The Davolts

Since Erin and I have been married we have never spent a Christmas at home, and had every intention of doing so this year.  However, once we found out we would be stuck in our small apartment with all our Christmas decorations in storage we soon decided to find somewhere to go.  After a harrowing trip across the snow covered Blue mountains to Boise in November, we soon decided to skip the mountain passes and just take the I-5 slog up to Maple Valley. Nathan loves to chase Jet around at Grandpa's house. After doing a final walk through on the new house we made the even shorter trip from Battle Ground to Maple Valley on Saturday December 22nd.  It was Erin's Dad's brithday so we had a wonderful dinner with Dave, Ellen and Thomas at Covington's finest dining establishment, Applebee's. After celebrating Dave's birthday we were now ready for the big event.  Our anticipation for Nathan's first Christmas where he could actually maybe kinda sorta understand...

Rear facing road trip If you recall, Nathan's first birthday was this past June, at the start of our summer road trip season (have I ever mentioned how nice it is to have the whole family on vacation all summer?). As we began to travel north, east, south or west, inevitably someone would ask about Nathan's car seat still being rear facing. While law does allow for toddlers to be turned to forward facing at one year, the American Academy of Pediatrics disagrees. When I was almost seven months pregnant, the AAP announced their recommendation for tots to remain rear-facing until two years old. As explained in the full news release (see link below), young children seated face forward still risk neck injury in the event of a crash. In conversations with other moms online, I heard of horrifying accidents where young tots suffered serious injuries due to front facing seats. I considered adding a link for that, but I'll leave you to your own research. In addition, I learned...

Can you believe it? Can you believe that Little Man Nate is already 18 months? Nathan's Famous Hot Dog on Halloween. At 18 months, Nathan is 33.25 inches tall and nearly 29 pounds, but mostly, he is on the go. Nathan is curious about the world around him, spending lots of time opening doors or drawers, saying "uh-oh" when he finds something new. I know for certain I will have to buy a new set of measuring cups when we move again, as Nathan has adopted some into his toy collection, while others are just plain MIA. He loves pushing his cars, trucks and lawn mower around the house. He is quickly learning to match shapes with puzzles and point to his nose, ears and belly. He uses sign language to say "please" and "more" as well as ask for "help". We have just started practicing the sign for "thank you" and he seems to be grasping that one. Nathan will put his cup in the refrigerator or sink when he is "all done", and u...