Xmas!

We are on vacation for the next two weeks. We are on our way to Pleasanton today. Will post more after we get back. We will have more pictures and fun stories I am sure!

December trip- Gavin is a big boy.

We had a good weekend and made a little trip down to Redondo Beach on Friday night. I had an appt at 9am so we drove down Friday night and stayed at a hotel. We stopped at Jamie and Brent's house in Agoura Hills and had a great dinner. Who knew pigs in a blanket could taste so yummy. Gavin of course didn't touch a thing but we did and we grubbed. It was great to see them. Last time we got together the boys were only about 6 months old.

Harrison and Gavin had a blast playing baseball inside the house (soft balls and bats). They are so funny and talk so much now. Harrison tried to teach Gavin to pee on the potty but Gavin didn't seem too impressed.

Saturday morning we cruised around Redondo and found some parks to play in while I was at my appt. Gavin had a blast and the weather held up for us. We made a stop at Cheesecake Factory so I could get my ultimate favorite, Shrimp and bacon club with a side of White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake. Yummo. Gavin did really well and we were able to eat our entire meal. He is definitely growing up.

Gavin says a few funny things now...he has a hard time with "s"'s and he calls his scooter....his cooter. haha. He called his computer....his "pooter". too funny. At the stop light when it is red, he says "top", then when it is green he says "go".

Christmas is here!

Festivities a plenty this weekend. We had the 33rd annual Xmas parade downtown. Got cozy and watched all the festive folks cruise down the main drag. We got to see Santa at the end. Gavin has a good time and waved to all the people in the parade. It's a fun tradition. Next year, chairs for mom and dad for sure!

We found a $40 tree at Home Depot which rocked since all the other trees we saw were 80 and 90 bucks forget that! We got the noble all set up Sat morning and had half the house decorated before Steve's work party. We had a night out on the town with wine at the party and Gavin did great with Ashley the babysitter.

Sunday we finished decorating the house and it looks and smells great. Steve got the palm trees outside lit as well so we can officially keep up with the Jones now. The lady across the street decorated the front of her house for literally 5 hours straight. Madness.

Gavin now just takes his naps in the car on the weekends. We can't ever get him to transfer to the bed so after our morning excursions to the beach or coffee or whatever, we just roll down the windows and keep the door to the garage open and let him snooze away in his carseat. We all got a couple hours of down time before we saddled up and went to another holiday fiesta at Tracy and Matts. It was nice and mellow and Gavin hung out with Ashley again. He is not even crying when we leave which is great. Makes it much easier for us.

Gavin is talking up a storm. We tried potty training last week but decided he still wasn't interested so we are going to try and do it when we go to Disneyland when he turns 3. We will say... Gav.... there are no diapers in disneyland. So if you want to see Mickey we have to learn to go pee pee and poo poo in the potty before we go. Got that tip at the holiday party and we will see if that works.

Turkey Day

It's kinda busy from being out so I have to be quick. Thanksgiving was good. We ordered an awesome meal from Marie Calendar's again. Super simple and really good. No need to cook when Marie can for you. We had a nice Pismo excursion in the AM and the boys surfed while I chased Gavin around the beach with a big peice of seaweed. We came home and ate then dragged our stuffed selves to the beach again for sunset. It was really pretty. Came home and gorged on apple pie again.

The next day we hiked montana de oro with Bob and Nancy and chilled that evening. We tried to take Gavin to see Madagascar 2 but about an hour in he said, "can we go home?" so we left. Not sure how it ended but I guess we can rent it.

Gavin is into playing by himself now which is cool. We have my old office open now so we put all his toys in there. He really likes lining up the cars or books in a row. He is definitely using some imagination now and it is funny to hear what he says.

We are going to start potty training soon so hopefully that works! M&Ms are a good bribe.

A little R&R

We started a week of vacation on Friday and have been chilling all week. It has been great. I haven't been on the computer much and it has been nice. We got the house back to normal finally after the carpet install and moved the last box on Sunday. We chilled most of the weekend and just hung around town. We were able to go out and have a dinner without shoving food down our throats and taking turns who ran after Gavin. Thanks to my lovely Ipod, Gavin watched Backyardigans on the really baby tv. He even ate some of the dinner we bought him. He is growing up!

My dad and Lee got into town on Sunday afternoon. Dad was sportin a go-tee (sp?) and looked very hip. It was great to see them. We hung out on Sunday and chatted and played with Gavin.
Monday we went downtown and cruised around some of the local shops and had lunch at our local watering hole, Firestone. Gavin was a little less content at this meal but he did ok. He loves to run away from us though which I don't like. He ran away and into a store, bumped into a lady and ran around a clothes rack. That little bugger. He thought it was sooooo funny. I told Dad and Lee not to laugh when he came out of the store because Gavin would think it was funny. It was kinda funny actually. He runs down the street too and in front of driveways which makes me nervous sometimes so trying to teach him a lesson. We shall see.

Gavin's new phrase is "why not". It is still "I need that" but we have added 'Why not?" Gavin don't run away from me ..... "why not?".

After downtown we went to Avila and checked out the barn, got a cherry pie (yum) and took some photos. Then we made it to the beach. It was overcast but no rain. We had some good retail therapy and everyone came home and took a nap (except Gavin). haha. We ordered up some Woodstocks and did Christmas at Thanksgiving. I got dad a very cool wine gadget and he loved it. It made the wine taste really smooth. Gavin got some stylin outfits and we got a nice dinner out (PF Changs Gift certificate). Lee liked her scarf too. It was fun.

Gavin couldn't decide which name to give Pops. It was Pops sometimes and Papa some other times. We had a great visit and Gavin gave everyone big hugs and kisses when they left. It was a fun time.

Anniversary

We had a great weekend in Carmel. Steve started the weekend on a helicopter ride for work. He went to an oil rig and took a ton of great shots. He even saw a whale. He learned about the oil rig and how people live on it. I am sure I would have been freaked out or queasy on that thing.

It was crazy warm in Carmel. So we decided to take a walk along the beach in Monterey. We rented a Surri. It is a bike with a canopy and two people pedal and one person sits in the middle. Gavin rode in the basket in the front. It was a little small for all three of our butts but we made it work. It was really fun. Gavin was a bit freaked out at first and wouldn't wear his helmet or sit in the basket. Eventually he did. The ocean breeze was awesome and it was great to be outside. We got a yummy lunch, Gavin sat through the whole thing and was pleasant and strolled around Cannery Row. Definitely a quality day when you can enjoy eating lunch with a 2 yr old.

To make the day even better, Mom and I hit the shops for some sales. We did some serious damage and concluded that we were helping to stimulate the economy.

We headed down to the beach at sunset and it was one of the best sunsets I have seen in a while. Gavin was loving it and running all over the place. He could not resist the sand and the puddles. Steve and I were dressed to go out for the night and Gavin got soaking wet. He had a ball so we just let him go crazy. Luckily we had a change of clothes in the trunk. We got him dry and then headed for our date night.

Gavin didn't even cry which is a shocker when we left. That is the good thing about Nana babysitting. We had an awesome dinner at a restaurant called Luca. We had salad, wine, amazing pumpkin ravioli, dessert, and coffee. yummo. We went to a movie and made it home around 10 to find Gavin bathed and in bed. Ahhhh, nice.

The weather was so nice that we went for another hike on Sunday through the trail and the mission. We went down to Carmel River. We have done this walk a few times and we should have known Gavin would pass out again. We forgot the stroller, bummer. Gavin ran and ran on the trail. He said...."Hey everybody, RUN, RUN!". Only person that ran was me. It was really cute. Bailey and Gavin and I ran along the trail. Once we got to the ocean, Gavin was pooped. I carried him half the way, then tried on the shoulders. He was too heavy so we decided to park it while Steve ran home to get the car. Oh my aching back!

We hung out for a while and tried to get Gavin to take a nap. Steve went surfing and Gavin was wide awake...playing with toys and Bailey. We packed it up around 4pm and Gavin was out like a light in about 10minutes. We made it home safely and we were bummed that Monday was coming. The house is still not put back together since the carpet was put in but we will power that out this weekend.

Gavin has been sleeping in his bed now for almost a month. No more pitter patter coming into our room at 2am. It is great. Now in stead of walking into our room in the morning, he hangs out in his room. Our alarm clock is now "Da, da, dee dee, da" instead of "Mommy, it's wake up time"

Moving Day!

All week long we slowly moved stuff off the shelves and furniture into the garage. We are getting new carpet. Basically it is like moving out. Little by little we packed and stacked. It is a serious chore. Instead of working out at lunch, I have been packing.

Friday came and my old college roommates came into town.... Richelle, Anne and Kirstie. Richelle and Anne stayed at my house and Kirstie was at a hotel. (She was in town for an alumni mtg so we hooked up later). We were very nostalgic and went to all our old joints like old times. We even closed down the bars like the good old days. 2am didn't seem that late until I heard the pitter patter of Gavin at 5am. Brutal! Steve was the awesome husband and took care of Gavin. We had a great time and it was really fun to get out with the girls and be dorks like we were 20 again. It was like no time had past since we all hung out. Great times.

We made it to breakfast the next day. Steve and Gavin went to a birthday party for Ben from daycare. Since I had my friends in town, I didn't go. Steve was once again a trooper and took Gavin. We didn't do much on Saturday except watch tv. It was really nice actually to relax. When Gavin came home we watched Little Einsteins and the little red door about a million times. That is one of his favorite shows and since we were not in the entertaining mood, we all sat on the sofa and watched. We also managed to get in some Wii time of course. Here is Anne on the Wii

Gavin had fun with the girls this weekend and it was fun to all hang out. Gavin has developed a twitch which we are monitoring. We aren't sure what it is but we took him to the doctors and he wasn't too concerned. He said to just monitor it. On Friday I took him to get his hair cut thinking it might be the hair in his eyes. He continued to twitch. He seems to do it when he is tired. He also does it when he watches tv. Not sure if he needs to get his eyes checked. We are going to take him back to the doctor and have him look at the video.


Sunday we moved, moved, and moved some more. My back hurts. We put everything either outside or in the garage. Gavin loved it since he got to ride his scooter all over the living room which he isn't allowed to do normally. We also tried teaching him the art of holding a full cup of juice and not spilling. Normally he drinks that in the kitchen but Sunday we let him do it on the carpet. He spilled the whole cup. Then like a rain puddle, jumped in it. Total boy. Who cares we are getting new carpet tomorrow! Let's pray it doesn't rain. We can't wait for the new carpet but it is a pain to get in. Massages are in order!

Gavin loves to wake up at 5am and say it's wake up time, it's wake up time. We are teaching him numbers and say, when the clock has a 6 on it, we can get up. It doesn't totally work but at least he lays down for a little longer. Not that I can actually fall back to sleep again but I am not actually up at 5am.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a fun day. We started with the Halloween cheer when Gavin and his 4 daycare pals come by in the morning to trick or treat. They were all so cute and Gavin was in his Mr. Incredible costume. He was so excited to show the kids the house and he looked too cute all buffed out in his outfit. Too bad I had to be on a conference call. I jumped off for 5 minutes to hang out then I had to get back on. I forgot to take a picture! Bad move.

Nana and Papa Meyer showed up in the afternoon to see Gavin trick or treat. We ordered pizza and got out the box of costumes. I did the doctor scrubs and Steve had a scary mask. Angela and Jeremy came over again with the boys and it was starting to get dark. We stuffed our faces with pizza and were getting ready to get on the costumes again. However, Gavin would not get in his costume. What to do? Force him? No. Bribe him? Yes, but it didn't work. Nana came down just for trick or treating and Gavin was having nothing to do with it. I tried last year's costume. I tried the fake dread hat. Too bad I didn't have fake spray on hair dye. I could have just sprayed that on and call it a day. We tried putting 10 glowstick necklaces on him and called him a glow stick boy but that lastest about 30 seconds. So what did we do? We said screw it. We are going trick or treating without the costume. Who cares. He is 2.

So Gavin went trick or treating and bum rushed each house walking inside, tried to take the whole basket of some folks. In the end, I think he had a fun time. He got a decent amount of little candy treats and no one seemed to care he didn't have a costume. I think we were more embarrased than Gavin. I was dressed up so that counts right?

Now each day Gavin asks, can I have my pumpkin? Or can I have my trick or treat? His favorite candy is the twix. He helped us pass out candy and would precisely pick out each twix bar to give to the kids. He obviously hasn't learned my trick on Halloween yet.....pass out the candy you don't like so you can keep the candy you like! Well, it didn't matter anyway since we ran out of candy.

The rest of the weekend we played around town. beach with Went to theNana, had a picnic, went downtown, watched movies and got Nana to play Wii. Hula hoop isn't her game but she did rock the Bowling. Papa was sick the entire weekend and was glued to the sofa. I disinfected the area once he left. haha.

It was a fun weekend. We ended it with Sunday night movie night. Movie pick of the day... was Monster's Inc. Gavin didn't wake up in the middle of the night screaming so that was good. He was a little scared but he liked it.













I think it has been almost a week that he hasn't come into our room at night. The night time pitter patter may be ending. Daylight savings didn't help us though. He was up at 5am. Ugh.

Whirlwind weekend

The weekend was pretty busy filled with work, weddings, playing, and driving. I left for the Bay area on Wednesday. Steve was Mr. Mom for the week. I had a team mtg in San Jose. It was long and tiring but it went well. I was the MC of the mtg so it took a lot out of me. Steve had parent teach conferences at night on Thursday so his parents came into town to watch Gavin for us on Thursday night. They were on their was down to the desert for the winter so it was a nice pitstop. By Friday, I was beat.

Steve was planning to come up Friday night, but due to some "family planning issues", he had to come up Friday morning instead. It was nice to see the fam and Gavin and Coleson got to play a little earlier. Gavin hardly noticed cousin Keaton but we had fun remembering what it was like to hold a newborn. She eats, poops, sleeps like clockwork. She is a good little baby and loves the ergo baby carrier. I hardly heard her through the night so I would say that is a huge step given her brother wakes me up more than she does.

Friday night we all hung out and got our favorite NY style pizza. The boys loved playing with trains, and blocks and watching a little tv. They got along well. There was minimal hitting or yelling. They loved building a tunnel of pillows and jumping on the sofa in the living room. On Saturday we went downtown in the morning so Nik could sleep and watched the marching band parade. It was fun to see that times have changed and there are now guy flag girls in matching little flashy outfits. The boys like marching down the street like the band.

Saturday afternoon we had a shower for Nikki over at Becky's house and the fam and friends came. She got some good loot and clothes for Keaton. Food was yummy and the cupcakes were huge. Saturday night we got all dressed up for Uncle David's wedding. We got a babysitter and the boys did great with her. We were a little late to the wedding but didn' t miss the wedding-phew. Just in time. Kristin and Taylor looked really nice and Uncle David looked really happy. The venue was great and the wine cellar was decorated nicely. I now have another Aunt Peggy. Her dress was pretty and she looked like she was having a great time. Kristin gave a great toast and Uncle Tim did too. We had fun being out without kids and drinking wine. Nik had to go home early for Keaton but Steve and I were the delinquent parents and stayed out to dance a little more. We boogied a lot with all the fam and I am sure there are some scary pictures. We got a ride home from Larisa and Chad. Gavin stayed up til 10pm! We were in bed by 10:30- PAR-TAY! haha.

The weekend ended with us chilling on Sunday and having the fam over for a little bit. We had to hit the road so we didn't stay long. The drive home was quick and easy. Gavin slept most of the way home. It makes for a hectic week when you have been gone.... laundry, grocery, house stuff piles up. But you can only do so much each day. Who cares if there is stuff in the floor. I'd rather have a half hour to watch Desperate Housewives or play on my new Ipod. Ya need a little chill time now and then.

Pictures to follow once I get them on the computer. There is too much to do right now...maybe next week :)

Travertine!

We got new tile installed this weekend. We left for the lake to meet up with Steve's family. While we had fun chilling at the lake, Dave our tile guy was working 14 hour days to get the new tile installed. This was the last trip for the summer season. Steve's parents go back to the desert this week. We met Scott's fiancee, Sammy. We got up to the house late night and little Gavin was passed out. We were able to transfer him to his little foam bed on the floor and we hung out with the family.

Sammy is super sweet and Gavin had a ball playing with her. Now we have another camera added to the family. I called them the Paparazzi and we are on a reality show. Dave, Scott and Sammy all had their mammoth digital cams out snapping away like Gavin was a celebrity toddler. Snap, snap, snap, snap, click click, click, is all you heard. Steve didn't even get his out. I love it since I have a ton of awesome photos as memories of the weekend. Once I get some of the pics, I will post them here. I don't have to worry about forgetting my camera. Now I know what it is like to have my life on film. haha.

We came home to a new floor. The kitchen, entry and bathroom all now have awesome travertine floors. It is step one of the floor transformation at the Gould house. Next up is the carpet. White carpet does not work well with a toddler. So we are going for a soft brownish color called River rock. That is going to be a serious chore to install since it is basically like moving out but it will look awesome I hope.

We have many phases of upgrading this house.... after carpet, next up.. the fireplace tile and gas insert... then it is a toss up between the cabinets or the countertops but I think I would vote countertops.....then upgrading the bathroom counter and mirrors......there is no recession right??? spend spend spend. haha. It may take another 5 years but eventually I will have the house exactly how I want it.

Dave, our tile guy, is wrapping up the job. He stayed at the house in the guest room all weekend, barely eating and working like a dog. We are very happy with how it turned out. Pics to come shortly.

Steve's Birthday weekend

Steve turned 37 last Friday. We had hoped to go camping at Limekiln but the fires rearranged our plans. The campground was closed. So instead we got a babysitter and went out to a nice dinner just the two of us. Steve wanted a yummy italian meal so we went to Cafe Roma. We got the classic meal....wine (lovely sangiovese) bruschetta, salad, raviolis, tiramasu and cappucino. We remember all our meals from our Italian adventure. It was a great time and fun to get out. Of course we were too tired to do anything else so we came home before nine. We are definitely official old farts.

Gavin was still up so we got to reassure him that we weren't leaving him since he has a crying, hold on to daddy's leg meltdown before we left. Poor Ashley (our babysitter).

The next day we drove up to Sandollar beach so Steve could at least get in his surf and sand fix for his birthday. The view was picturesque, nice breeze, looked like a great day....until we got down on the beach. It was pretty cold in the shade and the wind was kinda kickin in. Not too bad but then add in the swarms of crazy nat/flies. You couldn't see them from far away but there were millions of them. They were hovering everywhere. The only saftey from this pesky things was to be low to the ground. That doesn't work when you have a two year old. The thought of lounging on a beach low to the ground is a distant memory. I have to grin and bear it.

Steve made his way out into the blue ocean while I fought with bugs. Gavin and I walked along the beach and he found lots of rocks. I tried to find a place where the flies would not touch me. Luckily, the flies move quickly and if you zone out, you don't see them. Eventually they subside and I am able to enjoy myself. I was definitely taking one for the team.

Gavin ended his afternoon with tug of sea kelp war and ring around the seaweed. He had a blast running around all the hippy drunks that stumbled onto the beach from the jade festival that was happening on the other side of the road. Luckily, Gavin didn't see them lighting a doobie or flashing their "units" on the beach. He just walked by and said to them "Hi guys". They all stone-ily laughed.

Sunday we headed to the Pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins. They enticed us with 3 bouncy houses. Gavin was in heaven. He had no fear. He didn't mind the old kids who paid no attention that he was half their size. He would just turn to them and say "Don't do that to me". Gotta love it. The pictures will show how much fun he had. He inherited the tongue out when concentrating gene from Steve. Now almost every hour he says "can we go to the pumpkin patch?"

The Weekend of Wii

We got the Wii. For anyone reading this that doesn't know what that is, it is a Nintendo game console that is really fun. I got it for Wii Fit. I thought it would be a fun way to stay in shape. Steve could also have fun with it when he can't get to the gym. We are now slowing becoming addicted to Wii.

It rained this weekend so there wasn't much to do. We spent a lot of the weekend upstairs in the loft cracking up playing the games. We got Wii fit which comes with aerobic, yoga, strength and balance. The yoga and strength ones are pretty hard and you definitely feel it. The aerobics and balance games are really games but you also get in a work out. Steve was really good at the balance games. He is a professional snow jumper and soccer ball header. I am a pro hula hooper.

Picture this..... I am standing on a board and looking at the big screen tv. Hula hoop starts and I am swinging my hips around super fast like I have a hula hoop on but I don't. I lean forward with both hands acting like I am catching a hula hoop but I am not. I was cracking up so hard all by myself the first time I played. This makes working out fun.

Gavin is a little too young for it. It tracks your weight and your BMI each day. Tells you if you are underweight, normal or overweight. Hopefully my Wii does'nt tell me I am fat.

This Wii will be loads of fun and we have to make sure we don't become junkies. The good thing is that you have to be moving for most of the games so no fatties in our house playing video games.

Sunday the rain stopped and we actually took showers and got out of the house. We ran a bunch of errands and had a typical Sunday. We ended it will movie night, watching Nemo and popcorn. It was a nice relaxing weekend that went too fast.

Wiggy wig in town

Our good friend John "wiggy" Wigmanich came into town this weekend. Steve and him had fun catching up about his fun adventures in Bali and France. The boys went and did their thing Friday night and Gavin and I had a little mommy and me night... pizza, milk and movies, oh my. It was fun.

Dawn patrol called the big boys up at 5:45am, ugh, and they made their way up to Cambria for a surf. Gavin and I were lazy in the morning and didn't get out of out PJs til about 10am. We cruised over to Giovanni's house and had fun playing with their trucks and as Gavin would say "remote caa" which translates to "remote control car". The little boys had a nice lesson in sharing... there were a few instances of screaming at the top of their lungs with ear piercing screams and an occasional whack on the back... but all and all they learned how to share. It was fun to watch.

The big boys got in some wine tasting too (this was one serious man date) haha. Both of them were beat when they got home. We bbq'd some tri tip, had bread, salad, rice, and aspargus on the grill. Add in a little red and it was one tasty meal. The boys continued their man date with a typical man movie while I put Gavin to bed.

The next morning we headed out to Montana de Oro which is in Los Osos and did a nice coastal hike. It was a little foggy but really nice. It was really pretty and peaceful. It's is always so nice to have a little weekend adventure near the ocean. Nothing is better than the sound of the waves. We stopped off again at our favorite taqueria for a burrit and headed home.

We ended the weekend with our typical chores, laundry, grocery, dishes, and struggling to get Gavin to go take a nap. :)

We are on day 5 of the "no sleeping in our bed" tough love and it is going ok. We had one night of no nighttime pitter patter into our room. Last night we didn't have a massive power struggle but we did have to be outside his room in order for him to stay in his bed. I think a few more nights of the tough love and we can put and end to the night time freak out sessions.

Melt down!

We thought this weekend would be mellow because Gavin had a fever on Friday. Saturday we went for a nice stroll through a neighborhood and it was beautiful out. We laid low, went to Montana de Oro and just soaked up the ocean breeze and sun on a drive along the coast. Gavin was feeling better on Sunday and Steve wanted some surf, so we packed up the car for Cayucos and headed to the beach. Steve got some waves and Gavin and I had fun in the sun, playing in the sand. Gavin was toasty with his wetsuit on. After a good morning of running around, the wind picked up and it started to get cold. Gavin found warmth underneath all the beach blankets and we decided to pack it up. Steve packed the boards and Gavin stayed under cover. Wrong move! During the time Steve was packing, Gavin fell asleep. All of about 5 minutes.

We tried to get him up gently but he wasn't happy. We got him half way up the stairs and melt down kicked in. He wanted to go back to the beach. He laid down in the middle of the path and put his head down like he wanted to go back to sleep. He was still wet from being in his suit and we knew he would fall asleep on the ride home. So we tried to get him out of his suit and change his diaper. Wrong move #2. He was kicking and screaming. He screamed the loudest I think he could scream. We tried to stay calm so we wouldn't aggrevate it more. He is one strong little dude. He wrestled me to get the diaper off and wouldn't let go. He wanted to keep the wet diaper on. We tried to get a new one on him and no luck. End result, we got him the car seat buck naked. He was still crying and making that "i just cried and can't stop" wimper sound. Well, that sucked. We were hot, sweaty, sandy and I had to pee. Fun Fun.

But, once he calmed down and we got home, the Gavin we know and love emerged. All I had to do was coax him out of the car with his bike helmet. He had a 3 hour nap on the living room floor about an hour later. It's all good!

Tide Pools

Tides were really low last night so we packed up the car to look at mini crabs, shells, snails and starfish. Gavin changed into his McQueen swim trunks and we were off to explore. We even found a giant sea slug.






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Lions, Ponies and Sand Castles, Oh my!

We had an action packed weekend up in Carmel. We got into town around 8pm and Gavin had his first experience on the lovely Carmel pull out bed. He did great considering the pokey springs. He didn't even notice it. Didn't fall out and didn't cry in the middle of the night. Yippee. He came into our room around 5:30 (ugh!), saying "It's wake up time". Luckily, he remained quiet for another hour while we tried to go back to sleep. No such luck but better to rest in bed than get up that early on a Saturday.

We headed to the park in Carmel and got in a nice early, crisp walk then jumped in the car to see the miniature ponies. My mom has a friend who has two ponies and she thought Gavin might like to see them, possibly ride them. Miniature ponies are still too big for little Gav. This is about as close as he got to the pony. At the end of the visit, Gavin got enough courage to sit on the pony.... the rocking chair pony.












He did however enjoy the tortoise. He fed him apples and lettuce and loved to "love tap" (aka hit him) on his shell.







Later that night we all got bundled up to attempt to sit for 2 whole hours and watch the Wizard of Oz at the outdoor theater in Carmel.
We prepped Gavin ahead of time telling him about the show and we sang "we are off to see the wizard" many times before the show. Here is Gavin singing the song all dressed up.


We grabbed out wool blankets, sweaters, and gloves and walked a block over to the theater. The show was awesome. They sang really well, had flying good witches and bad witches, the set was great. Gavin did an amazing job sitting still throughout the whole show and didn't melt down during intermission. Gavin was our little boy blanket and kept Steve and I toasty warm. He didn't get scared of the witch or the flying monkeys. We really had a great time!

Sunday morning was the 43rd annual (or something like like.. been around for a while) sand castle contest. We were a bit hesitant to go since Gavin has been known to body slam and thrash other kid's sand castles leaving them weeping in the sand. But he was good. We even attempted to make our own whale. Gavin got an award for his efforts. Next year we want to enter the competition with Cousin Coleson.

Cry Free Hair cut!

Gavin had his first official cry free hair cut as a toddler. Yeah! Flashback to the first (well second since he got a hair cut at 6months and didn't have a clue what was happening) salon cut. Thomas the train set to play on, lollipop, his favorite movie Cars playing, motorcycle to sit on... what more could you want. First snip of the hair and wailing crying. Steve climbs on the motorcycle and he is crawling on him like a monkey. So Steve has to lock down his arms and legs in a death grip while I hold his head so the lady could try to cut it. $20 bucks later and we have a few decent cuts but not worth the effort. I could have done that myself.

He has had many haircuts since he has a TON of hair but the last few were done by me (due the horrific prior salon experience) during a Cars Movie showing which consisted of a few snips here and there when he was not looking or by Nisha, his day care provider. Nisha did better than me but he did look somewhat like a page boy. So we hunkered down and decided to go to Kids Cut Hut in town. They have a motorcycle chair and play kid movies. Gavin walked in, climbed on the motorcycle, and grasped the handbars the entire time. He didn't flinch once. He had Curious George playing and he was so cute. We are proud of Little G being all grown up. Pictures of the new "do" will follow. He said "She cut my har-wer!"

Dude, your neighbors have a monkey!

The weekend started off fun traveling up to the Bay Area to stay at Nikki's house. We got on the road sooner than we thought and made our way up through the traffic. Instead of the typical pizza pie on the dashboard, we opted for healthier homemade sandos. Cousin Coleson was still awake and the dynamic duo were happy to see each other. Running around, diving under sofa pillows, playing on the piano...until about 9pm. The two boys are at a great age and minus the occasional Gavin bully pushing Coleson factor, they have a blast.

We woke up on Saturday and made our way downtown to the Farmers market. Gotta love the Intense Dark Mocha coffee drink (decaf for me) on a Saturday afternoon. Nik and I dressed up our "ghett-toes" at Bollinger, this awesome no plastic, no "you pick colla", matching furniture, awesome chairs and hot towel leg wrap" nail salon. It was a treat. The boys played around downtown and hit a park. They had fun later in the day in the pool. Nik and I had things going on in the afternoon but when we came home we had another round of pool time. We ended the day with a delicious pizza pie, some wine that I picked up that afternoon, and we chilled.....until..........

3:30am.... I wake up to a noise.... It was Gavin........ wait...no it stopped...... maybe it is just Steve snoring weird.......no... wasn't that. It sounded like a teradactyl.... this loud schreeching down with repetitive, annoying, tone. It stopped... there it was again. Was it a possum outside? or a bird in the palm tree. I wake up Steve.... what the heck is that? I open the window...eeeeeeh, eeeeeeeeh, eeeeeeeh. again and again and again. There is no way I can sleep with that noise. I yell out the window. "Shut up". Still sounding off again. I go to the slider, open the door and look for something. Nothing but dark. What the heck is this freakin noise. I want to sleep!!! We look for a flashlight. Steve says "I will go try to find it". After about 5 minutes trying to find a flashlight with batteries, we go to my car and get my trusty Maglite my dad gave me a million years ago to fight off intruders who may try to get me while I am in my car. We figure out the sound is coming from next door. Steve gets out the ladder and climbs up... He peeks over the fence and sees a cage. "It's a monkey!". "A MONKEY??? I SAID. What the hell are the neighbors doing with a freakin monkey?". "Dude, shut that thing up!" "How can they not hear that stupid thing". Steve says, "there are two little hands coming out of the cage".

Its past 4am and we are officially awake and the annoying noise is still going strong. I search for a fan to drown out the sound. I find one. Yeah. Now I remember...Gavin might hear it. So I go upstairs and close his window. Of course he wakes up and now I have to lay on his bed for 10minutes until he falls back to sleep.

Around 4:30, I crawl back into bed and Steve has the tv going.. he can't sleep. Ugh. Dude, all I want to do is sleep. I probably fell back to sleep around 5am and at 5:45 I hear Gavin on the stair landing... crying b/c he doesn't know where we are. Ahhhh, what a lovely Sunday morning.

I walk out of my room and tell Nik who is on the sofa.. "Dude, your neighbors have a monkey!" She says "WHAT?!!". "I am calling animal control. What would they do with a monkey. I knoew the neighbors were a bit odd, but why would they have a monkey?". She goes upstairs to tell peek through the bathroom window so we can see next door into the neighbors yard. Gavin and Coleson follows saying "let's see the monkey". As we peer through the window we see......... A RACOON! The neighbors put out a trap but the racoons where eating their garden. UGGGGH. Dude, it was such a better story with the monkey!

With the doctor's orders of less caffeine, I don't get a jolt of my morning coffee so I slowly get up and we get ready to go to the Sunol train. Gavin and Coleson ate their waffles and sang at the table. They did the full pantomime of Blue Clues..."sit in our thinking chairs and think, think, think....". Guess you had to be there.

We made it to the train station on time. We all piled into the old fashion train and make our way to Fremont. The old school conductors in their hats and fun clothes come through asking for our tickets. Coleson hung out and played with toys and ate, while Gavin ran from car to car. Oh joy. Sleepiness and motion sickness are in full force. FUN! We drive back to Nikki's and Gavin is passed out so we pack the car and make our way back to SLO.

We ended the weekend with some yummy sushi and Gavin's first showing of the TOY story. Good times, good times.

Labor Day

We headed up to Pine Mountain Lake this weekend on Friday night. We started the trek around 5pm. My mom and my stepdad were meeting us up there for a little fun on the lake. My mom loves the lake and was excited to swim with Gavin. Since there was traffic on their side, we were able to meet up with them in Snelling and they followed us up to the house through Red Hills and down the crazy driveway. We got to Steve's parents house around 10pm. Gavin stayed up until almost 11:30 and still had to wake up at 5:45. Ugh. Luckily he fell back to sleep until about 7am.

We had a great time playing in the water on Saturday. The lake was a bit cold but Gavin was swimming with Nanny (he calls Nana "Nanny" now). Steve did the water skipper again as usual and probably burned way too many calories. Saturday Gavin watched the Incredibles for the 100th time and turned into Dash that night. He ran around the sofa saying "I'm Dash... from the creda-bulls. I am Incredi boy". It was pretty funny.


Sunday Steve's parents left for LA and my mom and Steve (stepdad) left around 2pm. So we had the place to ourselves for a day. It was nice and peaceful and fun to be up at the lake with just us. We had fun watching the bats eat the bugs off the top of the lake water on Sunday night after dinner. I was a little creeped out but stuck it out for the team. Steve and I each had a nice morning solo kayak on Monday morning while Gavin played around the dock. It was too cold to get back in the water. I wish it was a little warmer. Gavin liked to feed the dragons the snorkle and masks (don't ask me... i guess it is imagination time). He didn't want to go in the kayak with us so we left it up there for another summer.

We treked back home on Monday afternoon and Gavin slept almost the whole way (yeah!). He watched Incredibles about 3 times (it is a long drive) and I have officially memorized the good lines in that movie. We got home in time to hang out a little and unpack. I checked email when I got home and Gavin wanted to use the computer. So I remembered Uncle Dave got him a kid computer for Xmas last year so we pulled that out. He loves playing with his "pooter". Gotta love it!

Mr. Mom

This past weekend, I went to a seminar down in LA. Steve was awesome Mr. Mom. I woke up really early and headed down to LA before the sun came up. I made it to my destination early so I got my tasty Cinnamon Dolce latte and headed to the seminar. I flew solo so I didn't know anymore there. I met some nice ladies from Visalia and they were my friends for the day. Seminar was good. Steve and Gavin went to the YMCA pool and Gavin got in his fill of swimming. Steve said he had no fear and was jumping in and going under the water just waiting for Steve to pick him up so he could breath again. After my seminar, I went to Vicki's house and we hung out then went to a mexican joint for a nice round of beers, tacos and of course Churros! Yummy beaner food! Thanks Vic for the yummy breakfast featuring eggs with sausage, avocado and tomato with a nice slice of toast, nectarine on the side and coffee. Yummo.

As I pulled away from the gas station, I went to call Steve and there was no tone, so I said hello and there was Steve on the phone. We were on the same wavelength I guess. Steve was getting ready to hike to a little reservoir near town. Packed the backpack and ready to rock and roll. They saw a waterfall and a cave. I went to my seminar again on Sunday and bailed at lunch. I got what I wanted to hear and decided hanging with the boys would be more fun. I got home around 3pm. As I opened the garage, there was a sign on the door that say "Welcome home Mommy" and a tin foil robot made out of old Arbonne boxes. Too cute. Gavin saw robots on Curious George so Steve made him one this weekend. Gotta love it.

Thanks Tigger!

Happy to report I did not hear the pitter patter of little feet and the sweet but not so sweet little tug on my sheets at precisely 1:30 and 4:30am. Yippeee. Mommy got an undisturbed night of sleep and Gavin slept in his bed all night. I must congratulate Mr. Tigger, the loveable little (and somewhat stinky) lovey that we recite this little mantra to each night before we go to bed...."Tigger, when I wake up at night and it is dark, will you give me a hug and make me feel safe so I don't have to wake up Mommy and Daddy?". Nice work dude. I will make sure to wash your stinky ass this weekend as a thank you. Oh, and Blue Bear, you are pretty cool too just not as funny to watch as I shake you and do a little head dance as I recite the mantra.

First Blog!

I thought I would jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and start a family blog. Basically it is a way to chronicle what we do each week because in a month or two, my momnesia will kick in and I will forget. It will be fun to look back on the year and see what we did. Also it will save me time. When friends ask, what have you been up to? I can say, check out my blog and feel really techno geeky!

It won't replace the cherished phone calls with pals, but we all know that the more kids we have and the more work we get, the less likely we are to pick up the phone. We are tired at the end of the day and sometimes we just want to veg. No offense to the friends, but it is just the reality of life in your mid thirties!

So here goes.........

8/15/2008: We checked out Avila beach on Friday for the Farmer's market. The food was looking tasty and we chowed some yummo fish tacos. Gavin of course wouldn't touch it so we did the old standby of a milk sippy cup. His stomach is the size of a grape I am convinced. He played on the slide on the beach for about an hour and when he was bored with that he ran to the water. Gavin loves to play in the water. We had fun.

8/16/2008: Speaking of playing in water, Saturday we went to a park and it was kinda wet from the random thunderstorm we had on Friday. Gavin saw the puddles on the basketball court and made a b-line for them. He went swimming in the puddle. He says "Mama, I went swimmin in da pudda". Haha I said and he was dripping with nasty water. He drove home in a diaper. Gavin's new favorite movie is Little Mermaid. He watched that twice on Sat. Yes, twice and I don't care what all you mom's think. It is not that long and I needed some rest.

8/17/2008: Sunday we wanted an adventure and the beach looked foggy so we headed to Lake Lopez. We were going to check out the lake but it was windy so we decided to check out the water slides. They have a kiddy rate and a kiddy pool so we said let's go for it. It was hoopty, Not gonna lie. Tiny little pool about shin deep but there were about 4 slides and Gavin had a ball. Steve did all the sliding and I cheered them on from the side. There was so much chlorine in the pool you could smell it but I guess that kills all the pee that I am sure is in there. Not sure how often we will go back but Gavin had a blast and that is all that matters. We ended the weekend watching the Incredibles. Gavin says "mommy, can we watch da cre-dabulls". I think Gavin will have super powers one day.