The other day one of my students surprised me with some finger paints for Davey.  She told me that when she was a kid, her mom would put her in the bathtub and she would paint and paint in the tub.   It was a great idea (and so thoughtful of my student).  Davey loved it.

He painted and painted.  Although he mostly used a big sponge brush.

I have to say that by the end it was starting to look like a primary colored crime scene.  Davey thought it was fun cleaning up though, and he helped me scrub.

Then look what arrived yesterday.  I guess I am going to have to get started.  David claims that I can still meet the deadline.   I think that by January 11th, I am still going to be figuring out how to adjust my pattern to meet the David Specifications.

Happy Saturday!  We are off to a craft show.  I am thinking that it’s going to be more of an etsy artist type craft show which would be really neat.  Davey is excited.  He wants to go see the “beautiful crafts!”

Yesterday we took David to the “beach”.  This time Davey really did fish.   Well, David put a piece of hotdog on for bait, and Davey held the bait in the water.  He can push the button and actually cast and reel it back in.  He’s still perfecting his methods, but he is doing great!   We determined that there are exactly zero fish in that part of the creek.

We walked David back over to the lake so he could see the geese.  They are amazing.

As we were walking around the lake, about 50 geese launched.  They flew right over our heads.  It was incredible.  These Canada Geese are pretty good sized!  So it was as if I was standing right in front of an airplane runway, and the airplanes were coming directly toward me.  The geese rose very quickly just above us.  Why I did not yank out my camera and get a shot of that – I’ve been kicking myself ever since.  However, it was such a brief cool moment that I hated to ruin it fiddling with my camera.  I was also afraid to take my eyes off them as I was very afraid of big plops of green goose poop hitting me in the head.  Not that I probably could have dodged it in time, but I wanted to keep my eyes on the situation.  It was something else.  David said I could photograph it next time.  It happens approximately once every 42 years it seems.

Then I have been trying to figure out what to do for our Christmas card.  I was able to get Davey to pose for me at the park.  Well somewhat.  It was more my usual approach of taking about one million pictures and hoping that something turned out.  I was happy to get some nice ones, and I ordered the cards yesterday.  A little late.  I hope they ship to me quickly.

So here is what did not make the Christmas card.  Although I think it might have been kind of fun.

And I loved this pose:

Time to run some errands.  We are off to mail bills and buy groceries.  The wind is incredible here today.  There are supposed to be 80 mph gusts in places this afternoon!

I am knitting.  Not as much as I would like, but I am hoping to knit more this weekend.  I am ready to get back to my Joy of Sox Socks!  My test project for Susan is coming along.  This is such a fun pattern, I hope to get back to it this weekend.  I’ll have to put some pictures of my progress up.

And finally,  David and Davey were talking about shapes the other day.  David said, “Davey what is my head shaped like?”  Davey thought about it for awhile (the last time we asked him, he’d said oval), and then he answered, “Pineapple”. Then David asked him what my head was shaped like.  Davey considered this again, and he finally said, “A Pumpkin”.  I am not sure what prompted him to consider fruit shapes, but I suppose he’s correct!

So Pumpkin Head is off to take little punkin head on our errands!

Yesterday Davey and I went for a walk.

We parked a couple of miles from our house at a park, and then Davey was off.  I never get tired of taking pictures of him on the move.

We headed down the little dirt road.   Our destination was a small rocky beach on Bear Creek.

We cut off the little dirt road and walked down a narrow path.  Some of the grasses were as tall as Davey.  He said, “It feels like we are going underwater!”

We came upon a big fallen tree.  We explored around it for awhile until we saw a big hole going into the ground.  We got a little worried (I did) as to what might come out of that hole.

We headed on down to the path into the woods.

Finally we arrived at the stream.

Davey started “fishing”, and he immediately had a fish on the line.

He decided it was time for our picnic.  He was most interested in the candy cane Hershey’s Kisses.  Who could blame him?  Those little candies are irresistible, and I knew I shouldn’t buy them.  But I just could not stop myself.  “After all, they are just available once a year!”  Thank goodness!

Then I took some more pictures of him playing.  I love the wintry background, and I was having fun with my camera.

Davey started fishing again.  Here is he walking backing and forth saying, “I didn’t get a whopper.”  (You can see his mouth saying “whopper” here.)

Finally it was time to start walking back.

We walked back around the little lake, and we were fascinated by the Canada Geese standing on the ice.

Unfortunately, we scared them away.

David is good at holding out the camera and taking a picture of the three of us.  Here is what happens when I try to do it.  I think you can spot Davey in it.

Finally we were back to the car, but Davey still did not want to stop running.

A happy picture to end on I think.

Yesterday was tumbling day again.   I took my camera and got lots of pictures.  I wanted to document everything Davey did as much as I could since David couldn’t be there.  So I took 8 million pictures – as you are going to see from this picture heavy post.

Beginning with:

Davey arrives.  He took off his socks and shoes to prepare.  We were early so he hit the toys.

Next we wait for our turn.  He likes to watch the class that is before ours.  I think you can tell that he is grinning even in this photo. (At first I was thinking about the grin showing at the side of his face, but then I also saw it in the reflection!)

Once we get inside, he is perpetual motion.

They sit in a circle after they warm up abit, and we all introduce ourselves.  They were also supposed to say what their favorite vegetable is. Davey never is much on introducing himself, and of course he is not much on vegetables.  But when they got to us, he was ready to go.  “My name is DAVEY!”  Then she asked what his favorite vegetable was.  “CARROTS!!”   Yes, I was surprised to hear that.

After they introduced themselves, they were supposed to do a forward roll.  Miss Heather helped him.  I have two pictures of the forward roll sequence.  Again, I am fascinated by the ability to do a somersault.  It was never my thing.

And over he went!

He loves climbing all over everything in there.  He is so focused as you can see by that tongue.

A brief still moment.

And I have to say that he is such a good listener.  When it’s time to sit down, he runs over to sit down.  When it’s time to get a new piece of equipment or if it is time to put something away,  he runs over as fast as he can go.

And so darn adventurous!

And he loved it!  He grinned from ear to ear!

And then on his back.  He was a little unsure about this at first.  You can see him holding onto her arm. But she was right there with him.  And he loved it!

They finish with bubbles.  What’s better than bubbles?  Oh a stamp!  On the way out, they each get a stamp (or two) on their hands.

Here he had a bubble carefully balanced on his finger.

When we left, he kept saying,  “Mommy, I had such a good time there today!”

Yesterday was First Advent.  Our Advent wreath is buried somewhere in the depths of the storage closet.  David is going to go on an expedition to locate the Christmas storage boxes, but for yesterday, we had a lone candle without the wreath.

Davey loved lighting the candle. (He didn’t actually light it, but he did blow it out!)

For a moment, he sat there and looked at it. (Apparently there’d been chocolate in his recent past.)

Then, just as I always did throughout my childhood years, we sat on the couch and listened to Christmas songs.  At least I think I sat still and listened to Christmas music.  Davey did too – for awhile.  Then he decided to dance to celebrate.  (I didn’t get the best shots in the dark.)

He called the candle/music/dancing “our great idea”.

So today he said to David many times:  “When can we do our great idea?”

And when we sat down again tonight to look at the candle and listen to Christmas music, he said, “Didn’t I have a great idea?”

The boy who wears no pants (for maximum ease of potty training) was just as animated tonight!

Happy First Advent!

We’ve had such a nice day.  Lunch with friends at a hot dog place.  “Mustard’s Last Stand”!  Great name.  Then Ben & Jerry’s.  It was a nice time with them (our friends – although we did enjoy Ben and Jerry as well!).

Then I got to go knit for a couple of hours with my friend.  Also great.  Chai Latte at Starbucks and lots of knitting and talking about knitting.   She also gave me the yarn to test knit a pattern for her.  I’ve always wanted to be a “test knitter”!  I am going to be making the cutest hat.  Here’s the yarn! (Cascade 128 – I’ve been wanting to try this yarn out!)  I can’t wait to show the progress on this neat hat.  She’s started an etsy shop – check it out! (She’s planning to put this pattern up for sale too after she gets it finished up.)

We also got Davey a couple of new games.  We played some Chutes and Ladders.  He enjoyed the first game that we all played, but then on the second:  “Daddy, I’m bored”.  So they switched to Ants in the Pants.  A very fun game!

Finally, I made salads tonight for supper.  I love to marinate chicken in olive oil, lemon and garlic.  It’s so good and great on a salad.  (Don’t forget the feta cheese and avocado! Oh and to cook the chicken.  I just cooked it on the stove in a little olive oil.)  Anyway, Davey was on his chair watching me chop.  Either David or I said, “Davey try some of those cucumbers and red bell peppers!” (Never actually considering he might do it.)   I was chopping them up, and he was scooting them around.  He casually started eating some cucumbers and then he tried the bell peppers.   He actually chewed and swallowed some of them. (He did spit some out after some chewing.  That’s ok, I figure he did get a little bit of nutrition from them.)  David and I watched avidly.  We were enthralled.  We were surprised.  We were agog.

That kid always surprises us. 🙂

I learned the neatest new technique last night.  I had a heck of a time getting it figured out, but once I did, I had a major “I feel like a real knitter moment”.

I can’t reveal the project because it is one of my secret projects, but I had to blog about this lateral braid.  The person who designed this project was inspired by a another project by Nancy Bush where she used this Estonian technique.  (At least I think it is Estonian.)

See that sideways looking knit?

I’ve never yet had an urge to design a pattern, but I really think I want to figure something out with a big chunky lateral braid running around it.  Like on a hat or something.   Guess I need to put that on my list.

I ordered the yarn for David’s sweater yesterday.  Unfortunately the main color is on back-order.  This is really going to put a kink in my David-imposed deadline of January something or another.  (2014)

David and Davey are playing.  They “played” chess a little while ago.  This involved setting up the pieces, scooting them around, and then they were done. Here’s a shady photo of Davey playing away.

Here is where I asked him to smile for me.  I think I can see his tonsils.

Happy Friday!  We were happy to have all day together!

Lunch is over.  It was delicious.

A Thanksgiving feast for sure.

Oh wait.  That was Davey’s lunch.  He also again talked up not being able to wait to have PIE!  Then, “Mommy, no thank  you.  I don’t like that pie.”

Here we go.  Maybe this is better.  David can build quite a plate.

Davey did help me cook last night.  Mr. “Expressive Hands”

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am going to go rest and be thankful now.

We’ve got everything ready to make our Thanksgiving dinner.  Davey and I may start a couple of things this afternoon.  I forgot all about deviled eggs!  Have to have some of those.  I want to persuade David to make a pecan pie.  He went through a pecan pie making phase back in 1997, when we lived in Seattle. Time for another one.

Today, David happened upon Davey watching a little tv while resting against a comfortable backrest.

I think Timber was ok with it.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Davey took his first class at the Little Gym today.  He had a great time.  He did a somersault!  (A marvel to me – I am so ungymnastically inclined that it is embarrassing.)  He ran around, he climbed, he rolled, he jumped, and he loved it!

Almost as fun was that for the next 45 minutes after class, he played with a 5 year old boy (actually 5 and 3/4 – the little boy explained to me).  They played and played and played.  I talked to a nice mom and learned more about the area.  She told me about some great activities in the area that  we’ll be able to do with Davey.   I was also very excited to learn about a Montessori program that is part of the public school system.  Yay for that! (Preschool all the way through 12th grade if we wanted!)  So that was very fun for me.

Now it is time to go get our ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner.  I decided there is just not enough room in our little kitchen for a turkey, so I took the easy route and got a turkey breast at Honey Baked Ham.  They are so good, much better than I would make.

Our menu is going to include some Pioneer Woman recipes.  I want to make her cranberry sauce.  I am also going to make her sweet potato casserole, although I think it could technically count as a dessert.  I will attempt to make dressing, and then of course it would not be Thanksgiving without the green bean casserole.   I think that’s about it since it will just be the 3 of us, and one of the 3, I won’t mention any names, probably won’t touch any of it!

I am still thinking about dessert.  I think a pumpkin pie is inevitable, although I confess I am a fan of the Mrs. Smith.  Maybe I should try to make my own.  I could do that.

So we gotta go shop!  My trusty helper will accompany me.  If you take little Davey to the grocery store.  He will want a car cart. (That’s what we call the carts with the ginormous kiddy car on the front.)  Chances are, he will then want one of the free cookies for little kids.  Chances are also good that I am going to bonk someone or break something. (My little tribute to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) I narrowly missed taking out 3 jars of spaghetti sauce the other day.  I worked in a grocery store.  There’s nothing messier.   Except for a plastic gallon of milk exploding.  That’s worse.  The car cart is a menace!  Davey loves it though.

I am knitting some.  I am not knitting on my Joy of Sox sock though.  I have decided to do some last minute super secret Christmas things.  I don’t know yet how many or if they will work out.  I am having a lot of fun with the current project though.

Ok off we go!