A Day With Uncle David

Uncle David came over last Saturday and we had lots of fun. We ran some errands together, and David occupied the twins while I shopped! Everyone was happy.

Evie cruised around with her car:




Gavin got more lessons on the iPhone (watch out, David, Gavin will be loading apps onto your phone pretty soon)!

When Evie woke up from her nap, she wanted to hug every stuffed animal we had...

..and then she hugged her uncle!

Aww...

When Gavin woke up from his nap, he had a curl sticking up in the front of his head. It stayed that way all day!

Happy Birthday Auntie Clare!

Today was Auntie Clare's (aka Auntie Sassy) birthday, and she and Nana & Grandpa Cermak came over for a cookout. Francis grilled asparagus and cheeseburgers - yummy!

Evie took a short nap, but she was in a great mood when she woke up. "I'm ready for the party!"




Grandpa helped her drive her little car...




...and helped Gavin stack rings and blocks:



Gavin was very interested in Nana's zipper:

Storytime!

Gavin advises his Auntie on changes to her Facebook page:

Time for another story:

Gavin and Evie help Clare open her gifts:

My baby girl!

Evie and Gavin both ate french fries:



By the late afternoon, Evie's short nap caught up with her and she got really cranky. Gavin put his hand on her head for a whole minute and she settled down!

Evie is still very active: cruising, crawling, and walking assisted. She is eating well but only gaining a few ounces, probably because she is now burning a lot more calories!

Back To The Riverwalk

OK, I know this is our second post about the Riverwalk in one week, but we just had to go back! There is so much to see! Last week I had seen a ramp to get down to the lower part of the path, so that is where we started.

I tried and tried to get Gavin to throw a piece of bread to the ducks, but he just held it out to them instead. (Everyday at home, I have to tell him not to throw things.) There was a goose who had his eye on Gavin's bread, and he kept leaning closer to us, and when that goose opened up his mouth I grabbed that bread and threw it! Francis had his hand nipped by a turkey at the zoo when he was little - no need to repeat that !



While we were trying to throw the bread, three other people with strollers passed us. So I figured there was another ramp somewhere, even though I had not seen one last Friday. Well.....there wasn't. I walked and walked until our path suddenly ended, and there was a stone stairway leading up to the top path. Luckily I had enough room to turn around, and we headed back!

The neat thing about walking the length of that lower path was that we saw this interesting duck:



I had not ever seen one like this, and I did an internet search when we got home, and it is a wood duck. The website I found said they live on the east or west coasts - maybe it got lost and decided Naperville was a nice place to live!

Back up at the top, we stopped on an overlook:



Evie needed a snack:



The Carillon started playing some classical music right at 4pm, and the kids enjoyed it!

Evie has been steadily eating more and getting more active, She pulls herself up on everything now, and cruises around holding onto things. Today she initiated "peek-boo around the bookcase" with Gavin for the first time in awhile!

Visiting Auntie Di

The other day I took the twins over to Auntie Di's house for a visit and bonding with their cat "cousins." The twins and the cats all did very well: the kids were gentle and the cats didn't run away! Gavin pulled Fergie's tail once, but he didn't mean it. He's still learning what a tail is!

The twins really like petting the cats:



It is possible that part of the reason why the cats hung around the kids was because treats were involved. The twins liked shaking the container of cat treats, which drove the cats nuts.



Gavin would hold out the treat container, but he didn't know how to open it, so the cats would just look at him like, "what are we supposed to do with that?"

He decided to offer a cat toy / wad of string on a stick-thingy instead:



Fergie, Gavin, and Evie look out the window:



Gavin and Diana:

Gavin tried to lure Fergie out from under the shelf:

We'll visit again soon!

I Love Technology... by Gavin

Hi everyone, it's me, Gavin. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy need a little help with the electronic equipment in our house, so I have to help them out. One of my favorite things to help with is cell phones. Over the winter, I pressed the keys that unlocked Mommy's phone and then I pressed a few numbers and hit "send." Then I hung up!

A minute later, the phone rang and Mommy talked to someone that she called "police," and then she asked me why I had dialed something called "911." I was just testing her phone, I told her!



I also had to help Auntie Di with her cell phone. She didn't know how to put it on "speaker," so I pressed all the right buttons to show her. Now she knows! And, I love to call my grandparents on Daddy's cell phone. They like it when I call, even though I don't say much... yet!

I love playing with the car keys, too. There are neat buttons that have words and letters, and when I press them, the car horn beeps! One day I was really working on those car keys for awhile, and then I got bored and played with another toy. Then all of a sudden Mommy asked Daddy why the car was running inside the garage. I don't know what that means, but they kept talking about something called a "remote start" and that they didn't know the car could do it... until I figured it out!

My new favorite gadgets are the iPods. I love to pick out the songs for our little red radio:



One day I got tired off all the kid songs, so I turned off the option for "music," and Daddy just couldn't understand why an iPod had an option to turn off music in the first place!

I thought I could make a call on Mommy's iPod, but it doesn't work that way. I guess I am spoiled by Uncle David's iPhone!

"See Daddy, this is an 'iPod' and you press this click-wheel-thingy here to make it play."

I also had to show Daddy how to make the answering machine play messages while we were using the handset in the living room. He didn't know that you could play the messages remotely!

So pretty soon I will be installing new programs on our computer, and also upgrading the hard drive to have more memory for fun games for me and Evie. Until then, I will just have to keep helping my parents with technology, becuase they really seem to need it!

Riverwalk Fun

As previously mentioned, I took the twins to the Riverwalk last Friday. They both enjoyed it at first, especially seeing ducks and geese up close. This duck actually hopped out of the water when we stopped to look at him - I am sure he thought we had food!



Then Gavin started getting progressively more restless whenever I stopped to take a picture (you can click on any picture for a larger view)...

Finally, he was happy to stop on one of the covered bridges!

The kids loved watching all the people crosing the bridge, and watching the water and ducks beneath us.

Evie was happy to twirl her hair, too!

At the Park with Dan

Yesterday, our good friend Dan came over to spend the afternoon with us before moving to Texas. We had a great time and good conversations, and the twins enjoyed playing with him at the park. Evie especially warmed up to him:








Evie was very brave at the park! First she crawled through the tunnel...



Then Evie went down the slide all by herself!



Gavin went down the slide after he saw Evie do it, then he tried to walk up the slide back to the top!

Finally, he used the stairs:

Evie and Dan contemplate the philosophy of the wood chips:

Then Evie wanted to walk, holding Dan's hands:

Have a safe trip Dan, we'll miss you!