How many books?

Davis has recently started taking a book into his bed at night.  Our nighttime routine is usually bath, brush teeth, optional naked chase, a cup of milk in one of our laps and one or two stories before lights out and bedtime.  Davis usually sleeps with his dog and a few other animals.  However, in the last couple of days, he has insisted on taking books to bed with him.  Last night it was Goodnight Moon and tonight it was his Kindermusic book This is my Dance.  We've still be turning off the lights on him, but both last night and tonight, he was trying to read the books in the dark.  Tomorrow, we'll be adjusting his bedtime to leave the light on so he can read in his crib.  It is really great to see him wanting to read books.

Weekly update

Time flies when you have a child.  I don't really know what happened to last week.  Davis is growing up fast and we had a fun weekend.

This weekend did not quite go as planned, but we still manged to have a good time.  Kristen and Davis both have a cold (runny nose + cough) so we weren't as active as last weekend.  We had hoped to go to a bar with Davis to watch the University of Washington (Huskies) football game, but the colds and a late start meant we decided it was better not to go.  However, we did wear our matching Husky shirts on Saturday - it was quite amusing to be asked "So, are you big fans of George?" when we were picking up pizza (the shirts simply said: Washington).

This weekend:

• Davis and I went to the Burlington touch a truck.
• I went to the Y for a work out.  Kristen and Davis stayed home sick.
• Davis had a 3 hour nap on Saturday.  He woke up after an hour and 20 minutes, then slept on me for an hour and 40 minutes.  I really enjoy having him sleep on me, so I did not mind.
• Davis had a 3 hour nap on Sunday.  This was his first long weekend nap where he did not sleep on me for part of it.  It was quite a surprise and blessing.

Davis:

• Can now jump.  It is incredibly cute.  He throws his hands up in the air and gets just a little bit off the ground. 
• Uses a lot more words.  He has said in the last week: "breakfast", "grandma", "hungry".
• He is starting to use short phrases including: "All right", "No Way!", "Where is Mom", "Read this"
• Helps put his toys away before bed
• Feeds the cats treats.  He tends to favor Domino, but Kristen makes sure Lilly is looked after. 
• Climbs into the dining room chairs and sits when we say it is time to eat
• Has a few more teeth.  He has at least 9, but it might be 10.  Its hard to get a look in his mouth.
• Almost, but not quite, needs his first haircut
• Pretends to vacuum the floor.  He connects 4 or 5 of his magnetic cylinders to a ball and walks around making vacuum noises.
• Pretends to play trucks with his mega blocks.  Last night, he handed me a block and said "truck" then we drove our "trucks" around the living room.
• Shows a lot more interest in reading.  He now brings us books and sits in our laps while we read him stories.  He really enjoys "The cat in the hat", "Mr. brown can moo", "Brown bear brown bear, what can you see" and his bedtime stories.
• Pretends to give his monkey water.  Pretends might not be the right word for it since he actually gives his monkey water.
• Gives wonderful hugs
• Is staying up later and sleeping in later.  He usually goes to bed at 8:00 and wakes up at about 6:30.  This is great as we get an extra half hour with him at night and an extra hour of sleep in the morning.  Some days, he sleeps in until 7:30 which is great on a weekend, but a little stressful for the week.  We've started setting our alarm clocks again which is quite a change.

15 Month Appointment

Today was Davis' 15 month appointment.  It came a little late, but it worked out well being during his week off from daycare.  According to the pediatrician (and his parents), Davis is a healthy, happy toddler.  He measured in at about the 85th percentile (32.5 inches and 28 pounds) which means he has almost quadrupled his birth weight.  We didn't have a lot of questions for the pediatrician, but she asked about his language development and we got to show off that he knows the word "belly".  Kristen asked him "where is your belly?" and he pulled up Mom's shirt to show of her belly, then pulled up my shirt to show mine off.  Not exactly what we had planned, but the pediatrician was impressed.

At 15 months, here a few of Davis' cool tricks:

• He has about 2 dozen words including: hi, thank you, mom, dad, Domino, Lilly, socks, shoes, no, uh-oh, more, belly, truck, dog, woof, and yah.  He has a lot more words that we don't understand.  He is quite the talker.  He talks and talks and talks and talks sometimes.
• He knows the word "No" and uses it.  A lot.
• He has started playing with his mega blocks in two dimensions.  This was really cool to see for the first time.  Until now, he has only stacked up as high as he can go, but now he has started doing more than just stacking up.
• He is showing a lot more interest in books.  He has really been enjoying climbing into the rocking chair and reading a book.  Yesterday, he was reading Bear on a Bike which has a picture of a dog on each page.  As he turned the pages in a non-linear fashion, I asked him, where is the doggie and he would point out where the dog was.  Very cool.  He really enjoys Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.
• He feeds himself.  Pretty much exclusively.  If we try to feed him, he often gets upset.
• Understands and uses tantrums to his advantage.  (Pediatrician's and other's advice: ignore them)
• Loves petting and hugging Domino.  Whenever we mention Domino's name, he looks around for him.
• Tattles on the cats.  When they get on the counter, or move around and he sees them, he points it out.  Lilly got on top of the china hutch yesterday which was narrated and pointed out by D
• Runs.  He can really motor when he is motivated.  Its an incredibly cute toddler run, but he can really move.
• Climbs.  Nothing is safe.  He climbs on the couch, chairs, rocker, etc.  

Here is a picture from skyping with Grammie when Davis climbed into the rocker and started reading a Bear in Sunshine: