3 weeks of Summer fun!

Mom and Dad are making this the best week of my life! We got to go to the park and crawl, crawl, crawl... and they let me hold the doggy's leash... also they let me take baths!!! I love the bath tub. When Mom takes down the gate, I race through the kitchen to the bathroom and try to get into the tub, even when there's no water in it. So far, I can't figure out how to get in. Maybe I'll just keep saying "Aaahh-AAAAHHHhhhh" she'll figure out how to help me get in. This week, I really liked learning how to shake my head. I usually do that when I'm dancing when Mom and I watch our Dance show together.



I am finally making peace with the hat. That chin strap is so strong!


I have a new trick this week, too. Also, I think I have cracked the code of the magical remote control. It's because I don't like how my Mom watches TV. She makes the sound disappear and I want to hear it! I took it from her to turn the sound back on. I don't always know which button it is, but I think if I chew on it, I might figure it out.

Crawling is taking a lot out of my Mom...

Uh oh. Mom's falling down on the blog. Heh heh. Here's what's new with Gavin: All he does now is crawl, crawl, crawl! Once he figured out how to get his little body from here to there, it seems that's all he has an interest in doing now! Gavin gets into everything now - and it's hard to find 10 minutes to just sit and relax while he's awake now.

I will always remember the day Gavin learned how to move. I mark it from the first time he moved forward across an open space. It was like the worm, though, a funny-tummy-up-down-crawl. Some might not have marked from that spot - we do! His hands and knees crawling was more gradual so I can't pinpoint a day that began. But the first day he crawled, Dan and I were grinning ear to ear and just followed him. Don't you know it - he first crawled to the lamp and put the cord in his mouth. Then he crawled over to the junk mail/shred bin and started pulling everything out and putting it in his mouth. After this, he moved over to the toy bins (yay - we thought that was safe!) and crawled right through the back and grabbed the cords to the stereo components. And soon after, we found him over at the desk, messing with the CD tray of the computer and grabbing cords there. We had a long ways to go to babyproof that room!

These days, Gavin's life seems very fun. He is busy with some fun foods (Cheerios, turkey, bites of whatever we're eating, and lots of fruit) and some fun activities (swimming at the wading pool; walks and runs with Mom and Clyde, the wonderdog; and going to the park to crawl) and some terrific friends who also have kids around Gavin's age. We get together several times a month. We walk around GreenLake and invite the Dads too! Last weekend we had an impromptu bbq with everyone here at our house.

At Gavin's 9 month appointment, we learned that he (at 27 pounds) is as far over the top of the chart as the chart is tall. So we take that to mean two things: we grow a good baby and he's in the 200th percentile. He's long too, at 31 inches. He's off the charts for height too, and his head size is in the 95th percentile. For a teeny little early man, he's doing much bigger and better than we expected! The doctor said he looks great and she'll see him when he's a year old. Yes!

Gavin loves to drag furniture across the room. He loves to hide and seek. He doesn't like to be left alone in a room when he's sleepy/crabby. When he sits in the tub, he does anything but sit... he stands, crawls, turns around, plays, lays down and wiggles. He throws Cheerios on the floor and watches Clyde eat them. Clyde crosses the room to get a few Cheerios at a time, and Gavin throws more to get him to come back. When we go outside, Gavin puts the same type of weed in his mouth every single day. He hates peas but loves pea soup.

Mommy and Me... Summer of fun... Week 2!

Mom got me a hat. I hate it. And she makes me get out of the pool before I'm ready. And right when I'm telling her how mad I am she tells me to smile for a picture. She is so weird! Who can smile at a time like this?? We have to leave already?? UGH, MOM. I try and try to get that hat off but she straps it on so tight. Who's possibly that strong?? Mom did take me to the swings this week (I love to giggle on the swings!) and I crawled all the way to the neighbor's far side yard! Oh, you should have seen my Mom, chasing me over to Jim's house! She said, "What the?" and "You get back here!" but I just laughed and kept crawling. I kept turning around to see where she was, but I left her in the dust. Oh, I am so fast!

Summer of Fun... week 1

This week, we lived the other life... the one in which my Mom doesn't leave every day to go to work! We ran or walked around the lake every day. We slept in! Can you believe it? My mom got to sleep in! On Friday we walked to Mighty O and just sat there while we ate a donut (OK, just my mom did - but she gave me a tiny little bite and I got to watch people and cars.) We went to the wading pool with Junko and baby Ali (I love her!) and we got to go shopping with Cory and baby Henry and then we got to have a playdate with Kristen and baby Hope at the wading pool. My favorite day was Thursday when Dad and Mom both stayed home!

24 hours of screaming

(haha, don't tell my parents, but I just wanted to make sure they don't want to have any more kids! I really did it - it was so hard - I cried for a whole night!! Oh, you should have seen me. I think it was my best work yet. I didn't like how they were talking about getting pregnant again soon so "the kids could be close." Hey, you guys, we don't need any more kids in this house! I'm all you need!!)

GI Gavin

About 6 weeks ago, Gavin started rolling over. Everyone said he'd start crawling pretty soon and then... nada. He's still able to scoot backwards but not quite move forward. We've said "it's going to happen any day now" for over a month. Instead of getting going, Gavin started getting up on all fours He's a bit of a show off - he can do a better plank and downward-facing dog than I can!


We're getting ready for summer. Gavin's working on sleeping in, and Mom's counting down how many days to go until the break begins (incidentally, 16). We're practicing sleeping on the outdoor couch, under the apple tree and taking lazy walks around the lake with friends. This summer, we have big plans to crawl, read, walk, roll, eat, play, and relax. You can find us at the park, library, lake, yard, blow-up pool, and hopefully our hammock!


Have you been wondering what Gavin's first word will be? Well. Let's talk about this. See, in January as I returned to work, Gavin cried for food like this: "Mmmaaahhhhmmmmm!!" and Dan always said, "He's calling you!" So that was his first word, right? Not so fast. Now, Gavin's saying, "HehDad" often, during his sweet, varied syllable babble. Lots of "Heh-Dadadada" and too true, it sounds just like "Hi, Dad." This makes me wonder how parents really figure out what the first word is. I say it's "Mom", Dan says it's "Hi, Dad." I bet one day, he curses and we have to call that his first word.


Gavin can sit, roll, scoot sideways & backwards, and move from sitting to laying. He likes his Baby Mum Mum crackers and his banana puffs. He doesn't like to be alone or be hungry. His days are full of walks and toys. Taking apart the box appeals to him a tad more than playing with the actual toys. He likes "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and this blue toy with a jingle device inside of it. He's madly in love with his Sophie giraffe and likes to smack the plastic stars on the floor. One of his new things is to rub his drooly face on your shoulder and put his mouth on your knees. ?? He's odd, what can we say?? He likes to crawl under the table and scoot the chairs around. He is crazy attracted to the xbox and tuner - and he loves turning the volume up and down! He giggles when you squeeze his thighs (they're more than a handful!) and he still snuggles.


It's so fun to be Gavin's mom! He's fun and wonderful. We're lucky parents. He's one in a zillion!

Growing UP!

Gavin's doing a ton of big boy things: he helps feed himself his bottle with his massive hands; he rolls over; he eats food and tries to drink out of cups (and by "tries" I mean it's exhausting to straight-jacket-hold his efforts to grab anything and everything to do with food and beverages); he stays up late (grrr...); he screams when he's mad; and he can scoot backwards on the hardwood floor. Maybe it's because it's still so cold in Seattle that the only unclothed part of him is his hands (therefore the only part of him touching the floor with traction are his hands...) but to see him slide/scoot himself across the floor is pretty darn cute.

This week, with no school in session, we are home together while Grandma Barb is on vacation in California and Grandma Sue is getting some R&R at home. And being Gavin's mom-at-home-all-day fits, too. I didn't know how much I'd enjoy being with this little dude aaallllllll the tiiiiiiime, but I do enjoy it greatly! It's too bad I enjoy my job so much, too. I just need longer days to fit in all of the fun stuff I like to do!