Gavin and Declan: January 2012

Washing the dishes and playing at the beach

I have to say, Gavin is at a super fun age right now. He can say so many things, and convey his thoughts and feelings pretty well. He's affectionate and expressive, and is developing a sense of humor. And his play is much more fun too. We read books, play with play dough, draw, paint, play "ready set go" with his many cars, the list goes on. And Gavin now engages in a lot of imaginative play. So we play "farmer" with his little people barn set, or he cooks dinner for Ryan and I in his play kitchen (which involves using the play phone to call and order a pizza!). Two of Gavin's current favorite pretend activities are washing the dishes and playing at the beach. Here are some pics from those activities:

Gavin's "washing the dishes" game isn't very pretend, except for the fact that Ryan and I pretend that Gavin is actually cleaning anything that gets put in the sink, but its still fun!

A large quantity of soapy bubbles is key to playing wash the dishes.

Taking some dish washing advice from Mommy.

Don't forget to rinse!

Fascinated by his quickly pruning hands.

Gav loves looking at his hands under the water. This usually requires an outfit change after washing the dishes.

And now here we are playing at the beach. To a non-2 year old, this might look like all of Mommy's tupperware strewn all over the kitchen floor, but you'd be very wrong. This is a collection of sand castles on the beach, obviously.

A game of beach would not be complete with a set of shades.

Looking cool.

Playing at the park (in January!)

The ground is covered in snow now, and its a balmy 15 degrees outside, but just a few days ago, we were enjoying some wonderfully warm weather. This winter in general has really been great. The mild weather and lack of snow has made my life much easier. Trying to go anywhere with an infant and a 2 year old in the snow adds hours of extra time and tons of extra stress, so I'm thankful that 2 of the 3 months of my maternity leave were snow free!

We took full advantage of the good weather by going to the park every chance we could. Here are a few pics from one of our park outings:

Declan getting bundled up and ready to go. Check out Gavin in the background, jumping on the couch and doing the double point. That kid is a ham.

Like always, we started our park visit with the swings. Gavin starts with the pink swing and works his way down, testing every swing there. A great arm workout for mommy.

Gav likes to "read" the signs at the park for a little intellectual break in between all the playing.

Don't worry, Declan is here too! (Enjoying a nap underneath a million layers of blankets and fleece coveralls :)

Building some winter sandcastles, and ensuring that Mommy will have to sweep up sand off her floors every month of the year!

I've taught Gavin to yell "ride em cowboy!" when he rides the horsies. We really have to get video of that.

Christmas 2011

Our family had a great Christmas this year. Most importantly, we were blessed with another family member to share the season with! While Declan wasn't too into Christmas this year, Gavin definitely was, and that made the holiday so much more fun. Gav marvelled at the Christmas decorations inside and out, and would request that I turn on all the lighted decorations every morning (I was happy to oblige since I love the magic of Christmas lights). He listened to Christmas music with us, and learned to sing Jingle Bells and Silent Night (although he definitely sings some weird words to Silent Night!). Gav understood who Santa is, and loved visiting him at the mall.

Gavin's newfound appreciation for Christmas made it so much more enjoyable to prepare for the holiday. Having a toddler really does make it more fun to give than receive. Watching Gavin's reactions Christmas morning were worth all the hard work that goes into those few minutes of pure 2 year old bliss.

This year we celebrated Christmas three times! Our first celebration was here at our house, followed by celebrations at my parent's house and Ryan's parents house. We are certainly lucky to live close enough to both of our families that we can manage to see everyone within a day or two of Christmas. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the holiday:

Once we told Gavin that it was Christmas Eve and Santa was coming that night, he spent the next 10 minutes looking out the door asking "Where Santa?"

We got Gavin to understand that Santa was going to come while he was sleeping, so we moved on to putting out cookies for Santa on the plate Gavin made at Miss Jeanne's.

Gav decided to taste test the cookies to make sure they were good enough for Santa

Realizing that he has eaten a lot of Santa's cookies, Gav makes his "I'm cute" face to convince Santa to still visit our house.

More cuteness in between bites of cookie. The temptation of the cookies turned out to be too much for Gavin, so all Santa got was so crumbs and some milk in a sippy cup!

Christmas morning. Gav was excited to open his presents, but not before his customary Yo Gabba Gabba episode to start the morning!

Santa brought Gavin a play kitchen set, which was immediately put to use with his play tools.

Hammering the kitchen cabinets.

Christmas #2 at my parents house. My dad loves model trains and has a few tracks that run underneath the Christmas tree. Gavin loved the trains this year, and kept my dad busy as conductor!

Enjoying the trains.

Uncle Andy and his newest nephew, Declan, enjoying the Christmas tree.

3 generations of good looking guys.

Aunt Shari and Uncle Andy holding their godson Declan.

Gavin was scared of Uncle Andy for about the first year and a half of his life, but Declan seems to think Uncle Andy is the coolest right off the bat!