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 :)

potty training - to be continued?

Well, we had some luck for a while with Gavin being all jazzed about using the potty, but apparently his own personal throne has lost its appeal. He was insisting that "I want potty too!!" anytime he saw one of us on the toilet (hooray for no privacy). Since he usually asked to go potty just after going in his diaper, he would just pee a little trickle, so it went from "YAY!" and clapping for himself for each little trickly effort to "I'm done" after a half-hearted pee effort. He is more interested in flushing the toilet (I'm blaming the engineer genes for that) than in actaully using it these days. He no longer asks to go in the potty like he had been, and when I ask him if he wants to try he says no. He will tell me right after making a poo that he wants his diaper changed, so he's still aware of what's going on down there, he's just not so terribly interested in making it happen in the potty.

I don't really care if he gives up for a while. At least I know he knows what to do on the potty. It's just a matter of realizing it before it happens. Since he hates having a poopy diaper, that will probably help us out later on. He doesn't care about a peed-in diaper, but when I'm home all day I can put him in underpants so he gets really uncomfortable really fast if he pees (if necessary). Plus, with the baby coming in 3 months (ack) we'll undoubtadly hit some road blocks again. So, yeah, not pushing it. When he's ready, he'll go on the potty. He's too much of a neat freak to go in his diaper forever :)

2 blog posts in a row all about Gavin's poop and pee. Ah, the joys of motherhood.....

potty training

Oh boy.

Last night, when Gavin and I got home from dinner with Missy and Bryant, I had to pee. Like, 10 minutes ago. So I went into the bathroom to take care of that, and Gavin followed me in, saying "want potty too!" He was covered in applesauce due to a spoon malfunction at dinner, so I stripped him down (it was bathtime anyway) and he sat on the potty, holding his milk cup. I took his discarded clothes to his hamper right next door, came back, and noticed that something had happened - Gavin was staring at his boy parts in wonder? shock? who knows, and there was pee in the potty! We clapped, we said "Yay!" and threw our hands in the air, and generally celebrated like idiots. I was proud of him. He enjoyed the praise so much, in fact, that getting him off the potty and into the tub for a bath was a bit of a struggle. :)

Today, we had fried chicken with macaroni and cheese for dinner. (Not the healthiest, but it sure was tasty!). Gavin gave up on his fork very early on and took to shoveling the mac & cheese in his mouth with his fingers. He was c.o.v.e.r.e.d. in cheese sauce by the time he was full. Yuck. I got a washcloth, cleaned him up a bit, and stripped him down. Before starting the bath I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty, and he sat right down. (The potty is a favorite place of his. Like father, like son, I guess.)

I asked him if he could pee, and he started pushing/straining/whatever, and a little pee dribbled out. The look on his face when he looked up at me was priceless! It's like he peed gold or something, he was so tickled. He clapped for himself, I clapped for him, and then he tried again. He peed about a gazillion pee dribbles, and a few short streams, in the little while he was on the potty. Then we heard it - the fart. Little boys make big noises. And where there's noise.... A minute or two later, Gavin pooped on the potty! He wasn't quite as shocked by the poo as he was by the pee (he's more used to the poo in his diaper I guess) but he really did like pulling his feet up so he was squatting on the little potty so he could have a peek at his handiwork. Weirdo. He was so proud of himself. He asked me twice for a hug while he was still on the potty. Goofy, and adorable, and I can't believe he's starting to use the potty.

My little baby boy is growing up! (Is there a way to make it stop???)

photostory

We had a technology training at school today, and I used Microsoft's Photo Story 3 for the first time. I made a quick little thing about Gavin, so I thought I'd post it. You can download the program for free here. I made this photo story at school, so I used some pictures I had on my computer here, but I am a little geeked out at all the possibilities with the pictures I have at home. It's just another way to make a slide show, but it's fun to play - why yes, I am a big nerd. :)

Oh, and the music is kinda odd, I do realize that, but I didn't take the time to go back and change it.

happy halloween!

Before we could put his costume on, Gavin had to sit for Daddy in the make-up chair.

Gavin was awesome - he was really patient and sat nicely to get his face painted. Doesn't he look great already??

Then he had to go to the wardrobe department - me - to get into his costume. Jake helped.

The hat was the final touch. It really finishes off the outfit!

Gavin was the talk of the neighborhood. Even people we don't know were commenting on how he had the cutest costume they'd seen all night. Can you blame them?


After we visited a couple of houses on our block, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the driveway passing out candy.

Gavin and his daddy are the two cutest boys I know!

We finally went inside about an hour after Gavin's usual bedtime. Can you tell he was ready for sleep? :)

He had a quick bath and was out like a light almost before his head hit the pillow. I'd say this Halloween was a success!