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

Update from Gavin

Here I am painting. I like to talk about Nana when I'm painting. Miss her...

And here I am tracing the letters in my name; one of my newest endeavors. :o)

So I haven't updated y'all in quite some time. It has been so long that I'm not even sure where to start...

Well, let's start w/ my boy Elliot. He is getting more cool by the day. He laughs at my jokes and he does silly things that make me laugh. He is getting bigger and more stable so it takes a little more to knock him down than it used to. Translation: I get in trouble for pushing him a little less often b/c he doesn't always fall down anymore... I like to take his hand and lead him to my room to play with our toys; he thinks that's fun, too. So all around, we have getting along pretty well and I'm learning how to play nicely and we have a really great time.

I'm still reading away. Mom gave me the comics from the Sunday paper the other day. They are very cool: bright colors, cute pictures and lots of words. The trouble is that they aren't really for kids...at least not my age. There was a lot of things I didn't really understand--and mom says I probably shouldn't understand some of those things yet.

Another thing I like to do with words is spell them out verbally. The other day I was challenging mom to tell me what the letters I reeled off spelled: t-e-c-k-o what does that say, mommy? like that. Well, she started to tell me to tell her what these strings of letters said so off I went: h-o-u-s-o. small pause. "houso!" Boy was she surprised! Ha!

Me and the potty are really good friends. I go visit a million times a day. I have very few accidents anymore. There are toilets everywhere. Did you know that? And there are special rooms for men and women. This has led to many a conversation about the difference between the sexes. Well, it's has been pretty abstract so far, so I still get a little confused at time. A few weeks ago we went to visit one of these public restrooms and out of curiosity I asked a stranger: Are YOU a woman?. Mom was a little embarrassed because apparently it was very clear that he was not a woman. Anyway, luckily, he thought I was just saying something cute and he just smiled and nodded.

We are almost all settled into our new house. We have a super cool backyard with a couple small trees I can climb. Dad tied a swing to one of them just to keep mommy on her toes -- little brothers don't learn to stay back from swings until they are at least 2 years old. It has a big maple tree, a couple of Japanese loquat trees and a big ole holly bush (we're not supposed to play with the berries; they're poisonous). We also have a lot of patio space to ride bikes and roll balls and stuff. I have a new room, but all the same old toys, so although I do miss our old house a lot, our new one feels pretty homey already. We still go to the same church and see the same friends, so this move wasn't easy, but wasn't quite as hard as moving from Baton Rouge.

We get to walk around a lot now. There are parks to walk to and the roads make a big loop in our neighborhood so we can just walk for the fun of it if we don't really want to go anywhere.

Mom wanted to make sure I included this little list of Gavinisms:
NeighborHERD=neighborhood (already a little social commentator)
insurrection=interesting
stumfing=something

Well, I'm sure there are more, but we can't think of them right now.

~Gavin

Don't mess with Texas!

So we took a little exploration trip today to a part of the Houston area we've never visited: the lovely east side--Pasadena really. We weren't really headed anywhere in particular, but I started to see a few signs for the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, so I decided we check it out.

As we're pulling up to the entry guard Gavin is chattering away about the signs he sees: One has the name of the park; another has the speed limit; there's a Don't Mess with Texas sign (anti-litter for those of you who aren't regular visitors to TX); and one with a schedule of fees, etc. I'm trying to talk Gav through them as we go, but there are really too many, so I give up and decide that a quick overview of where we are would be more pertinent. So I start in: "Gavin, this place is where the battle of San Jacinto was fought. Groups of people came here from all over to have a big fight over who would get Texas." Gavin cuts in and says, "Mommy, you don't mess with Texas; Texas is dangerous."

--Alas, left the camera at home, so no pix.

Crawling, and teeth, and sticks--OH MY!

Oh, dear, it's been a long time hasn't it? Well, we've been a little tied up. What with the 16 day hurrication and all... We did fine through the storm because we weren't here (doubt we would have slept much if we had been). Our carport collapsed and our power was out for just over 2 weeks, but no major damage. Our neighbors who stayed apparently had a wild time tho, because we lost about 10 trees on our street--we live on a very short street!! Most of them were sizable oaks, so that may shed some understanding on exactly how crazy it got around here. From what I hear much of the area experienced similar stuff.

But, anyway, none of you want to hear about boring hurricanes and dull storm damage!! That's old news. Here's the juicy stuff you're looking for. I (Elliot) am still crawling most places; but I am super fast. I keep trying to get mom to enter me in a crawling derby, but she doesn't really see things the way I do (she walks uprightly after all...). I took my first trip all the way up the steps the other day (I've had many trips interrupted by concerned parents...). Hoo! What a rush. I zip back over there every chance I get, but mom keeps them all blocked off most of the time. It will be all of the time once she gets a gate with a door in it. :o(

I have 5 teeth and more crowding in every day, but I still gag on food with any texture. I am getting adept at the pincher grasp, which means I can put nearly anything (no matter how small and perilous) into my mouth. My latest conquest was a small bit of wicker from one of the baskets in which I keep some toys. Mom was praying all the while she was digging in my throat trying to rescue that little stick. For the life of me I can figure out what the big deal is...she's still in a tizzy about that. Anyway, I was totally back to my normal jolly self after I re-positioned my esophagus, so she and the doc don't think there is too much to be concerned about, but I can't try any more tricks for a few days b/c she's watching me like a hawk. Arg!

Gavin is learning the concept of availability since he seems to think that anything in my (and any other kids') hands is just waiting for him to play with it. He's doing okay, but still has to be reminded 8 thousand times a day. I'm getting so tired of mom asking "Gavin, is that available??" Hhhh!

That Gavin, he says all sorts of wacky things (especially when put up against the cute little sounds I make ;o). Here are a few:

"That is the _____est my ever seen": that is the ____est thing I've ever seen. Doesn't really come through typed out, but it's really cute in person.

"Pepper-ernie": pepperoni (especially cute b/c we have a friend named Ernie)

"Mommy almost comes back": mommy always comes back (exclaimed when mom collects him from the nursery at church; he's still not very good at letting mom and dad go to church, Bible study or MOPS meetings)

"Lets sing another picture": please sing the next verse of a given song

He gets confused about the whole Mr. and Mrs. thing. He called daddy's former boss Uncle Rick because the Mister confused him. Now he's trying to get it straight, but still pops out with a Mr. Jennifer rather than a Mr. Alan (Jennifer's husband), or a Mrs. Andy rather than Mrs. Aubrey (Andy's wife). Maybe he's just old fashioned.

"Women": lemon. This is especially funny b/c Gavin really likes lemons (thanks Josh & Jess), so he's almost guaranteed to shout out in restaurants as soon as daddy's iced tea arrives at the table: Daddy I want your women! I looooove womens!!

Another funny situation happened when daddy arrived home a couple minutes later than normal one day. Earlier in the day mom had been sweeping the back steps and the broom was still near the back door (outside). The combination prompted Gav to run outside and greet daddy saying: "Daddy! You been sweeping around??!!" Which sounds exactly the same as if Gavin had said: "Daddy! You been sleeping around?" Got quite a laugh from the parents.

Oh, me, there are so many more; cute things are said everyday around here. I just can't remember them all...

~Elliot

Counting

Ao, lately I've been counting everything I can get my hands on. I can count all the way to 30, but I unless I really focus I don't always get the order right. So when I'm just playing it's not uncommon for me to count & count & count a bunch of things and then exclaim with great satisfaction: Mommy, I counted all the way to ELEVEN! The truth of course is that I counted about 57 things, but I ended up saying eleven last, so that's what I counted to.