St Louis 2011

Ryan and I have been making the trip south to St. Louis for Cardinals games for 10 years now, and this year was the second year that everyone in the Gillespie family made the trip!  If you're counting, that's 15 we're up to these days (including wives/fiancees and girlfriends). 

Ry and I were really looking forward to taking Gavin down to St. Louis this year.  Last year we had a lot of fun with him, and we were so excited to show him around now that he's older and understands things better.  We had been talking about baseball a lot lately, reading him "Hello Fredbird" and had his Cardinals outfits all ready to wear.  But the universe had other plans...

We were scheduled to drive down to St. Louis on Friday morning, and the entire week before, Gavin had an off and on cough, and a bit of a runny nose.  It didn't seem like anything too serious, so we didn't really sweat it.  On Thursday, Gavin was IN A MOOD, and Mommy had just about enough, so in my desperation to find an activity Gavin and I could both enjoy, I took Gav to the zoo.  Gav was fine for the ride down to the zoo, but was totally not himself at the zoo.  He didn't really care about looking at any of the animals, and never wanted to get out of his stroller (not even for a playground or monkeys, two of his favorites!).  So I cut our zoo trip short and headed home.  When we got home, Gavin felt pretty hot, so Ryan took his temperature and it was over 101 degrees.  Uh oh. 

Friday morning before our departure, we took Gavin to the doctor.  His temp was back to normal by this point, but the fever had spooked us.  The doctor tested him for strep, and it came back negative.  Which was good, but also frustrating because now all we knew was that we had a sick baby, but sick with who knows what!  So we headed to St. Louis in the hopes that Gavin was on his way to feeling better.

Let's just say, we don't know if Gavin just wasn't feeling well all weekend, if he was upset about being away from home, or it the terrible two's happened to hit this weekend, but it was not the most successful trip to St. Louis.  Gavin spent most of his time pouting in his stroller or throwing epic tantrums, which meant Ryan and I were in constant "keep Gavin calm" mode.  We had all these grand plans of taking Gavin to meet Fredbird, walking around with him in downtown St. Louis, swimming with him in the pool...and none of those things happened because the poor kid just wasn't into it.  It got to the point where we had to take turns eating because Gavin was so out of sorts that he couldn't even handle sitting still for a few minutes in a restaurant. Luckily we had Mary and Larry to help out with some of the Gavin duty, but it was still a sanity testing trip! 

Despite our bad luck on this trip, we did still manage to get Gavin to one of the Cardinals games, and took him to the St. Louis Science Center in an attempt to find some age appropriate activity for him.  So here are a few pics of the more successful parts of our trip:

Gav and Daddy at the Cards game

 Grandpa and Bryce creeping on Gavin's picture :)

 Mommy and an increasingly unhappy Gavin

 The one picture of Ry and I together on this trip

 Sleepy cousins

 The boys are not too pleased about being woken up from their baseball naps.  Check out the stink eye Bryce is giving to his Uncle Ryan!

 In-crib entertainment (and the only way to calm Gavin down for long enough to indulge in such activities as brushing your teeth or putting on your shoes!)

 Gavin spent most of his St. Louis trip in this position

 The cost to send Gavin to the moon

 The Discovery Room at the St. Louis Science Center...this is one of the few times Gavin seemed to enjoy himself, so I'm glad we found this place!

 Baby computers are so cute, I kind of wish I had a keyboard with giant multi-colored keys!

 Poor guy is all tuckered out.  Tantrums take a lot of energy!

 Probably seems like a random pic to include, but we saw this car on our drive home.  Check out the license plate...who do you think off-roads in their secret life, Larry or Greg?!

Park fever

Now that the weather around here is finally cooperating (sort of!), we have been spending a LOT of our time at the neighborhood park.  On a typical weekend day, Gav and I take about 3 trips to the park.  He loves the wagon ride there and back, and spends a good hour or so playing each time we go! 

His park repetoire has expanded as well.  Just a few months ago, Gavin was only interested in the swings.  Now Gavin usually starts with the swings (he samples each one for about a minute, and refers to them all as the yellow swing, even though there are also blue and pink swings!), then moves to the playground, and usually ends his park visit with a short ride on the horsies.

Below are a few pics from some of our park visits this weekend:

The obligatory happy swing pic

 Gavin has finally conquered the tunnel!  This was the one part of the playground Gavin wouldn't touch for the longest time.  Now its one of his favorite things to do!

 My little golfer...I just had to get a pic of his whole outfit :)

 Eyeing the sand with suspiscion...

 Evidence that I need a better camera with a quicker shutter speed...this is the tail end of Gavin's leap of faith into the sandbox.

 Gavin isn't always interested in other people sharing the park with him.  Here he is giving some kid the stink eye.

 Gavin likes to keep his park clean

 I don't know what he's up to, but it looks cute!

 Gav's latest park trick, climbing up the slide backwards!

 Not a park pic, but too stinking cute to leave out!

Easter and playing at the park

These pics are a few weeks old, but here's a few pics of our Easter egg dyeing and Gavin enjoying a 2 hour trip to the park one weekend!  Now that its a little warmer outside, Gavin spends literally all day playing outside at Miss Jeanne's, and yet he still wants to go for a wagon ride the second we pull into the garage! 

Gavin's first experience with dyeing Easter egss.  He seemed vaguely interested at first...

 ...and the crayons intrigued him more...

 ...but ultimately he was more interested in drawing on the newspaper than on the eggs.  But Ryan and I enjoyed dyeing the rest of Gav's eggs!

 We convinced Gav to take one cute picture that looks like he cared at all about coloring his eggs, and then we finished the job ourselves!

 Gavin has recently discovered his love of slides, although the swings are still his number one priority.

 "Catch me Mommy!"

 A very intense horsie ride.

More gymnastics fun!

Here's a video of Gavin during "circle time."  This used to be Gav's least favorite part of gymnastics class, but now he's a leader!

And here's just a really cute pic of me and the Gavvers at gymnastics:

Our Bouncing Baby Boy

Erin and I find we don't blog as much as we'd like because we lack the energy to be real creative but that shouldn't stop us from posting a few pictures or videos even if they are missing a "theme" or witty comments.

Without further ado.. Gavin bouncing at gymastics:

Random cuteness

So, we've been a little MIA lately.  It seems that as Gavin gets older, I just find it harder and harder to keep this blog current.  This is a good thing because it means Gav, Ryan and I are running around playing and having fun.  But its a bad thing because I truly would like to keep current on my blog (if for no other reason than because it basically acts as my "baby book!")

In the past month, our family has been busy!  Ryan and I went to Puerto Rico, and my parents were gracious enough to watch Gav for us while we were gone.  Gav had a great time with grandma and grandpa.  They took him to the children's museum in DuPage, Uncle Andy went along with Gav to Monkey Joes, Gav did some shopping with Grandma, and of course they watched some college hoops!

This past weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie came up for a visit, and they got to enjoy some of the lovely weather with us.  Gavin enjoyed playing outside and taking a trip to the bog with Mommy and Grandma.

Developmentally, Gavin has changed a lot over the last month as well.  His vocabulary continues to expand, and he is much more likely to repeat what an adult says these days (my days of swearing with abandon are over! :)  Just this weekend, Gavin switched from calling Larry "Pop Pop" to "Gee Pa."

Gavin is also very observant.  When I drive Gavin to daycare in the morning, the minute we turn onto Miss Jeanne's street, Gavin shouts from the back "Mih Jeene!"  And in the afternoon when I pick Gavin up, when we pull onto our street, Gav yells "Da!"  He also knows our walking route to the park and remembers which houses have doggies, because when we walk by a "doggy house" he starts panting like a dog, even if the dog isn't out.

The park is also an ever present part of our lives now that the weather is getting warmer.  I can barely get out of the car when we come home in the afternoon before Gavin is climbing into his wagon and saying "Whee!" (his word for swings!).  Gavin still loves outside, and is pleased as can be that he can now spend the majority of his days outdoors.

Well, let's get to the good part, the pictures!  As the title of the blog suggests, these pics are pretty random and span a few weeks, but they're the cutest of the bunch!

Gavin showing off his cute "big boy" haircut!

 Pictures like this demonstrate why his nickname is "Booger!"

 Mildly excited to see Gee Pa. :)

 Uncle Bren made a surprise visit, and the boys showed off their similar sense of style.

 Sunday morning cartoons snuggle time.

 Too hungry to bother with putting on some clothes!

 First grill out of the season is a success!  We've discovered that Gav loves cheeseburgers, and loves ketchup even more (Uncle Kyle and I have another partner in crime now!)

 Sometimes you just gotta rock the diaper only look.

 Gavin likes to go "shopping" for his own snacks these days.

 Looking cool and ready for a trip to the bog with Mommy and Grandma.

 Exploring with Grandma.

 Gavin's two favorite activities at the bog were: 1) throwing mini-blanky into the bog (its now been nicknamed swamp thing) and 2) running underneath all of the signs.

 Taking a break back at the car.

 Deciding its time to drive home.  Gav even tried to put the car in gear!



Videos from the Children's Museum

As promised, here are the videos of Gavin in the water works exhibit and the "car wash."  Enjoy!