Happy Birthday Brother!

Who needs a dishwasher...

...when you have a one-year-old who loves to do the dishes?

My Little Helper

If you'd like evidence of what a good helper David is or how closely he observes my every day activities, look no further than this video.

He always loves to help with laundry: putting clothes into the dryer, taking them off the drying rack, or putting his clean diapers and socks away. However, this morning I was surprised when he plopped down on the floor next to me and began "stuffing" his diapers.

Walker Baby

David has been on the verge of walking for a while now. All summer he's been happily walking along with Keith or I, just barely holding our fingers, and has even taken a step or two on his own with lots of coaxing.
Right after Niki and Peter's wedding, though, he took five steps entirely on his own, without any prompting from us. Maybe he was inspired by all that walking down the aisle stuff.
The next morning, at Papa and Tutu's lake cottage he managed twelve steps, and soon he was walking across the living room without a problem. This video shows him making his way to the chair that he claimed as his own at the cottage.

Want to see more? Watch a couple other videos of our family here.

Baby Steps

I'm ready for David to walk (and I think I've felt that way for at least a month now), but he just hasn't seemed quite ready himself. He'll hold our fingers and walk along with us, but as soon as he realizes that we're trying to let go he's down on his knees.

Today, however, he took another baby step towards walking...Keith taught him how to push the hippo on his own. He hasn't quite learned how to turn around yet, but he certainly enjoyed racing from couch to front door to couch to front door. You can imagine how Keith spent the afternoon.

Watching this video makes me realize just how close he is to taking steps all by himself. I'll be in Indy for class all day tomorrow, so I hope he'll wait just one more day.

Hurry, Hurry to the Fire...

David's a fire truck. Or at least he sounds like one. Grandma Barb and Grandpa Dana gave him this very cool fire truck for his birthday, and David has really been enjoying it. He hasn't quite figured out how to make it "go" yet, but he's loving all the buttons and sounds. His favorite is the button that makes the fire siren noise. He presses it over and over again and was confused and a little upset the other day when the real fire siren outside continued after his toy fire truck had stopped its wailing.

This morning he began to imitate the siren. It was so darn cute that I just watched and listened for the first five or six tries before reaching for the camera. By then he wasn't quite as into it, but you'll still get the idea.

Dear Uncle Jake,

We are all praying that you'll get the rest you need to feel better soon. Even David is thinking about you (although he got a little distracted by the camera)...

Crawling, Take 2

I managed to get a better video of David crawling today while the sunlight was still coming through our windows. Enjoy...

On the move...

David has been so close to crawling for so long that I was beginning to get a little impatient for him to really get the hang of it. Then yesterday, Keith called me at work to tell me that David was getting into everything...on his own! Yes, that's right, he was crawling. Hooray!

It was so fun to watch him crawl around with the other "big" babies at our moms group this afternoon. I had to walk across the room to retrieve him several times, and I was happy to have to do so.

I know what you're thinking...you won't be so happy about this in a week...you'll be wishing he would just sit still so you don't have to chase him around and keep him out of danger. But at this point, I'm just happy to see him crawl after his toys rather than lie on his tummy and whine for them.

This video is dark, but hopefully it will give you a glimpse at our new and improved moving baby. I'll try to get better footage posted soon.

Lots of photos = Lots of fun

As I was going through photos on the computer this evening, having a difficult time choosing which to print for David's scrapbook, and being generally frustrated with myself for taking SO MANY pictures, I realized that there is some good that can come from lots of snapshots...even when I take one right after another. (Make sure you watch it several times so that you can take in the funniness of each person).

There's a Party in My Tummy!

David started solids about a month ago. A large amount of the rice cereal ends up on his face, but we like to think some of it makes it down to his belly where it rocks out Yo Gabba Gabba style.

The Wolf Toy Strikes a Funny Bone

David thinks this wolf toy (with Daddy's voice) is hilarious!