gavin {7 months}

WOW, it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post.  Guess that's a little sign of the busyness around here.  July is always kind of a whirlwind, and this year has proven no different.

And right before the whirlwind began, Gavin turned 7 months.

It was the day before we left for vacation, I had a million things to do, and I was so proud of myself that I somehow fit in his pictures on the right day.  It was so nice knowing I got it done before we left.

Then I got to Michigan, was totally spacing out and clearing some room on my camera, and erased every single quilt shot that I had taken.  Total downer.

So we had to re-do them last week when we got home.  I was home for 2 days before leaving for another trip, and I had a total of 5 minutes to pull this off in between every thing that was going on.

I had no time to straighten the quilt, center him on it, mess with my camera or anything.  It was a race up the ladder (so I could be high enough to get above him for the shots), and I couldn't snap fast enough before he was rolling over and sitting up.  Looking back at the pictures, almost every shot had either another child's body part in them or a dog's tail or nose.  So I had a whole 3 pictures to choose from with none of the above. Oh man, I hope next month goes a bit smoother.

Gavin,

Month 7 has been a big one for you! Wow!

You started the month with just your bottom two teeth, and you quickly got your 4 top ones all at the same time - making 6 total! When Daddy came back from Africa, his little boy's toothless grin was gone.

Actually, there were several things that happened while Daddy was in Africa. You started sitting all by yourself with nothing to help you prop up. And you took your first long car ride (6 hours) to Mema and Papa's house in Missouri. This was a special trip because it was the first time you got to meet your Great Grandma!

All month you practiced and practiced getting up on your knees and starting to rock back and forth.

We knew that you'd be crawling soon, way faster than your brother and sister (and we were right!).

But until you caught on to the crawling thing, you spent most of this month rolling back and forth across the room to get wherever you wanted to go. One morning I left you playing on the floor in your room while I switched laundry. When I came back, you were not where I left you, and I didn't see you anywhere. My heart definitely skipped a beat and I felt a sense of panic, until I saw your little feet sticking out from under the crib. I should have taken a picture, because it was so cute. You had rolled all the way under your crib to hide from mom.



 Look at those teeth!  Holy moly I can't believe this child go so many teeth so fast.

I am definitely thankful my babies have always been good teethers, or else this could have been a nightmare.

You took forever to get good at eating food. You are kind of all over the place when we feed you, never holding your head still.  So it can be quite messy.  But this month we started you on some table food too - it's much nicer when you can just pick things up and feed yourself.



You didn't want to be left out of swimming lessons this summer, so during Mason and Taylor's lessons, you got in the pool with Mommy or Daddy.  And you loved it!  You definitely love the water just like your brother and sister.

This month we also started physical therapy with you because of some tight muscles in your neck causing you to favor one side.  The technical term is torticollis.  It's just a mild case, but the doctor wanted to get it treated.  We're hoping to get it taken care of soon, Mommy's getting tired of trying to carry you on the left side of my body, I'm just not as coordinated on that side.

It seems like everything is happening a lot sooner with you, and we are wondering if we are finally going to be getting ourselves the gift of an explorer and a mover!

You're 8 month post won't be too far off little boy.  Mommy's working hard to keep up with you!