thank you nick

a special thanks goes out to cousin nick for a special gift. nick sent one of his old favorites for donovan to enjoy. it came complete with a card. thank you nick, donovan loves his new toy!

christmas week

this year was the first year dan and i have spent christmas in burnsville. we started off our marriage by spending christmas separate in order for both of us to see family that we only get to see once a year. as time went on and children were discussed we started spending christmas together. the past two years we have spent in new york with dan's family and this year we decided on burnsville. this was bitter sweet because it was dan's first christmas in 39 years away from his family, but the burnsville family was eagerly awaiting our arrival.



we started our festivities by picking up uncle matthew from the airport on the 22nd. he had not seen donovan since he was almost three months and lots has changed since then. we all headed to burnsville on the 23rd and got there just in time for dinner. donovan does not particularly like riding in the car, but this trip uncle matthew sat in the back seat to entertain both donovan and buck.....the first of our christmas gifts!

christmas eve traditions in my family have changed over the years due to matthew and myself not being home for christmas. our church has a candle light service in the evening, and my parents have invited people to our house after the service for food, drink and fellowship for the past few years. we were able to spend some time with people that we do not often get to see, and of course let donovan's extended family show him off.

christmas morning was perfect. the only thing that could have made it more perfect would have been for donovan to understand how cool this christmas morning really was. we woke up to a perfectly falling big fluffy flaked white christmas that lasted for the next 2 days! we opened gifts while snacking on breakfast and watching the snow in my parents brand new sun room....which is not sunny but is filled with big windows. donovan was way more into the paper and boxes than his gifts, but he did play with the pictures of children on his toy boxes. i think he thought he got children for christmas. later that day we headed to my granny's for a big turkey dinner--upon granny's request--complete with china and christmas dishes. we spent the evening walking in the snow with donovan, and eating, and opening presents, and eating.

sunday we had plans to go to my dad's parents in anderson, sc, but because of the snow we were unable to make it. this was a bummer because this was the first year in a long time that everyone was going to be there, and donovan was going to get to hang out with his two baby cousins. bummer. instead we had a lazy day at home trying to get matthew's flight changed since the weather was also keeping us from getting back to charlotte.

monday morning we were up bright and early to get back to charlotte for matthew's flight. it was still snowing on the 10"+ we already had and the first 30 minutes of the drive was hairy. we made it home safe and sound with that mixed feeling of glad to be home and unpacked, but sad that family was leaving and donovan's first christmas is over. the good news is that pops and bammie will be here in a couple of days!

8 months

this was the first month that i thought "wait how many months is donovna?".......i am gonna say it again....this goes way too fast.
the stats:
- wearing 12 month clothes...for a little longer
- size 3 diapers
- eats at 9am....2 oz. fruit with oatmeal, 6 oz bottle
12pm...2 oz. vegetable with a grain, 6 oz. bottle
3pm...8 oz. bottle
6pm...1 oz. protein, 1 oz. fruit or vegetable, 6 oz. bottle

-he started outthe month with getting from his stomach to his butt
-because of the new movement we lowered the crib
-he sat in a highchair at a restaurant for the first time
-saw snow for the first time
-used a sippy cup and had snacks for the first on a trip to burnsville....this makes travel much easier!
-crawled for the first time...and was motivated by the christmas tree and a blow-up hockey stick-we are noticing less spitting up
-on a good day takes 3 naps (usually goes down every 2 hours), goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until 8:30 -9am

-notice the picture of him crawling up the first step for the first time....somebody is getting a baby gate for christmas!

our first christmas with a bambino

after dan's company party we laid low,and with our free time decided to celebrate our little family christmas. we usually travel for christmas and so dan and i have a tradition of celebrating our own christmas at our house. i have no idea what our traditions with donovan will be or if they will be fluid depending on the year, but i do hope we are able to keep our tradition of having a christmas with our immediate family. we do not do anything big, just turn onchristmas music, sit on the floor and hang out.

things are less complicated this year since donovan's priority is crawling around instead of leaving

cookies out for santa. i look forward to the excitement of santa and all that comes with it, but am cherishing this christmas of enjoying watching donovan grow and enjoying being a parent.

dan has always been a fantastic gift giver. he always obviously puts lots of thought into

his gifts and surprises me each year. we give each other stockings filled with gifts that usually have a theme. each year i

try to come up with a gift that i feel that dan will like, and although he is always gracious for what i give i can tell that he would have rather

me not spent the money to clutter up the house. this year instead of spending money in hopes i find something he really likes, i went to the grocery store and filled his stocking with things he uses. i failed again this year with the gifts, but at least i do not have to look at the clutter and think, "why did i buy that?"

when we were finished opening gifts we were watching donovan play in the torn paper instead of with his new toys, and i began doing my thing of looking for approval from my failed christmas gifts. dan looking at donovan said "that is my christmas gift from you". now i know that sounds cheesy and like some sort of movie line...or even the line that you might expect him to say during a perfect christmas moment, but to me it was precious. for those of you gagging about the love that dan and i spewed ...or rather i spewed.......all over this blog post be assured that dan is not getting soft he just had a moment........ and then

he spent the next day at the panther's game celebrating the annual "man day"........

holiday host

we hosted dan's holiday work party at our house this year. dan and i both like to host guests, but the to-do list takes longer with a little one. i started a couple weeks ago planning the menus and making my to-do list thinking i was going to be on top of things. now that it is over i have to say we rocked it, but oh my getting to that point. my mom came as usual on tuesday to keep donovan, but with my to-do list and bad weather we were lucky enough to have her until thursday morning. thank goodness! friday came and i could not believe how much i had left to do. i spent some time that day figuring on how to get out of town before guests arrived to a not prepared for party. donovan had a good day which was helpful, but still required lots of attention. when dan came home i ordered him around until our guests arrived.

6:30pm sharp our guests arrived and began doting over donovan. he was stand offish at first but a few minutes in he was being passed around while dan and i continued hosting. donovan is a good sleeper and just as usual we were able to put him to bed and he slept through the rest of the party like a baby( he he he). so long story short we were a hit, and we survived, and we had a good time.

the next da our good friends meghan, billy and their son liam came to visit on their way to celebrate christmas with their families. liam is almost 2 years old so donovan spent his time trying to impress his older buddy. when donovan sees other kids he loves it. he smiles big and tries to hang out with them, i have heard other parents say the same about babies noticing babies. donovan spends most if his time with adults so it was fun to see him interact. liam was sweet to bring donovan a sweet christmas present.

the picture of donovan and liam sitting together looking stunned was not a good representation of the visit...i just thought it was a funny picture. we then finished our no shower saturday celebrating our christmas.......check out the next post.........

board of education

daddy, or rather grandaddy, was elected as a board of education board member and was just sworn into office. just to brag a bit, he won the most votes in the county ...by lots. i think this is funny because my dad is not the least bit political. so off we went to burnsville to take part in the swearing in. gram had donovan an outfit complete with a toolbelt painted on for the occasion. we were able to spend the day watching it snow, really snow not like charlotte flurries. then we bundled up and headed to the board of ed. for the 15 minutes of fame...literally it was about 15 minutes, and then we headed back down the mountain with chests full of pride, and loaded up with new duds for donovan.

on the move

christmas shopping

dan, donovan and myself went christmas shopping. dan and i take one weekend day per season to knock it out. this year was a bit different because we had donovan....which means more shopping. we obviously have a few things in mind for donovan this year, like a brand spanking new babygate, but our list has also increased due to the new recognition of children in the family. of course we know there are children in our extended family, but the birth of donovan throws us into that pot of gift giving. getting to the point of life where i am giving toys for christmas is lots of fun, but i have hit a hard realization that i am clueless as to what kids want or enjoy. i am taken back to that very selfish time as a child where i would get a gift from someone that i did not want. i do not want to be that person that brings out the selfish.

dan and i have spent the past couple of weeks gathering family gift giving traditions. one family has a traditional secret santa where all names of grandchildren are put in a hat and each grandchild chooses a name to buy for with a $20 limit, and of course it is kept a secret as to who got your name. in another family there is a tradition of buying for all nieces and nephews 5 and under. this tradition had to be revisited this year to clarify if we are buying for great nieces and nephews since we have an influx of new bambinos. then we have my family that is much smaller. on my moms side donovan is the onl

y child, but on my dad's side he is one of 3 new great grandchildren. this means clarifying of traditions, which is to take my generation out of the g

ift giving mix and buy for kids only.

so with all the traditions gathered, and a few ideas of gifts we are on a timeline to mail out gifts by the end of the week and hope that we are not viewed by the kids as the most clueless gift giving family in the world. i know i know this is just the beginning! happy shopping......

oh yeah, and it just so happened on our shopping day we had snow!! well flurries...but it was still fun, and donovan's first snow.

gut laughs

donovan is soooooo ticklish. dan and i have a tradition of getting donovan dressed for bed in our room so he can flail around on our bed. he has realized that he can hit the bed with his face and it does not hurt nearly as bad as on the floor. while he flails we tickle him, and he gives the sweetest baby gut laughs :)

bath in the sink....

donovan loves bathtime and has since his first one. we use to put him in a tub in the sink, but he started splashing so much he got everything in the kitchen wet so we started putting him in his bathtub in our bathtub. this is labor intensive with the whole putting the tub in the tub and gathering all his things together...and lifting him in and out...and sitting on my old knees, so one day i got lazy and thought it would be easier to put him in the kitchen sink tub-less.........

long story short dan came home to a kitchen floor covered in wet towels. he soaked things i cannot believe that water reached, and once it got started there was nothing i could do to stop it except grab the camera for all to enjoy!

quest for the perfect holiday card picture

we spent friday after thanksgiving trying to capture a holiday card picture while we had grandaddy and his sweet camera in town. there were lots of great pics so enjoy!

thanksgiving

over the past few years dan and i have hosted thanksgiving at our house. we love doing this because it means no travel and a laid back event. we have my parents, granny, lisa and gordon, and our friend aaron. everyone has requests for certain food favorites and so that makes for an easy delegation. dan fries a turkey and we get a honey baked ham and voila...thanksgiving!

for dan part of thanksgiving is making sure to have room for a turkey sandwich in the evening which means we snack beginning at noon...eat at 2 o'clock...which really means 3:30, and then that means timing is perfect for a late night turkey sandwich. we are thankful to be with the family that we celebrate with, but miss the family that cannot be with us.

our tradition stretches into friday where i decorate the inside of the house and dan hangs the lights outside for christmas, and of course we take advantage of our company to get this done :)

donovan was a trooper this thanksgiving and stayed right on schedule to allow us to sit and enjoy the meal! he also had his first taste of turkey.....and was not impressed.

7 months

we have had a big month with lots of changes......

• donovan transitioned from sleeping swaddled to sleeping in a sleep sack
• he also started becoming attached to a blanket....we have this routine where we put him in his sleep sack, put his nuk in, hand him his blanket and he snuggles it to his face and rolls over on his side....this happens almost every night....precious
• he sat up on his own, and seemed to get the hang of it immediatly .
• the day after sitting up on his own he found himself on all fours in the crawling position. since then he is a pro at taking the "plank position" and crawling backwards.
• he has sprouted 2 bottom teeth. we have been told he was teething since 4 months but had not seen any teeth. one day i was checking his mouth for thrush...that is another story...when i noticed 2 tiny teeth!
• he is wearing 9-12 month clothes
• he is wearing size 3 diapers
• he is very scheduled. he eats at 9am, 12am, 3pm, 6pm......he eats 3 meals a day complete with 2-3oz. veg/ 2-3oz. fruit/ 1oz protein and 6 oz. bottles......he would eat more but we had to intervene when he got up to eating 10 oz. solid food one day (average at this age is 4oz.)!!!
• he has been practicing feeding himself with bread, yogurt bits, and o's.
• some new foods have been black beans, lentils, quinoa, hummus, chicken, bread and wait for it.......egg.......i do not suggest this
• he loves to drink from a glass. when he sees others drinking he screams and shakes with pure excitement....very cute
• his favorite toy right now are blocks and his car that he likes to ride in in the driveway....his favorite off limit toys are computers, cell phones and the remote

granpa & grandma comes to visit

donovan's grampa and grandma murphy just came for a visit. we had beautiful weather for the weekend and were able to grill some steaks and sightsee around the area. they had not seen donovan since this past july so they were pleased to see a quickly growing boy. he was in a great mood and hammed it up all week. he showed off his "moves" while trying to crawl. donovan and i were able to take walks with grandma and donovan talked the whole time. dan and i will not be visiting new york this holiday season so it was nice to see the murphy's as a kick off to the holiday season.

solid food

donovan began the world of solid foods when he turned 4 months. he has worked himself up to starting protein and finger foods this past week after turning 6 months. i have found that the ins and outs of solid foods are like brain surgery for me.

i have an incredible amount of guilt that donovan was on that crazy hypoallergenic formula for the first months of his life, and that he is still on formula (for those of you that did not know he had a dairy allergy). breastfeeding did not come easy to me, and it did not come easy for donovan and that is where the pump comes in.....pumping is just an added thing to do in a days time while taking care of the little guy, and feeding him, and feeding myself....and on a good day taking a bathroom break and so i did it for 4 months all the time freezing the milk in hopes that he could someday drink it. 4 months in i was adding more hours at work and had freezers full all over north carolina and pumping became even more of a thorn in my side and so i stopped. the very fact that i have just spent a paragraph justifying myself shows the guilt i have that donovan is now on formula. he did finally transition into tolerating dairy and quickly the frozen milk was gone...which means he is back on formula. it is a heavy burden to carry that i produce a perfect food for donovan and i chose to quit, but alas here we are...and so i try to transfer all that guilt into making his solid food.

i go all over town gathering organic foods for him to eat. i lose sleep over how to make sure that donovan is getting the perfect balance of foods, and shape him to be the healthiest boy in the whole world. and so weekends have turned into me steaming, grinding and freezing foods for donovan to eat. now my freezer is filled with frozen cubes of food that i have to choose daily and hope it is the right choice into molding my son into superman. for those of you that are worried about my sanity i will admit that i know this is ridiculous. logically i know there are millions of marathon running doctors out there that live to be 100 and were raised on similac and gerber purees, but emotionally i feel that i have stolen something from him.

this post was just supposed to be a quick few videos before i felt the need to pour my heart out...so here are somewhere near a million long videos of donovan trying different foods. he is incredibly cute and i can still feel the excitement of him trying each new food...but folks the videos really show nothing....there are very few funny faces or huge messes. what you will see is a boy who loves his food ....all food ...any food.......

grandaddy turns 60 ...and halloween!!

we headed to burnsville this weekend for a slew of exciting things ...and a few extras! we planned the trip to celebrate daddy's 60th birthday, give the preacher a thumbs up for his 36 years of service and show off donovan's halloween costume. i love halloween and have been excited about halloween from a child's perspective....or really most holidays from a child's perspective.


donovan does not travel well. he hates his carseat and can only be entertained in it for about an hour before meltdown ensues, which makes a simple trip to burnsville a nightmare. there is something about an ear piercing scream that makes me feel like i might come out of my skin. it is such a weird mix of emotions and thoughts that go through my head during these meltdowns that can range from "he is dying...i know he is dying...that is a death scream" to "he has got to shut up or i am going to save myself by jumping out of this moving car". my parents met us at the door and must have seen the glazed look on our faces because they offered to keep donovan while we went out to dinner, which was delightful!



my parents are building an addition onto their house and so day and night is spent either picking out paint/tile, or ordering around contractors. daddy requested to play golf on saturday, which is dan's favorite birthday gift to give, and mama and i tag-teamed donovan and house cleaning. we did get a surprise visit from my friend phoebe and her mom to break up the day and love up on donovan. daddy got roped into giving out pumpkins at "trunk-or-treat", which is hosted by the church, so we dressed donovan up in his skeleton outfit and took him to town. it was a neat event with all the merchants open and the town full of kids in costume. we finished up the night with daddy's birthday dinner.


sunday was a big day because it was the last time we would see mr. muri serve our home church. this is a big deal to us because he has been with the church 36 years, baptized matthew and myself, married dan and myself, buried my grandfather and dedicated donovan. the plan to get us all to church clean, dressed, fed and napped went smooth as silk up until the nap point which stretched until 12:15 that day......and for those of you non-church goers church is over at 12:00p. luckily i was able to sneak in for the last few minutes and bid farewell to the preacher while dan kept things under control at home.

our neighborhood in cornelius has a big halloween to-do and dan and i strategically planned our trip home to miss it because of our busy weekend and need to get donovan back on schedule and get ready for the week. alas...we got home during the thick of the rush....candyless. quick trip to
walgreens to get some candy...rush to cook donovan's dinner....rush to unpack car.....rush to wash clothes....rush to put donovan to bed....rush to eat dinner.....this is not what i pictured for our first halloween, but alas, i would not give it up.

6 months

i continue to be amazed at how the time flies. i feel like some months he grows at twice the speed of normal and this was one of those months. his current stats......
18lbs 14oz. (75%) 281/2 in. (96%)

• he ate carrots, green beans, sweet potato, apples, zucchini, pears, banana and pumpkin.
  
• he started eating more solid foods instead of only tastes.
  
• he eats 6-8 oz. bottle 2oz vegetable, 2 oz. fruit and 4 T rice cereal a day
• he is working hard on sitting on his own.
• he is noticing who has him and where his parents are
• he had his sitter, mrs. paula keep him for the first time.
• he wears 6-9 month clothes and size 2-3 diapers
• his parents had their first over night stay without him
• we moved him to a rear facing convertible car seat.
  

4 years of wedded bliss

dan and i celebrated our 4th anniversary. since donovan was born i told dan that i wanted to go away one night for our anniversary. i figured he would be 6 months and the timing would be right with leaving him with my parents.

on a side note...as a mother i question if i should not feel comfortable leaving him at this point...i know so many other moms who say they did not leave for the first year or more...and so i question myself about this. i guess there is no right or wrong on this subject, and now that it is over i do not regret it.....

back to our anniversary........my parents came into town friday evening to gear up for babysitting duty on saturday. saturday morning dan and i kissed the boy and set off to asheville for the night. we took a leisurely drive on the parkway leaf looking at the spot we got engaged. it has been right around 6 months since we have been in the car fully relaxed not waiting on when little man may have had enough of his car seat. it was a crystal clear 70 degree day that allowed us to park our car at our downtown hotel and walk the rest of the weekend.

dan and i still know lots of people in asheville, and although excruciating to not call them, i wanted dan and i to have a selfish weekend to ourselves with no place to be and nothing to do. and so the weekend continued with amazing asheville food, i had a massage while dan watched some baseball (pretty good planning on dan's part :)), watching the sunset at grove park, and a nice long dinner and talk about how lucky we are and have been. dan and i met in asheville and being able to reminisce about life then and now was so awesome. we love our life now more than we can explain, and being able to have an evening to focus on that without a worry about our little boy was just perfect. so thank you mama and daddy for allowing that to happen.

sunday morning we were able to open our eyes without hitting the floor trying to catch up on the day. we continued our leisurely weekend with a long breakfast reading the paper and another walk around town. dan and i always drive by his old house in asheville when we are in town. the house has been up for sale a couple of times since dan sold it and we have always wondered what is going on with the house and our old neighbors. to finish up a perfect weekend we spotted our old neighbor in the driveway and were able to get the low down on the old home place and see all our old neighbors. they shared pictures of their grand kids and we showed off donovan.

on our way out of town we grabbed a pumpkin spice latte (seriously i am not joking this weekend was perfect) and headed down the mountain. i think it may be the first time i have not been teary eyed leaving the mountains since i knew donovan was at the other side.

we got home to a giggling baby, grabbed a pizza with mama and daddy and then thanked them and sent them on our way. we feel so lucky to be able to have such fabulous parents that allow dan and i to have time together while they love up on the little guy. we spent the rest of the evening playing pee-pie and reading donovan's new book with him (we did the whole the parents leave town and bring back a surprise thing :)) what a fabulous weekend....and life.

***by the way the picture of the duck was just a perfect "asheville" experience of walking by a duck in a car.....that is soooo asheville

precious game of pee-pie

donovan's new thing is playing pee-pie. he covers his face with a burpcloth and then gets so excited it sounds like he is having a tough time breathing. when you grab the cloth off to make sure he is ok he laughs and smiles. precious.

by the way i do not know i this is how to spell "pee-pie" or not

***this just in i was clued in by my aunt judy that instead of the funny name of "pee-pie"...which sounds pretty gross......pee-pie does sound awful close to "Peep-Eye"...thank you judy!

and the yankees decendeth

we have had a jam packed week of fun! sunday after our pumpkin extravaganza pops and bammie (dan's mom and stepdad) came into town for the week. this was perfect timing because dan was leaving monday morning for a meeting in florida and they saved me from having to experience single-parenting....wheeeoooo. i was a bit nervous, as i always am, leaving donovan with people he has not seen in a while. when will i learn not worry before i have to....of course donovan fell in love all over again with pops and bammie. it took no get use to you time. i guess that after 6 kids, 2 step-daughters, 14 grandchildren, and running a daycare bammie is a baby magnet. i was able to run errands, make phone calls, get a few more hours in at work without a worry in my head about the little guy. the days went smooth as did the nights, seeing how i came home to dinner being made for me :) we have to spread pops and bammie out over such a large family, and since they summer in ny and winter in florida we do not usually get long visits. dan and i are glad that donovan got extended one-on-one time with pops and bammie, and i of course was glad to pick pops and bammie's brains about family life with their kids.

dan came home thursday night to donovan looking at him like he was a stranger. i missed the shenanigans because i was at work...but after the LUNGING incident it made me laugh a bit. friday dan's brother don his wife nicole and their three kids, leigha(10), owen(7) and nolan(15mo) came into town on their first road trip down south. i put a little pressure on don this past summer after our trip up north and so i think he took it as a dare ;) dan's family is so close...... which is amazing when you think of the size and all the blending of members. dan is the only sibling that lives down south and so our visits with his family are often busy with traveling to get everyone in. we often talk about wishing we got more visits from siblings to have more quality hang out time with everyone (hint, hint) . so this visit with don's family was much anticipated. we started the weekend with a cookout friday night and went to carowinds (an amusement park) saturday while donovan spent the day watching football with pops and bammie. quote from my nephew owen, "the adults got to ride more rides than the kids did".....i am wondering if we abused our power as adults? sunday morning pops, bammie, dan and don went to the panthers game....and monday dan and don played golf before heading back to ny.

we got word from don tuesday evening saying they made it back to new york after driving all night......and i got a cll from bammie wednesday morning letting us know it was 37 degrees in pennsylvania that morning. so until next time we can just hope that the winters get colder and colder for the yankees and the memories of shorts in october will lure them back soon!

pumpkin patch

dan and i took donovan to pick out a pumpkin this past weekend. this is something that i have looked forward to. i see all of these lovely pictures of new families doing all american things. you know when you see a heartwarming picture and then create a story of how perfect that day might have been. from our pictures you probably imagine a hayride through a pumpkin patch, maybe an afternoon of apple cider? well folks although it was a lovely day of quality family time the pictures at the patch took about 10 minutes...and that was with me stretching out our stay. then we went to target.

bitter sweet sitter

the time has come for me to increase my bacon earning and add another day to my work week. my mom still comes and keeps donovan 2 days so i can work, but we had to get a sitter for thursdays. this came at a time when donovan is starting to notice who is holding him and watches intently when his parents walk away. this is normal development in children, but of course in my anxiety stricken brain he thinks that i am leaving him forever. that is the bitter part of having a sitter.....

the sweet part of having a sitter is that we were able to book an old neighbor as our nanny, mrs. paula. dan and i always had her in the back of our mind, even when i was still pregnant, as a nanny possibility so we are thrilled our first pick worked. she came to meet donovan for the first time and brought him an adorable quilt she made for him. he sat in her lap and smiled while we chatted.....which made me feel so much better about leaving him. she is a retired grandmother of a 7 year old grandson so she knows boys :) her daughter and grandson will be moving to michigan in the next few months, and so we know she will be holding donovan a little closer.

on my first thursday back to work mrs. paula came right on time for me to show her the ropes. i was able to put donovan down for a nap (so he did not have to see me walk out the door). dan got home to relieve mrs. paula and of course the day had been very smooth. that of course was the only detail i got from dan.....he never asks the good questions. i called mrs. paula first thing friday morning to see how everything panned out...and i will spare you all of the details....but i am so relieved that my first time leaving donovan with a non-family sitter is over...and am thrilled that we have mrs. paula.

on a side note i do have to give a little shout out to donovan's very very first non-family sitter, miss. blair. i had a networking lunch event to go to with a co-worker a few weeks ago and my good friend blair, the baby whisperer, was so sweet to keep the little guy. again, we have been so lucky to be able to leave our pride and joy with people we know and love. as hard as it is for me to leave him i could not imagine having to leave him with someone that i do not know.

the picture is a phone picture taken and sent to miss. blair....and donovan is laying on the quilt that mrs. paula made.