Brotherly Love

We've loved watching Kyle adore his brother. He has loved his baby brother since he figured out we were pregnant and told me with total certainty, "That's my baby brother in there!" Ever since that early stage in the pregnancy his interest/love has never waned. He continues to enjoy loving and pestering his brother! :) The cool thing now, is that Gavin is taking a big interest in Kyle! Gav smiles at Kyle and watches everything he does. I rarely capture "the moment" but these few pictures (taken over the past couple months) give the idea!  

Baby Gavin

In an effort to give Gavin as much of the spotlight Kyle had as a baby ... (I did say "effort") ... here are some Gav pictures and video. Btw, the little man started rolling over earlier this week! 

Love this smile!

As my Grandma Thune would say, " What a sweetie-face!"

The first half of this video is Gavin making some noise, the second is of Gavin laughing! ;)
http://youtu.be/IpkEEGzn0q0

Family Proyecto

We use some words and phrases around here in our meager attempt to teach our boys Spanish. Proyecto is one of the words I doubt Kyle would use the English term for. And boy do we love our proyectos. This weekend, we tackled a family project together! Everyone, including Gavin, had their part. It was a lot of fun. 

We had an old, semi-ugly stool that Kyle loved to use. Looking at the bare wood gave me the idea to paint it and decorate the top with the boys' footprints. I love that I only need to mention an idea to Rudy and he's game! We headed over to Kyle's favorite, the hardware store, and picked out our supplies. 

Kyle and Rudy got right to sanding.

Then Momma, Kyle, and Rudy each got a turn to paint. The color didn't come out exactly as we'd hoped, so we went back and got the color adjusted a bit. 

Painting the boys' feet and hoping/wishing/fingers crossing that their feet would stay still! :)

Mr. Happy enjoyed getting a piece of the action.

Adding the year for a finishing touch.

After 3 coats of a sealant, there she is!

Deja Vu

I was looking up prior posts about Kyle when he was 4 months old and noted that right around his 4 month mark, Rudy was sick for over a week with the H1N1 flu. I read about how he quarantined himself in our room, would text me with food requests, and how we missed him so much.

Strangely, we've experienced the same thing as Gavin turned 4 months old. Same awful scenario... Rudy was sick with the flu and pneumonia for over a week. Totally unable to work, he slept and slept quarantined in our room. There were days where I didn't see him stir for 16 hours at a time. He ate some crackers and drank some, but other than that he was in his room sleeping non-stop for days. Finally, after about a week, he emerged for some food! Still, he wanted to protect the rest of us and kept himself locked in our room. If he did show his face, he was always with a Clorox wipe in hand to sanitize anything he touched. He wore a mask of sorts and didn't come near us. We missed him.

Turns out, all that precaution on Ru's part didn't completely save the rest of us. We are thankful that none of us have the flu. Instead, we all have nasty colds and coughs. We were most concerned for Gavin. He had a terrible cough and struggled to breathe a lot. The nights were pretty scary and I didn't sleep much as I lay awake trying to listen for every breath he took and jumping off the couch every time the pause was too long, or he was choking on his spit up. We rocked all night so he could be kept upright. After 2 doctor's appointments and a nebulizer treatment, we were sent home with an infant inhaler and directions to keep doing what we'd been doing with all our infant-safe home remedies. I think we're moving in the right direction, finally.

So, the nights have been long and the days even longer. I know getting sick isn't "blog newsworthy" but I thought it weird that the scenarios were similar. Something about 4 months wipes our family out! I'll tell you what though, having Rudy back in the game significantly helps my outlook (and sleep!).

Gavin - 4 months

"Talking"

This little one is currently fighting a nasty cold! :( And look at 'im, still smiling and cooing/talking as if there wasn't a thing wrong. Bless him. He's such a sweet, happy, smiley baby.We are so grateful to have him in our lives and so very much in love.

Mr. Gavin is almost rolling over, standing a lot, and talking a ton!! He is so cute. He talks to himself  and to us all the time, but even more precious are the "conversations" we have after he nurses. Once he's done, he'll stare deeply into my eyes and talk to me for quite a while. Then, sometime during the exchange when I tell him how adorable he is or how much I love him, he'll coyly smile and duck his head. He'll do it time and time again. It's precious but I think we're in for it . . . he's gotten comments from others about being a little flirt! :)

Something pretty unique to Gav is how intently he stares into your eyes. After which, he'll give you a beaming smile. My mom has said many times that his stare is so intent, it's as if he's looking into your soul. It sure seems that way. At the very least, he thrives on personal attention that involves happy people talking and looking at him. And he'll smile at anyone. Love bug. :)

At 4 months, Gavin:

• is 13 pounds 6.8 ounces and 25 inches tall
• has deep blue eyes that love to communicate happiness and interest
• sings or hums himself to sleep
• hardly spitting up anymore! :)
• beginning to enjoy playing in his exersaucer
• talks, talks, and talks!!
• arches and rolls almost all the way over
• dislikes being strapped in his car seat and riding in the car :(
• can reach and grab for things (loves his Christmas toys!)
• is interested in what Kyle is doing around him

Happy 4 months, Gav-man! What a wonderful addition you are to our family!

Disneyland

Last weekend, Kyle got his 2nd visit and Gavin got his first ever trip to Disneyland! Michelle was so sweet to invite us (again!) to be her guests for a complimentary day at the Park and work dinner party at Club 33. We learned from our experience last year and planned out our day differently (more kid-oriented) this time. We had so much fun!

One thing we learned was to maximize our use of the train that circles the Park. 

First stop was Mickey's Toontown and straight over to meet Mickey. It was great to get that done first as there was virtually no line! ;) Kyle loves Mickey.

Kyle was tall enough to ride his first ever real roller coaster!! (He rode a mini one on his 2nd birthday at the OC Fair). This one was pretty fast and had a drop in the beginning. He LOVED it and said, "My tummy went wheeee!!!" Later he said this was his favorite ride. :)  And yes, my son dresses himself and loves his ties!!

Then on to the classic/you gotta do it, "It's a Small World." As you can see, Gav loved it! :)

We were passing Fantasy Land to get to the rocket ride in Tomorrow Land when Kyle saw the Teacups. He forgot all about the rocket and wanted to ride this. I gratefully passed this one off to Michelle. ;)

Pure happiness.

Except when we had to wait. Disneyland is all about walking and waiting. And boy, did Kyle learn what it means to wait! Here he is on one of his other favorites.

We thought Kyle would like Tom Sawyer's Island Pirates Cove and boy did he!! He could have stayed there the whole day going from one bridge, pulley, lever, pump to another. He was (and always has been) fascinated with how things work.

Exploring.

Gav got to enjoy some of the island action, too.

Watching the pirate ship go by.

Captured in a "booby trap!" 

Love.

Just before dinner, Rudy came to pick up Kyle. Then, we headed to the exclusive Club 33 where you have to know a "member" to gain access. Apparently a member knows Michelle's boss and has granted the company access for its Christmas parties. The minimum plate charge was over $100. It goes without saying, the meal was delicious! It was even more enjoyable because Gavin slept through it all! (Thank you, son!)

Thank you, Auntie Michelle! And now, Kyle is asking when we'll go again! Hmm... 

Our New Year's Day Adventure

We started the new year by missing our flight home. :( Crazy. Who does that? How does that happen?? Well, let me tell ya, it did! We flew to Chicago on buddy passes from Gina but thought it wise to purchase tickets home in order to actually get home when we'd like to. Two years prior, with only 2 of us needing seats, it was absolutely insane and we barely made it home! So, with 2 kids in tow, we decided to bypass what would have been crazy and instead, insure a stress-free, direct flight home. Yeah, that was the idea anyway. 

We'd been up late almost every night during our vacation and were pretty sleep deprived. On New Year's Eve, Gavin got sick. He didn't fall asleep until around 5 am. We were so tired we missed our 5:30 am alarm. I woke up around 7 am to see it was light outside and my heart dropped! Dread. But what was done was done and we had to move on. I was actually pretty proud of us for how we handled it, seeing as how we'd just thrown away hundreds of dollars.

At the airport, someone took pity on us, with our two little ones, and booked us on a later flight (instead of flying standby with the hope we could all get home that day, and get home together). We were thankful, but we later learned that we'd been booked on an all day, 3 flight itinerary. Eesh. So, we waited around and eventually got to Phoenix. Three hours later, we were told our next plane was delayed. After wandering the airport for quite a bit, I suggested we go back to our gate "just to be sure" and not miss another flight, even though we were told the plane wouldn't be there yet. Well, surprise! Somehow the plane came 45 minutes earlier than expected and they were boarding!! Yikes! From there we flew north to San Francisco and then back down to the great OC. Ah, home sweet home. Twas a long, long day. 

However, there was one bright spot in it all. A flight attendant and pilot felt badly for our ordeal and befriended us. We were the only 4 people to continue on that same plane (who else in their right mind would book a flight from PHX to SFO to SNA!?). Kyle stole the show and got to do some pretty cool things! First up, was a visit inside the cockpit. Both pilots encouraged Kyle to press this button and pull that lever, etc. etc. He loved it!!!! Then, Kyle got to stand with the flight attendant and greet the passengers as they boarded the plane, saying, "Welcome aboard." Finally, Kyle got to help the same wonderful flight attendant give the PA announcements. It was adorable!!!! The first time he said something like, "Ok, now we're going to go really high and really fast. So buckle up and hold on tight!" The people cheered and Kyle had the cutest smile on his face. He loved seeing and doing what his GG does for a living. It was awesome and almost made up for the super long day of travel. :)

Welcoming the passengers aboard!

Yay for friendly flight attendants and pilots! Yay for happy Southwest ticket agents, too!

Chicago Christmas Highlights (part 2)

On the 27th, Rudy and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We got to sneak out for early morning coffee at a local bookstore and that night we were treated to a room at the Pheasant Run Resort. (Thank you!) During the middle of the day, we went sledding near Grandma Sally's house. Though there wasn't much of any snow, we were determined to make it happen with what we had. Kyle loved it and was super eager to go down the hill by himself. His bravery both amazes and scares me! :)

Uncle Ryan

Then, we warmed up with coffee and cake at (Great) Uncle Doug and Aunt Carol's house.

At the Pheasant Run Resort

The following morning, while at the hotel, we woke up to snow falling!! A first for Kyle!

We took a little tour of St.Charles and stopped at the Fox River

The evening of the 28th was spent with our friends, the O'Donnells and the Norths. Always fun.
Kyle and Gav with their friends, Delaney and Addyson. Strangely, we've each had 3 kids, all exactly 2 months apart from each other, including our losses. It's beautiful to see our newest blessings together in the middle there... it was a much better Christmas this year! :)

On the 29th, GG gave us the wonderful treat of watching our boys so we could go use a gift card for a delicious anniversary meal. We enjoyed our time out immensely!

The 30th had us in the city where we brunched with the Norths and then spent the rest of the day with Rudy's siblings (or now more popularly known as "Kyle's aunt and uncles!"). Funny how our names change after having kids.
Auntie Ray and her nephews (at Rachel and Ben's house).

"Riding" Uncle Randy's bike

Dancing with Auntie Ray

Ru and his brothers

Trying some delicious coffee at Uncle Randy's former workplace.

Gav got passed around a ton. Lots of love (and spit up) shared! :)

Uncle Love.

The 31st was spent back at Aunt Donna's house. We saw Grandma Sally again and then spent the rest of the day with Mike and Allison. New Year's Eve was celebrated twice. The first time was 3 hours early thanks to Donna's brilliant plan of setting the clocks ahead! After the kids were down, the adults got to enjoy adult-conversation and games.

The trip was a perfect mix of this and that. We got to see everyone and enjoyed many things that are unique to Chicago. Kyle was pretty sad about leaving. He cried when we left his aunt and uncles and still mentions going back sometime "soon."