Good-bye Paci

On January 1st we said good-bye to the paci. I guess you could call it a New Year's resolution, but it was not something that we planned. It just happened. We were down to only one paci. I am not sure how those things disappear. I think maybe the furniture eats them. So, on the 1st we lost it in the house. We looked everywhere for it. After looking on and off all day, we just gave up and decided that it was time for Mitchell to not have it anymore. Chad said that we were not going to buy anymore, and we would just see how Mitchell would handle it. He actually did really well. I was worried about nap time and bed time, but he was fine. I gave him a soft blanket that he could hold when we went to bed, and that seemed to help. He was cranky for the first few days, but overall he does not seem to miss it. I eventually did find the paci in our office, and I just put it away in the closet.
Fast forward to a week later....We were so proud of Mitchell and just could not get over him doing so well. Mitchell and I were in my bedroom doing something when I saw him pick something up from under my dresser. I looked over and he had found a paci. It was one of those long lost ones. I did not want to just take it away, so I let him hold on to it for awhile. He did not put it in his mouth right away. He squeezed it and held on to it. Then I saw him run to his bedroom. He picked up one of his burp rags (another comfort object) and started rubbing his face with it. He then put the paci in his mouth. It so funny that he associates those two things together. Eventually he did take the paci out when he got interested in some toys. When he was not looking, I took the paci and put it in the closet.
You would think that this would be the end of everything, but no Mitchell found yet another paci! The other day we was playing with our cat in his bedroom. The cat was in a basket with a bunch of beanie baby bears. When the cat got out, Mitchell was digging down in the bears and pulled out another paci! I can't believe that he is finding all the long lost pacifiers. I pretty much did the same thing that I had done before. I let him have it for awhile, and when he took it out I secretly took it away.
Sometimes Mitchell goes into his room and points to his basket on his dresser. I think that he might be looking for another paci. I will get the basket down and let him pull everything out. So far he has not found any more pacifiers. I really feel like this has been the best decision. He is starting to talk more, and I think this is allowing him to be more expressive. Sometimes I miss the convenience of putting it in his mouth when he is throwing a fit, but that is a hurdle that I have to get over. My baby is growing up!

Blizzard 09

This is Mitchell saying, "Please mommy let me go play in the snow!"

So, it has been about four weeks since we had the Blizzard of '09, and I still have a trace of snow in my yard. It really has melted away in the past few days. As I said in one of my other posts, we had about 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve. I am not sure how much we really got at our house because the wind was so bad that it made snow drifts. We did not let Mitchell go out in the snow until a few days had pasted. When we did let him go out, he loved it!
He just loved walking around in the snow. We tried to make some snow balls, but we did not attempt a snowman.


Daddy loved playing in the snow too.

You can see in the picture how big the snow drifts got. The grass in the picture shows the path we made for our dog and cat.

This is the Christmas wreath that I had on my door. I think that the real snow added a special touch.

This was actually on Christmas Eve after most of the snow had fallen. I did not mind seeing the snow, but I really was not hoping for a white Christmas. It changed some of our plans, but everything worked out in the end. It will definitely give us lasting memories for the Christmas of '09.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a good family time with just the three of us. It started out with us opening our stockings. This year Chad asked me if we were going to do stockings for each other. I told him that I had really only planned to do one for Mitchell, since we have never done stocking for each other in the past. Then he told me that he had already got me some things for my stocking. So, I went out the day before Christmas Eve and got him a few goodies.
First Mitchell opened up his stocking. He got a book, some cars, cups, and a little Brobie. Brobie is a character from the show, Yo Gabba Gabba. It comes on Nick Jr. Mitchell loves it! He will sit and watch the 30 minute show. I got the cars from a children's consignment sale. I got a big zip-loc bag of them for $2.50. Some of them were Sonic cars, but Mitchell loved them. I think he has played with those cheep cars more than anything that he got for Christmas.

As I said above Mitchell loves cars, but he also loves balls. I got him this set of balls.

Here he is bringing it to us and saying, "Ball."

This year Mitchell seemed more into the presents and wanted to help daddy open his.

Mitchell also got a tractor that he can push around and it plays music.

This is a Leap Frog game that goes on the frig. It has farm animals. I did not realize I was going with a farm theme this year. We had a really nice Christmas. Chad got me key-less entry for my car. I know I am probably the only one that does not have this for my car. But now I do, and I love it. It makes it so much easier to get in my car when I am caring Mitchell and bags or whatever. We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that yours was blessed too!

Christmas Day

Christmas has come and gone, and I have so much to tell. I will probably have several posts for the events of the past few weeks. First of all, we had a blizzard on Christmas Eve. I will write and post pictures of this next. We usually spend Christmas Eve with my mom, but this year we had to post-pone our time together. It snowed all day. We ended up getting 14 inches of snow. That was a record for OK. So, as you can imagine we woke up to a white Christmas. We really didn't think that we would end up going to my in-laws for Christmas day. Then we got a call from Chad's brother, Todd, and he said that he was going to try to make it. Todd lives kind of close to my mom, and he said that he would go and pick her up. Todd has four wheel drive, and in the end he did a lot of driving. He picked up my mom and grandma Davis. The roads still had some ice and snow. The neighborhood roads were really bad. But the trucks had been out trying to clear the main roads. We ended up driving our car most of the way. When we got close to my in-laws' we stopped at a church. Then Todd came and picked us up. Chad's parents live near some hilly roads, and we were not sure if my car would make it. We all made it safely there and back home. By the time we all got there, we ate and opened presents. Then it was time to leave. We had to get home before dark because all the roads would ice over again. The scariest part for us was getting on and off of the highway. They had not been plowed and had really deep ruts. But my little Honda Accord made it!
We tried to get some family pictures. Here is Grandma Davis with Chad's parents.

Here is Todd, Audrey, Matt, Amanda, and little Valen. Also the dog is Buddy.


I am so glad that my mom got to come. I did not want her to spend Christmas by herself.

I got a few pictures of people opening presents, but it is so hard to help Mitchell, open your own presents, and take pictures. We also try to video tape, and this all takes place all at one time.

Here Myrna is looking at the photo book that I made on Snapfish. I have found that photo books and calendars with pictures of Mitchell are a big hit. They are also fun to make.