Update from Gavin: I'm 3 and a 1/2!

Update from Gavin 3 1/2 years old :) I am learning more and more about time these days, but I get a little mixed up sometimes and say things like: It was my birthday 3 miles ago and when I get big like daddy I'll be 40 pounds like mommy. What??!! I know it needs a little sorting out, but I'm just enjoying talking and sounding as much like the grown-ups as I can. I'm trying to get mommy to teach me how to read a clock (the one with hands, not just digital ones), but she keeps telling me that I need to learn how to count by fives first. Huh? Anyways, I've also been really into directions, street names and compass bearings. We have a nifty digital compass on the rear view mirror of our RAV4 and I love to announce which direction we are traveling in. I am also known to bark out orders like: Take 610 South mom--we need to go South! I'm usually wrong about where we're going, but she's pretty sure that I could direct someone to our house because I recite the turns before we even get to them. What can I say? It's boring just riding in the car; I want to be driving! One sidenote on driving: There is a tollway in Houston called Katy Tollway that we pass a couple times a week. I call it Katy Trollway--always makes mommy smile and think of her dad, my Poppa. :)

So we brought Elliot and mommy to their first pro baseball game a couple seconds ago...I mean a couple weeks ago (I'll get it, I'll get it!!). We had super-duper fantastic seats (5 rows from the dugout!), but Elliot and I weren't really understanding why we should sit still and watch some dudes throw a teeny tiny ball around. Every now and then the crowd would clap and cheer and we could get behind that, but other than that we just wanted to explore the stadium...talk about some majorly cool stuff! Mommy wished we could have watched more of the game, but maybe next time. Though we didn't make it through the whole game we did all have our Astros gear on which was lots of fun.

Well, reading is still great, but now I'm bored with a lot of my baby storybooks and we are taking more trips to the library (which is close by) to get fresh stuff for me to read. Mom tries to hide her freaked out look when I plow through books that are for 5-7 year olds, but that's pretty normal for me. I just like to read and learn--that's it. Here's a video of me reading a library book about helicopters. Mom was trying to cook dinner and sent me to the living room to read until she was done. Then, next thing I know she's in there w/ the video camera -- instead of cooking. Hhh! [more blog after video :)]

I got to go to Vacation Bible School for the first time this year. What a blast!!!! We learned cool songs, made crafts, took a nature hike, played outside and even had a concert in front of our parents! I pretty much just sat on the stage and looked around most of the time--not yet sure whether I'm a natural born performer. It was so fun. I want to go again!

We've been riding with daddy on his bike. Well, we're not on his bike, but Eli and I have a little trailer that we ride in. Elliot belly-aches much of the time because he doesn't like his helmet and it' s hot or whatever. But we are exceedingly cute in our huge, round bike helmets and I never mind looking cute, so I have fun. Besides we get to watch daddy work really hard to make the bike go fast and that is always entertaining.

So for a while I'd ask to play with daddy's cell phone as soon as he walked through the door in the evening. Eventually I realized that was rude (daddy told me) and that I should say "Hi, nice to see you daddy" instead. So for a while I said the obligatory "Hi, nice to see you." and then immediately asked for the phone. Then I realized even that didn't go over too well, so now I have an handful of polite little phrases I say (usually) at the socially acceptable time.
Hi, daddy, I'm so glad you're home; it's nice to see you.
Mommy did you have a nice run?
Mommy did you have fun playing with so-and-so's mommy?
Have a good day at work, daddy.
Sweet dreams, Elliot. Shhh. Go night-night now. I love you.
Hi my name is Gavin Malden; it's nice to meet you.

And finally, just for fun: here are some things mom wrote down over the past few weeks...

One of Gavin's toys plays several short melodies. He named them. I asked him a few times and he remained consistent with the names:
the sailing song
strench go
the sleepy song
drenching trashcan
the video song
strench fan
island mcdonald

Gavin offered to draw a picture of Poppa one day. I corrected him thinking that he was drawing a picture *for* Poppa. He assured me it was *of* Poppa and proceeded to narrate as follows. here's his beard like a big circle and two brown eyes. and now he needs his sword! and this is his bday hat on his big strong head. and this is his arms ... and then i need some yellow for his ears ... big beard. like a big strong man...

A few days ago the boys and Jon were playing w/ balls inside. I try to keep them from throwing inside (Elliot has a killer aim and a really strong arm). Gavin said: We are going to roll the balls and do sports with the balls. We are going to do foolish things with the balls.

Well, that's it for now (5 pages later).
~Gavin

Just a rainy October day

The joy of teething biscuits. What a mess. Yes, he was placed directly into the bathtub.


And this is a moment that mommy hopes will get more & more common as we get older: I'm not teasing Elliot, imagine that.

Look out Big Tex

Well daddy's gone and done it now! He got a big bad job in Houston, so we are moving to Texas. I understand the whole moving bit about as much as I understood the big brother gig, but I guess I'll just roll with it. As you can imagine, daddy is heartbroken to be moving back to his home state (I think he JUST stopped comparing everything in Louisiana to Texas...oh wait, he still does that...). Mommy's excited, too, but we are all sad about leaving friends & family behind in Baton Rouge. So that just means they will have to give in to the pressure and move to TX, too. :o) The good thing is that we already know several families in Houston and San Antonio (daddy's hometown); we are looking forward to spending more time with them.

We took a house hunting trip this past weekend. That was a lot of fun...about 20 hours of car time for me and my compadres. I think mom and dad were considering tranquilizers or heavy drinking by the time we got back to BR. I really don't know why they kept telling me not to make so much noise--Elliot didn't even wake up until I finally went to sleep (1/2 hour before we got home); I needed a rest after 9 1/2 hours of chattering and no nap. Anyway, we've almost got a place to live, just a few more details to iron out.

As for other stuff going on around here. Elliot is smiling and cooing, but that's about it. Oh wait, he's losing his hair, too. We're pretty sure he'll eventually be blonde and blue just like me. He slept through the night last night, but mom's pretty skeptical about that being a consistent thing yet; we'll keep you posted. He's also fattening up nicely-- hmm, sounds like I plan to eat him. I don't. In fact I'm really getting used to having him around. I make sure to let mommy know when he's awake, and I do my part to make sure he's awake most of the time by playing noisily nearby. I'm two years old now and don't you forget it!

I am enjoying playing with all the stuff mommy finds while she's packing; it's like Christmas every day! It's also nice to be able to spend lots of time outside again. The weather has been delightful, but that reminds me that we are praying hard for a yard with lots of shade in Houston. We have lots here and I'm afraid I'm quite spoiled by that! --Not to mention I'm rather fair skinned, so shade is a necessity!! Other than that I'm talking a lot these days. I've been using sentences for a while, but I'm starting answer questions better and I'm remembering so much from day to day and even week to week. That's fun when mommy wants to talk about how our great trip to the zoo last week, but not so much when I keep bugging her for more candy long after it's gone. I really like to talk things over after the fact, so if we go to visit someone and have lots of fun I'll make sure we discuss that on the way home. It's pretty cool that I can let mom & dad know which things I enjoyed the most. Much of the time it sounds something like this: Nana n' Poppa n' Zane n' Jael n playin' n' toys n' have fun n' ____ (fill in the blank w/ something specific we ate or played with). Pretty much just a string of names and phrases but they know what I mean. :o)

Well, anyway, you'll hear from me soon about how all this Texas business shakes out. Hope all of you are well!

Gavin

Soldiering On

Hi everyone,
Well, I THOUGHT one of the advantages of being a big bro would be a little relief from the writing assignments! I know, you thought I waxed witty of my own accord, but it's all been due to mommy's insistent prodding. Well, it's out there now... Anyway, no help from the little nipper; all he does is eat, sleep and poop. Oh, and fuss if any of those things are not done in the most expedient fashion. So you're now subscribed to the big brother chronicles (PLEASE let me know if you are tired of me clogging your mailbox!!).

So here is how it went down: Mom and dad woke me up obnoxiously early one winter morning a few weeks ago. Nana & Papa swooped in and took me to their house for the whole weekend. That ROCKED! Our lovely visit was interrupted by a trip to the hospital where mom and dad were (???). They looked okay, tired but happy, but I knew something was up when everyone started oooh-ing and aaah-ing over a little tiny stranger. I couldn't figure out who he belonged to...everybody was talking at once and I heard mommy sweetly say something about a new baby brother, but I got the point: there was a smaller, cuter, higher maintenance sheriff in town. It was time to throw a fit!

A couple days later Nana and Aunt Jael brought me home. I was pretty pumped to see mom and dad; and since we were at home I assumed all was back to normal. Then I saw him. He was snuggled up in a frilly little bed in my living room. And really that would have been okay, but then mommy took him out and I realized it was the same little impostor from the hospital incident! That was too much for me: I hadn't had a nap yet, I really wanted everything to be back to normal...I am ashamed to admit to you that I dissolved into tears and the strongest thing I could think to say was "Put it back!!" I know those sound like fightin' words, but coming from a helpless emotional toddler, it just made my parents sad and it didn't impact that tiny new creature whatsoever.

Fast forward a few days and things are going much better. I've resigned myself to this new standard of living, but I'm voting for Hillary just in case there is a chance I could be the center of the universe again. In the mean time I'm acting up a bit less and taking a few minutes each day to sit next to my baby brother and make sure he still has two eyes, a mouth, cheeks, fingers and toes, etc. I really don't mind him too much, in fact I'm starting to like him; I just don't want to share much mom/dad time with him. Unfortunately, there is no negotiating with a 3-week old.

Aside from all that commotion, I'm still in memorization mode. Songs are a good option for when mom doesn't have a hand free (feeding Elliot). And they are also daddy's speciality, so I practice with mom and perfect with dad :o). Someone suggested teaching me the bones and muscles of the human body (look out med school), and I'm game, but that would mean mommy would have to learn something new, too. Not sure how well that will work out. And after learning the sounds letters make at Nana's house, I think I've almost convinced mom to teach me how to read. She keeps protesting she's on some sort of maternity leave (???). Doesn't she know that doesn't apply to moms? ...Maybe I shouldn't vote for Hillary after all.

The update on Elliot is that he's getting fat & sassy. ...Who wouldn't after eating 10X per day? He weighed over 9 pounds at his 2-week check up and all the possible concerns (pylectasis, beta strep, hyperthyroidism, etc.) checked out fine. He still has his head full of fuzzy dark brown hair, so he might not end up as bald as I was, and it appears his eyes may stay blue, just like mine. He's not even close to sleeping through the night (altho he goes 5 hours every now and then), but that only bothers mom and dad because I sleep right through nighttime feedings.

Okay, well I'd better get back to being a big brother. Hope you all are doing well.

Gav

I'm Two!

Hi Everyone!
It's been a while, but things have been wild! On Thanksgiving Day daddy hurt his knee & had to have surgery a few weeks later, so mommy and I were pretty busy making him breakfast in bed and bringing him pain medicine. Okay, well that was only for a few days after surgery, but he was on crutches for a while which was a little hard for me to get used to. You try going cold turkey when you are used to a daily rough-housing session!! He's much better now and life is returning to normal which helps me act a lot nicer, sleep better, and eat more.

In spite of the crutches we had a wonderful Christmas and I enjoyed the prolonged present opening season since my birthday is just a couple weeks after. I don't know if you remember being two years old, but there is no such thing as a bad gift; they are all a blast: books, basketballs, cars, golf clubs, puzzles.

Somewhere in the past couple months I learned how to to sing my ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle (sounds more like kwinkle kwinkle) and a couple other songs which is really cute. I'm mastering the numbers between 10 and 20. Mom and dad say it gets a lot easier once you learn those. I also got a super cool map of the USA for my birthday. It's on the wall in my bedroom and is one of my favorite things to study these days. Several times a day I sweetly pull mommy toward my room saying "Map! Map! Map! United States! Hawaii! Arizona! California! Ohio!" Speaking of Ohio...you know I can't resist a shout out for my LSU Tigers! Geaux Tigers!

Since I'm on a roll learning stuff, mom has started teaching me what the logos on cars mean. She's a little tired these days (you should see her HUGE belly!), so she couldn't come up with something more useful to teach me. Anyway, it makes riding in the car a lot more entertaining. As we are cruising along I can stay busy naming all the cars passing by: Ford, Chevy, Mitsubishi ('bishi), Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, Scion...etc. Maybe we should get a world map on my wall...

So, about that huge belly. Mom & dad have been telling me a there is a baby in there. Lately I've been saying "baby soon" whenever we talk about it, so I think they might finally believe that I know a bit about what's going on. We are all pretty excited about meeting our new little addition. I'll be sure to send out pictures of him next time I write.

Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting lots, but you get the idea: I'm doing well and enjoying lots of new stuff. Hope you are doing the same!!

Soon to be big brother,
Gavin

A boy ahoy!

Hey Y'all,
Exciting times around here. We found out right after the last email I sent that I'm getting a brother! I don't have much of an idea about what that means, but mom's pretty sure I'll enjoy it. I've started saying 'hi baby' to mommy's growing tummy, but that's just b/c she tells me to. She and daddy are excited about having another boy because I've been such a blast so far--and there is the added bonus that they can reuse all the stuff I didn't wear out.

Other than breathless anticipation of my baby bro's arrival, I like making letters by eating bits off pretzels. I love to count, but I still need a little help to get the order right most of the time. I enjoy practicing my letters and I've learned a couple of their lower case friends. The weather has finally cooled down a tiny bit, so I'm outside a lot. Mommy & I go for walks almost every day and that is a good time for me to kick back and chill in my stroller.

Oh, and I should mention that I was snoozing when the LSU Tigers finally beat the Florida Gators and became NUMBER ONE IN THE NATION, but you better believe I got a some good "Geaux Tigers" in before I was sent to bed. I need to get some tiger garb for the rest of the season...can't be their loudest little fan w/o some respectable Tiger-wear.

Well, y'all take it easy! Enjoy some crisp fall weather for me :o).
Go Tigers!
Gavin