Crawling Lessons and other snippets of our life via an iPhone download

Collin knows he can catch a ride in the front footrest area of the stroller, so we keep him moving by encouraging him to find sticks to defend us from the bad guy trees.  He got a little ambitious with his stick collection on this walk.

One Saturday in December, I was hoping to meet up with Amber and her family at a park, but it was cold and rainy.  We ended up at a bounce house place, where shockingly, Collin asked me if he could ride the mechanical bull.  This is the child that at three, I had to accompany him on the slides at bounce house birthday parties.  However, he didn't want it to speed up so much that it threw him off, so eventually I had to enter the ring and carry him off the bull!

A few weeks later, we tried to meet up with Amber again at the bounce house place, but it was packed with kids from daycares.  So we went to Chuck E Cheese instead.  It was Collin's second time there, and though he probably would have been content "playing" games without the tokens, Mackeon, Holden and Esmae quickly filled him in on how it works and how you earn tickets.  He had a blast and with his socialized share of tickets (thanks to Mackeon winning 100 but splitting them with the younger kids' meager winnings), Collin was able to get these vampire teeth.  Which two minutes after this picture was taken were dropped on the floor of the bathroom at Chuck E Cheese and haven't been worn since.

We send messages like this to Daddy when he's traveling for work - 

We send pictures like this to Grammy and Brownie as thanks for the foam toys - 

Collin started back to gymnastics class right before he turned four.  We had been in a parent-child class when he was three until I reached two weeks before my due date and we paused.  I was ready to go in the fall, but Collin wasn't ready to take the class without me.  A few months later with a noticeable increase in confidence, Collin enjoys his Monday gymnastics while Maya and I wave and smile to him from the viewing area.  Some days he listens, some days he tends to run around like a maniac, but I appreciate that he's getting to be active, adventurous, and learn new skills.

Maya's new trick . . . which we learned at gymnastics, I'm sure much to the delight of the other waiting moms who listening to us imitate and me cheer as she figured it out!

Christmas onesie picture.  My dad got these as a gag gift and handed them off to Cas, but he has worn them at least twice, so he likes them for more than just a photo!

It's no surprise that the dogs love to clean up after Maya now that she's predominantly eating finger food.  But I was impressed with Bruno's Pavlovian connection that when Maya starts to get fussy in the high chair, that's his signal to start his stalking, since we'll be taking her out soon.   

 

And speaking of Maya eating, this girl can put it away.  She regularly out-eats her older brother!  Here she is with a black bean goatee - 

Our happy little girl loves spending Wednesdays with her Grandma Libia!  Here they are swinging and giggling on a Wednesday afternoon - 

In Collin's stocking, he received a ticket to a dinosaur movie - and there was a matching ticket in Cas' stocking.  And he also got a certificate for pottery painting with an identical one in my stocking.  So last Saturday, we headed out for our mother-son date.  He chose a robot, and I painted a vase.  He was quite patient as my vase took a little longer than his robot (or I painted all three layers of the colors as instructed and he painted until he got bored).  After pottery, we hit up Marble Slab.  It was a great afternoon!

My girl and me in our matching chambray and polka dots on SuperBowl Sunday - 

And finally, a crawling lesson for Maya . . . that didn't quite take . . . by her sweet big brother -