After a great holiday season most of us were looking forward to getting back to our regular schedule. Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature decided to give the girls a few extra days off. The girls went back to school for the Thursday and Friday at the beginning of January, on Saturday Ava and Dan tried out Hidden Valley where there was some fake snow, and on Sunday St. Louis got more snow than it's seen in a long time, 13 inches to be exact (at our house)! It was brutally cold and the wind was insane but that didn't stop Dan and the girls from trying to build a snowman. They had to be totally covered just so the snow wouldn't blow right into their clothes.
Dan and Ava had ski goggles to help protect their face and eyes, but Ella did not. We tried sunglasses but they proved to be useless against the wind so Ella came inside to warm up after about 2 minutes.
Zoe spent a little time outside too and it didn't take much to wear her out! I love this picture…Gavin was trying to copy Dan. He tried a couple different positions and this is the closet he got to the same pose.
Obviously, school was closed on Monday, but it was still SO cold (like 0 degrees) so I kept the girls inside, it's not like the snow was going anywhere for awhile. Tuesday and Wednesday were added to the snow day list. I'm not sure which day it was, but one of those days the girls got outside for some snow play. Thursday ended up a half day and Friday a full day, although most of the other schools were still closed both days due to FREEZING temperatures.
Then when we thought it was getting better MORE snow came Sunday night and school was closed AGAIN on Monday and Tuesday. Finally, we got back to school on Wednesday and other than another late start day, things seem to be back to normal. My fingers are crossed that nothing else falls from the sky for at least a few months! I am OVER keeping track of the coats, hats, gloves, boots etc. wherever we go!
The roads were finally back to normal just in time for Gavin's final Little Gym class. He had his "show" day, which ended up being VERY crowded since SO many kids had to make up their "show" days due to weather. The crowd did not stop Gavin from showing off his skills. Gavin's favorite thing at Gym class was the bars.
He started swinging around on them and flipping around all on his own. The girls never did this on their own at this age so it made me very nervous. Especially since every once in awhile he would flip upside down like in the picture below and then just let go! He always needed a spotter…he's way too daring!
Other than the bars and rings he could really care less about the other equipment. He would do the beam, somersaults and whatever else was asked of him, but if he had his choice he would just run up and down this mat attempting to yell out the colors. It sounded something like "boo, ick?, ellow and een".
I expected him to love when the teacher would dump balls all over the mat and ask then to kick and throw them, but Gavin was never interested. The only other thing Gavin enjoyed there was the bubbles.
He would try so hard to catch one on his fingers and then bring it to me to pop it. If you look closely there is a bubble inside his right hand.
We gave it a good run and we went just about every Friday from September through mid-January. Gavin even earned his ribbon, however we will be taking a break from gym class and try to find something he is a little more enthused about. At two years old I'm not sure how much enthusiasm I will see from him for anything?
In other Gavin news he is finally talking. I'm not sure if I posted our concerns in earlier posts or not, but there were definitely concerns. By age two the girls could make requests and even have limited conversation with me, however at age two Gavin was hardly talking at all and the FEW words he had (mom, dad, sit, down and door) were hard to understand. I consulted all sorts friends, family and even neighbors and everyone assured me boys are just slower especially when they have older sibling. When Gavin started using certain hums to indicate what he wanted like "hu hu hum" for cup, "ah ha" for dog, "uh hum" for cold and using his own made up sign language for other things, I got worried and called a speech therapist to have him evaluated. Someone came to the house and worked with Gavin for about an hour and a half. Although she had never seen a child develop hums and their own signs to communicate, she said he did not qualify for therapy since he was doing so well in other areas. I was told to re-evaluate him at two and a half and see if there was some improvement. Thankfully, he has made some great progress. He still isn't where the girls were, but over the last month he has started using SO many new words and he will FINALLY try to repeat me to learn new words! I'm sure it's only a matter of time now before I have another kid who I CAN'T get to be quiet.
Another significant change in Gavin's life, is his new bed. I hate to compare him to the girls but I can't help it. The girls were both out of their cribs by the age of two, mainly because there was another baby on the way, and in Ella's case she was climbing in and out by 19 months. I don't think Gavin was fully ready for a big boy bed, but with a new cousin on the way who could use the crib, we decided to make the switch. Plus, Fiona decided to come SO early it's a good thing we made the switch when we did. Gavin started in his new bed at the beginning of December and so far so good! He does a decent job of staying in his bed especially at nap time, which was my main concern. Our biggest issue right now is every night after I put him to bed he strips down to his diaper? Not at nap time and it doesn't matter what type of pajamas he's wearing, when I go to bed and check on him I find him curled up in a ball in just a diaper!? It's starting to get old! I think he just does it to drive me crazy! Kind of like when I drove him crazy and wouldn't let him have Ava's roller skates that are five sizes too big, after he had spent so much time putting on all the safety gear. :) I have a few more things to do, but I plan to post pics of his new room soon.
Next kid….Ava is still "enjoying" 1st grade. If she had her choice she would stay home every day and never ever do homework again. (I must admit she does WAY more than I did in 1st grade) I wish she was a little more ambitious when it came to school, but so far it is not her "thing". Something she is truly enjoying right now is basketball. She has only had three practices so far and NO prior experience. We are still working on some basic concepts, dribbling mostly, but she loves it! She also loves losing teeth! She recently lost her third tooth and since it was on the top and in the front she likes showing off the empty space. Her and Ella have been comparing their empty spaces and said "look Mom, we're twins!". Unfortunately Ella's tooth came out on the other side and she will probably be toothless for years! Now Ava's other top tooth is loose and she pulls on it every chance she gets…I've tried to get her to stop putting her hands in her mouth, with it being cold and flu season!
There's not a lot to report about Ella at this time. She is doing great in pre-K, still LOVES dance and gymnastics and is as sassy as ever! Dan and I believe she will make a great attorney some day. She negotiates everything, she's super stubborn and tries to be VERY sneaky, unsuccessfully. She will hide shoes under the couch and tell me she put them away (that is not where we keep shoes), she will say she ate all her food then we catch her feeding it to Zoe, putting it right in the trash or spreading it around her plate under a napkin. She doesn't know who she's dealing with…I know and tried all the tricks! The most noticeable thing about Ella right now is her love of fashion. Her and Ava have always loves to be dressed up, but Ella has taken it to a new level. She wants to be in a skirt or dress EVERYDAY! I have to negotiate with her to wear pants, "ok Ella if you wear pants today (since we are just laying around the house) you can wear a "sparkle" skirt for the next two days". She will also let anyone and everyone know when she sees something she likes. She frequently stops people to tell them she likes their skirt, boots, dress etc. She even went so far as to rub one of the teachers legs at Ava's open house (a teacher she had never seen or met) and told her "I love your leggings!". The teacher handled it well…a bit caught off guard and shocked she just said "well thank you, they're black tights. (literally, they were plain black tights) Do you go to school here?" I couldn't help but laugh…the girl LOVES clothes and accessories. Dan even says I need to get a job for the amount of money Ella will want for clothes someday!
I end with a picture of what bedtime looks like for us…for about 20 seconds before Gavin starts climbing all over everyone and then they all go to their own beds for books. :)
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