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!