~Happy Halloween~

Davis is TWO

~Davison Luke Burns~ 

my very happy, very silly, very busy, very smart, very sweet little boy

He's changing every day from a baby to a little boy...he's been hard to keep up from the very beginning of his life and nothing has changed.  I am constantly surprised by things he can do and say.  This little guy is determined to not be left behind--he thinks he's just as big as his siblings and tries to prove it constantly--keeping us all on our toes. 

I don't think a night goes by that Mike and don't lie in bed and laugh about something Davis has said or done that day.  He cracks us up.  Just the other night while trying to get him to stop joking around with his brother and sister during dinner, we turned him around in his high chair so he was facing the wall.  A few minutes later he started grunting and then yelled out--"daddy!  not working! not see them!"  like duh, little dude.  that's the point. 

The kid is absolutely never quiet, and if for some reason he is, you better go and find him!  But really he talks constantly. His vocabulary is enormous compared to the twins at this age.  Occasionally when he gets something wrong and i correct him, he always responds back, "Oh".  He also pronounces most things correctly--except for motorcycles and bicycles.  He calls them "michael cylces" and we love it and have no intention of correcting him :) 

Speaking of "Michael".  Davis also likes to use our first names when we are not paying attention to him.  He calls us mommy, daddy, brother and sister on a normal basis...but if he needs our attention, Davis is quick to yell out "MIKE!" or whoever he needs, to get what he wants.  

Just the other day after church when the twins were telling us everything they had learned and done that morning, Davis loudly interrupted, trying to get everyone to listen to him.  When we focused our attention on him he said the following..." play friends", "sit down and BE QUIET", sing, Jesus. ... it was obvious he was trying to tell us what he did today and then of course hearing him say Jesus warmed my heart. 

Davis is of course my little buddy being that he is with me almost all the time.  He loves loves loves to help me...or as he says "HELPING!"  He helps me unload the dishwasher (and does a pretty decent job), he helps clean up, helps put groceries on the conveyor, helps carry them into the house, etc.  He gets pretty upset when i don't allow him to "help" and takes it as a personal offense.  

He's also become quite the shopper...it wasn't a year ago that he cried and fussed the whole time, but now he really enjoys it.  He likes to help me when he can, but when i'm distracted, he put his attention towards the other shoppers and starts conversations with everyone.  He's got his greeting's down pat saying things like "hey", "how you doing", [how] "Are You?", "good day", "BYE!", "later gator", and occasionally he'll tell someone "sweet dreams".  He also likes to show off his clothes to other people.  It's become routine to tell our preschool director everything he's wearing every morning when we walk into school.  

I honestly don't know his stats.  We've been super lax on his appointments.  My guess is he weighs somewhere in the mid 20's.  He seems to be a lot like the twins, maybe a little bigger than Holden was at this age, but not much. At 2 years old he wears mainly 24mo/2T clothes...so average size i suppose. Just with a BIG personality :)

I know i've already mentioned a few times how busy he is, but the past 6 months have shown a lot of improvement on his increased attention span.  He will now sit and play happily with a toy for an extended period of time--especially trains or kitchen stuff.  He likes to read books and will sit and listen to certain ones.  TV is starting to catch his attention a little bit--it just depends on the show...Mickey Mouse and Curious George seem to go over best.  I'm just thankful to have a few things to keep him occupied for short amounts of time. Of course even though independent playing is going better, he'd always prefer to be talking and interacting with people.  

Our sweet boy still sleeps just as well as he always has.  He is very attached to both his room and his bed.  I love that he feels so safe there.  His crib is just getting more and more crowded with his favorite stuffed animals or as we call them his "friends".  Every morning and after most nap times it is normal to find him propped up in the corner of his bed with a pillow behind his back, blanket on his legs and all of his "friends" sitting all around them while he is talking to them about who knows what.  When we walk in, his first comment is always "hey mommy" or "hey daddy" followed by telling us which friends he plans to bring downstairs for breakfast on that day.  

I'd like to also report that he eats great, but that would be a total lie. Davis started out a huge eater, but has turned into a typical picky two year old.  Granted Mike and I have already had our fair share of practice with picky Nora...it's still extremely frustrating at times.  It seems that each week he turns down more and more food instead of his likes increasing.  Thankfully breakfast is always a hit--eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, grits, yogurt (soy), granola and all fruits... that's where the calories come from.  And he'll tell you that [peanut] 'butter-jelly' sandwiches are his favorite.  It's dinner we struggle with.  He eats no other meats other than breakfast meat, no pasta or rice.  Occasionally we might get peas, or raw carrots in him and thankfully he does like sweet potatoes--but that's it on the veggie front.  Beans are hit or miss...more more of a miss these days. Of course on top of that we still have some dairy issues, so we give him small amounts, but don't overdo it.    Needless to say, he almost never eats dinner--cause this momma isn't a short order cook!  Good news is, our once seriously picky eating daughter has turned into quite a good eater these days, so i have hope for this one as well. 

What Davis loves most in this world is his brother and sister.  He whines when we drop them off at school each time, even though we've been doing it for 2 months now and then he gets super excited when we go to pick them up.  He always wants to be where they are and play what they are playing.  The three of them have a sweet nighttime routine where they hug and kiss each other.  Nora even helps me sing to him some nights.  Yes, there is the normal sibling disagreements over sharing and personal space, but for the most part, the twins really take care of Davis and Davis looks up to them and goes to them for help and comfort just as often as he comes to us.  I love their relationship and pray it always stays this way. 

Other Likes: 

Blanket, Scout, Meow, Snoopy 

Animals...especially cats and our frogs--Jumper and Jumper Jr. 

Going Outside

Trains 

Cookies! 

Bath Time

Night Night Book

Sliding ("go go slides!")

Dislikes: 

Being left out 

Getting out of his routine 

Water on his face

Being Still and Being Quiet 

Riding in the car on long trips

Pasta....makes him seriously gag

The Day Davis Turned 2

well..lets start the night before....his last night of being one...tear. 

except there were no tears in this cabin, just a whole lotta laughs and good memories :)

there was quite a bit of wrestling

and bear hugging

his last night of being one, all tucked in with his bed friends 

and then the next morning, my very sleepy two year old still sleeping like a baby. 

i kept trying to get him to say "i'm two".... instead i got this pose...i think he was exercising and this was his "2" pose, haha. 

Before heading to the apple orchard, we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  The intent was to get candles in our pancakes, but they didn't have any candles.  We still sang and did presents though :)

Then that night, almost home from our trip we stopped for dinner and tried to get a candle again...and don't you know this restaurant doesn't do candle either! still we all enjoyed a skillet cookie and ice cream.  

Even if he didn't get to blow any candles out, i still think we had a pretty great day. 

The Orchard at Altapass

Our last stop on our mountain trip was The Orchard at Altapass--it's an apple orchard on the blue ridge parkway.  It was another beautiful day and most importantly it was D's birthday! Picking apples was a fun experience, although let's be honest...Daddy picked the majority of them, the kids ran around and I took pictures :) 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 after apple picking we stopped in the main building to get a snack and listen to some music--the dancing was a fun bonus that Nora just had to get involved in!  Her daddy was a great sport and obliged his princess. 

and a dancing video for you pleasure :)

Grandfather Mountain

We debated a little bit about whether to go here verses do something else more exciting for kids like Linville Caverns or gem mining.  I'm so glad we stuck with Grandfather Mountain.  I have lots of memories coming here as a kid with my grandparents and it was fun to experience it with my own kids.  Holden has also told us numerous time that "climbing the mountain" was his favorite part of our trip. 

Crossing the bridge was no big deal to the kiddos and the did really well climbing around on all the rocks.  For obvious reasons Davis was stuck in the pack for this whole activity, which he wasn't too thrilled about..he wasn't fussy, he just wanted to get down and kept telling us about it!

and wasn't it the most beautiful and clear day?  

 

 

 

 

 love this picture with my all my faves! 

CHOO CHOO's!

One of the main reasons for our trip to the mountains was to celebrate D's second birthday.  Our LittleD is IN LOVE with trains right now...it's his most favorite thing to play with so of course there could be no better place to go than Tweetsie! 

 We had super fun morning at Tweetsie, it was a weekday and a little wet, so there was hardly anyone else there.  Davis had a bit of an emotional day due to a mix of being somewhere new, being off his sleep schedule adn maybe not feeling 100%, but when we were on a train he was a happy boy! 

 

 

a 'little' drama about not wanting to sit on the horse...

 

 a monster spider!

 the kids love riding the rides and daddy and i loved not having any lines to wait in!

 

picture with Hopper and Porter

 Davis LOVES all mascots/big animal costumes.  He's never scared and always wants to hug them. 

 He also loves real animals so we thought he'd really enjoy the petting/feeding zoo.  

 but this kept happening....the roaming goats would take his cone...the poor kid would "lose it" every time his cone got stolen.  He didn't understand that he had to hold onto the cone and just let them eat the food and of course in normal 2 year old fashion he wanted no help from any of us.  So needless to say, we were "THAT" family in the petting zoo and quite honestly we've thankfully not had a lot of experience with public breakdowns...so after about 5 minutes Mike and i just picked up the crying toddler and left to go ride trains, since that's what seemed to be working.  Best Decision of the Day! 

the ski lift was also a fun experience for the kids. 

 There was a sudden downpour during our time at Tweetsie, so we stopped in the saloon to get some snacks and watch the dancers.  The show was pretty "hokey" but Nora thought it was great :)

 talking with the conductor's and learning about how trains "go go"

 

and of course i couldn't leave without taking a few Old Time photographs..

If there wasn't enough evidence of all the fun we had in the above pictures...these below should be telling! 

Fast asleep still clutching his new train

 even the big kids were worn out!