Multitasking

Gavin loves to multitask while he crawls. If there is something that he is playing with and he wants to also be crawling he will just keep that thing either in his mouth or in his hands. He then goes on as usual.

The most common example is with balls. He has a few little balls that he loves to play with. He will put one in each hand and will not let go. He will crawl around with them in his hands. He will try to climb up furniture and do other things without letting go. The problem is that it makes it more difficult and so he will slide on the floor and fall down as he tries to climb up. But he will not let go of them. It's pretty funny to watch him.

Andrew said it reminds him of those super creepy monkey wheelers on the movie "Return to Oz."

Besides using his hands he has figured out that his mouth can be a great carrying tool. The other day he put this water bottle in his mouth and he would not let go. He was crawling around the floor and then started crawling up to me, the whole time with the water bottle in his mouth. He became frustrated when the bottle would get in the way of trying to climb up the furniture, but he still wouldn't let go.

He will also use his mouth when his hands are full. There have been many times where he has had a ball in each of his hands and then I will see him leaning his head down to the ground to pick up something with his mouth and then carry all three around. I don't have any pictures because I am usually too busy laughing.

Along with multitasking he doesn't let anything get in his way. If he wants to go somewhere he will find a way to get there. The other day he climbed underneath the bar on the stroller and then realized he was stuck. And yes, like a good mom, I grabbed the camera while he was unhappy and crying. Someday he will thank me for documenting these great moments.

We are learning that he is just a very determined kid. If there is something that he wants, he will figure a way out!

The best part of waking up...

Folgers is overrated (not that I would know, so I could be totally wrong)...

A couple of friends and I do 2-3 "man workouts" during the week. Women are invited, but none have accepted, so one of our wives (the one I live with) dubbed these our weekly runs the "man run". I'm just covering myself from potential complaints of sexism (not that any of our blog readers complain...oh wait...).

Recently we've being doing a ride to the "mushroom". It's basically a concrete structure, aptly shaped like a duck...er mushroom. It's around a 3 to 10 miles ride one way, depending on where we start (we start around 5:30-6:00 am, so the earlier we start, the longer we make the ride). A couple of weeks ago, we passed through the marine layer and were able to look down on this:

Beneath all that cloud coverage is 11+ million people and the second largest city in the U.S.. We say it every week...what a way to start the day.

He's on the move!

Gavin is on the move! He started crawling about 2 months ago and he is all over the place. He is getting in to everything and absolutely loving it.

This picture isn't as good as video, but if you look closely you can see that his knee is around one of those little posts. He was crawling and had this stuck to him for about 15 feet. He didn't seem to mind. He had somewhere to go and just kept going.
We try to keep him out of our kitchen area. We came up with a bunch of different ideas for obstacles to keep him away, but he somehow found a way through all of them.

We eventually just had to get a gate. Much easier. (Except for when Andrew trips over it!)

He is also able to pull himself up and walk along furniture.

He is becoming more confident and will stand on his own for a few seconds. Yesterday he learned a new trick and he loves it! I have a feeling it won't be long before he is walking!

He also does it with the stroller now too!


As a side note, I no longer let him do this because of the constant screaming that ensues. Whenever he runs in to a wall or gets stuck he just lets out the dinosaur like scream that you can hear on the video.

Reclaiming the blog!

It seems that the blog, like my life (and my tv), has been overtaken by football. I guess there isn't much I can do about it, except try and post more often!! I have a lot of stuff to post about, and maybe that's the problem ... too many posts, not enough time. But I'm tired of the football posts, so I promise to do better!! Maybe if I publicly promise to do one post a day for a week, then I'll do it. Let's see how it goes.

So be patient, I promise that this little guy will be popping up more often on the blog!

Another game, another Wynn for the Utes

As you might have noticed, I spelled "win" different. In case you (and by you, I assume the only people reading this blog are Tom, my aunt and the Ol' Man Dr Joe) don't know, the starting QB for the Utes is Jordan Wynn. Coincidence that our QB's last name is Wynn? Or is fate just a red wearing Ute fan?

In any event, Mr Wynn was out for the past two games with a hurt thumb after leading the Utes to a victory opening night. He sat out the past two games, only to return versus San Jose St this weekend. The beauty pageant that is college football requires that a team beat the crud out of a lessor opponent. So that's what the Utes did, winning by 53 points. It was such a beat down, that I came up with 2 new ideas for how the Utes could have switched things up and still won (the Utes opponent did something rather inept, please see the awards for additional details - that my friends is a teaser...boo ya):

1. The defense and offense switch sides, featuring the Utes safety at QB, theme music and all.
2. The Utes let the 2010 champion rugby team play instead, using the same rules.

Now, for my favorite section of the blog...THE MADE UP AWARDS:

• The "I'm so amazing, the opponent punts the ball into their own teammate's back instead of punting to me (near the end of the video)" award: Shaky Smithson
• "My thumb's fine, thanks for asking": Jordan Wynn
• "You may have never heard of me before, but I'm fast": Reggie Dunn
• The Wood Family award (in honor of my Aunt and fellow Ute): Joe and Dave Kruger
• The jersey I'd like to own: Reggie Topps (recipient of the awesome "punt in the teammate's back - again, near the end")

As always...GO UTES!

Worst team ever??

Clearly, I'm not talking about Utah. I'm talking about their opponent. Take a trip down Lobo memory lane with me:

1. Game #1: Oregon 72 New Mexico 0
2. Game #2: Texas Tech 52 New Mexico 17

And now we can add another line to the train wreck that is the New Mexico Lobos:

Utah 56 New Mexico 14

It's been a serious fall for the Lobos. It was just a couple years ago, during the magical season that was 2008, the Lobos fought hard and nearly beat the Utes, ultimately falling 13-10. Now...

Basically, the Lobos are Ol' Yeller in the final scenes: ready to be shot. I feel bad for the Lobo fan, this is rough:

• Combining all the points scored, the Lobos still don't have enough points to win a single game.
• Average about 60 points allowed per game, is not a nice touch.

Anyways, let's move on to the awards for the week. Admittedly, these are going to be tough, because I honestly think Utah could have won under the follow circumstances:

• Utah allows me to play Defense, Special Teams and Offense. Essentially going 10.5 on 11. Cause really, it felt like the Lobos played 7 players.
• The starters (O, D and ST) write their positions on a piece of paper, put those into a hat and choose where they will play that day. That could mean that Kruger ends up punting, Cain plays OL and Philips is the QB. Somehow, we still would have won.

Anyways...the awards:

• The "Can I try playing a harder team, cause this feels like NCAA 2011 on Freshman mode": Terrance Cain
• The "Thanks, I'll take that": Matt Martinez
• The "Blechen isn't the only fool that can hit like Andrew playing against 12 year olds": Lamar Chapman
• Mr. Consistent: Jereme Brooks
• Jersey I'd like to own: Shaky Smithson. How fun is this guy? He looks like the predator! He's stocky, fast and just awesome. He pretends to fair catch and the takes off (last week). I am rooting for this guy to make the NFL, he's fantastic!

On another note, one of my readers complained about last week's post. He said it wasn't as good as week one. Sorry for the slip (my son, the "D End" was working me like Koa Misi treats OL). No it was not Tom. This critic shall remain nameless, unless he disapproves of this week, then I'll write a post about critical readers.

As Always... GO UTES!

Check out my new do!

lookin good!

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Utah by five...

Or maybe a little more...

Utah began the "softer" portion of it's schedule. With games against the likes of New Mexico (my apologies to any UNM fans that might read my blog. Chances are low since UNM fans are few and far between and readers of my blog posts consist of Tom) during this stretch, the Utes need to win and win well.

The Utes had a significant absence (well two if you count the absence of Tom and I from the crowd - we do bring a imposing presence to the stadium): Jordan Wynn was going to sit this one out. He sprained his thumb in last weeks impressive victory over Pitt (he injured the thumb on his throwing hand late in the first half, clearly resulting in a decrease in passing proficiency).

Luckily for the Utes, Mr Terrance Cain was able to come in a step up. I was a big fan of Terrance last year, and was sad to see him get pulled, but it clearly was the correct call. Wynn has shown to be the real deal. But Cain looked good yesterday, and I was happy to see him perform well (happy for him, happy for Ute Nation and happy for all people named Terrance - he did all those folks proud).

The Utes really only had one hole in the game: Punting. Obviously it would be great if we didn't punt at all. But punting is an essential part of the game, and life. Let's review how punting helps us:

1. We can boot the ball deep into the opponents area on fourth down.
2. Small dogs, usually associated with airhead floozy women can be assisted in vacating the area.
3. I used to eat this really good fruit in the Philippines. I'd eat the fruit, spit the seed into the air akin to a punter dropping the ball and then boot the seed into the jungle. Good good fruit.

Anyways, the Utes were no good at the 1st (can't say how effective or ineffective they were at #2 and #3). The only touchdown given up was on a blocked punt. The punt team is in for a solid week of fun, I'm sure.

Anyways, the Utes looked good, so on to the awards of the week:

• New favorite player of every Ute fan award: Brian Blechen. Boy did her earn that rockin' music.
• Mr "Welcome back my friend" Award: Terrance Cain, of course.
• Player that pulls at the heart strings, and happens to be unreal on the field Award: Shaky Smithson (well done my friend, great game).
• And my favorite award - Jersey I'd most like to own if sold in the stores: A combo Eddie Wide and Matt Asiata. Solid combo!

As always: GO UTES!

A Utah man sir, a Utah man am I

Well, it wasn't exactly pretty, but man it was a solid game. Time for a recap:

Utah got off to a Shaky start (see what I did there, Shaky fumbled it 2 times...nice writing by me). Handing the ball over to the other side is usually a bad idea, but we decided to go ahead and spot the #15 team a touchdown anyways. It worked out for us cause we got rolling after being down 7, answering with 2 tds in the 2nd quarter, and then matching Pitt with a FG a piece in the 3rd quarter. Right about then my work buddy and I decided he should catch the train, since his alternative was to sleep in the tent that someone decided to pitch in downtown LA, but not in the good part of downtown. Before we left, the Utes were not rolling, so I spent most of the drive home thinking, "Do I have to come to work if we lose this one, or can I cry in bed while watching Sugar Bowl highlights?"

Anyways, I came home to one wild game. Utah, via penalties, helped Pitt get a FG, before Wynn tossed a great TD to Devonte Christopher (who I've adopted as my sneaky favorite player...a role occupied by Shaky last season). Utah gives up a poop TD, and then it all broke loose.

Missed FG's, timeouts and insanity. Somehow the game clock expires with a tie score. And what happens? A true freshman pulls off the play of the game. Atta boy!

Let's run through my favorite Utes for the season:

• Sneaky favorite(Given to my favorite unknown player)-Devonte Christopher
• Player who's jersey I would buy if sold-John Cullen
• Player that lived up the the hype-Brandon Burton(guy was a total shutdown CB)

Anyways...GO UTES