New Toy

Philip found this Cranky the crane/Salty toy to add to Gavin's collection. When he's a little bit older I don't want to buy toys for no reason (just birthdays and Christmas) but for now it's probably okay. Daddy knows his boy: he loved it! He was even singing a song about Salty (where the only word I could understand was Salty, it was so cute!

Ready for action

Gavin and I go for walks at least two or three times per week. This time, he was a little anxious to go, I guess. I had taken off of his clothes because he had food on them, but that didn't stop him from getting ready to go. He managed to even buckle the chest strap.



Here he was when I was ready to go, not looking too happy. Just wanted a picture for comparison so you could see how the seat belt is really supposed to go.

What are you looking at?

We sometimes leave a book or toys in his crib so that he will hopefully occupy a bit of time in the morning so we can maybe get a little more sleep. Philip had peeked in and saw him reading his train book, but when he saw the light from the camera he moved.

Haircuts all around!

Philip got his haircut a couple of weeks ago (probably should have posted a picture) and now it was Gavin's and my turn!

The before picture, starting to get in his eyes. When I took the picture, he said, "My eye!" and covered them up. Guess he's learning that the flash isn't always fun.



The after picture, I couldn't really get him to look directly at me.



I didn't do a before picture of myself, but I took an after one. This one doesn't show my haircut very well, but I thought it was cool because you can really see the color of my eyes, which is green with a brown ring around the pupil. Green is an allele of brown, right?



Here is a better picture. It won't look exactly like this everyday, because she blew it dry and I almost never do.

Grapes, yum!

I just thought that this would make a good picture; it looks as if he thinks all the grapes are his, and he was just shoving them in!!!

Our Tiny Tumbler

We signed Gavin up for the Tiny Tumblers class through the city parks and rec program. I love that the city offers so much for kids and families to do (quite a bit of it for free, even). I don't think that the city I grew up in did, either that, or my parents didn't know about it or didn't take advantage of it.

This class is for toddlers and kids ages 25-48 months. There was a lot of free play on all the equipment as well as some organized circle time.

He loves the trampoline in our backyard, but didn't quite get this jumper. The kids are supposed to grab onto the bar and jump.



He loved the tunnels!







Philip got him to try walking on this low balance beam, and he did well!



Wee!



So he decided to try him on the high balance beam; he wasn't quite sure about it at first...



...but he got it and LOVED IT!



Circle time.



Let's do a roll!



Wee, so much fun!



Now I'm really going on the balance beam!



Roll!



Parachute time in the big group!





We think Gavin really enjoyed himself. There are three more classes to attend; we're so glad he's having fun and trying new things!

Name that Train!

He may call me daddy and Philip mommy, but he definitely knows his trains! (We think he may be doing the mommy/daddy thing on purpose.)



Here are the main trains that Gavin loves!

Tea for Four

Gavin had "tea" with one of his girl cousins in the backyard and seemed to really enjoy it. So, I thought we could do "tea" time for snack time. His cousin had a nice Barbie set with pink flowers and stuff, but we got out his plastic, primary colored set.



Gavin seemed to think that the creamer was a larger tea cup and decided to drink from it.



He was so glad that I let him pour himself!



Ooops!



Then he started playing with the food and water. It was time to wash and put away the tea set so he would eat his snack.



Here he is just afterwards trying to "hug" the kitty. The kitty wasn't as cooperative as Zeus.



You can see how much of a watery mess he made with the teapot--all over his overalls!!

Hugs!

I'm so glad that Gavin loves animals so much and isn't afraid of most dogs! (Only the dogs that jump on him!)

Mr. Cool Dude...

...pushes pink stroller! He loves to push anything-strollers, shopping carts, etc. In this stroller of his cousins' he likes to push around his treasures which include trinkets his cousins have given him or like here, his water and snack cup. He likes to zoom around the backyard, thus the reason that the stroller is out of focus, it was an action shot!

Strawberry Fiend

This summer Gavin has been loving the strawberries. He will eat the small berries out of our garden or big berries from the store. He'd probably eat them at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus at both snack times if I'd let him. As I have mentioned before he even occasionally will bring me the whole container of strawberries from the fridge! The other day he first brought me the things that were blocking the container, then the container itself. So nice of him to not leave things scattered about.

Water Fun!

We went to Aunt Staci's house the other day and Gavin had fun with a couple of his cousins. Here are pictures and more on Aunt Staci's blog:

http://theloveridgelegacy.blogspot.com/2009/08/small-wonders.html

Who's walking who?

Gavin walking Aunt Staci's dog, Zeus. He really was the one holding the leash and he did a pretty good job! Gavin is definitely getting to know the word, "slow."

Mr. Train Boy

As you know, Gavin loves the trains in any way, shape, or form! He loves playing with these in Uncle Lee's and Aunt Staci's garage.



Look at that concentration!

Reading...

...on the potty!

I think that Gavin's becoming more self aware of the "gotta go" feeling when he needs to use the bathroom, but he has yet to make the connection that the place to do that is the potty.

I was trying to get him to at least sit on the potty this morning, and he refused, but then soon after he got a hold of this book and decided to do it on his own.





He has told me when he has gone, including pee, which last week he called "stinkies" at the time, (which is what we have been trying to get him to call poop), but I had just put on a fresh diaper and it was definitely wet when he said it. So, I guess we are making progress. Also, this morning I mopped the floors and I was doing something in the kitchen when I heard what sounded like Gavin splashing in a puddle. He had peed by the front door (he wasn't wearing a diaper and we were going to go outside soon)!

Time with Fudge

Gavin has been spending quality time with his older brother.

Sharing his snack of yogurt. The cat was thrilled!





Let me get a little closer to the source of that yumminess...



Playing on the back of the couch with him. He thinks that he can do whatever the kitty does.





Neko (cat) is one of the words we have been trying to get Gavin to say in both English and Japanese. He has a one of those write on magnet boards in the car that includes four animal shaped magnets (they even have faces on the holding part), and one of the animal magnets is a cat. We were riding in the car on Saturday and Gavin said to the cat shaped magnet, "Whatcha doing nekos?" I that that was hilarious. For some reason he's been adding an 's' to Japanese words, we're not sure why. I thought that was a good sentence, though, because he would have said previously, "What doing?"

Swimming with Daddy!

Even though we have a pool in the backyard, we haven't been swimming a lot this summer because I usually take him when the other kids are swimming and this summer that time has been landing right smack in the middle of Gavin's nap time. So on Saturday Philip wanted to take him in. He loved it, of course. He's still enjoying the freedom of his swim vest!