Winter fun

Just a quick post with some random photos of winter fun.  One lost Disney photo of the count-down project (paper loops that were removed one-by-one, day-by-day until finally no more!), soccer class at the local YMCA, play dough, an impromptu picnic with play food, and snow, snow, snow!  Check out that snow pile, it's up to the top of our mail box now!

(this one - above - makes Gavin look SO old to me. A boy, not a toddler any more, sigh)

Another one looking very boy-ish, not very toddler-ish any longer!

Four! (don't duck)

We celebrated a very special birthday in our house this week!  Gavin turned four years old on Monday, with a fun family and friends Lego party celebration on Sunday.  Our little guy seems to have made the transition from toddler to "kid" with what feels like a milestone birthday.

The Lego theme was fun and something that Gavin chose.  Here he is post balloon store with a Lego fire truck (huge) balloon.

I spent hours (again) making the cake (well cakes) this year.  Last year, I opted for store bought and it just wasn't quite the same.  There's something to be said about spending the equivalent of nearly a day's work creating a master piece homemade cake.  Not quite as nice as the professionals could have made it with fancy fondant Lego bricks and such, but overall I was satisfied with the result. I particularly like the Lego candy men - supper easy thanks to a candy mold and quick melt candies that were pre-colored!

Gavin helping me make the cakes (I let him decorate his own, he did a pretty good job!).

More photos of the decor...

Gifts, oh so many gifts. Very generous attendees as usual!

BaPa modeling Gavin's jammies made by MaeMe.  Mickey Mouse this year!

So very happy about his cakes, the birthday song, and making a wish (with eyes closed) and blowing out the candle.

As a friend of mine calls it (I'm stealing your term EB), here's Gavin on his "actual, factual" birthday on Monday evening.  We let him decide where he wanted to go for a special dinner with mom and dad.  He chose the local no frills pizza joint - nice and casual for scarfing down some good pizza!  Then Brad and I gave him our gifts - I scored a great deal on a Lego table and toy organizer that are just so cute for his play room!  And we had to do round two of cake - a cup cake this time.  I love this "cheeks inflated" shot I managed to get.  We lit the candles and sang happy birthday four times before finally eating the cupcake (right before bed on a preschool night, not the smartest idea...oh well!)

So, Gavin at four years old: very talkative, creative with his story telling and using his imagination.  He comes up with some of the funniest stories and combination of characters, all on the fly without much stopping to think of what's next.  He just chats, and chats and chats.  He is a very kind, trusting little guy who isn't shy about approaching strangers in the grocery store, restaurant, at church and striking up a conversation.  We're working with him on that balance of strangers - being kind, but also not to trusting of people we don't know.

Gavin is very into coloring projects.  He loves to doodle, color in coloring books and in a white note pad, write letters, play with stickers, cut things (he can now use the scissors correctly, a nice lefty pair I bought him).  He is getting better at staying in the lines when he colors and applying the appropriate color for various objects without being prompted.  His favorite thing to draw are robots.  There is, in general, an affinity for robots as of late.

At school, he is learning tons.  He comes home each preschool day with a run down of the day's events.  And even when he is naughty and gets a time out, he basically confesses to us that he did something wrong.  We are working with him on his ability to express excitement in a calm, non-physical way.  He has had a couple of altercations at school where he gets overly excited about something and ends up getting a little too aggressive with the other kids.  So, we're doing less daddy-son horsing around at home, talking about personal space, and just general better ways to express our emotions.  His teacher says this behavior is very preschool typical and appropriate, but we still want to work on it.

A recent cute story: couple of weeks ago at preschool, there was a school assembly in the gym about fire safety.  A local fireman attended and led the group discussion.  Gavin came home saying: "Smoke detectors can smell smoke.  If they smell smoke, then they go 'beep, beep, beep'.  And what should we do next?  (answering his own question) Get out of the house!  And should we grab our favorite toy before getting out of the house? (again answering his own question) NO!  We should just get out."  Exactly right!

This is just one recent example.  I need to do a better job of documenting these narratives and post some more on the blog to give you a sense for his communication ability at this age.  And for me to look back on and chuckle!

Funny, fashion at four is becoming a big deal.  I thought this only occurred with girls, but Gavin has an obsession with a recently purchased "Hero's" (as he calls it) shirt.  It is an Avengers shirt that I picked up on clearance at Target for $2.49; it has Hulk, Captain America, Thor and one other dude I can't recall at the moment (you comic book junkies will know who is missing).  So, he has to wear this shirt every day practically.  I think he's worn it to preschool just about every day since getting it.  Not wearing it creates pandemonium in our household in the morning.  There are days that the shirt has been washed and re-applied three times in one day.  Even when he had the stomach flu (and had gotten sick on the shirt), he mustered up the energy to demand the "Hero's" shirt.  Poor thing is faded after just about a month of owning it.  I totally should have bought three of those darn shirts!

Alright, that's probably enough for tonight.  Sorry I'm a few days late with the birthday post.  I'm fighting a cold this week and it's gotten the better of me in the evenings lately - in bed by 8:30, just after putting Gavin to bed.  Look at me tonight - a night owl up at 9:30pm still!  I must be on the mend!  Crazy how I go all winter being healthy when surrounded by a kiddo with continuous colds and two bouts of stomach flu.  Then he is finally healthy for a couple of weeks and I get sick!  Hope you all are enjoying winter.  We are for the most part - I need to blog some winter photos.  But we're beginning to get the spring itch.  And I'm looking forward to the better morning and evening commute.  Just think, day light savings ends in just a couple of weeks - I love those longer days and sunny evenings! 

Disney World!

 After a very spontaneous decision, we made our first family trip to Disney World last week!  It was an uncharacteristically planned last minute trip - booked it about three weeks before going.  We wanted a winter warm-up and break from cabin fever and made the decision that we won't be traveling on our annual Siesta Key trip in April this year (more to come on that later) - heart breaking to type that, given we've been going every year since getting married.  We'll be back to it next year though!  That beautiful white sandy beach is just so serene and relaxing!

So, Disney, how was it?  MAGICAL!  We all loved it.  From the airplane ride to the tram at the airport (still a hit like last year in Orlando's airport) to the bus ride to our Disney resort hotel to the parks, characters, rides, shows, all of it.  Everything was great, though the trip started with some uncertainty.  Gavin was sick with round two of the stomach flu the Sunday before we left - miserably sick all day.  Recovered his strength and ability to keep fluids (primarily) and food down on Monday and then we left at 3:30am on Tuesday morning for a trek to Detroit's airport (they had better flight times/direct flights that weren't available from home).  We were anxiously awaiting canceling the trip if Gavin still appeared to be sick or if, as is common in our household, Brad or I would have come down with that wretched virus!  We didn't, thank God!  We sanitized lots along the way.

Day one was a bit of a haze after the very early morning.  We thought Gavin would stay asleep for the car ride to Detroit - he did fall back asleep about half way there.  But the first half of the drive was filled with excited chatter about Disney.  He was beside himself that we were going.  And I was fine with listening in to his thoughts rather than having him sleep - that anticipation as a child of making such a fun journey was neat to hear from him.  We got into the car, in the dark middle of the night, and he started to say that he could already see the castle at Disney.  "Is that it mom?" (pointing at the neighbor's house).  Nope, not yet.  Driving through downtown GR, "Is that the castle?"  "Are we there yet?".  Gosh, I remember those same anxious/excited comments as a kid heading out on a big trip/vacation.  You just can't wait and the travel seems to take FOREVER!

When we finally made our way to Disney, it was a beautiful 80ish degree day that we appropriately spent poolside (well, really, not "side", rather "in" the pools and slides).  We stayed at one of the "moderate" Disney resorts - great pool, nice scenery, just okay rooms.  We didn't spend much time in the room, though, except that first day taking naps in the late afternoon.  And ordering in pizza for dinner because we were all too tired to venture out.

Day two was Magic Kingdom, so appropriately named as I recall from being a kid and now re-experiencing as a parent/adult.  It was magical!  The castle, the cute little kiddy rides, the parade THE CHARACTERS, the fireworks!  We love the characters and throughout our journey got probably 30 autographs/photos.  I think that was Gavin's favorite part, even with the lines at times.  Speaking of lines, they were virtually non-existent for us, except for a few high profile characters.  Going to Disney during the off season is well worth it!  Very short lines everywhere.  Highly recommend it.  The night time performance and fireworks were incredible.  Disney uses the castle to project scenes with music for about 15 minutes before the fireworks.  We stumbled upon a restaurant for dinner that was adjacent to the castle and had a beautiful front row seat for the performance.  Very memorable.

Day three was Sea World.  Very cool shows and Gavin and I fed the dolphin - love those sea creatures!  Everything else about Sea World was just "okay", though Gavin loved it.  I went as a child when I was around 10 years old.  I loved it then too.  Seeing it as an adult was different - it seemed a bit kitschy to us.  But Brad was able to ride the two really big roller coasters that go upside down, no wait.  His first "upside down roller coaster" experience.  And Gavin rode on his first kiddy roller coaster, telling Brad at one point in a nervous but excited voice "I think this is not very much fun!".

Another accomplishment with Sea World is that we took public transportation to get there. Brad and I were big travelers before having kids, I suppose we still are even with Gavin, just different vacation venues.  We always maximized public transportation when we would travel, particularly when we were international.  It's a bit different with a child and all of the "stuff" you have to lug around.  Gone are the days of a small purse or just a backpack.  Now it's an over-stuffed back pack, a jogging stroller (which must be awkwardly folded to enter the bus), some sort of stuffed friend either hanging out of the backpack because it didn't fit, or being towed on the ground (yuck!) by the almost-four-year-old, a little bit of whining as you wait for the bus that isn't just magically there right when you show up at the stop, and a kiddo who likes to sit in every open seat on the bus once you finally get all of that stuff after the "long" wait onto said bus.  And no, it's not good to move seats while the bus is in motion.  Ah, it's still so much fun even with these nuances!

Day four we did a park hopper pass and hit up Hollywood studios for some GREAT shows and a couple rides.  And more characters (Wreck It Ralph, Vanelope, the Green Army Guy, Handy Manny, Jake, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Sully, Mike, McQueen, Mater - a lot of them, huh?).  Then back to Magic Kingdom, because it is so magical you just have to go back.  There were a few rides and a visit to Merida that we didn't fit in on our first day at Magic Kingdom, so back we went.  Merida was the only princess that Gavin wanted to see (fine with me, I can't emotionally handle the loss of not seeing the princesses with Grace who I'm sure would have been gaining a fondness for them if she were still alive - 20 months.  Seeing all of those little girls dressed as princesses around the parks put that darn lump in my throat each day).  Gavin loves the movie Brave and Merida's tom-boyish personality.  Boy, it was worth the 45 minute wait (our longest) to see her.  She was FANTASTIC - took her time with Gavin, playing around, letting him hold and use her bow and arrow, hugging and kissing him.  It was so cute and Gavin just loved the attention.  He still talks about how he has Merida's lipstick on his cheek!

Day five, a Saturday and much busier, was spent at Animal Kingdom and then a late flight back home (the late flight was nice, allowed us to spend the whole day at the park).  Brad and Gavin went on a safari ride and "daddy took lots of pictures of the animals", we visited the tree of life, saw a cute 4D Bug's Life movie (Gavin was so fun to watch at the 3D/4D shows, trying to catch the objects with his hands), a wonderful live stage performance of Finding Nemo (broadway quality, loved it), a visit to the Boneyard playground where I lost Gavin for approximately 7 minutes in the busy chaos and was so freaked out I had the staff helping me to find him.  He was supposed to wait at the bottom of a slide for me and did not, though he did the first two times.  Very scary minutes.  Done with the Boneyard.  And we met Dug and Russell from "Up", had a memorable (but over priced) character brunch at Tusker's House (yummy food!) with Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, met Pluto as well.  Then back to our hotel for a bus ride to the airport : (  The magic was ending!

Here are some comments I captured from Gavin the day after we returned home, remembering some of his favorite highlights:

• "I remember meeting..." and he goes on to list just about all of the 30ish characters he met along our trip.
• "I was playing tricks on Goofy and Daisy" referring to our brunch at Tusker House where he loved that they would come to the table while we ate and goof around.
• "Minnie Mouse copies me with what I do" referring to our character meet-and-greet with her where she must have mimicked him.
• "I remember the scary guy from the Bug's Life show."
• "Cinderella's castle turned all the colors at night - green, purple, pink, yellow, blue."
• Seaworld - "the Orca ride" referring to the Shamu roller coaster.  He's very into the technical names for the various kinds of whales right now, so it was an "Orca" not "Shamu".
• Referring to the Peter Pan ride at Magic Kingdom: "I liked when Captain Hook got in the crocodile's mouth, then he said 'Help me Smee'."
• Referring to the It's a Small World ride (one of my faves): "I like when that guy was sledding on that hill."
• "I remember I saw Cinderella and Belle at the parade" at Magic Kingdom.
• "I remember when I saw the Beast guy" at Hollywood Studios live performance of Beauty and the Beast.
• At the Lego store in Downtown Disney: "there was a Lego girl who was standing up, and Buzz and Woody and Hulk" referring to the large Lego creations.
• He talked about Nemo and his dad from the Finding Nemo performance (again, loved this show).
• And he talked about Simba and Simba's friends from the Lion King performance at Hollywood Studios.
• "Merida is the one who doesn't follow the rules, like she puts her bow and arrow on the table."

Here are photos to sum up our experience (no music this time, so no need to mute your sound).