Alex and Evan love Cookie

We are amazed at what our new cat, cookie, will put up with from Alex, Evan and Davis.  Ear pulling? Check.  Tail pulling? Check.  Chewing on the tail? Check.  Rolled up in a blanket? Check.  Picked up by Davis? Check.  Used as a pillow? Check.  You get the idea.  She is a special cat and I captures a "bonding moment" with Alex and Evan this weekend:

New Videos

Its been a rather normal week around our house: crazy.  Davis is potty training, Alex is crawling and Evan is rolling.  I've managed to catch a little bit of it on video.  Some of it is out of focus - I'm still learning how to use our DSLR for video.  More on youtube!

Super Smiles

Alex can be quite the smiler.  He loves doing head-shoulders-knees and toes and having his arms moved around and interacted with (when he is in the right mood of course).  Last night was one of those nights:

New Videos

Today, I uploaded 44 videos to YouTube.  Here are a few selections.  There are many more on my YouTube channel.

New Videos

Evan (left) and Alex (right) having some active time in the living room:

Davis playing on his train table.  He is awesome with this thing.  He played here for 45 minutes by himself yesterday while Kristen and I slept (he woke up at 6:00 and wouldn't go back to bed).

We are often waking a baby up to feed when the other has woken up ready to eat.  It is a super cute experience to watch them stretch and wake up.  I took a video of Evan waking up after Alex woke up first.

Here is one of Davis painting in the living room.  He loves to paint and made pictures for Alex, Evan, Mom, Dad and Miss Laura (not delivered).

We were searching for Davis' winter gloves and found his Halloween costume from two years ago.  It still fit (barely) and Davis wanted to wear it for a little while.

Davis was playing with Cranky while Alex and Evan hung out.  This demonstrates a little of the multitasking we do daily.  The kids are playing and Kristen is folding diapers.

Soccer Player

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, one of Davis' fun playtime activities was to play soccer in the basement with them.  Their practice seems to have paid off.  Here are two videos of Davis playing soccer in the street.

New Videos

Evan shows how strong he is by lifting his head (3 weeks old):

Davis and Grandpa shoveling snow.  

Davis playing trains while I hold Evan in the rocker:

Davis at the Magic House

This weekend, Kristen and I left Alex and Evan home with Grandma and Grandpa and we took Davis to the Magic House for some special time with just us.  We had a great time doing art, science projects (weighing blocks and balancing scales), building with PVC pipe and exploring music and other experiences.

I took a few videos of him before my phone died:

In this one, one of the scarfs gets caught a the top of the contraption and I had to stop the video and take it down

My phone died in the middle of this one:

Video and Davis, Alex and Evan

I shot this shortly after we brought Alex and Evan home:

Davis on Christmas

Here is a very very long video of Davis opening his Christmas presents from Santa.  We have decided that our tradition will be that Santa brings presents for the stocks and that family presents will be wrapped and under the tree.  This morning Davis, Grandma and Grandpa and I opened his stocking.  Later, I took Kristen's, Alex's and Evan's to the hospital for mom to open.  When Kristen comes home, either Monday or Tuesday, we'll do the family presents under the tree.

Here is a shorter one of him and me:

Evan Video

I just spent a little over an hour holding Evan in the NICU and captured one of his more active periods on video.

Imagination

We have seen a lot of evidence of Davis' emerging imagination lately.  The last few days he has had long, interactive play sessions with his animals.  He has particularly enjoyed preparing food and feeding his monkey and lion.  I captured about 7 minutes of a 45 minute play session the other day.  I stopped the video a little bit too early - he accidentally spilled some food he was giving monkey and walked off into the other room.  What is missing from the video is where he brought a chair back, put it in the corner and put himself in timeout.  I tried to explain that timeout is not for accidents and that he did not do anything wrong.  I felt a little sad and amazed at the same time - we've never put him in timeout for a mess before so I wonder what went on in his head.

Here is the long video:

And a shorter one where I manage to get him to tell his joke:

1. Knock Knock
2. Who is there?
3. Apple

New Videos

I've been taking lots of videos of Davis lately.  Mainly because I always have my phone with me and it takes decent enough videos.  I have a lot of videos on my YouTube channel.  This week, I went through all the videos I had and made sure they were either uploaded or deleted.

Here are a few recent uploads.  This is only a few from YouTube.

Today at the Sprinkler Park:

From June:

From May:

New Videos

I finally went through all our video devices (video camera, Digital SLR, phones) and made sure that all the video's we've taken recently have been downloaded.

Here are a few select highlights.  Many more are on YouTube.

Grammie, Camping and More

Its been a while since our last post.  Grammie came for a short, but fantastic visit and we took our first camping trip of the season.  We've spent a lot of weekends at the zoo and took a great trip to Portsmouth, NH with Grammie where Davis and Mom spent a lot of time with watercolors at a lilac festival.

Here are a few select pictures and videos.  More are available on Picasa or YouTube.

Showing off our Tiger impressions at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Driving the tractor at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Davis on a train ride at the zoo.

More Davis on the train ride

Mom and Davis

Grammie and Davis "Sharing" ice cream

Playing on the train tracks in Arlington Center

Watercolors with Mom

The nearly finished painting

Playing in the yard with a gift from Grammie

He loves water

But we didn't plan ahead well

Swining at the park

Riding the bike at the park

Train ride on our camping trip

Train ride on our camping trip

Davis grooving and coloring

Davis on the Conway Railroad

Playing with chalk in the driveway

Pictures and Videos

Kristen and I have not been very good about blogging or taking pictures and videos recently.  I did take a few last week and here is a sample.

We've been just a little too busy to keep the blog up at the moment, but Davis is a ton of fun.  He has said a few sentences and continues his fascination with trucks, trains, planes and firetrucks.  He has also been pushing the boundaries a little bit.

Anyway, here are a few pictures and videos from the last couple of weeks.   There are more on YouTube and Picasa.

Playing soccer in the house.

Playing soccer in the house.  Trying to draw a penalty I'm sure.

Playing "soccer" in the house.

Throwing the ball

Charging the Camera

Pictures and Videos

We haven't had a lot of time to keep the blog updated recently, but I've still been trying to take pictures and videos of the growing toddler.  Here are a few selections from the last two weeks.  There are more on my picasa albums and my YouTube channel.


We've been having a lot of fun playing with dirt in the yard.  Sometimes it even goes in a pot for planting.

Davis and I had a good time at Robbins Farm Park this morning.  We played in the sand, went down a lot of slides and enjoyed some fantastic spring weather.

I took a bunch of videos at Spy Pond with my "Phone" last week:

Throwing rocks and spotting a plane:

Chasing a Squirrel:

Going down a slide:

Patriots Day Parade - Part 2

I forgot one cool thing from the Patriot's Day Parade early today.  As the parade wound down, we started walking back and ended up walking at the same pace as a brass band.  I was carrying Davis on my shoulders at the time and he started drumming on my head to the music.  Kristen got a quick video with my phone.  Sorry if you notice quality issues, Kristen was trying to steer the stroller, take a video, keep me from tripping and trying not to laugh too hard.

Patriots day Parade

Today we had our friends Brian and Clara over for lunch with their 19 month old Emily.  After the kids played and we all had lunch, we headed over to mass ave for the Arlington Patriots Day Parade.  We caught the last bit of the parade last year, and with Davis' intense interest in all things trucks and fire trucks, I was keeping a close eye on the town mailing list for the parade this year.

The parade got off to a late start, but the kids didn't seem to mind as there were rocks and other kids to entertain them while we waited.  After about a 45 minute delay to the start, we were rewarded with a lot of firetrucks, shriners, bands and other parade goers including live musket fire.  Davis had a good time waving to all the cars and trucks and quickly learned how to pick up the thrown candy.

I took some pictures and a video of the firetrucks for Davis to watch later.  The only downside to the parade was Davis had a very late, and short, nap that we are currently paying the price for with a very upset little guy.  He seems to have calmed down after an hour and is finally having his dinner.

Facing into the wind.

Clara, Brian, Emily, Kristen and Davis waiting for the start

Waiting very patiently

Cool Shades

I loved his hair in the wind.

I loved his hair in the wind.

Waving to a truck (or something).

Here is the firetruck video (just trucks, no frames of Davis or Kristen):

Abel and Sarah's wedding

Saturday evening, we took Davis to Abel and Sarah's wedding.  The wedding started at 5:30 and we were concerned Davis would either a) not last for the whole wedding b) break down during the ceremony c) break something in the Concord Art Association d) not have fun.  Our fears were totally unfounded, Davis did great during the ceremony, lasted until 9:30 and had a ton of fun.  The only incident during the ceremony occurred when Davis was on Kristen's lap and suddenly said "My Seat" and pointed at his empty chair.  Other than that, the rest of the time he was quiet.  It probably helped that it was a lot of unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place -- it seems to take him a little while to warm up to new situations and places and he tends to be very quiet while he warms up.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I took a couple and a couple of videos.

Waiting for the ceremony to start

After the ceremony

Davis and Mommy

Davis really liked my friend John, he asked to be picked up a few times.

These two videos are from where the ceremony was held.  The reception was upstairs from this room, so this ended up being a great place to bring Davis to run around and play for a little bit.

We really enjoyed the wedding.  Sarah and Abel's happiness was very contagious and we had a great time catching up with old friends, making new ones and enjoying time with Davis in a new setting.