The Little Helper

David loves to help, especially with cooking and making coffee. Since he gets pretty heavy to hold while trying to do these tasks, I was really excited to find this kitchen helper stand (One Step Ahead online- great for kids stuff). It arrived last night and, like everything made for children, required some assembly, which, as you can see,  David was more than willing to help with as well.  David did great pushing the button to turn the drill and using the screwdriver (although he wanted to try to use it anywhere but where there were actual screws). So far the reviews are good... he really likes his stand and used it to watch me cook a late dinner last night. It was very cute-- he has learned to say hot and so he pointed to the pan and said hot the entire time.

Oklahoma, Caroline, and the 15-Month Check-Up

We are still catching up on seeing everyone after our Christmas vacation (that being, we missed seeing a lot of family during the holidays because we were off enjoying the Caribbean). We headed up (via plane since David is still not a fan of car rides) to OKC to see Matt's grandparents (MiMar and Granddad - David's great grandparents) and to meet Caroline (Jake and Stacey's little girl who was born last week). David also got to visit with his Uncle Luke (who didn't get to go on our cruise because of his new job) and Matt's cousin Shelly.

David also picked up a new word since we got back from our cruise- Bruce. As odd as it sounds, the kid clearly says Bruce when he sees his Papa Bruce (Matt's dad). He also has decided that all dogs are named Emma as our dog and our neighbor's dog, the only two dogs that he really spends any time with, are both named Emma. It was a bit confusing for him to get the concept that Granny D's and Papa Bruce's dogs were named Gunner and Winston and he promptly rejected that concept referring to them as Emma the entire trip.

David has discovered climbing and was a huge fan of getting onto the coffee table. We would otherwise have tried to discourage this behavior, but he was being quite the "into everything" toddler at his grandparents...so this turned out to be the least destructive activity.

Granny D made super yummy spaghetti and David loved it...

Caroline - The greatest part of our weekend was meeting Jake and Stacy's beautiful daughter, Caroline. Matt has been best friends with Jake since they were in grade school and we just love he and his wife Stacy (although we don't see them as much as we would like). They are an amazing couple and will be great parents and it was such a treat to meet their daughter (who we refer to as David's future girlfriend). Caroline is just perfect. David was really good meeting her and gave her the sweetest hug when we first got there. It was amazingly adorable, but I, of course, did not get a picture of them together. Jake, who is an extremely proud new daddy, had the video camera on hand and got a great video of the moment that I imagime we will be using to embarass our children in a decade or so.

 Notice Jake and Stacy's little dog, Rigley, next to me in this picture-- David also referred to her as Emma.

 How cute is this little outfit..a week old and the child is already sylish!

Finally, David had his 15-month check-up this morning. He is in perfect health and progressing as expected. His stats were 24 lbs 2 oz for weight (50% percentile), 32.5 inches in length (85% percentile), and 18.5 for head circumference (45% percentile).

Catching up on blogging

For New Years, we had a houseful of family (mainly kiddos) including Brandin, Shawna, the nieces (Paytin and Kenzie) and nephew (Colton), Blair (my step-sister) and Hayley. Since we were out of town for Christmas, we celebrated Christmas late with my family and then went to Chuck E. Cheese for a New Years Eve celebration - kids style (which turned out awesome because there were very few people there). After getting the kids sufficiently exhausted, we did some sparklers in the front yard and put the kiddos to bed well before midnight. The rest of us rang in the New Year with a game of Taboo (one of my favorite board games) and a glass of champagne. It was a good time--although I didn't take many pictures.

The second week of January we had our first snow!  It really wasn't much to speak of and only a little stuck to the ground in our tree-covered back yard, but that didn't stop David from going out to play. He really wanted to bring the snow in the house...

David's new thing is cleaning.. he really loves to hold and push the vacuum and the broom. I hope this trend continues, but I have a feeling that this will likely not be the case (at least if he is anything like his father!).

A couple of pictures of David playing on his dump truck (or, as he calls it, his duc-duc-duck truck).  This was a gift from Uncle "Big" Jake (Matt's best friend since he was a child) and Aunt Stacey and is David's favorite toy. Although he has learned to push the truck with his feet, he likes Daddy to do the work... notice the string tied to the front of the truck. This is Matt's solution to allow him to pull David around the house without bending over.

Merry Christmas from the Islands

I am just now getting around to adding text to this post. Over Christmas, we took some vacation and went on a cruise with Matt's family to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.  The vacation was long over-due and the cruise part worked out pretty good with the little one (we could go out and spend time with family and then go back to the room to let David nap). It didn't really feel much like Christmas hanging out in a swim suit on a beach, but it was a great time and we really enjoyed the family time. David really got to know Papa  Bruce, Granny D and Uncle Jake and has added Bruce to his growing vocabulary. It was also especially fun to see Granny D enjoy her cruise experience...she was the first in every conga line and at the front of every dance lesson. She even won Bingo one night. Not only do we expect her to be booking future cruises, I think she is in the running to appear on the next Carnival commercial. We love you Granny D!!

These are pictures taken by the cruise ship (they are big on taking pictures to sell to you and clearly, I was a sucker for buying them...)

This was David at the airport waiting to fly to Houston to get on the cruise ship. Because David is still not a fan of the car (i.e. he screams the entire time he is in the car seat), we flew down and took a cab to the Galveston Pier.

On our balcony getting ready to head out from Galveston.

David's first time on the beach. He was really scared of the sand when we first got there, but soon was having a grand time. He dug in it, ran in it and even tried to eat it.

Jamaica's version of Santa:

David's first time having french fries...he was a big fan:

Visiting the turtle conservatory in Grand Cayman:

We took a small boat out to a sandbar and went swimming with stingrays. I didn't get good pictures, but David got in with Matt and touched and played with the stingrays. He was having a good time until one raised out of the water to "kiss" Papa Bruce. The locals entice them with squid and so they raise up and rub their top edge on your face in order to get the squid. I think he thought it was attacking his grandfather and he completely freaked. He got in again after that (he is not scared of much), but was skeptical of the stingrays getting near him. I have to admit that I was completely skeptical of the stingrays the whole time...

David in Mexico:

Cab ride back to the house. David was pooped....

Merry Christmas

My firm had a breakfast with Santa this morning before the annual Christmas parade. Here is what David though of Santa...