Big Bulldozer!

With all the construction that has been going on for the DFW connector, Gavin gets to see lots of bulldozers, diggers (excavators), dump trucks, scrapers, graders, cranes, etc. It never ceases to amaze either of us how much Gavin loves things that you would expect him to not be interested in till he was a little older. He and I got to see a dump truck dump a load of gravel right by the side of the road one day, and he thought that was the best thing ever. His mouth hung open for a couple minutes, and the only thing he said was a long drawn out "wooooowwww".

I will of course point out equipment that I see so that he can look at it. The other day I said "Look Gavin, a scraper". His response was "No Daddy, that's a grader". I had to do a double take, and he was right. I would bet that 95% of the population doesn't know the difference between a scraper and a grader, but Gavin sure does - even better than this daddy evidently.

TXDOT was having a public appreciation day at the Grapevine Convention Center today complete with heavy equipment. On Sunday, I told Gavin that we would go see some big bulldozers this week. He hasn't talked about anything else ALL WEEK! He has told his teachers at school about going to see the big bulldozers, and it has also been the first thing out of his mouth in the morning this week. So, he was just a little bit excited at the prospect of getting to drive a bulldozer.

G also scored a foam orange cone as a souviner. It was a fun afternoon. He was not too happy that we had to leave the bulldozers and get back in the truck though. It told him that if I had $200K, that we could take one home, but I don't think that he was impressed by my offer.

A Boy's Weekend

Miranda had to accompany the high school band on their bi-annual trip to Walt Disney World. That left Gavin and I to our own devices for a few days. It was just the boys (Gavin, Mason and I) from Wednesday afternoon till Sunday night. Thursday and Friday turned out to be pretty routine. I got Gavin ready for school, and Lindsey was kind enough to drop him off when she dropped Dean off at school. I was so thankful for that - it saved me an extra hour of driving both days.... Saturday was a different story however. I had lots of stuff for us to do...some fun stuff and some errands to run. First stop was Krispy Kreme for breakfast doughnuts. Gaving has never had a KK doughnut or any doughnut for breakfast for that matter. So this was a extra special treat. Needless to say, he loved it and sported the hat the entire time. A little milk helped wash down the warm doughnutty goodness.

Soooooooo gooooooood. Check out that frosting on his mouth! I had to carry him outside to clean all the icing off of him before we left.

Then onto the Honda dealership for wiperblades for Miranda's car (they only sell the type her car uses through Honda for some reason). Next stop was my office for a little work. I just had to e-mail a few files, and Gavin was happy to help.

After work we felt like we needed to burn off some of our breakfast, so we went to the park and played some ball...

and slid down the BIG slides - this was a first for Gavin.

Check out that static electricity. Also note his shirt - I bought it especially for out boy's weekend. It has ketchup and mustard talking to a hot dog saying "What's up dog"?

Then G spent a little time in the sandbox. He played very well with the other kids in the sandbox. He shared and waited patiently for his turn to play with the cool "sand wheel".

And FINALLY the swings were open. G had a mini meltdown when he realized that some other girls were in "my swing". But he took it in stride and ventured out of his comfort zone to explore the park a bit.

After the park, we hit a couple garage sales on the way home since it was the Trophy Club garage sale weekend. We didn't buy anything though. Once at home we grabbed some lunch and it was naptime. The afternoon was a little more laidback. We had a haircut for G, and other than that we watched some basketball on TV.

We met up with Jimmy for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Gavin must have been starved because he ate over half of my dinner. He even ate half of a piece of pie that Jimmy had made.

Sunday was a totally different day however....I chose to play hookie from church that morning, and that turned out to be a very good thing. We watched cartoons in the morning and Gavin ate a few eggs for breakfast. I didn't think much of it since he was probably still full from dinner the night before. Then around 10:00 he started crying for me. I picked him up and realized that he was very warm. I sat with him trying to comfort him when all of the sudden he threw up all over both of us. I cleaned both of us up and gave him a quick bath. The throwing up and gagging scared him quite a bit. After getting him settled down I took his temperature and it was 103. He spent the rest of the day napping and crying for dada when he woke up. There was another throw up incident, but the second one went much better....his response afterward was "I spilled".

Motrin failed to lower his fever, but Tylenol seemed to do the trick. He finally started feeling better around 5:30. By 6:00 he was back to his normal self with a fever of only 101.

Miranda got home around 9:00 Sunday night, just missing all the fun. She was as tired as I was, but I haven't given her much pitty since she was tired from riding roller coasters for four days. :)

Gavin was very happy to see his mama this morning. We split time at home with him today since he couldn't go to school. Thankfully this was just a 24 hour bug of some sort. He has been playing and talking up a storm as usual today.

Train Table Climber

Gavin loves trains. Though he has wooden Thomas the Train set, it is becoming evident to us that Percy (the little green engine) is his favorite. He loves to have us build tracks for him. He enjoys sitting in the middle of the track pushing the trains around. Since getting his sand table for his birthday, we've seen how much he enjoys standing up and pushing the tractor on the table. Over the weekend, we kept an eye on Craig's List for a train table. Dave had considered building one with adjustable height legs, storage drawers, and a million other whistles (a typical Dave project), but the convenience of being able to buy one for a lot less than materials and not have to actually build it, won. Tuesday afternoon, Dave picked up a table on his way home. I wish it had storage drawers, but we can always upgrade if we really need to. (And, I saw one on ebay that is designed to roll under the bed.)

I've been so happy that Gavin isn't a climber. He still sleeps in his crib. When he's ready to get up, he stands in the corner and calls/cries for us. So, imagine my surprise this evening after dinner (and after he had been playing in the sand), when I looked in the play room to see him on top of the train table. First, Gavin isn't a climber. Second, check out the ledge he had to climb over to get up there. Third, Gavin is little for his age. At two years, he weighs 26 pounds on a heavy day and is 34 1/2 inches tall. He wears 18 month clothes. He's little. He's little and so he can't reach the cool new bridge that Daddy brought home Wednesday night. And so, he climbed up.

Getting down was a bit harder. We had to help.

But in a minute, he was right back up there.

So, yes, I have a climber.

Baaasketball

Today, Gavin got to really feel like a big boy when Daddy moved the basketball goal out on to the driveway. When I came home after running errands, Gavin just had to run to me exclaiming, "Baaasketball outside!"

This little guy loves him some basketball.

Earlier in the day, I turned on March Madness for a bit. Kentucky was playing West Virginia. I asked him who we should cheer for white or black. He said, "Not blue and white." I'm OK with cheering for the underdog.

To add another dimension of challenge to playing basketball, Dave raised the goal up to it's highest position. I'm thinking maybe we should have bought him the size bigger goal for his birthday.

And whenever, Gavin scores he says, "Two poynts!" Too cute.

We hear that a lot.

Friday in the Park

Dean was finally feeling better on the tail-end of his bout with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, so Lindsey arranged a playdate at the park. She figured this way, we didn't have to worry about sharing germs, too much. Since Dean got sick a week ago, I really think the incubation period is over.

Gavin woke up from his nap earlier than Dean, so we headed to the park.

First we hit the swings. I know, big surprise.

But then there was a big surprise. Gavin got out. He went down the slide once, then back to the swing.

Then, he got out again because I lured him out with the idea of kicking his soccer ball. You see, there are soccer fields at the park. Gavin was having a blast running and kicking the ball. He got several compliments on how well he was kicking the ball.

I had to chuckle, though, because he was lining the ball up on the goal line and then kicking it in. I did finally get him to back up to the penalty box line to kick the ball in. And, I was very pleased when another little boy, Brady, came up to want to play with the soccer ball. Gavin actually shared. I was shocked. We've been working on sharing this week. Gavin had a play date with Ellie Wednesday. (I neglected to take pictures.) And, he's had to take turns with me shooting the basketball. I guess some of that sharing stuff sunk in.

Dean arrived, so we greeted him, swung, kicked the soccer ball, ran over to look at two teenagers playing baseball, swung, ran over to look at the basketball goals, swung. And even got on the slide a bit.

Dean is a big boy on this big, curvy slide.

It's an even bigger deal to see what he climbs up to get to the top.

And before we left, we tried to get a picture of both boys on the smaller slide. Gavin is waving to me.

Back at home, Gavin was pooped. I can only image how tired Dean was. Poor Dean, who always has a healty appetite looked so skinny after a week of not being able to eat because his mouth hurt too much. I can't wait to see him feeling better.

Playin' in the Sand

For Gavin's birthday, my mom bought him a sand and water table to play with. I know it practically killed her that the weather didn't really cooperate while she was here for outdoor play. Gavin has enjoyed playing inside with it. There's a tractor with a farmer and two carts to pull behind the tractor. There's a red barn, which he has taken to calling a tunnel (he's into tunnels these days). There are bridges to put up. Lots to stand and play with.

Gavin and I are on Spring Break this week. Earlier in the week, the weather wasn't exactly spring-like. And all week the wind has been ridiculous. And to top it off, Dean has come down with hand-foot-and-mouth, which Gavin had at 7 months, so we haven't been able to play with Dean (or swap out babysitting).

Today, the weather warmed up, so around 4:30, I pulled the sandtable outside. You should have seen the puzzled look on Gavin's face. I explained that it's really an outdoor toy, but we've been playing with it inside.

I pulled the bag of sand over and started shoveling some into the table. Then I realized that Gavin could have a lot of fun filling it himself.

I didn't hear much out of Gavin for the next hour. He played contentedly. I repotted a Christmas cactus, pulled weeds, checked on dinner, sat. Occassionally, he would call, "Mama?" simply because he was too busy playing to look up to see where I was.

I asked him to say "cheese" when I was taking pictures. He said, "cheese," but wouldn't stop long enough to look up at me.

I hope his next play date with the sand table is as captivating as this first one.

Late Race Pictures - Texas Winter 100K

This post is the counterpart to my race report posted in January. At the information session the night before the race.

This was the scene at the 5:00am start. Everyone looked like they were having a great time, and were looking forward to racing the in the rain all day with temps in the 40's.

Finally in the water....You can see my boat on the right side behind the sign. My bow light quit working just a few minutes later.

This was the long portage dock. There was a 1/4 mile portage at the end of Town Lake (2.0 miles into the race). I am sitting in the water waiting to get onto the dock.

Lifting the boat out of the water....then a quick walk to the put in location.

This was the scene at the finish line. This was much later in the day after I finished. I easily finished while it was still light outside. Some of the entrants were still racing in the rain at 8:00pm that night.
Those are all the pictures from the race directors. Sorry for no more shots of me in the race, but the weather didn't lend itself too well to taking pictures.