he slept through the night

Gavin slept through the night last night! At least, by the medical definition of sleeping through the night, which is 5 hours of sleep. We put him to bed around 10:30 and he didn't wake up until just before 4:00 this morning. What a surprise that was! I'm not counting on it meaning anything. More than likely it's just a fluke, (though he has slept for three-four hours at a time several nights in the last week, so maybe....?). But how nice it was to get so many hours of unbroken sleep. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Last night we went to the local area's NaNoWriMo kickoff meeting. I ended up being the only Municipal Liaison there, as the other one was sick and couldn't go. (Municipal Liaisons are the leaders of the local groups and help organize and facilitate the meetings and such.) I was a little uneasy about being the leader of a meeting like that, but it went really well, I think. I only made a small fool of myself insteaf of the monstrously huge fool I could have made. At least, I hope it was only a small fool.

Writing starts in mere days. I'm looking forward to it. Can't wait to dig into this story. This year I'm doing some extensive planning and outlining, more than I did in years past. I feel pretty confident about my story this time, partly because I think it's a decent plot and partly because thanks to my outlining, I already broke through some of the plot snags I usually run into (inevitable "I need action, but what? What obstacles should she run into? What happens next?" type questions).

creepy crawly

He crawls! Yesterday (or was it today? Now I can't remember!) we were watching Gavin take a couple "steps" of real crawling, then fall back on his belly and army crawl, them a couple more real "steps", then more belly crawling. I said that he'd be crawling for real in a couple days. Jason said that I said that two weeks ago and he still wasn't, so he didn't think it would be the case. But lo, what did Gavin do today? He crawled! Steps and steps and steps of real crawling. He still falls to his belly and army crawls, but he goes enough distance that Jason said he considers this the official date of Gavin Crawling for Real. Ha. Mommy knows. Never doubt the power of Mommy.

Poor thing isn't sleeping well lately. He's working on his sixth tooth still (and possibly a seventh and eighth, though hopefully no more than that!). He sleeps more or less okay at night --- sometimes he's up every 45 minutes or hour, but there are plenty of other times he sleeps for three blessed hours at a time. But naptime! Oh the naps he doesn't take these days. We might get him down eventually, only to have him wake up ten, fifteen minutes later. If we're lucky, we get half an hour out of him. All I can say is I hope this tooth comes through soon. This morning, Gavin had one of his rare one-hour-and-then-some long naps, so we zipped through series one of the Vicar of Dibley, which was overdue at the library. We managed to get through it and got it back when we went out grocery shopping later. Of course, he barely slept the rest of the day. It was a busy, run-around kind of afternoon, so I blame the sleeplessness on that more than his bad sleeping habits.

punkin pot, punkin pot, punkin pot piiiiiieeeeeee

Thursday night we went to the Circleville Pumpkin Show, a festival celebrating, you guessed it, pumpkins. Because Jason and I already had plans for today, when we ordinarily would have gone, we went Thursday night instead. It was a different kind of experience going in the evening. It was cool and autumny, and the festive atmosphere of people laughing and the bright lights of the rides and food stalls was enhanced by the darkness all around.

One of the events they have every year is the Largest Pumpkin Ever weigh-in. This year's winner: 1353 lbs That's one heck of a pumpkin! Surprisingly it wasn't as large as you'd think it would be. But it would still make one heck of a pumpkin pie (assuming that after enduring 1300 lbs of growth it would still taste like anything). Actually, they do make the World's Largest Pumpkin Pie and have it on display there - they just don't make it with the Largest Pumpkin. It only takes about 100 lbs of pumpkin, I believe, and is around 6' across. At the end of the Show, they cut it and you can have your very own slice of a world record. However, the lines to even catch a glimpse of said pie are not worth the experience in my opinion!

Gavin watched his very first parade while we were there. I expected him to be upset by the loud sounds of the bands marching by, but even the crashing of cymbols and deep booming bass drums didn't make him bat an eye. He was rather fascinated by it all.

Daddy and his little punkin

zoom, zoom, zoom!

Much like a Mazda, Gavin seems determined to zoom. He's still not crawling normally, just pulling/pushing himself along the floor on his belly; I'm not sure he ever will crawl normally. Now that he has pulled himself up, he seems to be all focused on that. He wants to pull up, and worse, he seems to be figuring out that his legs are good for more than just propelling himself across the floor horizontally. This evening he was standing, holding onto my fingers for balance, and looking at my keys laying on the floor a few feet away (and bouncing up and down, because my child does not just stand and look around quietly, he is in constant motion) and then took a step and let go of my fingers. He fell smoosh onto his face, of course. But for one fleeting second, he forgot that he couldn't walk. I think he's taking the Douglas Adams approach to walking. One of these days he'll throw himself at the ground and miss.

a-writing I shall go

I'm embarking on the NaNoWiMo adventure again this year. I'm dubious, as I don't know how much writing time I will have with Gavin. But I will do it and try my best to win. It'll help if I can borrow a laptop from Jason's work for the month (hint, hint honey!!), as then I can be downstairs with him and write at the same time. Last year I didn't put a whole lot of effort in. Compared to the year before, last year felt busy and as if I had no time, since the year before last I was unemployed and therefore had copious, near-unending heaps of time in which to write. As a result, the seeming lack of time combined with my distraction from being pregnant, I didn't do so well. This year I am hoping I'll find a middle ground and be able to reach my 50,000 words and finish the story. Er, if I find a story to write that is. I'm having a bit of a plot crisis, meaning I need one. I'm sure I've got one laying around here somewhere I can use. Just have to remember where I put it!

make that five teeth

This afternoon I discovered a fifth tooth just poking its way through Gavin's gums. This one is on the top right next to the first top tooth to come through. Who fed my kid Ent juice?

it won't be long

I'm afraid it's not going to be long until our dear Gavin is walking. This morning we were in his room. While I sat on the floor folding diapers, Gavin played with toys. I glance up to check on him and found that he had maneuvered himself so he was sitting with his legs tucked under him. "Huh," I thought to myself. "How'd he do that?" Back to my diapers I went. Half a minute later I looked up again, and this is what I saw!

the camel now has four teeth

Gavin's got four teeth now. The second top tooth popped through on Sunday. That happened a lot quicker than the second bottom tooth, which took two weeks and two days. This time it was only a week and a day! I feel so incredibly blessed that we have a relatively easy teether. Seriously, you'd not even know he was teething most days, apart from the drool.

Along with these new teeth, though, has come a most heinous habit: Teeth Grinding. Shudder. He clacks them together and grinds them and man, oh, man does it sound awful. This had better not become a real habit, or else I know one baby who's going to get rubber caps on his teeth real quick.

Project Banana is a rousing success. After the first few bites last night, during which he made a most confused and uncertain face, he took to the bananas like mad. This evening, he slurped up half a small banana so fast I could hardly believe it, and I think he'd have eaten more if I'd have given it to him.

We went to a park near our house today. It was a beautiful day out and Straka has been sadly lacking in attention lately, so we went someplace where I could throw a ball for her. We throw it for her in the back yard occasionally, but the yard's pretty small so she can't run much. We had a really lovely time. It was all golden and warm out, with the leaves changing all around.

Gavin really enjoyed watching the dog.

The rest of the time he ate his clothes.

sweet potato bug

I've been trying to update for a week or so, and all I've managed was the tiny, silly post about Gavin's new tooth. (And for those who missed the reference, that was to be sung to the tune of "Alice the Camel", the old kids' song.) I'm still having trouble getting an update written, but I am determined.

Gavin turned six months old on Tuesday. A whole half a year! In celebration we went out and bought him a new toy. He has been seeming rather bored with all his other toys; we don't have that many for him, so he plays with the same ones a lot. We bought him some Peek-a-Blocks. We've been planning on getting him some ever since we first saw them when I was pregnant with him. When we were in Indiana visiting Adam and Tracy, they bought him a package of the blocks by themselves. He really liked them, so we bought him some more. So far he really loves them. Though, he doesn't seem to have noticed that they have things inside. Right now he's just picking them up and chewing on them then throwing them away from him. But the noticing will come in time.

This week was momentous not just for Gavin's achieving half-year-hood, but also because we started him on solids. I have been agonizing about this for a few weeks now. He has been showing the signs of readiness for some time. As each subsequent week passed, he would grow increasingly interested in our food, to the point of grabbing my arm and pulling my hand to his mouth if I was holding him and eating something. (And he is a strong baby, so when he pulls, he really pulls.) I was sure I was not going to start solids before he turned six months old, but beyond that, I just wasn't sure.

For various reasons, I've been reluctant to take the plunge and start solids. He's my baby and I hate to see him grow up. The longer you wait, the less chance for food allergies and other problems. I'm not anxious for the stinky poops; I like breastmilk poops (compared to non-breastmilk poops, that is. I don't have a fetish, I promise you). I don't want to give up the complete ease of exclusive breastfeeding - hungry baby? life shirt, pop 'im on. Simple as that.

For other reasons, I've also been excited to start solids. It's a new stage, something fun to see my boy doing and learning, and I love to watch him learn. He really seems to want solids. Maybe it'll help him sleep longer at night. That last one is, I know, true as often as it is false, but maybe I'll be the lucky one (though I read recently that 3/4 of babies sleep through the night by three months, a statistic I scoffed at. If that were the case, why do so many parents have sleep problems with their babies beyond that age?)

On Tuesday I bought a sweet potato (organic, of course). I placed it on the kitchen counter, intending to let it sit there for a week or so while I glanced at it warily each time I entered the kitchen, dilemmatizing about whether to feed it to Gavin. On Wednesday, I looked at it and decided I didn't want to dilemmatize any longer. I washed it, cut it up, and cooked a slice. I put the slice in a small blender jar with some expressed milk and pureed it. Then, with Jason standing by with the camera, I strapped Gavin into his high chair and spooned the first bite in.

To say that Gavin loved his sweet potato experience would be putting it mildly. He LOVED it, with capitals on the capitals. This boy is so enthusiastic about his sweet potatoes. We've fed him a bit every night since Wednesday (so, four nights now), and he just smiles and giggles and laughs while he's eating. Not to mention he pulls at the jar and the spoon and gets anxious if we take too long getting said spoon into his mouth with the next bite. Next week: Bananas

Gavin the camel

Everyone together now:

Gavin the camel has
Three teeth!
Gavin the camel has
Three teeth!
Gavin the camel has
Three teeth!
So go, Gavin, go!
Boom! Boom! Boom!

I forgot to write over the weekend that Gavin's third tooth popped through. Yet another relatively fuss-free teething experience (he wasn't an angel, but he wasn't terrible either). Thank God for that!

today we did stuff

This morning after breakfast and after Gavin was asleep for a nap, we did some yardwork. Jason cleaned out gutters and mowed the lawn while I worked on cleaning up the landscaping, pulling weeds and snipping back dying vegetation and whatnot. When I finished the backyard, I planted bulbs. I am excited to finally be able to plant bulbs. Although I love autumn, every year by early November I find myself eagerly anticipating spring. (I do realize that it's not early November yet. Just in case you were wondering.) This year, I am excited not just for spring itself, but for the flowers that will push their way up through the frozen earth. In a way, planting bulbs is a promise that spring will come, that the cold of winter is but fleeting.

Gavin eventually woke up and we stopped out outside work. Since he got mobile, we can no longer put him on a blanket and have him stay there. Now if we tried that, we'd be prying leaves and bits of dirt and dog poop out of his hands and mouth. Yum. We watched the two remaining episodes of FireFly on the DVD from the library, then we returned said disc to the library and got out more DVDs (but not FireFly, as it was all checked out). After the library, I went into the grocery store to pick up the remaining items from my list from Saturday.

When we got home, I worked on dinner and talked to Shannon on the phone and made bread. The bread is partly because we need bread, and partly an experiment. I am trying to get lighter, less-dense bread, so I bought some gluten and used it. The bread is out of the oven now, but I haven't cut into it yet. The density remains to be seen.