Gavin's 2nd birthday

It's been a couple of months since Gavin's second birthday, and I haven't blogged about it because I haven't been able to upload pictures to the blog. But, I decided to blog about it now before I forget...will post pictures as I'm able!

Gavin's birthday started the weekend before his actual birthday. The Friday before was like any other Friday...Gavin and I waited for Da Da to come home so we could go out to eat. We decided to wait outside for him and blow some bubbles. He pulled into the driveway, and he had someone in the car with him. It took me about 2 minutes to realize that it was my sister! She flew into Dallas to surprise me and Gavin!! He was soooo excited to see her! He yelled, "GiGi" and ran to the car. He gave her the BIGGEST hug and spent all weekend grabbing her hand saying, "Mon, GiGi". She brought him a bunch of things, including a "fort" and "The Mater Tales" DVD. They spent a lot of the weekend in his tent watching his movie or playing. It was really sad to see her go, but Gavin had so much fun with her.

On Monday, Nana flew in to see Gavin! She spent a couple of days with Gavin and then Gary and I went to Denver. Paw Paw came in on Wednesday to spend time, too. Gavin's party was on Sunday. Initially, his party was going to be a Mickey Mouse party, but by the time it was time for his party, he was into "Cars". So, invitations were Mickey and decorations were cars stuff. He had a great time! He wore his special birthday hat and wanted everyone to sing "Happy Birthday" to him several times. The weather was great, so the kids played outside for a while. It was a wonderful day!

The things Gavin says....

I can't believe that I used to be worried about Gavin's speech. He is speaking in 11-12 word sentences, knows his colors, shapes, can count to about 14, recognizes some letters and knows cause and affect (and really has been doing these things for some time) I think he's already smarter than me. He uses "I" and "you" correctly, for the most part and knows how to use "too". He's also so polite, usually. I really could just eat him up!! Here are some of the funny things he's saying lately:

At dinner when he coughs: "Mama-I ok"
At the table eating: "Mama, is that good?"
When I'm out of the room or not engaged with him: "Mama, whatchoo doin?"
When he sees the golden arches of McDonalds: "'M' is for Mama!"
When I'm talking(Nodding his head): "Oh"
When he wants to go to the park: "I take a nap and then I go to the park"
When he's being sweet: "I love you sooooo much, Mama"
When something unexpected happens: "Oh my, what happened?"
When he does something by himself: "Oh look! I did it!"
When he burps: "'scuse me!"
When I burp: "'Scuse you, mama!"
When he gets a cupcake: (singing) "Happ birtday to you, Happ birtday to Dadin"

He is so sweet. I literally could listen to him talk for hours. He already makes so much sense. I hope talking to him never gets old or any less cute than it is right now.

Denver trip

Gary and I were sitting in the Denver airport waiting for our flight home. We got here on Wednesday afternoon for a little mommy/daddy getaway. NaNa came in on Monday to spend the week with Gavin and give us a chance to get away. Gary has always loved Denver and wanted me see it, so here we are. It's a really cool town! It was really cold, though. I feel like we would have seen and done a little bit more if it wasn't so cold. Here are some observations I made about the city of Denver:

1. People are under dresses. It was brrrrrr freezing and some people had on shorts or just dressed in a sweatshirt.
2. People are extremely friendly. People in Dallas are generally friendly, but people in Denver are pretty amazing.
3. There is a Starbucks every 1-2 blocks, seriously.
4. They have some old, pretty buildings.
5. Driving in the mountains is scary. We were going to drive to Boulder just to see it. I suggested having dinner out there, but driving back at night was too intimidating.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I had a great time with Gary, even doing nothing. It was great to reconnect and pay attention to each other with no distractions.

Valentine's Day 2011

The weather has really been sooo pretty the last couple of days, so we decided to go to the arboretum and our friends, Saylor and Erica, came with us. Gavin was so enamored with Saylor...he kept trying to hold her hand and wanted her wherever he went, "'Mon Sayor".

They loved this "waterfall"

Gavin holding Saylor's hand. She was a little hesitant. Look how happy he is!

This is my favorite picture! They were chatting amongst themselves and pointing to things on the Lake.

Saylor got up on "stage" and started to dance and sing. Gavin wanted in, too.

We sat down for a little picnic and read a Valentine book that NaNa sent us.

Gavin was also enamored with Erica. There was a bee buzzing around Gavin's applesauce and Ms. Erica swatted it away, and then she was her hero! He kept snuggling and climbing on her, and finally she asked if he wanted to sit on her lap. He was fascinated by the fact that she had a baby in her belly and kept trying to lift her shirt up to see it.

That night, we cooked dinner for Dada. We made heart shaped pizzas and set the table. Gavin decorated the monkey hanging from the chandelier, btw.

My present from Gavin. He got me a GIANT "Cars" coloring book and markers!! How did he know?!? :) We sat at the table later that night and colored...good family time.

Gavin got some stickers and a water globe from us. Nana sent him a bunch of stickers, two Valentine's Day books, some lollipops, chocolate covered animal crackers and a bunch in a box filled with little cut out hearts and rose petals.

Happy Valentine's Day boys!!

Winter is making me FAT!

We had another snow day on Wednesday...more of an ice day, but it made it dangerous to go outside, and, you guessed it, we stayed inside all day. Gavin and I were a little stir crazy so we started to bake. I started looking for stuff we had around the house and found a pie crust and some apples. So, we made some apple turnover type things. We rolled out most of the crust and ate the rest :) Gavin used his very own baby rolling pin that he picked out himself. They came out pretty good! I didn't follow a recipe or anything...just being creative.

Then, once we were done with those, we started making cupcakes and cookies to bring to his teachers on Friday. Gavin helped me crack, well, crush the egg (there was a disclaimer on all baked goods about egg shell remnants) and stir all of the other ingredients in the bowl. I had to wipe his hands a few times because he kept dipping his little fingers into the bowl!

THEN, we made muffins for his class. We were responsible for making snack on Friday, so we just got a jump on it. These are all the sweets I've been tempted with the past couple of days. My mom sent some really cute M&M's for Valentine's Day/Gavin's bday with his face on it and some other sayings. I also have a giant red lollipop, kisses, and then all the other aforementioned sweets.

These are what the teachers boxes turned out like. I put 3 heart shaped cookies on the bottom and a cupcake on top of that. To fill the space, I put some red, pink and silver kisses in the box.

Gavin had fun giving these to his teachers, and they turned out really cute!! Gavin is such a great little helper! Maybe now that the weather is warming up (this week at least), we can do fun things outside instead of being inside cooking/baking/eating!! Gary and I did start P90X a couple of weeks ago. I have to think all this junk food is sabotaging my diet!!

Is TV the devil?!

I used to think so. Don't get me wrong, I have a few shows that I like (The Biggest Loser, What Not to Wear...real works of art!), but for the most part, I leave it off. I especially hated television when I worked full time. I got so overstimulated during the day at work that I just wanted some quite time at home. Now, I can leave it on just to have some adult "interaction". I never slept with the TV on, but I do now because Gary likes it on sometimes and that's just what kind of person I am :)

Recently, Gavin has taken a real interest in TV. First, it was 15 minutes of Elmo before bedtime. Then, it was 30 minutes of Mickey before bedtime. Now, it's 30-45 minutes of "Cars" at night and sometimes during the day when I have to take a shower or cook. I was always opposed to that mom who let the TV "babysit", if you will. But I realize that it really comes in handy sometimes. Especially since Gavin has gone down to 1 nap. I used to take a shower during his first nap and then run errands, etc, after he woke up. Now, if I wait for him to nap, half the day is gone! So, I pop in a movie ("Cars"), and I trust him to sit there unsupervised for a small increments of time. I'm trying not to feel guilty about his TV consumption. I'm starting to think it's like anything else...it's ok in moderation. You know, like sweets? You don't want your kid to be the one devouring all the cookies he decorated in class before he can show you because he knows you won't let him eat one or two. So, I give in a couple times a day and let him watch TV. It works for both of us. Besides, it's really cute how he identifies with the characters and how he quotes lines from the movie. His favorite scene from "Cars" right now is Tractor tipping with a close second being Mack driving Lightening on the highway and the appearance of Snot Rod (who he called "Snot Rocket" for a while because that's what I mistakenly called him). He quotes stuff that the cars say like "Ka-chow! Momma" and "stickers". And, the other day, that James Taylor song started to play during the flash black, and Gavin started to sing along. How adorable!!! "Long ago..." Gary and I laughed until we cried because it was funny and oh so precious! Watching "Cars" together also gives us stuff to talk about, and we reenact scenes when we play with his cars.

I'm sure once the weather is better and the summer comes, we'll be outside all the time or hanging out with friends. Maybe. Probably. But we'll still watch some TV together at night. It's just way too cute not to.

Winter storms in Dallas?

For almost a week now, most of Dallas has been shut down because of a winter storm that moved through this past Tuesday. Gary had off of work from Tuesday through Friday. Gavin was really excited to have Dada home.

The first morning, they made pancakes using the fun, smaller whisk that I bought for Gavin. I think he may have gotten more pancake on the counter than in the bowl!!

"Helping" Dada cook pancakes.
"Cheese"

After breakfast, the boys got dressed to play in the "snow". There was no real snow...just a whole lot of ice. In fact, there was a giant sheet of ice on the ground. But that didn't stop us from going out to play.

Jack's Frisbee got iced in the ground and Dada dug it out for him.

Showing Gavin the sheet of ice.

My bundled up baby.

It stayed pretty icy the next couple of days. It was pretty unpleasant and scary to be outside because of all the ice. THEN, we woke up on Friday morning to 5 inches of powdery snow! I had to go to work, but the boys played outside for awhile. Jack, Gavin and Dada act like little kids in the snow :) When I got home from work, we went back out to the park. Gary went to get the neighbors for a friendly snow fight. Matt, Amy, Jonathan, Tina, Gary, Gavin, Jack, Odin and I all played in the snow for a while. It was a blast! The boys ran around pelting each other with snow balls and the dogs jumped and tumbled and rolled around in the snow. Everyone had a great time. My feet got really cold and I had to leave to put thicker socks on. I was a little sad that I didn't have better cold weather gear because it was so beautiful and so fun to be outside.

Gavin brought his "Scooper truck" to the park

Gavin decided he was tired of walking around in the snow and hitched a ride with Aunt Tina.

Snow balls flying!!

Uncle Jonathan and Dada being silly.

Our backyard

Today the snow started to melt. It made these really cool icicles on the side of our house. It really has been beautiful the last couple of days. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow and Wednesday. If it does, we'll play in it again...but I sure am ready for Spring :)