More Swimming!

I know I've had several posts about swim class lately, but we've been able to squeeze in a few extra lessons and Gavin is making good progress.

I tried to get some action shots but they mostly came out blurry, especially because I had my phone and not my Canon camera:

Eye Doctor Visit

Last week, Gavin had his first eye exam!  It is required for kindergarten, at least in Illinois.  

Gavin did GREAT!  He has come along with me many times during the last 18 months, so he knows almost every corner of Dr. Lisa's office and is quite comfortable there.  He's comfortable with her, as well.  It helps that she is an awesome eye doctor!!!

Gavin did everything Dr. Lisa asked.  He read big letters and small letters and told her when they got blurry (which was only when she made them blurry on purpose).  He did a test for colorblindness and had to put on 3D glasses to identify animals jumping off a page.

Gavin is fascinated with all the equipment - no surprise there!

His eyes are perfect!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he inherited Francis' eyes and not mine, and they'll still be perfect decades from now!

Visiting Nana at Work

We had the chance to see Nana at work two times last week!  The first day, she had gotten an award for 15 years of service at Benedictine University.  She was all dressed up and happy to have Gavin come over!

Gavin loved drawing on the dry-erase board.  He was fascinated with the magnetic eraser.  This is a picture of Daddy:

This is him drawing himself:

Making copies with Nana:

Gavin LOVED Nana's desk phone.  I think he liked it so much because it has a cord.  None of our home phones have cords!  He also liked the shoulder rest attached to it:

Gavin decided to sign for a couple language classes while we were there:










This last video is something he learned from the movie Ratatouille - not from Francis!

Gavin went back the next day with Francis.  He helped change the clock in the testing room to one that is silent.  The other one makes a ticking noise.

You can see his eye is a little red from allergies  The trees that have flowers in the spring are almost done with their flowers, thank goodness.  Once they're all gone, Gavin can be outside again!

Berni's Party

Last weekend, Grandma's cousin Berni had a party at her beautiful home in Geneva.  Gavin was happy to hang out with his third cousin, Robbie, and show him stuff on the iPad:

It's always fun to get together at Berni's.  Part of the reason (hey, we don;t need a reason!) was to celebrate Grandma's birthday, and also her cousin John's birthday.  I'm not saying their ages, or which one of them is older. :)

Art Show

Over the weekend, School District 204 had a student art show at Nequa Valley high school.  One of Gavin's pictures was selected to be in it!

This show had drawings and paintings from students in all grades, preschool through high school.

Gavin painted this pig, below.  The kids are doing a unit on "The Farm."

Mother's Day

We had a nice, relaxing, low-key Mother's Day.  We had dinner over at Grandpa and Grandma Cordes' house.  Grandpa grilled some delicious burgers and hot dogs, and Uncle Kevin assisted:

Somehow we didn't get a lot of pictures on the camera (playing around too much with our iphones, I guess) but I got a couple with two of my favorite guys, Uncle Brad and my little sweet guy:

Swim Class

Here's a few more pictures from swim class.  Gavin likes the stop sign.  It says "No Running" and he always runs past it.  Hmmm.

He LOVES the chart below.  It's all the different levels that the school offers, and the skills needed to move to the next one.  He reads them all to me and tells me he will do each one, and I tell him that means he'll be on the swim team in high school (just like Grandpa Cordes)!

And by the way, the stuffed animal he is holding is a purple dragon from the Skylanders video game.  Its name is Spero, there are three versions of him, and they all have cool powers that I can't keep track of!

For the first time, Gavin wanted to go into the "Kid Car Wash." It's a sprayer that rinses them off.  He usually skips it, but for some reason, he decided he wanted to rinse off after class.  Now he says he'll go through it "forever."

This video is Gavin doing the backstroke:

And this one is him and his buddy goofing off before treading water and then doing the "tummy pool exit" (it's pretty self-explanatory - just watch what he does):

at Nana & Grandpa's house

Just a couple pictures of Gavin hanging out at Nana and Grandpa's house.

He loves to explore every room, even the basement!

Record Player

One of Gavin's Thomas the Train videos shows the station master using an old record player.  Gavin asked me, "Mom, what are records?"


So I explained that's what people listened to music on, before we had discs.  Francis had a record player in the basement, and he brought it up along with a few records.  Gavin is fascinated with the process.  He loves watching the needle move across the vinyl, and changing the setting from 78 to 45.  He's very careful with all of the equipment.  Next, we'll check out the record player at Grandpa and Grandma Cordes' house!

In The Cat Room

Last week I had my last volunteer opportunity in Gavin's classroom. (Where did the time go?)

The kids are doing a unit on "The Farm".  They all planted seeds in styrofoam cups, and every morning they spray them with water.  They are so excited about it, they just do it - not much prompting needed!

Gavin hanging out at "Table Toys:"

Gavin and his friend Siri decided the barn needed fixing up:

These bears are great for counting, learning colors, matching, whatever.  Gavin's teacher does basic math with him and a few of the other older kids.  We have the same bears at home, so I've been working on basic addition and subtraction with him.

Why take a picture of these bears, you ask?  And what's with the circles?  Well, Gavin doesn't always have the longest attention span (what 5 year old does?) and he was knocking them down and acting silly instead of doing math.  So I put them in circles and told him they were in "meetings" and they wondered where their friends were, and could he help out.

Gavin slowly picked the bears up off the floor, and told me they had been "on vacation" but they could join their bear friends now.  Too funny!

The Riverwalk

Gavin and I went to the Riverwalk on two of the nice days last week.  There were still a few sections blocked off with caution tape and barricades - damage left from the flooding last month.

The tree below, which was broken off and carried along from who-knows-where, actually had two upside down wooden picnic tables (with benches attached) stuck in it!  Of course, when we returned with the camera, the picnic tables had been removed.  

The flowers are in bloom!  Everything looks gorgeous, just like a movie set.  But with blooming flowers comes Gavin's allergies. Boo!!  I give him Allegra and it helps, but after our trips to the Riverwalk,  his eyes were bothering him so much that he asked me to give him eyedrops.  Spring is great, but I can't wait for summer.  Once all the flowering trees lose their flowers, Gavin's allergies will clear up.

Playdate

Last week we got together with Gavin's buddy Aisling.  There's a park by her house and they had a great time running around!

Brunch At Drury Lane

Last week we had the chance to go to a fundraiser for the DuPage County Children's Center.   It was at Drury Lane in Oakbrook - yum!

Gavin "won" four lollipops and decided I would eat them all:

He loved the flower balloon decorations:

As usual, climbing up and down steps was more interesting than the food: