Winter fun!

 We haven't been able to get outside too much this winter because it is freezing cold out almost every single day!  When we can go outside we have been, to the point where Colton says his favorite thing to do outside is to shovel!  So, I guess that is a positive from all the snow and cold we are having.  The boys also enjoyed "cleaning" the deck off for me.  They made a little fort underneath their picnic table.  Austin stays outside a little longer than Colton and Gavin just likes to stay in the house so far!  We have been enjoying lots of hot chocolate, even if the weather doesn't cooperate to go play in the snow!

That is Austin and Colton under the picnic table on our deck!

9 months old!

 

Gavin is 9 months old!!  We had a Dr. appointment yesterday for his well baby check up and he is doing fantastic.  He is growing at a steady rate and seems to be able to do everything the Dr. wanted him to be able to do.  He weighs 21 pounds 8 ounces.  He is 29 inches long.  He is staying steady at the 75 percentile.  His weight gain has plateaued because he is now crawling and getting himself everywhere!  The Dr. said, when he was 6 months he was chubby because he wasn't able to move around as much.  This made me smile because he is the most adorable "chubby" guy that I know! 

 

Gavin can sit up all by himself.  He is pulling himself up to a standing position (not walking yet!) and is crawling all over the place.  He is working on being able to pick up little pieces of food and put them in his mouth, still need some practice on the 'thumb and forefinger' coordination.  He babbles all the time and will soon be ready for more solid foods.

 

He is doing great!

Annie and Papa showed up on Valentine's Day all loaded up with fun gifts.  Here is a picture of the boys on Valentine's day!  Please make sure to notice Gavin's pink/white/red socks, this is the only day he will ever wear them!!  All three boys were more excited to get the presents open than to smile for the camera.  The boys received activity books and step stools, which Colton has strategically placed around the house so they can figure out a way to reach just about anything now!

 More swimming lessons love. So, in the above picture I told them to put their arms around eachother and this is what I got.  Then, in the below picture I gave more instruction and tried to physically place their arms where they needed to go . . . fail.  (but still pretty cute!)

And this last one is of Colton working on his back float.  He is doing a great job in swim lessons.  He is a great listener and loves to come home and tell us everything his teacher has told him.  Austin is also doing well.  Austin is working on the back stroke, the tuck float, the back float and treading water.

Reading books

So, this morning Austin decided that Gavin needed to know all about Animals.  So, he got out one of the Animals books and started reading it to him.  He pointed at every animal and explained to Gavin what it was and where it lived.  Colton and Gavin were very attentive, they all laid on the bed this morning and read together.  When we were headed downstairs I overheard Austin telling Colton, "It is our job to teach stuff to Gavin."  Colton responds with, "I know that Austin."  Such great little teachers so far!

Bath time!

 So, bath time is one of Gavin's favorite times of the day.  He starts flapping his arms around and kicking his legs as soon as we walk into the bathroom where he takes his bath!  It is so cute, he gets so wiggly in my arms, as if he is just going to jump straight in the tub and doesn't need me to help him!  He splashes up a storm!  Austin and Colton tried to tell him that he couldn't do that because he was getting water all over.  So, they are trying to let Gavin know the rules but I told them that when Gavin is this little, it is okay to splash all over!  They were confused that Gavin could splash all over and they couldn't, so I assured them that when they were babies, they were allowed to splash all over too!  This seemed to help, so they hid under towels as Gavin splashed away!!!  All three boys (and me) had a great time!

Both brothers also want to help do things for Gavin.  It is very sweet in the mornings . . . Austin will turn off the fan, Colton turns off the space heater, Austin turns off the mobile in Gavin's bed, and Colton gets a new diaper for me and puts Gavin's clothes in the dirty laundry.  The jammies probably don't need to go into the dirty clothes basket every day but we have a great system down and each brother has the same amount of "chores" so it works.  I also think it is funny that Austin calls these chores, "Come on Colton, we have to do our chores for Mommy!"

 

Colton has also taken a particular liking to helping with Gavin's bath.  He will get out a towel and the lotion.  Colton also gets Gavin toys to play with and sometimes washes his belly and back.  He likes me to put shampoo in Gavin's hair and then he rubs it all over.  Colton makes a big production of having his sleeves pulled up (because if they get wet at all, he wants to take his shirt off immediately).  And, as you can see, Gavin is a good sport about letting his brother help!  It is very sweet to have such a great helper at bath time.  I don't know if this will be happening a year from now, but last night it was pretty cute!

 

There is also a rumor from the babysitter that Gavin can pull himself up.  Well, as always, if Mommy and Daddy haven't seen it then it will remain in rumor status!  :)  We are going to keep trying to get him to do it at home and I will keep you posted as to if we are successful this weekend!!!

Austin is 5!

 What a fun and busy weekend we had celebrating Austin's 5th birthday!  On Friday, Austin got to bring treats to school.  He chose brownies with mini m&m's sprinkled on top!  He was happy to report that his birthday was a lot of fun at school.  He wore a crown for all of his preschool class and they sang to him two times at snack time . . . one round of happy birthday and then a round of the thank you song, since he brought treats!

 We got home Friday evening and had presents waiting for us!  The boys were all excited to get started on ripping the wrapping paper off of them.  Austin wanted me to read all the cards out loud to everyone.  One of the cards was a Transformers card that talked and it was a lot of entertainment the rest of the evening.  Another card had ninja guys on it, so Austin and Colton tried to act out all the moves the guys on the card were doing!  Gavin just wanted to get as much wrapping paper in his mouth as possible!

 Austin's big boy bike!  The bike has rockets on it and the helmet has flames on it, so obviously this bike is going to go super fast.  Austin cruised around inside on Saturday because it was way to cold to go outside first thing in the morning.

 Captain America cake as requested by the birthday boy!

 Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Austin and a few of his friends at the Jump House place in Waterloo.  The kids LOVED the party.  They took a 20 minute break from jumping so that we could eat cake and open presents, otherwise they jumped from 1-4pm.  It was a great time.  Colton wasn't up for a picture when this was taken, so that is why he is not in it!!

 Gavin, having a blast at the jump house!

 After the party we went to the hotel where Annie and Papa were staying.  Austin and Colton got to swim, open more presents and we ordered pizza.  Grandma and Grandmpa Kliegl had to take off after dinner because the weather sounded like it might get bad.  We headed home from the hotel around 8:30 . . . . everyone was tired.  It was a long fun day! 

 Gavin didn't swim on Saturday night, he was exhausted, but on Sunday morning we went back out to the hotel so that the boys could swim and Gavin even got in the water.  I held him at first to get him used to the water . . . he kept picking his toes up out of the water!  Then Brian held on to him and walked him around for a little bit so he could see what all the excitement was about!  He seemed to enjoy it and really just laid back and kicked his legs a little bit!

Swimming Lessons!

 Colton had his first day of swimming lessons last Saturday and he did great.  He jumped right in and wanted to head for the deep end!  The teacher had to coax him back up the ramp, which he was not happy about at first.  He wanted to, of course, be where Austin was.  Austin is already in level 2 and Colton wanted to be jumping in and having fun with him instead of starting in the preschool level.  Once I talked to him for a few minutes he was just fine and spent the rest of the lesson blowing bubbles and listening attentively to the teacher.  I think his swimming skills are ready for level 1 but he needs to know how important it is to listen to his teacher and learn all the safety rules!  Hopefully the rest of the lessons go well for him!

 Here is Colton sitting on the edge of the "hot pool" as he likes to call it!

 And here is Austin going round and round in circles while holding on to a green noodle.  He wanted me to keep taking pictures and was definitely being a bit cheesy for the camera!  He is in Level 2, which is over on a part of the pool where he can just keep his head out of the water by standing on his toes.  He loved it though!  Both boys got to sit in the "hot pool" for five minutes after their class.  Papa was able to come and watch their first lesson and the boys were excited to have an audience!

And Gavin is able to get everywhere!  He is doing a scoot-crawl maneuver that gets him everywhere he wants and/or needs to be.  We have been working on baby proofing the house all over again.  It is funny how Gavin will crawl through a living room full of appropriate baby toys just to reach that one toy on the other side of the room that he shouldn't have!  Austin and Colton are really good at keeping the little toys picked up and of course Brian and I are constantly checking and double checking to make sure everything is picked up that Gavin could reach. 

 

Gavin is making clicking noises with his tongue a lot and he loves when you do it back to him.  He has 8 teeth now, four on top and four on bottom!  He gets really excited about imitating noises that we make to him.  And he also lights up every time he lays eyes on his mama (which I LOVE, of course!)  Colton and Austin greet him every morning with kisses and hugs!  The perfect little trio most days!