Love this Little Baby

Here's Aidan showing off one of his best smiles. I love it!

Aidan Turns Two!

For Aidan's birthday, we had a zoo party.
Here are the kids playing "Hot Potato" with an animal beach ball.

Pin the Tail on the Lion.

Gavin and Connor both have stuffed animal puppies that they sleep with at night, but Aidan likes to steal them for himself, so for his birthday Aidan got his own puppy. Unfortunately, he still prefers Gavin and Connor's puppies! Luckily, Gavin and Connor are good sports about it. Every now and then Connor will make a comment like, "Maybe some day I can get my puppy back, but it's okay if Aidan wants to use it." Connor's such a sweet-heart.

Opening of the gifts.

Time to blow out the candles. It's funny because normally if we say something is hot, Aidan will blow on it. But, when we told him the candles were hot and to blow on them, this is the look he gave us! I think he was wondering why so many people were watching him and why there was fire under his face! Jason ended up having to blow out the candles...maybe next year (sigh).

Watch out world...two-year-old coming through!

Thanks for the cool presents everyone gave Aidan for his birthday. He's having a lot of fun with all his new toys.

Gavin, Gavin, Gavin...

This happened a while back when we were staying at a hotel in Sacramento for my sister's wedding, but I forgot to blog about it. For a little background to this story, we've told the kids that coffee is not good for them because it has too much caffeine and that too much caffeine is not good for your body and can also stunt your growth. Well, when we went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel, Gavin went up to this really big black guy who was pouring coffee and looked up at him and said, "What are you doing?" He said, "Getting some coffee." I thought "Oh, no Gavin, please don't be rude!" That's when Gavin looks right up at him and says, "What are doing that for? Don't you know it'll stunt your growth?" He said it so seriously it was hard not to laugh given that he was saying this to someone who was clearly over 6 feet tall. Luckily, the guy laughed and said, "Well, I think I'm done growing so I think I'll be okay." I was glad the guy took it in good stride. Kids! What can you do with them?

A Recent Conversation with Gavin...

In the middle of the night, Gavin came into my room and said, "Mommy, my tummy hurts." I said, "Do you think you might need to throw up." Gavin said, "Maybe." So, I told Gavin to go get a bowl just in case to keep by his bed.
Ten minutes later Gavin came back into my room and in a very distressed voice said, "Mommy, I think I messed up. I got the bowl with the holes in it." He had accidentally grabbed the strainer bowl to throw up in. Whoops. Luckily, as it turned out, the bowl wasn't needed anyway -- thank goodness -- that could have been an especially bad mess for me to clean up!

Music in the Air

The past few weeks, we've been practicing violin everyday. If the boys practice all week, they earn Music Money which they can spend right away for small prizes or save up for something bigger. Gavin needed a bigger violin, and yesterday we got one in the mail from my Mom. Gavin loves it, and both boys have been doing a great job practicing violin. I ordered a bigger violin for Connor too that we're waiting for in the mail. I've even started practicing every day myself, and even baby Aidan (I guess I should stop calling him baby since he'll be two on Monday, but he's still my little baby) has been holding the violin and practicing the best he can. He insists he gets a turn...he'll say "Mom!" and look at me and hold out his hands until I help him hold the violin and bow. It's cute how serious Aidan takes it. It's been fun for us to do as a family...we've had lots of violin music in the air lately!

Exercise Buddy

I've been doing some exercise videos lately, and Aidan likes to join in with me! It's so cute because he tries so hard to imitate the video...when it's time to jump he tries to jump, when it's time to do sit ups he tries to do sit ups, and when it's time to stretch he tries to stretch. It helps keep me entertained to while I exercise. Connor loves going around the house taking random pictures of pretty much anything since he got his new camera, so here are some pictures he took of me exercising with my little exercise buddy...
Time for sit ups...

Come on Aidan we can do this!

Time to stretch while I chat on the phone with Daddy.

A little more stretching never hurt anyone.

Such a cute workout buddy I have...

Whew...we're done!

Car Rides

Whenever we're driving down a big hill, my boys like to raise their hands in the air and say "woo-hoo!" They're just funny that way. I made them re-enact it after we'd stopped the car so I could get a picture of it...funny boys!

Swimming Buddies

Gavin and his first cousin once-removed?...I just call him Gavin's cousin, Taylor, are taking swimming lessons together. They're both beginners and were a little shy around water, but they're both doing so great. Gavin hasn't had the best swimming teachers in the past, and last summer the swimming teacher wasn't watching and another kid pushed Gavin under the water and held him there. By the time I got the teachers attention and Gavin was helped out of the water, Gavin was coughing up water and pretty traumatized by the whole thing. So, thankfully, now everything is going great with these swimming lessons. I can't even get Gavin to get out of the pool when it's time to go. My cousin, Corinne, and I decided that since they're both doing so great, we'll just sign them up again for next month and also have our four-year-olds start swimming lessons together next month too. I'm just so glad they're having so much fun and learning how to swim.
Gavin's the closest kid in the picture looking down at the water.

Taylor and Gavin.

Brothers

The other day, I was showing Gavin and Connor how to cut hearts out of paper and make Valentines. Gavin wrote "I Love You" on one of them and when Connor left the room for a minute, Gavin pushed his "I Love You" heart over to where Connor had been sitting. When Connor got back, Gavin said, "That orange one can be anyone's, you can have it if you want." Connor's face just lit up, and he said, "Thank you, Gavin!" And, Gavin said, "It's fine. It's fine." Like it was no big deal, but it was just cute that Gavin wanted Connor to have it in the first place, but had to make it seem like it was no big deal, that anyone could have it when really he slipped it over to Connor's seat so that Connor could have it. I guess that's the way brothers show love? Anyway, it was super cute, and I love it when I catch the kids doing nice things for each other.

Love the Baby Loves

Lately, Aidan has started talking much more...he actually said "I love you" back for the first time a couple of nights ago (well actually it was i yu)...so GREAT! He's turning into quite the little toddler...which means more trouble...like when he pushed a chair over to the fridge and repeatedly filled a bowl with water just to dump it on the floor AND carpet! Argg. That was the day he also thought it would be fun to take the couch cushions off of the couch and color on the tan part of the couch where the cushions go. In other words...he's almost two, and I need to be a little more alert! But, that also means that he's just getting cuter by the minute and talking more and playing more with his brothers. He gives the best hugs and kisses which make all the trouble he causes so worth it.

Painting in the Bath

Lately, I've decided to let the boys paint with washable watercolor paint in the bath. It's actually little mess for me to clean up, and the kids are so good in the bath when they get to paint...meaning less splashing and fighting and pouring water over each others' heads. Connor is actually quite the little artist when he paints in the bath drawing out scenes with grass and sunshine. Aidan just loves to mix the paints and paint all over the bath and himself..as you can clearly see on his face!

Playing with Aidan

Here's a little game that Jason played with Aidan the other night...obviously Aidan LOVED it...and didn't want to get out!

Snuggle Time

We decided to pump up one of our blow-up mattresses in our basement for the kids when they want to watch a movie at night. They're so cute because they all just snuggle up together and are so good...especially if we give them a snack like popcorn. Then Jason and I can actually have a chance to watch something we want to watch upstairs which is really nice.