Be afraid - be very afraid....

We went to an airshow at Luke AFB on Saturday. They had a number of planes and helicopters available for visitors to climb around in. Caleb was VERY excited to climb inside this Marine Blackhawk helicopter and play with their gatling gun.

I would say a little too excited - except for the fact that it was so freaking cool!

Good times.

Just a cute picture

Gavin was in a good mood, so I snapped a couple of pictures of him, and this one was just too cute not to post.

This is what he's like most of the time. He's been pretty sick recently with a fever and a nasty cough, but all he really wants to be is happy. It's kind of funny to watch, but he gets this look on his face that says "I know something hurts" but then he sees you looking at him and immediately brightens up so that you see this totally bizarre war of "I want to be happy" and "It hurts" going on. Usually the "I want to be happy" wins out.

He's an excellent little baby.

Playing in the snow

Arizona has had an exceptionally wet winter this year, and a part of that has been a bit of snow in the mountains. Now, some of you that live in snowy areas may not think this is all that neat - but for us desert dwellers, we look forward to at least once a year going up to the mountains to play in the snow.

President's day was that day for us. Caleb has been bugging us to go and play in the snow for months now, so we finally found an opportunity and went to Flagstaff to get our yearly fix.

As you can see, we were well prepared for the cold:


Marci looks like she's pregnant with a 20+ lb. kid.


Caleb had an absolute ball. He made snow angels:


And made a snowman with his friends:


And had fun playing with his daddy:


Good times all around.

The other children in the pictures are the children belonging to a good friend of mine from high school that I hadn't seen in over 10 years (some of you may remember Kim Green...she is now Kimberly Troksa). She happens to live in Flagstaff - how convenient!

Holy Crap!

Gavin just got back from the doctor for his 4 month check-up; dude thundered in at 18 lbs., 26.5 inches long. That puts him in the 90th percentile for both.

He's a growing boy.

Baseball - or something similar

Again, it's the form that counts.

Dig the form

Not that you're supposed to when you're putting - but look at the form for that swing.

Kid's a minature golf monster.

Get that ball!

I've been publishing lots of pics of Gavin lately, so I thought I'd include a few of Caleb and what he's been up to recently.

Soccer is over, but during the season we managed to score 3 goals. One was even for our team. Go Mighty Monsters!

Blessing Gavin

We recently blessed Gavin. We did it right after Christmas, mainly because all of the family was here for both mine and Marci's family.

We had so many people that we eventually decided to just have myself and the two grandfathers in the prayer circle. It was really nice to have everyone in the same place at the same time. We then went over to Kathy's (Marci's mom) house for dinner and dessert.

Back at ya' buddy!

Currently we're slightly past the "Look! I've discovered my tongue!" stage - but not by much. Now Gavin is sort of in the I'm-figuring-out-how-to-roll-over-but-then-I-get-stuck-and-don't-like-it stage. Good times.

Lookit...the chubbiness!

Yep, that is one chunky little dude. We can barely get his pants on over those chubby thighs. The doctor put him in the 95th percentile in weight (15 lbs. at 8 weeks).

You gotta love cubby babies.

Grandpa with the the latest McLain

Indeed, the proud grandfather sitting with his latest grandson, knowing that there are two now to carry on the family name.

He couldn't have been happier or more proud.

Family pictures

What can I say - I have a beautiful wife and two handsome boys. I take no credit for any of it. All credit for good looking kids goes to the aforementioned wife. I just get to hook my thumbs in my suspenders and say "Them's my boys!"

I'm just lucky I guess.

Just the boys

Again, what more can be said? Goofy, half-talking smile on my face notwithstanding, there be some cute little boys hanging out with daddy.

Life is definitely good.

Dig that smile!

This is what Gavin looks like when he's happy. He usually achieves this particular state of Nirvana after he has eaten, burped loud enough to wake the neighbors, dropped a load in his diapers or peed on mommy or daddy.

In other words - fairly often.

Yes, he's sleeping...your point?

Yes, indeed. Babies sleep a LOT. Gavin likes to sleep in the "touchdown" position (originally made famous by Caleb). He also snores. Poor little dude is already afflicted with the McLain sinuses. He's doomed.

Honestly - will the McLain children ever be free of the horrifying curse of snoring like a congested moose? Their future wives can only hope.

Smile, dang you...

This is the latest in my attempts to get a shot of Gavins charming, crooked smile. Like I said - he'll smile for Marci all the time, but as soon as I show my ugly mug around he clams right up.

Isn't it a little early for him to be a surly teen?

Repose of the content

Gavin is a fairly content little dude. He especially enjoys laying on my chest. Who knows, maybe it's the warmth, maybe it's the slow heartbeat and breathing, but he usually calms right down and goes to sleep whenever he is laying on my chest. Sometimes it's the only thing that will calm him down. Go figure.

I still think he likes Marci better though. He'll smile for her all the time - but never for me. I figure it's just cause she's better to look at (which is obviously true), and the fact that she's his meal ticket. Hhe's only interested in me as a relaxation matress.

They grow so fast...

We took Gavin to the doctor on Friday to see how things were going. This was after Marci took him to a lab for a PKU (a series of tests run to see if an infant has any of 9 different genetic diseases - at least that's how many they test for in Arizona).

I don't do the PKU test - they have to prick the baby's heel to get a blood smear. I can't handle seeing the little dude pricked like that. I went for Caleb's test and it was really hard for me to watch. So I opted out of this one. I'm not squeamish about the blood - I'm more affected by the baby freaking out.

Anyway, at the doctor's office we discovered that Gavin is already at 8 lbs. 4 oz. When we left the hospital a week and a half ago he was at 7 lbs. 4 oz.

Dude gained a pound in a little over 1 week. Pig.

He's doing quite well at this point. He's a pretty calm baby for the most part, but he's had some problems with gas. It happens on average every other night. Last night for example I only got about 2 hours of sleep, and Marci probably only got 1 hour. It was not a good night. It's so sad for Gavin - he's obviously in pain, but you know that he just doesn't understand what the problem is; and it's just no fun listening to the little guy cry (heck - it's no fun listening to any infant cry - it's just so sad!).

Most of the rest of the time he stays on a 3 hour schedule - awake most of the day and sleeping between feedings at night.

He's still the cutest baby around. And Marci and I aren't in the slightest bit biased at all.

Curious big brother pt. 2

Did we mention that Caleb is seriously curious about baby brother? He can't leave him alone. Anytime he's near him he has to touch/kiss/hug Gavin.

Recovering with aplomb

Although generally Gavin didn't really enjoy his first bath, he recovered quickly to be just as cute as ever.