11 months

Gavin turned 11 months old last Tuesday!  I know I am a little late, but better late than never :-).

This past month passed so quickly, I barely even remember it.  Most of me is glad of that since it was the last month of tax season, but the rest of me is wondering what parts of Gavin's life I missed out on, or just don't remember.  I am hoping that my new and improved sleep schedule will help out this memory of mine.  If not, then I might start getting even more worried if I can remember to.

This past month other than hanging out with his Daddy a lot, Gavin did get to go to Wild Adventures (thanks Aunt E).  The weekend after that, he was supposed to attend his first flag football tournament, but it stormed all weekend so we sat at home instead.  The next weekend he went to visit his Nanny-Ma and Papa while Daddy went turkey hunting, which he thoroughly enjoyed and played outside a lot.  He also was supposed to have his first "big" pool experience the weekend before last, but the water was about 3 degrees above freezing.  So he sat in the tiny kiddie pool for about 15 minutes before he got bored and started crawling around looking for things to put in his mouth.  He did have his first hot dog which he almost inhaled.  He took a new approach to eating it and shaved off the sides with his teeth instead of just biting down.  Unfortunately we had forgotten our camera, so we don't have any pictures of the special occasion.

Some of the things he has done that I did remember to write down the exact dates are:
3/17 - The teacher ended up being completely correct Gavin's first bad note home  So Gavin has been drinking milk out of a cup at snack time since then.  We decided to go all out and cut out all the bottles on Sunday the 9th but then went to Target to find that they didn't carry the kind of cup he would drink out of (we only had one of that kind).  When we tried to get him to drink out of a different cup, we failed.  So we had to go back to the bottles.  I felt like such a failure!!  But don't worry, we finally found some more of them this past weekend at Wal-mart.
3/26 - 3/27 - new word "Thank you"  I know that he has absolutely no idea what it means but both Clay and I heard him repeat it after we said it on Saturday the 26th and then he did it to me again on Sunday while Clay was at church.
3/30 ish - started standing without holding on to anything.  He has gotten really good at this and will move his upper body all around but just not take one single step!
4/2 - learned to High 5 on the way home from the outlet mall in LP, probably because he was so happy to be going home
4/3 - repeated MaMa back to me, although no one was there to confirm it :-).  He has since said it in front of his Daddy, so I have confirmation!!


Some of the things he has done that I don't remember the exact dates are:
-More teeth, he is up to at least 8, all of them in the front.  He won't let me get a good look in the back, so I'm not sure if he has any back there yet.
-Has gotten REALLY good at throwing and rolling the ball to us.  I think he enjoys all the applause he gets from his goofy parents because he grins pretty much the whole time.

-His other achievement that I am not so proud of, is his ability to throw a MAJOR fit.  I mean arched back, throw himself onto the floor, screaming, banging head, fit!!  Clay and I have to be so careful not to laugh because it is so ridiculous, that it is funny.  Don't get me wrong, Gavin is so mild mannered and laid back 95% of the time, but when something happens that he doesn't like, like a diaper change for instance, he goes berserk.  I am not sure where he got his overly dramatic, stubborn personality from...  So Clay and I have to be extra vigilant and not give into any of his tantrums for fear of what it will lead to later in life, as in a year or so when he hits the terrible twos?!?!  I am still pretty scared!  Thankfully they are short-lived, not too frequent, and so far have never happened in a store or restaurant.

His monthly calendar page pictures were an exercise in patience and futility.  He is so mobile even without walking and wants to be in motion constantly that it is virtually impossible for him to sit still long enough to get a picture.  We usually have to get his ball involved or take him outside so he can play with/eat the grass.  Unfortunately for the pictures, he had just had a bath, so outside was not an option and he was extra energetic with the ball.  I wish I had space to post the whole batch of pictures, most all of them are awful but it is kind of funny because you can tell how hard we were trying to get just one single decent picture.  Oh well, I am pretty sure this is the life of a mother of an active little boy, so I might as well get used to it.

I can not believe in a less than 3 weeks we will have Gavin's birthday party!!  This year has passed by so quickly!  I never thought that being a parent would be so much fun and so exhausting.  I wouldn't trade it for anything!!

Happy Tax Day everybody!!!  :-)