Christmas card 2011

I just had to show off the Christmas card we are doing this year! Such a fun idea!! Just click on the picture to see it...

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

It's official!

Daniel is potty-trained!!!!

The Boys

I can't believe how big the boys are getting!! They're growing up so
fast!

Daniel is 3 years and 3 months old now and he is such a big helper! He
loves (for the most part) to do his chores, which include making his
bed, picking up his toys, and brushing his teeth. He also like to
pretend his hand is a crane and many times I'll use that to get him
motivated to pick up his messes. :) He has also been helping me clean
the table and floor around the table where he sits after he eats. He
makes such huge messes that I've started to make him help clean them
up in the hopes that he'll be more careful!

Daniel is also very helpful with his brother. Just today, we were in
the car driving home from Grandma's and Daniel said, "Oh no! Baby is
eating something!" So I felt back there, and sure enough Gid had a big
piece of fuz in his mouth that he could've choked on!

The biggest milestone we are going through right now is POTTY
TRAINING! Not my favorite milestone. We started training diligently
last week because I realized that we only have 2 months until school
starts up (he'll be going to k-3 in the fall--another HUGE milestone),
and the kids have to be potty trained. He's actually been doing pretty
well with it. This is the 8th day and he can now go on his own without
any prompting from me. He still has trouble getting his pull-up on and
off. I need to get him more underwear. And sometimes he likes to be
lazy and not deal with it, but for the most part he does really well.
I'm so proud of him! His motivation/reward is anything chocolate (yes,
he takes after me)! Today, we were on our way home but I needed to
drop some books off at the Elkins library. We were almost there when
he started complaining that he needed to go peepee. So, when we got to
the library, I lugged both boys in and we went to the bathroom. He
held it until we got there! He did so great! I'm really hoping we
don't have any major setbacks. Some funny things Daniel has said
during the potty training experience are as follows: 1) it's really
big, mommy (talking about his you-know-what); it's too hard for me!
(when he's trying to pee but nothing comes out); we use tinkle and
peepee interchangeably, and so every so often when he's on the potty
I'll hear him singing, "tinkle, tinkle little star..."); and when I
told him we were potty TRAINing, his eyes got big and he had to think
about that--he thinks trains has something to do with going potty now,
but he's not sure what! :)

Well, I've got to go put Gid down for a nap, so I'll do another post
later.

Sent from my iPhone

Teething

Daniel is finally getting his 2-year molars in. He's got most of the 2 bottom ones in and neither of the top 2. His nose is running like crazy and he's very fussy!! But after this...no more teething, yay! Now I get to go through it again with Gideon...(sigh)...

It's Hard to Keep a Good Secret!

The secret is...I'm pregnant! Not really a secret though. I found out 2 Wednesdays ago that baby #2 is on his/her way! I'm about 6 weeks along and am due mid-November. Want more details? Follow my pregnancy blog at www.babyblevins2.blogspot.com!

Major Milestone!

Well, at almost 24 months, Daniel is finally officially weaned! He had been basically weaned during the day but was continuing to nurse through the night - hence the sleepless nights for me! But a couple of weeks ago, Phillip decided to sleep with Daniel in the guest bedroom (which is now Daniel's new room). They have been sleeping in there since and Daniel has not nursed during the night since then either! The first week and a half, Daniel would wake up off and on during the night, but since I wasn't there to nurse him, he would cry (pretty hard sometimes). But eventually Phillip would get him to go back to sleep. He does take a cup of water to bed, which helps him a lot! Anyway, the last several nights he has not even been waking up! He's been getting lots of good sleep and so have I!! I think Phillip has been getting sleep too...I guess I need to make sure! :)

I know it seems ridiculous to some that we wouldn't force Daniel to sleep in his own room without nursing for so long, but in all honesty, we just weren't ready. At least I wasn't. I still miss having him in bed with me and I miss nursing him too. It's a pretty big adjustment for me! But I'm glad it's finally happening and that Daniel has responded so well to it. It was time.

WEANED....YES!!!!!

Emma

Emma is our new kitty. We've had her a couple of months now. Phillip loves cats, so he talked me into getting one for Daniel. We had wanted to get him a dog for his 1st birthday but we didn't have a fence, so instead we now have a cat! She is very sweet and good-natured (especially since she has to deal with a toddler every day!). Daniel loves his kitty! This has been a good learning experience for Daniel on how to treat her gently. He's a little rough to say the least. But he's learning. We adopted her from the Fayetteville Animal Shelter. They have so many animals there, so if you're thinking about getting one, check there first! You may be able to save a life!

18 months old!

Still working on not making huge messes when we eat! :)

What a sweetie!

Loves his shoes!

Here's Catalina (almost 3) in the first dress made from our (mom and me) sewing business. More on that later!

Daniel turned 18 months old on Saturday. What a milestone! :) Oh, and yes, it really is 4:30 am. Daniel was having trouble sleeping so I just got him up. After a while he'll go back to sleep (this happens fairly often by the way...why???). He has never been a good sleeper. At this point, he only takes one nap a day for about 30-45 minutes. Still doesn't sleep through the night. I hear awful stories about some kids who don't sleep through the night until 5 years old and I just have a feeling that's where we're headed. But despite his "problems," he's really learning a lot of new things and getting better at old things. The latest thing that he just loves to do is dip food (chicken nuggets into ketchup, etc.). This can keep him completely happy for an entire meal (yeah!!!). He also loves his shoes and can now say the word. He has just started saying "please." His favorite word is probably "kitty" especially since we got one recently. This story will be a post in and of itself. Let's just say Daniel LOVES his kitty. He's graduated to the Toddler room at church. He'll stay there until he's old enough to go to the 3 year old class. Apparently, he's also old enough to start throwing fits! So, we've been working on that...Anyway, Daniel is not my little "baby" anymore! :( and :)

More pics

Since I'm on a roll, I decided to keep posting to my blog (even though it is 1 am). I just can't seem to manage getting a lot done during the day (can we say..."Daniel"?), so I usually stay up late and do things (like post to my blog, clean, read, or whatever) after D goes to bed. Well, I love pictures and so here are some more of my favorites taken in June.

I love this one because he's really concentrating on sweeping with that broom (see his tongue sticking out?).

Most evenings after we finish supper, Phillip will take Daniel to the park nearby. Daniel loves to swing and climb around on the playground slides. It's hard for me to believe that he's only 15 months and he can already climb up the stairs and then slide down the slide all by himself!

Throughout the week, I try to go pick up Phillip from work and take him out for lunch. We usually go to Wilson park near the university so Daniel can play while we eat lunch. These pics are from Wilson...

Here Daniel is pointing at the sky because he hears an airplane. He loves to watch them fly by and he always exclaims "Oh, wow!" over and over. It's very cute!

Here are some of the fun things Daniel is doing now at 15 months: increasing his vocabulary (but not by much; he's more of a "doer" than a talker), playing at the park, swimming, taking baths, eating popsicles (at Grandma's), going for drives (still the best way to get him to sleep), running (which he's getting better at though he has 2 scraped up knees right now), playing in Pa-paw's truck bed, playing "swords" with sticks, getting into mud puddles (ahh!), giving me kisses (yes!), watching Robin Hood, and visiting family.

Here are some things we are working on: getting him to drink cow's milk (and getting him weaned completely), "expanding" his taste buds, sharing toys with Catalina, not getting frustrated easily (he's not very patient), sleeping through the night, getting him interested in books (he can't sit still long enough for me to read him one), and beginning to train him to obey. :) He's also currently working on getting his 1st year molars. It has been very painful for him so he's been very cranky the last few weeks!!

Summer Fun

What a good lookin' kid! :)

Daniel's favorite thing to do this summer (besides playing at the park and at Chuck E. Cheese) is swimming. This is his first summer to be able to really enjoy playing in the water since last year he was only a few months old. He could probably play in the water for hours!

Whoops! Copper is drinking the swimming water...Oh well!

First Hair Cut!!

Well, as anyone can see, it was time for this little boy to get a hair cut!

So we took him to Joann's Barber Shop on East 16 which we pass every day when we go into town. Phillip has gotten his hair cut a couple of times there too. As you can see, I was feeding him "cookies" to distract him from what was going on!

Now she's really cutting away!!

At this point, he was beginning to wiggle, so I had to hold him for the rest of the hair cut.

All done! What fun!!

Daniel's 1st B-day Party

We had Daniel's 1st birthday party last Saturday and it was lots of fun!! First, though, we had to get the house ready (as you can see Daniel helped)... :)

Then some friends and family came over to help celebrate. Daniel really had a lot of fun playing with Trey and Justus and also Uncle Josh and Paw-paw!

Here's Phillip and his Dad Bruce grilling the hamburgers and hotdogs - yummy!!

After we ate, Daniel opened his presents. Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts!! He really enjoyed opening them!

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday." Daniel was kinda awed by everyone singing and the fire on the candle. My mom made a mandarin orange cake for us and it was so good!

Paw-paw and Uncle Josh putting together a Koala Climber - one of Daniel's presents.

Lastly, we gave Daniel a piece of the bday cake to see if he would eat it. He actually didn't get very dirty. He did enjoy himself though!!

All in all, we had a really fun party! It's just so amazing to me to realize that a year has passed. We've survived! :) It's been so rewarding watching Daniel grow and learn, and I'm looking forward to another year with a wonderful little boy!

Daniel's First Birthday!

Today is Daniel's b-day - he is 1 year old!!! I can't believe how the year has flown by. Overall, it's been a great year. Difficult for sure, but wonderful. Daniel is such a joy to Phillip and me!! Happy birthday, Daniel! Today we met Phillip for lunch and went to the park. We plan to have his b-day party Saturday. Just a cookout with family...

Closeup on the bib

Introducing Solids

This experience has been challenging to say the least! We have been trying to get Daniel to eat solids (mainly rice cereal and sweet potatoes for now), but any time we even put a spoonful of one of these near his mouth, he gags, spits and makes faces. Today I took some pictures of meal time (notice the cute bib Daddy got him from Florida). He gets so messy that I have to give him a bath after every feeding. What a hassle!! I love my job... :)