Sean and Aleece

So last night I got home and was greeted at the door by an excited Aleece and a giggling Leif. Aleece was holding a camera in her hand and really wanted to tell me something. “Let me know when you are ready for some fun news”, she said. I took my coat off and put my bag down and told her I was ready. She proceeded to tell me about just a little while ago she and Leif were upstairs cleaning up a bit, laundry, gathering garbage, normal stuff. Then Leif was yelling “Dit down, dit down!” at Aleece. So Aleece sat at the top of the stairs, Leif yelled at her and said “NO!”, and then led Aleece to what he wanted. Take a look at Leif’s destination, I guess he was sitting there for a while. I wonder if Leif is telling us he is ready…

And just for some fun, some random shots of Daily life.
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Shot #3
Shot #4
Shot #5

Throughout this post I will link to individual pictures that are hosted in a web album here. These links will open in a new browser window. When you are done reading the post you are invited to see all of the pictures in the web album.

This year my parents decided to host Thanksgiving. We had lots of extended family join in, my aunts and uncles, cousins, in-laws, and even co-workers! Kalven was passed around, and around, and around…good thing he likes people. I think he is getting used to that, being he is the newest member of the Gilman Clan.

Before dinner there were good appetizers and a contest. A word find where we had to get other people to circle words on our paper, it was a good way to mix up the crowd! Aleece won the contest we had and got a colorful boa type thing as a prize.

Dinner was great. Traditional Thanksgiving feast, the table ran 3/4 of the length of my parents house! I would have gone back for seconds but I filled my first plate up pretty fun, and I had to leave room for desert.

One of our traditional holiday after dinner games is the dice game. Leif’s favorite part was stealing presents (as well as the dice if he did not get a double!). Over the years we have gone from funny white elephant gifts, like a can of peas, to more useful gifts, like toothbrushes and cases of toothpaste! Of course what is a white elephant game with out the silly prizes, we had plenty of those too.

This year Thanksgiving fell on my dad’s birthday and he got one of his favorites instead of a cake, pecan pie. I think he likes it when Thanksgiving falls on his birthday.

There was dancing and dancing, and more dancing.  Then even more dancing.  With a little wrestling thrown in.

Of course there is the need to check out the advertisements for black Friday.

Leif latched on to his cousins Laura and Shannon and kept bouncing between the two. That kid sure loves to share deserts! Leif would pull Laura around the house playing with this toy and that toy then he would just drop her hand and switch over to Shannon. Then Leif would pull Shannon around the house playing with this toy and that toy, and after a little while he would do it all over again.

It was a great holiday.

So, on Tuesday a friend of Aleece decided to have a thanksgiving feast for all of her friends. It was a really nice get together and almost all of Aleece’s “girls” made it. We are in that time of life where many of our friends have kids so there was a adult crowd and a kid crowd. The adult crowd has the infants and little babies, many of which were passed around and not held by their respective parents. The kid crowd pretty much gathered where the movie was playing and then in the kids bedroom, where the toys were. Leif found a new girl friend at the party. He followed one little girl around a lot and while the movie was playing he started work perfecting the “yawn and move arm” trick that men are so famous for. You know, the one where we feign a yawn and stretch our arms up high, just to bring an arm down around the shoulders of a girl we like. Yea, that’s the one he was trying out. The thing is that I have not told him about that one yet, that move must be ingrained into male DNA. Well, Leif pulled it off pretty well and got to have his arm around that girl for a while. Man that kid is gonna break hearts when he gets older.

The last few days have been pretty quiet, kid-wise.  Oh we have had the 2 year old melt downs and such, but that’s normal.  Kalven is doing pretty good and seems to be getting into a little bit of a schedule.  Aleece thinks that he will soon even be taking regular naps and eating on a schedule.  man that will be nice.  Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days.  Leif is still too young to know to get excited, but once we get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house he will be wound up tight and all set to have fun.

How did you survive?  I know you did because I just visited you last weekend.  Sometimes I wonder how you did it, and you even had 4!  2 year olds can sure be trying, but they are loads of fun.  That must be their saving grace…the joy and fun of a 2 year old.  The amazement at cupping water from your bath and letting it dribble out, then repeating it over and over for 10 min.  Or how much fun it is to run up the stairs and growl, run down the stairs and growl, then repeat as necessary (usually for 5-15 min).  That must be how you guys survived, watching the fun and enjoyment that a 2 year old can have at the simplest things.  ‘Cause I think that’s how I do it.  I love trying to look through both of my kids eyes each and every day.  It really does make you put things into perspective.  The only way to survive a baby or toddler is to experience life just like they do.

Now, the next thing I want to know…How do I survive the next 18 years?…

Yesterday Aleece babysat Asher. I was working from home and got to peek in from time to time. Things went well, Leif was a little needy but that’s his normal 2 year old self, he was actually pretty well behaved. We got some pictures of Kalven and Asher sitting on the couch just chillin.

So Kalven has been doing pretty good with the night time sleeping thing and Aleece and I decided it was time to move him to the “Boys Room”.  Kalven is starting to grow out of the cradle we had him in.  He is bigger and when he is awake he flails his arms and legs and ends up moving to one side or the other.  This results in an arm or a leg sticking out of some railings.  Kalven does not really like that.  So we moved Kalven to the big crib and Leif’s room has now officially become the Boys Room.  I don’t think Leif has really noticed yet, he seems to get up in the morning and play just as normal.  Kalven will even wake up before Leif and talk up a storm. So far Leif has not noticed, or at least has not paid any attention.

So last night Kalven passed a milestone.  He slept through the night.  Oh it was nice.  By “through the night” I mean he woke up at 4:00am, fussed for a few min, went back to sleep for a while and finally was crying fussy at 5:00am.  Still it was very nice.  Recently he has been getting up sometime between 2:00am and 3:00am wanting a feeding and he stays awake for about an hour.  The 2:00am ones are not too bad, I can still get back to bed for a while before I have to get up for work.  But the 3:00am feeding, I really do not like that one, by the time Kalven gets done feeding and burped and back asleep I have at most 1 hour until I have to get up again.  So here’s to hoping that last night was the first in a long habit of sleeping through the night.

Having a 2 year old is fun…and a bit of a trial. Leif is in the middle of his “terrible two’s”. He is a big attention hound, and that’s not a big deal unless we have something else to do, like attend Kalven. Leif then turns to hitting, throwing, screaming, and just about any thing else that gets us to interact with him. Unfortunately the interaction is usually a time out for Leif, but even in a time out he is getting attention. But his attention hounding is kind of cute sometimes too, like when I am making dinner. He usually tries to squeeze his way in between me and the counter. Leif then wants me to pick him up and usually set him on the counter next to what I am doing, so he can watch and help out. So while the “terrible two’s” can be trying as a parent there are up-sides to it as well.

This past weekend was opening weekend for deer hunting.  I have been going deer hunting every year for the past 23 years.  It is a tradition for me by now, one that I love.  Things were quiet this year.  There was very little wind and the weather held out at partly sunny.  Sunday night it started to drizzle a little, if you could call it that.  It was also pretty warm, I remember past years hunting as a kid that there would be 6 inches or more of snow on the ground and it was below zero all day long.  Those were the days we would camp out in the woods in a tent trailer we had, the canvas sides were converted to plywood to try and keep in some of the heat.  We now have my parents insulated cabin to stay in, my how we are spoiled!  hehe.  Anyway, because of the warmth and the quiet still days there was not much shooting going on.  I saw the tail end of a deer and that was it.  Still it was a good weekend.