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