26 Months Old

My sweet boy,

You are now 26 months old and you are just more and more fun with each passing day! You are so smart and have such a sweet disposition. You are incredibly polity - saying "please," "thank you," "excuse me," and "sorry" at all the proper times. People are always surprised when they learn that you just turned two. You have your "terrible two" moments, of course, but they are so few and far between. I think if all kids were as easy as you, the world would be far over-populated! Daddy and I love you to pieces, Gav! Here are some new or just cute things about you this month:

• I think this probably should have gone on a previous milestone post, but by now, you know all of your colors: red, orange , yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, gray, and white.
• You can now put your pj's on by yourself with very little help. I only help by "opening" your pj bottoms and shirt so you can pull them on (I also help pull the bottoms up over your little diapered tush since that can be a bit difficult).
• While putting on your pj's one day, you said, "Did it self! Proud of you!" Hmmm...that must be something you hear Mama say pretty often. Hee hee!
• You absolutely made my day one day when you said in the sweetest and most sincere little voice, "Mama's pretty!" I have never felt better about someone calling me pretty in my life! Thanks, Gav!
• Your final two teeth - the upper and lower ones on the cleft side - started to come in last month. So you finally have all of your teeth!
  
  
• One day, you didn't take your nap until 5:30 and by 8:00, when you usually go to bed, you were still napping! I had to wake you up to eat and get ready to go back to bed and I said, "You took a loooong nap!" and your response was, "Yeah. It's fun!"
  
  
• You got sick with croupe on Mother's Day, so we ended up in Urgent Care.
• While I was carrying laundry downstairs one day, you followed behind me and said, "Careful!"
• While going downstairs another time, you asked me to carry you, so I picked you up and you said, "Hold it tight!" Geez, did you think I was going to drop you or something? And since when do you refer to yourself as "it"?
• You are a super picky eater and if it wasn't for "pudder jelly" (pb & j) and bean and cheese burritos, I think you would starve.
  
  
• When you are tired, you will fall asleep anywhere, and I mean anywhere.
  
  
  
• You are an extremely polite child (which makes Daddy and I soooo happy!). You say "please," "thank you", "excuse me", and "sorry" when necessary. But most recently (and my personal favorite), when you meet people, you shake their hands and say, "Nice 'a meet you." It is so stinkin' cute! You impressed the heck out of all of our friends when you shook their hands at a recent party.

I know I am missing tons of things that you can actually do this month, but I guess that's what happens when I'm nearly two months behind on my milestone posts. I'm really trying to get caught up (which is one of my goals since I'm off for two weeks for "summer break"). Anyway, thank you, Gav, for making Daddy and I smile everyday. You are our little sunshine and we absolutely love you to pieces!

We love you, Gav!!

5 Year Anniversary

Matt and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary on April 29. We went to Pechanga for the weekend to enjoy a little getaway. We were accompanied by friends of ours who we met while on our honeymoon cruise. We hit it off with them and ended up keeping in touch over the years, doing another cruise together and even getting pregnant at the same time (their son is exactly one week older than Gavin). We really enjoyed the weekend. We spent the day lounging by the pool sipping piña coladas and in the evening, we went out for dinner and dancing. I can't believe we have already been married for five years. The time has flown by and each year only gets better. I adore my hubby and am so thankful to have such a wonderful man. Seeing him with Gavin has only made me love him more. He is an amazing Daddy, husband, and friend. Here's to five years and many more anniversary's to come!

April 29, 2006 in Fallbrook, CA

April 29, 2011 at Pechanga

Craniofacial Team Visit

On April 25, we had another craniofacial team appointment. We were scheduled to meet with four team members, but the plastic surgeon was absent, so we just met with the speech pathologist, dentist, and pediatrician.

Once we walked in the building, Gavin quickly realized where we were and his fear of doctors set in. He began crying, "Go home! Go home!" He was terrified and the mommy in me just wanted to scoop him up and drive home as quickly as we could. I was holding him and telling him that it was going to be okay, but he wouldn't calm down. The other parents were giving me looks like they were hoping we would leave, and honestly, I wanted to thumb my nose at them! We waited about 45 minutes before going in and once we were alone in the room, Gavin was fine. He was in good spirits as long as no "doctors" were in there with us. Since his speech is so amazing, I was anxious to hear what Heather--the speech pathologist--was going to say this time. Unfortunately, Heather was out on maternity leave so we saw someone new. However, after asking some questions and hearing Gavin talk a bit, she determined that he is definitely advanced with his speech and is on the high end for everything speech-related. Woo-hoo, Gavin!! I was so proud of him. I knew his speech was pretty amazing, but to hear a speech pathologist confirm it was very nice. She said that he should be saying 2-3 word sentences by this time and he was saying 5-7 word sentences!

Later, we saw the dentist, who said that everything looked good and that we should continue brushing his teeth twice a day.

Our final visit was the pediatrician. However, Gavin was ready to go home before he arrived. I told him that we still had to see one more doctor and our conversation went like this:

Gavin: "Doctor go?" (Translation: Where did the doctor go?)

Me: "I don't know, bud. He should be here in a minute."

Gavin: "Doctor hungry, he go home. Eat burrito - beans and cheese."

I laughed hysterically! I couldn't believe he was actually trying to get me to believe that the doctor went home to eat so we'd better just go home ourselves. What a smart little guy!! Then, when the doctor arrived a few moments later, Gavin quickly ran over to the little kid-sized chair, laid his head down and made snoring noises! So I said, "I'm sorry, Dr. Elmendorf, Gavin's sleeping, I guess you can't visit with him today." He found that quite humorous! When I told him about the burrito story, he laughed so hard and asked, "Are you sure he's only two?" He said that for someone who just turned two to be making up stories is remarkable. He said he was going to share the burrito story with his wife later because she would just love it.

Once we got down to business, Dr. Elmendorf said that Gavin should be taking a multi-vitamin (which he is now doing). Also, after sharing my recent discovery of my hearing loss, he told me that research has shown that certain types of hearing loss have been linked to a chromosomal defect. Therefore, I may have inherited the hearing loss from my mom, who may have inherited it from her dad (both wore hearing aids), and unfortunately, there is a chance that I may pass it on as well. At this point, I hear well enough that I don't feel hearing aids are necessary, so I guess only time will tell when it comes to my hearing. And, Gavin seems to hear just fine at this point, so once again, time will tell.

Anyway, overall it was a good team visit. Getting confirmation from two of the team members that Gavin is advanced was very nice! I knew he was a genius, but it's always nice when others recognize it as well (hee hee!). I just hope the team visits will get easier on Gavin as he gets older.

Easter 2011

We had such a fun Easter! Gavin started the morning by searching for the goodies the Easter Bunny had brought him. He looked under the coffee table first and then he looked behind the couch and... there it was! I guess the Easter Bunny didn't hide it very well! Next year it might be a little tougher! Gavin was so excited and loved going through all the little treasures he received.

Later, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for an Easter egg hunt in their backyard and some egg painting. Gavin had a blast! He loved searching for the eggs in the backyard and would even tell us what color they were as he picked them up.

After the egg hunt, Gavin got to paint Easter eggs for the first time. It was so much fun for us to see how much joy it brought to him! Luckily, Grandma is very prepared and had a large plastic table cloth for us to use for the occasion (which came in handy when one of the cups filled with egg dye got knocked over). At one point, Gavin plopped an egg in a cup of dye and said, "Egg's swimming." Hmmm... Well, yes, Gavin, the egg is swimming. Good observation.

After dying the eggs beautiful Easter pastels, Gavin decorated some of them with stickers. He did a great job decorating his eggs and we are so thankful for our sweet boy who makes all the holidays so much more fun!