Chitter Chat

Although we're not wrapped up in anything particularly wild or stressful lately, life with a toddler tends to stay busy. Davis is continuing to grow and develop with the speed of Felix Baumgartner in his latest jump from space. It's hard to even keep up with Davis these days, and requires plenty of coffee, snacks, comfortable shoes for chasing him, and lots of distraction techniques to keep him from potential breakdowns. As you know, Davis took his first unassisted steps at Zach & Katie's rehearsal on June 13th. In the last 4 months, he's perfected this skill and is now running, stomping, chasing, doing small sets of stairs and looking very stable in general. He's almost 26 pounds now, and feels very solid. Coming from the mom who carries him one handed on my left hip most of the time...trust me...i know all about solid.  He's a pretty happy guy in general and keeps us laughing with his antics. He makes the funniest scrunched up face when he smells a flower or anything for that matter. Some of you may have had the pleasure of seeing his "strong man" impression, which always brings heavy laughter. He seems to like the attention and it fuels these funny antics. In just the last few days, he's started to chatter a lot. I love trying to imagine what he thinks he's saying, but we'll never really know. He sure does sound like he's got a purpose though, and just talks and talks away. Ella is still one of his very favorite things and he loves laying on her beds (sometimes with her), feeding her his snacks, giving her treats, holding her leash as we walk and saying her name. "Ella" is currently the only word he continually says well. For a while I was concerned that he's not saying more, but our pediatrician assured me that he's developing just fine and has excellent communication skills. They count signs as words, so he's ahead of schedule according to them. And, his sign vocabulary continues to grow. He currently knows about 20 signs and can do them well enough for us to understand. Some of his favorites are "dirty, milk, all done, helicopter, cracker, cheese and poop." :) It's so nice for us to have a way to understand some of what he wants or feels. We still have the occasional tantrums of course, but most of the time I'm able to talk to him about what he wants or why he's upset. When talking doesn't work, I just use a few distraction tactics and he usually moves on.  Another bit of exciting news is that my parents (Nana/Papa) just got a beautiful Goldendoodle puppy named Lily. She arrived from TN on Monday and we're all excited to meet her tomorrow. She's tiny, fuzzy, and i can't wait to cuddle her up. I have a feeling Davis and she will become fast friends and I can already imagine the adorable pictures of the two of them palling around together. :) There are so many fun memories ahead of us, yet to be made.

Apple picking with uncle Zach

Driving the tractor

More apple picking fun with uncle Jason

Papa and Davis in their new matching Broncos jerseys. Thanks Jason & Emily!

Happy Sweeper

The new Kotas puppy, Lily

Fun dinner visit with Aunt Marion

Church duds