Funtown 2012

We made our annual bargain trip to Funtown/Splashtown on Father's Day/James's birthday.  This year James insisted on driving the race cars and riding the roller coaster, both of which he was much to short for..... This morning I heard him yelling for me to "come quick and see".  He was standing on the porch  on the stool and said, "Wook I am growing so big, now I can wide the wace caws and rower coasters".... so cute!  Noah was tall enough to ride both, but decided that he wasn't ready to ride either until "I get bigger like daddy".  We will see what happens next year...:)

Father's Day 2012

One of the coolest things about having children is to watch your spouse turn into a parent.  These boys are lucky enough to have one of the best fathers out there and they know it.  I am quite sure there are not many men out there who handle the stress of residency and being the father of 3 young boys as well as Gabe has.  He seems to be able to ALWAYS have time to play and spend time with the kids even though he has a million other things on his mind... like sleep usually.  Here is how the kids woke Gabe up on Father's Day this year:)  Thanks for being an amazing father and role model for our boys!  We love you daddy!!

James Turns 3!

This morning at 4:44 AM our precious guy turned 3!  What a fun kid he is:)  He is all that a 3 year old could offer. He has the cutest little lisp that part of my really hopes he doesn't lose. He knows all of his letters and has an incredible memory for songs, books and movies.  His biggest love continues to be his cars, any small car. Most recently his favorites are the cars from the movie "Cars 2" he has been receiving as a reward for using the potty. He can play for hours by himself just driving the cars.  It is really funny to listen to the conversations he makes up between the cars and about their adventures.  He is a great eater, his favorite foods continue to be cheeseburgers, Chex and Kix (together in the bowl), and any fruit.  Thankfully in the past few months he has started eating vegetables again!  He is very independent and likes to do most things "by myself" which he is usually surprisingly competent about, but I can usually get him to let me help by "using teamwork" to get something done.  He loves swimming lessons, gymnastics, music class, riding his bike and playing at the beach. He really enjoys playing and pretending with his big brother, he likes to copy almost anything Noah does.  He is very patient when Noah is extra bossy about what they are going to do;)  James also has a very gentle and thoughtful heart when it comes to both of his brothers.  He gets very concerned if one of them is not around, or gets left out of something.  He loves teaching Ben how to use manners and he can make Ben laugh harder than anyone else:) We love you big guy!!

James's 3rd Birthday Party

James turns 3 next week!  We celebrated his birthday a week early so that our family could attend both his birthday and Gabe's graduation. I gave James the choice of several different themes, but he insisted on the robot party.  He loves the DVD "Little Robots" that we get from the library as well as the movie "Wall-e". Gabe made his a fantastic robot made out of diaper boxes and tinfoil which James was so EXCITED about, even though he kept referring to it as a snowman... Noah spotted James's cake on the morning of the birthday and was pretty stressed out that it didn't have any decorations on it, so I was able to negotiate only one umbrella;)  I also found a nice solution to James's hoarding problem with his cars in this car bandolier.  I didn't get a great shot of it, but it carries lots of his cars without dropping them;)  Overall James had a fantastic day celebrating, thanks everyone for sharing it with him!

Gabe's Residency Graduation

I realize that my blogging has been seriously lacking, but I am working on it.  We have had lots of fun things happening this month that I can't wait to get up here.  One of the main reasons we blog is to keep a sort of family history (as well as keeping those of you we don't see regularly up to speed;)).  I get a bit stressed if I don't keep on the blog regularly because I tend to forget a lot of what we do, especially since I have been forgetting my camera more and more... anyhow, there is my whining for the night:)

One of the more exciting happenings this month was Gabe's official graduation from residency! He is finally a full fledged pediatrician (pending passing his boards that is)... kind of.  Since he has signed on for another year of residency we will be sticking around for one more year of medical education.   This year will be a combination of teaching, administrative stuff as well as some attending work... A transition year if you will.  We are thrilled that we all have now survived both medical school and residency!  

The year ended with a very nice ceremony to congratulate all of the pediatric residents.  The kids did well, until the end, so no family picture, but thankfully Gabe's parents got some nice ones of everyone dressed up.  Thanks for the pictures Grammy and Grampy! The top picture is of Gabe's residency class taken by Noah... he was pretty excited about the whole thing.

Benjamin is 9 Months

Well this big guy is 9 months old today!  He is such a fun kid with a great, easy going personality.  He is moving around a bit more which he is so happy about.  He loves eating grass....... what can I say... I am holding out strong hope that he will be the first one to like greens. (as a disclaimer I did remove that handful of grass he is eating in the picture, but he does still manage to poop out a few blades every now and then;))  He continues to be a great eater and now mostly refuses pureed foods with a strong preference for anything he can feed himself.  He has been moved into the big boys room which everyone is adjusting too, but so far so good.  I find it really cool to watch him play and interact with his brothers.  He has this really neat "quiet persistence" about him.  If there is something he is trying to get or manipulate he just quietly and calmly picks away at it until he has accomplished it without ever getting frustrated.  Now, the downside to this is that he can often be sneaky... I think that he is just quietly playing, but he is actually picking all of the food out from under the fridge or climbing up on the fire place or in James's bed pulling all of the decorations off the wall... things I always think he could never reach... this is an advantage of being the size of a 2 year old at 9 months.  He continues to be very easy going, Gabe and I are blown away at how adaptable he is to taking a nap wherever or just skipping it, either way he is totally happy!  

The other really neat thing to watch develop, now that he is much more interactive, is his relationship with each of his brothers.  Noah is certainly much more the caregiver/nurturer type who always thinks about what he might need or like to do and looks to teach him lots of new things. Benjamin love to watch Noah and really seems to soak in all that he does.  The James/Ben relationship is already one we can tell that will give us the most stress/grief over the years.  They seem to have the connection about how funny mischief is and love to provoke and laugh at each other for doing inappropriate things. It is really cute to watch, but if they are both laughing it is usually a red flag;)

Belgrade Lakes Visit- June 2012

This week Gabe actually has some vacation time, so in true fashion, it is raining.... not just a little rain and overcast, but RAIN and lots of it.  Our trip this past weekend was by far the closest and the last in our tour (I am again no sure that Gabe knew about this need to travel we have in the Smith family, or he may not have agreed to marrying me... he has adjusted well;)).  We visited with one of my friends from nursing school and her family who live in the Belgrade area.  They have 2 boys in the same age range as our kids, so I think it is safe to say that the kids had a fantastic time and the parents are tired.  The first day and a half we were there it was not raining, so we got in as much chalk drawing and playing outside as we could.  Saturday morning it hadn't started raining yet, so we got everyone ready quickly and convinced/forced everyone into the canoe.  Noah liked the idea of the canoe, but riding in it was less than pleasant..... he complained the entire time that it was too tippy (once we finally got him in) and that Gabe was paddling wrong. James did well at first, but when he started to throw a fit because he couldn't have a paddle he started "tipping" the canoe which made Noah extra anxious.  Benjamin was fine, except didn't really enjoy wearing a life jacket (it is probably a good thing no one else was watching the scene).  The first few minutes were fun and we will remember to bring all 3 blankies next time to subdue them and we should do better:)  Noah did agree to get in the canoe later with just Gabe, but he enjoyed it even less, so we may put a pin in the canoe riding until next year... 

Later on Saturday we ventured to the Maine State Museum which he kids really enjoyed and did surprisingly well at not touching.  We spent the rest of the weekend playing and visiting which was a nice relaxing change of pace from being home.  Thanks friends for providing us with such a wonderful place to stay and visit!!!