Crazy Gavin

Gavin being the verbal/mobile/more active one is still quite often the source of all of my stories. It's nice that a lot of times they involve his brother, though!

Gavin was having fun with Mr. Potato Head. He used the eyes and hat from the large Mr. Potato Head container. They make for a unique look.



Gavin wanted to put on Colin's shoes for him, even though I hadn't even suggested and didn't even care if the baby had on shoes. I guess Gavin thought that Colin should be wearing shoes since I put his shoes on him.



Gavin has been coming up with unexpected things lately. I put Colin in this jacket and Gavin called him, "Snowman baby." I am wondering if a snowman in a book that they read to them at school had a hat kind of like the hood on this jacket. We don't have any books about snowmen here at home. I do know, however, that they did a snowman craft and stuff at school. Gotta love preschool.





Gavin has always loved kitchen utensils. I have forbade Gavin to play with forks ever since the baby has come (I get so scared every time Gavin gets near Colin with a fork: what if he falls and stabs the baby?) so now he is going gaga for the spoons. I am finding them everywhere! He is also did this one morning:



He brought me all of the long handled spoons in the drawer!!!

If you haven't seen the snow...

...day entry, check it out! Scroll down, or click!

Cocoon Baby

What will this cocoon turn in to? The neighbor of a friend of mine is moving and found this when she was boxing up. My friend thought it would at least make a good picture. I think it does! He liked it pretty well, actually. I still swaddle Colin at night, so he's still used to being confined.



Blogger still thinks it's smarter than me...Gavin called Colin, "Kitty Baby" when he saw him in this. Philip said that he was chanting it when he left his room at bedtime. It's really funny because Philip and Jessica had just been joking about sewing the points of the hat into ears.

Snow!

There was a snow day at one of the local parks that we were able to make it to for a little bit.

Gavin played for a short time with his friend, Kaylee, in the snow. Look at her in her cute little hat!







My friend, Holly, took a picture of us for me, thanks!



Kaylee and Gavin played in the bounce house for a little bit. It took Gavin a while to get warmed up to it. When he finally started jumping, of course, he was out of time and had to leave the bounce house (you had to wait in a line for everything).





Here is Holly with Zackary, and me with Colin. What cute babies! Holly's husband, Jared, took the picture, thanks!



I thought it would be cute to take pictures of Gavin and Colin together afterward. Even though you can't see it, Gavin is wearing his "Little Engineer" t-shirt that has a dog on a train with snow on top.





Colin is wearing a sweater and hat set that my aunt made for me when I was a baby. I thought it was appropriate for him to wear. What better opportunity would I get to dress him in it?

Playdate @ the park

We FINALLY got together with my friend and her two kids that are the same ages as my kids.

Here is Kaylee playing with Gavin. They have so much fun together!



Let's swing!



Here is Colin with Zackary. Zack is just five days older than Colin. Hopefully they will be good friends.



I love this picture. Their heads are tilted in the same direction and it looks like they could be looking at the same thing...

Copy Cat

Gavin has started to go to his kitchen and get his retro phone now when I talk on the phone. He has done it a couple of times. I thought it was really cute.

Teacher Gavin

The other day after nap I put Colin on the floor and read a book about trains to Gavin. After we were finished Gavin put the book on the floor, angled it toward Colin and was telling him about the trains. Unfortunately Colin began crying after I went to get the camera, but you get the idea.

Lunch

I made onigiri for lunch again the other day. I tried putting on nori (seaweed) this time. I don't think that Gavin was too sure about it. The bear shaped onigiri look kind of like Mickey Mouse heads.

Hanging Out

Colin fell asleep the other night after nursing with his head hanging down off of my lap. Philip thought that it was really funny.

In the crib

Sometimes I set Colin down in the crib with the mobile on to entertain him and I also have him take his morning nap in the crib. This time Gavin joined him. I love how Gavin will find a blanket to cover both himself and Colin and then lay down next to him.

Gavin was looking out the side of his eye at the camera.

I ain't afraid of no poop!

I decided that I should do cloth diapering again to save some money. Compared to last time, this time around it doesn't really seem like a big deal. I guess maybe because I'm used to dealing with poop and pee all of the time now? Sure, swishing poo diapers in the toilet really isn't fun, but I can always wash my hands (and I do that plenty of times in a day now)...

The g-diapers were all right, but expensive, and I don't know if I was putting them on wrong, or what, but often times some of the pee leak over the top of the diaper. I already had the diapers I need to do cloth, (passed down from one of my sisters-in-law, thanks!!!) I am using a one size diaper that "grows" with the baby and you can use from when they are small until toilet training, but I bought a few more of my favorite covers to go with them. I thought if I was going to do it seriously, I should really like the covers I use. I don't like the plastic or rubber pants which I have several of. I also have a few air flow covers which I really like that allow some air in when the baby moves. If I am going to do it seriously I should like what I have. I do them all of the time except for at night with Colin (and I haven't been doing it at church, either but I probably should, it's not that big of a deal), but it does make his butt look huge and it is hard to get some of his pants over. But any-who.

I bought a couple of these, they are the wetlands print. I thought that the ducks, frogs, and turtles were so cute!



"Cheese!"





I also bought a couple of the Asia themed covers, one in Colin's current size and a larger size that fits Gavin right now, but will be able to use in the future with Colin as well. If I keep it up, (which I plan to) I will need to buy some more covers in time, but that won't be a big deal.




Speaking of Gavin, he SO does not care about potty training. Even if I put him in a cloth diaper, he just goes about his merry way just the same as in a disposable. I have also bought little charts and big and little stickers (little for pee, big for poo) and told him he could have them if he went pee or poo on the potty. No reaction, except saying that he wanted a big sticker, but when I said he had to go poo for a big sticker he didn't seem any more motivated and just moved on immediately after I told him about it. I even bought him Thomas underwear the other day and told him he could only have them if he went on the potty. We put him on the potty when we got home (he didn't go or anything), then I put on the underwear and told him he didn't want to get Thomas wet (hoping he wouldn't want to ruin them because they are Thomas). We kept checking on him and then one of his cousins came up to play and we got distracted. The next thing I knew, there was a puddle on the floor and Gavin was still going about his business like nothing happened. Hmmm... he couldn't care less about it. Next I am going to try cool alert pull ups that will give him a cool sensation when he pees. Maybe he'll start associating it with the "gotta go" feeling? Not sure. I also have a supply of thick underwear training pants and plastic pants to go over, but if he doesn't care about the wetness with a cloth diaper or with regular underwear, he probably won't care about it with training pants. I think that he just doesn't recognize the feeling at all right now and doesn't care to, either, which I think is essential in potty training.

One of my sisters-in-law suggested that I put him on the toilet every hour. That seems like so much work and I know he would fight me on it. I would also have to stay home ALL DAY and I like to get out every day at some point... I don't know... *sigh*

Dare Devil

Not really, but Philip thought that this was funny...(and he really could get hurt doing it).

Preschool Projects

Here are projects from January and this month so far. They started learning the alphabet in January.



A is for apples, B is for Blue, C is for Cotton. Gavin did the B at home, I kept him home one day while he had a green runny nose. Aunt Staci sent the B home for us to do. I had him pick out blue pom poms, blue sequins, and blue marker from groups. Good job, Gavin!









I had to take a picture of this threading work that Gavin did. He loves to thread things using a needle and they decided to let him do as many as he wanted. There are 21 hearts in total. I can't believe how much he loves to do it!

iPhone

Gavin LOVES Philip's iPhone. Every once in a while Philip lets Gavin play games with his close supervision. Gavin always wants to take it and control it himself, but Philip never lets him, until now. He is playing a peek a boo barn game where you touch it to open the barn, hear the name of the animal, and then move on. At the end it shows all of the animals in the barn sleeping at night. He played it a couple of times all by himself and loved every second of it.

Pink Slipper Man

You probably thought it would be Gavin wearing my slippers, but no, it's Philip. He couldn't find his slippers and so he asked to borrow a pair of mine so he would have something on his feet. I thought it would be funny to take a picture of him in them.

Kidzania & more

Kidzania is this really cool place that we are going to visit when we make it back to Tokyo. I found it when I was watching a program that was showing good places to take kids in Tokyo. It was fun to watch and I wrote down what I thought we would like to do when we make it back. Kidzania is this really cool theme park for kids that has a small kid sized city inside of the park where the kids get to go and try out different professions. They then get paid for doing the work in play money and with that money they can deposit in the bank there (and get an ATM card) or spend it in the department store or on a few other services that are offered there for kids. If you live locally, you can even leave the money in the bank there and it earns 10% interest in six months. There are 80 jobs to choose from to do in a five or six hour "shift." You can also look up Kidzania on Wikipedia if you are interested.

There is also this awesome train museum that I saw on the same program. I don't think its website does it the justice it deserves from what I saw on the program. We will be visiting there as well if the kids still like trains when we make it there. The kids can drive real trains through a simulation and explore inside different trains. Outside the museum you can drive miniature trains that you really control; if you don't drive it correctly, then it will come to an emergency stop. I think Gavin will love it!!!

There is also a cool Ninja restaurant. This one is in New York, but I am pretty sure is owned by the same people as the logo is the same. I am putting the link to the NY one since the one in Tokyo has their website written in Japanese. It is pricey, but from watching the show, the one in Tokyo looks really cool and should be done at least once.

Cuties

Gavin is still loving his brother. He wants to hold him (or carry him w/o me) and so I asked him if he wanted to hold him last night when he tried to take Colin from me. He did and it soon became laying down on the couch with him and cuddling down under a blanket. Aren't they so cute together? (I'm not biased or anything.)





"Cheese!" He occasionally does this cheesy one when I ask him to smile!

My Babies

I went outside to do laundry and came back to find Gavin not in the living room. My first thought was that he had gone downstairs to play with his cousin, Josh, (without asking), but I decided to check on the baby who was sleeping on my bed before I went to go look for him. Here is how I found him:



I am pretty sure he is playing "baby." He seems to have fun with it.

Snack Time

Gavin found an unusual place to enjoy his snack of "orange" (really tangerine, but you know how it is with kids).