Zucchini Fireworks

Ever since the Fourth of July, Donovan has been watching his own pretend fireworks shows, whenever and wherever it pleases him. He will sit down in the middle of the kitchen or on the living floor and start making booming noises, with the occasional, "look Mom, it's a really big one" or "that one looks like a jellyfish". This would be the result of a nice fireworks display put on in Orange Park this year and us getting great front row seats on the river.

Intensely watching fireworks on the 4th!

The other night, we were sitting down to a lovely dinner of Penne pasta with tomatoes and vegetables (thank you Bertolli) and Donovan was picking at his plate just like usual. Every now and then, he would eat a bite of pasta in between making his fork flying around like a plane or drive on tracks like a train, but the vegetables were staying untouched. Now Donovan has his times when he is a really good eater; those are usually during growth spurts and he will eat anything and everything put in front of him. He eats and likes most food, including vegetables, but like plenty of three year olds, he would rather play at the table, take a few bites, and then announce he is full.

So there sat the zucchini just staring at him. Dan and I tried several persuasion tactics to get him to take a bite of his zucchini (mind you, he has eaten zucchini on several occasions and really likes it). We tried the, "wow this tastes so good" method (yes Mom, I do eat zucchini too), and the "do you want to have to save it and eat it for breakfast instead of cereal?" method. Nothing seemed to be working. Of course, if we really did save it for breakfast, there would be a huge fit about not getting his cereal and it would end with him crying while grudgingly eating the zucchini as fast as possible to get to the cereal and me in a really bad mood. I really didn't want to deal with that in the morning.

After many unsuccessful attempts on our part, Donovan started to "boom" and see fireworks. Dan then asked, "Can you see a zucchini firework up there?" This got Donovan thinking. Dan then told him, "If you eat a small bite of zucchini, you will see the firework." Immediately, Donovan forked a bite and shoved it into his mouth. Then he followed swallowing it with a huge "BOOM". "That's the zucchini firework!" He proceeded to eat every single piece of zucchini on his plate with the subsequent boom and he also ate the tomato and bell pepper. Those made red fireworks he told us. Before we knew it, his plate was empty. After a lot of fireworks going off for the finale, we all cleaned up from dinner - quite happy and full.

The Evolution of Donovan's Hair

Just the other day Donovan got a new haircut. He has had several haircuts in his life, but this was the first time I let him decide how it should be cut. He told the hairdresser, "Make it very short and stand straight up." I have always loved Donovan's hair and the fact that he has had hair since he was born. I also have tended to keep it a bit unruly and long. I think it looks cute that way, but thus is life; the boy grows up and chops off his hair, I just didn't think it would happen so soon.

In my nostalgia, I have revisited the evolution of Donovan's hair through pictures, enjoy.

At birth

About 6 months old

About the time he was being referred to as the "mayonaise baby" (In Japan, there is a very popluar brand of Mayonaise: Kewpie.)

Almost 1 year

15 months

18 months

22 months

First Haircut - almost 2 years old

Before

After

2 Years old

2 1/2 years old

Almost 3

We let it get way too long this time

... and now at 3 1/2, the buzz cut.

Pictures of Our House Part 2

Here are more pictures of our house after painting...

The living room

The playroom

The kitchen

We are still working on the rest, but it sure feels good to have some rooms finished. More pictures to come.

The Long Awaited Pictures of Our House Part 1

Everyone I know has been wanting to see pictures of our new house, so here they are. We moved into it in the middle of May and we have been doing a lot of painting, unpacking and all sorts of stuff to make it ours. We still have a ton more to do, but we are getting there and it is starting to feel like home.

First I will start with the before pictures. This is how the house looked when we moved in.

This house came with a lovely backyard of dead grass.

Which we have managed to get green; we know they are weeds, but they are green.


Living Room

Kitchen - no appliances.

With brand new appliances

and a new sink

Master Bedroom - yes, it is purple (definitely on our list to be changed).

Master Bathroom - the shower was unfinished..

... but with a good contractor, it looks like this

I love the garden tub!

and the 2 sinks.


The front room/playroom

Coming soon: pictures of the newly painted rooms.

A Meter Tall

Last Saturday I was finally able to put Donovan's growth charts back up. after careful measurement, Donovan is now officially 100 centimeters tall or 39.37" (3' 3.37"). Donovan was quite excited about his new growth, especially when I explained to him that he was now 1 meter tall. Ever since, he was been going around telling everyone, "I'm a meter tall. I'm a tall boy." I think he has finally realized he is on the tall side of kids, but more than that, he is just so proud of his growing up. It really is quite amazing to see how such small milestones can make such a big impact in a child's life.

Donovan is showing off his "huge muscles" and pretending to be a sumo wrestler.

Caught in the kitchen.

This picture is courtesy of my brother who sent us a big box of packing peanuts. I guess, the bigger the boy gets, the bigger the messes he can make.

I Like the Movie, Movie

Donovan's new favorite movie is Madagascar (1 & 2). In the past few weeks we have watched both movies at least a dozen times. Since the lion in the movie loves to dance and so does Donovan, it is a perfect fit. Donovan now is a lion. He loves to jump on the bed and roar as loud as he can. His dances look quite similar to the ones in the movies.

He pretends that the lion, zebra, giraffe, and hippo are on his toy planes when he flies them around. I asked him the other day if the penguins were flying, and of course, they were. Today Donovan told me "I am Marty". I asked him how he was like Marty and he said he had stripes and was a zebra (he was wearing a gray and white striped shirt, I guess that was good enough for him).

He also loves to sing the songs from the movie. He just 'doesn't quite get the words right, but I like his versions better. The main song from the movie is, "I Like to Move it". (If you seen the movie, you know the song I am talking about.) Donovan sings the song like this, "I like the movie, movie. I like the movie, movie. Move it!" If you try to correct him, he says, "No, it's movie, movie, not move it, move it."

I always say a change is nice, so no more Cars or Wall-E for the time being; we just get to enjoy Madagascar and all the comical animals in it.

This is my Dan

Back when Donovan was first speaking little bits of words, he would call me "Mom-Mom" and Dan he would call "Da", which seemed perfectly normal, but after a little while, it seemed like he was actually saying "Dan" and not Dad. This seemed resonable, since I call my husband by his name, Dan and it really does sound so close. We thought it was cute, but made a point of telling Donovan he should call him Dad. For the last year, he has referred to him as Dad most of the time.

Lately, Donovan has begun to refer to his father as Dan again. Now that he talks quite well, there is no denying what he is saying. If you ask Donovan who Dan is, he says, "That's Dan." If you ask him who is dad is, he will say, "Dan," or "Dan is my dad." The more we correct him, the more he tries to use Dan instead of Dad. I asked him the other day why he calls him Dan and not Dad and Donovan's response was, "Because it's his name." How can you argue with that? So for now, we are Mom and Dan.