happiness and parties

Colin woke up in a great mood this morning! I heard him on the monitor, cooing and talking, having a grand old time with his crib friends (the animals on his crib bumper) so Gavin and I went in to welcome him to the day. He was smiling, laughing, happy to see us, so I had to snap a quick picture. I caught him in between big grins, it was the best I could do - I was more interested in enjoying the fun than taking pictures of it. Can you blame me?

When I picked Colin up I discovered that he had a very full, very disgustingly stinky diaper. A kid that can laugh and smile through that has a seriously happy disposition!

This evening we went to a party at one of Scott's colleague's house. Lots of grown-ups and even more kids. Gavin was shy at first (surprise, surprise) and he played quietly with some of the toys in the living room (the hosts have a 1 year old) alongside some of the other kids, carefully whispering to us when he needed to talk. So cute. We went out into the backyard after a while where Gavin was enthralled by the koi pond. He spent much of the evening watching the fish and sticking his finger in the water to see if the fish would come to him.

He also played with the sand table, another big hit. He loves our sand box at home, so I wasn't surprised. After playing and watching the fish, he took a break to eat some dinner then got right back to having fun. By the end of the night (a mere 2.5 hours later) he was talking to anyone around - yay! - and playing with the kids rather than just near them. So proud of how he used his manners in the big group and how he shared with the other kids. Gavin is such a sweet boy :)

pancakes

Gavin helped me make pancakes this morning. Such fun! We only got a little flour on the floor :)

I didn't get any pics of the cooking process but I did snap a couple of Gavin enjoying the fruits of our labor. In the first one, he made some kind of crazy face, so I took another of him taking a big ol' bite. (Please excuse the nastiness of my table, the flash shows off the area where Gavin was smearing his yogurt all over the table. Ew.)

He had to eat the middle section of his pancake (or "take-take" as he still says) before eating the perimeter. Seriously, I laugh with this kid all day long.

picture fun

I've decided that my new hobby needs to be learning how to work the "good" camera so that I can take pictures I'm proud of. The point and click camera works in a pinch but I'd like to learn to use a camera and take photographs rather than just snapshots. Does that make sense? Today I learned that I suck at taking pictures :) but I'm not ashamed - I'm motivated. I was too close to Colin (trying to keep him happy) so it was difficult to get the camera to focus as I'd wanted it to. Doesn't change that he's freaking cute.

His red hair is totally visible in these next 2:

Gavin was devouring his pepper popcorn while I was snapping away at Colin, and when he finished it he decided to join us. These 2 love laughing together. It warms me right up (like I need that with all the 100+ degree days, but whatever).

brotherly love

I think Colin is the best toy we've ever gotten for Gavin, and Gavin is Colin's favorite toy as well. They will sit and just laugh at each other for ages. Today Colin was in my lap and he started squawking away. Scott went to get the video camera to capture some of the cuteness, and by the time he got back Gavin had joined us. He and Colin are fun to watch. By the time we started taping Colin wasn't quite as forthcoming with all his crazy sounds but he did let us hear a little more and, as Scott points out in the video, apparently Gavin speaks Colinese :)

Dinnertime is so nice now, with all 4 of us at the table. Gavin has fallen in love with helping me cook so that (sometimes) motivates him to eat things he might not otherwise try. Colin has been eating cereal for a few weeks now. Today we tried oatmeal for the first time at dinner and he seemed to like it. Chances are, this kid will like anything we give him - he and Gavin are polar opposites when it comes to food and eating.

We'd been feeding Colin in the Bumbo seat we borrowed from our neighbors but I think he's getting too big for it. Today we pulled out the highchair. After he'd eaten his fill of cereal we put the toy on the tray. Colin was mesmerized! It kept him highly entertained while the rest of us finished our dinner.

After Gavin ate a few bites of his turkey burger he decided he'd had enough and he went to get his bike instead. Scott showed him videos online of other kids using the same kind of bike and it got Gavin interested again. He's been wary of the bike, choosing his purple tryke instead when we're playing out front, but today he seemed to have a lot of fun with his strider bike. It's way cool - no pedals, so he learns to coast and balance without the added issue of pedaling at the same time. No training wheels - he can just put his feet down. Scott brought the bike inside for Gavin to ride today so he could practice. It's usually an outside-only item but we made an exception today. I think it will resume its previous status tomorrow. :)

We went to visit Kelly at her house again today so that Colin can continue working on being less screamy over there. He had some fussy moments at first. Apparently he was hungry and after eating was much happier. We went upstairs to play in Allison's room (Gavin missed the kids - and their toys - a whole lot!) and he started to fuss again with Kelly holding him. She turned on a CD (nature sounds and music) and *poof* he settled down! Music may be the key. Colin spent quite a while in Kelly's lap, playing with toys and looking around, before he started to fuss again - and only then because it was naptime. I'm happy to see him starting to relax over there. We all know how wonderful Kelly is and it's high time Colin caught on!!

getting acquainted. again.

I go back to work in less than a month. When I went back before the summer, Colin went to Kelly's house but cried (screaming cries, at that) pretty much the whole time. We've been visiting with Kelly all summer - playdates out and about, at her house, and at our house. Colin will smile and flirt with Kelly all day long as long as I'm there. Our project this summer is to get him to be smiley and happy when I'm not there.

Today we had a trial run at Kelly's house for a few hours. Gavin and I took Colin over to Kelly's, hung out for a while, then left Colin there while we ran some errands and Gavin took a nap. It sounds like he did the screaming thing again. However, I really do think that if we keep up with it he'll get more and more comfortable at Kelly's house and with Kelly herself. She is so fantastic, I can't believe how lucky we are. She's taking her own time this summer to help get Colin comfortable. I don't think we could ask for more.

Now that he's past the 4 month point, it's okay to let him cry it out (we even called the pediatrician for some ideas and he reassured us on that) so that's pretty much what we have to do. When he's upset he doesn't have any interest in the bottle, so that's the other hurdle we have to get over. When he's not upset he'll take the bottle without issue. That's definitely a good thing! My hopes are high - I have to keep myself optimistic, the kids can smell fear! :)

visits with family

While Scott was in California for work, the boys and I spent a few days in Dallas visiting with family. I did the late evening drive - we left after dinner so the boys could sleep in the car - which was totally the way to go. Gavin surprised me by staying up until 9:30 or 9:45 both nights we drove. Colin slept the whole time both ways, but Gavin watched the cars and trucks and basically jabbered and blabbered the whole ride. He's a funny guy!

Grammy loved spending time with the boys! We went to see her at the office where she works, and Gavin asked if he'd get to see her tools. (When he visited Scott at work he got to go through the machine shop and see all the tools there, so of course everyone who works uses those same kinds of tools!)

Colin enjoyed snuggling with my mom - he fell asleep in her arms not long after this picture was taken.

My brother Scott was fantastic with the boys. He and Gavin became fast friends. When my mom and Gavin went to get Scott from his apartment, Gavin said "I love him" in his cute little Gavin voice, and when Scott ran into the Starbucks to get me a coffee before my drive home to Round Rock Gavin said "I NEED him! I need my Uncle Scott!" when Scott got out of the car. Except that Gavin doesn't actually say "Scott" - he leaves off the initial /s/ sound, and the final /t/ is more like a /k/. I'll let you sound that out on your own :)

I took the boys to visit my Grandma Wilma at her house while we were in town. At first Gavin was shy, but soon he was jabbering up a storm and throwing the ball for Grandma's dog. Colin was happy, like always, and had a grand old time watching Gavin have fun. Grandma Wilma gave Gavin a cowboy teddy bear - he's slept with it every night since.

We visited with Amanda and Aiden after we left Grandma Wilma's house. It was good to see them and catch up! Gavin was a little too shy (and tired) to play with Aiden but they seemed to have fun playing near each other at the McDonald's playground.

We also got to finally meet my cousin Angela's little boy, Taylor - what a cutie! They came over to mom's, along with Aunt Peggy (Gavin calls her Auny Piggy still, but he no longer oinks when we say her name!). I was having too much fun hanging out and spending time with them to think about finding my camera and getting a picture, but I'll just tell you that Taylor is adorable, with some of the biggest baby cheeks I've ever seen. He's just 2 months older than Colin so hopefully they'll be good buddies down the road.

After we got back in town, Gavin finally figured out how to roll all the way over and do a somersault. He's very proud of himself!

Gavin brought the Bumbo chair into my room the other day, and he climbed right in. I think his butt fits in there better than Colin's does!

Colin was playing in his jumper while Gavin and I built a "robok" with blocks.

We visited the library for storytime this morning, and the theme was birthdays. After building his robot together I made a stack of blocks while I was talking to Colin. Gavin took it, called it his birthday cake, and then we put some "candles" on it and he blew them out. Love it!

We head out tonight to Dallas for our visit with Grammy and everyone else up there. Wish me luck driving with these two! :)

a whole week....

We took Scott to the airport today. He's going to San Francisco for work (and then a couple more days for fun, lucky guy), and he won't be back until next Sunday. Poor Gavin, he was so excited about going to the airport and seeing airplanes that it didn't hit him until Scott was out of the car and we drove away that DADDY IS LEAVING. As we were heading to the exit of the airport he wailed from the backseat "but I neeeeeeed him! I neeeeed my daaaaddddddyyyy!" He is totally excited about talking to daddy on the "puter" now that he's been talking to Grandpa Mark and Grandma Joy on the computer (Skype is a wonderful thing) so that will be fun in the coming days. We are all anxious for Scott's return, though. It's just not the same without him here.

toes

I'm happy that Colin has found his toes. It's really cute when he grabs them and is insanely thrilled by it - he just laughs and laughs at his own toes. Priceless. And he'll be laying on the floor, playing, and then grab his toes and just faaallllll over onto his side. Also adorable. However, the toe fascination has started making diaper changes more difficult. The kid has got some serious grip!

first cereal

Colin had his first taste of cereal today! It was mostly breastmilk with just a bit of the cereal mixed in for his first time. He did really well! I can't say that he loved it, but I can't say that he hated it, either. I guess the most apt description would be that he tolerated it with a smile. He opened up for the spoon, let me put the cereal in his mouth, and then mushed it around in his mouth while most of it poured down his chin. We'll have to take a bath tonight to make sure we get it all out of his neck rolls, that much is certain.

Here is Colin tasting his very first bite of cereal:

And here he is again after eating more than half the bowl:

We had a difficult time with Gavin and food when he was little. Hopefully Colin won't be so hard on us :)

playgroup

I was so lucky to join a group of girls who all had babies between December and February while I was home on maternity leave. We met every Wednesday while we were all home from work, and now we meet about twice a month (one evening and one Saturday morning). It helps so much to get out of the house and talk to other moms who are going through the same things with their kids as I am with mine. Each mom has a different perspective and a different way of doing things. We can celebrate our children and our lives as moms, we can complain about how hard things can be or how our butts aren't going back to their original sizes, or we can just talk about what we've been up to since we met last. However it goes, I always feel a little more human after seeing the girls and the babies.

fun in the sun

Gavin loves to go outside to wait for his daddy to come home. You can find us in the front yard just about every day between 5 and 5:30, looking for that blue car to come down the street. Poor Scott, I call and bug him every day to ask him to call me when he's on his way home so we're not sitting outside in the 100+ degree heat waiting for him! As soon as Gavin spots Scott's car he yells "Daddy! There's my daddy!" while he waves and just generally gets all kinds of excited.

When Gavin was a wee guy he hated (hated) the way the grass felt. It was just a few months ago that he could handle walking through grass without shoes or sitting in it without having to be in my lap. Colin was having a blast pulling at the blades of grass as he leaned out of Gavin's lap and seems to love the way it feels between his toes. These 2 are so similar but so very different!!

We went back to the sprinkler park today to play with Kelly, Blake, and Allison. Gavin really missed them while they were on vacation! The kids weren't really jazzed about the water today and spent most of their time on the playscape and in the sand.

I put Colin down on a towel and he had fun making lovey faces at Kelly. I lovelovelove the toothless smiles! He also ate his first dirt today ... his fist dug into the sand and then went straight into his mouth. He didn't seem to notice the new gritty texture.

After a morning outside in the sun getting sweaty and running around, you'd think Gavin would have been pooped. But no, instead he seemed to be on speed and never napped, just ran around like a crazy man. Which stinks, since I could have used a nap of my own! I'll just have to work harder to wear him out tomorrow :)

Yesterday the boys were sitting on the couch and Gavin had asked to hold Colin. Picture time! Is it possible for me to be any luckier? Look at my good lookin' men!

Oh, and speaking of picture time... Scott's cousin Elisa made a hat for Colin, and it arrived in the mail just the other day. Gavin decided to have a clothing-optional afternoon, just his dinosaur skivvies and the hat from Elisa. What an ensemble, eh?

rolling over!

Colin rolled over from his tummy to his back yesterday afternoon! And I completely missed it. I put him on the blanket on his tummy, turned my back for 2 steps, turned back around and he was laying on his back, grinning up at me. We tried to get him to do it again, and Scott moved the laptop so he could take video with the webcam, but Colin refused to recreate his roll. Stinker. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled so I don't miss it the 2nd time!

sprinkler park

I took Gavin and Colin to the sprinkler park today and it was so much fun! It rained on us as we drove to the park, but once we got there the rain was finished and we could play our hearts out. A couple of the kids from Gavin's mother's day out class were there as well, but Mr. Shy Guy was more content to play on his own. It was nice to see some of the other moms and kids, though :)

Gavin ran back and forth through this section of sprinklers. It was a favorite spot.

When the sprinklers stopped Gavin went right to the spout to see where the water was. We're pretty lucky he didn't get splashed right in the eye when the water started up again!

This pole spouted water in all directions. Gavin ran around it and round it for what seemed like forever. He never seemed to get dizzy!

Colin had fun watching Gavin play. And, of course, he did some serious chomping on his fingers too :)