Swim class

week 5 part 1 from Kelly C on Vimeo.



week 5 from Kelly C on Vimeo.

Last night

Last night after his bath Gavin asked for cereal, and he made it known to me that he wanted to eat it sitting on the kitchen floor. He was so excited that I let him - he said thank you 3 or 4 times.

Gavin really likes taking pictures and then previewing them. That's what we were doing here. They're kinda blurry but you can tell we were having fun.

Clean Hands

Yesterday Gavin followed me into the bathroom, clmbed onto his stool, turned on the water, got his hands wet, got soap from the dispenser, washed his hands, and turned off the water. We didn't know he could do that on his own, so I was impressed. This morning when he washed his hands before breakfast he required a little verbal prompting but still did everything by himself.

Good thing we don't wear shoes in our house...

This afternoon Gavin wanted a snack, and he asked for cereal (new word). I gave him a bowl of cheerios and finished unloading the dishwasher. When I was done I looked in the living room and this is what I saw:

cheerios from Kelly C on Vimeo.

10 years in the making

August 14, 2000

We didn't set any 10 year goals when we got married, but if we had we would have exceeded them by now. Our life is better than I could have dreamed of 10 years ago.

Our 10th anniversary weekend was absolutely, positively, perfect. Jake and I stayed in a condo on the beach for 3 nights while my parents kept Gavin at their house, 4 miles away. It was so quiet. And restful. We got to take a nap 2 days in a row. We were tickled pink just to have time to ourselves:

Reading is better with this view:

Saturday morning (our anniversary) we both happened to wake up early, around 5:30. We sat outside and watched the sun rise. It was so peaceful. (By the way it is so humid in the morning at the beach 6 floors up that the camera lens fogs up. repeatedly). Then Jake went back to bed and I ate leftover cold Helen Back pizza. Perfect breakfast. I read a little and then went back to bed too and we both slept till almost noon.  I haven't done that since we became parents. It was awesome. Then I ate ice cream cake for brunch while reading, also awesome.

Saturday afternoon I looked down to see this guy in the kiddie pool. It made us giggle. I'm pretty sure this is what happens when you just don't care what anyone thinks:

For lunch on Saturday we went to La Paz, the mexican restaurant that catered our wedding. Still awesome. The best salsa verde I've ever had.

Friday and Saturday evenings Gavin came out to swim with us. He is making amazing progress with his swimming lessons, especially considering he has only had 9 ten minute sessions:

His only problem is that he is too adventurous, and kept trying to take off by himself in the pool. He hasn't learned how to lift his head out of the water and breathe yet, so we had to steer him back to us.

Sunday evening there was a free Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on the beach behind the Boardwalk, just on the other side of the pier you can see here in the distance (from our balcony).

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It wasn't as crowded as we had anticipated, probably because it was raining right up until the show started. The concert was good, and Jake and I really enjoyed people watching during the show. Everything from fully decked out cowboys wearing boots on the beach to scary punk goth girl to long haired hippies. My favorite was this lady who must have been in her seventies that danced throughout the whole show. She's in the striped shirt:

Dance from Kelly C on Vimeo.

Lynyrd Skynyrd had a lot of hit songs. I realized watching the show that every 3rd song on the rock stations in Georgia is a Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Literally. It was a family friendly event, and the band even ended with a gospel song, which I thought was pretty cool.

Monday morning before we left for home we ate hamburgers and fries from Whataburger for breakfast. I even splurged and added cheese to my usual #7 combo. The perfect ending to the perfect weekend.

Diaper Cakes R Us

A whole bunch of my friends are (or have been) pregnant this summer. This type of thing tends to happen in cycles, with the last time being the summer before we got Gavin. So maybe it's a good sign. Anyway, this summer my friend Aleita and I have taught ourselves to make diaper cakes to give as baby shower presents. We have made 3 so far, one girl and two boys. I finally remembered to bring my camera for the one we made last week for our friend Nataliya:

Sam's club = snack time

This afternoon after I got off work we went to Sam's Club. They're having an open house type deal this weekend where you can shop there without a membership and not have to pay any upcharge. Gavin quickly caught on to the free sample thing. He had pizza and yogurt and toaster strudel and a little cookie and a piece of rice krispie treat. And he was happy. It seemed like the free samples were healthier there when I was a kid, but maybe I'm just remembering the "health bars" my mom bought after sampling and tried to get us to eat. Anyway, today when we first got there Gavin and I went walking through the housewares section while Jake was in electronics. As we rounded a corner into another aisle he pulled loose of my hand, put both his arms up in the air and said "weeee!" He had seen the big wooden jungle gym display. Ever since he got his climber/slide for the backyard he uses this same gesture to indicate any time he sees a playground or wants to go play on his climber. As for Sam's Club, we didn't get lured into buying a membership. There were a few items there that are a little cheaper than I can find elsewhere, like children's gummy vitamins and frozen fruit, but for the most part everything cost way more than I'm used to paying after coupon. But I do think a lot of their stuff is priced reasonably, especially the meat and bagged lettuce, and if a person were not willing to follow the sales at grocery stores or use coupons a membership would probably be a worthy investment. And if they ever build one that's actually in our town I may reconsider.

Happy Half Birthday!

Today Gavin is officialy 2 and 1/2 years old.

Where should we send him?