Don't Play with your Food!

Gavin loves to eat. You'd never know it by how slim he is, but he practically eats non-stop. He's always snacking and drinking milk. He loves carrots. He likes them cooked whereas Gabe will only eat them raw. This particular evening, he decided to stack them one on top of each other carefully and slowly, like a block tower. He was so diligent and determined to get each one steady and have each orange disc perfectly aligned. Then, he knocked them down and started all over again. I thought it was just too funny and couldn't bear to tell him not to play with his food.

Puppy Love

Our dog, Wilbur, has been so good with the kids since Gabe was a tiny baby and toddler. He's just so passive and lets the boys crawl all over him. He is so sweet and gentle. Gavin has not wanted much at all to do with the dog, until very recently. He has started feeding him scraps over the side of the table and is quite interested in Wilbur's food and water bowls too. Gavin tries to pet Wilbur or lean on him and Wilbur just lets Gavin do it. He never seems to get frustrated with the baby at all. Gabe is really good about giving the dog treats when he comes in from outside or does something good, so now Gavin wants to do that too. As you can plainly see, the dog is just too sweet and the kids are just in love with him. I'm so glad. He's a really great dog.

First Snow

Gabe and Gavin got to see their very first snowfall this year. It started slowly, but it didn't stop coming down....the weather was in the teens and twenties, but I didn't really expect it to snow like this. Gabe wasn't sure about it at first, but he liked watching it fall and trying to catch it on his tongue. When he saw more of it and it actually stuck, he equated it to Santa Claus and said "Wow, Look Mommy, it's Christmas time". Guess his only real reference up to now, was in picture books.

It just snowed all night Tuesday night and then we played and it went away by Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. I don't think the schools even closed. A couple of neighbors built snowmen, but once it was all rolled into balls, there was none left covering the lawn. The boys stomped around in it a bit but it kept raining and turned to slush quickly. But, by Saturday, it was snowing again and really hard. It was SO cold and the kids (and Mommy-the "Florida girl") had never seen anything quite like it. We all wanted to be outside until we were frozen to the bone.

Gabe had a blast outside in the wintery weather....bundled up and layered too, he learned to throw snowballs at Mommy and Wilbur (our dog). He loved every minute of it! I had to bribe him to get him to come in for a break to warm up. He still talks about that snow! But I'm looking forward to spring time too.

Still needs a Helmet

Gabe got a cool, new, authentic bomber jacket as a late Christmas gift and it's so adorable.....he loves to wear it every day and he even picked out a hat with a plane on it to wear with his mittens and bomber jacket. Good thing too, because he needed a new coat and we've had snow 3 times already this winter! He gets lots of compliments on it when we're out and he is wearing the new jacket. Gavin inherited his old one that he'd outgrown and they are really precious little look-alikes.

I guess you can tell by the bandage on his forehead that once again, he has a head injury. Ugh, it breaks my heart and I guess he really needs to wear a helmet around because it seems like once we get one wound healed up another one accidentally occurs. This one was a run-in with a mean and nasty coffee table corner and it might could have even used a stitch or two, but we didn't go to the hospital. He was such a champ about it, but it sure did bleed alot. Daddy got him Cars band-aids and fixed him all up, but we just felt so bad.

Gavin isn't much better. He acutally suffered a nurse-maids elbow (dislocation) on Christmas Day and we had no idea until the next morning when he wasn't using it at all. I took him to the pediatrician and she easily popped it back in but we have to watch him too for a while to keep it from reoccuring.

Mercy...boys are so rough and tumble!

Piggy Backs

Gabe loves a piggy back ride and Rob has taught him to sing Happy Trails while he's on his back....it's darling. Gabe knows all the words, but Gavin wants in on the fun. So, today when Gabe was lying on the floor, Gavin sat down on his back and Gabe began inching across the living room floor on his belly, singing the words to Happy Trails. He even sang the bum, bah, dee, dah's!! What a guy!

Teeth to Talk with

I just realized that Gavin has a whole mouth full of teeth! What a cute smile and a happy boy, but I hadn't taken notice in a while of all the new teeth in there....and I admit I'm actually a little surprised. He is growing up so fast and doing so many new things. Still not really a word, but lots of babbling and gaggling. He must think he's talking, and he does make the same sounds often in reference to some things, but we can't understand any of it just yet. We still have to rely on the signs he knows and the gestures he makes for most wants/needs. Stay tuned...full sentences can't be too far off.

Happy New Year too!