Gavin was so enamored of my banjo during our new family music sessions that I decided it was best if he had a stringed instrument of his own to destroy play. Figuring he could quickly develop into a guitar-smashing heavy metal rocker, I thought the primary feature should be low cost. I whipped up a toddler-sized washtub bass, but it turns out that the technique of stretching the string while playing is beyond my ability to instruct at this time. So, I made him a little cigar box guitar. The total cost of materials was around $15, since I had to buy strings and tuning machines (the little pegs that tighten the strings). Time-wise, it was about two or three naps, except I built it at night because I can rarely get both boys to sleep at the same time. No nap-time projects for the next few months, at least.

Anyway, it sounds pretty good - but don't take my word for it, I've never played a guitar before. I left off the frets, figuring he'd break it before mastering any chords. We'll stick to songs where Gavin can get away with playing a G chord throughout. I've got a couple more cigar boxes (left over from my days at a grocery store, I'm not sucking down stogies here) and the other three tuning machines from the six-piece set, so I'll make another, full-featured guitar for stage two of his musical lessons. Or, he could just learn to play bottleneck slide. The tiny amp and effects pedal we used in the video are leftover from when I was learning to play harmonica, a hobby I abandoned because the sound made infant Gavin cry. I better reconsider, because if he's going to be Muddy Diapers, the famous blues guitar player and singer, he's going to need a good harmonica player.

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I promise you that I didn't coach Gavin on this. Watching the two play together just made the question pop into my head. I wasn't even sure that Gavin knew what "best friends" meant. The only place he's been exposed to that phrase is in the movie, "Cars," when Mater says he knew he made the right choice picking Lightning McQueen as his new best friend.

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We can't get enough of this talking! Gavin counts the puppies in one of his long-time favorite books, The Poky Little Puppy.

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During the past few weeks, I've decided that Gavin is currently going through his cutest stage to date. I'm pretty sure I've had the same feeling for every stage of his life so far, but he is just so adorable now that he's talking after we've waited for so, so long! Hearing him finally speak words is just incredible and adorable!

His most frequently-used words are yes, no, up, and down. "Up" refers to anything from airplanes to going upstairs to wanting to be picked up. I never realized what a useful word "up" is and how many different ways it can be used in conversation!

Gavin started saying his first question this week, "What is that?" (always with the emphasis on "is"!) He also says, "oh no!" quite often. We watched Toy Story 2 this weekend and he said, "oh no!" the first time Zurg made his appearance. SO cute!

Gavin also always notices darkness, as in nighttime. He always points and says, "dark," when there is a nighttime scene on a page in a book and points outside while saying, "dark," whenever he's up late (twice so far!).

His use of the word "fresh" continues to crack us up. Gavin is always requesting "fresh milk" and needing a "fresh diaper" (yes, toilet training is going very slowly).

The problem now is that Gavin is trying to speak so many words that we can actually only understand him half of the time!

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While Aunt Kristen was out of town this week, the boys stopped by her house to feed her cat a few times. Bailey is smart like Doozer and runs away at the first sight of a toddler. We can't get enough of Gavin's new ability to say the word "no" clearly. If you listen carefully, you figure out what the rest of his little phrase means.

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Jeff and the boys dropped Aunt Kristen off at the airport on Monday morning for her flight to Florida and stayed to watch the airplanes take off and land. RDU has a great covered observation platform with benches. It was Gavin's first of three airport visits this week. Lucky boy!

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Gavin loves Jasper's (formerly Gavin's) baby gym even more than Jasper does. Gavin is always eager to retrieve and set-up the gym for Jasper and hops right in with him, acting like a regular reachy-grabby baby.

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By playing the old disappearing face game, I got some good laughs out of Jasper. It was going great until he choked on his own spit.

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Here's a slice of family time from last week. My favorite part is when Gavin demonstrates how Jasper participated in the Rhyme Time activities by grabbing Jaspers arms and moving them.

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After Gavin finished solving his Rubix Cube, I turned on the video camera to have him name the colors for y'all.