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!!!

Philadelphia Trip- 2012

On the road again... This time to Philadelphia!  We had originally intended to drive straight through and arrive in the early morning hours Saturday, but as medicine does, Gabe wasn't able to leave work until almost 2 hours after we intended to leave...... so, once we entered Connecticut we decided that arriving that so late wasn't worth it and got a hotel.  We learned an important lesson... we have outgrown that time in our lives when we were willing to stay in any hole in the wall place.... with 3 little ones we will only be staying in trusted chain hotels from now on..... Anyhow, we arrived in Philadelphia early on Saturday and got settled into the house.  We have some exceptional friends who allowed us to stay at their house while they were across the country... what a difference that made to the comfort of our trip.  Thank you Carroll Family, you made our stay very easy and comfortable, but we did very much miss visiting with you!  

The kids would have been very happy to stay and play with all of the "new toys", but we did make them venture out a bit.  On Saturday afternoon we drove into the Museum of Art where our friend/one of Gabe's college room mates was curating his first exhibit. Check it out if you are in the Philadelphia area: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/760.html  Gabe really enjoyed being able to attend and visit with everyone.  The kids and I checked out the neighborhood and got some exercise before heading back to pick him up.  On Sunday, my college room mate and her family made the trip up from Maryland to visit with us.  The kids could have spent all day at the "Please Touch Museum" in Philadelphia.  It got to be a bit of a zoo in the afternoon so we headed back for a BBQ (Thanks for the grill Gerry, Gabe only had one small fire... Thank you Ross for being the voice of reason;)).  We were also able to spend some time with more friends from Dartmouth, Noah and Sarah.  Thank you all for coming to spend time with us!  We look forward to our next trip!!

James's "New" Bike

James had been getting pretty frustrated with his tricycle lately.  He sits back in it and the pedaling is a little awkward, but he is persistent, so every bike ride seemed to end up in a breakdown.  He is still a smidge too small for Noah's bike, so enter Craigslist.  We found this beauty for next to nothing and he couldn't be more excited about his "cool new bike".  He does so much better riding this bike!  I do have to say it is a bit more dangerous for me keeping up the two of them on bikes now, but I am getting my exercise;)  On James's first spin around the block, Noah preferred not to ride his bike, but to "help" James instead. It took James about half way to figure things out, while Noah dutifully pushed him to help him get started. By the end he had got the hang of things.... so much so that his biggest challenge now is to stop talking long enough to pay attention to where he is headed:) 

Kite Festival 2012

This past weekend we took a break from the car and we able to host Grammy Civiello for a visit. Thankfully she is much better at remembering to take pictures than I am! On Friday we spent some time down along the East End beach, bike trail and the playground. It is a great area for Noah to ride his bike, the kids to explore on the beach and burn off some energy at the playground. Saturday morning we traveled to South Portland for the kite festival.  It was a perfect day for kite flying, good music and being outside.  Some of the kites were pretty impressive, like the stingray in the bottom two pictures.  On Saturday afternoon we went to the barnyard at Smiling Hill Farm. The barnyard has many animals to feed as well as lots of wooden structures to play on.  Always a favorite with our kids is a "real" version of Mary Anne from "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel". We all had such a fun time and because of the gorgeous weather the kids were absolutely exhausted from all of the outdoor exercise:)  

Upper Valley Visit- May 2012

Our travels took us back to the Upper Valley this weekend. We love the Upper Valley.  I realize fully that this is most likely because it is where we started our family and spent 4 years of our early lives establishing a home, but we always feel very nostalgic when we travel there:) We were able to visit with some dear friends,  have a great time watching the kids play together and catching up. Friday afternoon to break up the trip we stopped at the Children's Museum of NH which all of the kids really enjoyed.  I didn't get many pictures of Noah or James, but Benjamin LOVED this mirror that was in the corner.... it was so fun to watch him interact with all of the other "babies".  On Saturday we attended a soccer clinic and were impressed an Noah's continued improvement in soccer playing.  After lunch we played at the aquatic center which our kids are always thrilled to play in.  They have a current pool, a lap pool and an indoor waterpark/playground.  Probably the best part of the weekend for Noah and James was getting to play outside with Oliver and Isaac and explore their woods;)  Thanks Yukica's for a really fun weekend!!