The Davolts

Student:  Just wait your son will start mimicking everything you do. Me:  Well that doesn't sound so bad. Student:  Yeah, until he starts swearing and stuff. Me:  Well, I don't think that will happen, I don't swear hardly at all. Student:  What about from TV? Me:  We don't watch TV with Nathan Student:  What do you do with him then?    This was a recent conversation I had with one of my students.  They were shocked that Nathan doesn't really watch any TV.  I had to explain that instead of watching TV we read books and play and things like that.  Apparently this is just too abnormal for my students who are sure as soon as Nathan turns two he will be cursing up a storm. So rather than watching TV with Nathan one of our favorite activities is reading books.  We read a ton of books with Nathan, and because we are both teachers, and avid readers we've never seen a book for Nathan that couldn't fit into the budget. ...

So this post will be admittedly a bit slow and boring.  It is really just about me letting you know what I have been up to when I am not working.  Since I am part time and I don't have many lesson plans to prepare and little grading, I tend to have some free time.  While I do get to spend extra time with Nathan each morning I also like to keep busy with a few projects around the house to help me earn my keep.  Luckily there will be a big payoff come the end of this post.  Just wait for it. . . . Over about the past month I have been diligently painting all our interior doors.  When we moved into our new house just about every door in the house was color matched to the walls.  That style worked well for the previous owners, but just wasn't our style.  In some rooms it actually didn't look horrible, however once we changed room colors then the doors began to look pretty funny. We decided we would just paint all the doors white.  This would ...

One of the best Christmas gifts we received this year was a membership to the Oregon Zoo, from Nathan's Aunt Ellen. Since we activated the membership in early February (had to get through the move first), we have been to the Oregon Zoo three times and as summer approaches, we look forward to spending more time there. We have already used our membership to get free or discounted admission to Zoo Boise and Woodland Park Zoo, as well. I hope to visit Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium sometime soon, too, since I haven't been there since I was very little.  Nathan seems to enjoy looking at the animals, although a few have made him nervous. I think he's confused a bit since Jeff and I try to teach him the noises that animals make and yet, when at the zoo, very few of them actually make any noise.  The first visit to the OR Zoo was a sunny Sunday in February. It was nice to be outside, but we all became cold quickly and kept our visit short. The next visit, I was stuck in ...

When Jeff and I went in for a 12 week ultrasound, we were simply excited to see our little one and make sure that all was well. After the technician finished and left, the doctor entered and we had an engaging conversation about the factors that cause down syndrome, a question one of my students had been investigating just that day in class. As we finished up, the doctor then offered to guess the gender of our new little baby. I had heard that some doctors were now able to guess at such an early stage, but somehow it felt a little like cheating. Jeff did not hesitate and asked the doctor to continue. As the doctor explained, at that stage in development, the "goods" will look nearly the same for either sex. In making a determination, the key factor was the "angle of the dangle". Evidently, if the apendage  points one direction it means girl and the other, a boy. Within just a moment, the doctor announced his 95% confidence that it was a boy! I wasn't too surpr...

Well, here I go again with monthly updates on my pregnancy!  Today I am 17 weeks 1 day pregnant with Baby Number Two. I had an appointment with the doctor and was thankful to hear the heartbeat again. Aside from my baby's laugh, I think the heartbeat might be one of my favorite sounds in the world. It was even more comforting given a slight complication that occurred about two weeks ago, that was worrisome. I feel blessed that everything appears to be okay and baby is still growing. Speaking of growing, my belly is definitely growing faster than with Nathan. Between a growing belly, and lighter Spring time layers, it was soon obvious that something about me was changing. I shared my news with one class just before lunch and by the end of lunch, other students were approaching me excited by the news. Most students said they were wondering, a few young men told me they thought I was getting fat and thankfully, a few others said they couldn't tell (which, honestly, was ve...

One of the constant themes of parenthood seems to be how much everyone claims it changes you as a person.  There are certainly many things about my lifestyle that have changed in the almost two years since Nathan was born.  I definitely watch fewer movies in the theatre, read more children's books, and attempt to eat more veggies. However, perhaps the biggest change has been my TV viewing habits.  Erin and I both decided early on, that we didn't want to watch TV with Nathan around, and for the most part have stuck to that commitment.  The TV is just not on while Nathan is around.  Now this hasn't drastically changed our TV watching habits, but rather just shifted them.  We just wait for nap time or for Nathan to go to sleep.  His bedtime until recently was 7pm so we still had plenty of time to waste time watching television. There have only been two specific instances that we have intentionally let Nathan be around while our primary activity was wa...