Book, Line, & Sinker: Play Date with Dean

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Play Date with Dean

With football season over, we were finally able to have a play date and dinner with the Hopkins family last night. Of course, both boys were so excited about the prospect of getting together to play that neither took good naps earlier in the day. It's like they could sense that we really wanted them to be well-rested . . . despite the lack of naps, both boys were in good spirits and had a great time playing.

Dean is one year old now and will be walking independently any day now. He maneauvered well around our coffee table and ottoman.

And, when furniture wasn't handy to pull up on, he resorted to his old-stand-by, crawling, to get him around. He loved the stairs. Since they were a novelty, he was allowed supervised crawling time on them. I think he went up 2 or 3 times in the course of the night. (Note to self: we'll be needing a gate soon for Gavin. While it was quite easy to forbid Mason from going up the stairs, I think Gavin will be less obedient. Just a hunch.)

The boys were very well behaved while we ate dinner. Actually, Gavin had his dinner as the adults ate. Dean had eaten earlier at his usual dinner time, so he played while we ate. Gavin loved watching Dean moving around the house. I'm sure he was taking notes. Maybe he'll forget a lot of what he saw: I'm not eager for him to crawl. I know he will all in good time; I enjoy being able to put him down to play and know that he'll be in the same spot if I step away.

Gavin got some lovin' from Matt and Lindsey. Dean wasn't jealous; I'm impressed. Gavin is about 19 pounds now, Dean near 23. Those few pounds make a big difference when picking up the two.

After dessert, it was getting really late for boys who hadn't had good naps and who usually call it a night much earlier. So, Lindsey, Matt, and Dean headed out. It took us about 30 minutes to get Gavin down; he was over tired, I think.

We can't wait to get together again.