Davie Days

Oh Davie. So much to say and yet so little time. Davie has a vigor for life that literally has me exhausted just watching. The boy is full of it, like a cup that just can't quite hold enough water. He can be the HAPPIEST baby on the planet when he wants. And when he's bad, it's BAD. That right there is what I would consider our biggest hurdle right now. How do you communicate ANYTHING to someone who just does not understand. Feel free to email me your secret.

About a week or so ago Davie decided he LOVES cars. It's always "car, car, beep, beep" and he is always walking around collecting the 3 or 4 cars he owns. Even the ladies at his school noticed his new interest. And he is sure to tell me "car, car" before we get into our car when I pick him up from school or he will say "beep, beep" as I hit the key fob to unlock the doors (the car beeps). He still isn't the world's best talker because he is as stubborn as they come and other then repeating simple words to him I have stopped trying so hard to get him to try and copy me. He will talk when he darn well feels like it and not a MOMENT sooner. Thus is Davie.

He still only has 6 fully cut teeth. Four top ones and two bottoms. We recently pulled the plug on his binky cold turkey and other then the fact that now he whines a lot more when he is grumpy, he hasn't done half bad. About 4 or so weeks ago he decided that binky was a must. He literally decided it was all he wanted all the time and started asking for it once a minute 24/7. I was quite surprised because since he turned about 6 months old I have done my best to limit binky time to nap and bed only, with the occassional car breakdown as a must for my sanity. 

Then about 2 weeks ago I decided I had had enough. The kid was a mess, always whining and asking for his binky ALL the time! And he no longer kept the binky leash on so he was constantly dropping it, getting it dirty and losing it, which was so annoying! Even his aunt noticed he was out of control. It was so nice to have someone else confirm to me that I was not in fact dreaming up this baby binky addict, the boy was a mess. So half way through a random Thursday when I decided I had had all I could take. I gathered up all the binkys put them in a baggy and hid them under my bedside table. Bedtime was horrible. He probably screamed for 45 minutes. And I mean screamed, this was not crying.

The next day he asked for it a couple of times but he asked for it less than he had in the days previous. Surprisingly nap went smoothly and other then taking longer than usual to settle down he was fine. I miss being able to pop a binky in his mouth when he gets fussy because we are definitely in the "I cry about EVERYTHING because I understand nothing and only want what I want" phase. He is better off without it and so are his teeth. But I do miss that blessed silence.

Davie is full of mischief and definitely won't be taking anything the world throws at him laying down but goodness me-oh-my I'd love to get through to him better. For example, the other morning he literally woke up screaming. For no apparent reason. I tried my best to get him to calm down before I had to just leave him screaming while I showered. He is at the stage now that when he starts screaming it literally makes my blood boil. It's so scary! It's like something in me snaps and I HATE feeling that way. I do my best to just ignore his bad behavior but he has made it clear that he can endure longer than I can. That was this last Tuesday and it was a day I was so grateful that he was going to daycare, which makes me feel awful to admit. It was good to have some separation after a morning like that. Tuesdays I have an art class that I came SOOO close to dropping but after the first day I was glad I kept and after this week I was thankful. Sitting there painting in general silence after a baby morning melt down sure did calm my nerves.

All I can say is, WhEw! I don't want him to grow up but a little bit of reason/ understanding sure does seem like it would go a long way right now. I find myself calling my poor mother and mother-in-law often to get some form of reassurance that I am doing ok when I don't let him get away with randomly waking up screaming or whatever the bad behavior is. But I can't stress enough to you how often I seriously wonder the logistics of these power struggles. Those of you who have been through this age I'm sure you know what I mean. How do you reason with a 1 and a half year old!? I just wish he could TELL me what he wants sometimes!

On a happier note I have said before he is a Daddy's boy and he has missed David so much the last 4 weeks. I feel bad because every evening, without fail, when Mike and Lauren come home Davie will get all excited and say "daddy! Daddy! daddy!" only to find his aunt and uncle standing in the doorway. Poor Mike and Lauren! At least Davie typically transitions from his look of "ahhh you aren't daddy" to his happy chorus of "My (that's how he says Mike), My, La-la, La-la"

Davie now says Mama and Mommy quite often, he decided that he was FINALLY going to add that to his vocabulary about a month and a half ago and I am so glad he did. He is really good at words that start with the letter B, like Baba (banana), bah (for bath), buh (bubble), bebe ba (baby bear for his gummy bear vitamins) and bo for boat. Other favorites are to say pi-pi pi-pi over and over every time I bring him in the bathroom with me so I can go potty without him destroying something, trass for trash and shoes which he can say pretty clearly. We love him so much and are so glad he is part of our family, no matter how monstrous he can be at times, he is our little monster and I assure you nothing can change that ;)

The Speed of Life

 Every time I think I want to blog/ I need to blog I start to think about ALL the many things I need to blog about and every time I never manage to get it done. Life at our house can be so SLOW in certain ways and yet I feel as though I'm getting whip lash from the lightning fast pace of other elements in our life. 

So what's new...

 David recently changed his mind about his medical future... while in Minnesota for his Orthopedics rotation. I was shocked, I have quite literally spent the last 4 years telling myself that if he wanted to do surgery that I would learn to be ok with that and we would make it work. I had barely come to peace with the decision. Not only that but I have also spent the last 4 years teasing him that he should go into every field that has cushy hours (like being an eye surgeon/ eye dr, can you say 9-5 no weekends??). 

 Then he calls me up and says "I think I really would rather do radiology"... Hallelujah!!! That was another field I was jokingly (seriously) pushing him towards because he has always had interest in it and the radiologists he worked with seemed to generally like him and be impressed with his knowledge. The biggest change in all of this is that come late September David will NOT be leaving me for Phoenix for another 4 weeks. YA YAY YA YA!!!! 

I literally could not be happier about the whole ordeal. Well the only thing that would have made it better would have been if he had decided before he left me for Minnesota 4 weeks ago :) But there's no need to bring that up. 

The radiology has a residency that is also basically 5 years long, so we won't be gaining any time there, but I have heard some good things from the people I know who are in residency programs and we are excited. I should also mention that radiology residencies require a score that is about 5 points lower that orthopedics (orthopedics is one of THE most competitive fields) so that is in our favor as well.

 

The biggest downside that I can foresee as of right now is the first year of radiology residency is called a transitional year so there is a possibility that we could end up somewhere for a single year before joining our 4 year program. I told David one of my big goals is to hopefully find a program that includes that first year in their program that way we can move to our next locale and just BE there for 5 years, none of this moving twice stuff.

Davie loves those fluffy dandelion seeds.

As for me I started on campus classes last Monday, and I love them. I really wish my life had been more compatible with on campus classes all along, seriously NOTHNG beats the classroom experience. I'm a pretty good go-getter when it comes to wanting to learn, but I love teacher and student/ class interaction. This semester is full with 15 credits and thankfully with Davie in daycare I have ample time to do homework in a quiet setting. I'm sad to be away from Davie, but I also feel like it's a really good change of pace for both of us since our house is so crowded right now.

Davie seems to LOVE daycare and has only cried twice in the last 3 weeks I have taken him (he went at the end of my summer term). The daycare is accredited which means they have some curriculum (whatever that means for a 1 and a half year old), there are less children per adult and overall I just love the facility and the ladies that work there. Davie is never dirty, cold or wet/ stinky when I pick him up and all the ladies always tell me how happy and busy he is all day, which really is another huge blessing. 

As for our visitors (David's brother and his wife) they are still hanging out with us and trying to be strong. It definitely gets crowded, but they are troopers and so are we. I keep telling them and anyone who asks that it's really only busy in the early morning when everyone is getting ready to leave, at night around dinner time and bed. Also with David gone there's technically only one more adult in the house than normal, so it's all good. It looks like they might be hitting another road block in the world of house buying so I just hope and pray it will work out for the best. 

picks the flower

dainty hold

licks it

realizes he's funny, then proceeds to milk it for all it's worth. What a ham.

I can still remember how amazing it was for David and I to FINALLY move into our condo after living with others (and we only did it for like 3ish? weeks). I think everyone who has lived with other people knows that amazing feeling of liberation when you finally get to move into a place of your own.

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed our most recent family pictures on here we got them done in June, so it's been a while already. AND believe it or not there are more pictures of Davie which I promise to do my best to publish shortly along with some great new stories about the little trouble maker.

Davie was seriously ready to scale this bridge and jump into the murky scum filled water below. It wasn't horrible water but it was plenty green.

This is his "someone is watching me face"

 I can't say I'm crazy about some of the one's David and myself are in I feel like our faces/ eye look puffy or something so feel free to boost my ego by telling me we look great. 

What's My Age Again?

That's right I am titling this post after the popular song by Blink-182. I have been thinking about writing this post for a while, ages really, and since my birthday almost 2 months ago (whaaa?) I decided 25 was a good milestone to start at. In honor of this post I am going to put pictures on here of myself from 10 years ago. I can say this over and over again and it makes less sense every time "ten years ago I was 15." That blows my mind. I remember being 15 like it was yesterday.

 My mother in law tells a story about how when she was 30 and had all 4 kids she had a moment one day where she realized she was an adult. When she first told me that story I was about 22ish give or take and it was before David and I got married. After she told the story she essentially asked me if I knew what she was saying, but also went on to say that I would have moments like that as well as David and I made our way through medical school and life experiences in general. I remember after she told me the story feeling like I knew I was an adult by about 21, technically a little before, but definitely by 21.

 I remember when I initially got married in 2007 thinking how different my life was in so many random little ways and beginning to feel the weight of bills and school on my life. Then by the time my marriage started having real issues I feel like I really grew up a lot the last 6 months, so much so that by the time I was officially separated I knew I was an adult. This is not to say that I was 100% mature or that I was always right, more just that I knew I could do difficult things that other people could not in the name of maturity and selflessness. 

What I guess I still find so amazing though is how rude some people still are in such an agist fashion. As of right now I am closer to 30 than 20 and I will only be growing closer to 30 from now on and farther from age 20. I get so tired of moments when I say things like "oh is that Mrs. so-so older?" to a fellow women and getting responses like "Oh honey don't say that! You make me feel old". I could seriously stab women who do that (my violent side right there, I have such a low tolerance for those comments), ESPECIALLY when they are at best 5 years older than me and have like 1 or 2 more kids than me. Get a grip ladies! When I said older I meant like over 60 older not 32. I get so tired of feeling like I am some kind of new-bee mom because I only have 1 kid. Not only that but I would seriously like to think that I am an intelligent person who can have a reasonable discussion with someone even though I'm 5-10 years younger than them. 

I really try to not let my life detours (so to speak) become who I am but they are part of me. There are women who I know who have technically been married less than me if you count my total time being married who act like I have no clue. I KNOW what I'm doing just as much as you do if not more because getting divorced is an EYE OPENER. BUT I don't want to be that way. I just want to have a decent adult conversation with people is that so hard?! I guess I find myself struggling to be given the credit at 25 that I feel like I deserve. I don't want to be treated like some miniature 40 year old, I'm not into that pseudo intellectual stuff. However, I don't want to be treated like some blonde idiot who only has one child and was married yesterday. 

Why do women do that to each other? I struggle daily with how to fuse my life experiences together in a way that I am confident and secure with sharing. Why does communicating with others have to be so complicated! Age means NOTHING. It really doesn't. I see no reason why women of all ages can't be more friendly to one another regardless of how OLD (aka mature) they think the other is. So yea when experiences like this happen I often find myself singing the "what's my age again" song in pure irony. It makes sense though because I'm so tired of feeling like I have to explain myself to people when I simply want to be listened to. What kills me even more is I notice myself doing it to other women and I have tried super hard to nip that in the butt because I don't wan to be perpetuating this agism that we women (Mormons especially since we tend to take on life experiences like having children at younger ages) can get so caught up in. 

So the next time you are in church, school, town whatever just promise me that you can help me by NOT getting so caught up in age and what level of maturity you think someone may or may not be compared to you. We as women already do so many things to frustrate one another lets not make age one of those points of frustration it's just not worth it!