Gavin's First (documented) Steps!

Gavin's been taking a few steps for several weeks, but it's been very sporadic and we haven't caught it on camera. So, here you go......this is actually better than previous performances. For some reason, Pete brings out the best in them!*

*Again, I apologize for the lack of clothing on my men. :-)

No More Cabin Fever

About a month ago, good friends of ours (who have a son just 10 days older than Gavin and Emery), asked us if we'd like to meet them at a cabin in the Hocking Hills area of Ohio. They made all of the arrangements and we met them there last Friday, looking forward to a great vacation! Pete was out of town the 3 days prior to the trip. He got back at almost midnight on Thursday! I had planned to have most of the packing done, but was thrown a curveball with a very rough few days. Gavin has historically (Can say that for 1 year of history?) had a very painful teething process. During our dentist visit (yes, he has already seen the dentist), she noticed that he has eruption cysts over his molars and said that they are particularly painful. I guess the cysts decided to "erupt" last week and the molars started to come through. He ran a fever of 100 to 101 for several days. I was starting to get nervous about the trip. With Tylenol on a regular basis, he seemed ok by Friday morning. So, we got up early on Friday, packed quickly and were out the door after their first nap (about 10:00am). The car was packed to the brim, included the beloved cargo case on top. I tend to overpack, but I think it will always be that way. In order to be spontaneous these days, we have to plan for spontaneity.

The drive took about 5 hours (with a stop for lunch), so we were there a little after 3:00pm. The cabin was awesome....

Gavin had another rough patch that evening (101 temp.), but had a good time nonetheless.

We ate almost every meal on the deck. This was Thursday's dinner. They loved their new Fisher Price travel high chairs.

After dinner.....determined to carry the watermelon.
The next day, we checked out a couple of trails. Typically, there are a lot of waterfalls in this area, but the water level was very low. This is an awesome area of Ohio. Look closely and you'll see Pete with the stroller. There was a wedding going on in the background (group of people). This must be a popular spot for weddings because on our way back, another wedding had begun. Gavin started to scream, so Pete and I carried the double stroller through the sand, basically through the middle of the wedding. Oops. Sorry bride and groom. Next time, we'll take the jogging stroller, but it wouldn't fit in the car for this trip.

The kids were filthy, but they liked checking out the rocks and sand.

Trying out our friend's backpack before the next trail. We are trying to decide whether we'd like to have a set of these.......a big investment times two, so we want to be sure. The verdict is still out. Gavin liked it once he was up, but didn't seem to like the loading process.

The next day, we got up and had a fun-filled day. It was very hot and we forgot to bring the baby pool, so we improvised. We filled the bowls of water over and over and they dumped them over and over. They were soaked and had a lot of fun.

Then we went to the beach, at the nearby lake. Although we did our best to stop it, lots of sand was eaten. Emery was fearless . Gavin needed a little more time to warm up to the sand and water.

We played pool......

We ate lots of good food......

Check out the view from the dinner table.....

We had a great time. The cabin was set up so that the kids had their run of the place. We brought 2 gates, but hardly had to use them. This was probably our first relaxing vacation in the last year. Gavin and Emery had a good time playing with someone there own age and it was GREAT to have help. Anytime the adults outnumber the kids, it's easier. So, what started out as a stressful experience, ended great. I'm looking into another cabin trip in the near future.

Bananarama

We have had a very exciting week with a 101 fever, molars coming in (not fun), and a great vacation to a cabin in Ohio. I'm working on posting some pictures of our vacation, but couldn't wait to post this video of Emery from today. Bananas are a favorite snack. However, we are working on taking smaller bites and not "attacking" the banana. Turn up your sound to get the full effect..........

The couch

Every time I turn around, Gavin has climbed up on the couch in the playroom. Usually, he throws all of the pillows off and is standing! It's making me very nervous because he doesn't know how to get down, other than head first. Now Emery is trying to climb up too, but her legs aren't quite long enough. I figure it's only a matter of days before Gavin learns to give her a boost or pull her up with him. I guess I knew this day would come sooner or later!

He's also now taking a few steps on his own, but we haven't been able to catch it on camera. It takes a lot of coaxing and he has to be in just the right mood, but he can do it!

I am a genius

As I type this, we are literally STUCK at home. From the picture, you may wonder how I even got the car IN the garage with the cargo case on top........

Luckily, no major damage was done.....just a few scratches (to the house and the case). Wouldn't you know it, Pete was calling from work as I walked in the door! I am REALLY thankful to have a nice husband. He was very understanding, especially since he put the first scratches on the cargo case during a "parking garage incident" a few weeks ago!

POST UPDATE: Pete got home from work and took the cargo case off of the car, so that I could pull out of the garage. After seeing it in person, he has no idea how I was able to drive all the way into the garage. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the noise (of plastic flexing) until it was too late, so we just popped right in! :-)

Piano Pictures

When Emery plays the piano, she has to have her mouth wide open.....don't ask me why.

Going to find her brother
The duet
Discussing their next piece
I love his new hairstyle. I actually have to "style" his hair now, which makes me laugh.
This picture is to show off her cute new shoes! We stopped at the store to pick up a few things on the way to a party this weekend. We thought we'd look for some shoes since her only pair were covered in dirt (from the park earlier that day). Pete spotted a pair with sail boats, just like her outfit.....and they were only $5.00! A closeup

The small things are exciting to us now.....even if it's just a matching pair of shoes and watching our kids make some music!

Something I didn't know before I had kids......

When you feed a toddler blueberries, their poop is BLUE!!!! It took 30 seconds for it to register as Pete and I just stared at Emery's diaper yesterday. Then we remembered that she had eaten blueberries for the first time that morning (and she loved them). She had them again this morning with her pancakes and I guess she smuggled a blueberry to bed during her nap, so her whole bed was covered in blueberry stains. There were blueberries everywhere.....her legs, her arms.....Those things are messy! I keep thinking of the girl on Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that turned into a giant blueberry.

Emery sort of walks like an Oompa Loompa, so I guess it's kind of fitting.

Pete and Re-Pete

"Extreme sports and building stuff" describes Pete to a tee. Over the last few months, I've started to see striking similarities in Gavin. Yesterday, he spent the first half of the day diving back and forth over his ride-on toy (in our house, this is an extreme sport). Seriously, he must have climbed back and forth 20 times. The second half of the day was spent with the Mega Blocks that came with his firetruck. He carried his blocks around the room, stopping here and there to put them together and take them apart again. He also threw in a little reading time. He LOVES books. That part doesn't sound a lot like Pete, unless it's a car manual or Auto Trader, but I think we may have a future engineer on our hands.......... or pro snowboarder??

Pete's first babies. Yes, we did have 1/2 of a car in our garage. Hard to see in the picture, but the front 1/2 is missing. And yes, it was up on blocks!

Mountain biking....... Before the downhill race in Durango, Colorado.

Gavin WILL NOT be doing this!

Snowboarding in Snowshoe, WV (Pete is in orange). As Gavin starts to look more like a little boy and less like a baby, he's also looking more and more like Pete! We used to get asked, "which one of you does he look like"? Now, everywhere we go people say with no hesitation that Emery looks like me and Gavin looks like Pete.

What a cute pair....

First Haircut- Part 2

Some of you may remember our first attempt at Gavin's first haircut. Since it's now time for 1 year pictures, I thought it was a great opportunity to finish what we started. So, this morning, I took Gavin and Emery to Cookie Cutters, a hair place for kids. They have cool cars that the kids can sit in and can pick out a DVD to watch during their haircut. We selected the yellow bug as our car and Sesame Street as our DVD. Emery sat in the stroller eating cheerios and watching Cooking Monster while Gavin got his hair cut. I'm still not sure what to do with Emery's hair (it's pretty curly), so we're leaving it in the "Pebble's do" for now. We got a cool "first haircut" certificate at the end (picture below) and balloons for each of them. Gavin popped his balloon in about 2 minutes, so he got a replacement balloon. He didn't even flinch when it popped in his face! I took lots of pictures since Pete wasn't able to go with us........

Check out the Cookie Monster on the screen with "C is for cookie"? This was their first exposure to Sesame Street.

Eating cheerios after his haircut

The certificate- It's hard to see, but on the left side is a small bag with a few pieces of his hair. The hairdresser asked me if it would be ok to put Gavin's picture on the wall as a model. This is a new certificate format, so I guess they wanted to display it. I'm still proud. :-)

The balloons

This is a short video of Gavin with the balloon. They've never played with a balloon before, but Gavin seemed to love it. Watch Emery......looking around like "what the heck is going on back there"??

Dancin' Machines

A large part of our day is spent dancing to "toy music". Emery is usually the lead dancer, and Gavin has to stand up and join in!

Our daughter Al Bundy....

Look at her go!

Walking update! Video taken this afternoon....

Favorite Pictures from the weekend

As usual, I have a lot of favorites......

Feeding the giraffe with Vandaddy at the zoo on Saturday.

Snack time
Checking out the water park at the zoo. This is the closest we get to a family photo.
Gavin showing off his new Texas Rangers hat! Getting ready for ANOTHER sprinkler park on Sunday Yes, we are still obsessed with sunglasses around here. These are her new, pink birthday glasses! Emery LOVES the water. She was almost running around the sprinkler park.

I'm afraid that Gavin might take after Pete when it comes to water. So far, it's not his favorite thing to do. Don't these two look like they're having a great time?? :-)

His mouth was ALWAYS open. Sprinkler park water is healthy, right? (Just a joke........no, we didn't let them drink it!)First time to ride forward-facing in the car seats! They got to ride in style in Mimi's van and watch Ice Age on the DVD player!
Emery, Mimi, Vandaddy, and Gavin