Zoo Crew

Gavin, London and I went to Waco this weekend to meet up with Nicole and Brayden Beck (one of my best friends from college/Theta and her 1 year old son) from Dallas. Waco is between Austin and Dallas and just a one and a half hour drive for both of us. We met up about noon at the Waco Zoo, spent the afternoon there picnic-ing, meandering, and having fun! Then we checked in to a hotel, swam, had dinner, slumber-partied and came home Sunday. It was a great weekend! We had a ton of fun...evidenced by Nicole and I staying up until 3am just chatting after the boys all went to bed! We had fun and only created a bit of chaos.

The swimming pool at the Holiday Inn was indoor. Although I had brought a life jacket for Gavin to be safe in the water (since I had to keep my eye on two)...it helped out most to break his fall on the slick, wet tile surround. Not only was it crazy keeping an eye on two little boys, but keeping Gavin upright on his feet on the pool deck was challenging. (PS, Later on I provided some "feedback" to the hotel manager about the safety of his pool.)

Ok, so swimming was a little crazy...but how crazy could dinner at a hotel restaurant be...especially when you are practically the only party dining? Not so crazy until your kid plays by the window and takes down the full curtain rod, drapes and all! oops! There were only a few parties dining who weren't too disturbed.

Our chaos proved to be birth control for Nicole! She said she would wait awhile for #2! :)

But seriously, we had a great time seeing Nicole and Brayden...who by the way is one of the cutest kids ever and such a great demeanor.

Here are a few pics of our weekend:

London enjoying every moment of the 4-hour zoo tour


Brayden sitting on HOT monkey! We didn't realize it was hot though...oops!


The Zoo Crew


Biggest Popsicle EVER - for only $1


Me and my monkeys

London is 5-months (July 26th)

Today is London's 5-month birthday! Here are his stats:


* laughs daily!
* rolling over from front to back
* his BFF is Gavin already! he can't keep his eyes off of him!
* eating cereal (ok, he has only had it twice but will now be part of his daily routine)
* sitting up .... for a few seconds at a time without support
* grabbing everything!
* he is the most patient family member!
* rides up-right in the stroller (without a car seat)
* sleeps through the night in his crib on his tummy
* weighs 15+ pounds
* sweetest baby on the block (and there are a lot of babies on our block)!
* crawls (but only in his sleep from one end of the crib to the other - and it takes all night)
* brings so much joy to his parents. WE LOVE YOU, LONDON ADLER!!

Day Care Family Photos

At day care the boys have family photos that hang in their cribs. Well Gavin isn't in a crib, but it hangs next to his sleeping pad on the floor. We just updted them with more recent pictures of their families. Sharing.....

Promotion to ESP

Gavin was promoted this week to the Early Preschool classroom. His third classroom at Children's Courtyard. This is a class of kids ranging in age from 20 months to 2 years old. In this class he meets up with some of his friends who are a bit older than he is who have already moved up. I am glad he will have some friendly faces in this class since he will be adjusting to a new teacher.

He started in the Infant classroom with Ms. Ashlie (who now cares for London) from 3-months of age through 13-months of age. Then moved to the Toddler classroom from 13-20 months of age with Ms. Shawn and Ms. Dezi. All of these teachers have been fabulous and I was really sad to have him move out of Ms. Shawn and Ms. Dezi's room. They love him so much and think he is so funny! They were both really sad that he moved up as well. Here are the notes they wrote to me on his last day in their room last Friday.

Ms. Shawn - I'm really going to miss Gavin! He is so much fun. I'm glad that we got to have him in my room! Can't wait to get London!

Ms. Dezi - I have loved Gavin being in Toddler 2. He will be truly missed!

Graduation

We graduated London to Gavin's crib on Monday night and Gavin to the pack-n-play. (Note to parents: It's time to find a toddler bed!)

Two reasons....London is growing out the his bassinet and Gavin learned to craw into his crib (and therefore probably can get out and we don't want to risk him falling out).

Here's the proof...

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Bo and Terri who got married on Saturday July 10th. We were so happy to get to help them celebrate!

From the voice of London

June photos...

...are now posted
http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_June#

Austin Zoo

We took a trip to the Austin Zoo with our friends the Stansberry's in mid May and just now got the photos from Maria's camera uploaded to our Picasa page. There are a few pretty pictures here. Maria has an amazing camera!
http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_May_Zoo#