Happy 3rd Birthday, Laura!

Laura is THREE!

We began celebrating Laura's third birthday a few weeks ago, when our families were all in town for Gavin's baptism.  We had a big party for Laura on Saturday night, complete with cake and candles.  No pictures, of course (oops)!  Since that time, Nate and I took Laura to see Beauty and the Beast, the musical, for her birthday AND she had a party with her friends as well. 

So the other day, Laura told me "It's always my birthday.  I'm special!  It's not Gavin's birthday; he's not special."  Ahem, yes Laura, you are special.  However, Gavin is special too!!  This is what happens when you have The Month of Birthday!

At three, Laura is very into princesses, ballerinas, party shoes, tutus, necklaces, crowns, wands, anything jewelry or fluffy or pink or GIRLY.  When she's not playing princess or ballerina, she's either playing doctor or school.  Her imagination is fabulous!  Laura also loves to RUN. 

Laura was wearing her bulkiest princess dress - the one with the hoop skirt! - when she announced, "I am the fastest runner in the whole! wide! world!"  She ran circles through the house for the next twenty minutes.  She certainly does have the endurance to be a runner!

We were talking about birthdays and signs of the zodiac a few weeks ago, at the start of The Month of Birthday.  We asked Laura was Gavin's sign is.  She answered, "DANGER!" 

Last week, I was snuggled under a very colorful wool blankie.  Laura, the blankie hoarder, came over stroked it once, then said "I like that blankie, Cait."  I'm Cait when she wants something of mine!

I was making grilled cheeses for lunch, and Laura told Gavin "you can't have a girl-ed cheese, you're not a girl!" 

Gavin: 8 Months

I really skimped on the photos this month.  However, Gavin at eight months old has mastered crawling, started cruising on furniture, was baptized, and has 1 1/2 teeth!  He also had his first ear infection, poor guy.

Gavin is not a fan of snow.  (Although I think he may have had some snow in his snowsuit, and who is a fan of that?!)

Gavin tried his first cupcake at Laura's 3rd birthday party - and ate every bite!

Laura: December Recap

Laura, again, had so many cute and hilarious things to say this month.  And once again, I was awful at writing them down.   Here are a few that I did make note of:

Laura was so cold she was "frivvering" 

She was pretending to be 'Punzel.  She kept telling me she was "Penzo" and I couldn't figure out what she meant, so she started to describe:

Penzo, Mom!  P-P-Penzo! With the long hair?

Oh! Rapunzel! 
Yes, Mom.  (The "duh" was implied.)

One morning (that she blogged about, it was so cute), Laura ran out of the playroom at school after I left because she had to tell me something:

L: Mom!  Houses tonight after school!

C: huh?

L: Let’s make a house!

C: Sure………

L: A Gingerman House!

"I can't close it. I'm full of hands." (her hands were decidedly full)

"I have an idea! If I eat the fist cookie all up, then I can eat more cookies."  (She has been full of "ideas" that wind up being statements more than suggestions).

Fairy go round - merry go round

Laura was reading us a story from some random book, it was getting more and more grim:

"No one saved them at all.  And they lived happily ever after."  

"Mom! Mom! I have something I need to tell  you!"  

Laura has also started saying "Ummmm" way too much.  We're trying to break it.

She's also still asking "WHY" to everything.  Usually things like "Why is Ries a dog?" or things like "Why do I like cookies?" 

Happy New Year!

It's so funny to be celebrating a whole new year, when I'm not even a whole year old yet!  A little less than five months to go till we can really celebrate the new year!  (Laura is over here flipping out that HER new year is almost here.  She has been excited for her birthday ever since her LAST birthday).

New Year's Eve was extra fun for me - I got to go to Mommy's work for the day!  I started things off on the right foot with a nap.

 Then I did some important stuff at my makeshift desk.

Very Important work.

 Then I crawled down the hall for an important meeting.

 After work (I was very productive), we grabbed Daddy and Laura and drove to Chris and Anita's hotel room to swim in the pool!  Jackson, Laura and I had a blast splashing in the water.  Coraline had a good nap.  We went out to dinner, then spent the rest of the night at the hotel room, ringing in the new year. 

Here's to a wonderful 2013, filled with friends, birthday parties, baptisms, hugs, snuggles, toys, learning to walk, maybe getting some hair and teeth, lots of smiles, cars, dinosaurs, sisters with doctor kits and princess outfits, and everything else that is fun and wonderful in this world!  Happy New Year!

Christmas Again!

Christmas Part Two: BadFam style!  So after a brief visit home, we went to Grandma and Poppa's house for MORE CHRISTMAS!!  Mom really failed with taking pictures, so I have very little to work with here.  Maybe other people took more pictures, but who knows. 

The house was filled to the brim with people and presents!  Even Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe were there.  And just when I thought I couldn't have more people I loved in one family room, Chris, Anita, Jackson and Coraline showed up!!  Grandma's house was on their way from Massachusetts to West Virginia, so they stopped to say hi!! 

Nico fell asleep in the midst of the pandemonium, wearing Gav's polar bear hat.

 The rat pack.

 Gavin doesn't like it when I pin him down hug him.

 Snow!!  Baby Bear tried on his new snowsuit, while Mommy Bear wore the polar bear hat.

 Teddy bear angels!

Um, that's it for the pictures Mom took.  But we had a great weekend!  Poppa cooked all the food - and it was delicious!  Including a $150 prime rib that he got for $90 because the grocery store forgot his order and made him wait ten minutes!!!!!!  I am a picky eater, and even I love prime rib!  (I did not eat the mashed potatoes).  Mom had a really fun night hanging out with my aunts and uncles, while Daddy caught up on some sleep from being so sick.  Gavin only tried to steal Nico's hair eighty bajillion times.  I made sure everyone was healthy with my doctor kit and Disney Princess outfits.

Santa CAME! (Christmas Part One)

Aren't we such lucky kids, to have two huge families of aunts and uncles to spoil us spend time with at the holidays? First we drove up to Massachusetts to see Mom's family. Parke, Sarah and Bit were there, and Torie was home from Paris! We arrived Saturday morning, just in time for Daddy to go on a run with Bimpy through Concord (with some adult refreshments along the way).  Dad really liked seeing all the historic sights that Mom has somehow never shown him.  He HAD seen North Bridge before, but that was his favorite stop along the way. 

Saturday evening, we went to see some of Mom's friends from high school.  She hadn't seen any of them in a decade, and showed up with two kids in tow!  I had fun playing with my new friend (just a little younger than I am), while Gavin showed off his crawling.  We had yummy pot roast (with some potato pancakes I refused to try) for dinner back at Grammy's after the party.

Sunday we did presents with Parke, Sarah and Bit.  There were some fabulous surprises for everyone!  I received some great puzzles, books and clothes.  Gavin got a cool ball that moves and sings - just like Cousin Nico has!  We had Chinese for dinner on Sunday.  We ordered so much, they gave Bimpy a box to carry it all! 

Monday was Christmas Eve.  You can imagine my excitement to see Santa.  Poor Daddy got really sick - just like that!  He was happy and fine, and then sick as a dog.  He didn't have very much fun on Christmas Eve, and couldn't even go to Church to hear the stories and sing songs.  When we got back, I put on my Santa jammies, and read LOTS of stories with Grammy and Bimpy. 

Then I set out some cookies.

Gavin tried to steal them.

I told him NO!

On Christmas morning, there was some snow!!!

And Santa left me a letter!!

I GOT MY DOCTOR KIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gavin got a race car.

And a whole pile of dinosaurs.

After we cleaned up a bit, we drove to Cape Cod so we could see Super Grammy.  She was really glad I was there to give her a check-up with my doctor kit.  She had Mickey Mouse and Dora in her ears!  But her pulse was good.  We had really yummy beef tenderloin for dinner at Grammy's beach house (even though the beach was closed). 

The next morning, I went with Torie and Mom to get coffee.  I got to have my very own hot chocolate in a big kid sippy cup!  It was so tasty.  We packed up the car and went back to Maryland.  But only for a little bit, because we had Christmas Part Two still to come!

Gavin: 7 Months

Gavin was 7 months old on the 18th of December, right in the thick of Christmas.  As if I am good at writing these recaps up on time anyway...

At any rate, Gavin spent most of Christmas fine-tuning his crawling skills.  It's as if he read a text book on crawling, and he's following the instructions to the letter.  He slaps those little hands down on the ground like he means business - and he does.  He's speedy and intent on mischief. 

Gavin is also already pulling up to stand and trying to cruise on furniture.  Which mostly ends in him falling backwards/forwards/sideways - whichever direction he'll most likely hit his head.  Which is still bald.  And toothless.

He's eating like a fiend - everything except pears.  He sobs through each mouthful of pears (while still opening his mouth for another bite, because food is precious to him).

He loves snuggles, hugs, and anything having to do in any way with music.  He's also a fan of wheels.