Tavin's 2 Year Appointment

Tavin had his 2 Year Checkup today. Since Aunt Abbie is here, she stayed home with Koen. They worked on the dinosaur project some more and Aunt Abbie also gave Koen his first piano lesson! I wish I could've been a fly on the wall for that. She said he did really well. They are probably going to do a few more while she's here so that he can have a good introduction and it's a good test to see if he's ready to start learning piano. We'll see. At least it's a great activity while he's on Christmas break from preschool!

Anyways, back to sweet Tavin's appointment. It went really well. I reported on the everlasting intense eczema. Yes, yes, just keep moisturizing...I'll keep trying! I mentioned how Tavin seems to be so often sick and for those of you that are also wondering what on earth is going on...nothing. Just a healthy, strong kid battling everything mom, dad and brother bring home for him to fight off. Good news, but for his sake I wish there was a solution (ok, a little for my sake too). I also asked about his sweet little toes - his second toe is squished between his big toe and middle toe. It doesn't seem to affect anything thankfully at this point, but the doctor suggested having a pediatric orthopedic surgeon look at it (Brett, Steve, perhaps a house call?).

Tavin was in excellent spirits at this appointment. He's completely feeling back to himself after his weird weekend illness (who knows what that was). Look at my adorable, healthy 2 year old!Ok, this is my absolute favorite. Potentially best picture of Tavin of the year...So I also did a closeup in black and white. So precious!Oh yes, and of course, the stats. Tavin is 35 and 1/2 inches long - my baby is about 3 feet tall!!! And he was exactly 27 pounds. He was in the 35th percentile for weight and in the 75th for height. Good job growing Tavin! I just check Koen's baby book. He was exactly the same height at his 2 year appointment, but was 28 lbs., 8 oz. Thank you, Lord, that Tavin is healthy and strong. I love my sweet Tavin!

Koen the Archaeologist

After our fun morning making Gingerbread Houses with our neighbors, we headed to the airport to pick up Aunt Abbie! Koen has been looking forward to this literally for months. He was so excited that today was finally the day. Koen and Abbie have a very sweet, close relationship. Abbie was around Pittsburgh for the first 3 years of Koen's life and they spent a lot of time together. It's precious how much Koen loves her and the instant he sees her, they are right back to where they were the last time we were all together. Tavin reads off of his brother, so once Koen started loving on Aunt Abbie, he wanted to as well. Abbie was very pleased. She's a very thoughtful aunt and she brought a little present for each of the boys. A little plane for Tavin and then a dinosaur kit for Koen. Koen, at first, just wanted Tavin's plane (and Abbie was wishing she just got them both a plane), but later this evening when Abbie and Koen got a chance to break into his dinosaur kit, we were all so happy that was his gift. He loved it! It's a mini archaeological dig kit. It looks like a bar of soap which is a chalky material and it comes with a sharp stick and a little brush and you chip away at the bar until you find bones, then you dust them off. There is a whole dinosaur body buried in there. It is going to take Koen forever to get all the bones out, but he is determined with this project. He spent 45 minutes on it tonight at least and we haven't even gotten a bone out yet!I'll have to do an update post once he excavates the whole skeleton!

Gingerbread House Making

Today was Gingerbread House Making Day at the Melder house! I planned this fun morning with Hilary a few weeks ago. Both Delia and Koen have two weeks off from preschool, so we wanted to get some fun get-togethers on the calendar to keep them on their toes. Yesterday Koen and I made the house frames out of cardboard (well, I really made them, but Koen was making comments on how he wanted them bigger most of the time). This morning before the boys were up I set out all the supplies and decorations. Pretty fun!Hilary, D and Huck came around 9:45am. Koen took Delia right to the kitchen. They were so excited to start on their project together. Koen had been eyeing all the supplies all morning!Hilary and I took turns watching over the little guys playing in the living room and helping the big kids in the kitchen. Tavin and Huck did a great job playing again today. I think they still felt pretty special even though the main event was in the kitchen.I asked Huck and Tav if they wanted to sit and say, "cheese." They loved the idea (they were very motivated by the fact they could then look at the pictures on my camera).Here are some pictures of the progress in the kitchen (basically the finished products). For a Type A mommy, it's hard to let your kid do a disorganized and random looking gingerbread house (I would love to make it all symmetrical with nice patterns, etc.). But, I have to say it's also nice to see your kids' creativity and handiwork.And here's Delia's lovely gingerbread house...Thanks Hilary, D and Huck for joining us for another fun day! Oh, and here is a video for your viewing pleasure (and your ears, watch out it's loud!)...

Happy Birthday To Kaiser

Yesterday was Tavin's birthday and today is his buddy's, Kaiser's, birthday. They are almost exactly a year apart. Kaiser and Koen are great buds, but it's fun that Tavin and Kaiser are now friends too. Tavin just this week has developed a name for him, "Kai-Ka." Kaiser gave Tavin a Christmas bracelet earlier this week. Every time he sees it he says, "Kai-Ka." So cute.

Anyways, this morning I remembered it was Kaiser's birthday. I was going to just send Kyndal, Kaiser's mom, a text, but then I had a better idea. Why not make Kaiser a video? So, here it is...

As you can see, Tavin is feeling much better. He actually has acted completely like himself from the moment after he was sick last night. He slept great through the night and had his normal energy level keeping up with brother and I all morning. Anyways, back to the video. Apparently, it was a huge hit with Kaiser. Kyndal said she was sure he would be requesting to watch it all day. Yay! Happy Birthday, Kaiser. The Melders love you!

Tavin Turns 2!

Today was Tavin's 2nd birthday (technically he wasn't born until 11:17pm, but since he sleeps then, we partied during the day). We started his day with a birthday song to wake him up. He was still a little sleepy and definitely not sure of what was going on, not to mention he had half unzipped his pj's. So cute and dilapidated!

Then we headed down to a simple breakfast. We were expecting our neighbors for a birthday brunch, so the boys just had oatmeal to tide them over.Koen has been wanting to watch a Christmas DVD for awhile, so Doug sat down with him and Tavin for a little while so he could watch the old Frosty.Later when we were waiting for our friends to arrive, Tavin opened his card from Gramma and Grampa.He loved it. I think he thought it was a toy. He was driving it along the edge of the couch and he didn't want me to open it because then he couldn't see the dump truck. So cute!Then we read the book that mysteriously arrived yesterday (Nana and PopPop, did you send this sweet birthday book?). It's called "Mother's Lap" and it is a very sweet story. The boys definitely enjoyed it.Then our neighbors arrived. Tavin was so excited for "De-de" (Delia) and "Huk-hu" (Huxley) to be here with us. Koen and Delia went straight upstairs to play and Huxley and Tavin contentedly sat down to play on the floor. It's so funny how differently peers play with one another rather than the way Koen and Tavin, who are separated by a few years. Very complimentary at the same developmental level. So easy-going and refreshing!Around 11am we sat down for our lovely brunch. First, we brought out the banana, chocolate chip muffins Koen and I made yesterday. Here's Koen laboring in love (and in his Rudolph hat) for his brother.And here's big brother singing to Tavin and presenting him with the treat...Tavin actually blew the candles out on his own! Unfortunately I didn't catch it on camera. But you can imagine.Here's Koen and his buddy, Delia, enjoying a chat during their meal. Those two are quite a pair. Chatty, a little silly and totally act like mini adults. So hilarious.Hilary, Alex, D and Huck brough Tavin a present. Look at the intensity as he's opening it (with Koen's help of course). Koen was definitely struggling with not being the center of attention at times today.A new puzzle with all Tav's favorite types of vehicles! He loved it and is already getting really good at it. Puzzles have been a hit with Tav lately, so to have a fresh one is a lot of fun. Thanks, friends!And now for the Melder present. Koen and Doug went down to the basement and carried it out with Delia's help...Look at Tavin just watching while Koen basically unwraps it.A trike! In no time, Tavin is swinging his leg over the seat, ready to ride!Look at the little man. He was so excited. I was so happy he was interested in it.And then Tav even let Huck have a try.And back to Tav working on the pedals.Here's a video of Tavin in action (with help from Delia and Koen).

Our friends left around noon and Doug had to go get ready for doing a wedding this afternoon, so it was me and the boys. We had a nice time winding down. I cleaned up a little, Koen and I wrapped some Christmas presents. The boys and I actually did some organizing upstairs preparing for Christmas setting toys aside to give away, put away to sell at a yardsale and then some to put away and maybe pull out in the future if need be. I was excited that we had some productivity and Koen loves a project and a job. Without even realizing it the time had passed and it was naptime.

Doug got home while the boys were still sleeping and he had the idea of going out for a low key dinner out with the boys. We actually haven't done that in a while with the boys and it definitely sounded fun and easy, so we headed down the street to the Sharp Edge. Here's the birthday boy as we killed time waiting for our meal...And Koen didn't want to do a picture, so I tickled him and this is what we got. Cute!There was another table in the room that was celebrating a birthday. They were having fun and were kind of loud, although a really nice group and we didn't mind at all, but they brought us cake for putting up with them. When we told them that it was Tav's birthday too, they were thrilled. The room was so loud with "happy birthday" wishes! (They had been loving making eyes at cute Tav all night anyways).Koen was super excited to have a little cake. It made his night for sure!Although Tavin seemed in good spirits during the meal, he actually didn't eat a thing. He didn't want salad, pizza or even the bite of cake we offered him. I whispered to Doug during the meal that I was afraid that he might be getting sick. This poor kid so often gets little viruses that I figured this might be the sign of one coming. Well, I called it, I just didn't know how quickly it was coming on. Yep, that's right. About 2 minutes after the cake arrived at our table Tav started crying for no reason. I picked him up thinking maybe he was sad or tired, but also wondering if maybe this was it. And yes, yes it was. Yuck. Embarrassing. And most of all, poor birthday boy! I took him to the bathroom to clean up and he started acting like himself right away. The restaurant workers were so kind to us and the neighboring people were also so sweet. I hope we didn't ruin anyone's night there. We got out of there ASAP and headed home. I put Tav in the bath, got him to bed and he went straight to sleep. Doug handled getting Koen to bed and I went back into disinfecting mode. The washer is running, the toys are all cleansed and my hands are raw from antibacterial soap yet again (well, they've been pretty bad since earlier this week). Definitely a sad end to a good day, but thankfully we did have such a nice day before he got sick. And hopefully, it was a fluke and not a stomach flu. We'll see how tonight goes. Well, Tavin, we love you so much. Happy 2nd birthday!

Christmas Sing 2011

Today was Koen's last day of preschool before the Christmas break. His school has a tradition of having the children perform for the parents on this day each year. Last year it was so cute, although a little frustrating because we could barely see Koen. Koen was in the front row of his class group and we had pretty good seats (plus I snuck up to take pictures a few times). Koen was so excited for the Christmas Sing. He wore a special outfit. He put it on the minute he woke up. Then he even let us gel his air into place (he really needs a haircut!). I told him he looked so handsome and then later in the morning I told Tavin he looked handsome and Koen said, "well, I'm the prettiest, right Mommy?" And even on the way into school he said, "I think I'll be the prettiest in my class, Mommy." I said, "well, I think everyone will look very nice today, Koen. And yes, you look very handsome."

Doug found us seats while Tavin and I dropped off Koen in his room to line up. Then Tavin and I went to find Doug. Tavin got bored pretty quickly sitting in his saved seat. We went walking around until the kids were ready to walk in for the Sing. First though, here's a cute picture of Doug and Tav.Tavin and I rushed back to our seats before Koen walked in. I caught him coming up the aisle (he's the 3rd one back).I let the camera reset and then snapped another shot right away and look at what I got! I didn't even know he was waving. It was perfect. Look how proud he is!See how he's in the front row! Great view this year. He is usually quite the showman and performer at home, loving to steal the show from his brother (if Tavin can even get the attention anyways), but Koen seemed overwhelmed by all the parents snapping cameras and videotaping. He sang along and did the motions, but was very reserved. Still so sweet to watch. Especially when he would catch either my or Doug's eye and he would smile, squint and wave.Tavin loved seeing brother up on stage..."Brah-Bah!"I got these pictures by sneaking up to the front row momentarily.Sorry about all the pictures. Just was having so much fun seeing Koen with his little class. We love his nursery school and are so thankful for the experiences he is having. Plus he's so cute!And of course, here is a video for your enjoyment!!!

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

On Monday I picked Koen up from nursery school and he said, "Mommy, everyone at school has Christmas hats." I thought he was talking about his festively dressed teachers. But he went on to explain that no, his classmates had Santa hats. I'm not big on just giving Koen whatever he wants and I don't want to set a precedent that we go and buy whatever everybody else has when Koen wants to have the same thing (even if I probably could have found one for 99 cents). I figured we could be more creative than that. I said, "well, Koen, how about we make a Christmas hat for you to wear on Wednesday...maybe Rudolph?" That was all I needed to say. He loved the idea! Well, now I had to put my thinking cap on and make this possible! Thankfully it came easier than I thought. Koen was so into the process as we made it last night (especially the taping). Here's the final result which Koen was very proud of and wore all last night and all day today at nursery school, home, etc. I gotta give myself some props here too, the nursery school teachers loved our creation. =)Tav loves taking pictures and I guess he was a little jealous of the attention Koen was getting, so he hopped into this shot saying, "cheese." Isn't he so precious?