Mr. Know-It-All

We had a very posh mommy day today.  The kids had a photo session in Portland (that I had gotten as a gift certificate from a Winterkids event, so nothing personal, Uncle Ron), and after that I took Gavin to his skills assessment testing with his new pre-K teacher. So I'm sure she now realizes he's a bit of a know-it-all.  Driving down to the city today:

Me: Look Gavin, that's a van just like ours except it's dark blue.

Gavin: No, that's a black Swagger.

Me (not just ready to have my willpower crushed by a 4 year old): I'm pretty sure that's dark blue, buddy.

Gavin: no, it's black.  You have your sunglasses on, and they're dark.  In clear glasses you can see colors well, but yours are dark, so it just looks blue. It's really black.

Me (my willpower now just looking like stubbornness in the face of reason, all be it flawed): oh. Okay. Sure, it's black.

For the record, it was blue. I stand by that.  But in case the Tea Party wants a scientist to explain away global warming, I think they may have their man in my four year old son.

First fish.  

At the risk of making this a Gavin-centric blog, he starts his Pre-K next week.  School bus and all.  Looking forward to the blog update next week.

Annah is doing well.  Her language has exploded over the last few weeks.  Pick an animal, any animal, and she'll give you it's corresponding mating call.  Zebra? Easy.  White rhino?  C'mon, this is supposed to be a challenge.  Snow leopard? Pa-cha.  Or she'll just take it down.  Either way, it's in the bag.  She's really into picking things in our garden.  We have lost no small number of tomatoes in the very green stages to her exuberant hands.  But she loves to eat the husk cherries.  Or "usk chaw-wee" as she calls them.  Her annunciations are the best.  She found a old DVD and kept pointing to the man on the cover, going "Daddy?". "No Annah, that's not Daddy.  That's Hugh Grant." She peers back down at him, the photograph still bearing a striking resemblance to her father in her very generous mind's eye.  "Hue Hant" she finally concedes.  What a sweet little pickle.  

We have been raking the last of the summer out with wat fights in the backyard.  Ryan has started a very busy school year in his new role as Vice Principal (cue evil music in mind of all high schoolers: Duh-Da-Duuh), so he's suddenly gotten a lot busier and his work days are much longer.  If you happen to speak with him, please ask him to remember to eat his lunch.  Or send him a text around noontime.  Anyway, here is a picture of him and Gavin blowing off some steam in the backyard.

Butat least the boy is nice to his dog (well, this is prior to her becoming a water fight victim also).

Randomness

Here are some of the latest Gavin Notable Comments:

Gavin: All of my fish are boys.

Me (dreading his answer): How do you know that?

Gavin: Because none have long hair.

Gavin stream of consciousness in the car (this is interspersed with dog-whistle competitions between the kids):

Here's all the different voices I used to have: pooh huh, ooooh, aargh. Then the blood went to my mouth every day. So every day my voice sounds different. Hey, look at that giant cloud moving. It's moving that way and that way and that way and that way. Why is it moving that way? Is it a storm cloud? It looks very far away from us. Are the trees not being cut down right now?  

Not to be outdone, Annah has decided to compete via creative edible non-edibles.  Here is her list of recent snacks:

Crayons

Sand 

Grass

Dog biscuits

Styrofoam water noodle

Her brother

She has also become obsessed with the latest fashion craze - wearing 27 layers of clothing put on upside down, inside out, and backwards.  I keep trying to get a picture, but like so many other mommy endeavors, so far I have failed.  Here's a picture of my daughter staring at a screen instead:

Notice the giraffe tattoo.  I'm particularly proud of that little gem.

We went to a baseball game this past Sunday.  We actually sat through 8 innings, which is a family record.  I got the kids ice cream, which Ryan was super psyched about.  Enjoy the pics!

And last but not least.  This one is my favorite because Ani is so happy.

 

Camp Week!

This past week we were all "up to camp".  Every year the family on Moe Moe's (Barb's) side rents a camp in Wayne and we all just sort of veg out for the week.  We tried with the four of us to stay overnight several times, but Ani did not do well, and each time, no matter what we tried to do to get her to sleep, we drove home around 12 AM.  Or, one of us did while the other stayed with Gavin.  But otherwise, it was a fun week.  Gavin spent essentially all his waking hours in the lake, and was probably the best swimming lesson he could have had.  He paddled about and dunked and dove.  He got to meet his new second cousins, twin boy and girl Marty and Hopper, born to my cousin Tim and his wife Annie, who flew in from LA.  Gav was quite taken with Hopper.  My favorite line of the week was Gavin proclaiming that "If there was another Hopper in this world, that Hopper would really like this Hopper's face".  Ani also had a delightful time.  She played with her other second cousin, Evelyn (daughter of my cousin Dan and Sarah his wife) who is three days older.  They enjoyed causing significant havoc.  She, unlike her brother, has no qualms about jumping off the dock into water that is way over her head, life vest or no.  Heaven help us.

Ani and Evie

The Water Rat

Gavie and Hopper

Someone has to keep up on current events during camp week.

Gavin has started to develop an insatiable curiosity.  He saw a picture of the Mars rover, Curiosity on the latest time magazine, and this prompted lots of questions and lots of YouTube videos demonstrating the landing.  This took up most of our afternoon,which was fine with me, since both Ryan and I spent the day in a post-camp hangover state.  I actually took a nap while Annah was napping, and I think I slept around three hours.  Ahhhhh......

We go back to work on Monday, and Ryan has started his new job.  I start a slightly reduced schedule on Monday, finishing most days 1:20 minutes early.  Getting home at 4:30 instead of 6 pm will make life infinitely easier.  

Gavin, Annah, and Uncle E.

There is nothing sweeter than siblings sitting together and enjoying each other's company.  Unless they are covered in giraffe tattoos.