Birthdays Spent in the Land of Mickey Mouse

So today our little family went to visit 'The Happiest Place on Earth' to celebrate my birthday. This was, in fact, Gavin's first foray into the Magic Kingdom. I learned something important: For a very short window in a child's life, the number of hours he can happily spend at an amusement park exactly matches up with his parents'. That window, for Gavin at least, is at eighteen months. He can happily walk, ride, and sit for about four hours at a stretch, all the while visually stimulated by brightly clad cartoon characters and spoonfed vanilla ice cream. Happily, that is all his parents could handle too! Clearly, looking at the exhausted faces of the parents around us, being hauled around by energetic children both larger and older, this window of serendipity ends. Kids' energy levels expand, even as those of their parents shrink. Or maybe it's a parasitic relationship - kids' energy levels expand by stealing the staying power that once belonged to those who birthed them. All I know is that today, we were all exhausted after just a few hours time, and as much as we enjoyed our day, we were all happy to bid Pooh Bear a fond farewell.

The Phone

This is a quick update, but I had to write this because it is hi...larious.

So Gavin has immersed himself into the Nursery world.  It is a world teeming with malcontent, social malformations, and glib.  It is a world in which one finds oneself in a quagmire of existential declaration and id.

The other day, a day like any other, Gavin happened to be strolling through the alleys of Nursery Hell and was accosted by another.  This one happened to be in control of the 5 families of the Nursery, Ethan Lenney, and was, may I say, quite powerful.  Well this Boss, Ethan happened to covet the ball in Gavin's hands and told him he would sleep with the fishes if he did not hand said object over  to him at that time.  Gavin refused and Ethan shoved him to the ground and ordered his thugs to filch the ball from his cold hands.

Well, knowing the dark world that the Nursery is, I waited for the next move.  Gavin could let things be and Don Ethan  could continue to rule over Nursery Town or he could do something.

So, in the silence, Gavin chose his path.  While Ethan was wooing a blond in puzzle area of the Hood, Gavin chose his tool.  He pulled the Hasbro phone from the pile of weapons and crept up on Ethan while he was distracted by the glimmer of future wealth.  Gavin crept up on Ethan and stalked his prey, waiting for the perfect moment.  And... when the moment was perfect, reared upon his thick haunches and let the phone descend upon his prey.  In revenge he reared his head back, roared and let the phone impress upon Ethan his rage.

And so, on that fateful day, Gavin got his revenge and clocked poor Ethan with a plastic phone in the face.  Little guys sometimes do win.  May God help us.

True Story.

Happy New Year

We haven't had many opportunities to update the blog lately - it's sorely out of date. This weekend, Gavin will turn one - how is it possible that a year has gone by so quickly? So as we move into 2009, I leave you with this wish: may you embrace the challenges before you with the joy and zest evidenced by this little guy!

Love those Chargers!

Here are some pics of Gavin in his Charger jersey!

Some Recent Photos

An Overdue Update

Wow. It's been more than a month since we've had a chance to update our blog! That's largely due to the fact that we've relocated to a rented house in Temple City - just about a mile from our old apartment in Arcadia. The house belongs to a woman in our church, and she's given us a great deal on rent. She also offered to trade us two months rent for doing the necessary renovations ourselves. And by "ourselves" I mean pretty much all of our family and most of our friends! Here are some of the photos of the transformation (which is, of course, still incomplete...ah, life with a feisty infant!):

Thank you again, a million times over, to our friends and family who put their blood, sweat, and tears into making this little house a home for us. Much love.

Visit Watch Gavin Grow

Hi! I put a bunch more photos on our shutterfly site: http://www.watchgavingrow.shutterfly.com/