Hey You!

Life with Daniel is pretty nice these days. He is still a very busy boy, but he is so interested in things and can do so much more on his own that it's a little less exhausting. It is also really fun to hear all his new words. One of the more recent additions is, "Hey you!" He will repeat it back to us over and over. He even got to say it to Aunt Kelly on the phone today when we called to wish her happy birthday.

Now that we are down to one nap a day consistently, he is going down for naps and bed like a dream. It makes life easier to have a good sleeper. I would say that meal times are one of our more challenging times of the day. He rejects much of the food that we offer him and won't eat veggies to save his life. It also feels like some days he eats nothing. I guess that's just part of toddlerhood.

I've been so bad at taking pictures recently. I decided to just take some everyday life ones today.

Daniel insisted that he needed to use the big fork for his oatmeal this morning.

He had to concentrate extra hard to make bites.

Here he is enjoying sitting at the dining room table.

Carrying his music sticks at the music class this morning.

Digging for dinasour bones.

September Fun

We have been busy busy this month. We headed to South Bend for the first weekend, had lots of Madison events the next weekend, and last weekend we were in Jacksonville for a family wedding. This weekend we have picnics both nights one being at our house with 60 people coming! Wish me luck. I don't know where everyone is going to go.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures and videos recently. I guess I'm having to do much more hands on parenting and can't capture all the moments. The picture above is from Jacksonville. Daniel has learned how to pose for pictures. It kind of makes me laugh.

My Favorite Part of the Day

People always ask if Daniel is excited about having a little brother. I never know how to answer that question because I'm really not sure if he understands or not. I'm guessing that he does not really understand, but sometimes he does things that make me feel differently.

Each night we say our prayers before putting Daniel to bed. We always say a little prayer and then follow it up with a bunch of, "God bless..." prayers. A few weeks ago when I said, "God bless Mommy, Daddy, Daniel, and Baby," I showed him that the baby was in my belly and asked if he wanted to give the baby a hug and kiss. He decided that it was a good idea and hugged my belly and gave it a big kiss. It was super sweet. Now every night he gives my belly multiple kisses and hugs and repeats, "Baby!" over and over again during prayers. My belly gets better Daniel kisses than anyone or anything else. Some of the funnier things about this routine is that Daniel insists that my belly must be exposed. So I end up standing next to the crib with my big belly hanging out. He also seems to think that he will be able to touch the baby if he presses on my bellybutton hard enough. I have to discourage this more because it hurts!

He is certainly more aware of babies and understands the concept of baby, but I'm not sure if he understands that there will be a baby joining our household for the long run.

Daniel the Artist

I really thought that my first blog about Daniel making art would be discussing the walls he decorated or something like that. It turns out that my busy boy really enjoys making art. He must have reached some inner peace recently because he is much calmer these days, and he has a much longer attention span. I think it might have to do with our switch in childcare. He now goes to a small daycare at a local business, and he is totally worn out when he gets home. He loves it there. Anyway, this morning Daniel was quite interested in drawing. He probably spent about 1.5 hours this morning before 10 a.m. drawing, coloring, and playing with PlayDoh. He really wanted to play with all the pens, pencils, and highlighters in the lazy susan pencil holder. I was a little nervous about letting him go at it, but he did quite well. I kept having thoughts of him grabbing the plant in the picture or climbing up on the counter to get closer to the microwave, but he just sat on the stool and worked. It turns out that he really enjoys taking the tops off and putting them back on. I made a note to get some washable markers for him. Also note the two screwdrivers on the drawing. Daniel thinks these are just as cool as the pens, and yes, I do keep a pair of screwdrivers in our kitchen writing utensil storage.

After we did some kitchen drawing time, I decided to really go out on a limb, and I set him up with a drawing station in the laundry room while I ironed. I was very nervous that it would not go well, but Daniel sat on his stool and played for another 30 minutes. Just to make sure that he did not get bored, I pulled out the PlayDoh about halfway through. I hope you enjoy these staged photos of the set up. You will have to imagine a smiling boy on the stool.

I'm planning on constructing some sort of art clothesline that I'm going to put in the laundry room or the playroom. Daniel makes lots of art at school. I thought it would be fun to have some of it on display. I wonder if his interest in art will be something that lasts for a while?