Two down...one to go! Gavin James is potty-trained!

It's official...this little dude is potty trained!!!  I'm calling it on Sunday, Nov 2 at 3 years and 1 month old!  Pretty impressive seeing as how two weeks ago Gavin was still having accidents in his pull ups.  He's had the pee thing down for quite some time but he gave us such a hard time about going #2 in the potty that I thought I would be sending him to kindergarten in a pull up!  But much to our surprise and delight, he just decided that it was time to do the deed.  I'm not sure if it was the constant begging, the toys and candy as incentives or the promise of an iPad if he pooped in the potty, but last week he just started doing it all by himself.  I honestly think he just wanted to do it on his own time in his own way.....with lots of dancing, clapping and running around the house singing that he pooped in the potty.  Those of you who don't have kids will appreciate this one day, I promise! 

Regardless, he's gone accident free for 5 days so I consider that 99.9% trained in my book.  So now he gets to wear his super hero tighty-whitey's to his hearts desire!  And Christian and I no longer have to clean man-sized turds out of his pull up.  Can I get an AMEN!  Of course I just bought a mega-pack of pull ups at Target last week so if anyone needs them give me a call!

It's also worth mentioning that our little monster is no longer taking naps and can get dressed all by himself.  It's like he turned 3 and decided to grow up overnight!  I'm so proud of him but more importantly he's so proud of himself.  He says he's a big boy now and that Dylan is the only baby in the house.  It makes me SO happy that he feels this sense of accomplishment and individuality aside from his brother.  I see a huge change in him...definitely for the better! 

Back to School!

I realize that this blog post is just a tad late seeing as how the boys started school 7 weeks ago!  But they both had parent/teacher conferences this week so it gave me a reason to tie it all in and finally get some of the first day of school pictures on the board.  Many of you have already seen most of these but for prosperity's sake, I need to post them on the blog so my kids can see what a crazy woman I was for staying up late some nights to document all of their achievements.  But I digress...

The first day of school was great!  Jack was SO EXCITED to go to big school at Hick's Canyon that he just bounced into class and never looked back.  He's such a big kid now...sniff, sniff.  I guess I shouldn't be shocked about that because he always loves a new adventure.  He wakes up every day so happy to go to school.  He also has tons of friends, loves his teacher and looks forward to his homework every day. I swear, I'm not making this up.  At his conference his teacher had awesome things to say about him.  But beyond the academics what made me the happiest was when she called Jack one of her Anchor Students....the kind of student she can always count on to follow the rules, do the right thing and to set an example for the rest of the class.  She said he's a natural leader and all-around great kid.  I thought that was pretty cool!  He does need work on he letter recognition but he's kicking butt in math!  Overall I am so extremely proud of this kid.  I couldn't ask for anything more from him.

Gavin actually surprised us all on his first day.  We had taken him to his new class for a few trial runs so the first full day wasn't much of a shock to him.  So when we got to school that morning he just walked right in and got in line to go outside for the prayer and pledge of allegiance.  He just gave us a huge smile and waved and that was that.  I got a little choked up because he just seemed so happy and grown-up.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise!  He's had a few days since then where he cried but his teachers are so wonderful and always comfort him. So for the most part, Creator's Corner Preschool has been a really positive experience for him...and us! 

Gavin is difficult to read sometimes so we don't get a lot of information out of him.  But every once in a while he'll sing a song from chapel or talk about a new friend at school.  So we know it's making an impression.  And his teachers are really great about telling us cute things that he does.  They say he loves music time and is always the first one up to dance!  At his review they said he's such a sweet little boy who loves playing with the other kids and who is a great helper to his teachers.  They also said all the other teachers in school adore him and think he's just the cutest and funniest kid ever.  The one thing he needs work on is remembering his last name.  We've called him Gavin James for so long that he thinks his last name is James....how cute is that?! I'm so proud of my little man for standing his own and making his way without his big brother.  He's really come a long way and I couldn't be happier!

So here are a few pics from the first day and some from Jack's class.  I know I don't have a lot of Gavin but the kid hates getting his picture taken.  It's like pulling teeth!  Even his teachers tell me that can never get a good picture of him.  So please don't think we're favoring Jack here.  I figured the pictures speak for themselves so there is no need for captions.  But I should point out that Jack's kindergarten teacher is the amazing Mrs. Baxter and Gavin's teacher is the wonderful Mrs. Johana!

 

 

 

 

 

Gavin James is 3!

  

 

Our little firecracker, Gavin James turned 3 last weekend!  Man, I love this kid!  He keeps life very interesting for us on a daily basis.  He is so, so, so funny and seriously cracks us up.  He's also super smart, affectionate, cuddly, sweet and so darn adorable.  We all know he can be a bit of a pill but it's just so hard to stay mad at him when he flashes that smile and those baby blues....which are usually hidden under his shaggy blond locks that he refuses to let me cut.  

 

Gav has a very dynamic personality and people just love him....especially his teachers and other moms in the neighborhood. They think he's so cute and hilarious and they always want to hang with him.  But he just does his own thing and he really doesn't give a hoot what anyone else thinks about him.  He's going to be that cute boy in school who all the girls love but he won't pay them any attention.  He's definitely going to break some hearts.  Hey, you gotta respect a kid who stands on his own and is true to himself.  But underneath that tough exterior is my sweet little guy with a sensitive heart.  I have such a soft spot for my pint-sized rebel with the baby soft voice.  I want to bottle up that sweet voice and save it forever!! 

 

The other day his buddy Jaxon skinned his knee and was bleeding.  He wouldn't stop crying so Gavin went over to him and put some pizza sauce on his own knee and said, "Look Jaxon, I have blood on my knee too."  Well, this made Jaxon crack up, so Gav proceeded into a 5 minute comedy routine consisting of singing silly songs and dancing without his pants off.  Jaxon forgot all about his skinned knee and we all had a good laugh.  Sometime we all focus on the crazy stuff that Gavin does and we forget that he really is an amazing kid who loves his family and friends.  I thank God every day that I get to be his mom.  I can't wait to see what awesome adventure his life will be!

 

For his big day, Gav chose to go to Pretend City, a children's museum right here in Irvine.  It's the coolest place.  Its set up like a real city with a kid-sized grocery store, post office, fire station, farm, house and lots of other great little areas.  All the kids loved it!  They had so much fun dressing up, building things, dancing and pretending to be doctors.  It was the perfect place for Gavin because he has a short attention span so he could just run all over the place and go wild.

 

After Pretend City, Gavin got his favorite food....Pizza!  And for some reason he had it in his head that he was getting a birthday donut and there was no way we were going to talk him out of it.  So while the rest of us got delicious Casey's Cupcakes, Gav had a chocolate donut.  What can I say, the kid marches to the beat of his own drum.  But that's what make him so special!  Here's a few pictures of our sweet boy celebrating his 3rd birthday...

 

We had his birthday party with my family the weekend before and he chose a Toy Story theme...  

 

 

 

Here are my two little white boys taking a turn at the piñata.  Don't ask me why Gav is not wearing a shirt.  I hardly notice these things anymore...

 



 

 

Enjoying the fruits of his labor...

Gavin shared his birthday celebration with Papa Joey.  I'm sure Joey was thrilled at the lovely décor!  But these two really love each other so they had a ball celebrating together...

 

 

Gavin gets SO excited about every present and is so appreciative of everything he gets.  I could watch him open presents all day...

On the morning of his birthday we gave him presents from us as well as a new scooter and Spiderman helmet from Gigi and Papa.  As you can see I couldn't get a good picture because he was too busy playing...

Our annual picture at 10:05 am!  He loves hearing his birth story and keeps telling everyone that he came out of my belly.  I love him so much!!!

 

Ok, I just had to share this little gem of Gav when he was first born.  He was seriously the cutest baby I had ever seen.  Can we just rewind 3 years so I can snuggle with this adorableness again...

 



Ok, back to reality.  Here's Gavin rocking out at the Pretend City Theater!  He's obsessed with guitars.  The next Jimmy Paige perhaps...

 

 

"Cutie," as Gavin calls her, got in on the action.  My kids love to dance and perform for us so they spent a lot of time on this stage...



 

 

Giving his sissy a ride to the gas station...

 



 

Officer's Jack and Gavin ready for duty...

I think this was their favorite part because they got to play dentist and torture mommy with the giant toothbrush.  You know what they say about payback...

Nurse Dylan was not enjoying her scrubs...

Doctor David pulling the guts out of daddy!  The kids really loved playing doctor and dentist for some reason...

I don't see construction work in his future.  He doesn't look all that thrilled here.  Maybe the hat is ruining his hair...

Happy Birthday to my baby boy!  Only you would make me put a candle in your birthday donut...

SoCal Stay-cation!

 I'm trying to catch up on my blogs from the summer so I'm posting some pictures from our little "stay-cation" at the end of August.  I wanted to end the summer with a bang but since its so expensive and difficult to travel with three small children, we decided to take advantage of all the fun things we can do right in our own back yard.  I mean, people travel to Orange County to vacation.  We' re just lucky to live here within 20 minutes of the most popular attractions.  And the kids don't really know the difference from the beaches of Maui and Newport Beach.  So it was a no-brainer.

 

We had to start the week with a trip to our favorite place, Disneyland!  We decided to leave Dylan at home so I could focus on the boys.  They are at such great ages for Disney and without having to deal with a toddler the boys really had a blast. I can honestly say it was our best trip ever.  During that week we also enjoyed a classic beach bonfire in Corona del Mar, dragged daddy to an indoor trampoline park, swam a lot, stayed up late watching movies, ate tons of bad food and then capped off the week with cruise on a Duffy boat through Newport Harbor.  It was the best week with my kids and my family!  It makes me feel good knowing that Jack has such happy memories of his summer before kinder.  Here's a little snapshot of our week...

 

The Dumbo ride has been one of my favorites since I was a kid.  Now it's one of Jack's favorites and we always have to ride it together...

 

Mimi took Gavin...

We got front row seats for the parade...

 

 

Such anticipation waiting for the parade to begin...

 

A kiss from Elsa on the Frozen float caused this priceless reaction from Gavin!  Waiting an hour in the sun for the parade was all worth it just to see this face...

And then this face!  We stayed until the bitter end and waited for the fireworks at 9:30 pm.  My boys had never seen fireworks and they didn't disappoint.  Jack was so overwhelmed he could barely speak!  It was pure Disney magic...

Beach bonfire day with our cousins!  I love that my kids get to grow up near the coast.  It's just so peaceful and beautiful...

Heaven!

These two are as close as two cousins can be!  I hope that never changes...

Me and my girl...

 

 

Dylan loved watching the birds on the beach...

But she said "heck no" to the water....

Daddy didn't like it so much either...

But, of course, our little fish loved it...

 

 

Two peas in a pod...

I love this picture!  For once our little devil looks like an angel...

My boys, my loves!

Me and my precious Gav, Gav...

A rare selfie with my man...

Its bonfire time!  Here's the party crew ready to roast some marshmallows...

 

Dylan and her papa share a special bond...

LOVE!  I never take our amazing sunsets for granted...

I love my family...

 

 

Daddy is fun....until he gets too crazy and throw his back out jumping too hard at the trampoline park.  He's getting too old for this stuff...

 



I love this place!  My kids can literally bounce off the walls...

Posing in the foam pit.  Jack is always up for a good photo opp...

 



Cruising Newport Harbor in a motorized Duffy boat.  Papa took the first turn at the helm with his first mate Jack...

 

 

Snuggles with my matey...

Jack's turn...

Gavin adores his papa bear...

The little princess just had to have a turn...

 

 

And then Gavin took the wheel...

Dylan loves her Mimi...

Dylan loves anyone who will share their chocolate covered frozen banana...

 

 

My little Cali boys love the water...

This is what summer is all about...running, playing, laughing...

Dylan is applauding the great end to an amazing summer...