Might as well...

As a child of the 80's who hung out with a lot of boys, this picture kinda sums up the musical influences of my childhood:

I can vividly remember rocking out to "Jump" by Van Halen in the Williamsons' basement across the street from us when the song first came out. I was 5. Years later when I met Jake I saw it as a sign that the first time I rode in his car the cd he was playing was old school Van Halen. So you can imagine the grin on my face today when Gavin chose "Jump" to be his first song to sing along to on the radio. He likes the parts where Dave raises his voice. And of course the chorus. Gavin also rocked out to the song, raising both index fingers up and down to the beat and head banging. Time to throw him in a mosh pit.

P.S. especially for Tom-

while searching for the above picture I came across where someone had typed out the lyrics for Jump. They made me lol. (In case you don't know any better (sad for you) these are not the correct lyrics):

I get up, and nothing gets me down.

i like to jump. and then go round and round

And I know, just how it feels.

You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real


Oh can't you see me standing here,
I'm getting ready for a soccer scene I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Oh can't you see what I mean ?
Might as well jump. Jump !
Might as well jump.
Go ahead, jump. Jump !
Go ahead, jump.


Hey you ! Who said that ?
Baby how you been ?
You say you don't know, you won't know

until you begin.

Well can't you see me standing here,
I'm getting ready for a soccer scene

I ain't the worst that you've seen.

Oh can't you see what I mean ?
Might as well jump. Jump!
Go ahead, jump.
Might as well jump. Jump!
Go ahead, jump. Jump!

Computer literacy?

If you have a toddler you must try this website: http://hiyah.net/online.htm

It contains a bunch of slideshows for toddlers containing pictures, simple animations, and some music and speech. Your kid controls the slideshow by pushing the spacebar. I liked the nursery rhyme section best, but of course Gavin's favorite was the transportation slideshow:

Gavin's speech is coming along pretty well. He's starting to say more 2 word phrases, and once in a while he'll say a 3 or 4 word phrase. Yesterday he said "I'll do it." A few days ago he got mad at me when I turned off the tv and said "turn the tv on!" It was garbled, but he said it. His vocabulary is growing every day, but he has some favorite words he says most often: "cars", "choo choo", "bad guys", "dig!" (big), "tools", "dire ducks" (fire trucks), "bee-bop" (robot), "juice", "hero", "babies" (means little or diapers), "worios" (can mean cheerios or m&ms), "Melmo" (Elmo), "iders" (spiders) and of course "dig duck" (big truck).

weekly happenings

We had an ice storm overnight Sunday Jan 9. That's very unusual here, I can only recall one other time it has happened since we moved here. It's rarer than snow. After the storm our yard was covered in what looked like snow but was really ice. It covered the roads too, and shut down the town. School was cancelled for 2 days and the base was closed for a day and a half, so Jake got a snow day from work. We were all too sick to go play outside, but it took several days for all the ice to melt. On Saturday afternoon there was still a patch in a shady spot in the flower bed by our garage. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we all went out to play. First we took a walk on the wooded paths by our house. There are several, and we happened to end up at a dead end on the route we took. After that Gavin played in the remaining ice:

Then he helped me rake pine needles:

And Jake started clearing out the flower beds:

where we found this hiding under all the brush:

On Tuesday we took a trip to Lowes and found a tape measure keychain. Gavin claimed it as his own and has been busy measuring everything in the house:

Also of note this past week - I taught a couponing class at church last Thursday night. There was a large attendence - about 40 women, and they seemed to enjoy my presentation. Since then several of them have told me they have started using coupons, which is awesome. I love to help people save money.

The Best Toy Ever. Really.

We've been sick. Gavin got it first, then me. Now Gavin and I are still sniffly and Jake has it. Sore throat, low fever, runny nose, cough, chills and hot flashes. I really thought it was the flu, but Gavin's doctor said it was just a bad cold. She gave Gavin cough medicine, which didn't do a darn thing. There's even a warning label on the medicine bottle that states it has not been shown to be effective for children under the age of 6. He was pretty miserable for about a week. Finally the past couple days he's been feeling better. Yesterday he felt up to taking a spin in a toy I picked up for a steal in an after Christmas sale. And it's the best toy ever made. It's a remote control car...that your kid rides in while you control!

With the flip of a switch it can be controlled by the rider through a pedal and the steering wheel. Gavin hasn't figured out the whole steering thing yet. He does like to run into walls. We have to keep the car in another room because Gavin has a tendency to sit in it, buckle the seatbelt, play with the wheel a few seconds, then yell "stuck!" Repeatedly. I got tired of unbuckling him.

Gavin's week in review

Jake came home from work one day this week with an Iron Sheik action figure, given to him by a coworker for Gavin. Gavin thinks it's a pirate and was attached at the hip to it for a couple days, even waking up early yesterday asking for it (he did this by doing the Wiggles pirate dance when I opened the door to his bedroom yesterday morning). These pictures remind me of the winters of my childhood - WWF wrestling and severely chapped lips.

 Yesterday Gavin's day only got better after the pirate dance. First, after lunch he got to see Daddy's car put on a tow truck, and drive behind the tow truck with Daddy's car to the shop to have the fuel pump replaced. Then, he got to watch a big truck pull up to our house and a little digger dig up our backyard to have the septic tank pumped. Luckily the septic pumping was planned, unlike the sudden death of the car. We had to have a septic inspection done for our adoption homestudy. Here's a bit of information for you - most septic tanks put in newer homes contain a filter, requiring the tanks to be emptied and the filter cleaned every 3-5 years.

showing how the digger works in 1st 2 pictures:

Merry Christmas