soda boy

Pimping my son...

Go vote for Gavin's picture to be put on a Jones soda bottle!

http://www.jonessoda.com/gallery/view.php?ID=471391

stair walking

For weeks Gavin has been interested in walking down the stairs rather than climbing down backwards, but until yesterday he kept to climbing just on the steps near the bottom with the vertical rails to hold onto. Over the weekend, he wanted to come down by himself from the very top, so I showed him how to hold onto the handrail and walk down while also holding my hand.

This morning I was sitting at the table drinking coffee. Jason came downstairs, but Gavin was nowhere to be seen. About a minute later, Gavin's face - a beaming, very proud face - appeared at the bottom of the steps. He had walked down them all by himself (holding the railing of course)! He ran over to me, giggling the entire way, and threw himself into my arms, so very proud of his big boy accomplishment. And rightfully so!

Ever the mimic, Gavin is doing more and more of what we do. He wants to use our silverware/glasses/chairs/etc and eat our food and drink our drinks and so on. He watches us like a hawk and mimics our gestures and words and little noises. Yesterday out of the blue he started saying "ummmmm" when we ask him a question. "Gavin, what does a doggie say?" "Ummmm..." he would respond. It's inflected right and everything. We can't help laugh, it's such a big person noise to make.

Gavin used to shrug his shoulders and make a querulous noise when you asked him where something was. Last week I noticed that when I was looking for something, he started thrusting out his lower lip and looking around too. I never knew I did that. Funny, the things you learn about yourself, looking into the mirror of your child. So I took advantage of it because it was cute. What else is there to do? Now when you ask him where something is, he looks around and says "Hmmmmm...... hmmmmmmmm......" with his lower lip thrust out. Awww. How cute.

Overheard this evening on a walk:

Younger Boy (YB): A week is too five days long!
Older Boy (OB): No it's not. It's seven.
YB: Is too! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
OB: Saturday, Sunday...
YB: Nuh-uh! That's the weekEND.

16 month checkup

Took Gavin for his 16 month checkup this afternoon. We thought he'd done a lot of growing suddenly this past month, because he has been feeling increasingly heavier than normal and his reach has extended incredibly. Sure enough he has. He weighed in at 27.25 lbs and was 33.25 inches tall. That's about 2.5 lbs and 2+ inches in four months, faster growth than he's had in the past year. Dr C had nothing but good things to say about Gavin. He's in great health and apparently we're doing things right (not like I had much doubt, haha). The appointment took forever though. Remind me not to schedule afternoon appointments again.. please??

Our friend Johnnie visited us from Massachusetts this weekend. It's been so nice seeing him again. We haven't seen him in 3 years since he helped us move back from there. We've been bopping around all weekend, to the zoo and here and there. Jason and Johnnie went bowling last night and disc golfing tonight. He leaves tomorrow and we'll be sad to see him go.

Saturday morning in the wee hours our downstairs toilet decided to break in honor of Johnnie's arrival, and it broke such that we had to keep the water to the entire house shut off or the toilet would run and run and run nonstop. That was fun. Not. The plumber wasn't able to come out until this afternoon, either. But we filled a sink with water for washing hands and some pitchers and turned the water on twice a day to flush toilets and shower. We managed. But it was a rustic kind of living... and did nothing to improve the image of how us midwesterners live -- haha!

no time for words

It seems so much simpler to blog in pictures these days. Let's see, if a picture's worth 1000 words, then this entry's really long!

Gavin loves to sit in the fridge and the freezer when they're open. Gone are the days when "Come help Mommy close the fridge door!" makes him leave the joys of mustard bottles behind. Now happiness is a cold bottom!

We went to the state fair last week with Shannon et al. Had a really lovely time. Gavin was most excited by all the trucks he saw!

Friday while I was cleaning Gavin discovered how to push the button that makes the vacuum lay down. Here he is riding horsey.

We had a very varmenty weekend. A groundhog discovered our backyard. He came around no fewer than half a dozen times, and that was just when we were looking. Then, Jason went to throw something away in our outside garbage can this afternoon. When he peeked in there was a racoon! The poor thing was tiny and shriveled... okay he wasn't shriveled but he was small, just a young thing. He scampered away like mad when Jason tipped the can over. You'd think he was scared or something.

Touche!

My beautiful boy.

swimmy boy, clean car, and maggots

Gavin finished his swimming lessons today. Overall he did really well. The first week was the best one. We had a new instructor this week and she did not do as good a job at aiming the activities to the age group. The first instructor did more or less the same things in the same order every lesson, which annoyed me last week, but after this week I see how good it really was. I think since at this age kids are really into routines, the routine of each lesson made it go better. Not to mention that the second instructor had us dunk the babies, where the first one didn't. Turns out Gavin HATES the dunking part. On Monday and Tuesday this week I had to leave early because he was so whiny and screaming to be anywhere but in the pool. Wednesday and today I didn't dunk him, and it was a little better.

I'm glad the lessons are over. 4 days a week for 2 weeks is too much. Messed up MY routine and I don't like that! Plus last night I kept dreaming that I was dropping Gavin into the water and not realizing it. I'd wake up and worry that maybe I really had done it. Not fun.

Jason came with us to the lesson on Tuesday and got a couple of pictures.

Today was an incredibly full day. After swim lessons we went to a playgroup, where Gavin played in a sand box and a wading pool. He told me later that wading pools are boring, now that he's graduated to Goldfish level of swim lessons. We left playgroup and he fell asleep instantly, so I found a shady spot and sat and knitted while he slept. When he woke up an hour later we went to the health food store and picked up a couple things, then came home, where I was inspired by some minor form of insanity to clean the car out in the 95 degree weather. It was full of cracker crumbs, though I can't imagine where they came from.

We spent all afternoon outside cleaning the car, and later, the garage. Gavin "helped" me clean the car. He had his own rag and "wiped" the backs of seats and the dashboard. Then he got bored and started pushing buttons on the radio.

While cleaning out the garage I created a huge pile of trash, so I went to fetch the garbage can from the curb, where it was since it was trash day today, and tossed the garbage in only to discover that the trash can had a lovely colony of maggots in it. Eeew. So I pulled the trash out (and let me tell you how wonderful THAT experience was) and cleaned out the can.