Gavin's Words of Wisdom

Gavin has hit the stage of development that he is really into imaginary play. This past Sunday we took the whole family (Marley too) for a hike - I had Dylan in the Baby Bijorn and Mark carried Gavin the way up with our backpack carrier. On the way back down, Gavin walked and what took about 20-30 minutes to go up took almost an hour to come back because Gavin stopped so often along the way to play. After saying "Come on Gavin" about a million times, we resigned to the fact that we weren't hiking- we were playing in the woods with Gavin ;) He was a tiger - crouching in the tall grass and coming out to get us. Then he was a dinosaur eating leaves. Next a sea turtle eating seaweed (moss) and he was a duck swimming in a pond. Every log he came across, he had to walk over and stop to write "G" in all the mud with his stick. He has been asking every day this week if we can go hiking again -- glad he enjoyed it since hiking is something Mark and I have always enjoyed doing.... and I feel good that it is also an easy way to get Marley out for some exercise as well.

A few other "Words of Wisdom" from Gavin lately....

*Gavin asked me where God lived the other day and I told him Heaven. He replied back "Heva Beach?" (Ewa Beach is a town here in Hawaii pronounced E-va)

*Gavin has become the new boss around here - we must explain our every move to him.."Why are you standing there? Why is your hair like that? Why? Why? Why?

*In preschool he learned about living and non living things - so he asks us about nearly everything - "Is ___ a living thing? " Sometimes he asks some tricky ones..."Is a fruit a living thing? Is Diego a living thing?" Answers are not always as simple as yes or no and require a longer explanation which is usually followed by a barrage of more questions - all beginning with "Why..." (see above) ;)

*Mark and I keep joking about how we have hit a whole new stage in life...my back hurts, his feet hurt, etc... We spend our weekends at the Waterpark and going to bed early... Of course, we wouldn't want it any other way - just think back to our days of a carefree life of going to dinner and movies anytime we wanted!

We had a big "First" in this new stage of life: Gavin's first parent teacher conference. His teacher reported that he is doing great in school - finally coming out of his shell and talking a lot more now (which occasionally gets him in a time-out ;) He is developing socially, emotionally, academically, and spiritually. We are so happy with his school and his progress. He comes home singing new songs often, shows us exercises they learn (butterfly stretch, crab walk...) and talks about the content they are learning as well - not to mention talks about all of his friends. So glad this is where he spends his days ;)