dop dop

Gavin's first Trick or Treat experience. This afternoon I put the costume on him and he hated it until I asked if he wanted to look at himself in the mirror. Then he was amused, but still wary of it. This evening he was completely fine with it.

Heading out to his first house. He looks a little unsure of himself.

When we got to the first house, he was shy and looked completely wigged out. Te man got down close to Gavin and took a piece of candy from the bowl, then put it in Gavin's bag. He told Gavin he could take a second piece if he wanted. Gavin did. Then he took another. And another. And another. He'd still be there taking candy from the dish if we hadn't intervened.

At home, he looks over his loot. A pretty good haul. We went to a dozen houses, and he managed to say Trick or Treat ("dop dop") completely unprompted once.

Mmmmmm... chocolate....

Happy Halloween!

creamed, part deux

A couple of you asked for a picture of Gavin with the diaper cream all over his face. This is the best I can do, since I didn't have the camera handy at the time.

duck pee

This morning the dishwasher was running and made a ka-thunk noise, as dishwashers are wont to do. Gavin stopped what he was doing, turned and pointed at it and said, "Uh-oh!" (Bet you didn't see that exclamation coming, didja?) So I said that yes, the dishwasher made a noise and it was ok. Then I said, "Ka-thunk!" And Gavin burst into a fit of belly laughing in a way I haven't seen in months. So I said it again. And again. So funny, him laughing. Soon I was laughing too, which I needed. And after not too long, it was a game. He pointed at the dishwasher and said "Dat!" and I said "Ka-Thunk!" Laughter. Ahh. Bliss.

I told you about Gavin's interest in the potty, but have I mentioned his blossoming imagination? Or that he is beginning to know his colors? Or that he is, in a primitive way, counting?

We've been including color in our play for some time now, just simple things like pointing out which key matches which door on his Gazoobo or pointing out the different colors of similar objects. Until the past couple of days, he never paid much attention to our questions when we'd ask him to find the red block or the key to match the blue door. But lately he's been actually attempting to find the right color. He'll look over the scattering of blocks and pick one up. Or he'll look over each key on the keyring and pick on. Sometimes he gets it right, other times not. But he's trying, as if he's starting to understand the concept at least.

His "counting" is, as I said, primitive at best. But he understands that we point to things that are the same to count them. Once I initiate a counting game ( Saying Gavin has one, two hands; There are one, two, three balls; etc, and pointing to each item as I count it) he continues it by pointing at other things. This afternoon he pointed at one of his feet, then the other. Then at my feet one after the other.

And imagination. It's tricky to know for sure if he is really truly imagining and inventing play or just mimicking what we've done with him before. But I really think he's at least starting to be creative, because he's doing things that we have never done with him. The first time was last week. We'll periodically make his stuffed animals walk and talk to him. He'd then make that animal do what we made it do, everytime he played with it. OK, that's just mimicry. But last week he picked up a stuffed dog that to my knowledge we'd never played with like that. He pointed to its mouth, which has a big red tongue hanging out of it. Then he picked up another toy and put it to the dog's mouth and made eating noises ("numnum" or somthing). We've never fed his animals before -- at least, I haven't.

Today he found a stuffed duck that has been hidden in the bottom of a toy basket for months. He really latched onto the duck. We played with it for awhile, with me making it talk to him, him hugging and kissing it, and so on. He was holding the duck and making it walk around, then he stood up and said "beeeee!" and ran for the bathroom. I followed, unsure what he meant. He went into the bathroom when I opened the door, straight over the toilet and pointed at it. He wasn't pointing at his own diaper, which was odd. So I unlocked the toilet lid and watched as he held the duck up over the toilet and said "beee" again, then flushed (and I grabbed onto the duck just to make sure he didn't accidentally go for a swim). He did the same thing later in the day when we returned to his room and he saw the duck again, with absolutely no prompting from me. I have to wonder what in the world made him think that duck had to pee!

creamed

Gavin loves lotion. When we're going through a store or anywhere in our house where he sees a bottle that looks like it has lotion in it, he demands to have some. On those occasions when I give him some, he "rubs it in" to his legs or his shirt or his hair. Usually he eats a fair quantity. He loves it.

I am checking email and he just walked over to me, covered in diaper rash cream. It's around his mouth like a clown's makeup. It's all over his legs, his jammies, his hands, his arms, and the tube of cream is a mess. Ahh. I love this boy. He's so deliciously cute. Even covered in half a tube of expensive diaper cream.

knitting and the potty

So much changes so quickly, it is difficult to remember everything I need to write down. I really ought to update more often so I don't forget anything!

Gavin turned 18 months on Wednesday, and as if a switch was flipped, we find ourselves with a little person on our hands who is barreling headlong toward Two. A week or so ago I was talking to Shannon, who was telling me about Devon and his saying "no." I commented that Gavin almost never said No. I jinxed the situation, because within a few days he was saying "mo," although never with the force or frequency of a full-fledged toddler. But this week, with growing intensity, No is the word of choice to any question or statement put to him. He of course doesn't really get the word, just that it's a powerful one. Most of the time he doesn't mean no, but it is funny how the word effects us. It's hard not to take him seriously and assume that when he says no he really means it.

A few weeks ago I said how Gavin was not a baby anymore, as if his last vestige of babyhood had been trimmed away with his first haircut. How wrong I was! Recently something happened that made me realize he has at least one bit of babyhood left, one thing remaining which ties him to that wee (ha ha) baby he once was: diapers.

In the last month, Gavin has been increasingly aware of bodily functions. When any of us burps or farts, he says "uh-oh!" and points to the offending part of the body. When he pees or poos in his diaper he says "uh-oh!" and points. He's very interested in Jason and I going to the bathroom. Last week, Gavin and I were sitting on the floor in the family room playing. He stood up and said "uh-oh" (a word, which, if you haven't figured it out yet, is one we hear a lot in our house) and ran to the bathroom door. He pounded on it, said "uh-oh!" very intensely, ran over to me, said "uh-oh!", then back to the bathroom. I asked if he had to pee. "Da," he said and pounded on the bathroom door. "Do you want to pee in the potty?" I asked. "Da," he said. So I undressed him and held him on the potty. He didn't pee; he got completely freaked out about the The Hole and struggled to climb off the potty. But within 10 seconds of my putting him down, he peed. (Three guesses what he said as he did it... that's right, he said "uh-oh!").

Later in the day I was changing his diaper and he pointed to his nether bits and exclaimed, "uh-oh!" I asked if he had to pee, and we repeated the same scenario from earlier, right down to his peeing right after I took him down from the potty. He only asked to use the potty a couple times in the days after that, but given his high level , continual interest, we have made a purchase. It resides in our bathroom downstairs, and has elicited an extremely enthusastic response so far. He has yet to use it for its intended purpose, but he sits on it a lot and loudly proclaims, "bah-bpeee!" (potty, for the uninitiated)

I remember with my niece Fiona how she would periodically take huge leaps in learning to talk, where overnight it seemed she would suddenly have heaps of new sounds, words, or ability to string the words together. We've seen that happen with Gavin twice now, so far. I think I mentioned it the last time it happened, but it happened again last week. Seemingly overnight he started babbling in very a sentence-like manner. His words are meaningless to us, but is he ever he intent and serious about what he's saying. He will look right at us, his face so serious, and say "bah bwee-a -uh-baaa-bee-bwee a bah buh, dooo drrrrr a bweee dweee, errrrrrr buh, bweee!"

A month or so ago, possibly even longer, Gavin started tickling us. Now he tickles everything in sight, including the dishwasher.

I finished my first big knitting project over the weekend. It took me a month or a month and a half from start to end, and doesn't he look dapper in it?

In the middle of his signing "Daddy" I asked him to smile. This is the result.

Jason brought home roses for me the other night. We had a date night and went to see Serenity. Liked the movie, though it wasn't quite what we were expecting. Didn't tie up the lose ends from the tv show like we'd hoped. But still, it was good.