Spring is here! Or is it? March 2012

Spring is in the air!  I can't complain about the winter we've had because it has been very mild, but I'm very excited for spring and warmer weather!!

March 2nd, 2012
I love waking up with my little boy in the morning.  Well, I actually love when I wake up in the morning and he's still asleep.  That gives me time to shower and get dressed in peace and take some time to appreciate how adorable he is. 

Tonight we had people over for dinner and to give the kiddos some play time together.  Its so much fun to watch the boys learn to play together!

March 3rd, 2012
Today was Connor's second birthday party - it was carnival/circus themed and Shannon went all out!  Popcorn popper, hot dog roaster, and all of the classic circus food.  The decorations (and food table!) looked fantastic.

The party was wonderfully crazy.  Tons of kids, running all around buzzed upon sugar!  The kid count included Hugo, Connor, Liam, Vincent, Evan, Eleanor, William, Lucas, Nicholas, Allie, another day care friend...I think that's it?  But I lost track.

Yes, this picture is Hugo and Connor kissing.  They are best buds, and all you have to do is ask one of them to give the other a kiss and they happily oblige.  I'm sure they are both going to hate me someday for documenting and/or posting this.

Hugo loves balloons and there were tons of them at the party to keep him very entertained.

All tuckered out after a fun day full of hard play time.  Snuggled up with some milk getting ready to wind down for bed time.

March 5th, 2012
We've been taking swim lessons with Hugo to get him more comfortable in the water.  While both Jaime and I got in the pool for the first few weeks, we've been taking turns lately so that there is one (dry) parent that is free to get Hugo dressed.  Tonight was boys night in the pool ---- Jaime and Hugo and Tim and Connor.  Shannon and I cheered them on from the bleachers and took lots of pictures!

The boys did so awesome during swim class that we decided to make a trip to Coldsone for a post-swimming ice cream treat.  In jammies, of course!

March 7th, 2012
Hugo is getting so big.  I notice it daily when he learns a new word, does something new or understands something I ask of him.  But what really gets me is when I look at pictures of him after the fact and realize that he looks so much more like a little boy than he does a baby.  Like this picture, I look at this and can easily tell what he's going to look like when he's 25.  Crazy?

But then he does silly stuff like this to remind me that he's still my silly little boy.  Actually there's something about this picture that reminds me of my Betty Grandma.

Back before we all had kids, our group of friends had a regularly game night each week where we all got together for dinner and fun.  However, now that we are all busy with tubbies and bed time in the evenings, we've kind of let go of the game night tradition.  But we all miss it.  Our friends here are the closest thing we have to family nearby so its nice to get together with everyone regularly.  So we had a game night at our place tonight --- we ordered pizza, had a few beers, played a game or two and then called it quits when the boys (the little boys) got too tired. 

March 10th, 2012
Lately, Hugo is obsessed with our shoes.  "Shoes" has been added as a new word to his vocabulary and in the morning while I'm getting ready, he will quickly take out each pair of mine and Jaime's shoes from our closet.  His favorite, however, is to try to put on our shoes.  This morning I caught him trying to juggle brushing his teeth while trying to put on my shoes.

March 11th, 2012
Lazy Sunday fun-day at the park.  We had a little shopping at Gordon Foods to do, and then dinner at Applebees.  Afterwards, it was still a beautiful night so we stopped at Montibellier Park for a bit.

March 12th, 2012
Tonight was our last swim class.  While weekly it seems like we're just playing in the water and singing songs, tonight I could really tell how far Hugo has come.  Several times he leaned forward and deliberately put his face in the water in an attempt to blow bubbles and then, he scooted his little butt off the ledge and leaned forward to jump to me from the side!  Success!  He's definitely more comofortable in the water.  I look forward to many days on the beach!!

March 14th, 2012
What a beautiful night!!!  We are having an exceptionally nice spring or summer is coming early.  Either way - I LOVE IT!  Tonight, we enjoyed lots of outdoor time ---- play time in the yard, dinner on the deck, hanging out at the park with the Dunns, and then DQ ice cream to top it all off!  What a great summer night and its not even summer!

Check out Hugo starting to learn how to run!  Watch out running backs - Gutierrez is coming for you!

Typical Hugo dinner ---- meat (hot dogs), fruit and a bunch of tomatoes!  Definitely my kid --- he eats tons and tons of tomatoes!

I know I'm totally biased, but he's the cutest thing I've ever seen.  My sunshine.

We met up with Shannon and Connor at the park after dinner.  Hugo and Connor enjoying some snuggle time in a double swing. 

Best buddies doing tandem slides.

Best thing to close out an awesome day?  Ice Cream!!! Hugo thinks so too!  Doing a (pretty) good job eating it all by himself.

March 17-18th, 2012

It's been since Chrismtas since we've seen the boys, and so they were in major need of some Hugo time --- and I was in major need of some Gatlin and Cash (and mom) time, so we decided to meet half-way in Mackinaw City for the weekend.  We got a nice hotel with lots of room and a waterpark and settled in for a fun weekend.

Since it was St. Patrick's day, our first stop was to have lunch at an Irish Pub in Mackinaw City --- complete with green beer for my mom and I!

...Then we headed straight for the waterpark.  All of the boys had so much fun --- even Hugo got right in.  He splashed in the wading area, climbed the steps and netting, and even went down some of the smaller slides.  They were such busy boys while we were there, I could hardly get a picture of them, they were moving so fast!

Sunday was pretty nice so we decided to stay in town for a bit and take a walk to check out some of the shops in Mackinaw City.  While on the way, we caught Cash peeping in some windows....

At one of the souvenir shops, we found some smoke gernades, and Gatlin was super excited for them to have the authentic Marine Corps experience.  So, on the way to downtown Mackinaw, we stopped in an empty parking lot and set them off.  Gatlin thought they were totally awesome but just wished he had his gas mask to protect him!

Our walk took us to the little playground within the Mackinaw Crossings area where the boys had a blast.  Gatlin used it as a boot camp training course but took some time out to be an awesome big cousin to Hugo.  He's such a good boy ---- and totally adores Hugo.  I love to see them together, both so happy.

Afterwards we found a shop that had ice cream and bonus --- they had a mechanical pony as well!  All of the boys thought it was awesome and needed a pony ride.

It was a GREAT weekend.  There is nothing I love more than hanging out with my mom, Hugo, Gatlin and Cash.  I wish we got to do it more often.  And I wish AJ was here to hang out with us too.

March 19th, 2012
Just a regular Monday  morning....Hugo getting all his jewelry on for day care!

March 20th, 2012
Another beautiful night!  I've been waiting for a night where we had nothing to do so that we could take a nice long walk to Dairy Queen on Michigan Avenue...and tonight was the night because it was FREE ICE CREAM CONE DAY!  After dinner, we drove down to DQ first to leave a car there and then we headed back and got all packed up.

Well, so much for not having anything to do.  Just as we were heading out, Tim called to let us know that Shannon was in labor and that they were heading to the hospital and needed to drop Connor off.  Yeah!  Baby Girl Dunn is on her way!  So, our lazy evening ended up getting much more exciting.  When we got that phone call, we were still about four blocks away from DQ so Jaime ran the rest of the way there to be able to meet Tim in time.  We all got our (free!) cones, loaded up the Jeep with TWO boys and headed back home to get both boys ready for bed (not a small feat, we've learned)! 

March 21st, 2012
Early this morning, we got some GREAT news!  Baby Colette arrived!  Instead of brining Connor to daycare, we dropped Hugo off and headed into Ann Arbor to meet his new baby sister.

March 22nd, 2012
Jaime and Hugo were eager to meet Colette, so after work we picked up some pizzas and headed over to the Dunns.

March 24th, 2012
Ypsi Township Easter Bunny breakfast with the Dunns!  Now, this event sounded awesome...all you can eat breakfast complete with visits from the Easter Bunny, games and an Easter egg hunt.  Unfortunately, it was put on by Ypsi township which never seems to get things just right.  So, we had rubbery pancakes, an Easter Egg hunt that wasn't much of a hunt (just scattered about in the kids playroom) and a visit by some high schooler possibly doing his community service hours.  Possibly the creepiest Easter Bunny I've ever seen.  One for the memory books....

Later that day we took a field trip to Ikea for something to do.  We first hit up our favoite thing about Ikea --- the cafeteria.  Hugo was being silly with the plastic cup....

We got some awesome finds at Ikea...a set of kids kitchen utensils for Hugo (since ours are always scattered about as they are his favorite toy) and best of all, an awesome kiddie table!  Now, when all of the kiddos are over, we have extra places for them to eat (since our high barstools aren't very kid friendly).  Hugo instantly LOVED the table, he sat right down and started coloring.  Then, he was 'tighening the screws' like Jaime did when he was putting it together.  He doesn't miss a thing!

Tonight we needed some more milk for Hugo.  We had nothing in particular to do, and it was a beautiful night so we loaded Hugo up into the stroller and took a walk to Rite Aid for milk.  Why don't we do this more often?

March 25th, 2012

Despite being Sunday, I had a LOT of work that I had to get done because my dissertation defense is quickly approaching.  So that I could stay home and work, Jaime packed up Hugo for a visit to the Chelsea Treehouse to give me some quiet time.  He loved it and did such a good job playing in the big kid area!

March 29th, 2012
Hugo's 15 month check-up!  He loved playing in the fort they have in the waiting room.

...But got bored very quickly once they put us in a room. 

...He played with the stirrups....

...Spun his monkey on the stool.....

...All in all it was a totally uneventful visit.  Everything looks great, he's growing right on track.  Keep on doing what we're doing.

March 31st, 2012
How can it be absolutely beautiful one day and miserably cold the next?  Today was miserably cold, unfortunately because it was the Ypsi Jaycees Easter Egg scramble at Frog Island Park.  Nevertheless, we bundled up Hugo and headed down for some fun.  He had a good time with the kids activities they had set up --- the lollipop tree and Plinko.  I must admit, playing Plinko was probably more exciting for me than for Hugo.  It is definitely my favorite game on the Price Is Right and I've always wanted to make a Plinko board.  Wouldn't that be fun for parties?

Hugo really got into the Easter Egg hunt ---- there were TONS of eggs all over the place and so he staked a spot and did a great job of putting them into his bag.  After collecting his eggs, he turned them in for a goodie bag filled with candy!

So many babies there!  Jaime is like super dad --- juggling Hugo, Liam and Vinnie all at once!

In the end, the weather got the best of us.  We would have really liked to stay for the marshmallow drop, but poor Hugo's fingers were like icicles and it was really cold out so we headed home after the egg hunt.  Hopefully warmer spring weather is on the way soon and plans to stay!