8 Months Old

My sweet baby boy is 8 months old! Once again, time is just going way too fast. I hope that someday Gavin will want to look back at this blog and read about all the things he did and see all of his adorable pictures!

So, my sweet boy, this is what you are doing now:

• You enjoy sitting up and playing on your own.
• You are not too fond of tummy time because you can't figure out how to get your belly off the ground yet!
• You laugh all the time - especially when Daddy, you, and I are going upstairs at the same time - you find that hilarious!
• You are very talkative. You say "dadadadadada" often and will hold long conversations. (So, I carried you in my belly for 9 months, went through 16 hours of labor, have been nursing your for 8 months, and get up with you in the middle of the night and you can't say "mamamamama"?) *Sigh*
• You are very funny - you make Daddy and I laugh all the time with your noises and facial expressions.
• You love rice cereal and oatmeal and chow it down in the morning. But you only like it mixed with breast milk. Aunt Evie tried mixing it with water and she said you gagged.
• You hate peas. When I even get them close to your mouth you start gagging. (You're a bit dramatic, but I have to say, you come by it honestly!)
• You enjoy watching me or Aunt Evie do our old cheer moves from high school. You find it very entertaining.
• You are very fond of the dog. Bocephus is your buddy and will lay next to you and let you smack his face and pull his ears. He may be a big oaf of a dog, but he is very careful around you and likes to be near you.
• You enjoy bath time because you like to splash the water.
• Water bottles fascinate you. I think you like them more than any of your toys. (We could have gotten off so much cheaper if we would have known!)
• You wake up in a good mood in the morning. You will just talk to yourself until Daddy comes in to get you.
• Your favorite nursery rhyme is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." It makes you laugh.

You did a good job eating prunes for the first time

Enjoying "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with Daddy

Looking out the window

Such a happy little guy!

You are such a good baby. We cherish every moment with you and look forward to what's to come! We love you, Gav!!

Oh A Hiking We Will Go

The day after Halloween, my friend Courtney invited me to go hiking with her up Mt. Rubidoux. I decided that I could definitely use the exercise, so I went for it. The mountain has a completely paved road all the way up to the top (so I guess "hiking" isn't really an appropriate term). But hey, to hear me describe it, you'd have thought I hiked Mt. Everest. But it was a lot of fun and we decided to try and go every weekend.

At the base of the mountain

The view from the top

I really did go all the way to the top!

We made it!

"And my dream is for world peace." ;o)

We had such a great time, that we actually did go the following weekend. But this time, I pushed my heavy little guy in his gigantic stroller all the way up! Gavin did a great job on his first hike. Ha ha!

Gavin and Mommy at the top of the mountain

After our hike we ran some errands and then we were tired!

My Happy Little Guy

I am so terribly behind on my blogging and need to play catch-up just a bit. We have been having so much fun with Gavin lately. He is just the happiest baby - he laughs at everything and almost always has a smile on his face (except when you try to feed him peas, but that's a whole other story). I absolutely love taking pictures of him because his facial expressions are just priceless.

"I wasn't doing anything..."

"You wanna knuckle sandwich??"

"My mom is so funny!"

I love having such a sweet and happy boy, he always brings a smile to my face even when I've had a rough day. And October 26 was one of those said rough days. Gavin was scheduled to have a CT scan on his skull to see if it fused together too early. His team pediatrician and plastic surgeon wanted it done. They are not too concerned about it because his skull is not misshapen or anything, but it's better just to be sure. Well, on that particular morning, Gavin decided to wake up at 2:00 a.m. wanting to eat, but he was not allowed to have anything after midnight (or so they said - we found out later he could have nursed up to about 4 a.m. - thanks a lot for letting us know after the fact). So our poor little guy decided he wanted to nurse and since I wouldn't let him, he would just stay up and not go back to sleep. We tried everything to get him to go to sleep - including cruising the streets at 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Nothing seemed to work. He finally went to sleep about 4:45 a.m. - 15 minutes before we needed to get up. How nice.

The process for the CT scan was awful. They had to put him under general anesthesia to keep him from moving and it was absolute torture for me when they IV'd him. We had to wait outside the room and listen to him screaming during the process. I was a sobbing mess when the finally brought him out to me. I got to hold him until he drifted off to sleep and that was also difficult because his little body just got so limp in my arms. I was very happy once the whole process was all over.

Just after drifting off to sleep

That friday it was the day before Halloween so I dressed up in my high school cheerleading uniform (yes, it still fit.....sort of....breathing is so overrated). My sis brought Gavin in wearing his monkey costume and he looked so cute!

Me and my little monkey

That night we finally carved our pumpkin (better late than never, right?). It was actually the very first time Matt and I had a pumpkin in the 8 years we have been together. Gavin wasn't overly excited about it, but watching it twinkle in the dark was pretty cool.

Our very first family jack-o'lantern (such an original design - I know!)

The next day was Halloween, so that night, we went to a friend's house for a potluck. Once again, my little monkey made an appearance and was quite a hit. I think that costume was a good buy. He looked so adorable in it!!

The monkey makes his final appearance this Halloween

Pumpkin Patch and Park

I have been working on learning my camera settings so I can take better pictures. I found that it has a "close-up" setting and now I have been obsessed with taking I-can-see-your-nose-hairs type photos.

Unfortunately, Gavin must take after me because lately, I have been getting a ton of photos just like the one below. However, he looks so much cuter than I would making the same face!

When we woke up this morning, we decided to take Gavin to the pumpkin patch to select his very first pumpkin. It was so much fun and gave us lots of great photo-ops! The pumpkin patch had a petting zoo, so we took Gavin in, but he wasn't too sure about the animals. Since he grabs our dog all the time, we were sure that he would want to pet the animals, but he had more fun just watching them. They had the cutest little pig that I just wanted to scoop up and take home, but I don't think Bocephus would have liked that too much. Darn it!

"Okay, Dad, I found a pumpkin just my size!"

This facial expression pretty much sums up how Gavin felt about the hay. He wasn't a big fan.

After our trip to the pumpkin patch, we decided to go to the park. It was a fun little trip and gave our poor dog some desperately-needed exercise. Gavin had a great time watching Bocephus run around the softball field.

And, of course, I got several more shots like this one:

Gavin enjoyed wheeling around with Daddy

Bocephus was exhausted by the end of the trip. Notice the shoestring-drool hanging from his lips. Yuck!

We have had a wonderful weekend. Everyday with Gavin is a good one. He is such a happy baby and he brings so much joy to our lives. We ended the evening with an attempt at feeding Gavin carrots again (which he absolutely despised the first time) and amazingly - he did great! I am so proud of him.

"Okay, these carrots aren't so bad after all..."

"Mama-razzi, enough with the photos already. Really."

"Just give me that camera."

"This is getting old. Seriously."

I just put him to bed and again, I am so proud. For two nights in a row now, he has gone to bed without any problems. After he eats and has his bath, I have him give Daddy a kiss and then I lay him down, give him kiss, and tell him "Goodnight, I love you." And for the past two nights, he has just laid his little head down and went to sleep. What a sweet boy!

Loma Linda Visit

We had a craniofacial team appointment on Monday. Dr. Elmendorf had wanted to see Gavin regarding a head x-ray that we had done back in July. He was concerned that Gav's skull may had fused together too soon. When we arrived, I was just getting over a cold, so I still had a slight sniffle. Due to this, they sat us in a separate area and made me wear a mask. I understand the reason for it, but it is still uncomfortable when people look at you with fear in their eyes and pull their kids in closer to avoid you. You would have thought "Swine Flu" was written across my forehead. It turned out that Dr. Elmendorf was out sick anyhow, so we couldn't see him. The plastic surgeon was there, but he told the nurse that he couldn't see any detail in the x-ray and Gavin would need a CT scan done instead before he could be seen. So we left without seeing any doctors. Oh well.

Matt and Gavin kept themselves entertained while we waited to hear from the nurse

The long wait made Gavin tired and I saw this precious sight when we arrived home:

Gavin's CT scan is scheduled for October 26. I am not looking forward to it, since he cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight and his appointment is at 7:30 a.m. Like his surgery day, I guess I will just have to either keep him up late or wake him at midnight to get a last feeding in. That day is going to be rough on all of us!

7 Months Old

Gavin turned 7 months old yesterday. We love him more every day and cherish every moment as his parents. Here is some information about Gavin this month:

• He is eating baby food (though he is not too fond of it!)
• He can entertain himself for longer periods of time
• He loves to make raspberry sounds
• He is starting to scoot backwards
• He is very loving and enjoys cuddling
• He laughs when we laugh
• He loves to play

Although we started baby food, Gavin was not thrilled about it. We began with green beans, as we wanted to start with vegetables. We did five days of green beans to test for allergies, but it was torture for Gav. After that, we tried each veggie for just one day, hoping for a better reaction, but no such luck. He even gagged when we switched to fruits and gave him bananas (which I personally thought were very tasty!). Hopefully he will acquire a taste for them over time. We just keep trying every night, even if he just takes a bite or two. Here is the reaction we got with the first green bean attempt:

He does great playing by himself now. Here are some shots taken today while he entertained himself:





He enjoys traveling now, which is great! On Tuesday, we went to watch Matt play softball. Unfortunately, it was cold and sprinkling, so we were the only fans in the stands. However, Gavin didn't mind and was a great little supporter for his Daddy:

6 Month Photo Shoot (and a rough 2009)

We finally got Gavin's 6 month pictures from JCPenney's. We are so pleased! He looks absolutely adorable! I'm excited to use my new Photoshop Elements software to play around with them. But here are a few of my favorites for now.

With Halloween quickly approaching, we purchased Gavin's very first costume. Of course I had to try it on him and he looked so cute!

Our little monkey

"I love my Aunt Evie!"

On another note - this has not really been the 2009 I was hoping for. Although it started off with the best experience of my life with Gavin's birth, it also included the worst experience of my life with my mom's passing. First, losing my mom makes all these special moments with Gavin bittersweet, because I just wish she was here to experience them with me. September 29 would have been my parents' 30-year anniversary, so my sisters and I went to dinner with my dad. Here is a picture of Gavin enjoying his fingers at the restaurant:

Another reason 2009 is not turning out as I had hoped, is because Matt's grandpa was recently diagnosed with cancer. We just returned home from visiting him in the hospital. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers because we want him home soon! Matt's brother and his wife were also there visiting Papaw with their two beautiful daughters. It was nice to get our first pictures of the three little ones together. They are just too cute!

The whole gang (minus Matt who was taking the picture) from left to right: Papaw, Gavin, me, Adia, Patty (Matt's mom), Mamaw, Kristin, Madison, Jonathan (Matt's brother)

Gavin and Papaw

Adorable babies!