especially cool--literally everyone and their dog was out for the day in the park.




So, funny story. We were walking along the sidewalk to get to the Arboretum (had to park far away, as the place gets packed) and came upon a family going a teensy bit slower than we were. Collin was pushing our stroller and the dad of the other family was pushing their stroller. We made our way to the side of the group and were getting ready to pass them. Collin, being the polite guy he is, wanted to acknowledge their existence so greeted them with a "hello, how are you" to which the other man answered, "doing well, you?" Then Collin said (I'm sure intended to be) to the group at large, "Happy Mother's Day!" The other dad responded, "Thanks. Happy Mother's Day to you." And without any of the women saying a word in the exchange we passed in front of the family and continued on our way. I started to laugh because it seemed absurd to me to hear two men wishing each other a happy mom's day. As Collin defended himself, a holiday doesn't have to be about you to feel part of it (e.g. Christmas) and I know that I would not be a mother without Collin. Still I giggle when I think about that moment in our day. Maybe you had to be there . . . and be a woman . . .

Words

Here's a list of words Davy can say (or at least communicate with approximate grunts) at almost 17 months:

banana, apple (meaning applesauce), bread, water, milk, cheese, cookie, spoon, yum, dinner, snack

gorilla, dog, woof, bird, tweet, spider, bear, turtle, moo, baa, ooh-aah (monkey), zzz (bee), ssss (snake), a horse snuff, hop (for frog and rabbit), grr (bear, tiger, lion)

star, moon, cloud

car, truck, airplane, boat, bike, beep-beep

diaper, umbrella, flower, stroller, shoe, socks, hat

blanket, bed, pillow, bath, book/story

soft, tree, up, chair, ball, outside, baby, go, stop, tower, balloon, on

oh no, oh boy, oh dear, all done

hi, bye-bye

belly button, elbow, knee, (he knows how to point to other parts of the body when we say the name, but he doesn't say them yet)

yeah, no, me (which we think means please), thank you (but not really in context--he'll say it to me when he is handing me something, when I would usually say thank you to him)

Momma, Da, Nana, Abba, Gramma, Grampa, Aunt Jenna, Aunt Camilla, Tara

Spring ParentTalk Sale

Hey kids, what time is it? It's ParentTalk Sale time! Clap your hands for joy!


Here we are (at the front of the line, no less) for our fourth visit to the semi-annual sale where all pregnant women in the greater Boston area come out of the woodwork for the best deals in town on used toys and clothing for kids age 0 to 7.


We were pretty happy again with our results: 40 or so pieces of clothing for Davy, 15 pieces of maternity clothing for Rachel, 4 or 5 books, a few toys, a plastic rain cover for a jogging stroller, a car window shade, and an afternoon of frantic fun -- all for $20!


Davy cleverly got into the cabinet and found the Cocoa Puffs, normally reserved for Daddy. We were quite impressed, so we let him have some.


Hanging out after nap time:

Here's a little bit of Davy's growing vocabulary. See what you can pick out.

First Hair Cut

Rachel has been needing a haircut for some time now and she was brave enough let me attempt it. She then repaid the favor by doing my own. Since everyone was getting a new look, we decided it was probably time for Davy to join in. Check out the new 'do!

BEFORE:

One of those awkward moments when you think you're taking a picture but it's actually a video:

AFTER:

Handsome kid! We had the missionaries over for dinner and Davy shared all of his wooden play food with them.