Pumpkin Patching

Today we went to the pumpkin patch in Ardenwood Farms for some fun before a long, long day looking at plumbing fixtures. Here are some pics.

Gavin loved the Indian corn best, and didn't want a pumpkin after finding them. We were able to escape the pumpkin patch only one dollar poorer!

Climbing the hay bale tower with dada.

The bale maze, Gavin's favorite part. He must have run the maze about 10 times before we forced him to leave.

Our trip to Meowi (Maui)

As a last hurrah before Terence starts working for good, we took a 2 week long vacation to Meowi. Every day was basically the same: Wake up, beach for 4 hours, lunch, nap, pool for a couple of hours, then dinner and sleep. Gavin loves Hawaii, probably because he loves being in water so much. Here are some Meowi pics from our first week, which we spent at Wailea at a hotel.

"What time is it?"
Boo: "Hawaii time!"

Beachy lounging...


"Mommy, I'm cold; can I have a towel pweesh?"


Look what they made! Just kidding.


Swimming at Wailea Beach, the best beach ever.


Boo: "Mommy, don't smile. I SAID don't smile!"
Me: "Fine, I won't smile when you take my picture if you smile if I take yours."
Boo: "Okay!"

Here's the result:



Another picture courtesy of Boo at Coconuts, a fish taco place.


More time on Wailea beach...



Pics from around our hotel...



Taken by Boo...


More Hawaii pics to follow from our 2nd week, coming soon!

Battle of the Gavins

Today was Boo's first day of preschool in the 2's class of Preschool Family, a parent participation preschool. He's the oldest child in the class, missing the cut off into the 3's class by 10 days or so. He's not the biggest, though. Anyway, Boo really enjoys his play based school, and looks forward to going to preschool. It's obvious this year that he's one of the older boys, as his language skills and dexterity are better than the younger people in the 2's class.

There's this child, also named Gavin, who is in Boo's class this year. At first, when I learned that fact, I kind of hoped they'd be friends, but it was quickly apparent that it wasn't going to happen. Gavin #2 is a bully of a child; the type that pushes and shoves when he doesn't get his way. It wasn't long before Gavin #2 decided he wanted a ping pong ball that my Gavin was holding. Gavin #2 tried snatching the ball from Boo. Boo said "no!" Gavin #2 tried again. Boo again held his ground. Then, Gavin #2 shoved my poor Boo in the chest. At this point, Boo was so mad that he started crying. He stood up, got right in Gavin #2's face and said "NOOO!!!!" Nonplussed, Gavin #2 shoved Gavin even harder so that Gavin landed on his butt. Gavin was so mad at this point that he started shaking. He again got up right into Gavin #2's face and screamed "NOOOO!!!!!" as loud as he could. Then, of course, he ran into my arms.

The teacher was sort of an avoidant type, and just kept telling Gavin #2 that my Gavin was sad (without giving any reasons why he was sad or making Gavin #2 get Boo a tissue). Later during circle time, another mom confided in me that Gavin #2 had been shoving the other children all day, and that it was good that Gavin actually had the confidence to stand up for himself. Poor Boo!

Reading!

A few days ago, we headed to the public library, where I checked out a bunch of picture books for Boo, threw them by the backseat near his car seat, and then pretty much forgot about them. During our drives since that day, he's taken to picking up a book and "reading" it. Today, he asked me to get the book, Wag!, from the car for story time. Then, he read the WHOLE 40 pages to me, including the silly words like "mooch," "fwip, fwip, fwip," and "snowflakes!"

Apparently, this whole time he's actually been reading in the backseat, not just pretending to. Yay!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been busy. Really busy. Here's what we've been up to.

1. Harvesting all our vegetables and moving from one rental house to another. BTW, homegrown carrots are very, very sweet and delicious!


2. Hanging out with various family members, watching lots of TV.



3. Swimming and hunting for "wild animals" at Grandma & Grandpa's house.




Here is our wild animal.



... hiding behind the bushes and our boy. She pawed his head back towards land when he was in the pool, too. I think she was trying to save him.


4. Going to LA to visit more family and Mickey Mouse. Here's a pic that Boo took of us on the Storybook ride. That smudge on the bottom left corner is his finger.

5. We marched in the Los Altos Pet Parade with Zoe as part of the mom's club that I'm the acting secretary for. But look who's carrying the banner, hee- hee. Fun!



6. We went to lots of birthday parties for kids.

7. Terence graduated for the 6th time since high school. (This is the graduation ceremony-- we had to take him out because he was being loud. Boo, that is.)


8. We hung out at home. Here is Boo doing his 2 favorite things: petting his kitty and picking his nose.


9. We bought a house! It's older than any of our parents.


10. And now we are remodeling...

As I said, it's been a very, very busy summer!

Hawaii! Big Island!

Sorry it took so long to post these pics, but we've been busy moving into yet another rental house, since our prior landlord decided to move back into his house. Anyway, we went to the Big Island of Hawaii in late April, and Boo had so much fun! We went with John, Amy, John's sister, her husband, and their cutie pie, Avelyn, who's Boo's age. He had so much fun we're going back to Hawaii sometime in September. Anyway, here are pics.

Here's art that Boo made on the plane ride over or back (I forgot). It's a smiley face, obviously. The Ipad was a lifesaver, and though the ride was 4 hours, between the Ipad and countless trips to the disgusting airplane bathroom, he didn't fuss once. His eyes were glued to the Ipad pretty much the whole time. This face summarizes his mood on the flight over/back.


Here's Boo, excited to be getting off the plane.


Here's a pic of all of us frolicking at the beach. We stayed at the Mauna Lani grounds, and they had the best private beach ever, with cabanas, a restaurant, a rental shop for boogie boards, great snorkeling right off the beach (we saw turtles and eels!), and really calm water, perfect for toddler wading. My credibility as God Mommy was ruined, though, when Boo stuck his foot in the water without holding either of our hands. This is what he said... "Look Mommy, I went in the water all by myself and I no die!!" It was as if a light went off in his head! Needless to say, now he doesn't listen to me as carefully.


Snorkeling with Daddy and Mommy. Gavin liked going fish hunting, and had a blast. Those cut out windows on the boogie boards are ingenious! That was the best 7 bucks I've ever spent for a whole day of entertainment.

Napping on the beach is the best! It kind of looks like he's sick in a third world country in this pic, though.

Here are my two photographers. And, yes, Boo does take decent pics, most of the time! He does seem to have a foot fetish, though.


Good thing the camera is waterproof, is all I have to say. Juice and milk count as 'water.'


Here's a pic of Uncle John and Auntie Amy at our condo, courtesy of Boo.


and.. another....


and finally, here's a pic he took of us at the condo...



Here he is hugging Avelyn. It's really too bad I don't have a good pic of her face, because she is extraordinarily cute!


Here we are at the Hilton Waikaloa, where we checked out the dolphins. When Boo saw them, he said "They're looong, Mommy!" Apparently dolphins on TV don't compare. We watched them doing tricks for hours.


Here is a pic of us eating delicious local hawaiian, food, which I love. I love mac nut pancakes with coconut syrup and a good loco moco, which is any fried meat (like pork katsu or a ground beef patty), with a fried egg over easy on top, a slight sprinkling of sliced onions, all smothered with brown gravy over rice. Now I am salivating. Seriously. Terence made the best homemade mac nut crusted pork loco moco there, but I'm hesitant to ask him to make it at home, since it seems so bad for you.

Oh ya, before I forget, Boo took this pic.

Here we are at Hawaiian Style Cafe, having breakfast. Those two dishes in front of Terence are part of one meal, which cost $6!! That thing could feed a whole villiage!

This is what I got- a traditional beef patty loco moco. Yum, yum!

Here's a pic of us at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which I am not going back to while in Hawaii. What kind of steakhouse gives you medium when you order medium rare??? Isn't that the one thing a steakhouse should get right?

Here's a pic of my last meal, chicken katsu loco moco, which was breakfast before we left Hawaii. And yes, I finished the whole thing!

Finally, here's a last drawing by Boo. It's a smiley face with legs.

What Boo Does

We go to a parent participation preschool, and our end of year assignment is to think about how our child has grown and developed in the past year, and then to make some sort of scrapbook to document it and share it with the class. For the life of me, I can't remember how Gavin was last September-- did he say more than 3 words at a time? Was he eating solids or baby food? Then, I tried going through all our old postings for clues, but came up almost empty handed. So, I decided to write about how he is now.

Right now, at 29 months, Gavin is a silly, extraordinarily inquisitive, and spirited boy. He wants to be independent, and, when in a new place or situation, will try to explore it without me. He can speak 3-12 word complete sentences (even compound ones), and always tries to figure out how things work (especially things with gears, like the merry-go-round). He's in the "why" stage, and asks it constantly, over and over again. In Hawaii, for instance, he asked why the water was getting higher and higher on the sand. He also asks things like "why are the trees stuck to the ground-- how do they get stuck?" He's still very bossy and persistent, and has a great memory. He loves to play with water, go swimming, be my little sous chef, and read. He can read pretty much read all words that are 3 letters or shorter, and other familiar longer words. When we drive, he reads some signs for me (like "Do not stop on tracks" or "one way"). He also can read the first series of BOB books. Gavin is a chatterbox, and talks constantly, even to himself or to the kitty. He can run pretty well now, but he's still not so great at jumping. He can finally eat pretty much everything we eat, and loves shrimp and ice cream. He hates condiments. He's much, much better about cleaning up after himself. He is about 75% potty trained and only has 2 wet "accidents" a day due to extraordinary laziness. He's usually dry all night. After we tuck him in and check on him a few hours later, we'll usually find a surprise. Once, it was that he took off his pants and diaper. Another time, there was a kitty brush, a cat, and a furry pile on his bed. Last night, there was a book in there. Silly boy! That's all I can think of, for now!