It's hot, hot, hot in NY!

Gavin and I have been enjoying the very hot weather from the last couple of days by spending lots of time in his pool and with the sprinkler. We have had so much fun splashing around in his pool and running through the sprinkler. Gavin is no longer afraid of the sprinkler, he now loves it and especially loves when you run through with him. He laughs and giggles like crazy!

Trying to get me with the sprinkler!

Filling up his pool...

Taking a short break from the water to play with his trucks.

Asking for some help picking up the sprinkler to try spray me some more!

We are going to have so much fun outside this summer as the weather stays more consistently warm!

Catching Up

Well, it is certainly about time I play catch up and share some pictures and stories. Although we haven't done all that much in the way of play dates, outings or trips in the last two months, we have managed to have some fun around the house.

Gavin and I have managed to stay busy with some new fun things when I was up to being outside. He has discovered the joy of chalk, bubbles and especially the hose and being able to spray everyone and everything.

Notice the random lines all over, those are Gavin's handy work!

Attacking with the hose...

Discovering a love of popsicles!

Helping me clean on the rare occasions that I didn't feel completely horrible.

Tormenting ants and their ant hills!

Getting into trouble by running to the neighbors house and hiding behind trees/bushes where he can't be reached...

Desperately wanting a ride in the backpack and not wanting to wait for Dada to get home to do it... so I had to give him a ride!

Airplane!

Troublemaker... always finding something new to get into and climb!

Hiding at our other neighbors house... so much trouble!

Gavin is certainly a handful. I am grateful that most of the time I wasn't feeling well the weather wasn't great so spending time inside resting was ok. We spent time outside as much as possible when it wasn't raining or cold but no where near the amount of time that Gavin would have liked. Now that the weather is nicer and I am feeling better we are often outside several hours in the afternoon and are taking walks most days, at Gavin's insistence. We go outside and he plays for a bit and then asks to get into the garage and insists on climbing into his stroller and us going on a walk. Some days are longer than others, it is up to Gavin what path we take through the neighborhood and how long we are gone. I know to pack water for us both and some fruit and carrots to snack on to keep him occupied while he points to all the cars, trucks, mowers, dogs, etc, on our path. I am really enjoying the exercise. I wish I was getting more, but even a mile around the neighborhood is better than nothing!

It is funny to watch Gavin wander around and play outside. He tries to walk around as if he owns the neighborhood. He likes to try to run into the road. About half the time he willingly turns around and heads back down the driveway to find something else to do while the other half results in a meltdown requiring that I remove him and force him to do something else. Those are always fun. He walks into our neighbors yards as if he owns them and tries to get into their houses, sheds, climb their trees, torment their pets, and whatever other trouble he can find. I rarely get to just sit and enjoy being outside because Gavin is almost always on the move exploring something. If he could spend all his time outside I am fairly certain he would.

The TV was on way more than I ever want to think about or admit with me trying to find things that he would sit and watch when he wasn't interested in playing so that I could rest and he was out of trouble. Cars and Cars 2 were on quite a bit until he seemed to be tired of them so I tried other Disney movies and of all the ones we tried, Ratatouille became a favorite and more recently, Toy Story 3 (no interest in 1 or 2... crazy kid). I recently got into a Christmas kick (yup, already... Scott is wondering when I will move on so he doesn't have to listen to Christmas music/movies anymore) and discovered Gavin liked a made for TV movie, Santa Baby 2. No clue why, but he always stops and watches if it is on. He likes a show called the Backyardigans but only certain episodes. We found Knight Rider on our Netflix streaming as well and he likes to watch pieces of those episodes sometimes. I am grateful that he isn't all that interested in TV but what little he has taken an interest in is a bit strange.

I am sure there are plenty of things I have missed and will have to go back and share but any other pictures are on the camera and that is a bigger time commitment to get those offloaded and sort through. So I will save those for another time!

Uh Oh!

A picture that is too cute not to share.

Hiding behind a bush and tormenting it led to breaking off a piece of a branch and this face followed.

Coming November 2012...

McClements baby number 2! Also the reason I have suddenly become a terrible blogger. The first two weeks after we found out were fine, life as usual. Then the morning sickness and fatigue hit big and stuck around for the next 10 weeks. Thus making it virtually impossible to do much of anything, including much cooking and cleaning. I was definitely in survival mode and doing only the bare necessities with a ton of help from Scott. I know Scott thinks I am crazy, but this was so much worse than last time. There is no way I would have been able to get up, go to work, be productive and pretend to not be pregnant if it had been this bad last time. The fatigue was probably about the same, the morning sickness was worse. Much worse.

Despite how busy he has been at work, he still managed to come home between 5 and 6 each night to take care of Gavin. He often picked up dinner on his way home, entertained Gavin the rest of the night, gave him his bath and got him ready for bed. Then Gavin and I went to bed together. I was doing very little during the day and there was more tv/movie time than I care to admit but by the time 5pm rolled around, I was done. I was literally unable to function more than just getting into pajamas and into bed. I even had medication that was supposed to help. It was not the miracle I was told it would be, it merely made it so that I could mostly keep food down and do what little I needed to take care of Gavin during the day. He was a trooper. I feel bad that we did so little and a lot of what we were doing was either cut back or eliminated all together because I just couldn't do it. I hope it won't scar him for life, I try to tell myself, it could have been worse and kids have survived for many years and grown up to be perfectly normal. I am just glad that part is behind us now.


Luckily, the last week and a half have drastically improved. The morning sickness seems to be gone and my energy is slowly picking up a bit, although I don't expect it to return fully, anything is better than feeling exhausted all the time. I had started cooking more often again, though it was hard because I had quite a bit of trouble coming up with our meal plan for the week when nothing sounded good and even if something was appealing, by the time I was done cooking I was as interested in whatever it was. Now that I am feeling better though, I am really enjoying being able to cook and bake again and enjoy it. Our house is no longer in constant disarray, although I am still working to reclaim some areas from the last couple of months of insanity. I really want to have things back to normal before we really start making decisions and shopping for the needed bedroom changes we are facing for the baby.

I have some catching up to do with blogging (no surprise there) but in reality, there isn't much to share since Gavin and I have been sticking close to home and I was terrible about taking pictures. I am working on trying to remind myself to pick the camera back up and start taking more pictures again. I feel bad that I went so long without doing more than a couple of pictures on my phone. Even though we may not have done much of anything exciting, Gavin has changed a lot and I wish that I had been better about capturing that the last couple of months. I will be sure to post what we have very soon!

Despite the tough first couple of months, we are doing so much better now. We are so grateful to be having another baby. I have no doubt it will be a tough adjustment but it will be worth it. Gavin is going to be a great big brother! We are looking forward to all the wonderful things to come!

New Activities!

I have been working on some new things for Gavin and I to do together when the weather doesn't allow us to be outside. We tried coloring in January and although he seemed to enjoy it a little (and asked for it several times after that), he was mostly just interested in eating and throwing the crayons still.

So, we will be trying to again sometime, but he clearly isn't quite ready for that yet. Since then, I have been collecting things that will be fun to play in the dirt with (as the weather continues to improve), but also that we can play with in containers of sand, rice, beans, etc.

We haven't tried a lot yet because we have been busy with other things (and Gavin has had a touch of a cold again and we are still waiting for his molars to come in so he can return to his less cranky and better sleeping self). Since we were stuck inside for the first time all week (due to rain) we used the play dough I had made earlier in the week. I decided not to start with something we would need to buy because I figured he would try to eat it and I would rather know exactly what he is eating and it is such cheap to make and convenient because we always have the ingredients on hand.

So, evidence of our first play dough experience...

Not a bad reaction at all. A few funny faces (what in the world is that and what do you expect me to do with it) but other than a few licks there was no eating of the play dough and he started to have a bit of fun squishing it. Hopefully next time he will enjoy it more and try to use some "tools" to poke it as well.

Scott thought it was silly to make it since Play Doh is non toxic but it is so easy and then I know exactly what is in it so I still feel better about Gavin attempting to eat it. I consider play dough a bigger success than coloring but that may just be because it was easier clean up and much less eating involved. Gavin enjoyed both in his own way and so that really makes it all okay in the end. We will keep trying and hopefully he will really start to "get it" and enjoy both as we do them more and more!

Birthday Weekend!!

Happy Birthday to me! I had a wonderful weekend with our family! It started off Friday night with dinner with my parents. My mom made Chicken Enchiladas and a really yummy Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing. For dessert we had Boston Cream Pie and ice cream (Samoa and Drumstick). It was all so delicious and so much better than anything I can make! We had a lot of fun visiting. Gavin loves going over there, so he was enjoying every second of exploring and the attention from Grandma and Grandpa!

Saturday was a nice and quiet birthday. Gavin woke up nice and early (nice kid, right) which resulted in an early nap. I took that time as an opportunity to relax a bit instead of picking things up or showering (rare but I enjoy just snuggling with Gavin once in a while). After Gavin's nap, Scott gave me a present. A new awesome lens for the camera! Yay! I am looking forward to getting some awesome shots with it! After we were all showered and fed, we got ready to run to EMS and pick out a backpack carrier for Gavin to ride in. We had talked about it for a little while and now that the weather is seemingly in Spring mode, it was time to actually make the purchase. It is really nice and Gavin seems to really enjoy riding on our backs in it. When we got home, Scott decided to take Gavin for a walk over to Valkill so I could have a little quiet time to myself. Gavin didn't protest at all and even smiled about being strapped in and up on Scott's back.

I fully enjoyed my quiet time by picking up a little around the house and then vegged out a little watching some Hulu. After they got back, I had to decide what to do for dinner. We didn't really want to go anywhere, so Scott was going to pick up whatever I wanted. We settled on Chinese since that is something we almost never order and I really enjoy. It was so good! It has been so long since I have ordered Chinese that it probably tasted even better. We didn't order a lot and we only got pints of each item (wonton soup, sweet and sour chicken, chicken lo mein, beef with broccoli, and egg rolls) but there was more than enough for the two of us (Gavin wasn't interested and so I heated up some ziti for him to eat for dinner) and there was plenty left over for several lunches for me (YAY)!

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. After Gavin was asleep, I got ready for bed and was in bed not long after because I was exhausted. Getting up so early that morning was painful and I needed to make up some of that sleep, especially since I would be losing an hour to daylight savings time that night.

Sunday was awesome because Gavin slept in a little (by his standards, not ours) and the weather was going to be even nicer so we were going to go for a nice hike over in Valkill. After Gavin's nap and lunch, we packed up water, a few snacks, the camera and ourselves and walked over to the trail. It is 4 miles round trip. It isn't a hard walk but I am glad Gavin was on Scott's back and not mine! It was absolutely beautiful out. Gavin loved it. We stopped to take a quick break for water and a snack before we climbed the last incline to the top and Gavin loved exploring.

He didn't even protest getting back in and heading to the top! He had a blast exploring the grounds around the cottage at the top.

He only protested for a second before he got back in the carrier for the walk home but he was very happy during out walk home. After we got home, Scott and Gavin spent some more time outside while I got dinner ready. Unfortunately, Gavin always thinks it is the end of the world when it is time to come inside (even if it is only for a minute to get something). We have had a quiet rest of the night since both Scott and I were tired from the hike (Gavin has endless energy no matter what though). Thankfully, Gavin is now in bed and I am heading that direction soon since it is getting late and I'm tired! It is totally worth it since it is from an awesome weekend with my family!

Trouble...

Gavin is certainly a master when it comes to finding trouble. It must be an instinct to know exactly what things and places are off limits without having even been told before. He obviously quickly learns what is "not a toy" or "not a play area" and that then becomes the most desirable thing or place. No surprise there. We give him a lot of freedom though. There are plenty of things that are not actually toys that he is allowed to pull out and play with but lately he has really been pushing those limits. He has been "banned" from certain activities because he has decided to ignore the "rules". Again, pretty typical toddler stuff, not fun to enforce (constantly) but part of the territory.

Gavin claimed a bunch of Christmas wrapping paper a few weeks ago. He decided it would be fun to open the container, that I hadn't gotten around to taking back up to the attic yet, pull out rolls of wrapping paper and throw himself a party! Well, I let him have the roll and he had a ball. So, one roll of wrapping paper, no big deal. He loves it and it is cheap, cool. Yeah, too bad he decided to them claim several other rolls. I had to wrestle some away from him to salvage a few of the "old" rolls to pack away with the new ones we picked up this year. So, a few rolls of wrapping paper were sacrificed. It has provided hours of entertainment for Gavin, whatever.

Gavin has been banned (unless he is grabbing his cup of milk or water) from the refrigerator. He used to be allowed to "explore" but that then turned into dropping glass bottles (awesome) and dumping Parmesan cheese all over himself and the floor (double awesome).

Gavin has taken to throwing things over/through the gate to try to get us to "pick up" the item. Really, it is just a ploy to get us to open the gate so he can get down the stairs to play. He has also taken to shoving toys (mostly cars) under doors to try to get us to open the door. Mostly this just happens in the morning when Scott is still sleeping and the door is closed to keep Gavin from barging in and jumping on him. Clever little monkey... caught in the act...

He also loves to smoosh his face against the glass when Scott is hiding out in his radio room to check his e-mail, do some radio stuff or in the case of this day, work from home because his truck was in being inspected. Gavin was pulling out all the stops to try to be let in to "play". Yeah, he pretty much isn't allowed in there anymore either because his playing it usually way too rough and results in a stressed Scott because he doesn't want his equipment broken and a tantrum from Gavin when he is escorted out. So, his faces, while very cute, will get him nowhere.

Thankfully, the weather is starting to warm up, so it is much easier to spend most of our day outside when we are home. We did go outside a lot when it was colder, but after 45-60 minutes at a time it was too cold and time to go inside. Of course, Gavin does find "trouble" outside, but it isn't so bad. I would rather he want to spend his time outside than be stuck inside all the time so I can deal with the throwing, eating, and wearing of dirt and mulch. The insistence of carrying around pine cones, exploring the yard (and our neighbors yards - good thing we have nice neighbors!) and whatever else he manages to find.