Happy Birthday Dane!

I guess I finally have to accept Dane is no longer a baby, although he will always be my baby, right? Kind of like how Gavin will always be my baby, right? That doesn't make me crazy, does it?

Regardless, it is an exciting day for Dane and while I do share in that excitement, I am also sad that the time seems to pass me by before I even realize it. Dane is an amazing little boy. Sweet, fun, silly, thoughtful, happy, smart, and so much more. He brings an irreplaceable element to our little family and we are so thankful for it. He is certainly becoming a much more willful little person and that can be hard at times, but it is still awesome to see him go through the changes that happen as children grow. It is so different from Gavin, so it is fun for different reasons.

Dane is getting so big, he is up to 35.25 inches and 29 pounds, 7 ounces! A huge different from where Gavin was at 2, so he seems so small still, but he clearly isn't small! I think it must be he looks so skinny because he is all muscle, just like Gavin, just on a smaller scale.

Dane loves to help out with anything I am doing. He loves to help cook (especially if there is stirring involved),vacuum, dust, make beds, move laundry, and pretty much anything else going on each day. He is so curious, he loves to figure out how things work and to be involved in fixing things as well. He is actually a great helper most of the time. During clean up times, he is able to sort toys to the various bins/shelves. He is usually gentle and careful when helping to stir so he loves that I let him even help stir hot things on the stove. He is pretty good at cleaning up after any messes he makes when eating and vacuuming up things that were dumped by accident, as well as just general vacuuming. He absolutely loves when he gets to help, it is so sweet to watch how excited and proud he is of his contributions!

Dane loves food in pretty much any form. He rarely refuses food in front of him and it usually means he just isn't hungry. He loves a huge variety of foods and eats pretty much everything we eat with very few exceptions. He loves to try pretty much everything. If he has something different (or he thinks is different) than what we have, he is always asking for a bite. It is amazing how much he is capable of eating! Not that he is small (70th-80th percentiles for height and weight pretty consistently), but the amount of food he is capable of eating makes me wonder where he could possibly put it. He must be burning off even more than I realize with all the running and playing he does!

Dane loves spending time with Gavin and learning and playing with him. He clearly looks up to Gavin so much already. If Gavin does it, Dane wants to. If Gavin says it, Dane is trying to say it. It is very sweet to see them interact. Dane does sometimes end up in trouble because of it, but he has also learned a lot from following and mimicking Gavin. The few times it is just me and Dane, I actually think he is bored because he doesn't view me as nearly as much fun as Gavin. He will go looking for him, Dane clearly misses him when Gavin is not around. So incredibly sweet!

Dane is a little monkey like Gavin, they both love to climb, run, jump, and be wild and crazy boys. Dane is really getting the hang of how to properly jump and be more aware of his surroundings/edges and to take turns so he and Gavin don't collide. I think he makes everyone else more nervous than me, which I see with Gavin all the time. If you have never had a climber, I guess it is shocking to see. I am just so used to it, that I work with them when they start climbing so they know how to safely get up and down, wait and ask for help when needed, and learn their own limits. It seems to have worked so far, even though they do sometimes climb things I wish they didn't and at inconvenient times, at least if you give them a safe space, it is easier to manage.

Dane is super friendly, although he is pretty cautious with strangers and new/unfamiliar places. It doesn't usually take long for him to warm up and then he is his usual crazy and happy self. I am glad at least one child has a bit of fear of strangers!

I am fairly certain Dane is a lefty. More and more he favors his left hand for everything and he is clearly more comfortable using it. If you hand him something, he almost always reaches with his left, if it is handed to his right or otherwise ends up in his right, he usually quickly moves whatever it is to his left. He does amazingly well with silverware and his left hand (sometimes I think he is better than Gavin is at 4 - very careful and doesn't miss much). It is really amazing to watch him and I am glad there are so many easily available things for lefties now so that he doesn't have to make due with scissors and such that are meant for right handed people. There are actually quite a few people in both of our families that are lefties, so it is fun that Gavin is clearly right handed and Dane is left handed!

Dane is starting to pick up more new words, although I think Gavin and I are the only ones that understand most of what he says. He has been putting short phrases together more and more as well. It is so cute to see him try to say new things and so sweet how proud he is when he gets it or gets really close. I am sure he will get even more chatty as he picks up more each day. It is nice to be able to communicate even more with him.

Dane and Gavin were being super silly and playing in Dane's room, so I got out the camera to get a few pictures. Dane makes so many great, sometimes crazy, faces!

I made a small cake since we won't be having his party for another week so that both my parents and Scott's dad could make it. Gavin really wanted to make Dane a cake with sprinkles in it, so I went looking for a from scratch "funfetti" cake recipe. I found one that looked good from a site that I have previously found good recipes on. Initially we were going to make them cupcakes but Gavin changed his mind and really wanted it to be a cake, not cupcakes for Dane. So, I put the batter into a cake pan. It did not come out as expected at all. I thought about it while it cooled enough to take it out of the pan and decided I would just turn it into a layer cake to try to salvage it and make it look decent and hope that it ended up tasting ok. That proved difficult since it didn't exactly cooperate when I tried to remove it from the pan. I pieced it together as best as I could and then tried to cover it up with frosting and decorations. It turned out ok and at least it did taste fine. I definitely won't be saving the recipe to use another time, it was fine but I was just not impressed. Oh well, Dane loved it and Gavin loved helping to make Dane's cake and that is ultimately what matters.

All in all, we had a fun day! It will be fun to have his birthday party in a little over a week. We are super excited that Pappy Hank will be back up to visit for Dane's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Scott's birthday! It should be a lot of fun to have him here again to celebrate with us. I am really excited to see all the party plans come together and I am sure he will have a blast!

Leaves!

Having fun on a very chilly day with rakes and jumping into leaf piles!

Start 'Em Young!

My Smallest Helper...

Dane wanted to help make breakfast this morning. Gavin requested Pancakes so Dane helped to stir the batter. He had fun stirring as I make pancakes. We pulled out cookie cutters to make fun shaped pancakes. They loved the snowmen, stocking, and tree shaped pancakes. It is a little more work and cleanup when they want to help but it is fun to have them involved. Plus, usually, they play nicely together while I deal with the extra cleanup!

Fun New "Toy"!

I found a fun new app for my phone that let's me create collages with pictures on my phone. I frequently use that function in Picasa from my laptop but this gives me more options of what I can do from my phone. Yay! So I just picked a couple of recent pictures of the boys. Very fun!

Such a Ham!

Dane wanted to try Gavin's hat on. Then he stopped to pose and say cheese! Such a silly, cute little boy if I do say so myself!

Lol...

Apparently I give my 4 year old too much credit and he is still prone to doing things I would think he is past... Provides a good laugh for me when he asked me for help after doing a page in an activity/learning book we frequently work through together. I guess he didn't like that I got up to get myself a glass of water and took that time to express his creativity!

November?

It is what feels like very un-November like weather today. Mid to high 60s, sunny, and absolutely beautiful outside. We are all enoying whatever remains of warmer weather before what is predicted to be a very harsh winter hits.

Gavin is enjoying the ramp he got for his birthday! Dane is enjoying his usual digging, cutting grass, and leaf blowing! I wish this type of fall weather lasted much longer. It is my favorite!

Busy Working Boys...

I always have lots of catch up with regard to posts and pictures because there are never enough hours in the day to do everything I would like to do and sleep. So, instead, I am going to (yet again) try to be better about at least getting little updates and pictures here and there and keep slowly taking care of the many, many backlogged stories and pictures I have.

Today, we are enjoying (probably our last) warm weather. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and bring with it the cold weather we had last week. Until then, the boys are enjoying digging in the dirt without having many layers on. I wonder what they qil do as the ground starts to freeze. Should be interesting as they explore the changes in weather!

Happy Birthday Gavin

Wow! 4 years have passed already. Where has the time gone? For some reason this year I am having a much harder time being excited and not sad about Gavin getting bigger/older. It has been both an amazing and frustrating year. There were many days and weeks I didn't think we would survive 3 to see 4. There were also lots (and lots) of really fun weeks and months. It is a roller coaster ride for sure. As hard as it can be, I can't help but be proud of how awesome Gavin is. Even the frustrating traits are not so much bad, just hard to manage at times as we clash throughout the day.

I love watching his relationship with Dane grow as I see them play together more each day. I see Gavin taking care of Dane and  leading him into trouble as siblings sometimes do. I see Gavin teaching Dane how to use various toys, "reading" books together, doing puzzles, and playing games like hide and seek and climbing being crazy boys. It is amazing to see them interact and all that Gavin is teaching Dane. He really is an amazing big brother. So loving and protective of Dane. Despite not always wanting Dane around, he gets very worried if Dane is hurt or in a situation that is very dangerous. He gets very upset if we joke about Dane being missing (like if he left the room and is being too quiet), he quickly has to go look for him to make sure he is ok. It is very sweet.

Gavin has definitely slowed down in how much he has grown, but he is still consistently in the 90th-95th percentile, even though he has only put on a couple pounds since last year. He is 42 inches tall and 44 pounds! Crazy, he is apparently the size of an average 5.5/almost 6 year old. He doesn't look huge, he is so lean because he is all muscle. It is amazing!

Gavin is this amazing little sponge. Soaking up such amazing amounts of knowledge from books, watching others, playing with us and his friends, and everything else around him. He does pick up some things I wish he wouldn't, but he is very perceptive and is able to piece things together to learn as he navigates life. He is very determined (sometimes viewed as stubborn) and persistent. He doesn't always handle disappointment well but we are working on it and it is better at times, so it is nice to see him growing as he figures out how to handle that we don't always get what we want, when we want it.

He has become much more independent. Although, he will usually choose to have a playmate (me, Dane, Scott, a friend), he is getting so much better at creating fun new ways to play with his toys. I love when I need to step away to take care of something around the house, start dinner, or take care of Dane and hearing him playing and all the conversations he has with himself and his toys.

I love that Gavin is interested in everything. He wants to be involved and ask lots of questions to learn about what you are doing. Although the questions can be tiresome (especially when it is late and he is full of questions instead of settling down and relaxing so he can sleep), it is still amazing to get a peek into how his mind is working and what it comes up with.

We had a low key day of playing outside, riding bikes, helping clean up pine needles, visiting with Pappy Hank, and seeing Grandma and Grandpa for a bit.

We had a yummy dinner (that Gavin mostly refused in favor of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - no surprise) and a fun cake shaped like a motorcycle tire (per Gavin's request and thankfully he didn't mind that I managed to totally botch the "spokes" and was thrilled he had a motorcycle tire cake).

We have his party next weekend. It was supposed to be yesterday but it turned out that everyone would be able to make it next weekend so we decided to move it. We are super excited and I was glad to have a little more time to finalize everything without having to also prepare all the food and do his party cake. It was nice to have a low key weekend for his actual birthday so we could really enjoy each other.

I am sure the next year holds many more challenges, but it will also hold even more amazing moments and fun times that will give us memories we will always hold dear. Happy Birthday Gavin!

Just Too Cute!

I love catching the moments when Gavin and Dane are being so good to each other. They have lots of times they are frustrated with each other but seeing them play well together, Gavin take care of Dane, Dane insisting on an extra snack so he can bring it to Gavin to share, and then laying and sitting together makes me feel good. I am sure it will be short lived and one of then will throw their apple or elbow the other but for now, I just wish there was room for me to sneak in and snuggle with them too!

Oh the Silly Face!

Dane started making this silly face from time to time. It always makes me laugh. So cute and funny. I finally caught it on camera!

Ahhhh.... it kills me every time I see it!

Reading Buddies!

Just hanging out in their hammock (best idea ever - repurposed our Moby wrap into a hammock for them) and reading to each other. I love all the moments like this that they are sharing and hanging out so nicely together! Best buddies!

Off to the Fair!

We had an awesome day with friends today! We visited the Ulster County Fair! We had a great time and it all went really well!

We have some new friends that we have started spending more time with outside of our playgroup morning and when they suggested this, I was really excited to check it out. I haven't been to the Dutchess County Fair in several years and while it is a lot of fun, it can be quite expensive to do much of anything once you are inside. The Ulster County Fair is much smaller, but you pay one price to get in and then get access to all the rides. They also have a really awesome kids play section, some free games, space to picnic (and it isn't a problem to bring your own food in), and all the traditional fair type food, games, and animals.

We met a little before the fair was set to open and I followed Jesse there. We got everyone and everything unloaded and headed in to get tickets and start our day at the fair! Caden and Gavin were so excited to be together and to be going to the fair. It is a lot of fun to watch them together, they are so much alike. Dane and Sophie were just taking in the sights of everything going on around them.

As we entered the gate at the fair, it was exciting. It is a bit of sensory overload with the bright colors, lights, sounds, and people (even though it was first thing in the morning and there weren't that many people, it doesn't seem to take many people for it to sound like thousands). We decided to just start walking around and head in the direction of the rides to decide where to start. Gavin had never been on a ride like any of these, so I was really hoping he would enjoy it and that Dane would be ok not being able to go on more than a few. I think it helped Gavin to have Caden because they were able to do most of them together without Jesse or myself having to ride with them. Dane was able to ride a couple with Gavin and I rode two with him so he wasn't totally left out. It was a bit hard to negotiate at times because they didn't always want to go on the same ride but overall they were both really receptive to what the other wanted to do and did ok with the couple of lines we had to wait on.

 We played a couple of games that the boys were guaranteed to win (because neither of us wanted the potential meltdown from our 3 (Gavin) and 4 (Caden) year olds when they didn't win the ones that required specific skills or paying close attention, etc. They had a blast fishing and then picking out a stuffed fish to take home and then popping balloons with darts and picking out another stuffed animal to take home. We also did a small sand art for them to take home which Gavin did far better than I anticipated picking out the colors and filling his flower on his own. It was cute to watch as he carefully picked out which color bins to stop at for his flower.

They loved playing in the kids section. They had a small hay bale maze, a corn "sand" box, practice roping a steer, pretending to milk a cow, and a few other learning games and some informational boards up. We had a great time resting there after having spent the morning on rides and playing games.

We spent time visiting the animals next and they were able to pet a few of the calves. Gavin tried to lay down and snuggle with them in the hay. It was really cute how he just wanted to snuggle up with them. They both loved petting them. Thankfully, they liked looking at the pigs but were not interested in petting or trying to climb in and lay with them. Yuck.

After checking out a few of the tents and the fire fighter set ups, we headed back towards the rides. Thankfully, Dane took a nap when he was ready and it was a cool enough day, that wearing him in the Beco was not too hot. He took a good nap and woke up in a great mood, ready for more playing.

The day was filled with so much fun, it felt like it flew by. We stopped to have a snack and realized it was already 3:45! So, we had our snack and decided to do a couple more rides and then pick up some treats (namely funnel cakes/fried dough and lemonade). They boys were less than pleased it was time to pick our last few rides, but we made the most of it to enjoy some more fun before we needed to head home.

By the time we were headed home, it was already 4:45. The traffic getting out was a bit better than getting in, so we managed to get home by 5:30 to have a quick dinner before our nightly routine of bath, books, and bed began.

After an awesome day and so much fun, it was a huge bummer to get home and start unloading the car to find that the Beco was no where to be found. I looked everywhere, hoping that maybe it was still in the basket under the stroller. I didn't really think about what I was loading into the car at the end, I was just trying to get it all loaded so we could head home, but as I thought about it later, I definitely don't remember pulling it out, or it falling on the ground as I unloaded the stroller. I had it all day, until the end of the day because I wore it half of that wearing Dane and I know I put it back in the basket of the stroller. So I am not 100% sure what happened to it in the last 30-45 minutes (at most) whether it managed to fall out without me noticing (not sure how that would happen, but I guess it is possible) or if someone saw it, recognized it and snuck and snatched it (no idea how someone would manage that), or if I have just lost my mind. However it happened, it is now gone. I will check with the fair to see if someone found it and turned it in, but I am not sure how likely that is. I am really bummed because I use it basically every day still, it has been such an awesome carrier for me and it is nice that I can even wear Gavin in it if I really need/want to. Plus it doesn't help it isn't easily replaceable because they stopped making this particular model and they don't make the print in the two lines they currently still make and trying to find a used one in that pattern would be near impossible. A very sad end to the day. I am far more attached to it than I even realized.

At least the fair was awesome. Gavin and Dane had a great time and we look forward to going again next year!

Wordless Wednesday!

Chalk Fun!

Gavin and I have been enjoying a new giant box of chalk. We have done lots of drawing but Gavin's new favorite thing is to make chalk towns for a few cars that he decided to have as outside cars to push around. We have fun coming up with what we are going to draw. Gavin and Dane try to help, but they are not quite able to (and Gavin doesn't seem to want to try to learn more) so they mostly just draw random lines and scribbles. Gavin helps to decide where to put neighborhoods, stores, bridges, train stations, beaches, water, race tracks, playgrounds, etc. He also helps to decide what colors to use.

We have gotten more complicated with our plans each time and as we come up with new things to include. 

We have lots of ideas of how to improve to use each time our town is washed away by rain and we need to "rebuild". It will be fun to see what other things we can come up with, especially once Gavin starts doing more actual drawing. I am sure we will be doing lots of this all summer! We are having a blast coming up with our plan and then using his cars and trucks to drive around town!

LOL!

This is what I woke up to find this morning...

Not sure how that is comfortable or how it happened, but it sure is funny!

Sand-Angel and a Party!

Gavin, Dane, and I went to Milbrook this morning to check out the farmers market and play at the playground. We had a lot of fun picking out a few things to take home and then playing for a few hours. We love the Milbrook playground and go pretty often. Gavin was having so much fun, he decided to lay down in the sand and try to make a sand angel. It was reasonably successful and Gavin deemed it a lot of fun! Such a silly boy! We had a lot of fun for a few hours and then headed home for lunch and Dane's nap.

This afternoon/evening, we went to the boathouse for a birthday party. It was for the son of a friend of Scott's from work. It was a lot of fun for all. The boys loved the boathouse and being down by the river. They loved throwing rocks in and all the attention from everyone (kids and adults). Gavin enjoyed getting to try out their rowing practice equipment.

There was so much for them to do and they loved watching the older kids run around and play their nerf battle game. They were all so good about watching out for Gavin and Dane and helping them out. Gavin and Dane were thrilled and loved being involved. A very fun day that I am sure ended all too soon for Gavin and Dane's preferences but we were definitely all exhausted and needing to get home to get ready for bed!