Baby blanket blunders

This "boy" blanket is giving me some grief! I started with a chunky white yarn but didn't account for the gauge change when I was choosing my other yarns. The greens and blue I chose are much lighter than the chunky white yarn so I'm experiencing some puckering I guess you could call it. I ended up removing the center white stitches to help the blanket lay flat. The end product is more circular than square but I think once I add the border it will square it up.

Since I was getting so annoyed with my boy blanket, I started my girl blanket (I usually have a few projects on the go at the same time). Again, not learning from my mistakes, I didn't think about my gauge and I used a chunky yellow cotton yarn that doesn't have as much stretch as my other yarn choices. I think I've also lost or added some stitches along the way, giving it a rounded shape. I think the border should help once again.