happy birthday!

Here he is, the 2-year-old Gavinator!


Scott took pictures of G blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, and I'll share those once we've downloaded them from the other camera. I think he said he got one whole birthday cake picture. Stupid camera.

Luckily, I now have a new fancy camera that doesn't have those same issues, and I used it to take a little bit of video of the birthday boy playing with a new puzzle from Grandma Joy and Grandpa Mark. He's such a funny kid!

Gavin has been very excited about his birthday (for the past month or so) - I'm pretty sure it's going to be a rough road when he realizes that his birthday isn't every day. Luckily for him we still get to celebrate his birthday with Grandma Lora in Dallas this weekend and again in Tucson with his Durham grandparents, and then Christmas brings even more presents. January will be hard, but at some point I'm sure he'll figure out that the present train has left the station.

long overdue pictures and a new big boy room!

First, here are some long-overdue pictures taken when Grandma Lora was in town a while back, as well as some with Uncle Sam during his latest visit:

Here are Grandma Lora and Gavin in the backyard. Gavin was showing off his driving skills - check out the videos below!

Here is Gavin driving, part 1:

And Gavin driving, part 2:

Gavin and Uncle Sam enjoyed reading together.

Okay, hopefully that is sufficient coverage of the recent past that has up to now been sequestered on my camera. Sorry for the delay!

Moving on........

The news around here is that Mr. Gavin will be turning 2 on Friday, so it's about time for him to move out of his baby room and into his new birthday big boy room! He's been sleeping in his toddler bed for a while now in his original bedroom, and we've slowly been cleaning out the front room to make it Gavin's. I was initially hesitant to move Gavin - I didn't want him to feel displaced by the new baby - but I think it's turned out to be the best thing ever.

Reasons:

1) The new baby's room is ready without any fuss, because it's left just as it was when Gavin was in there.

2) Gavin gets to feel special moving into his own big-boy room, and he helped put together the furniture and get everything set up.

Here Gavin is helping Daddy hammer in the nails in the back of his new dresser.

Gavin really loves using his hammer. He had a blast "helping" put together all the furniture.

And here is the (not yet fully complete) bedroom!

The room is still very bare. We're looking into what we can put on the walls to liven things up a bit, and the round baskets hanging on the wall are going to move to a more appropriate area (right now they're just hanging on an existing nail where a picture used to hang). The cult of Ikea has taken over the room! I'm pleased with the furniture we chose - the white dresser and storage shelf are actually very nice, and the green, red, and blue things work well. Gavin seems to really love his new "big boy room" and he's now fallen asleep in it twice with no issues whatsoever. Yay! Once we accessorize the room a bit I'll post updated pictures.

I've had a harder time with the move than Gavin has, I think. Poor Scott - last night, we put Gavin to bed in his new room for the first time, we shut the door, and I burst into tears! Stupid hormones :) I laughed at myself while I cried, I admit it, and I know he's growing up and that's not a bad thing, it's just happening so much faster than I thought it would. He can't be a baby forever. Every day is better than the one before. Still...... I wish he's slow down just a bit.

as requested...

Here is a picture of the baby belly at 28 weeks 3 days:


You can't tell by looking, but man, my tailbone is killing me! According to the interwebs and all their wisdom, it's a fairly common pregnancy thing, so I'm not freaking out thinking something's wrong with me, but I'm still uncomfortable. Hooray 3rd trimester and all the joys, aches and pains you bring with you.....

Gavin is very excited about his upcoming birthday and will tell you with very little prompting that he will be two. He'll even hold up his fingers to show you how many - either one finger, like he's pointing, or all 5 like he's going to give you a high five. Very funny. "Dawa dirday? Two!"

Gavinese cracks me up. I know I should write down all the things he's saying (perkle = purple) so I remember it later on down the road, but I never seem to actually do it. "Gavin did it!" is cute, though frustrating when he insists that he do things himself - yay for independence, boo for stressing out the tired momma when time/patience levels require mommy to do it instead.

Grammy and Uncle Sam (umple sam, according to the bug) came to visit this past weekend. As soon as I find the camera hiding in the mess that is my house I will upload and post more pictures. Here's one from my phone to hold you over:

They are definitely buddies now! Gavin had a great time with all of his playmates over the weekend and he's excited to see his grandma again for his dirday :)