Cheers to Daddy!

June is Daddy's month!  We had fun celebrating both Father's Day and Neil's birthday.

For the Saturday of Father's Day, we had tickets to Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival.  It's an amazing event held at Croton Point Park, right next to our condo complex, that attracts thousands of people and has about four huge stages with bands, story tellers, dancers, crafts and food.  We listened to Arlo Guthrie, Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger and some other great entertainers.  It was a hot, sunny day but we had a great time and the kids really enjoyed the music and sunshine.  Liam especially loved the opportunity to dump water on his head.  

We set up a blanket and chairs in a shady spot and as you can see, we were closely surrounded by a lot of other people trying to get in the shade as well.   We enjoyed a picnic lunch including watermelon.  We're not exactly sure if Dylan liked the actual watermelon or the watermelon rind better.

Since we were at the park all day, the boys had to take outdoor naps.  Dylan fell asleep in the backpack carrier and continued to sleep for another 20 minutes when Neil took him off his back.  

On Father's Day morning, Liam helped me make pancakes!

The boys had fun playing in Neil's new duffel bag.

A proud father on Father's Day with his two little boys.

For Neil's birthday, the kids and I went to the Hudson River beach near our condo to make a birthday surprise.  Unfortunately, I underestimated Liam's ability to keep a secret.  When we told Neil we went to the beach that afternoon, Liam said, "We spelled Happy Birthday to Daddy."  Then he asked, "Want to see it, Daddy?"  Neil knew something was up but was still surprised when we emailed him the pictures on his way to work the morning of his birthday.

Liam sat on the beach singing "Happy Birthday" over and over.

It was quite a chore breaking the reeds and spelling the words on the beach with Dylan eating sand, sticks, whatever else he could find.  Most of it was done one-handed while I had Dylan on my hip.  

Here are the boys with the birthday cake!  Liam picked out this oversized cupcake with sprinkles.  It has three candles in honor of Neil's last year in his 30s.  The boys look so tired because we went for an evening swim and their crazy hair is courtesy of a pre-birthday celebration bath.    

Liam loves cake!  And, now we know that Dylan loves cake too!  We gave him a few bites of the vanilla cake and he was so excited that he stole a few bites from Liam's bowl.  Liam was not too happy about it and quickly held his cake out of reach.  Since they usually eat in their high chairs at the same time, we don't have this problem too often but it was really funny to watch!

With all these fun things to celebrate, the month flew by very quickly.  It's officially summer and we're having a  great time!

Little Buddies

Little Dylan continues to grow up so fast.  Now that he's more sturdy and mobile, Liam is enjoying his new playmate.  No longer a baby, Dylan's learned to crawl, stand up on furniture, cruise furniture, climb stairs, dance to music and the latest thing is that he can crawl really, really fast.  I think he's just as fast as he would be if he was running.  He also likes to practice walking while holding our hands.  It's a good thing Dylan is getting closer to walking because carrying around a 21 1/2 pound baby all day is really tiring!  

Dylan is quite the explorer and doesn't miss an opportunity to climb right into the refrigerator.  It's not really surprising that the refrigerator is so appealing to Dylan because this kid has never missed a meal!    

Standing in his crib is a very effective way to get my attention to pick him up when he doesn't want to nap.  Who could resist that face?

Dylan loves to "help" with chores.  Liam used to be interested in the dishwasher too.  And, just when I could finally unload the dishwasher in peace, Dylan reached the age of "helpfulness".  Laundry is fun for babies too.  It's really funny to watch Dylan pull all the clothes out of the dryer.  He can really whip them out and throw them in a pile.  My fingers are crossed that he continues to enjoy doing housework when he's a teenager.  With his newly acquired throwing skills, he also likes to open the bottom dresser drawer and throw Liam's shirts onto the floor one at a time.  My fingers are not crossed that he continues to enjoy throwing clothes into piles on the floor when he's a teenager.  Unfortunately, this is probably the skill that he will perfect throughout the years.  

As best buddies, the boys enjoy chasing each other around and with some encouragement from Neil, wrestle.   Dylan laughs when Liam runs, jumps up and down, gives him a toy, or (accidentally or on purpose) slaps him in the face.  Yes, he thinks it's funny.  Liam can do no wrong in his eyes.  It's a good thing that Dylan's tough.  Liam lays on Dylan and Dylan pushes him off or takes him by the hair.  Currently, their favorite activity is to chase each other in the crawlspace between the big cozy chair and the sliding glass door.  Liam will start the game by hiding behind the chair and yelling, "Baby Dylan!  Baby Dylan!"  They like to play peekaboo in the curtains as well.  At this point, the curtain rod gets knocked off its hooks everyday.  It is so much fun to watch their brotherly love grow.

The boys will eventually be sharing a bedroom.  Liam has moved to his big boy bed, although he is still adjusting to the sleeping arrangement.  Sometimes he sleeps half on the bed, half on the floor.  A few times, he has fallen right out and slept on the floor until we discover him and put him back in the bed.  The crib is still waiting for Dylan since he sleeps in a small crib in the basement bedroom area with us.  

We are very thankful that both boys are sleeping really well during night and we are FINALLY getting some decent sleep.  Now, we just have to continue working on getting them to both sleep in their shared bedroom!

Iowa = Family

Although it's been a month since we've been home, we had so much fun in Iowa and I want to make sure I capture the memories.  We've been really busy in the past month so the next posting will be full of updates and then hopefully we'll be back to the present.

Great Aunt Jane snuggling with the boys!  I imagine it brought back some memories of holding her boys, Ben and Sam, now in their 20s.     

Dylan has captured the hearts of Grandma and Great-Grandma!  And, I think he is quite mesmerized by them too!

Liam loves Great-Grandma!

Not only did we get to celebrate Mother's Day with Grandma Hunter, we also got to help her celebrate her 60th birthday!  Liam even helped blow out the candles.  And he sang Grandma his own, longer version of Happy Birthday to her.  

My two baby boys playing with my first baby - my childhood cat Paxie.  She is 22 years old and still hanging in there.  Poor kitty, stuck outside, has been replaced.

Cousins in jammies!  They loved these big kid high chairs.

Each time we get these four cousins together, we try to get a group shot.  It takes about four adults whistling, clanging, and doing assorted tricks to get their attention.  This is the best we got so don't mind Dylan poking Hadley's ear, Hadley pulling Dylan's shirt, Hadley pushing Liam away, Adelia putting Liam in a headlock, and Liam head butting Adelia's chest.  They really do love each other.

Dylan met Uncle Tom for the first time.  We were so happy that he was able to play with the boys all weekend.  When they are older, we will send them out for some Montana adventures with Uncle Tom.

Dylan pick pocketing Uncle John and showing Hadley what he found.  After taking depositions all day, Uncle John had a pen in his pocket!

Since we live in different parts of the country, it's rare that both of my siblings and I are in the same place at the same time so we took the opportunity to take a family photo.  It's even rarer that the extended Hunter family is in the same place at the same time.  Neil was missing this time so hopefully we can get a family picture with EVERYONE (Heather, Neil, Adelia, Hadley, Liam & Dylan) in it soon!

Happy 1st Birthday to Cousin Hadley!  Big Sister Adelia is standing on the chair because she was in charge of getting the crowd's attention to sing Happy Birthday.  My sister in law Heather did a great job planning the party and it was a great opportunity to see extended family while we were in the Midwest.  We had such a fun time celebrating at Incredible Pizza and the kids had so much fun with all the fun rides.  The adults had fun playing all the games!

Great Aunt Rose and Cousin Bridget were doing their best to entertain Dylan way past his bedtime!  He was a trooper!

Dylan rode the carousel about four times in a row.  We couldn't get him off.  When the ride stopped, he gripped the pole so hard and cried.  Here, Great Uncle Bill is enjoying the ride too!

Great Grandma and Uncle Tom enjoying the birthday party!

Grandma and Grandpa Hunter posing proudly with their grandsons.

Great Aunt Jane and Great Uncle Brian hosted us for a wonderful dinner.  The boys wore their matching shirts from Great Grandma.  She bought them several sets of matching shirts and they are adorable wearing them.

Dylan had so much fun bowling (and wrestling) with Great Uncle Brian!

We also saw many family friends, Bridget's wonderful husband Ben and Heather's extended family.  It was a very busy trip filled with lots of fun activities and people.  Although we enjoyed four additional days to our two and a 1/2 week trip due to weather delays, it still went way too fast.  

Iowa = Tractors and Farms

A trip to Iowa always involves farming fun!

This was Liam's second trip to the John Deere museum and he loved it just as much as the first time!  He kept running from tractor to tractor in a frenzied excitement.  Dylan seemed excited by it too.  He loved moving the steering wheels and touching all the buttons.

Liam seems to be telling Dylan how the bulldozer blade works.

Now, he's teaching Dylan how to drive the tractor.  I guess he is taking his role as the big brother very seriously.

When I'm out and about by myself, I've learned to be creative in taking pictures of both boys.  After taking the photo of the kids faces in the cutout, I turned around to see a little audience of people and they were laughing at the craziness of me trying to get the boys to look at me (clearly I couldn't get them to smile).  The seat belts came in very handy for the photo taking.  Of course I only had a moment to take the picture before Dylan crawled right out of it and Liam began complaining about being restrained while exploring the huge tractor playground!  

  

 Is this a lawn mower or an exercise machine?

Growing up, I had so much exploring the farms of my grandparents and aunts and uncles.  Farming is such a source of pride for my family and it's really exciting to introduce my little boys to this way of life.  We took a drive to Delmar, Iowa to visit Great Aunt Jane and Great Uncle Brian's farm.  Liam got a closeup view of the cows.

Liam was thrilled to "drive" Great Uncle Brian's semi-truck.  It might have been even more exciting than the tractors!  It was definitely bigger!

A little boy in a big barn.

The farm was so peaceful.  And, we got to enjoy a delicious Great Aunt Jane dinner and the beautiful Iowa sunset!