Tell me the stories of Jesus

Davin's new favorite thing is for me to tell him stories.  His current favorite is the story of when Jesus calms the storm.  He always holds out his hands and says "Peace, be still" in the right part, it's darling of course.  I've probably told him this story 30 times in the past week, and tonight he requested it, once again, at bed time while I was lying next to him. (It's so hard to resist when he tips his little head to the side and says "Mommy, you snuggle with me?") So I recited it, once again, and then much to my pleasure he told me he wanted to tell me a story (yay! a break!)  He was whispering so I didn't catch every word, but it was something to the effect of "I was on a boat, big waves, Jesus help me." We then had the following conversation...

me- "Wow, Jesus helped you?"
dav- "yeah"
me- "Do you love Jesus?"
dav- "yeah"
me- "Does Jesus love you?"
dav- "yeah"
me- "Yep, he loves you so much"
dav- "yeah, so does Santa Claus"
me- "....um....yes...but mostly Jesus."

Is this a bad sign that my son lumps Jesus and Santa Claus in the same category??  I feel like maybe we've left out some important lessons in there somewhere.  Good thing he's only 2 and a half and we have a few more years to get it right.  Maybe next week I'll tell him the story of Jesus 60 times, and maybe we should stop granting his song request of Santa Claus is coming to town...since it's almost May and all...

So Happy

Tonight Dav had his little friend, Wesley, over to play.  They were running around like crazy people. Back and forth and around and then they'd dive onto the floor or couch only to get up and proceed to run like a crazy person once again.  They were giggling and racking up new bruises by the second.  While Dav is running in circles and sweating so much that it's starting to almost drip out of his hair, he starts to yell out "I SO HAPPY!  I SO HAPPY!!"  If that's all it takes, maybe we'll get rid of all the toys?  But still, it's a good feeling to see that happiness and then to hear it proclaimed.  :)

bandaids and strange eating habits

Davin hurt his finger today and had a bandaid wrapped around it (thank goodness for bandaids, they are a miracle cure!) He was being silly at bedtime and continued to talk and chatter after we had left him alone in his bed.  Sometimes he'll talk jibberish, or sing songs, or just say "mommy, mommy, mommy" over and over while he lays in bed and "tries" to fall asleep.  Well tonight, he suddenly yelled out "Mommmmmyyyyy!!  I eat my bandaid!" Taylor ran in to check, sure enough, he was chewing on his bandaid, happy as a lark.  Weirdo.   (it was a relatively clean bandaid with no blood, don't be sick.)

Watch your Words

Today I got a Jury duty notice in the mail...crap, right?  I was looking over my letter, and repeating the words, "this sucks, this sucks" several times over, when I set the paper down Davin immediately picked it up.  He held it in front of his face as if he were reading it, and began saying "sucks!  sucks!  Mommy, I say sucks!"  Whoops!  At least we don't swear.

2 years- much older and sillier

My little Davin turned 2 on October 19th.  How crazy, right?  He is such a little cutie these days and we sure love him.  He makes us laugh multiple times daily, here's why... (this is kind of long, keep in mind it's really for us to remember down the road, you don't have to read them all)

• Davin is a terribly picky eater (no, this part is not funny)  It's very frustrating, but he proves to be more stubborn the more you push him, so we make his food available all evening and usually he will at least try some before he goes to bed.  A couple of nights we've made it all the way to bath time without him being willing to give it a go, so we took his plate into the bathroom and tried to feed it to him as he played in the tub.  Both times we've done that he's ended up eating his entire plate of food...it's a bath time miracle.  Eventually we'll work on eating our food at the dinner table, but for now I'm more concerned with actually getting it into his fat little tummy.  
• Along the same line, him and I have some similar texture issues.  Things that are thick and creamy will sometimes make me gag.  The other day he took a big bite of sour cream (i'm sure thinking it was yogurt)  i'm a terrible mother because I knew what would happen but didn't stop him.  He about died and looked at me as if I had betrayed him.   He also sometimes just touches things and decides they're too slimy or unacceptable for his delicate palate .  For instance, he has never eaten lunch meat because it's cold and somewhat slimy.  He acts like he will but as soon as he touches it he changes his mind.  
• He has so many cute little friends where we live now.  He knows them by name and gets very excited when we get to play with them.  However, sometimes when we're at the park by our house playing he will just start walking home, look and me and insist, "mommy, home!"  He knows his limits.  
• We've had quite a few people comment on his expansive vocabulary.  He really does quite good.  He knows all his colors, counts to ten (sometimes creatively, he doesn't seem to like the number 4), knows most his basic shapes, knows a couple handfuls of letters, and surprises us daily by spewing out random words we had no idea he knew. He gets excited when he sees "yetters" places.  Like the big ones on the walls at the grocery store that say Dairy, and Produce etc.  He yells out "yetters!  yetters!  O! A! O! I!  O!" He really likes the letter O.  
• Every time I say we're going to the store he says "yeah! store!  Buy toys!"  I let him pick out a matchbox car at the store ONE TIME  months and months ago and for some reason he can't let it go.  
• He thinks every present contains a car.  
• We recently took him to see his first movie, Brave, at the theater by our house.  I felt like a terrible mother because I'm pretty sure he was terrified.  It turned out to be pretty intense, and we were sitting close to the front so all the action was directly in front of him.  We thought about leaving part way through (seeing as we get in free because taylor's a student it wouldn't really matter) but we decided he would have been more upset if we left because he was waaaay into it.  He sat on taylor's lap the whole time absolutely glued to the giant screen.  When it got scary he would grab taylor's hand, place it strategically over his eyes so they were mostly covered  but could still see, and wouldn't let him pull away until it wasn't scary anymore.  I was a little worried it would bother him for a while, or maybe at nights but it didn't seem to at all.  He's a champ, but I think I will screen our next movie a little more carefully.  
• Some of my favorite words or phrases of his include: "Yove you too!" "Silly Mommy" or "silly" anything. "Here you go" said while handing us completely random objects we have no use for. "Yightening mcqueen, kachow, kachow!"  "Mommy, watch dis" and then he pauses so he can think of something silly to do.  "help me mommy!" as he lays on the floor and pretends like he can't stand up on his own.  Plus so many more... 
• My last blog post about how he tried to kick me out of the living room so he could create mischief has become a favorite strategy of his and he uses it almost daily.  The other day he tried to convince me that I should go inside and let him stay outside.  I couldn't figure out why, until I noticed the piece of candy on the sidewalk.  Nice try Dav. 
• Sometimes after we read our bedtime stories, Taylor and I will forget to say prayer.  He will usually very quickly say "no mommy, pray." 
• He has started to become sensitive to my feelings.  If I act sad about something (usually to tease him) he will stare at me for minute looking very concerned, and then throw out his arms and say "mommy, big hug!" 
• A couple nights ago we were reading a book about shapes.  We were on the heart page so I decided to tell him that he has a heart inside of him that he could feel if he put his hand on his chest.  He was super fascinated with this concept and for a couple days would randomly pull up his shirt, put his hand anywhere from his belly to his actual heart and then say "Davin heart."  Seriously adorable.  Well, tonight as we were getting ready for bed he was lying on the floor doing the same thing and he started saying something that I couldn't quite figure out.  It took a few times but I finally realized he was saying "Heart mommy, get heart out" 

He has grown up so much in the last few months and has really started to come out of his shell, try new things, and acts a lot braver than his old timid little self.  He still is usually very careful when it comes to new situations and, thankfully, still needs his mommy and daddy.  There are about a billion more things that are adorable to us, maybe not so much to you, I will post some more as they come to me.  And this took too long, so i'm not even going to add pictures at the moment. In the near future perhaps...

Oh little Davin, Mommy and Daddy love you so much.  I hope that as you grow up you can maintain your careful approach to life but at the same time can be brave enough to live a life full of adventure and excitement.  There are so many people that love you and your sweet smile.  Being a mom isn't easy.  But when I think about all the things you've learned, how far you've come, and your sweet little personality that is all your own I've realize I've never felt more gratified or happy.  Please always remember you are the most important thing to your Dad and I.  We love you, would do anything for you, and pray for you every night.  We're sorry that you're our "experiment child" and hope we don't mess up too bad.  I believe you'll be resilient enough to bounce back from any of our mistakes.  Always try to be happy, keep an eternal perspective, and enjoy life.  We love you little goose!  

Sneaky

Today, Davin took being sneaky to an entirely new level.  He recently learned which button is the open/close  on the DVD player, this morning I repeatedly told him to leave it alone, and most importantly, don't mess around with the dvd inside.  A little while later, the stinker grabbed my hand, let me to the bottom of the stairs, and then insisted "mama, upstairs!" I asked if he was coming with me, he declined my offer and again insisted "mama, upstairs!"  This was new for us and for a few moments I wondered what was up, it didn't take long to realize.  I obliged his request and made my way up the stairs.  He stayed at the bottom watching my ascent, and wasn't satisfied until I'd reached the top and turned the corner, after which he quickly ran back into the living room.  I waited for about one minute then slowly and quietly crept back down the stairs and stuck my head out over the stair rail to witness his mischief.  Sure enough, he was at the DVD player pushing that most beloved button repeatedly, taking out the dvd, playing with it, putting it back etc. etc.  The kid was in heaven.  Can't you just picture those little wheels turning in his little almost 2 year old mind?  "Hmmm, mom says no, but if she's not here, she won't see me and I can do whatever I want!  Genius baby!  I'll just, ever so innocently, send mom upstairs and she will have nooooo clue what I'm up to."  When he eventually saw me peeking at him, he gave me his biggest, most innocent "too bad I'm this dang cute, and you don't even want to tell me to stop" smile.  He was right.  It's a good thing his other habit of late is randomly throwing his arms out wide, yelling "big hug!!" and running towards us to attack with a giant hug.  It seems he "ups" his level of cuteness on the same advancement schedule as his sneakiness.  I've gotta give him credit for that...

One more

Ok, just one more thing that's different in Oregon....(at least for now...)

Utah construction zones-
If the area being worked on is this long   _________  then the coned off area is this long ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(seriously)

Oregon construction zones-
If the area being worked on is this long ________ then the coned off area is this long ____________________(seriously)

Oregon probably saves a fortune every year just in cone production.  (or lack thereof.)

This could possibly, in and of itself, be a justifiable reason to come visit us...  :)