Fall fun

I don't believe I did a real Denzil is 1 year old update. At his doctor appointment he weighed in at 20 lbs 9 oz, was 30 inches tall, and his head circumference was 18.5 inches. That puts him about 15% for weight, 45% for height, and 60% for his head. He is really growing up a lot in the past few weeks. He loves to feed himself but me not wanting to deal with a huge mess, I'm a little reluctant. But, when we have some good finger foods I let him go to town. He likes to eat almost all the stuff we eat but some days he decides he doesn't want to. He loves to eat broccoli and carrots and on the fruit side he loves watermelon, bananas, and strawberries (which he prefers to eat when they are whole). He will eat orange slices but usually only one before he just squeezes it to death. He would squeeze the banana too if I let him hold it on his own. He has had 4 teeth grow in since the beginning of September. Some of the words that he can say besides mama and dada are this, that, ball (said like "ba"), ruff (dog), uh-oh, and sometimes he seems like he is trying to mimic what I'm saying. He is very curious and loves to get into anything. He loves his toys and especially his Little People Farm.

We got this caterpillar from the Dr. Handy's office and Denzil likes to lay on him and crawl on his back.

During our second Utah trip in so many weeks we took a walk to Wheeler Farm and saw all the animals. Denzil loved it! I brought a piece of bread with us to feed to the ducks but every time I gave Denzil a piece to throw it ended up in his mouth. So, Denzil probably ate half of the bread and the ducks got the other half from me. You may be wondering why I didn't get him out of the stroller at this time, well I did take him out for a few minutes but all he wanted to do was play in the water. Let me just say, gross.
Denzil had a nice little 4-wheeler ride with me. I know he doesn't have a helmet on but I think it would have been more dangerous for him to have the large helmets on his head that we had. It's a cabin community so we didn't go real fast. When I started going he said "weeeeee!"
Denzil decided to help out Grandpa Holman with weeding his flower garden. Yep, he pulled up a flower but there were only leaves left and I'm a bit surprised at that. He was pulling those off before he got the whole thing to come out of the ground.
This past weekend we went for a nice ride on the Virginia Creeper trail. It was basically all down hill on the section that we did which was 17 miles. We considered riding back up but decided that our rumpus' wouldn't be too happy with us. We need to ride our bikes more to be up for that but we want to go back again and maybe do the other half. Supposedly it is more level so we might actually have to pedal our bikes to get from point A to point B. Denzil loved being in the trailer. He was even making it a fun ride for Kris by rocking forward and back over and over again.

Denzil is getting a little better about not eating all the rocks, just trying to eat a few.

Labor Day weekend 2010

Denzil is showing how big he is getting. He had the right idea for riding this scooter.

On Labor Day we drove all the way to Wrightsville Beach and spent the day in the sand and sea. We went along with our pals and had a great time despite the bit of a sunburn afterward.
Denzil had a bunch of sunscreen all over his head, hair included, which helped the sand to stick really well to him. He would crawl around then stick his head in the sand and keep crawling. This pic is after he was playing with some sand toys and had sand in the shovel which came up and hit him in the face. He wasn't too happy about the sand in his eyes but he was even more angry when we went to the shower/hose and tried to get it out that way. It took 3 or more shampooing's to get the sand out of his hair.

Who knew a sunscreen bottle could be this entertaining.
I know, not too cute in the swimsuit on my part but we needed a pic by the water. We had some fun playing in the waves and Denzil loved the little birds that were at the waters edge eating something. He tried to catch them multiple times but was not successful.


A beautiful end to a wonderful weekend.

Denzil the Destroyer

He earned this new nickname because of two things: his talent at opening drawers and emptying them, and for the high pitched "aaaaaaahhhhh" sound he makes (think: screams of fear) when knocking over the blocks that Jenny builds into towers.

He has retained "Denzilla" though as well.

What we have been up to lately

Lifting weights

Dash baseball game. They just got a new field/stadium this year and it was very nice. The first thing Kris said as we got there was "It smells like a locker room." It was pretty hot and muggy that night but we enjoyed ourselves.

A visit to the Children's Museum. We had a get in free coupon so I decided we should check it out. Denzil is still a bit young for it but I think he still had a great time.

My birthday celebration along with our friend Elyse.
A trip to Utah. Denzil found this part of a black eyed Susan on the deck at the cabin and decided to taste it. He liked it so much that he bit off some of the seeds.
Swinging. Isn't this the coolest swing?! Denzil loved it and so did Kris and I. Thanks to those who thought of it.
Beautiful Fairview Lakes. We were able to spend several days at the cabin and enjoy the cool nights and not so bad daytime temps. We did a little bit of hiking, motorbiking, ATVing, fishing, and canoeing while we were there.


Celebrated Denzil's first birthday! He was signing "more" when the singing was through.
Even though it looks like he got a lot of the good stuff in his mouth he really just liked playing with the frosting and tasted a little bit of the cake that was in the bowl.
Boating at Jordanelle. We didn't get up there until after noon and it was already breezy. We thought it was going to be kind of rough, especially after we lost a towel in the lake shortly into our outing, but it turned out to be quite nice and we were able to enjoy some wakeboarding and the air chair. I thought I wasn't very good at the air chair but I surprised myself and was able to stay up for quite a while.
Eating watermelon. The last time I gave Denzil watermelon he wasn't too sure about it but he loved it this time. He just kept chomping it and loving every minute of it.

Swimming. The water was about 69 degrees so it was a bit chilly when you first jump in but Denzil loves the water and wanted to get in. He didn't even fuss a bit, just the quick breaths that everyone takes in chilly water when it gets up to your tummy and chest. He didn't hate the life jacket this time either.

Petting Zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Denzil liked tapping/pounding on the glass at these chicks. I think he enjoyed himself but wasn't too interested in petting any of the animals.
He had his first pony ride. When I first put him on the pony's back he cried but when they started moving he quieted down, but only for a minute. He didn't make it though the whole ride but it is a start to many riding experiences I'm sure. He had fun playing in the jail with his cousins here too.
The Aquarium. Denzil was able to touch a starfish and a sting ray. He seemed to like looking at all the fish and such. We had a great time with the cousins here.

Eclairs. Kris decided to make eclairs and Maddy was such a good helper with the cream filling.
Jungle Gym Clint.

29 years ago...

a lovely lady was at the hospital getting ready to give birth to a totally awesome baby girl and watching the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. It's kind of crazy to think that it has been that long since that day but oh the fun I have had. I still feel like I'm about 20 or 21 though. I had a nice birthday spent with Denzil shopping and then we had a nice Mexican dinner and ice cream with Kris that evening. Birthday's definitely aren't as cool as they once were, and that isn't because I'm sad I'm getting older, but it is nice to have people remember and send their wishes. It is exciting to think about what is in store for me in the coming year.

Washington DC

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to DC for the weekend. If you remember, Kris did some research last summer about hardware to help with "hammer toe." Well, they submitted his stuff to the Foot & Ankle Society and they had their meeting in DC so Kris was able to go to it and took us along for a weekend away. The meeting was in the morning and part of the afternoon so Denzil and I went to the National Zoo one morning. It was great! Denzil seemed to see a lot of the animals and didn't fuss at all, except when I walked through the misters when he was trying to sleep. We were able to see the orangutan up close, a baby gorilla, panda bears and a whole bunch of other animals and sea creatures. That evening we went over to the historic Alexandria and walked around town, ate Thai food, and had some ice cream. Oh, and I just have to say thank you to Russ and Sara for introducing me to putting a blanket or something over the top of the pack n'play. It can be hard to put a kid down in a hotel room when he can see you and wonder why you aren't playing with him but the blanket did the trick (of course we left one part uncovered so he had fresh air). The next day was rainy so Denzil and I just hung out and had breakfast and then he took a nap. When Kris was finished we went to Arlington Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard and visited my great uncle's grave. Then we went to the Iwo Jima monument and drove home. It was a great weekend and almost made me want a king size bed.

11 Months

Now that I am counting down the days until I turn one, let me tell you about me this past month. One thing I love to do it climb. I climb on the fire place, the baskets, my toys to help me climb onto the couch, mom and dad, the stairs (with adult supervision), basically anywhere I can get before mom or dad catches me. I like to climb over the couch and land on the blankets in the corner, climb into the toy box, and climb on tables (I do this at restaurants if mom and dad aren't smart enough to put me in the high chair). It is so much fun! I laugh a lot too. I'm pretty ticklish on my ribs and I just like to laugh when mom or dad laughs with me. I love the pool and it has been pretty hot here so we go often. I love to play with my friends and climb on them. I haven't gotten any new teeth in the past few months, I still have 6. I love to eat Mexican food and it's a good thing too because we eat it at least once a week. I can stand on my own for a few seconds and I'm cruising a lot more. I love to read stories, my favorite part is turning the pages. I'm getting so big now and I'm excited to learn new things every day.

Love,

Denzil

4th of July weekend

Since the 4th was on a Sunday we were able to celebrate all weekend long since Kris didn't have school on Monday. We were debating whether to go camping or not but at the last minute decided that it would be too crowded and we wouldn't be able to get to where we wanted to go until late in the evening decreasing the chances of finding an open spot. So, Saturday we went and had waffles and water baseball at our friends house. Denzil had a great time playing in one of the little blow up pools. I forgot to bring swimsuits for us all so he was the only one who got really wet.

After that we went to Denton for the Old Threshers Reunion. I don't know if you recognize these guys but they are the Riders in the Sky who we saw almost 2 years ago at Tweetsie. We just listened for a few minutes but they are kind of fun.

It was a place filled with old tractors, part of an old plantation (some old buildings like the kitchen, smokehouse, corn crib, black smith shop etc), draft horse demonstrations, horse pull, and some expensive not always the best fair food (at least the place that we picked). We had a great time despite the heat.

For the evening we went to someone's house with our friends and watched some private fireworks. They were pretty great except for the one that tipped over and started shooting fireworks in our direction. Needless to say, we ran pretty quick and then we stayed farther back to avoid another such experience.