All Hallow's Eve

We are up in Minnesota visiting Kathee's cousin's family. And tonight is the traditional trick-or-treating. So, per the pictures from a few days ago, we dressed up Gideon in his outfit, and along with second cousins Katie and Kristina, we went from door-to-door to about 8 or 9 houses in the cul-da-sac. The best part was listening to Gideon say "dank you" and "bye-bye." It was pretty awesome. Here are some pictures of Gideon's first night out.

Gideon's First Halloween Outfit

As we are going to be in Minnesota for Reformation Day...err Halloween, and Kathee was in Mississippi last week, I got to pick out and purchase the first outfit for Gideon. Here's a few shots of him this morning.

Gideon and Kathee on the Plane

Last week and until yesterday, Kathee and Gideon were in Mississippi visiting Kathee's sister Sharon and our nephew Will (our brother-in-law Jamie is serving the Air Force in Iraq right now). Here are some pictures from Kathee and Gideon on the fllight back to Moline. I have to say, the kid is cute as they come! Here's how Kathee figured out how to get Gideon to sleep on the plane. She got him ready for a nap (they shared a seat) and then played like she was sleeping. He'd crash in a few minutes and then she'd be up. She's a genius!

Kathee and Gideon Coming Back From the Grocery Store

Each Monday Kathee takes Gideon and walks up to Aldi's for some groceries (it's about 2 blocks away). She normally takes up the wagon with her. Kathee and I often laugh about the crazy lady bringing the kid's wagon in to the store, parking it by the check out, going through the store to buy the groceries, and then loading up the wagon, putting the kid in the wagon, and then heading home. Kathee had a good laugh telling me that the one rule for the ride home was, "Gideon, you are not allowed to throw items out of the wagon on the way home." Oh the joys of having only one car. We make do, and make TONS of memories along the way. Our God is so good to us, isn't He?

Guitar Hero

Gideon loves playing guitar with me. So today we played a bit of Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) before Gideon couldn't take anymore playing and had to get down with his bad self and cut a rug. I love it how the boy loves to dance. Take special note of the foot-tapping, he's been working on this special move for some weeks now and has perfected it so much that he rarely falls over when he does it now!

Spoon Man

Gideon's working with using a spoon as of today. I think he's picking it up (pun intended) quite nicely.

Let's Pray

So I Have Been Sick Since Saturday

This past weekend we had the annual Fall Classic Retreat with our junior and senior high teens. I was in bed Saturday night-Wednesday night with flu-like symptoms. Which meant that when I was in bed and in need of something, Kathee would have to come up and care for me. So Kathee was working like crazy for 5 days. We noticed early on that if Gideon was left to his own devices for more than about 2 minutes he begin using his discovery skills around the house. Here, he has already discovered Dad's guitar music binder. Certainly, then, he has worked through some chords as that sheet is on the floor. He has read some of John Grisham's The Partner as that's already face-down. He's listened to 4 full cds of Great-Grandpa Smith sermons (must be about 10 sermons per cd). It also appears that he is in the midst of doing some incredible inductive Bible study as all my marking pens are strewn around the floor. He has already printed out a sheet a paper (as there is no printer paper left and one sheet on the desktop), and must have fixed the printer itself as it is...shall we say.... a bit out of line on it's shelf as well.
It would appear that the kid is a self-starter, doesn't need lots of adult supervision, is able to keep his work space in a given area, is a multi-tasker, and has a propensity to move and work quickly. All in all, a pretty tight resume so far. I'll keep you posted as more comes up. Oh yeah, did I mention that the kid is in to everything? We love it! It's such a fun stage, and I'm not being sarcastic!

Oklahoma Lost Again

Gideon is once again wearing his Oklahoma shirt today in honor of the Sooners' loss. Thanks again, Brandon, for such a great gift. (To you non-Nebraska fans out there, "Blackshirts" is a Nebraska defense hand motion. It's awesome when an entire stadium is doing it together after a particularly powerful defensive stand -- not as impressive when a little boy does it by himself, I know. But you have to start somewhere, right?)

The Kid Does Sound Effects

I tend to be a guy who makes a lot of noise. I've noticed that when I make certain noises Gideon mirrors them. So this morning at breakfast I was talking to Kathee and made some noise that Gideon then mirrored. So I started making explosion noises accompanied with arm gestures. The kid is a quick study and passed with flying colors. Although a bit shy in performing (doesn't want to appear as a show-off) he did about B- work. However, if you were here with us, you'd have been able to enjoy A+ work.