Viva Las Vegas

Matt and I went out out to Las Vegas this past weekend and....wait for it - we went without David. That is correct. After 2 years, 3 months and 11 days, we finally left David with the grandparents for a long weekend trip by ourselves. Despite the 3 page memo to the grandparents and updating our wills before the trip, everything went great and David had a wonderful time with Hayley on Thursday night and then Bruce and D'Ann on Friday and the weekend. 

Matt had a meditation in Vegas on Friday, so I decided to tag along and make a weekend out of it. This was back in November, when David was still having some adjustment issues (i.e. was a complete a**hole when you tried to leave him with anyone), so Matt's parents agreed to come down to our house to watch him. I thought he might do better if he was in his environment. We left on Thursday afternoon and Aunt Hayley picked him up from school and stayed the night with him. She then took him to school on Friday morning and Bruce and D'Ann picked him up from school and stayed the weekend with him. From the looks of all the pictures and updates we got throughout the weekend, David had a great time.

Thank you so much, Granny D and Papa Bruce. We really appreciate the weekend off!!

Now, the pictures:

They went to Dave and Busters:

Had lots of yummy food (including McDonald's, which he doesn't get with Mom and Dad):

 Went to Little Gym (how much fun does Bruce look like he is having?):

Had some potty time:

Went to the park:

Took a ride in the car:

And passed out from exhaustion:

As for Matt and I, we had a great time as well. We went to two shows, got massages and walked around Vegas. For some reason, I forgot that I brought the camera, so this is the only picture I took in Vegas:

MLK Day

Both David's school and our law firms were closed for MLK Day, so that meant David got to spend the morning with Daddy (while I was at work) and the afternoon at Mommy's office (so Matt could go in for a while). This is the first time David has been old enough to appreciate all the "things" in my office - deal toys, pads of paper, stapler, etc. He actually kept himself amused for almost an hour examining and, in the case of my glass blue bird, breaking said things before I gave him the ipad to play with. We also walked across the street and got a smoothie and cheeseburger in the Plaza of the Americas building, which has ice skating rink in the center, so he thought that was pretty cool.

I took the above pictures with my phone and saw that this was stored on the memory card. This was the day we took David home from the hospital. It is so hard to believe that David was ever this small.

Occupy Potty Movement

We officially made the switch to big boy underwear last week. As I have previously blogged, David's school takes an active approach to potty training and was declared a diaper free zone when the kids returned from Christmas vacation. So, last Tuesday, we sent David to school in big boy underpants and with lots of extra  changes of clothes. The kids wear sweat pants or baby legs (which are leg warmers for toddlers) with their underpants each day so that they can easily change themselves if they have an accident. Each day last week, they sent him home with a few sets of wet clothes, with the number of accident stained outfits diminishing each day.  We knew David would get it quickly because he was so proud of himself every time he went in the potty. On Monday, we had our first accident free day. He actually came home in the same clothes he went to school in and the trend has continued throughout the week (minus the evenings - he still sleeps in a diaper). With a few exceptions, this week has been our first with a close to potty trained kid. Now, in all fairness, he is not great at telling us before he has to go - we more have to remind him to sit on the potty and he goes once there. He seems to get very frustrated because when he feels like he has to go, he tells us, but usually can't make it to the potty in time. This has resulted in him wanting to sit on or stay near the potty at all times. So, we have basically spent most of the evenings on the potty. Seriously - we have spent at least 4 hours each evening with either Matt, Aunt Hayley or myself hanging out in the restroom with David on the potty. As you can see, give the kid an ipad and the potty and he is one happy kid. Note that I used some creative editing to make sure I am not posting any inappropriate pictures.

Thanks to potty training and messy dinners (and mom's lack of desire to do more than 10 loads of laundry a week), we have let David run around pretty much naked the last two weeks. Here is Pasta Night at the Watermans...

This past Tuesday was Aunt's Hayley's birthday. I left work a little early to pick up David. We went to Whole Foods and got stuff to make her a birthday dinner and David made her a card with the painting set he got from Uncle Randy for Christmas.

Thankfully the paints turned out to be washable because David got a little carried away and painted the wall.

We got a fruit/tart dessert for Aunt Hayley's birthday cake as well as some mini-cupcakes, which David enjoyed a whole lot more than Aunt Hayley.

Mad Dancing Skills

David is all about music and dancing lately. He loves to watch the Kia commerical and dance with the hamsters. You can't hear the music, so you have to click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te2fYKpvBMk&feature=related to appreciate his mad dancing skills shown below:

Happy New Year

We rang in the New Year at home with my sister Blair, her boyfriend Brian (who we all really like), and Aunt Hayley. David laid down for about an hour around 9pm, but then was back up and ready to party well past midnight. Luckily for us, he also slept in until about 9:30 this morning. Now we just have to get him back on schedule so we can go back to school on Tuesday.

Although 2011 seemed like it went by very fast, it was a pretty challenging year. We lost Isabel as our nanny, discovered she was hard to replace and David started school (which was a difficult transition for all of us). I finally switched to flex-time at work, which has been an improvement, but still a challenge. Matt has struggled with his career, especially the future prospects at his current firm, as the economy continues to stall and work has not been very steady. We discovered how hard it is to keep a young child occupied when stuck inside for days at a time due to ice (last February) and then temperatures in excess of 110 degrees (this past summer). With all the bad, however, we also had lots of good - David learned how to walk and talk, has revealed a completely charming personality and has finally started to like school. Matt and I have grown much closer and our marriage much stronger as we continue to learn to be parents together. We took our first family vacation together to California this past August, a preview of many more great trips to come. After years of fighting it, I gave in and decided to be a Sooners fan (at least so long as they are not playing UT) and Matt and I had lots of fun going to a few OU games (and I like all my new crimson and cream colored gear). Matt and I spent our first night away from David this past November (after more than 2 years).  Matt's two best friends each welcomed a little girl in 2011 - Caroline and Anna Marie- and the Winkler's are already expecting another one. David got to bond with Granny D when she came to take care of him this summer. We meet Kim - the girlfriend and now finance of Matt's youngest brother and are looking forward to their wedding in this coming September. We had too many great experiences with Aunt Hayley to document, but more than anything, we realized how lucky we are to have her live so close (and Hayley, if you are reading this, you can't move. Just think how sad it would be for David to not see his Aunt Hayley on a regular basis. It would just break his heart. You don't want to be responsible for that, do you?).

I am sure there are many more great (and not so great) memories from the year that I haven't thought of as well.  I am looking forward to what 2012 has to bring. Next up - Matt and I have a trip to Vegas planned for the end of January. It will be our first trip together without David! 

Happy New Year to All!