A day in the life of Gus...

What does Gus do all day you ask?  His life in photos...

It all begins with a nutritious breakfast.  The food should consumed both via the mouth and through smearing on the skin. 

Time for playgroup!  Who needs to get dressed when I look this good in my pjs?! 

It was gettin' real in the playgroup parking lot that day.  Isla tried to slip in beside Gus but he was having none it.  Don't get between the man and his car! 

Back at home, time for a happy pose at the kitchen table. 

Getting ready for his evening stroll through the neighborhood - sometimes he needs to go incognito so he doesn't get swarmed by admirers. 

Bath time...Whoops!  Forgot to take my clothes off. 

Relaxing with a nice read at the end of a long day...

Spring Breakers

Long time no post!  This is a long one to make up for lost time. 

We had a great time on our spring break trip to the Dominican Republic with our friends the Heravi's back in March.  They have 3 kids ages 7, 5 and 2 so it was a full house of little rascals running wild.  We stayed at a gorgeous home with a view of the ocean and our own pool so the kids spent every day, all day swimming in the sun.  Hank made some good progress on the swimming front and even treaded water for a few seconds by himself.  Seeing the older kids running and jumping in the pool definitely helped motivate him.  Gus is a water baby probably won't need much to get him swimming independently in short order.  Lillia Heravi celebrated her 5th birthday while we were there and we all went to swim with the dolphins as her birthday party.  Gus and daddy had a good time.  Hank was not so into it and I have some moral issues with dolphins in captivity thanks to my animal planet days (see The Cove, it will ruin dolphin shows for you forever and have you thinking about bringing wire cutters with you to the aquarium, trust me), so we observed the dolphin petting from the dock.  Fine by us. Other highlights included massages for mom and dad, swimming in natural lagoons and playing on the beach.  Heaven. 

Our view. Le sigh. 

Gus liked the view too - so much so he forgot to put his pants on! 

Here is Master Gus in his resort wear.  He calls this his Cuban Barber look. 

Hank and Daddy in the natural lagoon.

Happy kids in the sand...

Gus at the beach...

Chilling at the pool

The whole crew...

It was a week of amazing weather (yet not a tan line on either Kelly child - they are the whitest boys ever), lots of fun adventures and catching up with old friends. It was just what we needed after the longest winter in the history of the world.

We returned to a city in full bloom. The spring is the best time of year in DC, with an amazing variety of trees blooming in a rainbow of pastels.  I have never been a big nature person but I have to say I'm like a kid in a candy store when the trees come out here.  I'm driving around going, "oooh!  look at that dogwood! wow!  gorgeous cherry blossoms!" Our saucer magnolia was glorious as usual.  Unfortunately we had a brief spell of nasty weather again last week with lots of wind, rain and near freezing temperatures (including a bit of snow) that took most of the blossoms down on the earlier side :(

We headed to Rosemary Beach (near Panama City) for Easter in the hopes for some warmer weather but alas it evaded us. The temps hovered around 58 degrees the whole time we were there. It was warmer in DC!!  We had a good time nonetheless with plenty of family bike riding (Hank has graduated to a big boy bike with training wheels!), pool time (dad got in the pool, mom sat under a pile of towels), and some beach time. 

The highlight of the weekend was Easter Sunday.  The kids woke up to a house that had been visited by the Easter bunny - a first for us.  Hank is finally old enough to get the concept, sort of.  He came upon his first chocolate egg and excitedly asked "can I eat it?!"  and then was so focused on doing that he didn't notice the dozens of other eggs hidden in plain view.  It took quite a while for them all to be collected.  But that's not all - we joined the stream of other families heading over to the neighborhood park to partake in the BIG egg hunt.  The town had put out 10,000 eggs for the kids to hunt in a mad dash.  The excitement/anxiety level was high before the kids were let loose and then chaos reigned.  Gus quickly got down to business picking up eggs and placing them in other kids' baskets.  Hank, the purist that he is, insisted on picking up only green eggs "because green is my favorite color."  

Stress before the start of the hunt...

The field of eggs...

Collecting collecting

His "basket" - we improvised with a bike helmet - filled to the brim

The green egg dance

It was a nice family weekend with a good balance of quality kid time and some nice date nights thrown in for Maman and Daddy.  We feel so lucky to have such great little boys to hang out with - they just keep getting better every day.  

Bros on the beach

18 Things You Don't Know About Hank and Gus...

I have been slowly adding to this list for some time now...for so long that some of these things are no longer true!  But let's just pretend.

1. Hank wakes up at 5:47am on the dot every.day.  I know this because he immediately wakes me up as well.

2.  Hank's favorite color of all time is green.  He will choose it over any other color under any circumstances. He states that it is "the best."

3.  Gus loves stuffed animals.  He lurrrves them.  If he should find a large one in a room he melts into it, giving it as much loving as he can.

4.  Hank and Gus can scream "mine!" "mine!" back and forth while fighting over something for up to an hour.  It goes like this:

Hank: "Mine!"
Gus: "Mine!"
Hank: "Mine!"
Gus:  "Mine!"

5. Hank loves washing machines more than any toy, action figure or movie franchise.  He loves them in real life.  He loves them on YouTube.  He builds them out of bakeware.  He pretends shoe boxes are washing machines.  He tells jokes and stories about washing machines.  He is familiar with terms like "high efficiency model."

6.  Gus hates cheese.  Loves bacon.

7.  Hank is into Johnny Cash. Favorite song :  A Boy Named Sue. 2nd favorite song:  Folsom Prison Blues.

8.  Oral hygiene and Gus go together.  He is always asking for his toothbrush and will sometimes carry it around with him for the morning. 

9.  One day, Hank told me that he wants two daddies to build houses with. And that Mommy can stay home with his brother and feed him breakfast.  I'm not sure if this means Hank is a modern day child who is comfortable with gay marriage, or if he is a chauvinist pig. 

10. Hank must say these three things to anyone leaving the house or he freaks out:  Bye.  Ciao. Te Amo. No, we are not living in Milan. 

Hank and the sundae he got after his 4 year check up...

11.  When Hank was a baby he received a stuffed dog as a gift.  "Jingle" as he is known quickly became his touchstone and is never far away. Except for when mom and dad forget him on a trip.  Which is how we ended up with two Jingles.  When Gus was born, Hank gifted his 2nd Jingle to Gus. Now they both walk around the house with their husky pups making puppy noises.  It's pretty cute. 

The Kelly boys and a Jingle

12.  If you ask Gus where his "bee boo" is and he will slyly raise his shirt as if he is an Abercrombie model showing off his abs. 

13.  The other day, Matt asked Hank what he wanted for breakfast and he thought for a moment before saying, "nothing springs to mind."

14.  Hank can ski from the top of Bryce Mountain all by himself, without stopping and without help.

15.  Gus likes to dress himself.  He is terrible at it! 

16.  Hank might be a vampire.  The shrieks that emit from his body when the sun shines in his eyes are out of this world.  

Wearing shades at the dentist...

17.  Gus likes to play "see food" with every bite.

18.  Gus fell asleep at the table today.  Make that on the table.

As I'm sure you have all either experienced or heard...this winter has sucked!  It has been much colder than usual around here and we have had 11 snow days in total. Just when we thought it was over we got another 8 inches of snow last Monday.  So we are eager to welcome Spring and even more eager to blow this popsicle stand and head down to the Dominican tomorrow for a week with our friends the Heravi's.  Bring on the sunshine, the heat, the humidity and the rrrrrrrrrum punch!

I'll be back in a week and I'll be a new woman.

Bye!  Ciao! Te Amo!

Snapshots - Hank and Gus at 18 months

Couldn't resist putting these two shots up of Hank and Gus taken at 18 months, in the same yellow t-shirt no less.  I suppose you aren't supposed to compare siblings to each other but it's hard not to.  Looks like Hank had more hair and more heft than Gus at this age, but Gus carries all of his weight in his cheeks. They are both little cuties if you ask me, and only get cuter everyday.  

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Gus the Goose

Hank the Tank

What a winter!

As I write this, I'm looking out my back window at the snow coming down for the 2nd time in two days.  I've lost track of how many "snow" days we've had this winter - I think this week may get us to a total of 5, a whole week of school missed! It's nothing compared to the winters we have in Canada, but you would never know it!  The world stops.  Over and over and over again. 

Poor Gus - can hardly move in that snowsuit!

Our first snow man!

The StayPuff Marshmallow Man

Luckily, we are fans of the white stuff and actually got a fair amount this time (we seem to have a lot of false alarms for some reason).  So today was spent out playing in the snow, making snowmen, throwing snowballs etc.  Matt and I somehow managed to take care of both kids all day - but we both collapsed on the couch as soon as they went down.  Man, those kids are exhausting!  At any given moment, Gus is scaling new heights, climbing on anything and everything he can. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a room and found him standing in the middle of a table! His head is constantly covered in bruises from knocking it on the undersides of tables while climbing, or from tumbling down a flight of stairs, as he did last weekend.  Hank is a touch less adventurous, but much more vocal so he wears us out in a different way.  Did I mention that he is also currently obsessed with pee, pooh, and penises?  A delight!

The boys at the cabin

So, besides the weather this year being a series of polar vortexes (known simply as "winter" in Canada)  and snow storms, it has been a great but busy time! We've done a lot of traveling, heading to Chicago early in January for Whitney and Ryan's engagement party, and then to Park City for MLK weekend for an awesome 40th birthday celebration of a friend of Matt's from college.  Throw in a trip or two to NY for work and we have been run off our feet.  We were happy for February to arrive knowing that we had no plans to travel for the entire month!  What a concept!

We've been heading out to the cabin every weekend and really enjoying this bonafide winter we are having this year.  It has snowed every time we've been out which makes everything beautiful and more fun for the kids.  Hank continues his ski education, while Matt and I still haven't done one run!  One day...

Hank celebrated his birthday in Bryce with a small group of friends

Receiving his favorite gift - a very loud airplane from Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian.
He is beside himself. 

I'm wrapping up my Animal Planet project in a month and looking forward to going back to having only one job.   Also on the list of things to look forward to - our spring break trip to the Dominican. Bring on the sunshine!

I leave you with some cute shots of the Goose Man.

Happy 4th Birthday Hank!

My little baby is turns 4 today!  It doesn't seem possible, but if I've learned anything since becoming a parent it's that time is a funny thing.  The past 4 years have been the longest and the shortest of my life at the same time. Having Hank has been a wild ride; he's teaching us as much (probably more) about ourselves as we are teaching him. 

This year has seen Hank grow from being a curious toddler to a precocious preschooler.  He loves school, other kids and his little brother.  He also really loves anything mechanical, including watching videos of washing machines on you tube.    He is confident, defiant, sweet and silly.  We can't wait to see how his unique personality continues to develop in the years to come. 

More on his birthday celebration next week, along with an update on our whirlwind of January. Mwah! 

To Hell You Ride!

At least that's how it started...

We are back from a week long glorious vacation to Telluride, also known as "to hell you ride", and for good reason apparently.  The trip started out on the wrong foot with one of the top 5 worst travel days we've collectively experienced. Highlights include:

- barely making our flight to Denver

- flight to Telluride cancelled 

- argument at rental car counter over car

- lost one of 6 bags; caused hour long delay and argument at baggage counter

- blinding snow squalls on 7.5 hour drive over mountain passes

- accident in Eisenhower tunnel shutting down highway

- herd of deer crossing dark highway in front of our minivan

- almost driven off road by car trying to avoids an obstacle in his lane 

- getting caught behind a snow plow traveling at 15 miles an hour for the last 5 miles of the journey

Alas, we arrived in one piece and are happy to report that it was well worth the effort.  Telluride is awesome.  Beautiful beyond words.  Wonderful weather.  Great snow.  Amazing house.  Great restaurants.  We woke up everyday to incredible views of the mountains, walked ten feet to the slopes outside our door to ski 6 days in a row (unheard of and only made possible by a wonderful babysitter and Nana who watched Gus during the day).  Hank attended ski school every day and loved it.  He learned all about pizza wedges and french fries and will be skiing down the hills faster than us in no time.  My parents came up from Arizona on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us and we had a lovely time with them. 

A Christmas break to remember for sure. 

Our trip home was luckily much less eventful. We spent our 6th anniversary (also known as New Year's Eve) with some good friends over a good dinner and then headed up to the cabin to finish out the week.  All in all, a great break from our crazy schedules and a much needed recharging of our batteries.  

We'll need all the energy we can muster for January.  We travel to Chicago next weekend with the kids to celebrate Whitney and Ryan's engagement with the whole fam (and we'll get to squeeze in a visit with the Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian).  The following weekend sees Matt and I back on the slopes in Park City with some London-based friends to celebrate a 40th birthday.  Not too shabby!

Wishing you all a happy new year! If you have time to kill, click here for our entire Christmas album. I've included some highlights below.

A cool customer...

A funny little elf...

Not bad view over lunch

Santa found us in Colorado...

Our little angel in the school pageant

The view from the living room...

Happy Gus on Christmas morning

Writing the letter to Santa with Nana

Getting creative with our undergarments. 

Checking out the frozen lake at Bryce - thank you polar vortex!