Gavin Michael Curt

Chili really is the best dog. He puts up with so much from the kids tugging, stepping and laying on him and he's never once come close to showing any signs of annoyance other than occasionally walking away from the chaos.

Gavin is fascinated with bugs. Did I mention the morning he woke my up by handing me bugs? It took me a while to wake up, I think it wasn't until the third bug he brought me that I realized it was bugs he was bringing me! But when we go on walks, he stops, gasps, squats nearby and sometimes even lays down on the bugs he sees crawling along. Now I think I know why he walks with his head down so often: He's hunting for bugs! Two days ago he scored a goldmine. We've had a mosquito problem and since addressing that problem, now we have a dead bug problem. Anyway, he brought me the Bug Vaccuum Tyler got for his birthday and it was filled with dead bugs. So disgusting! But hey, he cleaned up a mess I had been meaning to tackle so I couldn't complain too much.

Gavin started swimming lessons on Saturday. They are called mommy & me lessons but it's a mix moms & dads with the kids. Gavin is the oldest. The others range from 6 months to 2 years old. Being our second, we just never got him into lessons early the way we did with Tyler so I enrolled him now; better late than never right? Anyway, this kid is a wild one. I've always thought that, but in the pool he is really wild. The teacher was trying to teach us different ways to hold them in the pools to support them, but Gavin was squirming and screaming for me to get my hands off him so he could go swim away. He really thinks he can just take off and swim on his own. It's pretty funny until it becomes a struggle to hold onto him. Swimming is so great because it really wipes the kids out. After a half hour there, we went to the racquet club where Tyler could swim too, and what a blast it was. Between the club, our neighborhood's clubhouse and the awesome acquatic facility where Gavin and Tyler's lessons are, we'll be focused on wearing the kids out all summer long so they fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Ahhh splash!

Nothing is better than a hug from Gavin. The dude can really hug. He holds on so tight. Tyler never got that skill. I mean, Tyler will hug you the same way an acquiantance you bump into might hug you. But Gavin gives the real squeeze and holds on tight for a while. Every morning he hugs me. When I drop him off at preschool, he gets and gives several hugs, but then he's okay. I LOVE getting hugs and giving hugs to him. Except for at night when I'm patiently waiting for him to hurry up and fall asleep and all is quiet and their breathing is heavy so I think it's time for me to tip-toe out of their room and all of a sudden, he sits straight up and yells "Mommy I need a hug." That's the only time I'm not all that into giving him a hug. But I can't say no to that request.

Gavin sure knows what he wants and when he wants it. If he wants to go to sleep, he'll put his pajamas on and ask me to put him to bed. If he wants to eat breakfast, he's pushing a chair around the kitchen to reach his favorite cereal, spoon and even milk out of the refrigerator. If only I could get him to remember to close the fridge so I don't walk into the kitchen twenty minutes later to find the door wide open. If he wants candy, oh boy is he tearing the house apart searching for it. He has learned that I hide it. So he walks up on the counters looking high. He's opened doors in my car and climbed in to tear it apart looking for anything sweet. Again, he never remembers to close the door when he gets out, slowly draining my car battery. Lately he's really wanted band aids for ouwies he insists he has but we cannot see. So he has raided the bathroom cabinets and all the band aids we've had stocked. He's gone to school with a new band aid on a new body part every day this week. Finally today his teachers asked me what's up with all the injuries, which was little awkward, but became even worse as I heard myself clarifying that there were actually no ouwies under the band aids. Denial or inability to control her child, which is worse?