my baby sure does like corn

thank you ellen hamrick for giving me the idea to give my baby corn. he loves it! and if you notice the picture he also likes to dress himself now, starting with the shoes.

otter lake 2011

we had a great time on our annual summer trip to ny. i could go over the day to day of what we did, but i will just let the slideshow do the work.

visit from uncle matthew

we had an impromptu visit from uncle matthew. he and donovan have not seen each other since christmas so it was a pretty big deal. i was interested to see if full introductions would need to be made or if donovan would sense family blood. it turns out that donovan seems to have a pretty good family blood sniffer because he seemed to remember matthew.

we had a good time just hanging out. usually when matthew comes to town there is quite a bit of running around we need to do in order for him to see everyone. this time he stayed at our house and so everyone came to us. he helped watch donovan while dan and i worked and helped me interview nannies for the big guy. he even helped to attend to donovan while donovan proceeded to have his worst night on the books in a restaurant.

growing up with matthew i do not remember him being physical with me as an older brother, but i do remember being mentally harassed by him. he loved to be scared by people and loved to scare others. donovan had his first encounter of this when matthew scared our dog and donovan was caught in the crossfire which ensued a full out running place scream fit from donovan. i am afraid donovan is going to have it tough with uncle matthew because although matthew loves him very much i think he likes a reaction even more. maybe he will send his nephew a "make-up" ipad to smooth things over.

these 2 videos were filmed while uncle matthew was in town, and then the were published on youtube....and i just realized it. he is sneaky.

oma and opa

donovan had a chance to spend some time his his great-grandparents, grandparents and uncle matthew all in the same day! over the past year we have made plans to see my grandparents several times and due to sickness and weather we had to cancel multiple times. we were excited to finally make the visit happen, and an added treat was that uncle matthew was also in town for the visit.

my grandparents like to make an event out of all meals so with us hosting we made sure to have a big southern meal including ham and potato salad. and of course the orr tradition of glass fruit bowls made a desert appearance.

donovan had a blast with all the attention and was happy to show off all afternoon. he is pretty lucky to have great grandparents in his life.

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.