2nd year and Birthday weekend

Gavin has changed so much over this past year.  It is hard to believe all the things he does now!

He is super talkative and most everything is understandable although he gets some of the letters in the words jumbled or reversed for example blue, he says bulah.  Or some he doesn't start out quite right, for instance lap, he pronounces as yap and crown he pronounces as fown.  But then he will go on these tangents where he is apparently holding a very animated conversation with an imaginary friend or just with himself, where he seems to be speaking in another language :-).  Along with his language developments he has also developed quite the bossy streak!  Earlier this week he told me, "Mommy, Mommy, sit down......NOW!"  Complete with the pause , I couldn't believe it!!!  Most of the time it is really amusing, but I am confident that it will begin to be un-amusing very soon.

He has also really gotten into singing songs lately.  We sing the Mickey Mouse song, the intro to Elmo's world, ABCs, Row, Row your boat, Old McDonald, and the blessing "God our Father".  I have to get a video of him doing that, it is so sweet!

Things he currently loves:
Tractors
Trains
Trucks
Being outside
Slides
Anything he can ride on
Coloring
Play doh
Wrestling with his Daddy
Books
Baths

Favorite foods:
Baked beans (especially from Smokin Pig)
Bananas
Apples
Chicken Nuggets
Chippies (any kind of chips)
Green Peas
Mandarin Oranges

On the Friday before his birthday we showed up at his school for a little birthday party with his class.  Clay and I had made these cookie frogs from Oreos, pretzels, and M&Ms.  They turned out super cute although I don't really think they look much like frogs since they are dark brown.

 Then once we got home he wanted to play in the "cars" and he happened to find one of his birthday presents from Mrs. Angie.  He was SUPER excited about it!

 From the looks of it, he may be a much better golfer than baseball player though.....

Saturday morning we had pancakes for breakfast and then headed to Jump-n-Jacks for a little birthday edition of how tired can we make Gavin so he will take a good nap??  I never get good pictures when we go there, not sure if it is our camera or if it is just a fact of life because he is moving so fast....

I know this is not a very becoming picture, but it made me laugh pretty loud when I was just going through them deciding which ones to post.....bad Mommy!

After that it was time for a Mickey D's Happy Meal and a NAP!  Mom also took a nap so Clay was saddled with the majority of the responsibility for putting together the turtle cake we had made.  It was my idea and I baked it and made the icing but Clay gets most of the credit for the rest of it.  I have trouble icing anything without getting crumbles everywhere and I figured he would do a better job of cutting out the shapes.  I will say that we should have just gone back to the store and gotten the green fruit rollup or Starburst things instead of trying to use food coloring on the Tootsie-Rolls.  But all in all I say it was a huge success!!

After Gavin woke up it was time to head to the park to meet the all the cousins and the McCrary's who just so happened to be in town last weekend!

Gavin getting pulled around in his present from Clay's Dad by his cousin Kaleigh

 Gavin's spider monkey cousin Charleigh

Gavin and all his girl cousins, who adore him!  As you can see he is more interested in the cake than he is girls, which makes Mommy super happy!

I feel like he is saying, "I CAN DO THIS!!!" to himself :-)

Papa offering a little sideline assist

 I just loved this one, that face is priceless!

Sunday Papa Waldron and MeMe came to visit for Mother's Day and to bring Gavin his present.

It took who I consider to be three very smart men, a significant amount of time to put this little truck together.....

 Gavin doing his own sound effects, vrrroooooommmmmmm

Daddy's sunglasses complete the scene

Time for a little healthy competition between Gavin and MeMe or should I say Papa and Uncle Dave :-)

After the loss, Gavin decided to take matters into his own hands, since Papa was apparently way too slow

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday weekend for Gavin I think and he got tons of presents that should hopefully keep him entertained during those long hot Saturdays and Sundays.

Oh and Gavin had his 2 yr well visit today and he is currently:
34 3/4 inches tall in the 65th percentile, which is REALLY weird because at his last visit 6 months ago he was in the 75th and he has grown 2 3/4 inches since then!
His weight was 32 lbs, which was in the usual 90th percentile
And his head was 20 inches around, big ol noggin!!

Gavin's 1st Dance Recital and Fun with Mommy at the Park

Gavin's cousin Desiree had a dance recital this past weekend and since I LOVE dance stuff, I was overjoyed that Clay agreed to go especially since it didn't start until Gavin's bedtime.  I wasn't holding out much hope for being able to stay much longer than her first dance so I was overjoyed when I realized that Gavin was enthralled!!  He just stared and stared at all the dancers and clapped his little hands to the music!  It was so stinking cute.  There was even a little boy in the recital so I am using that as further proof that it is a good idea for Gavin to take dance for at least a year to see if he likes it.  I have not completely sold Clay on the idea, but I have a couple of years to win him over :-).

Clay ended up having to go to Ft. Valley with his Dad at midnight to fix an ice machine and didn't get home until 7:30 Saturday morning.  So Gavin and I packed up and headed to the park so that Daddy could get some much needed sleep.  It was super hot, but we managed to amuse ourselves and stay hydrated enough to give him about 2 hrs.

Gavin insisted that I go down the slide with him......

We finished up the day with swimming and yummy quesadillas with the Singletarys, but unfortunately I completely forgot to take a single picture....

This weekend, my precious little boy turns 2!!!  I can not believe how this year has flown by, it makes me sad to think about how fast he is growing up.

Catching up-April

Yikes! I just realized it has been over a month since I have posted!  I will try and condense as much as possible.

Easter
Clay and I traveled to Gainesville to see his Mom, so Gavin spent Easter with our wonderful friends, the Singletarys and Aunt Zi.  They were so sweet to him, they even had an  Easter bucket for him with lots of stuff, since his terrible Mommy completely forgot.  

Looks like he really misses us, doesn't it.....

The wonderful Easter bucket they made him!!

All dressed up and ready for church, aren't they absolutely adorable!!!

All tuckered out from Easter egg hunt #1

Thankfully we made it back in time to witness Gavin hunting Easter eggs for the second time that day.  He wasted NO time in getting down to business, let me tell you!

 All I know is that we have a LOT to live up to next year.  But what a wonderful blessing it is to have such incredible friends!

Gavin also spent the next weekend with them so that Clay and I could go back to Gainesville and be there for the rest of his family, when his Mom passed on.  The next week was pictureless and filled up with all the things that come when a loved one dies.


Isn't this just the sweetest picture!!

Family portrait on the cheap.....

The video below is of Gavin and Clay playing with a balloon.  It is kind of long but just listen to Gavin's laugh, it is so adorable!

The weekend before last, we went to Quitman so that we could go fishing and Gavin could "drive" us around.  It was hotter than the 3rd level of you know where, so Gavin was over the "fishing" within 5 minutes.  I managed to loose a couple of good sized fish and Clay caught 2, so not a wasted trip in the least!