Homecoming 2011

Clay and I met and fell in love, pause for appropriate sighs from the audience, while both in school at VSU.  And since we still live here, we of course like to be involved in the Homecoming festivities.  Last year, since Gavin was only 5 months old, we didn't really do much other than come and hang out in Drexel Park for an hour or two where we met some friends and let the kids play on the playground while the adults chatted and reminisced.  So this year I was pumped that Gavin would be old enough to enjoy the parade and then hang out some on Saturday.

On Friday we headed up there a little early to ensure that we got a good spot to view the parade and rack up on all the candy that they throw out.  We met two of my closest friends who are also my sorority sisters and have kids somewhat close to Gavin's age.

Even though none of the girls look happy, I promise they were all having a good time!

Cheese!!

Next year I don't think we will have to go quite so early, there was hardly anyone there until right at 6, when the parade started.  The parade starts about 2 miles away from main campus, where we were set up, so the kids had about 30 - 45 minutes of play time before the action started.  I was kind of worried about Gavin trying to take off into traffic but luckily the roads were blocked off pretty early so the cars were limited and he had all those pretty girls to keep him distracted.

The parade was a hit and Gavin had lots of suckers and was very entertained by all the loud music and dancing that was taking place.

After that we went across the street to the front lawn where they were setting up for the concert and had two enormous bounce houses for the kids.  Poor Gavin wanted to bounce in one of them SO bad.  He stood at the entrance for what seemed like forever getting the courage up and then he did finally and crawled up and stuck his head in.  One look at all those big kids and there and back out he came!  Oh well, maybe next year.  Instead he had a fantastic time chasing all of the college guys trying to take their soccer and footballs from them.  They were really sweet and understanding and let him hold them a few times and run with them.  I did realize that Gavin has no fear of strangers if they are holding a football, so that is something we will have to work on.....he just runs right up to them and sticks his little hands up to them.

There were also quite a few dogs out and I was really surprised at how timid Gavin was around them since we have a 100lb dog at home that he plays with all the time.  He would yell, Dog, Dog, Dog, and try to go after them but when they would stop and come close to him, he would run the other way and try and climb up my leg.

We kept him out at least an hour past his bedtime, and he did so well!  He did not want to leave at all, but I knew we had a long day on Saturday and we needed all the rest we could get!

We didn't get many pictures at all on Saturday, there was just too much going on to distract all of us.  We started out in Drexel Park again and played around while waiting for the Sheeley bunch.  

All the strange dogs from the night before apparently got Gavin used to it so he was a little braver and actually pet the one we saw in the park.

And then walked through campus to the new Student Union Building to enjoy our free lunch for being alumni.  It was super tasty as usual and Gavin had lots of fun making a huge mess on their nice fabric tablecloths.  After that we treked back through campus and stopped by the KD tent on our way to the KA house.  I spent most of my days in college at the KA house so it is always fun to go back and see all of our friends and to remember all the fun times we had there.  My little brother is also a KA so he was there and Gavin sure does love his Uncle Dave.  Blackeyed Katie was playing and as soon as we got close Gavin started bouncing up and down and dancing his little heart out, it was so stinking cute!!  We had left our camera in the stroller across the street so we didn't get any pics.  There was one girl there who decided to take up a babysitting role and I attempted to catch them all dancing in a circle to the band with my phone! I obviously didn't quite capture it, but you get the picture.

Gavin had such a big time and was so busy playing and making all the college kids laugh that he didn't even realize he had missed his afternoon nap.  He was so punchy from all the excitement and lack of sleep, it was hilarious.  I mean seriously, look at these faces!  It looks like he might have gotten into some adult beverages, when our backs were turned :-), just kidding of course!

17 months

Our baby boy is getting so big! Every time I think about it, it both amazes and freaks me out!
Gavin currently is:

• Into EVERYTHING.  There are no limits to his curiosity, to his determination, to his inventiveness in creating a way to get to something.  There is seemingly no limit to his strength, he can pull himself up on almost anything, including our stove.  Which he did in order to get to the kitchen drawer right next to it so he could see what was in there.
• saying at least one new word a day, no kidding.  Most of them are just repeating words we say to him, but he also has a lot of words that he uses correctly.  His favorites right now are truck (anything with wheels), ball (this has been a favorite since he said it the first time), outside, mine, stop it.  The last two are usually used together and then a fit starts.  He chants stop it over and over again whenever we do something he doesn't like, for example, change his diaper, put him in his stroller, etc.  He is really quite opinionated, I wonder who he got that from.......  
• REALLY into being outside, no matter the time of day/night or temperature or weather conditions.  He throws a fit if we tell him no and gives us the saddest little face.  Like we have just kicked a puppy or something.  
• seems to be in a Mommy phase. Which I love most of the time but becomes quite stressful when I am trying to get ready for work or something else of that nature.  I know that soon enough he will be back to being all about Daddy though, so I am soaking it up while it lasts.
• Loves to play with balls, trucks, trains, animals.  Is climbing anything that he can touch or get to stand still. 
• Gives lots of hugs, kisses, and BITES.  The latter is getting all of us in lots of trouble at school so prayers  would be appreciated!!!

I did find out during our parent/teacher conference (see above bullet) that he hardly talks at all at school which I find so strange because he barely stops talking when he is with us.  She said she didn't think he really pitched that many fits either, which is completely opposite from how he is with us.  Gavin leans a bit toward the dramatic side, also not really sure where he got that from......it must be some of Clay's ancestry........ :-).  

Anyway, I took some pictures of him this morning.  He looked so cute but did not want me to put him down to take any pictures so that is the reason for the sobbing in the first two.  I just had to post them though because I thought he was so precious AND for blackmail later.

 So I decided to bribe him by letting him hold Gerry.

Then he decided he needed to hold his monkey too.

Poor Monkey was callously tossed aside

In order for Gavin to get what he really wanted......the camera!!

 One last try!

Fun with Daddy and Fingerpainting

Last weekend, I went and stayed with my Mom on Friday so my Dad could go out of town and get some Continuing Ed and a little vacation.  We decided it would be easier if Clay and Gavin stayed at home so that we didn't have to drive two cars and so we didn't have to choose between spending $50 to board Doug or taking him with us to a house already overcrowded with dogs.  I know we could have asked someone to watch him, but truthfully we had both failed to even consider the situation until late Thursday night, poor Doug has obviously moved WAY down the priority list.  So even though I was sad to leave them behind I was secretly a little excited to have some peace and quiet and get some serious reading done.....

I don't think they got into much trouble on Friday night since there isn't much time between when Gavin gets home from school and bedtime.  But Saturday Gavin got all dressed up in his camo, thanks Nanny-ma, and the guy time began.  They did lots of playing inside and tearing stuff up, racing each other around the house pushing Gavin's lawnmower and tricycle, played kickball at the park with some other kids, harassed the animals, and various other things boys love to do.  Somewhere in between all the madness my wonderful husband found time to clean the house, another good reason for me to go to T-ville alone :-).

Gavin feeding Mommy's socks to Doug

You like our "knee-high" childproof cabinet, don't you!  For some reason he can figure out the ones we paid money for, but the random, weird things we used in a pinch, he doesn't seem to mess with.  Go figure.....

 Kind of blurry, but what a precious face!

I came home Saturday afternoon and took over parenting so Clay could go hunting and have a little peace and quiet himself.

Sunday afternoon, we had pretty much done everything we could do to entertain Gavin both indoors and outdoors and were getting a bit desperate when I remembered an article or post I had saved about homemade fingerpainting.  All you needed was flour, food coloring, and wax paper and lo and behold we had all the ingredients for once!  I assumed that it would be permanent since we were using food coloring, but I didn't care at this point.  I did care enough though to make Gavin take all his clothes off, I made the mistake of teasing him about being a naked baby, even though he still had his diaper and shoes on.  Well he assumed that meant he needed to be a completely naked baby and he proceeded to pull his diaper off.  It was too funny not to take a couple of pictures off since he really reminded me of that song about The Streak.  If naked baby bottoms offend you, scroll past hurriedly.

 Poor Josh, trying to escape and Gavin trying to catch him

Just feeling the freedom, swinging his arms around

So after I wrangled him back into a diaper, we got started and the painting of everything except the wax paper began. I tried to coax him into painting on the paper by painting myself but all it seemed to do was just get me messy.  He prefered to pour the paint onto the paper and then slap it around and splatter it everywhere.  Clay was not impressed but I figured it kept him occupied so it was a worthwhile activity.

As you can see, he has already "tasted" it.  Good thing is is nothing but flour, water, and food coloring.

Uh-oh, did I just pour it on the floor??  Oh yes, yes you did.

More, more, more!!!

He had some left over peanut butter toast from lunch that I thought we could use kind of like sponge painting, trying to work on my creative side.  Silly Mommy didn't think about the fact that he would probably just dip it in the paint and then eat it.

Mmmmmm, yummy!

A colorful, happy little boy!  I was wondering what everyone at school was going to say on Monday....

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the food coloring sticks to the flour and not to the body, so after some scrubbing to get the (flour + water = glue) off he looked just like a normal boy and not a green version of a smurf.  It didn't stain anything else either, so I would recommend the project to anyone who doesn't mind a non-permanent mess and a few (many) extra carbohydrates consumed by their child :-).