A little hike

...... and a lot of pictures.

Pinewood Derby

In January Gavin turned 8 and joined the Cub Scouts.

You know what that means....

PINEWOOD DERBY, BABY!

He and his Dad spent the last several weeks working on Gavin's car.

Gavin wanted to model it after the Riddler's car from Batman (he's been on a Batman kick lately).

The rules were strict that the Cub Scout needed to do most of the work.

Matt cut the wood, but Gavin took it from there. It was hard for his perfectionist parents to step back and let those stripes be not so straight and watch the paint bleeding into places it shouldn't, but we let him do it all by himself.

(but, Matt did eventually have to buy himself a car so he could make that paint job just perfect!)

Gavin with his car

Gavin's car raced in four heats and he came in first in one of them!

I love to see my kids root for each other. Abe was so cute with his sign!

He held it up and cheered the whole time.

He's so handsome in his uniform!

Autism Speaks

On May 15, 2010 our family will be participating in

"Walk Now for Autism Speaks"

in Chicago.

We are joining forces with our next door neighbors who also have a son with Autism.

If you have the resources to make a donation to our team we would love your support!

Team Go Gosh!

www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/chicago/gogosh

Abe's office

Abe likes a quiet, private space to work on his art.....

Unfortunately, around here this is just about the only option.

We really need more space.

Especially since he locks the door when he is working

and we only have 1.5 bathrooms for 6 people.

Parenting tip

Don't ever write a blog post about what a good sleeper your baby is.

Never.

Because if you do you will be cursed and the day after you publish that post your baby will no longer sleep through the night and might, in fact, start waking up 3 or 4 times a night wanting to eat and burp and have a diaper change and coo at you for hours on end.

And then you will be exhausted!

I, of course, am an experienced parent

and would not be so quick to brag on my kid.

Nope, not me.

Sleepy Head

Ashlyn is the best sleeper. I've heard legend about babies who sleep through the night at 2,3,4 months old, but didn't really believe it until now. She is amazing! She sleeps 10-12 hours straight almost every night. She's had ear infections this last week and even that only kept her up for a couple of hours one night. I've had good sleepers before, but only after a lot of blood, sweat and tears have been shed to train them to be that way. This is all her. I didn't have to work at it. What a gift!

April Fools

Gavin loves holidays. Any holiday. He was so excited for April Fool's Day. He spent two weeks practicing his jokes. I was feeling the pressure to play a joke on the kids. Here's what I came up with.....

Mashed potato and Meatloaf "cupcakes" and Tootsie Roll "veggies"

Abe was immediately suspicious because he smelled the cupcakes.

I told Gavin he had to eat a vegetable before taking a bite of his cupcake. He took the tiniest bite of a "pea" with a disgusted look on his face and said "Wow, these are really good peas!"