Super Heroes II

Again, last night, Gage decided he had to wear his superman pjs. I also thought it was appropriate to teach him society approved gang signs.

Hook'em Horns!

Super Heroes

Gage has been into anything related to the Justice League and The Avengers on the Cartoon Network. It's a nice break from Caillou and Fireman Sam all the time because the cartoons are actually geared towards a fairly broad age group.

Recently, I bought the little man superman pjs (with the cape) from Babies R Us and we can't seem to take it off of him. Just thought I would share this picture of Gage, which is the same pose of superman on the Justice League Unlimited DVD. I didn't even ask him to pose for the picture.

Our First Movie

With Gage having turned the big 3 a couple of months ago, I thought it was just about the right time to venture to the movie theatre with him for our first movie. Since he's been into anything related to superheroes lately and has watched Transformers (movie and animated series) a million times, I thought Iron Man would be a good first test.

I bought tickets the weekend after the movie first opened, so that the crowds would be thinner. Gage and I hit the 10:20 am show at the local Cinemark, hoping that we would probably get no more than 20 people competing for seats.

Not only did we get decent seats, but Gage only got up three times (twice for the bathroom and once to catch a break during a lull in the movie). Given the movie was over two hours long and included about 20 minutes of previews, I would consider it a success.

I can't wait for the next movie. In the meantime, enjoy the picture I took of Gage in the lobby of the theatre, next to the massive Hulk figurine. I would love to steal that for my movie room at the house.

The Kemah Boardwalk Again...

Every year, the boardwalk has a spring and fall kid's festival, complete with rides and games. This year, I took Gage to the place and spent about 4 hours on rides and filling up on sugar.

The place was just packed with families and kids, especially with the weather being so cooperative. This is one of the places that Gage and I have visited at least once a month, because the rides tend to be fairly cheap and safe.

Space Center Houston

Having lived in Clear Lake for the last 23 years of my life, we've grown accustomed to everything having to do with NASA. For us locals, there really isn't anything that will draw us to the place anymore.

A few years ago, they made it more tourist friendly and built a whole complex, specifically targeting tourists with everything NASA related, right on the grounds of the Space Center. Without any coupons, it's fairly pricey to visit but I finally took Gage to the place two weeks ago.

It definitely has gotten a lot more kid friendly, with the types of exhibits, as well as a 3 story playhouse. It was actually a bit scary crawling along some of the passage ways but Gage spent most of the time in the playhouse (go figure!).

The picture below is of the rocket ship that anchored outside the playhouse, on the 3rd story, which is a bit unnerving.

Fireman Gage

A few months ago, I heard about a Firehouse Museum, located in mid-town Houston that houses vintage fire trucks and is actually an old firehouse itself.

Of course, Gage is into anything related to Fireman (Fireman Sam, fire trucks, sirens, smoke,...) so much so that we actually stopped alongside a subdivision one day after he saw five different trucks tending to an emergency.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, Gage and I headed to the Firehouse Museum and had a blast. Besides being able to walk through an old firehouse and look through vintage firetrucks, we played around in the interactive room. This room had an old firepole, uniforms and hats (for the kiddos), and a mockup of the cab of a firetruck, with working lights. While the vintage stuff was cool, we spent a majority of the time in the interactive room, fighting fake fires and sliding down poles.

Another Full Weekend

Not being all that religious, I really haven't pushed any form of structured religion on the little man. However, both Xuan and I feel that Gage should be open to all cultures and know a little bit about his extended family.

In the past few weeks, we've taken him to both Chinese and Hindu Temples in Houston. Houston has a fairly large population from both India and China, resulting in some fairly spectacular building. There's a relatively new Hindu Temple in Sugarland that is just jaw dropping amazing. The Swaminarayan Mandir was built, block by block, by artisans in India, using techniques dating back centuries. Each of those blocks were shipped to Houston and assembled, resulting the one of the largest hindu temples in the world. Pictures just don't do it any justice.

Anyway, the little man had a great time.

Happy 3rd Birthday

Another year has passed and the little man is another year older. We had a birthday party at the local Acrosports in Webster with about 15 of his friends. The morning started off with Gage shaving...

... and filling up on waffles...

... having a swinging good time at the party...

... followed by some cake...

... and more cake...

... and finally opening of his presents.

Happy Birthday Gage!

The Accidental Picture

So, Gage and I were just chilling out at the house, watching Spiderman 3 (for the 35th million time) and I decided to take a picture of the little man with my cell phone. Since I was sitting right next to him and using the little mirror built into the phone for self portraits, I just snapped away a few times, until I got the picture above.

Of course, the pixelation was pretty bad, so I just used Picasa and used some of their editing tools, to get my final picture. What was once, just a lucky shot, turned into something a lot more (well, at least to me).

I pat myself on the back!

Christmas Morning

Gage, like usual, wakes up early whenever he doesn't have to go to school. However, it's a struggle getting him to open his eyes whenever I have to dress him for school, hmmmm.....

Since both the wife and her sister had not woken up yet, I entertained him for a while and kept him away from all of the presents under the Christmas tree.

After nearly two hours of distracting the kiddo, he took off and ran into the tree room and jumped on the couch. At first, he didn't really notice anything, but then turned towards the tree and said "Wow, look at the presents daddy!" At that point, the wife was still getting ready, so I had to further distract him and told him to run to mom and tell her about the presents. He jumps off the couch and runs over to our master bathroom and tells the wife "Xuanie, Santa came and brought presents! Come look!!!! Hurry!!!!"

If there's one memoryI don't want to forget, it was the look on his face.

Family

Recently, dad's family from South Africa paid us a visit and we actually met our cousins, Ashna, Roshil, and Yaksha for the first time. Xuan, Gage and I had a wonderful time and miss them dearly, since they had to leave and continue their trip.

Anyway, we spent just about every hour possible with them, since they were only here for 4 days. I've uploaded a few more pictures on the flicker website. Click on the link to your left or send me an email for permission to view them.

Growing up quickly

Yesterday, for the first time ever, Gage told me that he was going potty and then asked me not to help. He walked into the bathroom, turn around, flipped on the lights, again reminded me that I just needed to leave him alone and closed the door. After 30 seconds or so, he came back out, having used the potty by himself, and went back to watching his movie.

Given, he did forget to flush, wash his hands or turn off the light, but I gently reminded him about those details, at which point he turned around and went back into the bathroom and finished his business.

I was so proud of my little man but at the same time, a little sad, that he didn't need my help anymore (I did walk into the bathroom, a short time after, and quickly scanned the area for any mishaps" and cleaned it up). I've run into other parents who have reminded us that we need to be able to cherish each and every day, because time will pass quickly, and they couldn't be more correct.

I think the following post does an amazing job of recounting those moments, that we tend to forget. Enjoy.

A Visit to Santa

This year, Gage finally got the whole Santa thing, including the part of "being a good boy" to get a bunch of presents. We finally got around to the mall for the picture and the little man put on a good show.

Say Cheese

Sometimes, all it takes to brighten my day is one these smiles -- Enjoy.

Chopsticks

There are certain stages that every kiddo has to get through, albeit with some struggle. After several months of practicing, Gage finally mastered the chopsticks. Normally, it's fairly easy with sticky rice, but Gage finished a whole bowl of Pho (including picking up the bowl to drink the broth - with his hands of course) using his chopsticks.

The Halloween Booty

This Halloween was the first one where Gage actually walked around a neighborhood trick or treating. As you can see, he made out like a bandit. We went to his fall festival, held at the Daycare before heading out into our neighborhood.

Wings Over Houston 2007

The airshow has always been a part of Clear Lake, since we moved to the area in 1985. With Ellington Field only about 5 miles from our house, we've come to expect the roar of airplanes overhead, during the two day airshow. This year, Gage was finally old enough to really enjoy the airplanes and a lot of the exhibits. Damion and I took him to the airshow and he soaked in all of the sights and sounds. He even asked to climb the wall but ended up just swining on the rope for about 30 seconds.

War Paint

Man, I'm not sure who loves the Children's Museum more, Gage or me. It's a good place if you need cheap, extended time to burn. Since Xuan had to work late, my parents dropped the little man off at my workplace so that we could hit Luby's (for chicken, corn, jello and coke - of course) and then the Museum.

Gage actually decided to use his charm and flirt with one of my coworkers. Usually, he's going after tall, leggy blondes, but decided that my coworker could be the brunette exception. He decided to promptly share his snack pack with this coworker (after refusing the request of several of my other coworkers) and then just staired at her the whole time.

We hit the Luby's after and then spent about an hour and half at the Museum (Family Night on Thursdays is free - yea!) before heading home. Gage and I decided to throw on some war paint, before we left, for good measure.

Potty Training

Already at 28 months old, we've been trying to get Gage to start potty training, but have been relatively unsuccessful. However, on Monday, the daycare teacher put him in his first new pair of Elmo underpants without a fuss. He went the whole day without wetting his underpants, and even surprised the teacher by going potty when the urge to poo came around, all by himself. The only accident he had that day was during playtime and he just forgot to go. With it being Thursday already, I can say that he's maybe had one accident a day, but realizes that it's happening, and we usually rush to the bathroom to finish up.

Now, we still use pullups at night, but we're going to start transitioning out of those by next week, which should give us time to buy some waterproof mattress covers. I must say, all those books about potty parties, treats, balloons, etc... being used to incentivize the kid should just urge parents to put their kids in big boy underwear and allow them to realize that it doesn't feel good to walk around in dirty underpants.

The one funny thing that's come out of this is that Xuan decided to give Gage my Biography of Mahatma Gandhi while he was taking care of business and I took a few pictures. (I have some pictures andNow, whenever he feels the urge, he goes around yelling "Mata Gandhi, Mata Gandhi."

Nice going Xuan.

I know this was supposed to be tough, but...

It's week three of daycare for the little man and he's been doing quite a bit better. However, since he hasn't been around a bunch of other germy kids before, he's picking up all of the ick that most others have already dealt with at this point in their lives. Gage has been experiencing various symptoms including "a potty issue", fever, congestion, etc... over the last couple of weeks. Last night was bad because his temperature hit an all time high, I'm guessing around 102 or 103 degrees, so he wasn't at all comfortable, nor did he want to take his check his medication. Xuan and I eventually tricked him into taking at least some Tylenol by mixing it with juice and then rocked him to sleep over the next hour and a half.

Luckily, he woke up in the morning, with the fever down significantly but then we had to deal with his nerves because he knew that he would have to go to school. Today was better than yesterday, which was better than the day before... and we're finally able to get him to eat breakfast before going to school. However, after he finished his full cup of milk, I walked into the kitchen to put the cup into the sink and that's when I heard a fairly disturbing gurgling sound coming from his direction. Parental instinct kicked in and I grabbed a dish towel and started running back towards Gage. Luckily, I had emptied the dryer onto the couch next to Gage and it had a lot of clean towels, which I grabbed and put under his mouth. Unfortunately, I was only able to get his third round of vomit, as the other two had already started to seep into the carpet, blankets, my shirts and in between the couch seats. I tried to remain calm the whole time so as not to freak out the little geyser in front of me and asked him if he felt okay after the vomitting stopped. Gage being Gage jumped to his feet, onto the towel on the floor, looked at me and said "Pants are dirty, new pants, new shirt please" and continued to watch Caillou. Most kids his age would start crying and freaking out, but not the the little man. I guess he just realized that the situation could have only gotten worse or it wasn't worth missing any moments of Caillou - not sure which one - but either way - I stripped him of his dirty clothes and walked him into the bath and cleaned him up. In the end, he's back at Papa's house, being coddled and having the time of his life. Nevertheless, tomorrow, it's back to school. Xuan and I are determined to make this work.