Slides are fun! Gavin kept going back for more.

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Gavin can always be trusted to point out a motor vehicle in any given picture, movie, or setting. While on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin, he pointed out the tractor as it brought another group of families back from a hayride.

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Gavin has imitated car horns for many months now. Recently, however, we were sitting on the front porch watching the garbage truck pickup up our trash can (as we do every week–if he sees the can out there, he drags me out to the porch until the truck comes) when our friendly truck driver treated Gavin to a blast of the truck's air horn. Gavin now has three horn noises in his repetoire: a regular beep, an old timey "ah-oooooga", and a strenuously loud truck beep. I was trying to get him to make his old time car horn noise a bit louder, but he thought I wanted him to make the loud beep. Another high point in this video comes when he responds to my attempts to teach him the word "car" with increasingly insistent "vroom-vroom" noises.

Today, we finally caught a glimpse of the newest Highsmith! Baby 2.0 was dancing away for us, rolling and waving and having all sorts of fun. We could see the heart beating and heard it nice and strong. We even saw a tiny hand waving! In the image below, Baby measures just over seven centimeters, crown to rump.

The extremities disappear in this shot, but a profile of the face is clearly visible. We never had an early ultrasound like this with Gavin so this was a special treat. It's truly amazing that a baby so tiny is already a miniature human with all the parts and organs as a full-grown baby! Now it's just time to grow, baby, grow!

We'll soon make an appointment for the "big" 18-week ultrasound where we'll hopefully learn if our active tiny dancer is a Gene Kelly or a Vera-Ellen. :) That should be late November or early December.

Mommy is starting to feel better. The exhaustion is quickly going away and the nausea is almost gone, although most of the food aversions remain. Again, almost an exact copy of my pregnancy with Gavin. I've gained four pounds so far (I think - I'm not completely sure how much I weighed before this all began!) and only one pair of pants still button comfortably. My "beer gut" is kinda sorta starting to look like a baby belly, or so I like to tell myself. We showed the ultrasound pictures to Gavin and he smiled as he pointed at them. So far so good!

Yesterday, Gavin went to Ganyard Hill Farm for his first pumpkin picking. Last year, he was a month shy of walking and was too young to enjoy the activities at pumpkin farm so we selected our pumpkins from a lot of picked gords in our neighborhood. Ready for more excitement this year, we headed to the outskirts of Durham early Saturday morning...

Gavin had a tough time deciding what activity to participate in first...

We chose the hayride and found prime seats at the front of the wagon where Gavin could keep his eye on the tractor for the entire ride.

Forget about the passing fields, Gavin watched those enormous dirt-covered wheels roll over and over...

Next up was the corn maze...

Have we mentioned that Gavin loves to run?

In case we haven't, Gavin loves to run.

... a lot ...

... for a long time ...

Whatsa matter, Mom? Can't keep up?

Just keep running...

Next, he paid a visit to the goats and roosters...

Can we bring one home to keep in my room, Dad?

Of course, one of his favorite activities at this special place was something he can do on any ole playground ... sliding!

Gavin eagerly climbed the ladder to the fort...

Scooched his bum to the top of the slide...

and ... wheeeeee!

He repeated these steps at least a half dozen times in a row.

However, he learned the fundamental principal of momentum first hand and his fascination with the slide ended about .48 seconds after this photo was taken... For a kid who likes dirt so much, he's awfully sensitive about getting a face-full of hay...

After an hour or so, the farm became crowded and Gavin was getting tired so we headed to the pumpkin patch to choose our souvenirs from the day before leaving.

Many were already picked and displayed for the taking, but Gavin went into the field to pick his from the patch...

He found the perfect little Gavin-sized pumpkin (with a little help from Daddy!)...

Gavin is very proud of his pumpkin. It's sitting on our front porch now with the others and some mums, and he has to pick it up every time we leave the house!

One last shot on our way out... I don't know what I was thinking expecting him to stand still by this height chart for two seconds so I could snap a picture!

This week, I was finally able to take a morning off work to see Gavin in action at Tiny Tumblers with my own eyes. Daddy or Gmummy have been taking him twice a week for over a month and he's becoming more agile and sociable, although younger girls still scare him (he's in awe of "older women," though). We walk through the doors to the gym and he literally starts running and doesn't slow down for the next 45 minutes!

Gavin has finally learned to jump with both feet off the ground.

Gavin saw a little girl hanging from the rings and just had to try it himself. He would whine whenever I let him hang and wouldn't hold onto the rings, but he kept begging to be lifted back up.

The gym does not provide the best lighting conditions for flash-less photography, but you can still see from the smile on his face in this picture that jumping on the trampoline was one of his favorite activities...

He spends a lot of time crawling on the piles of foam mats...

The balance beam is always a favorite activity. He says, "whoop, whoop, whoop," as he walks down the beam, "whooping" with each step.

Well, that was a piece of cake. Time for the high beam...

There is a large pit of foam blocks at the end of the tumble track. Swimming through a sea of foam is fun!

Children's songs are played continuously in the background. Gavin stops to clap wherever he is whenever a song finishes. It doesn't take me long to tune out the music, but he's always aware it's there! He even claps when songs finish in the grocery store.

Before long, he's looking ahead to the next activity...

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If our cats had to pick one toy to bring to the proverbial desert island, it would be the laser pointer. Doozer could be lounging upstairs on the bed, but the mere sound of the laser's button clicking will bring her running down to chase the amazing red bug. Having such great power over the cats has gone to my head, and I often abuse my dominion to make the cats chase the laser spot in ever-tightening circles. Cruel, you might say, but they seem eager for the excitment and exercise. Anyway, Gavin knows that the sight of the laser means the cats will soon be spinning, and now whenever I turn it on to play with the cats, Gavin will start spinning, too. He doesn't chase the laser, he just sees the light and knows it is spinning time.

This is an attempt to make up for a month's worth of missed blog entries and photography opportunities with a single blog entry! We headed downtown this morning to stroll down Fayetteville Street and take lots of photos of Gavin surrounded by concrete and glass. It turns out that Raleigh isn't called the City of Oaks for nothing and this street is beautifully lined with trees and plenty of benches.

While nervous from all the noise and tall buildings at first, Gavin opened up on the grounds of the state capitol where he ran around like a crazy boy. He enjoyed using the curbs as balance beams...

Oops! A little stumble...

Ah! Back on track...

Sitting on a canon, for lack of a more creative caption...

A statue of the three North Carolina-born U.S. presidents in front of the capitol building...

Gavin, of course, is incapable of sitting still for two seconds to pose for a picture and insisted on running to Gmummy to give her a leaf he found.

But I'm so cute, I can get away with being crazy. Right, Mom?

After terrorizing enough squirrels on the grounds of the capitol, we headed back down Fayetteville Street.

You just never know what you're going to find downtown in a city...

Gavin would have climbed onto every single park bench that lined the sidewalk if we had let him.

I don't remember what he's doing here. Sometimes it's better to not ask...

This would be a great shot to use in Gavin's campaign material if he chooses to run for mayor...

No way! A picture of Mommy?!

Yes, Gavin, it's another car!

Contemplating his next move...

Flexing his muscles and making an intimidating, Grrrrr, sound...

Gavin found a quaint fountain and sitting area below street level...

But Daddy only brought him down when he saw dark, cramped stairwell that was apparently more "interesting"...

I loved the row of historic buildings on the other side of the street in this shot...

Gavin stopped to share a bit of Gmummy's cereal bar. Gavin's world always stops for cereal bars...

While Gavin munched, I snapped this shot of old and new skyscraper architecture...

And I couldn't pass up a photo of an old hardware building. The hardware business is in my and Gavin's blood! Evidently, the Briggs Building, built right after the Civil War, is one of the oldest buildings in the city whose fascade has remained practically unchanged since the day it was built.

Just a block away is the RBC Plaza, the tallest building in Raleigh and merely as old as Gavin himself!

After our long walk, we found refreshment at Starbucks...

We saw a few NC State football players and then passed their bus which was parked at the Marriott hotel with no one inside. Put me in, coach!!!

I'm still wondering why the football team stays at a hotel one mile from campus the night before a home football game. Hmm...

The end. :) Phew!

There is a significant reason for the lack of blog entries over the past month. The primary blog writer has been passed out on the sofa every evening, exhausted from growing a baby all day long and without the energy to take pictures of the crazy little toddler and write about his antics!

Yep, Gavin is going to join the big brother club next year! Baby Highsmith v2.0 is due to arrive on or around April 30, 2010. That means Mommy is currently ten weeks pregnant with thirty more to go!

We had the first checkup with the OB yesterday hoping to at least hear the heartbeat, but it ended up only being a new patient consultation. Since, it's getting more and more difficult to keep this secret (we've known since August 20th), we decided the baby must be healthy and growing since nothing abnormal has happened and it's safe to spill the beans. There are two more appointments this month including an ultrasound and then the big level 2 ultrasound at 18 weeks (end of November) when we'll hopefully learn if Gavin is getting a brother or sister!

So far, this pregnancy is nearly identical to the first. Mommy is exhausted in the evenings and is always hungry yet the thought of most foods makes her stomach churn. Dairy, cheese, and anything covered in a thick, fat-laden cream sauce are the foods of choice. We should have thought ahead and bought a cow first... The biggest negative to the pregnancy so far is that Mommy is too tired to play with Gavin most of the time. He's REALLY turning into a Daddy's boy since Mommy has been so boring!

How is Gavin handling the news so far? Honestly, he has no comprehension of what's to come! We'll keep talking about the baby, though, and maybe he'll understand that he won't be the center of the household anymore by the time April arrives!

The months keep ticking by and Gavin turns one-and-three-quarters today.

We mention it in every monthly update, but Gavin is even more nuts about books with each passing month. He simply can't get enough reading in a single day and doesn't really have favorites anymore. He loves almost anything we read him. Daddy has been checking out lots of books about cars and trucks from the library and Gavin insists on reading them over and over and over and over and ...

Gavin watches a little bit of television now. He really enjoys Handy Manny on the Disney Channel. It's an animated show about a town handyman and his talking tools. We have a couple dozen episodes recorded now so he can watch whenever Daddy needs 15-20 minutes of free time. Gavin eagerly sits in his Cars chair in front of the television for the entire episode. He won't watch more than one in a row though. There are more interesting things to do than watch television all day, after all, like playing with his cars on the window sill.

Gavin saw a firetruck up close for the first time several weeks ago at our church's block party. We thought he would be bubbling over with excitement, but he was very shy around so many people and didn't enjoy it much so the event wasn't blogged. :)

Most days while he's in his crib for his afternoon nap, Gavin opens the drawers of the dresser that is right next to his crib. He stuffs blankets from his crib into the drawers and sometimes rearranges their contents by moving clothes from one drawer to another.

Daddy has been busy working in the garage on toys and furniture for Gavin. He's made a large bookshelf to store Gavin's books and bins of toys, and a drawing eisel with large sheets of paper to draw on. Gavin only scribbles, but he likes it when Mommy or Daddy draw cars and trucks. Someday Mommy will get around to writing a full blog entry with pictures about Daddy's creations.

Gavin loves being outdoors and who can blame him now that Autumn is settling in and the evenings are nice and cool? He pulls on the handle of the front door or brings us his shoes when he wants to play out back. It's just too beautiful outside to stay indoors these days!

Gavin likes to collect fallen leaves in his bucket while out back.

Baths are out. Showers are in. Gavin refuses to take a bath but loves to sit in the tub with the shower on.

Gavin goes to Tiny Tumblers twice a week now and Rhyme Time at the library at least twice a week as well. Tiny Tumblers is only $10 for a four-week session and the library program is free so these are great social activities for the tight family budget!

We're not using the high chair much anymore. Gavin prefers to sit in a grown-up chair. The complete story behind that marvelous orange sippy cup in the photo will come in a later blog entry.