13, 14 & 15 months

since dr. visits now happen every 3 months i am giving my permission to only report stats every 3 months. i have titled this post as if i am going to break down what the stats are and progression of each month, but people i have lost it. you would think i am on my 4th child with the rate of which i forget things. we will say 13, 14 and 15 months but basically i am going to tell you what is going on this moment. current stats are:

-weighs 23lbs 10oz = 65%.....32 in. long = 75%....head 48cm. = 75%
-wears size 4 diapers, 18-24mo. clothes, and size 6 shoes
-donovan loves loves loves shoes. he picks out the ones he wants to wear and sometimes cannot decide so he wears one of each.
-moving with ease on his feet, and is practicing walking backwards
-saying several different words. loves watching baby einstein videos and mimicking animal sounds and practicing the names of animals. loves saying baaaa, mooooo, rough rough. also loves calling buck by name now. on a side note, his first word was bread. i do not know why because i do not think we have many discussions about bread, and i do not think we eat a ton of bread, but my boy loves the word.
-favorite food for the moment seems to be tomatoes. also loves vinegar foods like pickles.
-loves waving good-bye and hello
-donovan is tentative about things which means he is not yet giving me a heart attack by climbing all over things, but he is beginning to become more confidant in trying

**grandaddy went with us to the well-visit. grandaddy seems to be his all time favorite so i took full advantage of him being in town to help with the dr. vistit. we went for milkshakes afterwards.

father's day

father's day 2011! father's day was the beginning of whirlwind activity for the murphy family....which is why i am a bit late on filling everyone in. i in a flurry of excitement in planning a bachelorette party forgot i had planned the party for father's day weekend. to make matters worse dan got the word he had to be in florida for work for the week, and got to fly out on father's day.....who does that??? so our weekend went like this.....

friday, ice cream and splash park with the big guy (meaning donovan). along with a family dinner at home. saturday morning, eggs benedict made by your truly and then out the door i went to asheville for the night. dan had a whole 24 hours to really enjoy being a dad :) back in town sunday just in time to have a quick take-out lunch, have a card exchange and kiss dad good bye for the week.

with dan being gone the house was lonely and a reminder of how much i love to hear dan rough housing with donovan while i cook dinner, or hear dan explain to donovan like he is an adult that "if you want that then you need not throw it on the floor or you will be disappointed", or playing with donovan on the bed while we get his pj's on for the night. i missed seeing donovan standing at the front door watching dad come home form work, hearing dan and donovan talking to brian williams during the nightly news, and working a tag team on diaper changes. i missed hearing donovan's gut laughs while dan gives him "the claw", and then hearing dan explain to donovan on how to give the claw. and then i missed reviewing the details of the day (i.e. what donovan said or did) with donovan's dad and seeing him get just as interested in trivial details about his son as i am.

dan's trip went well, and our reunion with him rocked. i was able to finagle my parents driving to hickory to meet dan to drop us off. although this father's day was tough being away from dan i did get to spend some extra time over the week with my daddy. watching grandaddy with donovan certainly has its own sweetness as does spending time with my daddy. hope all the father's out there were celebrated appropriately.

memorial day milk and cookies

happy memorial day to everyone, and thank you to all the fallen soldiers. it is easy to take a day off and lose count of why we have the day off. so again thank you to the fallen soldiers.

dan, donovan, buck and myself spent the day getting ready for "summertime when the living is easy". we cleaned up after having company, ran errands, and just hung out. dan and i caved on the cookies at the fresh market, and of course donovan got one as well. so, we took a video of donovan that to a parent, and probably grandparents is awesome! to everyone else it is an over 5 minute long video of donovan sitting in his highchair. the thing that makes it such a great video to his parents is that for the first time donovan just hung out instead of being preoccupied with the camera. he showed off his new showing us his mouth before we give him another bite, his use of "ahhhhhhh" after every drink he takes, his humming and bouncing without realizing he does it (he gets that from his mom), and a peek at a "hooray" from his hip-hip-horray act he does. so to family it is a chock full video.....to everyone else it is a long video of a much loved kid.

and he is a walkin'

last week i came home after work to see dan and donovan on the kitchen floor hanging out. dan had just gotten back from a training in new york and was just catching up with donovan.....so i sat down and joined catching up on our days.

dan said, "oh yeah donovan let's show your mom your new tricks". he sat donovan down and donovan walked straight over to me! for the past year donovan has amazed me almost every day in some way, but this blew me out of the water! i spent all morning with him crawling and now he is up and walking!!! so crazy. my parents had been in town and had been working with him earlier that day.

i have attached a few videos and it is probably overkill for everyone, but me being the proud mama cannot decide because each video is so cool. the first one is video from the first night he took steps.



as we have practiced and practiced we see more and more of donovan's personality. the next two videos are displays of donovan's drive to succeed (temper). i am very very very anxious and not the least bit competitive, and dan is confidant, competitive and has a temper. which one of his parents do you see being displayed here?

happy birthday dan

we have spent the past week celebrating dan's 40th birthday. i love a birthday, and despite dan's requests i have drug this out for close to a week. this week dan has been showered with gifts from friends and family....i stirred the pot here by asking friends and family to send dan 40 of something. we enjoyed seeing what people
came up with to send.


40 q-tips to help with hearing loss and wax build-up, 40 dry erase boards to hang around the house to help with memory loss, a jock strap with 40 bells (a joke between dan and his mother), 40 candles complete with a chocolate cheesecake, photo album of 40 pictures of friends and family wishing him a happy birthday, 4 packs of chicklets (his sister use to share chicklets with him on the bus......she got a pack for each decade), 40 golf tees, 40 viagra (seriously) and 40 hairs (again, seriously). he also got 2 sets of 40 texts on his birthday from friends and a secret message we had to figure out.

saturday he played golf with a group of guys. and that is the detail i have of that day. all in all we had a great time. 39 was a good year for dan with the birth of his son, a promotion at work, and another year of bliss with his lovely wife. happy birthday dan!

we took a header

although we have had a few falls with pump knots...and even a busted lip with blood, this header was the worst so far. it happened while we were cleaning up the kitchen and donovan was playing in the tupperware drawer. i heard a pretty mild fall and knew tears were on the way. by the time i bent down to pick him up blood dripped to the floor! oh my! i looked away to get a towel and by the time i looked back his eye brow was growing and turning blue in front of my eyes! i had always heard head injuries always look super bad, i was amazed at how quickly things looked scary. as quickly as the screams came they stopped. we had a few of his favorite snacks, read a few books and to bed he went. he did wake up to the minute of when his next advil dose was (4am). the next day he had a swollen green eye lid and was pretty fussy. the picture shows his head injury with a bug bite on his forehead. his knee is also skinned from crawling in the driveway. i have a hard time staying calm during injuries, and especially donovan's. i am trying to figure out how i can coax him into being an artist or maybe a dancer or possibly a master of sign language.

problem?

a couple months ago donovan got his first cold and it was recommended that we spray saliene in his nose. the idea of this made me tense. i cannot get donovan to let me wipe his hands, take his temperature, cut his finger nails...and my dr. wanted me to spray saliene in his nose???

well, donovan's response to this continues to surprise us. it seems that he always has huge boogers and he often rubs his nose so we have continued with the saliene...and especially since donovan has a bit of a habit. when he sees the bottles he points to it, and when handed the bottle he puts it straight up his nose. i will spray it in his nose until he chokes and sneezes and after he composes himself he begs for more.

is being addicted to saliene a problem or a blessing?