Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, we hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. We all went up to Nevada City with Gavin's Uncle Brian and had a wonderful little family time.

It's about 2.5 hour drive up to the Sierra's, and here Gavin and JJ are getting ready for the drive (They both slept all the way up and almost all the way back)
We got some great hikes in. Here Joyce and Gavin are bringing home the tools from a burnpile we had on the back part of the property.
We visited with our neighbor's horses (and cats)

One of Gavin's favorite games is "throw me up in the air" ("and catch me"). Yeah, that lasted as long as Dad could keep his breath...

We forgot to take up Gavin's little mittens, so we had to put some adult size gloves on his little hands. As you might imagine, he stayed warm but looked kinda funny...

Here's a picture of Gavin and Dad,

and here's a good picture of Uncle Brian (Note to our single, unattached, female audience: the kid is not his, he's still available, yet he clearly has family-potential.....)

And on a potty note....., things progress well on the infant potty training scene - young Gavin is batting about a 50% average on his little toilet. He was entranced by the wood burning stove. So much so that it became an excellent place to set him down upon his thrown to contemplate his task at hand. (are we oversharing again?)

Baby Bungee Bouncer #2

Somehow, Gavin let's us know when he wants to bounce. And then when he gets in his bouncer, there is no stopping him. Here's a couple of video's, from front and back, of our little dancer:
http://www.youtube.com/?v=5B5G4iUrEKk
and
http://www.youtube.com/?v=ixRilY2A82E

Little boy in a box

Doesn't it always figure. Gavin gets a new present (in this case, it was a baby toilet) and all he wants to do is play with the packaging...

Video

OK, we're testing out a new service that may let us upload video's. Check it out and leave us a comment if it works for you:
http://www.youtube.com/?v=fWPty27RAr8

Gavin goes to Yosemite!

We went to Yosemite for the three-day weekend, and what a fantastic trip we had.
The fall colors were gorgeous and there was a crisp chill in the air.
Walking thru the park at sunset - if you look close you can just see the nearly-full moon rising over half-dome
We stayed in an (unheated) canvas-tent cabin and, yes, it was very cold at night. But it was nothing the warmth of two-and-and-a-half people under lots of wool blankets couldn't overcome...

The goal of our hiking was to find a place to take a nap
And take lots of naps we did.


And today was Joyce's birthday (she turned 29 again), so we celebrated by having brunch at the Ahwahnee Lodge.

Happy Birthday Gavin!

He is 9 months old today! And his parents, well, let's just say they're older too... 

All I want for Christmas.....

Well, the teeth have been slowly working their way through for a month now, but here is the first picture that we've got that actually shows them. If you think about it, that's gotta hurt...

Goin' for a walk in San Francisco

 

OK, this may seem kinda weird...

OK, this may seem kinda weird, but hear out the story. Living in this liberal bastion of the SF Bay Area, we have met several parents who have sworn by the practice of infant potty training. Additionally, there seems to be growing national media coverage on the practice. Aparently, 50% of the worlds babies are able to go on cue by the time that they're one year old, and that it is primarily in the western world where we have kids in diapers till 2.5 - 3 years old. The current thinking (and of course, this will all change next year and he'll be in therapy for years...) is that babies are aware of their elimination from early on and that we're actually teaching them to ignore the process by keeping them in diapers so long. The arguement has merits.

Ok, so we admit that we borrowed the book on infant potty training from our neighbors and if anything, it gave us some insight into at least being able to read the clue's from your baby. So this evening, when we were playing with him after we had both gotten home, Joyce said "I think he's trying to go". So she picked him up and put him over the toilet, and he pooped.

So, are we oversharing here? It's not like we've perfected the move and we've got him on a routine. And we're certainly not making him sit on the toilet for long periods of time. This is a (so far) one time success story. But I thought the picture was cute, so I posted it, and then I realized we better put the story with it. So there it is. Click on "Next Blog" if you're offended. 

Gavin's First Pumpkin Carving

If you've ever wondered if we save up pictures from the weekend for posting throughout the week, the answer is sometimes yes.... So having said that, here are some pictures from this last Saturday when we took Gavin to the local pumpkin patch.
If he licks it, does that mean we have to buy it?
The obligitory framed pumpkin picture
Gavin helps clean out the guts.
"Hey, what is that stuff? I wonder what it tastes like..."
Because I know you're asking, the answer is yes, he did try to eat the goop. He didn't like it.
Success! The final product. (P.S. We had maybe 6 trick-or-treaters)