Big Boy bed

The weekend that Auntie Jenn, now known as La-la, came to visit with Emma, Gavin decided to master a new milestone of climbing/flinging himself out of his crib.  This resulted in us putting his toddler bed together to hopefully keep from having to visit the ER and Gavin mortally injuring himself.

Gavin had a big time helping Clay as you can see, he wanted to make sure he was "involved" in the entire process.

 I had high hopes, since it seemed like Gavin was super excited about his new big-boy bed.

  But alas they were quickly dashed that night.  Normally we would let Gavin self soothe, aka cry it out, however with La-la and Em in the next room, we tried to keep the screaming down as much as possible.  Not that it did much good.  So after attempting to sleep on the floor with him, I gave up and brought him into our bed so that we could all get at least a few hours sleep.  The next night actually wasn't so bad, but then the night after that he got up all night long and I think ended up sleeping on the floor next to the door.  I voiced my complaints on FB, and Aunt E had a great idea of getting a nightlight for him.  Well of course, I didn't make it by Wal-mart that day and then we left for Thomasville to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I thought for sure that they change in routine and him sleeping in his pack n play, would set us back even further when we got home, but it really didn't.  He was still fighting like mad during the day any nap attempts and usually ended up on the floor by the door for short periods of sleep.  But I thought we were making progress, but then I had to go out of town for continuing education...... If I haven't mentioned it before, Gavin has grown VERY attached to his Mommy.  I think it all stems from the week we spent together without a minutes separation in Boston in September.  Anyway,  me leaving really threw him for a loop and he and Clay had two very sleepless nights last week.  And even when I made it back late Friday night, we kept him up hoping that when he realized I was home and things were back to normal that he would rest easy, he still woke up numerous times and was up for the day at the crack of dawn.  Monday night putting him down, was awful, he kept getting up screaming at the door and finally fell asleep by the door.  Neither of us wanted him to sleep there all night, so Clay had to move him to his bed which thankfully didn't result in anymore meltdowns.  Yesterday morning he was up at 4:45 and no matter what I did, he would not go back to sleep.  Finally after a couple of 5 minute power naps laying next to the door, interspersed with screaming fits, he got up for good at 6 (or maybe more accurately put, I gave up at 6).  Needless to say we were all a bit cranky :-).

I subscribe to BabyCenter and last night they sent me this email....6 major sleep mistakes most parents make Look at #6!  I am worried that this is a problem.  Clay doesn't want to go backwards but I think sleep is more important :-).  I will say that last night went SO much better, he went to bed like normal and didn't wake up during the night at all.  He did get up at 5:45, but at least that is heading in the right direction.  Hopefully all he needs is to get used to his routine again, but if he starts the waking up and not going down problems again, we are going to have to do something. I guess maybe I should go get that nightlight, huh......


Below are a couple of pics from the visit with La-la and Em.


For some reason, that Saturday Gavin refused to nap so we put them both in the stroller and walked around for 45 minutes until he finally fell asleep.  We parked them in the backyard trying to get them to nap as long as possible!

This was Gavin and Emma enjoying an episode of Blues Clues on Netflix.

18 months!

Wow, 1.5 years old!  I can't believe it!!  I don't have any pictures to post due to my being sidelined medically and in no condition to snap pictures on Saturday or any day thereafter until yesterday.  However  I do have some pictures from his first Ice Cream truck experience a week prior.  I apologize, they were taken with my phone, so the quality isn't great.

I am happy to report, that Gavin is a lover of Orange Push-Ups just like his Mommy!!!

Gavin also had a super good report at his 18 month well visit on Tuesday.  He is at 90th percentile for weight as usual at 29.5 lbs and 75 percentile for height at 32 inches tall. Dr. Griner says that at Gavin's current height he will be at a minimum 5'11 to 6 ft tall which is what we figured since he seems to be taking after my brother who is 6'4.  Gavin's vocabulary is also expanding daily, and his comprehension is outstanding, in fact Dr. Griner said that it was so good, we should notice him giving us clues in the next month or so that he is ready to be potty trained and that he expects that he will be completely potty trained by 2 years old!  I am scared to even get my hopes up just a little!

One thing he has started doing is saying I love you, without us saying it first, which is so wonderful, and makes our day EVERYTIME!!  Just like on our way to school this morning, we were both being quite, lost in our respective worlds when Gavin said, "I love you Mommy"!  Aww, I sure do love that little boy!!!

There are so many things that I know he has done this past month or that I wanted to say but for the life of me, it just isn't coming through right now, must be leftover fog from all the medications I took over the past week.  Anyway, this weekend,Auntie Jenn and Emma are coming to visit, so I should have lots of pictures next week and lots to report!

Halloween Festivities

We did not wait until the last minute this year for Gavin's costume, in fact we had it like 6 months early!  Gavin's Granny Kay, a sweet lady that works with me, has a grandson a little older than Gavin but a lot smaller.  So she gave us his costume that he wasn't able to wear last year because it was so stinking hot.  Well our prayers were answered and it was really cool, cold in fact this year which is fairly unusual.

We started the festivities out on Saturday with Gavin "helping" Clay carve one of the pumpkins.  Gavin got bored pretty quickly as toddlers always do and started hindering the process more than helping.  But it was a nice bonding couple of minutes for my two favorite people.

That afternoon we went to watch the GA/FL game with some friends who ended up missing most of the game because one of their sons had broken his wrist and they were at Youth Care.  I guess the Lord felt sorry for them because GA actually won this year!!!!  We closed up the evening at a Trunk or Treat party where Gavin got to try out his costume.  This video below is right after I wrestled him into it

Meeting one of the other puppies.  This is one of his "girlfriends" Hailyn, she is so cute and sweet.  It's like they are silently telling each other, I can't believe they got you in this costume too!  I thought you were stronger than that, you poor sap!

This is the closest we could get to all three puppies being in the same picture.  None of them would hold still for even a second!

Gavin and the real puppy, checking each other out.

Isn't Clay super talented?!? This is the pumpkin he and Gavin were working on earlier.

Sunday we went to the church's fall festival.  I was so excited about Gavin getting to ride the pony.  Apparently he is of the mindset that dogs do not ride ponies, and how dare we even attempt it.

We didn't stay there long.  Poor Clay had an eye infection and he was miserable!  We also didn't get many pictures because I was working the registration booth and it is impossible to take a picture of Gavin while also chasing him around, you definitely need two people.

With Halloween being on Monday this year and Clay having a meeting he had to be at, we decided to stay at home and not go trick or treating.  I wanted Clay to be with us the first time Gavin got to go.  So I got Gavin dressed up and we sat out on the porch and handed out candy, by this time he was actually enjoying being in his costume and all of the attention he got.  Well luckily Clay got home in enough time for us to hit our 3 closest neighbors.  One of which has a precious little girl who is about a year younger than Gavin.  She dressed up like a cat and we got a couple of cute pictures of them together.

Don't you try and take my candy!

Did you see her try and take my Skittles!

Will you please make her give me my Skittles back....

Thankfully I have several years before girls become more important than candy to Gavin :-).  All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, minus poor Clay and his eye infection.  I think next year Gavin will be ready for some serious trick or treating so watch out everybody!

Pumpkin Patch

Well we started this year out just like last year with a last minute trip to the Pumpkin Patch at one of the local churches.  This year, Gavin was way more interested in the pumpkins than he was last year, although he kept calling them balls and then trying to throw them.....thankfully I caught most of them...... But just like last year, he was super uninterested in getting his picture taken and refused to look at the camera unless it was by accident.

Announcer: "He is looking at the basket, before attempting to make the shot.  Ready, set, catch it Mom before you have to pay for it!!"

1st attempt at a posed picture

2nd attempt to get a picture, results worse than the 1st attempt

Third attempt......

Finally this sweet man, felt sorry for us and came and took a picture of all three of us and I guess because he wasn't Gavin's parents, Gavin actually looked at him when he asked him to.  Oh well, beggars can't be choosers!

So we left with 3 pumpkins, one for each of us.  Gavin had already broken the stem off of his before we even got out of the parking lot.

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!