Twins

Anyone that knows our family, knows that the Twins play an important role in Grandpa Mike's life.  We began a tradition quite a few years ago that we hope to continue for many years to come,  an annual Father's Day Twin's Game with all of our immediate family.

We started this tradition when it was just the 4 of us;  Grandpa, Grandma, Momma, and Auntie Livvie.  Now that our family has (almost) doubled we have a bigger crew and lots more to be grateful for.

This was Otty's second year of this Family Twin's Event.  He was quite a bit more active and fascinated this year.  There was lots of roaming, pointing, hiding behind the curtains in the Legend's Club,  walking on the registers and making friends with fellow Twin's fans. Gram and Grandpa got a lot of exercise before and during the game roaming the stadium with Otto.

The Twin's had a great game and won,  which made for an even happier event, especially for Grandpa Mike!

We stayed in a hotel that night and got to play with cousins Fiona, Quin, and Declan in the pool the next morning.  It is always such a fun time to see these sweet kiddos!  This was the first time Otto has been in a hotel pool and he seemed to enjoy himself.  He floated, splashed and enjoyed the water for quite a while.

I think having all of the little people there helped him feel more comfortable.  I tried to get some good pics of the four cousins together but Ot was in the sunbeam and looks more like a hologram then an actual person.  I'm sure this will be the first of many water play dates with these four.

Sleepovers

Otto spent the past couple weekends with Gram, while Momma and Daddy were out of town.  It's been quite a while since Ot has stayed overnight.  We have the daytime routine down pat, but evenings are kind of a fly by the seat of our pants time.

The first weekend Otto slept great all night.  The second weekend, not so much.  The latter half of the night was spent laying across Grams belly, sleeping soundly (for Ot anyway).

When it got to bedtime, Otto read stories to Nyko all snuggled up in the chair, it was pretty cute.  Then Nyks decided to change positions…

 For some reason Ot didn't appreciate an 85 pound dog on his lap

There was also a lot of help cleaning the house from Otto. 

Since it has been nice out we have started journeying down to the lake lot to play.  It's been fun to watch Otto playing in the sand and water just like his Momma use to do decades ago.  This boy loves the sand and water, just like his Gram:)

May Day

We had our first day at the cabin on May Day!  This is always a favorite day of our families, even though it's more work then play at the beginning of the year.  The son-in-laws were helping with the pontoon to get it cleaned and into the water and I gave the cabin a brief sweep/wipe down and a promise to do more this coming weekend.

It's always fun to have that first pontoon boat ride of the year around the lake, at least for the adults and dogs.  Otty was none too thrilled with the new life jacket he had to wear.  With his big cheeks he looked like that little boy in the snowsuit from the Christmas Story.  We had some donut holes and his poor little arms couldn't even get them to his mouth thanks to that lovely floatation device.  It's not always easy being Otto!

Of course I have no photos of the day at the cabin because we were all so busy, but I do have a funny video of a 13 month old with quite a toddler attitude.  As his momma said, "It's funny now, but it won't be in 6 months."  For Gram I think it will still be funny;)

Can you say, Stinker?

Otto is having a vocabulary explosion.  We are hearing quite a lot of that Ah,ah, ah noise lately but there is also much more.  Otty is  communicating with us in several ways…  He uses sign language for 'more', and can say the first syllable of many words now.  All dogs are now Neeee or Lilllllllll, and anything in the sky is a birrrrrr.  All the Grandpas are now included in the Daaaaa with Dada and there are very adamant head shakes for 'yes' and 'no'.  We have also realized there are many, many B words in his life.  There is the blankie, broom, bottle, baby, bear, etc and each of these has their own enunciation as well…, broo, baaa, bae and bu, etc.  You get the idea.

My pant leg or shirt are also often grabbed to move my body in a direction Otto would like to go.   Usually this is towards the door to outside.

Otto says, "Hi," and will blow you a kiss, give you a high 5 or wave bye…which ever you prefer.  He's got things figured out and has trained us all very well.   We also now have to spell B-a-r-n-e-y, (that lovable purple dinosaur) so he can't understand it.  He LOVES to watch Barney and Friends on my phone (this may or may not be Grams doing).  I let him watch it while he's in the car with me so he's happy…a logical reason.   So, I have to hide my phone all day or we have a crisis on our hands.  Fun stuff!