Dessert Before Dinner

Tonight we had dessert before dinner
... because I said so
... because the first week of spring break has been a bit of a dud
... because it's the little things.

"We're going for a walk," I declared at 4:00. It had been a lazy day with Gracie getting over an abdominal migraine, Gavin fussy from teething and not enough good sleep the night before and, aside from a few stolen moments playing cars alone out back with Preston, a rather boring day. Everyone (including me) needed to get out, crabby or not! So, I piled the "G" children in the BOB, Preston hopped on his bike and I gave directions as he kept questioning where we were headed. Once we walked toward the shopping center where his favorite fro-yo shop is, he was ecstatic. Then I told him he couldn't eat it right away! Ha! "Where are we going now?" he asked. Again, I led him with directions and we ended up at a park he has been wanting to explore. Two hours later, full of frozen yogurt and happy from the fresh air and playing with new park friends, we headed home... all four of us more content than we'd been all day.

Taking snapshots in my mind

Today was one of those days where I literally took pause and made a conscious effort to record in my mind and on my heart what happened.  If I'd had my cell phone handy, I would certainly have snapped a couple of pics, but it was in the car and, well, maybe that was best as I likely could have disrupted the authenticity of the moments.

I took the kids, along with Gracie's nurse, Girlie, to the recently refurbished Veteran's Park.  It has a fully accessible playground and is only about a five minute drive from our house.  All three kids had a great time exploring - - Gavin is content anywhere he can walk and pick up pieces of "trash treasure" and hand them to me; Preston enjoyed running amok with a group of boys his age and exploring the skate and BMX park adjacent to the playground; Gracie loved that there were ramps to different playground features and slides for her to enjoy.  It was a nice outing for all of us.

But these moments, for me, won the day:

At one point, Gavin stopped playing with his push car and walked over to Gracie's wheelchair and tried turning her wheels.  I redirected him to the backside of her chair and showed him where he could hold on.  He immediately started pushing her chair for her (while Girlie helped control the steering).  I will remember it forever... just like I remember when Preston started helping push Gracie's KidKart many years ago.  It is, of course, fun for Gavin to push her along, but his determination to be involved and help her was obvious and so very sweet.  He says her name now, "GeeCee," along with his sign approximation of her name.  He is so loving and sweet to his big sister and, today, showed me that he will, like his big brother, be her helper, too.

A while later, he was back playing with his push car and found a little friend, Lucas, who is 19 months.  Gavin walked up to him, touched his chest gently and then wrapped his arms around him and gave him the sweetest bear hug.  Little Lucas just stood there.  Then Gavin pointed to his car, said, "vroom," and gave him another hug and a kiss.  Lucas climbed into the car and Gavin started pushing him!  It was so adorable and I (along with all of the adults around) was literally drowning in the cuteness that we witnessed.  Such a sweet display for Gavin's first impromptu and independent social encounter.

Leapin' Leprechauns!

While Gavin napped and Gracie had  a vest/nebulizer treatment, Preston and I decided it was prime Leprechaun Trap Construction Time!!!  (This was not my idea... he talked about making a trap every day after school for over a week!)

With his completed trap.  He insisted he was going to stay up all night to try and catch a leprechaun with his bare hands! 
He lasted all of 20 minutes while I read to him!

Much to Preston's dismay, the trap was empty this morning. 
However, a Leapin' Leprechaun visited in the wee hours and left behind a few chocolate coins, turned the toilet water green, left green footprints all over the place and even made our milk green!  Preston would NOT drink the milk... he figured the green toilet water was pee... so he feared the Leprechaun peed in the milk.  (Guess mama should have considered his thought processes a bit more before coloring the milk!)

Gavin (Month 13)

13 months exactly
We went on a long walk and happened upon a group of people flying kites.  You were mesmerized by the 20+ kites whipping around in the wind.

Your "monthly photoshoot - - this time, outside, at the park, without a chance of getting a picture of you still!  As it should be, big boy!

Gav-man... you had a big month.
You are changing right before our eyes, literally.

"Nobody puts baby in the corner,"
...except himself!
This is you two days after your birthday.  You went and stood in the corner and Nana and I cracked up! 
(Less than two weeks after this pic, you were walking!)

Sweet, happy boy hanging in the stroller

You were playing with Papa and hamming it up!

Your vocabulary (sign approximations, attempts at talking) has grown exponentially in the last thirty days.  I need to sit down and take inventory of your communication... it's pretty impressive.




A snapshot from the video we took of some of your first steps.
You are now a pro!

You started walking... and completely stopped crawling.  On March 1st (the same day that Gracie had a rough outpatient bronchoscopy... it was as if you knew that we all needed some cheering up that day), you walked about five feet.  I was the only one who saw you and couldn't believe it.  Then, about a half an hour later, Preston saw you.  Then you did it for Daddy.  Within a couple of hours, you were walking across the house!  Now, you walk holding your sippy cup, carrying a car in one hand and a ball in the other (which freaks me out!), you navigate small step-downs at the park and attempt "running" on the grass.  You even walk along kicking balls.  We think you may have been secretly practicing - - you never really took itty bitty steps - - you just decided to walk.

Preston showing your new car - - a birthday present from Nana and Papa.
LOVE this of the two of you!

 

You wondered if Chloe's Daddy would allow you to pick her up in your new ride. :)
You even picked a couple of morning glories for her!

 

Someone said to me the other day... "Holy cow, all of the sudden he looks like a big boy!"  She was right.  You're still a baby - - my baby - - but you're throwing balls, walking, talking... doing all kinds of big boy stuff!

You don't love naps. It's hard to get you down about half the time (unless you're in the car).  This is you... crashed... ONLY if I was holding you.  That day, I decided to snooze with you as it was the only sleep I'd had in almost two days.

Here is the "diaper bib" fashioned by your daddy.  He taped this around you as a solution to the massive amounts of drool you had and and the fact that you'd gone through four bibs in eight hours.  Only your daddy would do this!

This cracks me up! 
 

You and Papa walking around at Preston's baseball jamboree.
As usual, you found "trash treasure" and willingly handed it over.

You love cars, balls, books and bath time.  You spot cars everywhere and have preferences when we are driving or walking through a parking lot as to the types you point out.  You push your toy cars (and your brother's) around on the floor like a big boy (and have, pretty much since you started crawling).   If you're not playing with cars or balls, you're picking up a book (or two or three!) and carrying it over to me, Daddy or Preston and shoving it at us while saying, "buh," which is your way of asking us to read it to you.  During the day, you will often sit through about half of a book before getting up to grab another.  And, at night (or when you're tired), you'll sit quietly through three, turning pages, pointing to pictures and telling me the sounds certain animals make.  Your current faves are "The Very Busy Spider" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"
At bath time, you love playing with all the boats, sharks and cars, but your most favorite toy is a cute little mermaid (a castoff from your sister!).  You call her, "meh may," (which is a pretty darn impressive pronunciation of "mermaid") and hold onto her while in one hand while you play with the rest of your toys with the other hand. 

"Panty Raider!"
About a month ago, you started going into Preston's underwear drawer and grabbing a pair to carry around!  Now that you know we all crack up at this silly antic, it has become standard practice for you!

You are a ham. A total ham.  And such a lovebug.  You delight in making others smile, you laugh along with anyone who is laughing and sweetly offer up all kinds of love.  I adore hearing you say, "mama" and sign it with increasing precision.  You do the same for daddy, "GeeCee" and Bubba.  All signs mastered (to the extent of your fine motor abilities at this point) and so adorable.

Star of the Week (or "Best week EVER!")

The week of February 25th was, according to Preston, "the best week EVER."  (Except, of course, for some not so great stuff for his sissy.  More on that soon.)

On Friday the 22nd, he learned that he had been chosen as the "Star of the Week" for the following week.  This meant that, over the weekend, we had an "All About Me" poster to work on and the entire next week would be filled with special little things for him to do at school, including a special chair to sit in, special privileges and special duties.  He was beyond excited.

Here is the poster, which now hangs in his room, that he presented to his class on Monday:

On Tuesday, he got to fill the guessing jar with items.  The class had to guess/estimate how many of that item was in the jar.  He chose jelly beans, so after they guessed, they got to eat them! 
And, that same day was the pizza party that the class earned from their teacher!  For filling the marble jar three times, she treated them all to pizza, juice and cookies. 

On Wednesday, he received his Star of the Week award and sticker... and ... during the awards ceremony for the second trimester, he received a Shooting Star Award for excellence in AR (Accelerated Readers).  We are so proud of him!

On Thursday, he took in a favorite book to share.  This was hard for him - - he had so many he wanted to take in and finally narrowed it down to a Captain America book because "it talked about some things we are learning in class."  (Not Captain America, specifically, of course!)
Thursday was also John's 40th birthday!  So, birthday cake was on the menu and that is always a good thing!

On Friday, he got to bring in a treat to share with his class.  He took in cookies.
It was also the day the class celebrated "Read Across America" and Dr. Seuss' birthday.

Preston with some of his classmates wearing crazy hats and socks to celebrate Dr. Seuss.

And, he was also chosen as "Coyote of the Day" on Friday which carries its own special privileges.  He thought he was pretty darn cool to be both at the same time!

AND... Gavin took his first steps.
AND... Preston got to bring home Clifford for the whole weekend.  (Clifford goes home with each star of the week and gets to participate in all family activities.)  We had to report back to the class what he and Preston did over the weekend.  This is the page we added to the book about Clifford's travels:



A fun, busy weekend for Preston and Clifford!
(The ranch trip was also Preston's first hands-on gun safety lesson and target shooting... all in the presence of many law enforcement officers, so he couldn't have been taught better!)
 

ONE Snow Day (Gavin's birthday, part two)

On Sunday, February 17th, we took the kids to the snow. It was a beautiful, spring-like day and perfect conditions for our crew. We expected Gracie to have the least amount of fun (she wasn't feeling 100%), but it turned out she likely had the most fun overall! And, miraculously, she seemed to feel fantastic the entire time we were there. As I mentioned in part 1 of Gavin's birthday post, we took 331 pictures that weekend. So, once again, this post is all about the photos we love from our snow day!

Love them!

Gracie with her "men!"

Celebrating ONE year of being a Flock of Five!

Preston having fun!

Love this... not posed... both of them genuinely happy to be sledding together.
His grip on her got really tight as they started down the small hill... he wasn't going to let anything happen to his Gracie!

LOVE!
 

Gavin... in the snow for the first time... and, of course, he ate it!

One of my most favorite pictures of them together... ever.

 

Lookin' so very pretty in all the spots where she posed and relaxed!

 

Sledding with my boy!
He giggled the whole way down.  So did I!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Pensive Gracie!

Rockin' her coat and posing like a true diva!

Daddy and Preston sledding (and spinning!)

Mommy and the big boy!

Gavin with Nana and Mommy
She comforted him after his hands got too cold from eating the snow!
(He was not interested in mittens!)

 

LOVE the pure joy on our faces!

My handsome "big" boys!

A snowball fight between Mommy and Preston... hilarious!

"Um... there's a little tree right there!"

 

ONE-derful (Gavin's birthday, part one)



ONE-derful ONE!!!

Gavin turned one on Saturday, February 16th, and we spent the whole weekend celebrating!   John left for work at early-dark-thirty that morning (and left a sweet note for his baby boy!), so I packed up the kids and their stuff (no small feat!) and drove up to Nana and Papa's and John drove up after work late that evening. 

As per usual, we took an excessive amount of pictures throughout the weekend... 331 were downloaded and that was after I had deleted many directly from the camera!  Needless to say, that's why it's taken a bit to post any pics of the little man's birthday fun!

On Sunday, we had a yummy breakfast feast, took the kids to play in the snow and then returned to celebrate with dinner, cake and fun. These are the pics from Gavin's "birthday photo shoot" and the cake. Part two will follow soon with all the snow fun! :-)

"One"

Love this little guy's sweet face!
(Like Gavin's shirt?  Check out my friend's Etsy page here.)

The many faces of the Gav-man

 

The Cake

 

"Ummmm... what is that glowing thing?"

What is that, Nana?

"I am not sure, but I think someone just said I get to eat this..."

How to eat a birthday cake!

 

Diving in!
(Not feeling so unsure anymore!)

"Mmmmm... you said this is called 'frosting,' right?!"
"Good stuff!"

"Hey... this birthday thing is pretty fun!"

"Did you see that big bite I took?!"
 

"I LOVE cake!"