Loving the Life We Live: Summertime

Some days lately I look at Davis and it strikes me all of a sudden what a "big boy" he is getting to be. I love him more each day.

We have been enjoying the mild weather and spending our mornings playing at different local parks. Davis is becoming very independent, always saying "no, do it self" and "go away, Mommy. stay there." So while he plays on the playground, I am often required to stay far enough way that he does not feel smothered by my presence. :) He likes to feel like one of the big kids.

One night at bedtime I was tickling him around his chest and back under his pajama shirt and he was giggling and having so much fun. When I stopped, he pulled up the front of his shirt and said, "peez, Mommy, more tickle shirt." Aww, of course you can have more "tickle shirt," little buddy.

Davis got some little toy minions (from Despicable Me 2) at McDonald's, which unfortunately I can no longer find. But he was so cute when he wanted to play with them one day and went upstairs to look saying, "Meen-yuns! Meen-yuns, where-are you?" On a somewhat related note, we were driving past a McDonald's yesterday and Davis said, "French fries." Okay, I have to put a disclaimer here and say he's only ever been there to eat a handful of times. Apparently it doesn't take much to recognize those golden arches and what they mean.

When we go to a gas station now, Davis will say, "want gas too, peez." This started after we got some fountain drinks from a gas station once or twice and I let Davis sip a little of my lemonade. I am trying to explain to him that gas isn't what we are drinking, and we don't always get drinks when we put gas in the car.

Our kiddo who used to enjoy baths and was sometimes hard to pry OUT of the bathtub is now terrified of all water, including the bathtub. He somehow associates it with boo-boos and getting hurt. I think he had a slight skinned knee one time and freaked out when we went to put him in the tub, and he continues to panic about baths. He doesn't want to get in the water and, if you force him in there, he cries so pathetically and says, "owie, I got boo-boo, hurt me knee," etc. This has been going on for at least a month and I am so hoping that he outgrows it soon. This morning, though, we went to a birthday party and Davis, though wary at first played with the water and rocks in a little stream and eventually warmed up enough to play in the splash pad, voluntarily putting his head in the water and even running through the streams of water. He was laughing and saying "got wet" and thought it was fun, so hopefully he'll soon realize that water isn't going to hurt him and that it's fun to play in AND bathe in. :)

a couple of pics from the local waterpark

He has an awesome memory, which probably means he's going to get all sorts of complexes. At the park yesterday he didn't get off the curly tube slide after he went down and tried to climb back up despite my yelling at him from the top to get off the slide. I finally went down to get him out of the slide and in the meantime another kid came down and ran into him, which of course made him cry. So today the birthday boy wanted to go down the slide and Davis said "no, my turn!" and got upset when the other boy came down the slide shortly after Davis. Davis grabbed his head and said, "ow, hurt me head" even though he didn't get run into at all. He's just remembering that one brief incident and now apparently projecting it on all other slides. Sigh. He is also showing all the makings of a first-class tattletale.

A couple of weeks ago we went up to visit Grammy and Grandad and went to Indiana Beach, the local amusement park, with them and again later on with some friends. Besides carousels, this was Davis' first experience with carnival rides, and he loved them! The first one he went on was a bunch of little fire trucks and other vehicles just going around in a circle. Davis was very patient sitting there waiting for the ride to start. As soon as he reached out and grabbed the steering wheel in front of him, the ride started to go! He had the most surprised look on his face. I really think that he thought he made the ride go. He was very serious about holding that steering wheel at just the proper angle to continue going left around the circle. Someone certainly had to steer that thing! He has the makings of a fine driver someday :)

conked out after a busy morning at Indiana Beach

Last weekend, we went out to Saint Louis to visit some friends. Davis had a fantastic time playing with different friends at their homes, at the park, and even visiting the zoo. We have also been having lots of playdates, have made several trips to the water park (Davis likes to people-watch, but not the water part! When we go on the lazy river, he clings tightly to Mommy with his face buried in my chest), visited the county fair and saw the animals, and Davis went to his first movie in the theater (Monsters University).