Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Blowing Rock. David enjoyed all the food. He also enjoyed sitting under the dining room table and trying on his cousin Madi's sparkly red shoes. For some reason David really likes shoes. We went with Lauren and Sid and the girls to pick out their Christmas tree. Here's Lanny and David.

This picture was taken 12/7. Lanny gave David a mohawk. I guess it's time for a haircut again.

Trip to Georgia

David and I went to Georgia to visit my my sister Dawn, brother in law Zac and nephew Parker last weekend. David and Parker had a great time playing together. We took the boys shopping and to the park. David did have some trouble hitting Parker. We are trying to work on that. Any suggestions?
While we were there Parker learned to let go while standing up. I think seeing David walk may have inspired him. I am sure Parker will be walking soon enough.
Parker enjoyed trying to follow David around. David enjoyed climbing up and down the stairs (we don't have stairs in our house so he is not very used to stairs.)

Here he is on the swing at the park. David found a rock that he held onto the whole time we were at the park.
He also enjoyed this ladybug ride.

David was sweet with Parker (when he wasn't hitting him.) Here he is holding his hand. He also gave Parker a few hugs while we were there.When we got back David enjoyed playing in our neighbors leaves. (Lanny had recently mowed ours so we only had crumbled leaves in our yard.) The neighbors were nice enough to let David play in theirs. He had a really good time throwing them up in the air.He also found another rock. (See it in his right hand?) What is it with boys and rocks?

David found his nose!!

So David has been learning his body parts. He know head, hair, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, tongue, hands, elbow, belly, knee, legs, toes, and feet. For some reason every time we asked him where his nose was he would point to his ear. So tonight we asked him where his nose was and this is what he did...

In case you can't tell he is not only pointing at his nose with both fingers, he is also crossing his eyes because he is looking at his nose. It was so funny.

David also decided to lift weights like his dad tonight. (David's are a bit lighter than Lanny's, though.)

Happy Halloween!!

David has recently started using a "big boy" tooth brush to brush his teeth. Now he wants to brush his teeth all the time. I guess there are worse habits he could have.He also likes to put his toothbrush away when he is done. Sometimes he tries to brush his hair with his toothbrush.

David was Nemo for Halloween this year. David and I met Lanny at the seminary after work and ate pizza there.

Afterwards we headed to our friend's church where they were doing "Trunk or Treat". Here are some pictures of David in his costume. He had a great time running around with his friend Cameron. At least this year he is too young to know about the candy involved. We may not be so lucky next year.

Here he is with his friend Cameron (Buzz Lightyear.)

http://www.paperbackswap.com

I know many of you have books sitting around your house that you don't read. This is a pretty cool way to get rid of them and get some books you might want to read (including children's books).
http://www.paperbackswap.com/.
Basically it is a program to swap your old books (not just paperback.) From what I understand when you sign up and list 10 books that you are willing to part with, you get 2 free book credits. You can choose from any books that other people have listed to swap and they ship them to you at their expense. Then when someone wants one of the books you listed you will get an email and you ship the book to them at your expense. When they receive the book, you get another credit to choose another book. They also do a referral program that you can earn free book credits for (details below). If you are interested, please click the link on the left and when you sign up and post 10 books I will get a book credit.

Oh yeah, there is currently no cost other than the shipping charge you pay when you ship books to people who have requested them. The site says shipping is usually around $2 per book.

Referral details:

Every time you refer someone to PaperBackSwap and they sign up, post 10 or more books and list your email address as the person who referred them, you'll receive an extra book credit from us as a way of saying thanks! We want to build the largest virtual paperback book club in the world. The best way to do that is through positive support from our members. The Referrals work as listed below.
1 - 10 Referrals = 1 credit for each
11 - 20 Referrals = 1 credit + $0.50 PBS Money for each
21 - 35 Referrals = 1 credit + $0.75 PBS Money for each
36 - 50 Referrals = 1 credit + $1.00 PBS Money for each
51+ Referrals = 2 credits for each

Renaissance Festival

We took David to the Renaissance Festival in Concord Saturday for opening weekend. David did great!! We got there a little early and he didn't really like waiting in the crowded of loud people. He clung to Lanny pretty tight when the crowd started cheering the opening show. We got in soon and since it was not too crowded we let him lead the way. He really enjoyed the elephant & camels and the sheep at the petting zoo, although he was a little leery of actually touching them. He also like the geese which he called "ducks". Close enough.

He liked playing with the balls, which he threw as soon as he got them in his hands.

He rode on Lanny's shoulders for awhile until he decided Lanny's glasses were a toy.He enjoyed watching the jugglers (for a couple minutes.)
He did take a little bit of a nap after lunch. We got to see some of the joust and some bits and pieces of other shows. We left the festival and headed to Concord Mills Mall for the rest of the afternoon. I got David a couple of cute long sleeved shirts at the Children's Place.

David's First Bubble Bath

OK, so David is almost 16 months old now and I guess it just never occurred to me to give him a bubble bath. He recently learned how to say "bubble" so maybe that inspired me. Anyway, he had the best time playing with his squirting turtle ("Squirtle", as Lanny calls him.) He enjoyed squirting himself and us. Yes, I know he is a little big for the infant tub, but we need to fix the drain in the tub so it will stay full.

David and his cousin Parker

I got this box from Aldi last time I went and after I took out the groceries, David decided to play with it. He had the best time climbing in and out of the box. Who needs toys, when you have a box? :) My sister, Dawn and her son Parker (7 months) came to visit this past weekend. Dawn and I had a great time catching up and shopping. We went to a big consignment sale at Matthews United Methodist Church and shopped triple coupons at Harris Teeter. I spent about $35 on food in 5 trips, but saved about $150 with coupons. I will not need to buy David baby food for awhile. We also went to Old Navy for their Best Friends sale (extra 20% off). I got David some new pajamas for about $5. More than I would normally spend, but they are very cute (& Hawaiian themed.) At the consignment sale I got some clothes for David including a winter jacket, some dress pants, white shirt & orange sweater vest to wear to Lanny's cousin's wedding in the Spring. We also found a bag to carry your car seat in when you fly for only $2!! We were both very excited about this find since I am sure at least one of us will be flying sometime before our last child outgrows a car seat. When we have flown in the past I have always worried that the car seat will get broken and we will not be able to leave the airport until one of us goes to buy a new car seat.
We tried to take some pictures of the boys, but David would not stay still enough for very many of them to come out.
David had a great time with Parker. He enjoyed giving him rides on his back. (He also enjoyed trying to step on him, but we tried to keep him from doing that.)
I think it wore him out. (These are my favorite pajamas of his. Aren't they adorable?)
We took them to church on Sunday and they both did very well in nursery. Here they are before church.
David had goulash on Monday night. He really seemed to enjoy it, especially the ground beef. He got it everywhere, but ate it all by himself. He has also been feeding himself yogurt lately. I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

David's First Haircut

We took David to have his first haircut Saturday. A couple of people (especially at WalMart) had told us what a cute girl we had so we decided it was time to have those precious curls cut off to make him look more like a boy.

We took him to Doolittle's which specializes in kid's haircuts. We were a little early for his appointment so we went to Chick-Fil-A for some breakfast first. He did pretty good, but was kind of squirmy. He sat in a red fire truck with a seat belt, steering wheel, and a bell. He tried to ring the bell, but the ringer had been taped so it didn't make any noise. (I can't say that I blame them. I don't think I would want to hear that bell ring all day long if I worked there either.) My camera was acting up even though I put new batteries in it that day, but we still got some cute shots. He looks like such a little boy instead of a baby. We tried to leave some of his baby curls, though.

David has been learning a lot lately. He has been using his sign language. He knows more, please, thank you, cracker, book, and hat. He can also identify his mouth, toes, feet, knees, tongue, eyes, teeth, hair and ears. We are trying to work on nose, but for some reason he always points to his ear.

He still only has a few words that he says: dada, uh-oh, ball, and book. He also kinda of says duck and bath. He has been working on feeding himself usually with yogurt. He is doing pretty well, although sometimes he likes to put food in his hair. He is growing up so fast. Running everywhere. Lanny says he has 2 modes: run and sleep, which is pretty much true. He keeps me going chasing after him all day.

David's Legos

Here is a picture of David playing with his Legos from July. August pictures are still on the camera. Maybe I will get some new ones on here this weekend. David has quite a collection of Legos. I tried to build a race track for the Lego car for him yesterday, but he kept taking the blocks apart. It makes it really hard to play with my...I mean his toys that way. :)
David has not really gotten the hang of putting the blocks together yet, but is great at taking them apart one by one and throwing them all over the floor. :) He does help clean up though sometimes.

All this for 22 cents!!

So some of you know that I am really into saving money and using coupons. So I thought I would post my savings today.

I went to Food Lion this morning on my way home from work and got the following:
1 Smart Options (Food Lion brand) Frozen Cheese Pizza : $.50
1 Food Lion Brand travel wipes: $1.50
1 jar Gerber 3rd foods: $.77
1 Gerber 9 oz bottle: $1.36
2 Gerber Graduates microwave meals (the kind in a bowl) : 2 @ $1 each = $2

I used the following coupons:
$1 off Smart Options (from Food Lion website - printed last week, I think it has changed)
$2 off any Gerber accessory (www.foodlion.com/babysteps)
$1.50 off Food Lion diapers or wipes (www.foodlion.com/babysteps)
$1 off any Gerber Food (www.foodlion.com/babysteps)
$.50 off 2 Gerber Graduates items (Manufacturers' coupon)

My total after coupons was $.22!!

Now, I really don't need the bottle. David is allergic to latex anyway, but I will sell it on ebay or at a yard sale. And the wipes are good for wiping down counters or high chair trays when they do not need to be disinfected. (They say unscented, but they have a strange scent to them.) I ate the pizza for lunch. Not the greatest pizza I have ever eaten, but since they actually paid me $.50 to take it out of the store, I can't really complain.

The coupons say 1 print, but when you go to print them it pops up your printer screen which allows you to enter any number for the quantity, so I have a pretty good supply of these and since I drive by Food Lion every day on my way home from work, I get several opportunities to save money on things we use any way...baby food!! Yesterday I used my overage from coupons to buy dishwasher detergent.

I already cut off the UPC's from the graduates items to collect to mail in for more Graduates coupons. (They used to have the form on gerber.com to send in 10 UPC's to get $5 of coupons in the mail, but I can't find it anymore. I have it saved on my computer if you are interested let me know and I can email it to you. It is good until 12/2008.)

14 Months Old!!

Wow I can't believe David is 14 months old today!! It has gone by so fast. Here is a picture of him from a week or so ago. I love how he has his legs wrapped around the bar on the crib. He has done that several times. I can't believe how big he is. He has his stuffed yellow Chicago Taxi Cab I got him when I went to Chicago last month with my friend Mandy to go to the Craft & Hobby Association show. You can read more about our trip at http://limelightpapercrafts.blogspot.com/.
It was hard to leave David for a few days, but Lanny did a great job of taking care of him. (I knew he would.) He took him to the mountains to visit David's Granna, Opa, Aunt Tori, Aunt Lauren, Uncle Sid, cousins Kati Mac & Madi. From what I hear he had a great time.

Fourth of July at the Lake

Every year for 4th of July we head to South Carolina (near Spartanburg) and spend a few days at the lake house Lanny's family owns down there. It is always great to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins as well as Grandad and Evelyn. This was David's 2nd fourth of July at the lake, but last year he was only 3 weeks old so he didn't really get to enjoy it quite as much. (Neither did I really.)

David's big cousin Kati Mac decided that since she was not able to come to David's birthday party she needed to throw him another one. She picked out the ice cream cake from Brewster's (chocolate cake with strawberry ice cream and red frosting...very yummy.) She wanted to have balloons, but since David is allergic to latex there were no balloons. David seemed to enjoy this cake a little more. Maybe he just needed to practice on the one at his first party. We had the party at Lanny's Nana's house.

After all that hard work he needed to relax in the hammock at the lake.

Here are Lanny and David at the dock.

David also enjoyed jumping on the neighbor's trampoline.

Here he is playing on the deck with his cousins.
And playing in the water. And his first jet ski ride.

We all had a great time and are looking forward to next year.