The Boy of Summer

Gavin is a fan of baseball to the highest degree. He sat and watched a little league practice at the park intently for over 30 minutes one day. And he was most disappointed when we didn't get to see the high school team play a game because of some no show refs.

Miranda had a meeting after work today, so I had to run and pick him up. On the way home we stopped by Acadmey and did a little shopping for a baseball bat and ball. I had originally thought about getting a "T" too, but after seeing the prices for a piece of plywood and PVC, I decided to just make my own. G loved playing with the bat and ball. He belted a few line drives, and only had one or two strikes. He didn't even mind the makeshift "T".

Easter 2011

Life is all about being flexible. We had plans for Easter. We discussed what we would ask the Easter Bunny to do: fill Gavin's basket or hide eggs for him to find. We fixed two sides to take to the Hopkins' gathering for lunch. Gavin went to bed as usual on Saturday evening. Then around 10:15, I heard his voice. Dave had just gone to bed and came jetting from the bedroom into the living room on his way up the stairs saying, "I think he's throwing up." Uggggh.

He was. We ran a bath. We hugged and cuddled. We changed the sheets, took off the dust ruffle, cleaned the crib, cleaned the floor. Got Gavin settled while we remade his bed. Gavin told Dave he would sleep in the floor. I guess he didn't want to get back in the crib. Who could blame him? We let him sit in the floor for a while as we cleaned up. He threw up again, but I was able to catch it with a blanket. Poor guy. All you can do is pat his back and say, "I know it hurts," while he retches and heaves. We wiped his mouth and got him settled again. Just as I settled in the floor to lay with him for a while and Dave headed back to bed, his stomach audibly churned. I sat him up and put his head over a trash can. He refused, but I persisted. Dave came back upstairs and helped clean his face again. We again settled in on a pallet in the floor. I stayed there with him until 3, then I decided my back had enough. Thankfully, he slept the rest of the night and woke up in a good mood.

We brought him downstairs to let him see what the Easter Bunny had filled his basket with.

Then it was on to the play room where we asked the Easter Bunny to hide eggs for him.

After finding the eggs, Gavin thought he should stand in the basket.

Thanks for sleeping with me, Mama.


Cheese.

Daddy got to hide the eggs a second time. Sometimes you have to crawl up on the sofa.

Then, it's fun to dump the eggs out.

An egg hidden on the piano reminds Gavin that he should play a tune.

Gavin had a good breakfast, but not much lunch. Not wanting to infect kids at church or the kids at the Hopkins' house, we laid low. Thankfully, Lindsey, Jennifer, and Leslie sent over ribs, pork tenderloin, potatoes, pasta salad and desserts as payment for the broccoli salad and beans that I took over and dropped off. We had a feast for dinner.

But after a super long nap and before dinner, there was time for playing outside with the egg shaped chalk the Easter Bunny left. He was naming the colors in both Spanish and English. I've got to remember to thank Ms. Maria. Gavin has shocked us both by knowing his colors in Spanish. Thank goodness I remember most of the colors and can interpret what he's saying. Dave had no clue when Gavin was saying, "anaranjado" for "orange" earlier today.

"Look, Mama, amarillo."

After he tired of playing on the driveway, Gavin headed to the front of the house. Daddy pulled weeds from the monkey grass. Here, Gavin is looking at a bug.

Even though, he didn't get to wear one of the three outfits I had picked for him for Easter, he's still a handsome boy, posing with his Daddy.

Gavin is into a hand up the shirt these days, so it's appropriate to leave this one.

Just after Dave snapped his picture of me and G, Gavin gave me a big kiss. We're working on the kissing. He thinks presenting his cheek so that you can kiss him is giving a kiss. We've been demonstrating puckering up and planting a kiss on someone else's cheek. It was sweet when I got one.

After dinner, Gavin got to eat a Peep. He took a few nibbles, but was much happier with a few jelly beans and Reece's eggs.
Though we didn't get to go to church or have fellowship with friends, we celebrated in our own quiet way. Our celebration (or lack thereof), in no way diminishes our appreciation for Christ's gift of salvation to us. I'm reassured that Christ loves me enough to overlook the fact that a sickly little boy kept me at home on Easter Sunday.

Master Egg Hunter

We worked with Gavin a little bit this week doing "practice" egg hunts in preparation for the big egg hunt at school. He took to it like a duck to water. He would see an egg and run over to it and throw it in his basket and then start looking for the next one. The boy is a natural egg hunter.

Today was the "real" egg hunt at school. The competition was fierce - lots of kids, older kids, parents getting in the way taking picures....lots of obstacles to overcome. But Gavin picked up quite a few eggs and had lots of fun.

Gavin has his basket and is ready to get it on...

It was mass chaos trying to get 30 excited little kids out the door.And they are off! Gavin goes right to work and grabs some a few eggs.
Looking for others while picking up an egg - that's a pretty advanced move for a two year old...
Finished. Dean takes a breather after all the excitement and egg hunting.
Gavin decides that isn't a bad idea and takes a rest too. Egg hunting really takes it out of a boy.

Best Buds

Playdates after school are extra special treats for Gavin and Dean. It is amazing how well they play together since it wasn't too long ago that constant sharing battles were so common. They trade out toys, and if one gets upset because they want the toy that the other is playing with - the one with the toy usually shares.

Gavin has even learned to say Dean's entire name - first, middle and last...even though he doesn't know his own middle name. These afterschool playdates will have to continue because they sure are effective at tiring those boys out before bedtime....

VROOM!

Who would have ever thought that Gavin would like something like race cars? Not my boy. Just like the true boy that he is, Gavin loves all things manly. It is race week in Texas. That means that all the NASCAR teams are at Texas Motor Speedway (which is just a few miles from the house), and today was the last day of practice. Practice is open to the public, and parking is free too. I couldn't pass that kind of a deal. I was super prepared with earplugs for Miranda and kiddie hearing protection for Gavin. He wasn't crazy about wearing them, but understood that he had to wear them if he wanted to see the cars. Here are some of the cars pulling out of the garage for practice laps. This practice session was for the Nationwide series cars, so I wasn't too familiar with many of the cars that we saw.

Gavin seemed to be a little scared from the loud cars at first and insisted that one of us hold him. He later learned that there was nothing to be afraid of and loosened up a bit.

Texas Motor Speedway....two days from now there will be 200,000 fans watching a race under the lights.

Gavin got comfortable with the loud cars and was glued to the track watching them all speed by on the front stretch.

Taking advantage of the Mama recliner.....

The slightly out of place McLaren's watching NASCAR practice....we didn't exactly fit the mold of the typical fans that we saw there....we weren't carrying beers, no racing apparel, a two year old along for the ride, etc...

Bye bye race cars!

The Colorado River Ramble

Mike and Letha were in Austin over the weekend for a wedding reception. We went down to visit them while they were in town, and it just so happened that there was a kayak race on Sunday morning. Mike and Letha are both pretty adventurous type people. And even though they had never paddled a kayak before, they agreed to enter the race with me. We loaded up the truck with three kayaks on Saturday afternoon and headed south.

We stayed Saturday night with Josh and Sara. That worked our really well because we were able to watch the kids while they went to the wedding reception, and didn't have to pay for a hotel room. Avery and little Miss Riley were two very well behaved kiddos, and Gavin was pretty good too. Here is Miranda reading to G and Avery before bedtime. The next morning we woke up early, packed up, and headed to the race to register. Miranda went to get breakfast tacos while Gavin sized up the competition.

Gavin likes Rudy's breakfast taco's just a little bit....After a quick breakfast, it was race time! The stand up paddleboards were the first to leave. These guys have to have crazy good balance just to stay upright.

Then it was Mike and Letha's turn in the 5 mile race. It took both of them a few minutes to get the hang of this paddling thing, but at the starting gun, they were off and running. Mike shows some pretty good form, and had a pretty good finish in spite of the short and slow 10' boat that he was paddling.

This is a picture of me on my second lap in the 10 mile race. I had just passed a girl on a stand up paddleboard who had their dog along for a ride with her.

Here is Letha pulling into the finish after a strong five mile race. Here I am finishing the 10 mile race. I did pretty well in spite of being nowhere near racing shape. Another girl in the same boat that I was paddling was on my tail the entire race. I wasn't about to let here beat me despite the fact that she looked to be a very good paddler. I hit it as hard as I could for the last three miles and came in 5th or 6th overall in the solo division. I think that I finished 2nd in my boat division (long recreational kayak), but we will have to wait till the results are posted online to see the actual finishing order for all the racers.Here is the racing crew after the race. Everyone had a fun time, and I was happy that Mike and Letha both were able to have a little bit of fun doing something that I have a passion for. Who knows, maybe they have a new hobby too....