Let’s go to the circus!

Today, we took Mikayla to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus.  This was her first visit to the circus.  We opted to leave Gavin at home.  He is definitely at an age where he does not like to sit in someone’s lap for an extended period of time.  We figured that we would have a little better quality time with Mikayla, so Gavin got to spend the day with my in-laws.

We decided to take the train down to the circus.  Mikayla liked going to the train station and looking out the window.  She wasn’t crazy about the tunnels though. When we first arrived to the circus, everyone was allowed to go the floor for an all-access Preshow.  We were able to see the clowns, the stilt walker, the jugglers and some of the acrobats. We were also able to get really close to one of the elephants. Mikayla suckered us into spending more on “stuff” than we did on our tickets (which thankfully I got a good deal on through my work).  Her prized purchase was this little tiger that came in a purse.  On the way home when we asked her what her favorite part about the circus was, she said “Buying my Bengal tiger!”  Great.  She did divulge later, that she enjoyed watching the tigers and elephants, too. This is her trying to dive into her snow cone.  It was a total mess, but she enjoyed it. Mikayla and I hanging out during intermission.

We also got some cotton candy for us all to share. :)  The bag came in this cute hat.

Next to buying the Bengal tiger, watching the tigers perform was Mikayla’s favorite part of the show.  It was neat seeing those big animals do their tricks.  She really liked watching them stand up on their hind legs and walk around.  Their “treat” for performing well was raw meat – that was a little gross.

This was my favorite part of the show.  I have always had a thing for elephants – I don’t know why, I just like them.

Today was a great day.  Jeremy and I had a wonderful time with Mikayla and we look forward to many more circuses in our future. 

YAY!!!

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Happy Valentine’s Day

We have had a pretty good Valentine’s Day this year.  It started last night with a lovely dinner with my favorite people.  We had grilled steaks, twice baked potatoes, salad, crescent rolls, and heart-shaped Jell-O Jigglers for dessert.  The Jigglers were definitely a crowd pleaser!

On Valentine’s morning, I made pancakes.  I used a squeeze bottle to make X’s, O’s and hearts out of the pancake batter.  They turned out very cute and Mikayla loved eating them.

This is my attempt to get a picture of the kid’s together in the Valentine’s Day outfits.  Gavin wanted nothing to do with it and Mikayla was being very silly.

Since Jeremy was working, the kids and I went to my Mom’s house to make some sugar cookies.  Mikayla had a lot of fun using her little rolling pin to roll out the dough and using the cookie cutters all by herself.  

Three generations of gals making some cookies.    At first, we were going to let Mikayla put the sugar on the cookies herself, but she was dumping (and I mean dumping!) the sugar on the cookies.  We decided to help her out a little bit with that one.     The hardest thing about letting Mikayla frost the cookies  was keeping her from constantly licking the icing.  We ended up giving her her own cookies that she could do whatever she wanted and she could keep them all for herself.  I guess she could share with anyone that wants cookies iced with licked icing and manhandled sprinkles. ;-)

Gavin kept everyone in line and was our official taste tester after everything was done.

After we finished, Mikayla told me she wanted to lay down on Grandma’s couch and watch a movie.  I guess she knew she was tired.  She is so precious.

Since Jeremy was working a little later than normal, we decided to just order pizza for dinner.  A local pizza chain was making heart-shaped pizza at a great price.  Mikayla thought the heart shaped pizzas looked pretty cool.

Our Valentine’s Day was pretty low key, but I was thankful to spend it with the people that I love.  After all, that' is the whole point, right?

Cheap entertainment

  My silly kids.  I look at these pictures and wonder why we have a playroom full of toys.

LISTEN TO ME!!

Generally speaking, Gavin is a pretty laid back baby.  However, when he wants something he will definitely let you know.   If he wants my attention, he grabs on to my legs and well, you can see for yourself what he does after that… 

Teddy Bear Parade

Well, I guess it is no surprise that I am a bit behind on my blogging.  Last week, Mikayla’s preschool hosted a Teddy Bear Parade.  All of the kids get to dress up in their jammies and pull their teddy bears or other special friends in a float.

Mikayla wanted a WonderPet fly boat for her float – we had a lot of fun making it together. This is Mikayla and her teacher marching around the gym.  She has such a goofy smile.I let Gavin wear his jammies, too – he seemed to like being able to relax and watch the show.

Vaccines and Check-Ups

Well, I decided to be brave this week and take the kids together for their check-ups and vaccinations.   All in all, they did very well.  Gavin weighed 22 lbs 7 oz (25% – he is up a little bit!) and was 32 inches long (75%).  He is doing well developmentally and is a healthy little guy.  He got two vaccines that he was not very happy about, but calmed down pretty quickly afterwards.

Mikayla was quite silly at the doctor’s office (big surprise).   First she had to go pee-pee in a cup, which she was pretty excited to do (don’t ask me why).  They then checked her blood pressure  and did several other little checks on her.   The also did a vision and hearing screen.  She did great on the vision screen, but had a hard time with the hearing test.  I don’t think she has a hearing problem – I just don’t think she fully grasped the directions of the test.  We are going to go back this summer for a follow-up screen.  She weighed 38 lbs (75%) and was 40 inches tall (75%).  I can’t believe how big she is getting!  Poor little Kayla got five vaccines.  I had the option of delaying one of them, but I figured it was just best to get them all over with.   She was NOT happy about those!  Afterwards she said “I do NOT like shots  - they hurt” – the tone she said it in was pretty cute.  She was pretty tearful about that all day.  Her poor little thighs have been pretty sore, too.

Another cherry on the ice cream sundae is that both of the kids STILL have ear infections.  So I get to do another 10 day course of antibiotics with them.  Mikayla is great about medicine, but Gavin is AWFUL!  They are both on Augmentin, which apparently doesn’t taste very good.  We are hoping that Mikayla is able to finish the whole course of Augmentin.  Last time she had it she had a rash about a week in to taking the medication.  The doctor and I weren’t completely convinced that it was a reaction to the medication.  She had taken it before without any problem.  The doctor wanted to try it again since she didn’t respond to the Omnicef.  We are crossing our fingers that we see no rash!

My little man

Doesn’t Gavin look like he belongs in a Polo ad?  He is getting so big!

January 2009 – A review in pictures

Well, since I totally slacked on blogging last month, I thought that I would at least leave you with a picture review of what we did this month.

I had to work on New Years Day, so I decided to spend the night at my mom’s and ring in the New Year with them.  Jeremy was had to be at work very early on New Years,  so I knew he would be going to bed early.  It was nice to have someone to celebrate the night with.

This is a picture of Andrew hugging on a bottle of Martenilli’s.  He is obviously a “lush” in the making.

The things that moms and aunts will do to a child!

On New Years Day, Gavin fell asleep in my Dad’s arms.   For anyone that knows Gavin, this was a truly momentous occasion.  Gavin doesn’t let many people hold him for more than 5 minutes. 

Mikayla had fun painting some pictures that Santa brought her.

Jeremy took this picture of Gavin one night.   He was sporting some serious low-riders.

Mikayla loves hanging out with my Dad.   She can usually con him into turning on “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” or “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” on You-tube.   I guess Mikayla wore out her Papa! This is just a cute picture of Gavin – he is such a happy little boy.

Gavin will often get into the pantry and pull out various canned goods.  He will sometimes pull out the beef broth and tip it up like he is drinking out of it – so weird!

We have had a couple of pretty cold and windy days.  One Friday morning, we met up with Mikayla’s playgroup at an indoor bounce house.  This was the first time we had been there since Gavin was old enough to walk.  He had a great time, running all over the place and jumping in the Toddler Zone.

 

Emily and Andrew stayed an extra two weeks that they had originally planned.  I loved having some extra cuddle time with my favorite nephew!

I can’t remember what Gavin was trying to get, but he was obviously unhappy that he couldn’t reach it.  Do you like how he pushed the stepstool over to try to get whatever it was?