Seriously? Seriously.

I am SO PUMPED for the season premieres of 3 of my favorite shows tonight! Grey's Anatomy (I reeeally hope Meredith and Derek get together for good this time), Survivor (yes, Eric and I are 2 of the 10 people that still watch this show) and The Office (Jim + Pam = adorable). And add in the Twins' attempt at sweeping the White Sox, for sole possession of 1st place in the AL Central... this is the best TV-watching night in YEARS!

But now I have to admit that tonight is our 4 year wedding anniversary!! Yup - the nerve of the networks making us sit at home on a night like this! Oh well - we're both fine with parking our behinds on the couch, instead of going out for a fancy dinner to celebrate tonight. We will be doing the dinner on Saturday night... but for tonight we'll just hope the kids are able to entertain themselves while their parents indulge in their guilty pleasures!! So, happy Anniversary, Hunny! I love you more than ever, and am so lucky to be your wife! And I love our family so much... thanks for everything!

"Fun-It"

I don't know if Gavy inadvertently channels Yoda, or what, but every time after we do something fun, he gets in the car and says "Fun-it" - as in "It was fun" or "Fun, it was"... so, he said that on Saturday afternoon, when we were driving home from the Afton Apple orchard, which we had gone to with our neighbors. They only had 3 varities of apples (Red Baron, Macintosh, and something else) ready for picking, but they were all real tasty! You could also pick raspberries, but we didn't. Here are some of the cute pics from the day:

Who's the cool kid in the Spiderman shades?
On the hay ride


Ethan & Gavin

Julie, Ethan, Addie & Andrew

Cuties in the pumpkin patch

More cuties, more pumpkins

And this was how they looked on the ride home. Done. :)

And later on that day... cute.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Gwen Stefani should've been over the other night when Hallie moved beyond
rice cereal, into the wonderful world of Gerber... she could've sung a
cleaned-up version of her catchy tune "Hollaback Girl" -

"This food is
bananas - B-A-N-A-N-A-S!"

Hallie and I had both grown tired of the rice cereal after a week or so, so
I thought we'd dive right into the "food" that Gavy liked best his first
year of life - B-A-N-A-N-A-S (I can't say the word in my head without
singing it!!)! ;) It was funny to watch the look on her face when she
realized that it wasn't the same old bland rice cereal, and then when she
realized she really did like the bananas, she just couldn't get enough of
them! Between her and Gavin, they finished the entire jar in one sitting
(of course big bro couldn't let little sis eat something without him trying
it, too!)!

Oh, and speaking of that little sweetie, I should mention that after that
one brief 2-year-old morning, he's been back to being Mommy's little angel
ever since! Well, I guess we have had a couple of incidents where he
reeeeally wants to do things on his own... but for the most part I've given
in and let him take his time, and he's eventually able to do whatever it is
that he wanted to do. And the look on his face when he actually
accomplishes something new is priceless!! And he almost always says "Mommy
- Gabin DID IT!" Too adorable.

Turning Laziness into a Laptop

Neither Eric or I are big on spending change. Never have been. Just don't like lugging it around, and taking the time to find the correct change. Call us lazy. When we pay cash, we give dollar bills - and inevitably get change back, which then goes into one of many collection sites. For the longest time, we saw it piling up, but didn't know what we wanted to do with it, so we just let it grow. Well, last week when we decided to finally get a new computer, we thought we'd use the change to off-set the price of the laptop. When we gathered it all together, it ended up filling 2 beer pitchers, a shoe-box sized Tupperware container and a cookie tin (I wish I would have taken a picture). It really didn't seem like that much... I was thinking it would be around $200-something, Eric thought closer to $500. Well, I lugged it all into US Bank, and, to make a long story short, I walked out of there with

$644.52!!!
Unbelievable!! So, needless to say, I already set one of the pitchers back in the entryway to begin the next collection. Maybe if we wait long enough, we'll be able to use it for the kids' college tuition!!

=

Oy.

When did my 2-year-old turn into .... a 2-year-old?!?!?

My sweet little Gavy is starting to get more head-strong and independent every day. Up until just a couple weeks ago, the words that I'd use to describe him were easy-going, sweet, happy, even-tempered... but that all changed when I was screamed at for 45 minutes straight this morning! I'm hoping it was an isolated event. It started when I took his jammie pants off - something that he apparently wanted to do on his own. Then he wanted to feed baby - I let him try it, she wasn't interested, so he cried. Then he wanted to put his own pants on - something that he hasn't been able to do fully on his own yet. I let him try. He couldn't, so he cried. Same thing with the socks. And again with the shoes. We were finally able to get the pants and socks on "together" but when it came time to the shoes, he was adamant. He almost had one on, but the tongue got smashed down too far that his foot wouldn't go in any further. By this time he was flailing on the floor. And, of course, we were 30 minute late leaving the house. So I finally had to drag him, kicking and screaming, shoeless, out the door. After taking his socks off in the car, he screamed "Open door! Gavin walk!" the entire ride to Greta's. By the time we got there, he had started to calm down a little, and I was eventually able to walk out the door, happy to go to work (for once)!! :)

Oh, and throughout the whole ordeal, Hallie was smiling and giggling, completely oblivious to her big bro's antics. Remind me to never let her turn two!

And if you see my sweet, easy-going, even-tempered little boy anywhere, please tell him his mommy misses him!!

Kids say the darndest things.

Nana and I were playing with Gavin, Mason and Hallie at Nana & Bumpa's house on Sunday... Gavin found a little plastic star that he thought Hallie should play with, so he gave it to her. She wasn't all that interested in it, so Mason came and picked it up and walked off with it. Gavin tracked Mason down and said (in his best authority-figure voice) "Mason, no no - baby's toy!" - took it from Mason and handed it back to Hallie! Such a good big brother! :)

Oh, and I experienced another first last night. While Eric was doing his fantasy football draft, I was bathing both kids. Got Hallie out, went to put her jammies on and Gavy yelled "MOM?", so I ran back into the bathroom, expecting the worst. He saw me, smiled and said "I love you"! It's the little things like that that bring tears to my eyes and make it all worthwhile!