15 months old

Gavin turned 15 months old on the 12th! I can not believe he is already 1/3 of the way through his 2nd year of life.  It's weird because although these 15 months have passed by so quickly, it seems Gavin has been a part of our lives for ever.  Clay and I love that little boy, more than is almost imaginable!

Over the past month Gavin has gotten to ride his first tractor, gotten his first haircut, and spent some time with his Me-me and "cousin" Sampson in Thomasville.  He has also started to really be interested in books and enjoy having us read to him, which makes me so excited!  I am such a big reader, and I have been so worried that Gavin wouldn't enjoy it and reap all the benefits from reading, since up until this month he really has shown zero interest.  His favorite books right now are:
Touch and Feel the Baby Animals (the pictures of the animals have fake fur)
Goodnight Moon (my favorite when I was little)
Baby at the Farm
5 Little Ladybugs

Gavin has started using a real fork at dinner and actually is doing pretty well with it, although he opts for his fingers after a few minutes.  He had been using a baby plastic fork but those things are impossible to actually use as a fork and he kept tossing it over the side and then reaching for our forks.  It is really interesting to see how much he really wants to do exactly what me and Clay do.  So we let him try a salad fork and he started to stab his food and put the food in his mouth.  Proud Mommy moment!  I know it seems super silly to those without children but you would be so surprised at all the things that make parents proud :-).

Gavin has always been a talker, but he seems to be attempting to communicate with us more verbally, which causes frustration on both sides since we really can't understand a lot of it.  Some of the new words we can understand though and he is using appropriately are:
Deer
Amen
Aww-man (sound the same as Amen, but he says this sometimes when he drops stuff)
Doug-doug (all dogs are doug-dougs, we realized this when he kept calling my brother's dog Sampson Doug-doug)
Gavin is also repeating words that we say to him.  Which means we have to start being more careful about what we say.....or maybe I should rephrase that as I need to be more careful about what I say.

Gavin has really upped his game in the tantrum department, we had our first in store tantrum earlier this month.    It was so hard to not cave into the flailing boy on the floor screaming his head off because we wouldn't let him run rampant all over Old Navy!  We got many smiles and understanding looks from the other parent's in there.

Clay took Gavin to his 15 month checkup and he got all his shots.  His stats are
Height - 32.5 inches 90%
Weight - 27.5 lbs 90%
Head - can't remember the measurement but he was still in the 95%
So in the past three months Gavin has grown 2 inches and gained .7 pounds.  Our little boy is getting so tall and really starting to slim up.

The pictures below are at my parent's house and the dog is my brother's Doberman puppy, who LOVES Gavin and Gavin loves him.  Sampson is so tall that he could rest his head on the table, right next to Gavin's plate.

So sweet!

Gavin depositing his food on Sampson

BFF's at the dinner table

First Haircut

Gavin has needed a haircut since he was probably six months old, but I refused to get it cut until after he turned 1.  Well right after that Clay's Mom went in the hospital and the family barber went with her.  Clay's Dad was a barber way back in the day and we thought it would be special for him to give Gavin his first haircut.  So we waited until this past weekend when Clay's Dad was available.

Clay took some really cute pictures of him in the car that day that will kind of give you a good before/after comparison.  Although it is really the back of his hair that was super long.  Luckily it was curly so it didn't really look like the mullet that it actually was.

 This is really the only one that shows how long his hair was.  The other ones are just cute :-).

 This is a not so great picture but does give a good before shot.

 Getting ready in the big boy chair.  After this we decided it would probably be best for Clay to hold him.

Clay's Dad put a cape on him and everything.

Below is a video starting about half way thru.  I thought that my camera had been recording the entire time but then realized it hadn't.  It is a good thing that Clay's Dad has so much experience because Gavin moved his head SO much, he could have seriously gapped him up.

After shot with all three generations

I just can not get over how different he looks!  He looks so grown up!

I would like to ask everyone to continue to pray for Clay's Mom.  She is home for 3 weeks of intense rehab and dialysis before going back up to Emory on the 15th to be evaluated again to see if she is ready for surgery.

Our Little Explorer

Clay is reading this book called Wild Things The Art of Nurturing Boys and according to this book, boys Gavin's age are Explorers and they need to be outside exploring stuff everyday.  So we have made a more concerted effort to make sure he gets outside exploring time everyday, even if it is 150 degrees outside.

So two weekends ago, while I was at a board retreat, Clay and Gavin went and drove a tractor.  It has an enclosed cab so I wasn't worried about him falling off and apparently they had quite a big time!  Clay said Gavin was silent for an entire hour, which is unheard of.  Below are some pictures of him after they put the tractor back up.

Pretty sure this is him eating dirt that he took off the tire :-).

And it looks like he is saying "Shhh.  Don't tell Mom"

And then last weekend we decided to pack a picnic lunch and went to Langdale Park so he could explore in some real woods.  Let me tell you he had so much fun, I don't think he sat down the entire time we were there except for when he sat down in the mud right by the water.

We attempted to eat lunch first but Gavin was so distracted and slow we decided to let him just eat as he went.  He kept tripping on all of the tree roots with his peanut butter sandwich in his hand, so I am afraid he got more sand in his belly than bread or peanut butter.

After this his shorts were wet and nasty so we took them off and just let him play in his diaper.  It was such a pretty day out there and thankfully the shade of the trees made the heat much more tolerable.  If it hadn't been for the gnats, I think we could have stayed out there a lot longer.

Below is him running and trying to eat at the same time.  

 And of course the subsequent fall with his sandwich being mashed into the sand.
 

 My dirty little angel

We wanted to walk some trails but Gavin did NOT want to ride in his stroller and seemed perfectly content exploring around the picnic areas.  

This past weekend, we finally got to go to the Farm Days downtown, but I didn't get any pictures.  There really wasn't any picture opportunities and after we bought Goat Milk Soap, Peach Jelly, Homemade Salsa, and Local Honey, we decided it was probably time to go.  Gavin had a great time getting samples at all of the stands.