Happy Birthday David

It is hard to believe, but David is two years old today. We are having his birthday party on Saturday, but we David and I made a cake this afternoon so he could blow out some candles (and also because his only association with birthdays is cake). I also made his favorite for dinner- spaghetti, which explains why he is not wearing clothes. David and spaghetti equals one big mess. Aunt Hayley brought David some birthday gifts to open, so it was quite a full evening of birthday celebration. 

David, who loved the dinosaur exhibit a the museum, was terrified of the remote control dinosaur that Hayley got him for his birthday.

First Baseball Game

This past Monday, Matt and I took off early to take David to his first baseball game. The Rangers were rained out on Sunday, so Game 2 of the playoffs was moved to Monday afternoon. We were able to get good tickets from the box office and the weather was super nice. We weren't sure how David would do at the game, but he ended up being great. He watched the game, really got into the cheering, enjoyed meeting the Mascot and more than anything, loved hive fiving everyone when the Rangers did well (or whenever someone gave him the opportunity to give high fives).

Farmer's Market and Congratulations

We had a really great long weekend. Friday was Fall Break at David's school, so I took off and spent the day with David. We went for a long walk around the neighborhood, went to the park, had lunch with Daddy and then went shopping for birthday supplies. We finished the evening with a great Sushi dinner with Aunt Hayley.Today we went with David's friends Lila and Maddie and their families to the Farmer's Market and lunch. The kids had a blast looking at the pumpkins, trying the fruit samples, and running around with each other.

We also got HUGE news this evening. Matt's youngest brother, Jake, is officially engaged to his absolutely adorable girlfriend (now finance) Kim. The ring is gorgeous and they already have a date picked out next September. We are so happy that David will be getting a new Aunt Kim!

Getting the kids to all three sit still for pictures is not easy (and never happened)...

David thought it was so funny to slide off the hay bail..

 

Oklahoma City, Corn on the Cob, Stomach Viruses and Updates

Last week David made it through an entire week of school with no illness. This was cause for celebration in the Waterman house as we have been through two colds, hand foot and mouth disease, and one bad-ass stomach virus since school started. The stomach virus was actually not that bad for David. He woke up two Thursdays ago around 2am in the morning vomiting, which continued through noon the next day. I kept him from home from school on Thursday and thought he just ate something bad because the only real symptom was 12 hours of vomiting. We went to OKC that weekend and David was just fine. We figured out, however, that it was not food poisoning, when I started unexpectedly vomiting at the Oklahoma State Fair on Saturday night. This was followed by 12 hours of laying in the guest room (or more appropriately, the bathroom near the guest room) with fever, chills, severe aches and an inability to keep liquids down for about 24 hours (which is especially crappy when you are away from home).  It turns out that it was extremely contagious - Hayley, Papa Bruce, Granny D and Uncle Luke all got it as did a few other kids and their parents in David's class. We are pretty tired of all of the kid germs that come with being in a school setting. Luckily, Matt managed to escape the stomach virus.

In other David news, we are still having some separation anxiety issues at school drop-off. We are told that he calms down pretty quickly and he is always in a good mood when I pick him up, so we are hoping in another month or so that he can walk into school without crying. He has started walking in by himself (as opposed to us carrying him and forcing him into the classroom), but he is not happy about it. He cries from the time we pull in the parking lot and says "Mommy always comes back to get David" as he is walking in the classroom. It is pretty heart wrenching. We still think it is good for him - he is really getting more independent and much more social.

It is hard to believe it, but David will be turning two in just 10 days. It seems like it was yesterday that we were anxiously waiting his arrival. Now he is a little boy. He talks in complete sentences and can pretty much communicate whatever it is that he wants, needs, sees, etc. He has even taking to using hand gestures whenever he talks (which is super cute). He is eating at the table with us and using big boy silverware. His taste in food varies, but he is getting really good at eating his veggies. He can put on his shoes by himself and likes to dress himself in the morning. He can count to ten, although he always skips two, and sometimes to 15 (especially if you are giving him money to count- his current obsession). He can identify all of his ABC's on flashcards and in books and can sing parts of the ABC song (only about 3-4 letters at a time, then needs a hint..but he always gets the ending). His favorite game is the state/geography game on the ipad. He can identify about 15-20 states and their location on the map (which is pretty impressive considering I probably could not do so before we found the game on the ipad). His current favorite saying is "bye, bye..see you later."  We have his two year check-up this month, so I will update everyone on his stats after that visit.

Thanks to the stomach virus, I didn't really get many pictures while in OKC. We did have a good visit though, including a good visit with Mimar and Granddad.

We have been grilling a lot lately and David is a big fan of corn on the cob.

Thank You, Aunt Hayley

We owe a lot of special thanks to Aunt Hayley, who took care of David most of the past weekend while Matt and I were sick in bed.  Both Matt and I had been feeling a bit under the weather at the end of last week, but we figured it was just allergy related. On Saturday morning, we both woke up with high fevers, sore throats, and lots of congestion. David, on the other hand, woke up Saturday morning feeling great and ready to play. After being inside all week with his hand, foot and mouth disease, he had a ridiculous amount of energy. Thankfully for us, Hayley came over and took him to Little Gym and to the park so Matt and I could go the doctor. On Sunday, she took him to the zoo and shopping so we could continue to lay in bed and feel miserable. It was such a big help! I am not sure what we would have done without her.

Here is a picture Hayley sent us from the zoo trip. David tried to drink the ranch dipping sauce.

Hand Foot and Mouth

I started this post yesterday morning and intended to title it "I forgive you, Texas" so that I could blog about all the fun things we have been doing since the end of 100+ days (see below). Since that time, however, David has broken out in what looks to be something out of one of those made for TV movies about airborne disease wiping out the US in a matter of days.  The pictures are below and they are not pretty.

Yesterday we headed out around 11 am to try a new Vietnamese place for lunch. When getting David out of the car, I noticed a few bumps on his knee. On Saturday, we went down to Mexia for me to attend a baby shower and for all of us to visit my family. I figured that David got stung by ants or got into to some sort of grass that irritated his skin (which is super sensitive). I pointed it out to Matt and we waited for our table at Bistro B's, which was very yummy Vietnamese food, at least the part we ate before noticing that the bumps were spreading (and fast). By the middle of our lunch, the same bumps I originally saw on his knee now covered all of his legs, all of his arms and were starting on his face. I was not aware that there are viruses that cause such fast spreading and disgusting rashes, so we did the only logical thing we could think of - we took him to the ER. We probably should have called the pediatrician and waited for them to call back, but our child looked like he had leprosy and I thought, obviously, it was a flesh eating bacteria that was going to target brain cells within minutes (that is what happens on those movies, right?). Anyway, after an hour wait in the ER, a very nice middle-aged doctor with a young intern caring a laptop and taking notes, told us he had no idea what kind of rash it was, but that he would be fine with some benadryl and steroids. He told us to give him a second dose last night and another this morning and to follow-up with his doctor if it didn't get better. By this morning, it was not better. It was much worse, so we got an appointment with our pediatrician for 2pm today.

About 5 minutes before we left to head to the pediatrician's office, I got an e-mail from David's school saying they had multiple confirmed cases of hand foot and mouth in the toddler classes. Maybe I should have read that "What to Expect During the Second Year" book because I had no clue there was such a virus. I googled it and the spots looked like what David had with one major exception -  David was covered with them on every place on his body except his hands and feet and mouth (and, at the time, his back and belly- it is now there as well). The doctor did confirm, after consultation with a few other doctors in the practice, that it was a case of hand, foot and mouth. Turns out that this is really common in young children when they go into pre-school, especially since it is highly contagious in young children. Since it is a virus similar to the common cold, there is nothing to treat it with other than staying home and resting. He has to stay home for a few days until the blisters heal.  I am really hoping our school experience gets better because so far, it has been a disaster.

Before having our own version of Outbreak, we spent the prior week and weekend enjoying the great weather. After having the hottest summer ever, it was so nice to be able to go outside.


David trying to kiss the bird...

Fun times at the Arboretum with our friend Lila:

Picture from Keri's baby shower on Saturday. It was so much fun to see high school friends.  Here is a picture of the group of us that went to school together.

Save the Date - October 15th

David will be two on October 13, 2011! We are planning to have a birthday party to celebrate on Saturday, October 15th.  As we did last year, we will probably have a family trip to the State Fair planned for that evening for anyone that wants to go. More details on that to come. For now, mark October 15th on your calendars and plan to be in Dallas for the celebration. Assuming Brandin, Shawna and the kids can make it, we will also co-celebrate Colton's birthday (which is Oct 14th- the day after David's).

Box Tops for Education

David's new school participates in the Box Tops for Education program. If you are anything like me, you have probably seen the logo (see below) on boxes and promptly paid no attention to the details. Turns out that each one is worth 10¢ to participating schools. Since every dollar raised for David's school helps keep my tuition payments low (at least I can hope), I thought we would get the fam involved. So, if you notice the Box Tops for Education logo (they are on literally hundreds of products from Cheerios and Hamburger Helper to and Kleenex) cut them out and keep for or sent to us. If you need it, the address is 10410 Koko Head Cir., Dallas, Texas 75218.  

 
 
 
 

End of Summer and off to School

David started at St. James, a Montessori school near our house, last week. Consistent with his personality and our past experience with new caregiver situations,the transition has not been a smooth one. One of his teacher's commented today that the only time he calms down and stops crying is when he is getting one-on-one attention (shocker, right?). 

I got a picture of us heading off to school for his "first" day last week. The picture is kind of a fraud because, as some of you know, this picture was taken on Monday when we got all dressed and headed out to school to find no one there. Turns out that his actual first day was Tuesday. After going through the "off to school" routine again on Tuesday, I forgot the camera.

Matt has been and will continue to be through this week in trial, so David and I have had lots of bonding time. Here are some of the fun things we have been doing....

At the waterfall park with Paytin, who came up to visit us last weekend:

Waiting on the valet after dinner with Aunt Hayley and Mommy at Central 214 (it was restaurant week in Dallas):

At lunch with Aunt Hayley and Mommy at Rise this past weekend. This is our solution to us being able to going out to dinner...the ipad!

 At the Children's Museum this past Sunday. We had to find something to do inside because it is so freaking hot here in Dallas.

  

When David and I got home today, he really wanted to play outside. I was in the kitchen making dinner, so I could see him out of the back window and let him go. He played by himself for 20 minutes. This is quite amazing since it is the first time he has ever done anything for more than a minute by himself.  As refreshing as this new independent behavior might be, David did manage to get completely soaked trying to fill up his pool and get paint all over his face.