New Friends

I met my friend Miranda in 2001 at a shower - can't even remember whose shower.  (eight years ago - crazy to me - time goes by so fast!!)  Sadly she doesn't live in AZ anymore but I got to see her on Wednesday while she was in town for a visit.  I had never even met her youngest little boy Joshua and the last time she saw my boys, Davis was in an infant seat.  At first it was looking like Madelyn was not thrilled about playing at a house with a bunch of little boys, but then Davis won her over with his pet frogs.  As you can see, they worked it out!  I think Davis was quite smitten with her.  They all played great with one another and Davis keeps asking when he will get to play with them again - sadly it will likely be quite a long time.  I am so grateful for friendships and that I had the opportunity to see Madelyn and Joshua and watch them play with my kids!  

Out of their mouths . . .

More funny from Davis:

After his dentist appointment - 

Billie (his Grammie): "Davis I have a present for you for doing such a great job at the dentist."

Davis: (see her getting something out of the closet) "Oh yes!  Is it cash?"

Cash made me laugh every time I think about it - not sure what association he even has with that word.

Today after I finished nursing Grayson before his nap-

Davis: "Are you done already?"

Me: "yep, all done"

Davis: "Wow that was fast . . . did you only do one boob?"

(too many babies early in life has probably given them more of an anatomy lesson than necessary)

Bye bye baby food

As Grayson gets bigger and bigger, I am a little nostalgic sad to see things go (favorite jammies all three wore, the swing, some favorite baby toys) but I am not sad to see the baby food era come to an end.  Last night, Grayson kept pushing my arm away as I brought the baby food spoon to his mouth.  Thinking he was just being obstinate, I just let him sit there for a while.  When I came back he did the same thing and was grabbing for the table that had everyone else's dinner on it.  I broke up a ground beef burrito for him to see what would happen and he ate the entire thing (green chiles and all).  My other boys never ate that type of table food this early so I tried to keep feeding them the baby food so they would get meat and veggies but I guess G is all done with food mush and ready for the real deal.  Fine with me!  It is so much easier to me to feed them all the same thing and not have to mess with remembering baby food if we are out.  Today for lunch he happily ate a sandwich and pile of blueberries.  Hooray!!  He is probably eating better than Parker - sadly a true statement.

Davis the Dr.

It was a full service dental exam - teeth and heart :)

This is a less than glamorous post (mostly for my own pride) but since this is the only form of baby book history it appears I am going to keep, I might as well just make note.  Davis had his first, overdue trip to the dentist two weeks ago and went back today for some "extra work".  I had very traumatic childhood dentist experiences (no need to post commentary Liss) and so I was dreading taking Davis to the dentist.  He did have cavities (mostly on the fronts of teeth from thin enamel - which I think is largely due to the lack of milk Davis drinks - my opinion).  He went back today and just had a great experience.  The dentist was patient and kind and he did a fantastic job.  He let Davis have a mask and gloves and D has been playing dentist since we got home.  I came downstairs to find him 'treating' Parker and he said, "Mom, do you think you could be my helper lady who hands me my tools when I need them?"  He was being very official: "okay open nice and big for me . . . okay now I am going to check you with Mr. Whistler (the water sprayer thing) . . . Please shine the light for me here, Helper (me) . . you are doing just great Parker!"  It was cracking me up.  It is a good thing Parker is such a patient patient!!  I think Davis looks quite great in his doctor get up - I think I see it in his future - haha.   

Caught Ya!

Grayson has become quite mischievous.  He is on the move and can scurry extremely quickly which has allowed him to get in more trouble, more quickly.  Besides making every attempt to spoil or grab at whatever his older brothers are playing with, his favorite mess to make is toilet paper mess.  I say, "please shut the bathroom door behind you" about twenty-five times a day trying to keep him out of the potty rooms but he still manages to take advantage of Davis leaving a door open.  My other kids didn't do this often, but if they did, they just unrolled the paper into pile.  This is not Grayson-style.  He goes in and takes big bites out of the roll and then spits wet wads of paper on the floor - while also unrolling and ripping shreds of course!  It is extra special.  It makes me laugh sometimes to walk in Davis' bathroom and see a roll on the roller with random bites taken out of it.  When he gets caught he just laughs and smiles and then shakes his head no-no like he anticipates it coming out my mouth.

The Beach - One of my favorite places!

I know this is tons of posts but I wanted to get everything on the blog so that when I print it in my journal I have all the pictures :)

My favorite thing about CA is the beach.  I love being on the beach and the boys love everything about it.  They love to play in the sand, look for shells, and swim in the ocean (Davis more than Parker).   The water was almost frigid the first couple of days, but on Saturday it was really nice.  It warmed up enough outside that the water was comfortable.  Parker would only wade in about knee deep, but D was willing to get in with me.  While I was teaching Davis to jump when a big wave came in he said, "This is great mom, I love you".  I was overwhelmed with how special it is to build these happy memories with the boys.  I am so thankful that we could do that and have so much fun together.

What was he doing?  Not sure, but I know that they did attempt to get as covered in sand as possible!

Parker in his full garb - good thing he doesn't realize yet that most people on the beach are wearing much less.

Grayson still isn't a huge fan but he liked it much more this trip than he did a couple of weeks ago.

Some friends of ours from Phoenix met us on the beach one afternoon and the boys had a blast with Anna, Becca and Clara.

Davis in his sand hole - it is mandatory that we dig a hole big enough to sit in as soon as we set up camp.  First order of business!

I will be finding flecks of that coppery sand in everything for months I am sure.

They even talked Mark into coming down and digging them a hole one day.  Mark is not quite as big of a fan of the beach - but Davis is quick to remind me that Dad digs a better hole.

San Diego Zoo

One of the highlights of the week for me was our trip to the San Diego.  I love the zoo.  I think it is fun to see the animals but I really enjoy watching the boys get excited about seeing new things.  It was a beautiful, sunny day in the 70's in San Diego too so you can't beat that!

Mark has a picture in front of this gorilla when he was a kid.  He was fascinated that the gorilla was over thirty years old :)

Obligatory family pic in front of the elephant statue - if only this picture was bigger so you could see how THRILLED Mark is to be taking this picture - or walking around in the sun for that matter :)

My Gram and Davis on the Sky Ride

Grayson and I - his favorite position - on my hip and facing out so he can see!

My dad and G enjoyed some good bonding time at the zoo - doesn't he look so old sitting on that step (sniff sniff)

Taking a break in the shade while I took the boys in the bug exhibit - I'm so glad we got to spend a bunch of time with my parents and Gram in CA

Looking at the giraffes 

Davis and I by the lions - my favorite exhibit I think

Parker the caterpillar and Davis the butterfly :)  Davis said that his favorite thing at the zoo was the bug exhibit.  This is no surprise.  I almost didn't see it and thought we would just do a quick pass but it really was impressive.  Some of the bugs were huge (like a screaming roach the size of your palm - ugh!).  I had to catch myself because I would look in a window and say "Oh gross" . . or something to that effect and I could tell that Davis didn't understand why I thought it was yucky and not cool.  They had a huge beehive behind glass so you could see the thousands of bees working in the honey comb.  That was his favorite exhibit in the room.  They also had a very impressive, enormous ant farm the size of a wall.  

Parker with the goats - this was so sweet to me.  The only thing you could really pet in the petting zoo were goats (the sheep were closed off).  I figured - pet one goat, you have pet them all - but not Parker.  He wanted to pet and talk to each goat in the petting zoo.  He would get down near them and pet them so nicely.  He didn't want to leave when it was time to move on.  That night, he said the petting zoo was his favorite part of the day.