Happy Dane

Despite a very short maybe 15 minute nap (for at least the fourth time in the last week - poor kid), Dane fully enjoyed our long afternoon outside. It was a bit warmer today and the sun was out, a welcome change especially since more cold (very cold) weather is supposed to be headed our way.

Dane is finally tall enough to be able to stand over the Strider and walk with it. I bet he will figure out how to coast down the driveway pretty quickly once spring rolls around. Hard to believe he could be chasing Gavin around on a bike before long!

Scott cut some extra paths with the snowblower so Gavin could get his pedal bike out and try to ride. He asked for his jump too. He did surprisingly well riding, despite the difficulty of being bundled up and the uneven and difficult terrain covered in snow. Dane thought the jump was for him to climb and slide down. So, Gavin joined in as well for a bit. They had a great time!

More Snow!

Well, we are enjoying another snowy day at home today. It seems like every other day we are getting more snow for the last month. It is a little hard when we are constantly having to reschedule and cancel plans, but some would have been cancelled for illnesses anyway, all just part of winter. So, we are making the most of it and trying to enjoy the snow and each other. We have had a lot of fun the last few days.

Gavin has been asking for weeks to pull out paints again. So, last week when we picked up in the basement, we also reset up his art easel. Then we covered it with paper to paint. Gavin had a great time painting. He loves to use all the colors and mix them and smear them around as much as possible. He gets so excited and is so proud of anything he paints. It is very enjoyable to watch. Dane was able to enjoy a much needed nap in peace.

Gavin and Dane have been helping me a lot more in the kitchen. Dane comes running to help stir, pat,  dump, wash, or anything I may need, as soon as he knows I need to go start a meal. Gavin is often not far behind, but doesn't usually stick around the whole time. Dane has far more interest than Gavin ever has, although Gavin did used to have more interest than he does now, he would rather be off playing with his toys now. The really enjoyed getting to use their own rolling pin to help roll out tortillas. I was very surprised at how well they both did. Gavin has helped roll out pasta dough before, so he has had a little experience, but they both were able to roll out tortillas fairly evenly and even somewhat round. They tasted great too! It certainly can be a lot messier with them wanting to help, but I try to just enjoy that they are excited to help and want to learn. I do sometimes send them off to play instead, but I try to limit how often I do that. Thankfully, they are pretty good about when I say I just need them to play. I hope their interest and involvement continues and serves to give them the ability to better take care of themselves (many, many) years down the road.

This morning, we covered part of the kitchen floor with towels and brought up some buckets and toys. We filled the buckets with snow and the boys had a great time exploring the snow. It was so easy to clean up as well. We all enjoy going outside, but we can only spend so much time out there and it is exhausting to do multiple times a day since it takes at least 20-30 minutes to get everyone dressed and out the door and then another 10 to undress and hang everything up. Even though Gavin helps get himself partially dressed, it still takes a long time. We will definitely still spend time outside, but when we wouldn't be able to be out for long or it is a particularly cold day, it will be fun to try it again so they get to explore the snow and stay a bit warmer as well.

This afternoon, we spend some time outside. Before we went out, I decided it would be fun to try something new. We have a few empty spray bottles laying around that the boys have claimed as toys and they use when they help clean. So, we grabbed those and a couple of squirt bottles I have and filled them with water and a little food coloring. We did red, yellow, blue, and green. We then got all ready and brought them outside with us to color the snow. It was so much fun. The boys preferred the squirt bottles, I think the spray bottles were harder for them with their mittens on. I really liked the spray bottles because it gave more options in trying to make pictures and covering more area. We ended up refilling the squirt bottles with the colors from the spray bottles since they boys liked those better. We had a great time coloring the snow!

Thank goodness for Pinterest! It has given us lots of fun projects and experiments to try out. I may not be a very creative person, but I am a pro at following directions and there are lots of great ideas out there for us to try! We look forward to trying more out since there is no end to the amount of snow days in sight! Yay for snow!

Cruisin' to the Drive In!

Since it was so cold today and we needed to do some after the holidays cleanup downstairs still, we had to come up with something fun to do as well. I remembered making cardboard cars to sit in and watch a movie. I remembered living it. We have lits of various sized boxes left over from Christmas and birthdays. So, it only made sense to use a couple of the medium/large boxes to have Gavin and Dane turn into cars. Gavin was thrilled when I mentioned my idea. He was more than happy to test out the boxes as I worked on cleaning up and reorganizing my office/exercise room.

After lunch, we got the boxes set up and they did a little decorating. Gavin had a great time decorating his. Dane mostly decorated himself and the floor, but he did have fun. Then we picked out the movie to watch when we were done downstairs. 

They helped me quickly finish cleaning up and then we got settled in with some popcorn (thank you Uncle Morris for the variety tin, we all are very much enjoying it!). They picked Cars. Even though we have seen it a lot, it was fun to watch them enjoy it from their cars (although Dane only periodically watched from his car)!

Gavin was driving with one hand and eating popcorn and drinking water with the other. He cracks me up!

I have no idea how long the cars will last, but they are really enjoying them for now and when they are done, they will be sent off to be recycled, again!

Snowy Monday!

We had a very snowy start to February today! Most of the heavy snow happened overnight so there was already probably 6 inches out when we got up. When Scott went to work a couple hours later, we had 8. By the time we went out to play after lunch we had 10!

Although we were disappointed to have to cancel yet another playdate, it was fun to have another snow day at home. We hung out inside in the morning since Dane took his nap early and I wasn't sure if he would take a normal length nap or if it would be short since it started earlier than usual. Gavin played on his own some, helped me do some clean up and organizing in Scott's shack, and helped get some toys picked up so I could vacuum the house. By the time Dane woke up we were just about done, so we quickly finished and then I got lunch made.

After lunch was cleaned up we start the (painful) process of getting everyone ready to go outside. It is amazing how hard and how long it can sometimes take. Even though they say they want to go outside, I often wonder if they really do because at least one (if not both) is uncooperative and adds 5-10 minutes to the already 20 minimum it takes to get 3 people ready for snow play. Even though Gavin can mostly dress himself, it still takes what feels like forever.

Once we finally made it outside, I wondered why we bothered because there was so much whining and complaining happening. Despite the complaining, neither one actually wanted to go inside. I know that with that much snow on the ground it is harder to navigate. Dane really struggles (and given the snow is cureently up to his bum, it isn't hard to figure out why) but Gavin usually is able to do fine. He was apparently having a lot of trouble because it was up past his knees. I guess that makes it less fun. Who knew.

We spent about an hour outside before I was ready to call it quits. Gavin was OK with that because he was ready for some hot chocolate. Dane, on the other hand, was no where near ready to comply even though he said he was. Go figure.

Gavin was lucky enough to go out for another almost hour after dinner with Scott so he could clear the driveway. Dane is bummed he gets left inside but Scott can't safely watch both of them and run the snow blower. Maybe next year that will change. I do enjoy having a bit of just me and Dane time though!

All in all, a fun and even productive day! We are all looking forward to going back out to play tomorrow, especially since the driveway is now clear and Scott always pushes back into the grass to give Dane more area to easily play and to have a place for snow if we get any more or have a huge snowfall. Yay for snow!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I see two little bears reading together!

Dane has (finally) taken a much larger interest in books and being read to. We read a lot of books most days because Gavin has always loved to be read to. Dane now has several books that he really loves and we read several times almost every day. One of those is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Last week I was able to get a picture of Gavin reading the book to Dane. Apparently Gavin has heard the story enough to be able to "read" it by using the pictures as cues for what color and animal is next. He does it perfectly and it is incredibly sweet to watch and hear. He has been doing this for a couple weeks and I finally was able to get a picture of them!