HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!!

Today is Bob's birthday!! Unfortunately it won't be that exciting as he had to work. His mom and dad are having us, his grandpa and his sister-in-law over for dinner, cake and presents so that will be fun! Raegan sang happy birthday to him this morning and gave him a cd. Gavin and I are going to give him his gifts tonight. I'll post pics tomorrow!

(Yes, I know that it's later than "tomorrow")

Gavin is 6 months old

Wow! Can you believe he has been around for 1/2 a year already? He had his pictures taken at Sears and did such a good job! As soon as we were done and getting ready to choose the pictures to order, Gavin slammed his face into the table, cut his lip and his upper gum. :( Poor little guy! Add this on to the shots that he had the day before and he had a pretty rough couple of days.

16 lbs. 4 oz.

26 1/2 inches

Anyway, onto his update! He now has two teeth, on the bottom, and is working on a couple of top teeth. He likes to talk - bbbbrrrrr noises, cooing and screeching! He seems to be very entertained by and laugh at his sister on a daily basis. He can get up on his hands and knees, but hasn't figured out how to move yet (thank God!). He likes to pet our cat, Max, when he gets close enough. He is almost sitting up, but is still pretty tipsy. He has been holding his own bottle for a while, but now likes to grab the spoon when you are feeding him. It sure makes for a messy meal! Since he has grown beyond 26 inches, he is now in his big boy carseat. This is a little difficult since he isn't sitting up that great in a shopping cart, but I know it will get better.

I'm sure he is doing so much more that I can't even remember at the moment, but you get the idea. He is a happy, healthy six month old boy! :)

It's POTTY time! :)

Although I thought this day would never come, Raegan is potty trained! Pretty much anyway. On Monday she woke up not feeling well. Since Bob works from home on Mondays, he decided she should stay with him. Not long after I left with Gavin, Raegan told Bob she had to go potty. She went!!!! Of course she got her treat of Dora fruit snacks, then called, Mommy to tell me the exciting news and then went on playing. A while later, she told her daddy she had to go again - and she DID! Ever since then she has been really good at telling us when she needs to go. We have even walked in on her a couple of times that we didn't know she was going potty. So far, the only time that she has not made it to the potty was when she was sleeping. I am just so proud of her!

A Wiggly good time!!

Raegan has always been a pretty big fan of the Wiggles. In fact, she is a Wiggly fan club member! About 3 months ago, Bob found out that the Wiggles would be coming to the Palace for their Chasing the Rainbow concert. Since Raegan is a fan club member, we were able to pre-purchase our tickets. Bob being the great Daddy that he is, was on the computer the day of the pre-sale to get us the best possible tickets, row 9, section A right on the floor in front of the stage. We decided not to tell Raegan about this because we didn’t want to listen to “When am I going to the Wiggles???” for three months.

Well, yesterday was the concert! Daycare accidentally slipped and told her that we were taking her. After a LONG drive from our house to the Palace we were really hoping that she wouldn’t freak out and cry when she saw them. She LOVED it! After we grabbed a bite to eat and found our chairs, she started looking around at all of the other kids and then said “I want a hat,” so off I go to get one. She wore this hat for the whole concert! She never keeps anything on her head! A couple of the Wiggly dancers came out to give some safety tips (they also did them in Spanish, Bob and I were trying to figure out when this became a necessary function in our society) and she was ready! She seemed a little confused when the Wiggles first came on stage and kept watching them on the giant screens next to the stage. She was so used to only seeing them on TV! After about 20 minutes, she really got into it. By the end, she was dancing, singing, laughing and talking to the Wiggles. Before they sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, they had everyone turn on their cell phone and hold it in the air to simulate stars. Raegan got a kick out of this and was very good at not making a call while holding it!

Bob and I are really glad that we decided to take her on this little “date.” She may not remember it, but we sure will. We had an amazing time hanging out with her and watching her have so much fun!

Our trip to North Dakota . . .

Bob flew to Syracuse on Monday and was meeting up with us at the airport on Wednesday to fly to see my family in North Dakota. I was quite the site when we got to the airport! The good thing was that my father-in-law could only laugh at me and not take a picture! I had Gavin in Snugli on my front, Raegan’s car seat on as a backpack, and Raegan in the stroller with the diaper bag hanging over the handles. They were nice enough to open a security line just for me to make my life a little easier. I didn’t have to take Gavin off, but Raegan had to go through the metal detector by herself. The TSA agent was using her blinking Dora the Explorer shoes as a bribe to get her to walk through by herself. Once she did get through, she wanted to run back to the other side to hang on my leg! We eventually did make it through and to the gate to wait for Bob. After that it was a pretty uneventful flight and drive to my parent’s house. Raegan immediately fell in love with my parent’s cat, Pudge, and followed him around pretty much the whole trip. Our sister-in-law, Nikki, came in to see us and invited Bob to help into another pasture in the morning. Not something that us city folk get to do very often!
Although he was not very prepared (no jeans or boots), Bob did chase cows with Harstads (my brother’s in-laws), first on 4-wheeler and then on horse. He was pretty tired after that so while he napped, my parents and I took the kids swimming. Raegan was pretty scared in the pool at first but by the end of the week, she was an old pro! My grandparents came over to see us again on Thursday, but they didn’t seem too concerned to find Bob and I quickly. In fact, I’m not sure we even got a hello!
On Friday, we all went swimming again. We are big fans of the Simpson’s and it was opening day for the movie, so Bob and I went to opening in Minot. This was the first movie we had been to in a long time, I know we haven’t been to one since Gavin was born. While we were gone, Raegan rode a horse for the first time! Her papa always said she was a North Dakota girl – now we have proof! Mark, who’s in med school, was able to get out of his afternoon clinic and come home a little early. We all went out to Palermo and then out to Harstads for a while. I guess we are all getting old because we were home and in bed early!
Mark & bob went to lake to go boating. Mom and I ran some errands and then stopped into Kat’s Kreations (a scrapbooking store). She always has the cutest stuff. She happened to be having a drawing for a shopping spree. All you had to do was spend $25, I could do that easily, so I signed up! The only catch was you had to be present to win. I went out to my sister-in-laws house and convinced her to back to the drawing with me. Lo and behold, I WON!!! It was a 45 second shopping spree. I was pretty amazed at what you can grab that quickly! Bob and Mark drove by and saw that Nikki and I were there. They walked in as I was running through the store and everyone was cheering me on. They weren’t quite sure what to think, Bob was just shaking his head. That evening, we went to my brother’s in-laws, Kevin & Sandy, 25th anniversary party that night. Raegan got to ride 4-wheeler and LOVED it when her dad went fast!
Gavin cut first his first tooth! We were driving to Medora, a western town, when I felt his gums and got a little scratch! Go little man! It was so hot in Medora, 105 degrees! Raegan got so crabby that my parents took her back to the hotel for a nap so she could make it through dinner and the musical later that night. We met all of my aunts on my dad’s side for a pitchfork fondue. That steak was the best I’ve had in a long time! I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more interactive. After dinner we went to the outdoor amphitheatre for the musical and it was great! Raegan even got to participate in the dancing, although she wouldn’t go on stage without me (after a day outside in 105 degree weather, I was really pretty too!)
The next day, we drove through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw a lot of buffalo. There was a herd very close to the road. Raegan was pretty scared of them at first and then wanted to get out and pet them! It was a long day with most of it spent in the car and the kids did great! Gavin did get sick while we were driving through the park, but I think it was a combination of the heat, driving on curvy roads and eating in his car seat while he was facing backwards!
We had to come home today so we finished packing in the morning and drove to Minot. Before we got on the plane, we took kids to zoo. After Raegan wanted to pet the buffalo the day before, I was a little confused when she told me she was scared of the turtle that was in a cage! Once again, the kids were very good on the flight. Although we had a tight connection in Minneapolis (34 min) we made it! We finally got to our house around 11:00 pm and had both of the kids in bed around midnight. The alarm is going to be going off a little too early for me, but I guess we have to get back into our routine sometime!