First Day of School

Well, the day finally came - Gage's first day at The Galloway School. He did really well and took to the teachers and the whole environment. Compared to his first day at the daycare, this was a breeze. I'm just so proud of the little man. The only snag was his missing Gap jacket, but I'm sure it will turn up soon enough.

We finally decided to put Gage into private school a few weeks ago after learning that he would be at a disadvantage if he didn't get the education starting at age 3.

I know he's already inherited the competitive drive from both the wife and me, so he should do fine.

Halloween

Halloween started about a week before the actual day of at Gage's school. He wanted to dress up like a fireman, again, this year and got a treat when a fire truck rolled up to the school.




On the actual day of Halloween, we were lucky enough to have Caden and Uncle Jim head over to our house early enough in the day to start off trick or treating before the sun went down. Quite a few of the neighbors went out of their way and really did it right. Both Gage and Caden got a bunch of candy and we headed back to the house right around 8 pm.

However, the highlight of the night occured when both of the kids saw their favorite superheroes. Gage couldn't keep his eyes of the one in the dress...

Life Flight

I had the opportunity at the end of September to take Gage to visit Life Flight at Memorial Hermann because he's been so excited about seeing them since I first mentioned them. Since I'm the HR rep for Life Flight at our hospital, I was given access to bring the little man to the hospital to visit.

He was so excited that I had trouble getting him to get off the chopper once he got in it.

Catching Up!

As we roll into the fall, Gage and I have had a bunch of adventures throughout Houston but I haven't sat down to share them with anyone.

Well, I'm going to start with our trip to the Downtown Aquarium during the month of August. Not only was it hot but beyond humid. We got to see the large aquarium, white tigers, a large shark tank that we actually drive through with a train, and a large ferris wheel. At one point, we got stuck on the top of the ferris wheel for about 20 minutes, overlooking I-45, which ended up being one of the nicest parts of the afternoon. Gage and I had time to look over the city of Houston, watch over the busy traffic down below, and take in a cool August day breeze.

With relatives in town, during the month of September, I took everyone to Galveston for a visit. This happened a week before Hurricane Ike hit and destroyed just about half the Island. Luckily, we also visited the Kemah Boardwalk that weekend, so at least we were able to take in our favorite sites since they will be offline for several months.

Moody Gardens is amazingly beautiful and they've spent a ton of money making it a tourist trap. This time, we visited the Rain Forest Pyramid, which has a ton of animals, fish and birds of all kinds.

Washing the Car

Washing the car wasn't ever high on my priority list of things to do, just because I didn't enjoy spending my time doing something I could get someone else to do while I sit back and enjoy some quiet time. I also have a problem spending $30+ to clean a car that will only get dirty on the way home. Although, this idea doesn't necessarily mean I won't pay someone to cut the lawn or clean the house, even though the grass continues to grow and the house will eventually get dirty again. At least I can get some joy out of soaking the little man while he runs around screaming.

However, with Gage coming into our lives, a few things have changed. While it's still a battle to get him to take a bath every night, he has absolutely no problem getting into the pool, or running through the water sprinkler, or getting soaked with a water hose. In fact, I don't even think Gage comprehends the concept of a water sprinkler, beyond just another way to get wet wearing clothes.

Well, the family car was getting to be a bit embarrassing this past weekend so Gage and I decided to make things right again. Plus, with the price of gas getting a bit out of hand, I thought it was necessary to cut down on the drag coefficient and wash some of the dirt off the car. Two hours later, we made some memories and cleaned the car.

I just wish Gage could stay 3 forever (minus the temper tantrums).

Short Week

I can't wait for the week to end on Thursday. We are going to be heading to Austin to meet up with close friends of the wife, both of whom were pregnant as of this morning. We found out that the hostess actually delivered this morning but is such a trooper that she and her husband still expect for us to show up. At a minimum, we can help out with diaper duty.

Anyway, just to show you how much of a neat freak we have in our three year old, the following video show Gage actually sliding down the water slide for the first and last time. He actually hates having anything even slightly dirty on him and realized that the water in the pool wasn't as clean as he would have preferred. For some reason, he actually enjoyed walking up the other side of the slide (on the plastic ladder) and falling backwards (taking out kids behind him was a bonus). After the third time, he stopped doing that as well because the there was water and grass build up.

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.