The Dowells

6.25.2014

Tate - 15 months

Holy cow I haven't blogged in 2 months!?!? Well, I have over at Adventures at Naptime, but not here! And I haven't even kept up the other blog very well this season either. Monogram Cafe is keeping me incredibly busy when I'm not hanging with my munchkins!!

I haven't even been good about uploading pictures to Snapfish. So I uploaded a ton today, but they are all out of order and I don't have the time/patience/care to go through and organize them! However- I'm sad that these won't be in sequential order from 12 months-15 months. Because I love to see how time progresses! Maybe I'll have a rash of free time in the near future (HA!) and come back to re-order these photos.

In the meantime, I will just pat myself on the back for blogging about how adorable Tate is at 15 months before he actually turns 16 months in about a week and a half!

Speaking of how ADORABLE he is. Seriously. Adorable.

He is talking like CRAZY. He attempts to mimic every word you say. These are the words he's officially incorporated into his vocab (plus many more; but these are his frequent ones... or at least ones that I find particularly adorable).

I'm putting his pronunciation in parenthesis b/c that's obviously the cutest part!

Jump, giraffe (jaff), lion (i-lon), tea (tees), juice box (bu-box), thank you (tu tu), no-no-no, YEAH!, outside (ow-sye), DID IT!, I want that, night-night (nye-nye), bye-bye, truck (tuck), papa (baba), mimi, mormor, Ada (this was like his first word! Now he says it very loud and very deliberately), Dax (finally saying it right), cookies, banana (nana), backpack, box, turtle (tuh-tuh), dog, cheese (sheez), shoes (chuhz),

Other adorable facts:

1) He runs SO fast! Like lightning fast!

2) He calls for Ada in the mornings from his crib.

3) Pretends to be a dog. A LOT. Dax and Ada call him "T-Dog." In fact, all you have to do is say "T-Dog" and he instantly drops and walks and pants like a dog! See picture-

4) Pretends to talk on the phone.

5) LOVES this alphabet "show" on my phone. Whenever it gets to "Z" he shouts "AGAIN!"

6) He's super particular about what books he likes. He seems to be a non-fiction fan...

7) DEMANDS whatever the bigs get. Every single thing MUST BE EQUAL. It's cute most of the time.

8) He LOVES the Zoo. And Sea World! Animals in general. He just gets a huge rush from seeing animals he's read about in books up close and personal! And don't get me started on dolphins.

9) He loves the Frozen Soundtrack. He does non-verbal sound effects RIGHT on cue from his carseat. And a few dance moves.

Here are some pictures of him form 12-15 months! You will see from these how much he 1) loves to swim 2) loves to eat 3) play at splash parks 4)loves bath time 5)loves his big brother and sister!

13 months-

14 months-

12 months-

15 months-

13 months-

14 months-

13 months-

14 months-

14 months- OMG I love this picture.

13 months-

15 months-

14 months-

13 months-

14 months-

15 months-

14 months- first time playing in the rain!

15 months-

I have a few more adorable videos of him over the last 3 months, but I'm having issues uploading them to YouTube at the moment! I'll post those in a separate post soon :) This is Tate at Sea World last month. He LOVED it! He was so into the animals and shows. Was even a total trooper when we sat in the Splash Zones! This is a short compilation of his adorable excitement at the Dolphin and Beluga show "Azul".

4.20.2014

Dax Belting Out "Let It Go"

Like every other family in the United States of America- we do a lot of jamming out to the "Frozen" soundtrack in our car. Here's Dax belting out "Let It Go" from the backseat! He's such a ham!

4.02.2014

Tate- Walking

I post a video of Tate's first steps in my previous blog post about him turning 12 months- but this video might be even cuter! This as a few weeks ago, so he's not so wobbly anymore. I'm behind on posts! Check out this wobbly little sasquatch-

3.14.2014

Tate- 12 months

Hhhhhooooowwwww is he 12 months old!! I'm actually faring much better now that a week or so has passed. But I did NOT HANDLE his 1st birthday well at all- lots of watery eyes throughout the few weeks leading up to March 4, 2014!

But guess what?!? He's still JUST AS ADORABLE and PRECIOUS and AMAZING as ever now that he's 1... so I am going to survive after all!!!

I realize this post is about a week and a half late- but I just couldn't bring myself to write it until now.

Once you write it on the blog, it's OFFICIAL! Haha :)

Anyway- like I said. He's still terribly cute and smart and loving. He's added lots of new words: "Look!", "turtle" (he says it tuh-tuh. so cute), "up", "bye-bye", "eyes", "duck", "quack quack" (he says a duck says "duck duck"- lol!) - and he can identify so many more things that you ask him about by pointing at/to them. It really is amazing watching his brain grow with every tiny experience.

He nods and shakes his head for yes and no sometimes- his nod is to-die-for-adorable.

Very very deliberate and smiley!

He gives high fives like it's his job.

He blows kisses- selectively.

He loves to sign "milk"- he does it the whole time he nurses. He'll sign "more" and "all done" more often now, and is learning "water" & "thank you". "Please" is next! I had taught him "sleepy" at one time but we've both quit using it. There's no denying when he's tired, anyway!

He's been paying attention at Ada and Dax's soccer games- because he totally scales the couch or table and will kick a ball as he goes. So cute.

He ADORES his big brother and sister. Dax basically tortures the poor kid in the bathtub each night, and Tate just giggles and giggles. Although he has begun biting and head butting some- and I'm sure that has stemmed as some sort of self-defense mechanism with the two bigs around! Tate would follow Ada and Dax all over night and day if he could- just laughing and squealing all the way. And when he can't, it's because I've picked him up and he does NOT hide his frustration from me for ruining his good time! Enter that biting and head butting.

And did I mention that he started WALKING ON his ACTUAL BIRTHDAY!?!? I'm attaching a video at the end of his pictures! It is ssssoooo adorable.

He makes this face a lot!

Here's a video of TATE'S FOR REAL FIRST STEPS!

He's been taking one at a time for about a week... and we were at McDonald's playing and eating ice cream on the afternoon of his actual birthday- and I could just SEE IT IN HIS EYES he was about to unleash his walking powers... So I grabbed my phone and caught his ACTUAL FIRST STEPS on film! So special!

You can see his high fiving skills at the end of the video, too! :)

Tate thinks sneezes are hilarious- and will do an empathy sneeze after you sneeze! Here's a vid. My sneeze is fake, FYI :)

Here he is blowing precious kisses:

And, I cannot remember if I've posted these videos of him trying to do Itsy Bitsy Spider. So I'm posting them just in case.

You probably think I'm crazy, but I can TOTALLY see the motions in there. Maybe because we've done it so many times that I know which movements he's doing on purpose over and over!

3.09.2014

Stuff my Kids Say

I really want to be better about writing the things down the kids say! They keep me laughing 24/7! Here are a few things lately, and I'm planning on going through my Facebook wall soon to get a lot more- that's where I currently post a lot of it!

After we thought Dax had been asleep for an hour, he appears at the top of the stairs.

Dax: mom I need you.

Me: find him in the middle of his bed surrounded with books, his closet door all the way open for maximum light.

Dax: I have a problem. I can't read.

Ada called Little Ceasars "Little Cheezers"

Tate thinks a duck says "duck duck". And he says turtle "tuh-tuh". So adorable.

Dax goes out in public in dress up clothes a lot.

3.03.2014

Tate's First Birthday Party

I have a new blog- I think you know- it's Adventures at Naptime!

I'm posting any crafting or random thing on that blog now.

Eventually with the hopes to monetize it- or put ads on it- after it gets some good traffic.

We're all about "passive income" in the Dowell house!

Cuz we're lazy like that.

Anywho- the random non-personal parts of Tate's party are up on that blog now!

(You can click on the hyperlinked Adventures at Naptime to see it.)

I'll post family pictures, and Tate's 12 month photo shoot soon on this blog.

HOW is his first year going to be OVER TOMOROW!?!?

Wah!

2.18.2014

Dax's 2nd Birthday!

(sorry for posting this random post!! I'm busy trying to move some of my old posts onto a new blog for more public viewing, and wanted to remove this one from it's original link- but didn't want to delete it completely, obviously!! I'll post the new blog soon!)

I cannot believe that Dax is TWO YEARS OLD!!!! He is so precious, spunky, smart, funny, busy, creative, and cute that it makes my heart almost pop. Although he has feisty streaks, this kid has the biggest heart and sweetest soul I've ever seen! I am so lucky to be his mommy.

How has it been two years since he was this little!?

Dax- 5 weeks old

And one year since his First Birthday Monster Bash!?!?!

Here are some pictures of Dax's birthday and Construction Party yesterday. He had a blast, and really realized that it was HIS day when we all sang "Happy Birthday" around him and his TRUCK cake! :) We have the world's greatest family, friends, and neighbors- who all showed up, had a blast, and brought amazing gifts for Dax AND Tate! We are so blessed and lucky and spoiled. :)

The bouncehouse people dropped the Monster Truck MoonWalk off nice and early- so the kids could be tortured all day waiting to go outside and play in it!!

(The backyard got REALLY muddy somehow the night before so they had to stay inside or in the front yard all morning- I was devastated and hormonal, but Casey, MiMi and Steve saved the day by thinking of getting mulch to cover up the mud. Not the most beautiful backyard, but it got the job done! And kind of went with the party theme, ha!)