DOG-GEE DOO-GEE WOOOV WOOOV

Donovan is quite the chatterbox lately.  And he is getting really great at identifying objects and yelling out what they are called.  When he sees a dog, he YELLS "doggy" at the top of his lungs.  He enunciates each syllable.  Then he yells "woof", but doesn't get that out as clearly.  He also tries to say "bird" when he sees birds.  It's more of a 'bwwooo' sound. 

Donovan has a bunch of new words, but I am blanking on them right now (as is always the case).  I think he said carrot today.  In addition to saying more words, he is getting better and better at understanding them.  This morning, I asked him where his shoes were, and he went into the bathroom to get them.  Tonight, before bath, Mike asked him to take his shoes off, and he bent down to open the Velcro. He couldn't quite manage to get them off on his own, but he knew what he was asked to do, and that was amazing. 

He is also big on ducks.  He knows that rubber ducks, pictures of ducks and actual ducks are all called ducks, and welcomes them all with a resounding "DUCK!!"  When we open the garage door, he runs out toward the creek yelling "duck!" and looks for ducks in the creek. Of course, we must be VERY diligent about chasing him down, because he is not respectful of boundaries and would climb right over the curb and head downhill toward the creek if we didn't stop him. 

It's pretty crazy, actually.  He has no concept of fear or being bound by natural lines.  The border around the playground - climbs right up over it and runs around the field.  I have explored more of our local park since taking Donovan there than ever before, because he just goes where he wants (and I run behind him, of course). 

This makes me nervous for our trip to Disney World next week.  Donovan is at the run-around age as it is - he won't want to just hang out in the stroller the whole time.  He will need to run around!  But he doesn't seem to have a healthy sense of caution or fear.  He just GOES.  So we will have to be very careful.  At least there will be 7 adults and 2 kids.  Of course, that makes it a bit trickier, because everybody else will assume that somebody else has them.   So it's still not a break for us.  But the point is that we will have to watch him like a hawk! 

I am very nervous about one thing, though.  Hand, foot and mouth is going around his daycare.  We have gotten two letters so far.  How much do you bet that he starts showing symptoms while we are on vacation?  I have half a mind to take him in for a preemptive checkup on Friday, and get some precautionary medicine (or whatever is needed).  It would be his luck to get sick at Disney World.  My kids are always getting sick on vacation.  And, of course, we are planning to spend a day at a water park, where he will want to be in the splash pool, and where other parents will give me dirty looks with his exposed sores (even though the presence of the sores means that the incubation period is over and there is no more contagion, I think... I'll let the doctor tell me).

Donovan is also going through a stage that I don't like very much right now.  He thinks that hitting and pulling hair are really funny.  Like, REALLY funny.  He laughs.  And when we sternly say, "NO" to him, he gives these big belly-laughs, like he just won the game.  I don't know what to do about it.  I try to not react, but to simply remove his hand.  And that is fine when it's my hair.  But what about for Jocelyn?  He pulls her hair and pushes her all the time.  I can't show her that I will quietly correct and ignore that behavior, because then she might start thinking it's okay to do.  So Donovan has started getting 60 second timeouts.  Jocelyn didn't get her first timeout until she was at least 18 months old (I think Donovan was born by then).  But D is starting a bit earlier - as second-borns are wont to do with many things due to having a role model :-P.

He is still my love bug, though.  He gives the best hugs, and loves giving and getting kisses.  He runs up to me with open arms when I show up to daycare, and we have so much fun cuddling and laughing.  He still insists on nursing for bedtime (I admit, I haven't worked too hard at weaning yet, but I have tried some).  I'm thinking that he will be weaned when I take a week-long training in June, which comes between two other work trips.  So he will have more days away from me over a 3 week period than with me.  Maybe that will help.  Not that I mind, per se.  But I'm ready to get my body back.  My boobs have started to shrink back down to their former size, so maybe that means my supply is dropping and he will give it up soon.  We shall see!