Grammie Notables from a Recent Conversation with Gamble

From Grammie,

"Talking to Gamble, he shocked us with the following:

"'Grammie you know I have a beard?'

"'Really, Gamble? When did this happen?'

"'Yesterday,' replied Gamble, 'I got it at the Dollar Store!'

"'Gamble, how is your baby sister?'

"Gamble asked, 'Which one?'

"'What? What do you mean, Gamble?'

"Oh, Grammie , you didn’t hear? Mommie has another baby!'

"'Really? When did this happen?'

"'About 2 ½ years ago.'

"'Really? What is her name?'

"'Oh, I don’t know, Random only told me that she has a twin, and she has been in "secret Disguise” all this time!'

"Unreal. He does this all the time, and Grandbear and I think maybe he is just gearing up to be a great fiction writer! He always giggles a little, as if to say, 'Ha! I put one over on the old gram again!'"

Breaking out into Song

Life with Random is like living in a musical. Now that she's seen The Little Mermaid a million times, she breaks into song at ... well, random moments.

Just the other night, we were talking with Gamble about school, and I think she was feeling a little ignored, as she broke out into song, singing "Youuuu..." (points at Daddie), "love..." (points at Mommie), "meeeeeeeee!" (points her finger at Gamble). She looked at us triumphantly, with a look of "Tada!" in her eyes and a huge smile on her face.

Both Numbers

Well, Random will be starting in her new day care when she gets home from Christmas break. She'll be almost three, so we're starting her in the threes room, and they have to be toilet trained, which she decidedly is not.

But her visit to her new school has her very excited, and we are using the school as an incentive for her to sit on the potty. Last week, she sat on the potty a whole bunch of times and has also been asking to go.

She went numbers two and one on consecutive days last week. Go, Random, go!

Literally.

Independence

Well, Mommie is off with Random seeing a Barbie show, and Gamble and I are brewing our first ever batch of beer, so I thought I'd send out a few blogs while the wort is boiling.

From Mommie:

"I was holding my daughter's lunch hostage until she cleaned up all the toys she's scattered across the living room. She claimed that she was still playing, so I went upstairs to get some laundry folded and put away.

"All of a sudden, I hear her saying 'Thank You!" I didn't think much of it.

"After a time, I went downstairs to find that she had gotten her step stool, clambered up to get her lunch off the kitchen counter, and taken it to the table to eat.

"It made me laugh so hard, I had to let her keep eating. What independence these kids are showing!"

Double Feature - Moving the Trilogies Forward

Last night, Gamble and I worked on earning his Trilogy badge. As everyone knows, all little boys are have required viewing, and much of that required viewing comes in the form of trilogies. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Godfather, etc.

We've been holding off on finishing the second of the two Star Wars trilogies for a while now, because Episode 3 is a little darker and scarier than the others. But it's been his whole life's focus to see this movie. He's played the Lego version of it, and even read a lot of the novelized version of it, so given that his peers (all 8 and in 2nd grade) have mostly been allowed to see it, we thought we could let him.

I promised him that if, while his Mommie was out of town, he made good decisions and helped me with Random, I'd let him stay up late and continue another Trilogy we started by watching Temple of Doom. Well, he was so good and so helpful that last night was the night. He'd been built up all day with talk of Indiana Jones, and I wasn't sure how the bait and switch would go over.

He lit up. He was glued to every word, every scene. Every once in a while, I paused to ask him questions to see whether he understood some of the finer points of how Revenge of the Sith tied the two trilogies together, and he was very articulate and mature about his explanations.

He did very well. After the movie ended, and Anakin had completed the descent to the dark side, black suit and all, Gamble started walking to the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"Going to brush my teeth. Time for bed, after our movie, right?"

"I thought we were going to watch Temple of Doom"

I thought he was going to jump out of his skin with excitement. His eyes grew huge, and his smile was bigger than any I can remember. "Can we?!?"

"Sure."

And, as they say in the opening scene of Temple of Doom, anything goes. We watched the movie, which I hadn't seen in a very long time, with Gamble predicting the next events with uncanny detail, because he's been reading the book for a while.

But unlike with Revenge of the Sith, Gamble was full of questions, and I noticed a striking resemblance to Willie, the female lead in Temple of Doom. I never noticed exactly how relentless her annoying conversation could get in that movie, and his relentless questions provoked me into saying something.

"Gamble, you know you and Willie have in common. You both talk non-stop!"

"No, Daddie! I'm not a girl!"

Fair enough. He had me there, but that didn't stop him from pushing on.

"And I don't have cooties!"

Oh, ha. I see what he did there. She's a girl, so she has cooties. He's not a girl and therefore has no cooties. He pressed on.

"And I don't have boobs!"

That sudden feeling of a loss of cabin pressure. Hey, wait! Where'd he hear about boobs? I'm not sure I've mentioned those to him yet. Mental bookmark, but he pressed on.

"And," he finished, triumphant, "she doesn't wear glasses!"

There you have it. He's growing up, having earned both his Star Wars trilogy badges, and already well on his way to his Indy badge.

Showered with Love

Our baby girl is growing up before our eyes, and I bet Mommie's sorry she's missing this one.

Random begged and begged to be allowed to take a shower this evening. Gamble and I both figured she would hate it, as she hates to get water in her face, and we did our best to warn her against it.

But she's right now proving us wrong. She loves it. Beyond words. I am going to have to pry her out of there, but I wanted to tell everyone how much she loved it.

I can here her from here, "I'm in the shower! Honey!"

Home with the Kids

Tonight, a special treat. Gamble, Random, and I are home together, and Gamble and I are planning to stay up late.

Mommie had to make an emergency trip back to Ohio for the funeral of a dear family friend that passed on. Lew Snavely, former Maumee neighbor of Vince and Kathy Davis, passed away and the funeral is tomorrow. Our hearts are with his widow, Great Grandma Charlotte to the kids, through this tough time.

The Pickchoose

Every night at bathtime, Random plays with her toys in the tub. A few minutes from washing her up, I go in and tell her it's time, and she asks, "Pickchoose?"

If you'll recall, Gamble used to say something similar every time he wanted to communicate that he wanted to make a choice. He used to say, "Me pick, me choose!" Random has this down as pickchoose, and we only really do it one time of the day, during bathtime.

What I do is, I go to the closet where we keep all her jammies and pick two out that she can wear, based on weather. I try to cycle in her favorites first.

Then I stand by the bathroom door and say, "Ok, tonight you can choose either the long purple dress or the polka-dot footie pajamas."

Then she makes the pickchoose.

Dook of Earl

Ok, I don't know what it is.

Gamble, while capable of putting in an award-winning poster for the entire Kendall County, is wholly incapable of flushing the toilet.

I'm not kidding; there's not a day goes by when I don't open a bathroom door to find a toilet-dook shrouded in teepee and peepee, lying like a flounder at the bottom of the bowl.

That little stinkerbutt!

Everyone Considered Him the Commander of the County

Congratulations to Gamble for winning the 2nd grade Kendall County Foods from the Farm poster contest. We are so very proud of him! He won $25 in prize money, a book, a pencil, and he had his picture taken with his teacher for the newspaper (don't know which). Here's a picture of the winning poster, obscured somewhat by the winning check!

Turkey Project

Gamble and I made a turkey. It was about a four hour creative project spread out over two days. It was my first crack at papier mache, and it came out really well. See a couple videos of it here and here.

Busting the Bear

From the Chief:

"Two nights ago I got busted by Gamble!

"Whenever Gamble asks me a question that he believes I should know, I grab the computer and quickly look it up. Well, we were talking about one of his favorites, Star Wars, and the question he posed was 'GrandBear, what was the title of Episode 3?'

"I did my best to stall while I fired up the Google browser and while it was loading, Gamble said: '...and GrandBear,

don't go looking it up on the computer.'

"The jig was up. I realized that he's on to me, and I was busted! I was caught off guard. I was amazed and impressed at the same time. Nice job Gamble! The bigger question is how long has he known that I was looking the details up on the computer and what prompted him this time to indirectly tell me he knew?"

(Daddie: Ed - I didn't give the bear away. I have no idea how Gamble would have twigged to the ruse.)

On Testing

So we just found out Gamble is getting further testing for advanced placement in his class. He's doing very well in his studies, despite being two years younger than most of his peers, and they do something like a gifted program starting in third grade that they get standardized testing for in second grade.

Funny how this early life testing affects the entire arc of your life. According to some of the testing, he's 99^th percentile in math, and 80^th percentile in reading. He's got an incredible vocabulary, and can figure out most words, but just like me, comprehension is lacking.

I hear what you're saying... I just don't get it.

Smart Boy

From Grammie:

Last night in talking with Gamble on the phone (doing math facts), Gamble once again amazed us with his knowledge and speed at solving math problems.

Example: We asked him 3 x 5 plus 550, and he had the answer within seconds, and of course it was right!

We asked him who else knows how smart he is and he replied, ”Well, apparently Mommie and Daddie, Random, Grammie and GrandBear, and I guess probably Emma.”

He is something, and he loves the challenges, and he is able to explain how he arrives at the correct answers. It is amazing!

Gamble K. Davis

It's been long known that I always use my middle initial. I've been “Kevin P. Davis” since high school. Gamble's doing the same thing.

When he does his cub scout pledge, it's “I, Gamble K. Davis, promise to do my best to do my duty to God and my country.” I never expected it so soon. I wonder how long it will be before he starts going by gkd...

Mommie Not Impressed

So last night we got to go out to the Paramount Theater in Aurora to see the political humor stylings of the Capitol Steps. This time their show was “Obama Mia”. It's always good to get out, and any chance to go to the theater is good times for me.

Except babysitting has always been an issue for us. Kayla, our neighbor behind our house, is wonderful with the kids. She plays games with them, both fun and educational. She's very smart and good-hearted.

Last night, we got home at 11:30, and as Nicole pulled into the garage, she saw Kayla peek out and vanish. When she got in, Gamble and Kayla were in his room, and the kitchen table was covered with wrappers of candy, potato chips, soda. Looked like a kiddie jamboree had gone through.

Needless to say, Mommie was not impressed with the party. Some estimates put Gamble at having eight pieces of chocolate, a personal record. Kids will be kids, but man, that's a lot of Hershey...

Something Alright

Tonight, Random took the Wiggles guitar away from him.

"Daddie! Show you. Something."

And she pressed a button and said, "Ike dis!"

Strumming the guitar, she smiled, so very pleased with herself. I'm so amazed at her verbal growth explosion. She sure showed me something alright.

The Cub

We've always called Gamble "the cub." Even after that moniker wore out its welcome with him, we still call him that.

And it's come full circle and is now appropriate again. Gamble has joined Scouts. As a second grader, he's starting as a Wolf Cub, but will work his way up. He has his first den meeting tonight.

When we get a picture of him in uniform or anything else, we'll send on an update. Also, they're doing the traditional cub scout popcorn sale, so if anyone out there wants to support Gamble's membership by ordering some popcorn, feel free to get in contact with me or Nicole.

I'm so proud of our little scout!

Ho Cake

For the longest time, we thought it was super cute when Random would talk about Strawberry Shortcake, since she called her "Bee-Bee Cake-Cake." It's changed. Now that she's hearing and talking more clearly, though, she's getting closer to "Shortcake."

Now whenever she refers to her, we often hear her yell, "Bee-Bee Hoooooo Cake!"

I think that's altogether a different series: B.B. Johnson and the Ho Cake.

The M Word

So we're all playing in the loft. I can't remember the circumstances, but Gamble said something like, “Uh oh, you better hope Daddie doesn't say the M word.”

“What's the M word?”

“Oh, you know... M?”

We looked at him quizzically.

“M... Muh?”

“Still drawing a blank.”

“You know, what Daddie says. Muther...?”

We'd twigged, but too late. “Muther-fuh...?”

“Enough!” We said in unison. Disaster and borderline venial sin averted.