Visit With Grampa & Gramma

After my mom had been here a few days, Doug got back in the early morning hours of Sunday. Grampa followed about 15 hours later. Koen was super excited about his Daddy's return, but I felt kind of bad because it was a little over-shadowed by the novelty of Grampa's visit. When I got Koen up on Sunday morning, he said "Grampa comes today!" But he was also very excited when he greeted Daddy that morning. It was so sweet to see Koen and Tavin get to see Doug at church on Sunday morning for their first time in over a week (they didn't see him until we went to church because he got up for work at 6am after arriving only a few hours before!). And Doug was such a proud Daddy showing off the two of them - he missed them so, so much!

We had a nice visit with all of us under one roof for a few nights. Seems like it went too fast as always (Grampa & Gramma are currently mid-way through their 12 hour drive home to NH). Here are the pictures from the last few days with some comments to explain our special time.
Doug got right to work in the backyard on Sunday (well, after a nap of course). Tavin was his little helper...
Koen was happy to keep busy building a new construction site for his trucks.
On Monday, Grampa was on duty bright and early after breakfast. It was breezy and overcast, a perfect morning for a refreshing bike ride. Dad and Koen probably went up and down our block 12 times. They were out there for an hour and a half.
Tavin and I stayed busy on the porch. As you can see in the above, we got creative. =) Tav is such a ham!
Yep, there goes brother again! And again and again! Grampa was such a good sport!
Eventually I had to be productive, so I worked on pruning my petunias and watering them. Tavin thought the water was supposed to be a shower for him...
Needless to say, for Koen's second half of his bike ride time, Tavin was upstairs in the bathtub playing and getting cleaned up!
We chanced possible rain showers and took the boys to the playground later in the morning (Koen still on his bike!). It was such a nice time of enjoying the outdoors and Grampa and Gramma's company (not to mention their helpfulness!).
Tavin has gotten really comfortable with Grampa and Gramma and it warms my heart to see it!
Tavin is really itching to walk (yes, I know I've said this before, but we have to be getting closer now that he is 17 months, right?).
So Grampa took him around pushing the stroller. He loved it! He did it for about 20 minutes!
On Monday night we ended our wonderful day with the boys with a dinner out at Hofbrau House at SouthSide Works. We just love their back patio with a view of the river, fresh air, great service and it never seems to be took packed or loud. The boys stole our hearts as well as that of our server!

It was a great few days. Thanks Grampa & Gramma! We love you!

Touch-A-Truck 2011

We went to the Touch-A-Truck event by the Junior League of Pittsburgh in the Strip District for the first time today. It was the absolute perfect place to take a 4-year-old little boy! What a fantastic event...thanks JLP! Every kid got a hard hat and then they basically could go in and out of all the vehicles available there. Koen's dream come true! There were dozens of trucks of all different shapes and sizes. Here is a photo review of probably only half of the trucks Koen got to go in. He was so happy. He actually thanked me three times on our way out saying, "I had fun with you today, Mommy. Thanks so much for bringing me here." So precious!

Did you catch that picture of Tavin Dale just being a trooper like always? Well, he was amazing. He sat in the stroller for an hour and a half mimicking beeping horn noises, checking out all the activities and eating blueberries while his brother had the time of his life!

Where's Tavin? Oh, He's Washing His Hands!

Tavin loves to be just like big brother and the rest of us. Lately he's been really into having us pretend or really wash his hands. I usually hold him over the sink or just scrub his hands while he's sitting in his highchair. So, this morning brother went to the bathroom and then stood on the stool and washed his hands, then he returned to breakfast. Tav soon after got down out of his highchair. A few minutes later I'm wondering...hmmm...where's Tavin? Check out what I found! So cute!

We Saw the Sun!

We've been keeping busy with Gramma in town. I've been able to get some errands and to-do's done while Mom has been super helpful with the boys and around the house. Such a nice break from my normal routine of trying to do it all. =)

With most of the last few days having chance of rain, today we took advantage of many breaks of sun and almost no rain! Koen and I walked to drop off a gift to neighbors, then on to get my hair cut, then to run an errand and home to pick up Tav and Gramma for a picnic lunch at Osceola.

The pictures are priceless!After a great time of play with some neighborhood kids there and just enjoying the sun in general (not to mention a Goodyear blimp sighting!) we headed home for naps. I spent most of the afternoon at the Waterfront running errands and then got home in time to get the kids out the door again to enjoy a little more rain-less fresh air before bedtime. Koen was hilarious. He wore his snow boots because I've been trying to motivate to learn to put his own shoes on. Well, instead of learning how to put his sneakers on, he came up with a great idea...he knows how to slip his feet into boots, so that's easier! Here he is enjoying a homemade whole wheat blueberry muffin at our evening playground visit...Such a nice day with the boys getting out and enjoying the neighborhood. Ahhh...

The Ladybug Continues

Koen is absolutely enamored with the ladybug costume he made at nursery school yesterday. He wore it most of his waking hours today. The armbands holding the wings on have ripped several times because despite being a ladybug he is also still a 4 year old boy with lots of energy! The wings are almost laminated with packing tape at this point to hold them together. It's so cute to see Koen in this get-up. He's totally into it.

The Ladybug Is Creative...The Ladybug Enjoys Walks (with an umbrella due to all the potential rain and we wouldn't want to get the construction paper wet!)...

Gramma Is Here!

I'm so excited that Mom is here! But before she came we had a jam packed day!

It was a nursery school day and I got the boys out the door in good time and dropped Koen off a little before 9am. Tavin and I then headed to get gas (oh my goodness, so expensive!), then to Giant Eagle Market District and finally to Whole Foods. By the time we got home we had just enough time to put our groceries away before Tavin took his nap.

We picked Koen up a little after noon and I actually had packed a lunch that we ate in Koen's classroom (we had to go to a doctor's appointment a few minutes later, so that's why). Anyways, the boys loved it! Tavin started in his stroller, but after a lot of motioning and complaining grunts I figured out he wanted to sit in one of the little kid chairs. I shoved him in close to the table and it kept him pretty secure. He loved it. He thought he was so great...just like big brother!Koen was very proud of himself as well because of his awesome lady bug costume he made that morning at nursery school. It's super cute. He runs around flapping his arms to fly. We headed over to the doctor's office and Koen was given a clean bill of health at age 4. He's in the 50th percentile for weight, 75th for height. Tavin still has this cough and lots of snot, so I had the doctor check him out as well. Thankfully nothing major to speak of, hopefully it will remain an upper respiratory thing. I also had the doctor look at Tav's eczema which is just out of control. He gave us a prescription for that. Koen then had 3 shots. He was very brave, but definitely cried. The poor guy. It was sweet. Tav was watching him and start sticking his bottom lip out as he watched brother get sad. The love each other so much.

So then we jumped back in the car and headed out to Robinson to run a few errands and then pick up Gramma. The boys were troopers. Rarely do I attempt a bunch of errands with the both of them anymore, but I had to take advantage of the fact we were in crazy commercial suburbia and visit a few stores that are far from us. We made it through Walmart and Target relatively smoothly. Then we headed off to get Gramma at the airport!

The moment my mom got in the car I breathed a sigh of relief. So nice to have someone to talk to, to share K/T responsiblity with, etc., not to mention she's one of my best friends and I love spending time with her! Thanks for being here Gramma!

Cloudy Day Again - Science Center It Is!

Yesterday I checked the weather and saw that it would be rainy and cloudy again today, so I made plans with Kyndal to take all our boys to the Carnegie Science Center.

It was a nice change from our four walls and our boys all enjoyed it so much this time. We visited the trains, but other than that and a quick visit to the robot area, we spent all of our time in the children's area on the 4th floor. Tavin even got to play this time. Tavin loved the water play...But he got so wet, I had to take off his shirt! Thankfully he had a sweatshirt, so don't worry, I didn't have a naked baby at the museum for too long!
Koen also kept busy with the water play for a long time too.
Kyndal got Porter into the playing by helping the kids learn about the organs using Porter as a model...ha!Koen loved the mechanical area with the balls. He probably worked the ball area for 20 minutes.
Koen also enjoyed the precussion area. It's a pretty dark video and you can totally hear another mom talking to their kid. But if you can see Koen's concentration and intensity, it's pretty cute!