Dad Life Video

I'm sure many of have seen this video, but as a young Dad I am beginning to relate to this video.  Also, I reflect on my dad and know that he did everything he could to be the best father.  Watching this makes me laugh about all the things he did for me and my sisters. 
I laugh everytime I see watch it, so I thought I would share it with all of you. 

Growing Up

The last week of June was a big week in our house!  J.David not only graduated to a big boy bed, but he also gave up his most precious possession: his pacis.  He was so excited about getting his bed and we explained that pacis don't belong in a big boy bed.  He decided he wanted to give them to his baby brother so he decorated a gift bag and dropped them in with a smile!  SO impressed!!  The transition to his new bed went just as well.  He picked out his own bedding, choo choo bedding, and couldn't wait to sleep on it!  Overall he has done fantastic!!  He doesn't get out unless we go in to get him but we have had a few issues with the actual going to bed part, we think that we finally found a solution this week, but i'm not holding my breath!  So far the only effects we've seen from no paci are an earlier wake up call and the occasional mid-night wake up, both of which I think are slowly getting better as he is learning to put himself back to sleep!!  Here are some pics from our big events!

This one is how the excitement started, he got to sleep in his own bed at the hotels on vacation.

The last night as a "baby" with crib and pacis.  Yes, I'm aware he has a pink one, Walgreens has a limited selection sometimes. :)

His new Choo Choo bed!!

Giving the Pacis to baby brother via decorated bag.

Ready for bed!

Getting tucked in!

Vacation

In June we took a trip down to see our friends in Atalanta and along the way stopped in Nashville and Chatanoogo.  It was a great trip!!  J.David did great in the car and so did his pretty preggo mama.  Here are some pics from our trip:

J.David swimming in the hotel pool!

@ the Chatanooga lookouts game wearing his Cardinal gear. 

Pointing out the Nemos and Doris in the fish tank.

Daddy and J.David kissing the giant penguin!  ha ha. 

Cool exhibit but it is hard to compete with the St. Louis Zoo penguins...

What JD waited to see all day!!  The sharks.  He kept saying he wanted to see them eat a Nemo?!? 

Should we have been concerned??  ha ha ha.  BOYS!

JD and Kinley had the BEST time together.  I have a ton of pics but these were  a few of my favorites

The Dads and their kiddos!

Thanks Connetts for a great time!  We miss you guys!!

My funny boy....

I LOVE this phase of J.David.  2 1/2 has it challenges but nothing can ruin all the joy that comes from this stage of his life.  I am shocked and amused everyday by the things that come out of his mouth.  Here are a few records I want to keep:
Everything is a ball or baseball bat.  His growing love for baseball is still so crazy to me!  One day while trying to keep him entertained out and about he wanted to play catch.  This is fine except we had no ball so he showed me how to play pretend catch and he got down like Yadi, (Aka. Yadier Molina the Cardinals catcher and his favorite player) and we played catch without a ball.  ha ha ha! 
He also pretends to hit baseballs with anything he can make into a bat from a wooden spoon to a straw and will inform us wether it was a homerun or a foul ball. 
If asked he will tell you that Yadi and Albert are his favorite baseball players and can tell you the names of almost all the starters on the Cardinals line up.  He might need a little reminder of the first name but he can give you their last names. Most of the names he picked up from listening at the games or on the tv/radio.  Its hilarious. 
He also thinks he is now too big for his T-ball Tee and wants Daddy to toss it to him.  I can not seem to make this timing work out in favor of the hitter but Morgan has it down to science. 
One day he wanted me to play catch with him (real ball and glove this time) like he does with daddy.  Well, I couldn't seem to get my aim right and make it into the glove.  In reaction to this he ever so sweetly took off his glove and said, "i'll wait til Daddy gets home" ha ha ha.  Not mad or mean, just like, oh well, we gave it a shot! ha ha ha.
He LOVES baby brother!!  Everything we do he wants to make sure that baby is coming to, which of course he always is since we still have 12 weeks to go.  ha ha ha. 
We've started introducing some potty training.  Interest is touch and go.  One day he was very motivated to go so he sat on his little chair and couldn't quite seem to go.  After about 15 min of sitting there he said, "It not come out mommy!!  It not working!"  ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

The last story is from a few weeks ago.  He came in and informed me that Lightning McQueen got hurt and needed a cast.  So out of paper towel and scotch tape (barely beat him to this idea before he reached for the bandaids) we made cast for each and every one of his match box Cars cars.  ha ha ha.  He then needed to be a Dr. to make sure they were ok.  No worries, this story comes with pictures!

May

Is it bad that I'm so far behind on my blogging that I have to update by months?? ha ha.  We had a fantastic MAY!  We got to finish swim lessons (which i have no pics of), celebrate my mom turning 50, go to the butterfly house, Grants Farm, Zizi came for a visit, and Natalie graduated high school.  Talk about a jam packed month!!  In terms of swim lessons JD went from timid to fish, Nemo specifically, in 5 weeks.  It was so much funt to see him gain confidence and learn to love the water.  Now with the help from his trusty puddle jumper lifejacket he swims "All by myself like Daddy and Pap-pa" and even jumps in if Morgan or I are there to catch him. 

We took advantage of the little down time we had in May by spending time with friends during the day.  I was shocked at how much he loved the butterfly house.  He even let a few land on him!!  He also conquered some fears at Grants Farm.  The first time we went he wanted nothing to do with feeding the goats or the merry go round.  The next week we went back (season pass holder!!) and he informed me that he was going to do all these things by himself, and he did!!  I was so proud of him!  He is such a cautious kid when it comes to new things, but it doesn't take him long to look at it, process it, and then decide to try it.  For those of you who know Morgan well this might sound familiar!  ha ha. 

Lastly, we were excited to get another visit from Lindsay over memorial weekend.  A Trotter cousin got married here in St. Louis and we got to go and celebrate with them.  J.David LOVED having her here.  Here are some pics from our month of MAY.

Mom is Fifty and Fabulous!  And Dad beat her to it only by a month.  Sorry to say I don't have any pics from his over the hill party!

Such a big boy in his new outdoor chair!

JD and Maddie looking up at the thousands of butterflies (thank you lighting for not picking any of them up on camera so I look like a big fat liar!)

Outside the butterfly house looking into the pond.

Dinner before granduation and the monsoon like rain that drenched us all!

After graduation.  We look a little rough due to running in the rain about 2 blocks, Natalie excluded from this comment.  ha ha.

Zizi and JD at the park

All by himself!!  Such a proud mommy!!  I was almost as proud of him as he was of himself...ha ha.  He kept coming up to me and saying, "mommy!  I did it all by myself and I wasn't scared!" and then would give me a huge hug, so cute!!

Watching the giant turtle with Grace.  About 2 min after this the turtle tooted and of course that is the part that JD talked about for 2 days to everyone!  ha ha ha....boys!

April update

Wow! I am a bad blogger! ha ha. I didn't realize how much time had gotten away from me until this past week. It has been really crazy!! Since my last posts we have been really busy with all sorts of fun things. We've had visitors, been visitors, put our house on the market, and participated in some really fun activities! It doesn't appear that we are going to have any luck on the house before our little guy gets here so we are mentally preparing to just squeeze into this house a bit longer with hopes of a more serious sale next spring. I said I would give it til the first week of August but the market is far from thriving right now. At least we gave it a shot!

Back in April Mimi and Jay Pops came to visit for a fun weekend that included a baseball game and lots of good J.David time. Mimi even stayed for a longer weekend and got to come with us to find out that our baby boy was in fact a boy! ha ha. We had a great time going to the zoo and enjoying the beautiful weather we had that weekend. The weather must have been beautiful that weekend b/c that was the weekend that the cardinals played a 19 inning game!! We stayed until the end of the 13th inning before retiring home. The kids were supposed to get to run the bases that day after the game and apparently the players didn't want to let that happen. We were able to get food, go home and finish the game on TV...ha ha ha!!

Fun with Daddy outside!

JD with Daddy and both grandpas!

Mimi and Jay Pops with JD!

Mimi and JD at the zoo with the baby elephants

My family finding out the sex of the baby.  I made blue cupcakes and iced half with pink and the other half with blue icing.  We then made everyone choose the cupcake with the icing color they thought would represent the gender.  Once everyone made their selections they were given the ok to open it up to see blue cake!  Half were shocked and the other half were very proud of themselves...ha ha ha!

Its a .....

BOY!!!! That's right, we are having another baby boy in September and feel so blessed! I will post some the pics from our fun visit from Mimi and Jay Pops later this week. Just couldn't wait to finally put this on the computer!!