Davey's new favorite tv show is Shaun the Sheep.  If you are not familiar with Shaun the Sheep, they are 8-9 minute episodes about yes, sheep.  They are claymation looking - like Wallace and Gromit.  David and I really enjoy them too.  They are very funny.  One of them had a sheep training montage in it today – complete with a "Rocky-Like" Victory Ascent to the top of the steps  – including outstretched cheering sheep arms.  Very clever and well-done.  At least we think so.

Davey goes nuts for Shaun the Sheep.  He starts yelling "HEEP!  HEEP!", and then gets very excited when we turn it on.  (I am recording every new episode on the DVR.) 

I can't get the theme song out of my head. 

Tonight for some reason Davey began saying "hmmm" a lot.  He said it first when I asked him which toy was blue.  "Hmmmmm" he immediately said.  Since then he has said it in response to almost every question we have asked him.

We had dinner over at Russell and Phyllis's tonight.  Phyllis made spaghetti just for him.  We had pork chops and vegetables.  It was a great dinner.  Anyway – well first of all, Davey calls Phyllis "I-E"  (as in Old McDonald had a farm, E I E I O.  (He has always begun with I on that. Are double parenthetical expressions legal?  I doubt it.)) (Maybe it is ok if you make sure and close them all correctly as if you are doing a math problem.)  So, he calls Russell "Quack Quack" as in Russell can really quack like a duck, and Davey loves it.

So Davey ate spaghetti.  He ate quite abit tonight and enjoyed it enormously.  He crammed big bites into his mouth and got it everywhere as usual.  When he was done eating, he suddenly sneezed.  I said, "Oh let me get that big booger".  It was a spaghetti noodle.  He had sneezed it out of his nose!

A few minutes later, he was playing with David and suddenly a noodle plopped out of his nose.  Before David could stop him, Davey had grabbed it, exclaimed "Noodle" and he ate it.  Yep, he ate it.  A few minutes later, I saw one more noodle beginning to trickle out of his nose.  I quickly grabbed it before he could.  He was not happy about this.  Is this normal?  Should I worry that noodles are trickling out of his nose?  Ok, actually I did just do a little internet "research", and I guess this is not that unusual. 

Well, not me.  That job goes to David.  Turns out the dishwasher has been leaking.  For awhile.  I guess before we ever moved in.  So we got a new dishwasher and then started taking up flooring to see how much mildew we had.  And kept taking it up and kept taking it up.  (I need to stop saying we – David is taking it up.)  So now we (oops) have taken up nearly the whole kitchen.  David is scraping up several layers of flooring.  Not too fun.

I went to pay for the new flooring today.  We got it at Railroad Salvage, and I’d forgotten my checkbook.  On the way back I heard that newish Nickelback song – something like “No one want’s to be the last one standing” something like that.  It reminded me that the last time it came on when Davey was in the car, he started singing along (as much as a 17 month old can).  But it wasn’t what he was singing, but how he was singing it.  He was imitating the singer’s ( I can’t remember his name) kind of gravely voice. Davey was giving it this little 17 month old quasi-growl.  Cute!

A few pictures – in the first  – no we don’t have a child laboring in our house.  He loves to sweep.  To the point that he got a blister.  Those sweet soft hands, I had no idea where it was from, and it finally occurred to us:  the sweeping.

Swifter abandoned, he is happy playing on his little chair that his Aunt Holly made for him.

A couple of weeks ago, Karen, Kevin, Mikayla and Jadyn came to visit.  They usually come on their Spring Break.  We almost always make cinnamon rolls and paint our nails.  It’s kind of become a tradition.  Davey needs 4 or 5 older siblings.  He likes having older kids around.  He had a great time with Mikayla and Jadyn.

Friday we drove to Stillwater for Rob and Angie’s wedding.  They got married before a justice of the peace, and then had a reception at Aggies.  Aggies looked familiar to me and after awhile, I learned that it was formerly Stillwater Bay.  We loved Stillwater Bay when we were in college.

We didn’t make it to Stillwater quite in time to see the actually “marrying”, but we got to the reception just before it began.  David and I have never been afraid to make frequent stops on a trip.  Add Davey to the mix, and we are stopping more than driving it seems like.  So what should be a 5 – 6 hour trip, we can easily stretch into a 7 – 8 hour trip.

David took a couple of good naps on the way.

The reception was very nice.  I enjoyed meeting Angie’s family.  Davey had a great time.  He met a little girl named Tory,  She was 5 and he loved following her around and playing with her.  Later Addie arrived with Johnny, and he played with her some as well.

The late afternoon light was not ideal for picture taking; neither were the orange walls.  (However, I have to update to say that Angie posted some great wedding pictures so my lighting/wall color excuses are blown.) This picture is blurry, but still says a lot about the moment.

David and his brother Rob (the smiling groom).

Not the best light, as I mentioned, but Davey had a big time playing with the vertical blinds.

After the wedding, we went to David’s parents’ house.  Davey quickly got comfy and he soon discovered the water dispenser.

I love this final picture of Davey having a good old time!

I was reminded what a lame blogger I have been lately.  (thanks Angie!:))  I do have a mighty good excuse.  We moved to our new house a week ago.  Last week was all day unpacking.  I unpacked as much as I could during the day, and then at night after Davey went to sleep.   I unpacked during his naps.  Finally on Thursday, I stopped unpacking, and I have not done much since.  

We had a busy fun weekend though.  Brad, SethAnn and their kids came to visit us on Saturday.  We had lunch together and they came over to our house for awhile.  It was great to see them. 

Then Saturday afternoon, Karen, Kevin, Mikayla and Jadyn came for the weekend.  I did not take many pictures at all of them while they were here.  I took a few – I need to download them to my computer and put some up here.  We have a couple of traditions when they visit.  Mikayla and Jadyn help me make cinnamon rolls and we always paint toenails and fingernails.  I help them and paint too.  Sometimes they want to do their own painting, sometimes they want me too.  This time it was a combination.  They like to paint each finger and toe a different color, although Mikayla went with an all red white and blue theme this year.  And darn it, I didn't take a single picture of that either!

We played some Yahtzee which was fun.  I had not played in years.  I found scorecards which indicated that the last time we'd played was in Seattle!  Davey had a great time playing with everyone.  They brought their tricycle and Davey's legs are almost long enough to touch the pedals.  He had a lot of fun trying to get on it and getting pushed around. 

Davey has his own room again, and he really likes it.  I am just so appreciative of having closets again!  The floors are wood laminate which is great for playing cars!  "Cahhs" he says, and he runs to his room with us following him. 

Today, I noticed what looked like a big broken blister at the base of his thumb.  We thought – a burn?  There was no way that he could have burned himself.  Finally it occurred to David.  The broom. He loves to sweep the broom all around the house.   I guess he swept so much that he got a blister.  That soft sweet skin – I can see how it could happen. 

Davey loves my marimba too.  Well in particular, he likes the mallets.  He does not limit himself to playing the marimba.  He plays the mallets on every possible surface.  He has found they work pretty well on the piano too.  Luckily these are soft yarn covered mallets.

David took the picture below when we were in Texarkana a few weeks ago visiting his parents.  Will get some new pictures up soon.  Thanks Angie, once I got started, I just kept going!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the house we were going to buy if the home inspection did not reveal anything dire.  Funny that I said that because it did (reveal somethings dire that is).  When presented with a ten page home inspection which included electrical and foundation problems – we ran for our lives and backed out of the deal.  (We later learned that our home inspector is very good but he is affectionately known as "the dealbreaker" around town.)

So we went looking some more.  Found one house we liked but we could hear the interstate inside the house.  It a real nice house – small but nice – built in 2001.  We decided against it though.  We pretty much exhausted our options so we went back to the house we'd backed out of. (out of which we'd backed?  That just does not sound right. :))   I think our savvy realtor knew we were going to do this.  He was very patient and let us lead our way back to that house.  He's a great realtor.  He had an electrician come look at the house.  It's actually wired just fine according to 1965 code.  There was work that needed to be done but it was covered by our repair allowance.  A beam needed to be replaced under the house; some piers and joists needed to be added as well.  The owner agreed to do all this and they finished it up yesterday.  The house is looking good and we are again set to close next week.  Yay.  Davey loves playing at the new house.  He is having fun with the kaskillions of pine needles we are going to need to rake up. 

Today Davey and I went to Pizza Shack for lunch.  Pizza!  Davey loves Pizza.  There was a little girl about his age there and she had gotten a little bouncy ball out of the ball vending machine thing.  I guess she got a second one, because she came over and gave it to Davey.  It was sweet.  Davey is quite the fan of the ball anyway!

He also had lemonade – always a treat.  I tried to get him to eat a little cottage cheese.  “Noooooooo” he said in about 6 syllables.

Then we went to the Dollar Store.  Dollar General I guess it was.  Never went into one of those stores in my life before we moved to Glenwood.  There is also Family Dollar in Glenwood.  They are Glenwood’s mini Walmarts.  We needed Wipes.  So they had these Sesame Street muppets.  He saw Ernie – ehnnnniiieee!,  Elmo and Cookie Monster – Cooookieeee!.  Actually I thought the little blue guy looked more like Grover, but he immediately said Cookie and he was right.  He gave them a group hug.  I convinced him to put Cookie Monster up, but we got Elmo and Ernie.  He was just having so much fun hugging them and giving them sugar (and chomping on their noses).

I watched him in the rearview mirror on the way home.  He played with Ernie and Elmo.  He talked to them.  He gave them more group hugs and kisses.  He had a great time.

Then when we got home, I was putting some things up and he was in the breakfast room.  I went in there, and he looked at me and said “Poop”.  So sure enough it was time for a diaper change.  I guess pretty soon he will tell me “Poop” before he goes!

Now he is taking a nap.  I am going to put a picture up which is a shot of his toys.  He had them scattered all over the place.  I love the bright colors.  I guess we could not be accused of not getting the poor child any toys.  He enjoys them all though.  I try to record these things so he can read all about his early years someday.

We've been sickly around here.  Davey and I had a stomach bug (which we referred to as the plague) which lasted from Saturday night until Friday for me and a little longer for Davey.  David avoided it somehow but got a cold right before his trip to Berlin.  When he got back – after having avoided the plague for a week – he caught a 24 hour version of it.  (As did Mom while Papa and her were visiting us over the weekend.) Plague!  So we are better now except for this dumb cold in my eyes and nose.

I haven't felt like doing a lot, but I have been doing quite abit of knitting.  The other day I checked out a book at the library – The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss.  Oh it has the cutest sweetest patterns.  I decided to make some little shoes.  They were not initially for Davey.  I don't know who they were going to be for, but people are always having babies!  They were supposed to be size 6-12 months.  I decided against the swatch having figured, I'd be close and besides slippers are stretchy. 

So I made them.  A fun pattern for me.  I knitted a little top for the shoe and then had to pick up stitches around the sides to do the sides and back of the shoe.  It took me awhile to figure it out.  So when I was done, I put some lines of puffy paint on the bottom so that they'd be more non-slip.  That worked pretty well.  Then I thought – well I wonder how close they are to fitting Davey.  Davey has pretty big feet for his age – size 6.5 right now.  Well the slippers almost fit – except that they fall off when he walks.  Next winter they should fit. :)  Moral of the story:  I will knit my swatch in the future!

I had a bag filled with assorted teabags.  I gave it to Davey to play with the other day.  It has resulted in hours of playing.  I am finding teabags all over the house.  He likes to tuck things away in all sorts of hiding places:  the trunks on his little cars, under the computer, in the cabinets, in various boxes.  He has had more fun with these teabags.  Yesterday I bought him some jumbo crayons and those have also been a hit.  He carries them all over the house.  He draws a little; this morning I saw him pretending to write on a piece of paper.  There are also crayons scattered.  I noticed that there were supposed to be 16 in the box.  I have only been able to locate 8-10. 

Tonight, Davey was being a little fussy before bed.  We both have the stomach virus that just does not want to go away.  So I was holding him and singing to him.  I just make up little silly sings.  Tonight was "Little Boy"  and the lyrics are "little boy" sung over and over.  I can't even remember the tune now, darn it.  Anyway,  I sang for awhile, and he listened, and then I stopped and he clapped his little hands together for me.  Sweetest thing.  He knew it made me smile so I sang some more, and he clapped some more.  :)  And we did that for just a little while.

If all goes well, we will moving to Arkadelphia at the end of the month.  We've found a house that we like a lot.  It was built in 1965.  It has a great backyard with a double fence even.  Perfect for separating the dogs from Davey when he goes outside to play.  (the dogs love Davey, but they are getting older and I am always afraid he will hurt one of them by accident and that they will then snap at him instinctively.  So we just keep them apart – Davey loves Daisy daisy daisy!  He loves to tell her to HUSH – as she yaps very loudly when she wants something.  He loves Koko too, and she watches over him at night sometimes when he sleeps.)  Ok big parenthetical digression there.  Anyway – house.  It sits up on top of a large hill.  David is trying to figure the logistics of mowing that front yard.  The house is on about 1/2 acre on a corner lot. The inside has lots of updates – new paint, some new cabinets, new countertops and backsplash (granite and it's really pretty).  The floor is almost entirely wood laminate.  I need to take some pictures of it soon. 

Our offer has been accepted, and the loan preparation is progressing.  It's the most efficient bank that I have ever worked with in all the houses we have bought. (5 - this will be 6 geez)  We are having a house inspection on Thursday.  Hoping that that does not reveal something dire. 

It will be so nice for David to not have to drive anymore.  It's 2 miles to school from the new house.  We will miss Papa Jerry and Pearl and also going to see Ma Mutt and Gretta, but it's not far and we will come see them lots.  We will have to come back to Mama Pearl's anyway.  We love it out here.  I will miss Davey's mountain!  Let's have a picture of the mountain – there's probably an old one posted somewhere, but just in case:

(I don't think this picture really does it justice, but writing this in February, I had forgotten how beautiful and green it was here in the summer.)