beaters

ahhh yes holiday cooking and licking beaters. and no gram there are no raw eggs involved.

haircut

we pulled the trigger and gave donovan a haircut. i was not looking forward to cutting his baby curls, but even i was beginning to feel like he was looking a bit shaggy. it just so happens that donovan's nanny angela pulled her strings to get us vip treatment. her daughter cuts hair and offered to come to our house to give his first haircut.

i was braced for donovan to not enjoy the experience, but i was not prepared for it to be traumatic for me. i just hated to see him upset over something that was based on pure vanity....and my own vanity at that. he sat in dan's lap until he got frantic enough to yell for "ma-ma". then he sat in my lap until he realized that he was also going to have to have his haircut in my lap in which case he began yelling for buck to rescue him. heartbreak.

betsy, donovan's hairdresser, was kind enough to bring him a special cape and a special comb. she was able to keep her cool and continue cutting despite donovan's breakdown. her confidence certainly helped me keep my cool.

now that it is over i cannot keep my eyes off my little boy and his precious new cut. he is going to have to get pretty shaggy for me to be able to put him through it again, but he looks precious :)

the murphysteins visit santa

dan and i are lazy when it comes to visit santa. we neglected to let donovan even get a peek at santa last year. our philosophy last year was when he asks to see santa we will dress him up and stand in line....until then we assume he does not want to go.

this year donovan has become interested in santa. he loves the phenomenon of which santa always seems to be on a fire truck, and he loves to say "ho ho ho" whenever he sees beards or santa hats. feeling in the christmas spirit dan and i trucked down to one of the local santa spots to snap a picture with donovan for a christmas card. we were the 5th people in line so it was awesome....until we got up to the price sheet that was placed outside of the room that you go into to see santa. needless to say we opted out. donovan forgot his money and in our goal of teaching financial responsibility we left. we headed over to the sports bar next door and spent our money on lunch. maybe next year?

we did get to see singing bears...for free....a big christmas tree....for free......and a deer made of sticks....for free :)

thanksgiving 2011

another great thanksgiving here at the murphy house. we stuck with the tradition of hosting thanksgiving at our house. dan fries the turkey, honey baked does the ham and i focus on delegating the fixins'. and it went off without a hitch again this year....and for that we are thankful.

our nephew brian has moved from ny to sc in the past few months so he was able to come to thanksgiving at our house. he helped us entertain donovan ....as if donovan did not have enough help with that.

we kicked of christmas that weekend by decorating the inside and the outside. it is a way for dan and me to take full advantage of our house guests before they leave. dan only had to cover the house and bushes in lights 2 times due to lights burning out.

peppers

we are still getting a few peppers in our little garden and donovan has taken a liking to them.

weekend in burnsville

i got behind on my blogging and forgot to post pics from a weekend visit donovan and i had in burnsville. it was at the end of september so the leaves were just beginning to fall and it was the first cold snap that had come through. so with apple picking and a trip to throw rocks in the river it felt like the first of fall.

angela

i thought this was a great picture of angela with the boys. she is sitting calm and and perfectly coifed...
and the boys are both caught in motion:)

this post has been a long time coming, but i have been behind my game in the blogger world. for the first year of donovan's life we were lucky enough that my mom came down and took care of donovan for us 2 days a week. because i work 3 days a week, we had the third day covered by different people that were wonderful but could not commit to long term with donovan. so, after over a year of travel for my mom and running out of options with sitters the decision was made to hire a nanny for 3 days a week.

the process of finding childcare is a doozey. i was told about some websites that help you find childcare and was so freaked out by the thought of them that i refused to look at them.....until my patchwork system of childcare began to stress me out more than the idea of finding a sitter online. and so the interview process began.

the first lady i interviewed i realized was a bit of a wildcard based on her profile, but i did not want to ignore the possibility of a fantastic nanny! she had lots of experience working in preschools, was a mother, played mrs. clause during christmas and played a clown the other times of the year. now i know you are thinking "really megan"?....i was just keeping my options open. we realized this would probably not be the best fit when she arrived to the interview driving a clown car and telling her story of just getting a ticket on the way to the interview. so i guess that means you don't have a clean driving record?? during the interview we focused solely on her family trauma.

second interview......a really nice lady. not driving a clown car, and says her driving record is clean. i am thinking things are already looking up! one of the things dan and i wanted out of a sitter, since donovan would not be in a full time setting with other kids, was for the nanny to take him to activities outside of the house. when i asked this lady about taking him places she said, "i love to go to bj's" (which is a wholesale grocery store for those of you that do not know). when i asked if she had any questions she said, "so you are not like a helicopter mom are you? i find it is really hard to be a sitter for those helicopter moms."

third interview......her profile says she was a stay at home mom and her kids are now grown. she has a master's in counseling (that got my attention!) and only wants part time work. things looked really promising so far. in the interview i found that she had grown up in wilkesboro (love a girl that knows the country!), went to mars hill college, worked in counseling before kids, son had reflux, and that is just the beginning of things that we had in common. dan and i had wanted to do at least 4 interviews, but when we went over this prospect we could not find any red flags and felt like we needed to jump on it.

angela became our nanny in mid-august, and she is wonderful! donovan loves her. it is the best feeling for me to say, "ok mama is going to work. give me a kiss goodbye." and then to hear donovan say, "bye-bye mama" as he goes over to angela, or as donovan calls her "anlaa". angela likes to be outside as much as donovan so they go to parks and take lots of walks. she takes him to his gymboree classes and to the children's museum. they also have been known to pick up some groceries for mama and check out the goods at steinmart. angela's mother lives with her and will come over with angela sometimes. donovan is use to gram bringing her entourage so he loves the extra attention! another plus with angela, she loves buck and buck loves her. dan and i totally lucked out because she also keeps donovan for us when we have date nights. i knew we had made the right decision when i came home one night and donovan's stuffed animals were all dressed in his clothes and shoes.....i just love a sense of humor!

halloween 2011

18 months

i was amazed at the development that donovan went through his first year, and i am amazed again at the personality development that has happened from 12-18 months!

- 29lbs 8oz. (30%) 33in. (75%).....donovan refused a head measurement.....he also noticed the shot being carried into the room for the first time

-he is in size 5 diapers and 18-24 month clothes...and size 6.5 shoes (but we put him in size 7 with thick socks because that is what we have)

-he insists on sitting at the table and feeding himself

-he continues to be a pretty good eater. we can get him to eat pretty much anything if we are eating it (except eggs) . some of his favorites granola and yogurt, tomato, anything with vinegar, guacamole and bread of any kind.

-on average still takes 2 naps a day, but more and more seems to be practicing with only one nap. let's face it, he is fine with 1 nap but his parents like the donovan better with 2 naps.

-he is starting to imitate. he pants like buck and snores when he lays down.

-he has started rolling his eyes....most often at mom.....usually when the grandparents are in town and i speak to him at all. he will also do this on the weekends if he and dan are having a good time hanging out and he is in no girls allowed mode.

-he gives hugs and kisses when you ask him for it.

-he continues to love being outside. coming inside is usually the trigger for tantrums. he loves pushing his car (that is made to be ridden in) throwing the ball to buck and using sidewalk chalk.

-he is continuing to do more and more talking. he doubles words "ba-ba", "ma-ma", "da-da", "buck-buck".

-he can blow his nose!

-he is getting stronger and stronger about his desire to be independent. he does not want to hold your hand anywhere....especially in dangerous situations. he insists on climbing steps on his own. he has become obsessed with checking to see if he is tall enough to reach handrails.

the beach

the murphy family had our first beach trip together. this was donovan's first trip ever to the beach. our extended family had lots to celebrate with my granny turning 95, dan and my 5th anniversary, and my great aunt betty being cancer free. we rented a big house on ocean isle and proceeded to beach it for a week.

the weather was perfect and allowed us to wade in the water, and dan and donovan even did some wave jumping together. we could not get enough of watching donovan's face as the waves came in and out on his feet and he felt himself sink in the sand. he loved stomping in the puddles on the beach, and feeding the birds each morning at our house. he also loved practicing saying family members names....his new favorite....matt.

we had another first on this trip.....donovan's first stomach bug. yep, that is right....projectile vomit in the car. could a carseat be made with more crevices for vomit to slide into????? the good news is that i did not leave all vomit covered things, including donovan, on the side of the road like i always thought i might. we lived through it and will forever in the future travel with paper towels, trash bag and lysol wipes.

a perfect fall day

donovan and i had a perfect fall day. mechanical truck ride, pumpkins, ice cream and playing at the lake. i love fall.

it's pumpkin time

we went to the same pumpkin patch this year as we did last year. it was a big difference this year. instead of just getting out of the car and getting a picture and grabbbing a pumpkin, we had the full pumpkin patch experience. hay ride, petting zoo, pumpkin patch and apple cider. boy a year makes a big difference!

mama is a racer

i have never been much for exercise. i do not feel the good feeling people talk about feeling after they exercise. i never say to myself "man i would feel better if i exercise". and to top it off i do not have a competitive bone in my body. with this mix of characteristics of me i thought it would be a good idea to run a 5k. actually, it just so happened that somehow i managed to marry the most competitive and physically fit man who suggested a 5k to me. i started training myself this summer and was pretty impressed that i could actually run as far as my training program told me to. i finished the program and started to lose steam in my new endeavor when dan told me about a race. he was going to actually hold me to this. so i bought myself some new running shoes and i ran that race.

a trip to the big city

i earned myself a trip to nyc! it appears that i am an excellent mother and wife and my husband would like to celebrate that by giving me a weekend get away trip to the big city.

my friend carrie and her family moved to hoboken, nj about a year ago and her new abode overlooks the hudson with the empire state building in the background. lovely. she has been bugging me about visiting, and i kept bugging her about visiting, and alas the stars aligned (and dan booked himself a weekend golf trip to myrtle beach to celebrate his excellent father and husband award).

i had never been to the city with a "local" so my goal was to eat good food, see a show and hang out with the "locals". and that we did.

we spent friday afternoon checking out carrie's new digs which happens to be home of the cake boss. we had some pizza and headed into the city, despite the torrential rain, for an evening of comedy and empanadas.


saturday we started the day in times square where we landed tickets to how to succeed in business without really trying, which happened to be one of daniel radcliffes last performances. we strolled hell's kitchen area and had thai food, and finished the evening shopping around grand central station and the library.





sunday, lunch and shopping in greenwich village for treats for dan and donovan before catching my flight home. the trip was quick, but chock full o' sights. thank you reger family for showing little ol me the big city.

tantrum city

little man is really testing his parents with tantrums now a days. he has always had his father's temper and now with more and more independence we are getting more and more tantrums. donovan loves to be outside, and this is where lots of tantrums begin....coming back inside.

i recently "parented" a tantrum that resulted in a neighbor coming out to check and make sure that things were ok. the tantrums start out small with some foot stomping and then they progress to screaming, crying, flinging himself on the floor etc. this scene was disturbing for me. after some research and experimenting between dan and myself our new tactic is to ignore the little dan i mean man until he calms down. although managing the tantrums has become tedious work we do find ourselves chuckling at donovan during these times....now that we have figured out his game. one of donovan's favorite tactics of trying to get his way is to let us know that he is displeased with everything we may offer him. in full tantrum mode if you offer donovan anything he will refuse it even when you know he wants it. we will take something that you know he wants and lay it in the floor in front of him and he will refuse it until he knows no one is looking. if he sees you looking at him while he tries to get it you are back to square one. he will kick it or push it away just to let you know that he wants nothing you are offering him.

typically during his tantrums donovan will take 10 to 15 minutes to calm down and then he will crawl up in your lap. we think he is saying, " sorry, i will try to keep it together now". we have marked it up to all a part of learning....for all of us.

the sweetest sound

donovan is chattering up a storm these days. his chatter makes my heart swell with pride, and also at times makes me want to pop my own ear drums. he has a tendency to repeat things over and over and over and over and over and over, and if i still cannot understand what he wants he begins to cry. although this is frustrating for the both of us the other side of the coin are the words that i can understand, and they are precious.

i think i posted earlier that his first word that he really knew what he was saying was bread. he uses this word lots and it is too cute. he says "bread-n".

the most precious sound i think i may have ever heard is "ma-ma". he just recently has started to say ma-ma when he wants me. my favorite is when he meet me at the door coming home from work and says "ma-ma" with a big smile on his face.

so i guess i will try to keep from popping my own ear drums by reminding myself that practice makes perfect!

we have a yes!

like most other kids "no" was the first response donovan gave us. for example, when we say "do you want more brocolli?" we get a nod no. or, "are you ready to go inside" another nod no.

dan has been off on a business trip to california and i get very sentimental when he is out of town. i had been telling donovan when dad would be home, and telling him each day that his dad called to say that he loved him. it was a grand reunion when dan got home and in all of the excitement i asked donovan if he loved his dad....and he nodded YES!!! it was precious. i now ask him questions all the time like, "do you love mom?" and others.

i would like to give a shout out and thank you to my parents for manning the murphy house while i worked and dan was out of town. and nicole for entertaining me protecting me from the murderers when my parents left town. the slideshow is of pics that nicole took of us while she was in town. we had an especially good time dressing buck up :)

craft's fair weekend

we had our annual trip to burnsville for craft's fair weekend. it is a time to see people who still live in burnsville as well as friends and family that have moved away and come back for a visit. craft's fair is an all american fair full of lemonade, funnel cakes, hot dogs and nick nacks. we caught up with friends, spent time with family and bought a few nick nacks....including donovan's new duck. we ate mama and daddy's incredible tomatoes, fresh corn and homemade ice cream.

we also made it to the decoration at newdale presbyterian. i may have spoken about decoration in earlier posts, but just to review...it is a time where families get together and decorate the graves in the family cemetary. and then we eat and peruse the graves telling stories. this year granny was the oldest member and donovan the youngest.


what a difference a year will make! this is donovan a year ago on craft's fair weekend being dedicated at church!