A Look Back

I love looking at the twins' baby pictures. Here is one from January 2008 (age 3.5 months) where they were able to fit in a bouncy seat together:

And here they last weekend, ready to go on an errand (photo courtesy of Uncle David's new iPhone 4G).

Evie and Gavin love to make each other laugh. Often, it involves silliness at bath time. This weekend, Gavin decided to take a mouthful of water and then spit it out, yelling "That was gross!" as Evie giggled and shrieked. Last week, Evie burped repeatedly while Gavin cracked up at her. Fun, fun days at the Cermak house!

Gavin is almost over his cold, but Francis and I have it. This weekend we tried to stay home - that worked for Gavin and me, and Francis and Evie just made one trip to the grocery store with Grandpa.

On the weekly grocery run, Evie always eats a piece of ham from the deli counter, and rests her elbows on packages of napkins (photo courtesy of Grandpa's cell phone). Grandpa makes sure she is comfortable!

Friday Cuteness

Uncle David got a new iPhone (I think his old one wore out from showing the twins so many videos) so Evie and Gavin were excited to see it. You can just tell how fascinated Gavin is:



Evie was having a happy morning:

Watching videos of trains...the Metra engines were a big hit:

Later that evening, Gavin decided to load his new stuffed Nemo into the toy stroller along with his old stuffed Nemo and push them around the house:

Gavin has come down with a cold and cough. It's nothing major -he has no fever and he is eating and playing normally. I managed to get him to take a nap yesterday, for the first time in four days. His napping is hit-or-miss these days, and he really needed some extra sleep to fight this cold. We are staying home as much as possible!

A Cold Saturday Afternoon

Last weekend we went to some of our favorite indoor places: the library and Trader Joe's. At the library, Evie read a book about seasons:



When we're at the library, at some point we usually end up walking across the street to the Riverwalk and hanging out there exploring until it's time to go back. We explained to the kids that it was too cold to walk outside, but we were able to look out at the river from the library windows. Next we went to the childrens' play area. These two elephants are Gavin's favorite toys there, and he held onto them the whole time:





Next stop: Trader Joe's. Gavin LOVES to push the little carts that they have for kids:




The store was crowded, but Gavin was very careful:

Evie sat in the big cart and handed her snacks over to the cashier:

We have to be resourceful with our activities during these cold months!

Monday Cuteness

Here are some cute pictures of Gavin, taken over the last week or so...


We weren't outside for very long, just long enough to relieve some of our cabin fever!





Back inside, Gavin had fun hiding among all the pillows and blankets on the couch:

A Morning in the Bluebird Room

Evie's classroom is called the Bluebird Room - all the rooms have animal "mascots" - Gavin's room is the Cat room. I got to volunteer in the Bluebird Room this morning. Evie showed me some of the games (Barnyard Bingo) and toys that she likes best. I got to watch her class do circle time and some of their morning activities.

Then halfway through the morning, all the parents arrived for "Parent Celebration Day." The class finished up their unit called "All About Me," in which they learned about parts of the body. The parents traced outlines of the kids and everyone brought fruit so we could make a salad for a healthy snack.

Here I am cutting oranges:



Evie was a little hesitant about being traced, so she watch another friend first:



Then she was happy to lay down so Francis could trace her:



Here we are with Evie's teacher, Mrs. Richardson. Evie just loves her!




Here is the outline of Evie!



Then she and Francis read a story:




When we were done, I went across the hall to get Gavin from the Cat room. He was interested in some of the new things in the Bluebird room, like the telephones and the tree full of blue birds. Evie's nurse, Joey, got her bundled up.




It was neat to meet some of the kids in Evie's class. It turns out that the mom of one of her little friends went to high school with Francis! I think Evie may have been acting a little more "needy" than usual just because I was there, but we still had a very fun morning!

Kids-n-Cats

This weekend we got to visit Auntie Di, Uncle Kevin, and their cats. As usual, Evie and Gavin had a lot of fun with their four-legged cousins:

Evie gave up on handing the treats to the cats and just started tossing the treats in their general direction (they didn't mind):



Then she found a book about cats and paged through it for a while...never mind that two actual cats were running around the room:



Look at the lower edge of this photo...next to Evie is a Coke box with a cat's head and tail!



Gavin was very gentle with Fergie in her box:





Gavin and Fergie played a game where Fergie sat on top of her tree and knocked down her toys. Then Gavin would gather them and give them back to her. This went on for a while...here is sequence of the fun:

Whew - time for a drink!

Togetherness

Sometimes, Evie and Gavin just have to do things together, especially silly things like burping. Last Thursday morning I got a call from Evie's nurse that she had a low fever (100F) and she was hanging out in the nurses' office. I went over to school to pick her up, and what did I see when I walked in? Both of my twins were in the nurses' office!

In the time it took me to drive to school, Gavin had been running in the classroom - not listening to his teacher - and had fallen and hit his head on a shelf. He had a little lump that he was holding an icepack on. (This was his third visit to the nurses' office for bumping his head, by the way, and he has only been in school for three months!)

I think they had forgotten all about their little tandem visit by the time we got home. Sometimes they are just too funny, the way that they imitate and egg each other on. In fact, yesterday they started a routine of Evie burping and then Gavin laughing that was so funny to me that I called Uncle David so he could listen over the phone. You just never know what they will do next!

Wednesday Cuteness

Francis got a book for Christmas that plays all of the sound effects from the six Star Wars movies and explains how the sounds were made. Evie and Gavin have taken quite an interest in it, especially the sounds of ships blowing up and lightsabers.

Here is Francis showing the kids a clip from one of the movies:





Gavin sometimes takes naps and sometimes doesn't - it's about 50/50. When he does nap, he sleeps for 2 1/2 hours and I usually wake him up so that he is not up until 10pm. When I go to wake him, he is sleeping like a ...baby! But really, he sleeps so soundly that I can turn on the light and even take his picture - with a flash - and he doesn't wake up.

He usually uses Cookie Monster as a pillow:

Christmas, Continued!

We had another Christmas-gift-opening morning at our house on Saturday, because Auntie Clare is back in town from sunny California. Gavin had fun giving Clare her gifts, making sure to rip the bows off for her first.



Evie looks at a book with Grandpa:




Gavin loves his new "Blues Clues" blue dog and his toy drill. Of course he requested one of Daddy's drills to sit next to his...he likes things in pairs...hmm, I wonder why?



Auntie Clare gave the kids each a Leap Frog laptop, which they love:

Evie's laptop is pink and purple. There is a way to add music playlists and even emails to these things - that will be Francis' next project!

Bowling!

Santa brought the twins a Little Tikes bowling set, which they LOVE. I think Gavin likes it so much because the whole point is to knock down the pins - usually we are telling him NOT to knock stuff down. Gavin decided to bowl using our stability ball...it's pretty easy to get strikes that way! If there happened to be any pins still standing - which did happen, surprisingly - he just slid into them like he was sliding into home.

Setting up the pins:





Getting some tips from Grandpa Cermak (holding the ball that actually came with the game):




"Here I come!"








Evie tried rolling the ball on the floor and got a spare. She liked setting up the pins, too:




She didn't have quite as much enthusiasm for bowling as Gavin did - pretty soon she was ready for some sausage and a story with Nana:

We have played the game again and again. Gavin has done really well taking turns. Evie just rolls the ball and usually misses all the pins, but she and Gavin both find that hilarious for some reason. As long as they're laughing, I'm happy!

New Years Eve

The day of New Years Eve felt almost balmy after the chilly weather we have had! The temperature got up into the 50's, and when it stopped raining, Nana & Grandpa Cermak took the kids outside. Gavin, of course, wanted to find some dirt to push his car through. He found a puddle instead and soaked his shoes, socks, and jeans. (I have learned that this is a preferred activity among three year old boys.)

It felt great to get some fresh air!

We came inside and I gave the kids their baths. Then Francis hung a picture for me (thank you honey!) and Gavin was fascinated by the process.

Gavin still talks about how he wants to "fix the wall and needs more tools to do it."

Here is a cute video of the kids playing footsie - something they rarely do. At the end, Evie makes the hand sign for "all done" and then Gavin says it out loud: