Shopping!

We had quite the day of shopping a few weekends ago! With the weather cooling off, Gavin was in need of some fall and winter appropriate clothes. The few things he had didn't really fit that well and washing them every day or every other day was getting old. So, we decided to spend the weekend together and head to the mall on Saturday.

I had made a list ahead of time to be sure we covered our bases with what we needed and I knew what stores I would prefer to check out. I was really glad to not have to go alone because trying to entertain and contain Gavin while also checking out what clothes would be good, figure out what size will fit best and last the longest would have been even more exhausting and I have no doubt it would have turned into 4 or 5 trips to try to accomplish even half of what was on my list.

Scott was a trooper, despite the fact that I know he hates shopping, he was a good sport about giving input on the things I picked out, letting Gavin roam and keeping him out of trouble and safe. We were able to pick up most of what we needed at reasonable prices and even were given a few extra deals while we were out. I consider it a complete success! We were even able to find a costume for Gavin for Halloween!

Gavin enjoyed exploring. He loved going through and under the racks of clothes. He is such a curious little boy. He has to check everything out! Scott took a few pictures of Gavin's handy work while we were in Old Navy.

After we were done shopping, we headed to a friends house for a deck warming party. They had just had a new deck built and we wanted to check it out and say hi for a little bit. It was fun and even though Gavin was clearly exhausted (and refused to nap in the car), he had fun and loved the other kids there.

Sunday was a quite day at home. It was nice to have another day together and Gavin loves those days! It is hard when we have long weekends and vacations because he gets used to seeing Scott all the time and then Scott goes back to work and Gavin has a bit of a meltdown being left behind. It doesn't matter how much fun he and I have during the day, he would always rather have Scott around!

Yet another weekend passed, but it was filled with fun!

What is this?!?!

SNOW! It was a rainy, wet, crappy day, so Gavin and I spent the afternoon at the museum. We came home to finish getting dinner ready and not long after we got home it started to snow! I think Gavin thought I was crazy because I was jumping up and down telling him it was snowing. I grabbed his snowsuit, shoes and my coat and we went downstairs to bundle up and check it out.


He was not immediately impressed. In addition to thinking I was crazy, I am sure he thought I was a total lunatic for bundling him up like this. In my defense, it was cold (mid 30's) and other than when he tried on his snowsuit to be sure it fit, he hadn't worn it yet and I was excited that he had a reason to. So it may have been overkill but that's ok, at least he was warm and looks absolutely adorable too!

He did shortly decide that snow was indeed awesome and worthy of running around trying to grab it. He also decided that jumping into puddles was awesome and proceeded to do that as well. I am certainly not ready for winter yet, but this was a fun little peak at the fun we will have when we have a real snowstorm (and he has boots, mittens and a hat under his hood)!

Museum Explorer!

We loved the Children's Museum so much, we decided we would become members so that Gavin and I could spend as much time there as we wanted. So, we have been back several times since his birthday. Gavin loves it! We get a chance to see other kids around his age and older. He loves watching the other kids and often wants to share toys which is a lot of fun to watch! He has a few favorite places he always checks out like the fire truck, the tree house and when we go upstairs, the slides. He loves the slides. He giggles like crazy as he comes down and he goes right back around to go down again.

We will be spending a lot of time there in the next year! All the museum pictures are on my phone and I can't get them off at the moment, so instead, a cute picture of Gavin exploring Scott's antenna outside.

Hmmm... interesting, I wonder what I can do with this?

It's the Great Pumpkin, Gavin!

Party day! We may not have had a big party, but with all the cleaning frenzy I was on and the decorations I made and all the normal activities of life, I am exhausted! I am sure if we had a bigger party it would have driven me to a point of no sleep and complete and utter insanity.

Scott was a huge help. He and his dad (Henry) kept Gavin busy yesterday and today so that I could work on getting food ready, finish my final cleanup, get the table set (I put up the decorations last night) and finish Gavin's dessert. A lot of work but much easier not having to keep Gavin happy and entertained the entire time too. That meant that Gavin was able to get into all kinds of things that he wouldn't normally get (namely, electronic items)...


The theme for Gavin's party was The Great Pumpkin! I came across the idea and thought it was perfect because of the time of year. Unfortunately, the party supplies are very limited (in that I found all of 4 things that worked and were actually linked to the Peanuts) so I had to create a banner, some signs, his invitations (Scott was a huge help here), place cards and how to decorate his dessert. I am certainly not creative (or crafty) but I was very proud of what little I was able to put together.








Before dinner, Gavin opened his present from my parents (sorry Mom, apparently I don't have any pictures of that). They got him some cool cars/trucks that go with a ramp that talks as the cars fall down it. Gavin loves it! He loves all the little cars but he loves that it talks when they go down (and pressing the button to make it talk). He had fun playing with that with Grandma and Grandpa while I worked on the last few things for dinner and waited for Scott to finish grilling.

For food we had artichoke dip for an appetizer and for dinner we had kabobs (barbeque chicken and beef, vidalia and red onions, mushrooms, and red and green peppers), zucchini, pasta salad and baked seasoned potato fries. For dessert we had gobs (per Scott's request) and they had orange filling and were decorated as pumpkins. The food was awesome (thanks to Scott grilling!) and Gavin even ate a ton of all kinds of things, including some of the kabobs. I don't see him eat that much and ask for more often, it was awesome!



Gavin had a personalized giant (pumpkin) gob that said Happy 1st Birthday! We sang to him while he stared down the candle. He knows how to blow (he blows on warm food with me when he eats) but he didn't quite make the connection with blowing out the candle. Maybe next year!



He wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first. I gave him a little help by feeding him a little of his ice cream and gob with a spoon.


He caught on and ate quite a bit of it and loved it! He made the huge mess that he needed to for it to be a success!

After he was cleaned up, we opened Gavin's present from the Fergusons. They got him this cool "gumball" machine. It has three ways to get the balls to the bottom opening (a key that you turn, a lever that you push and a knob that you pull) and then you can put them back in on top to do it over again. Gavin loves the balls and he loves to put them in the top and throw them all over the house. It is funny to watch them roll around on the floors (that are clearly not level since there are places the ball will roll back to you) and see where they end up. Gavin loves walking around holding them too.




Gavin's two new toys are awesome and a huge hit. He loves them both!

After all the excitement of the day and the party, it was time for a bath and bed. Good thing too! I was able to finish picking up and cleaning after he was down and then I was finally able to sit down and relax for a little bit. It was a lot of work but absolutely worth it! I am so glad we decided to keep it small and just have the grandparents here. It was the perfect size for us, our house and Gavin! We had a great time together!

Busy Bee!

I have been so busy getting ready for Gavin's party that I haven't taken as many pictures (and the ones I have taken are on my phone and I haven't been able to get them to offload, darn apple products!) so I only have two that I can share today. Gavin loves to knock things over, especially toys that have been stacked. Like his new wooden blocks. I stack them up in various ways and he loves to come over and knock them over. Sometimes he will pick a few up one at a time before he knocks the rest down, but the end result is the same. He loves destruction and to prove that gravity is certainly still around working!



That is all for now. Gavin's party is tomorrow, so I still have lots to do to prepare. I will post as many pictures as possible and lots of details!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Happy Birthday Gavin! I can't believe that an entire year has passed already! It has been a truly amazing year. I love him more today than I did a year ago when I first held him (and 8 months before that when I found out he would be joining us). What an incredible year it has been watching Gavin grow and learn. As I look back, it is hard to believe he was ever as small and helpless as he was, especially since he is now walking all over and asserts his independents regularly!

Brand new Gavin:



One Year Old Gavin (too busy to stop and smile for the camera):



We had decided that it would be fun to go to the Mid Hudson Children's Museum for Gavin's birthday. We planned to go right after lunch because Gavin normally is up from his nap by then (he sometimes still takes two one hour naps, but more often he is down to one longer nap of anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours). That didn't work out. So we had a later lunch since Gavin took an exceptionally long nap (around 3 hours) and then packed up and headed to the museum. It was a rainy day so it was perfect weather to go somewhere indoors to hang out and get out of the house. Gavin loved it and immediately started exploring the toddler area (the main floor has a section intended for babies and toddlers, another area for toddlers and older and then the upstairs that is intended for kids a bit older but toddlers can explore as well).






We spent a couple hours there and Gavin wasn't interested in leaving the baby/toddler area. Scott explored a bit and convinced Gavin to check out a few other things like the firetruck (which has buttons for a flashing light, siren and a couple of messages and a bell) and the bakery, restaurants, school, construction and ATM areas.

It was getting close to their closing time so we decided to head home so I could get dinner made. We didn't do anything fancy, just a normal dinner and we had a little ice cream after dinner. Since his party is this weekend, we decided not to do a huge dinner and dessert on his birthday this year.

After dinner, we had Gavin open his presents. We figured since he loves to eat and rip paper normally he might catch on and want to rip all the paper off. No such luck. He was more interested in other things than opening presents.


He was interested in the first present once it was unwrapped. He enjoyed eating it.


After that, he wasn't interested in opening other things, so I helped him out a little. Once everything was opened he showed more interest in things. He liked his new books, pumpkin sing a ma jig and wooden blocks. He especially loved knocking over the stack of blocks we made.





We had a lot of fun together as a family!

As for what Gavin has been up to in the last month...

Stats:

Weight - 26 pounds plus (we have his one year well baby visit on Monday for official weight).

Height - Probably 32 inches at least (we have his one year well baby visit Monday for official height).

Clothing Size - He hasn't grown out of anything in the last month but we did buy larger sizes for him for winter/spring because we are hoping he won't grow out of much during the winter. So his new clothes are a variety of 18 month, 18-24 month, 2T in sizing. It just depends on the brand and type of clothing what he needed. (Pants are bigger because he needed the length and room for his diapers since his cloth diapers are not quite as small as a disposable).

Milestones -

*Gavin is a walking machine that is working on running and climbing now. He does pretty well with running, but still often ends up taking a spill because his top half gets in front of his legs. He is getting quicker every day. I am just glad that I am still faster, for now! He is working on climbing anything that he can get a good enough grip on. He tries to climb all kinds of things but the items he can manage is small. He can climb in and out of his rocking chair, tries to use the phone to climb/reach up to higher shelves and he climbs on and off of Lightening McQueen. He tries to get up on the couch and bed but he can't quite get his legs up enough to make it. He tries to climb his high chair, shelves, the gate, anything in reach.

*Gavin is a babbling maniac. I thought he talked a lot before, but he just keeps adding noises to his vocabulary. It is really funny to have "conversations" with him now because he seems to actually be trying to say things and he points to things as he is talking. It is great. I am sure that he will be replacing the babbling with actual words and will continue to talk all day long. We have a lot of fun talking back and forth and he repeats noises back to me and I will repeat what he says too. He has added "cheese", "cluck, cluck" and "say/see it" to his actual word list. He even says cheese when I pull some out of the refrigerator now.

*Gavin and I spend a great deal of time reading every day. He loves to sit with me in his room or on the couch or in his box. Anywhere will do. He certainly has favorites but the list of books he really likes continues to grow. Unless it is a book he doesn't favor, he sits with me as we read book after book. Usually we do at least 4 at a time and quite often we read a lot more than that each time we sit down, which is at least twice and sometimes three times a day. That has become one of my favorite times of the day because I love to read, getting to share that with Gavin and get a snuggle in, it is absolutely perfect!

*Gavin loves to "help" out while Scott and I are doing things. Although it isn't all that helpful yet, it will be a lot of fun when it is. He likes to be in the kitchen while I cook and bake and usually has a spoon, whisk, spatula or some type of utensil and a container or bowl of some kind. He wants to help stir, but doesn't quite get that yet. He loves watching the Kitchen Aid while it mixes whatever we are making.

He loves to check out all of Scott's tools. He loves his drill and drill press the most. He "asks" to go downstairs several times a day to get a chance to play with that and check out what other tools are available. He loves tape measures, screw drivers, levels, hammers, anything he can get his hands on to explore. I am sure Scott will have lots of help on projects when Gavin is old enough to actually bring him tools and use them. Gavin is already attached to Scott whenever he is home, so once he can actually help, I am thinking I will have a lot of alone time.

*Gavin still just has seven teeth (three on top and four on the bottom) with who knows how many more coming in. It has been a nice break from the constant night wakings from teeth pain and the grumpy days from not sleeping and teething pain. I am sure it won't last since the rest have to come in some day.

What an incredible year we have had. Gavin is a truly amazing little boy and I am so grateful to be his mother. I couldn't ask for a better child and I look forward to all the many wonderful years to come, watching him learn and grow!

Birthday Party Preparations!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks! My compulsive cleaning and planning problem has gotten the best of me. I have been super cleaning everything I can get my hands on (and I still have things on my list to get to before this weekend). Kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, furniture, windows, floors, cabinets, shelves, walls, toys, you name it, I have cleaned, disinfected and possibly even shined it! Things I used to do yearly (if I had/made the time) I have started doing monthly and in some cases even more often than that (like windows that are now cleaned weekly since Gavin loves to touch them with slobbery fingers). It is probably an unhealthy obsession but I can't seem to let it go. Maybe there is a cleaners anonymous? I probably wouldn't go, even if it did exist. I much prefer things to be clean and organized. Thankfully, Scott doesn't mind and Gavin doesn't seem to mind either.

I have also been working on creating some decorations, invitations and planning Gavin's birthday party. Unfortunately, the theme we settled on is very difficult to find decorations for so I am having to pull from lots of places to put everything together. I don't want a lot of decorations but I want it to at least look like a birthday party and to look themed. We shall see how that turns out.

Gavin has been a trooper through all of this. He has been sleeping fairly well since he doesn't seem to have any teeth coming in at the moment. He has also been doing really well entertaining himself during the day when I need to do things (like vacuum) that I can't do once he is napping or in bed for the night.

So, a few more days of insanity and hopefully everything will be ready. Then I can return to our more typical routine and maybe get a little more sleep instead of staying up all night cleaning and making things for Gavin's party!

A couple of cute pictures of Gavin in an otherwise boring post!

Loving our Cars DVD!


Hanging out with his new favorite buddy, Snoopy! Thanks Grandma!

Apples, Pears and Pumpkins Oh My!

We had another awesome weekend together! I had been wanting to go pick apples for weeks and hadn't found a good time to do it yet so I asked that we go and combine it with pumpkin picking. We had a few things to do around the house on Saturday and the weather was going to be questionable (potential rain) when we started to plan the weekend, so we decided to go Sunday.

Saturday morning turned out to be beautiful. A welcome change from all the rain earlier in the week. Gavin was being silly with carrying toys around and exploring so I got a couple of funny pictures.


Attempting to climb Scott's desk by using his hands and mouth/teeth...


Dune buggy!


Hmmm.... this is a new angle...


Loving the view from the chair!


We had a low key day and got a few things done around the house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Sunday morning we got things ready so that after Gavin napped and we had some lunch we could head over to the farm that I always go to. There are lots of places to go apple picking and we pass at least one (maybe more) on our way and there may be lots of places that are closer. I choose to go to the same place every year because it is more than just apples. They have tons of apples, at least 15 different kinds with many long rows of trees for each, which are awesome. They also have pears, peaches, plums, tomatoes, grapes, pumpkins (what is available depends on what is ripe and in season), animals, pony rides, play village for kids, tractor rides, festivals and they have all kinds of awesome baked items they do all themselves (donuts, pies, jams, salsa, candies, etc). Plus, you don't have to pay to go, you only pay if you want to buy anything. They also encourage you to sample the fruit (just don't be excessive and wasteful). It is awesome!

So, we set off to the farm! I was so excited for Gavin to see the animals, play in the village, pick pumpkins! It was busy when we got there, busier than I usually see because I used to go earlier in the day but as we were coming in, many were clearly at the end of their visit so it worked out. We headed up to see the animals first. They changed things around a bit this year because they had some new additions to their animals. They have lots of ducks, geese and chickens, ponies, sheep (and some cute little lambs), llama, and several goats (they are really cool). Gavin wasn't sure what to make of them. I wasn't totally surprised, he has a similar reaction to most new things. Maybe next year he will enjoy it more.

After the animals, we headed over to the village so Gavin could get down and walk around. There were a lot of kids around, so we picked a house that no one was in to start with. He was very hesitant at first, but Scott walked in and then Gavin was willing to go in and check things out.


Then he made a friend. She was very sweet.


After that, Gavin realized that there was fun to be had. He watched the older kids run around and tried to keep up.


Checking out another "house"... we suspect this was intended to be a mini horse stable.




What are they doing? I can't climb like that (yet)!


I'm out of here...


We went to check out the pumpkins they had in the less crowded pumpkin patch (they actually had picked all of them and moved them so it was easier to get to them, the pumpkin patch is actually on the other side of the farm, a bit of a walk). Gavin immediately took off to explore all the pumpkins. He had a great time!


People watching but still not willing to let go of the pumpkins.



Hmmm... what's down there?


Then we picked a few apples and pears before we picked out our pumpkin. It was an easy decision on the pumpkin. There were lots of great ones but the first one we picked up was perfect. So we headed to pay (and pick up some apple cider donuts because we can't leave without some of those too!) and waited for the tractor to take us back to our car. Gavin wouldn't take his eyes off the tractor once it started up and started moving.




We headed home and Scott started working on getting the gate at the top of the stairs fully installed. We ended up needing to get one when Gavin stopped ignoring the stairs and kept trying to dive down them head first. It is a tension gate, but the extension piece that it came with made it too wide to fit the opening but without the extension the opening is too wide to get enough tension for it to be safe. So, Scott was creating clamps to mount to that will also protect the handrail. While Scott worked on that, Gavin and I played, checked out the power tools Scott was using and made dinner.

Another awesome fall weekend together has come to close. I can't wait for our next trip to the farm!