gavin {14 months}

Man, I forget how much changes in just a few months with babies.  Gavin has lots of new things to share with you since our last post at the end of November.

This boy doesn't stop.  He hardly sits down and pauses for anything.  I know this is typical for boys, but Mason wasn't like that, so this is a first for us.  He gets into everything, opens cupboards, drawers, pulls things out of my purse, off tables and counters, and will not stay out of my bathroom cupboard where all my nail polish is.  He has broken one bottle already, by dropping it on the floor, but the others seem to be holding up fairly well.  And he's already trying to run.
It's crazy that our 3rd child is the one who is teaching us the most about being on our toes and knowing where he is at all times.  He is way more curious and on-the-go than the other two were.
But I love the way that he will stop in an instant after running wild, to sit down and snuggle in with me for just a few seconds.  And then he's off again.

His newest thing is climbing on the dining room table.  On this particular day, I turned around to see that he had climbed up only because Taylor and Mason were eating a snack that he wanted to be a part of too.  He definitely helped himself.  Ranch dressing and lots of dipping was involved.

 

 

The only words we've heard him say are mama and 'ruff', and sometimes dada.  He is definitely making other sounds like's he's trying to say something, but we have yet to figure it out.

But he does use some sign language quite a bit. His favorite is please and pretty much uses it for everything. But he also signs 'all done' and 'more' , and then he made up his own sign for "gimme gimme". 

 

  

Meal time is my least favorite time of the day with this kid. I can't seem to find much that he will eat. And he seems to think that throwing his food, plate, and sippy cup on the ground is pretty cool. He doesn't "accidentally" drop them. He slings them on the ground as fast and hard as he can. It's kind of exhausting. I would try the whole "take it away, and don't give it back" method, but I'm afraid he wouldn't care if he gets it back to eat or not.  If I could feed him yogurt and oatmeal all day, he'd be happy. And ice cream too. 

He moved to the big table just this week.  I still have the highchair sitting close, I may be in denial that it's time to pack it away.

 

 

He still sleeps like a champ.  Best baby ever.  If I am remembering right, he has woken up 1 time in the night since his first 8-10 weeks.  And that was on Christmas Eve.  I was nervous it was because he was getting sick, but I think it was because he was on complete overload.  He still naps twice a day, but can go without the morning nap if he has to.  I'm just recording the fact, I promise I'm not bragging.  He's also turned much more cuddly than he was his first year.  We never really rocked him as a baby, he never liked it.  He just wanted to be laid down.  But he does enjoy rocking now, but only because I think he's at the age that he knows it prolongs him having to be put to bed.  The things these kids figure out.

He wants to be held more than I remember Taylor and Mason wanting.  And he is 100% a Daddy's boy.  The minute Dave comes home from work, he moves his legs as fast as they will carry him to greet him, and then insists on not being let down.  Daddy loves it too, but it definitely makes it hard to take a shower.  When he hands him off to me, even if it's just for a second, Gavin throws the biggest fit.  He screams at me and kicks for me to give him back to Daddy.  He wants nothing to do with me, even though he wanted everything to do with me all day long.  Daddy has been known to take him to the bathroom with him and close him in there with a snack, just so he could stay close.

 

He's beginning to really love books.  His favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and a tractor book.  He brings them to me, grunts as he gives it to me, and then climbs into my lap.  It's a nice little perk to have another reader and almost a 2nd one! to read to him also.  

 

He loves anything electronic that he knows he shouldn't have.  Like the kids' mp3 players, our phones, and the remotes.  Oh, the fight we have with remotes everyday.  You'd think we would have figured out where to keep them out of his reach by now.  But somehow he runs off with remotes over and over again, every day.  There are 3 of them, so by the time I think I've rounded up 1 or 2 of them and have them out of reach, he's already grabbed the 3rd and is off and running.  His favorite thing to do with them is throw them through the banister, down the stairs.  We've lost one remote for good already, it probably went into a trash can or something and is gone forever.

 

 He loves to follow his big brother and sister around everywhere!  He's good enough at stairs now (being carpeted helps) that he can go up and down on his bottom and stay right where they are.

He especially likes to go to the basement to play.  There have even been a few times that Dave and I have realized that all 3 kids have been downstairs playing together for quite some time.
But he also loves the bathroom sink, and anyone else's toothbrushes that he can get his hands on. I pick up a random toothbrush somewhere in the house every day.  And just yesterday he inherited his brother's tool bench.  I wasn't sure that he'd even care or know how to play with it, but he loves it so far!
 

 

He loves to dance and play in the bathroom sink.  If we tell him to sing he'll say "lalala".

And his newest thing is shaking his head yes.  He hasn't quite learned the no thing yet.  Although when it comes to food, he is great about hitting things out of our hands that he doesn't want or fiercely turning his head the opposite direction and waving his hands like he's say "get that away from me!".

 

He's a happy little boy despite some of the ongoing annoying stuff he has to deal with.  We'll be making a visit to the allergist next week, and at the beginning of March, he'll have a surgery done to his tear duct system to place tiny silicone tubes in to open the entire system up.  We are praying this is the fix to this little guys constant red, dry and irritated eyes.  It should be a pretty easy procedure, probably harder on Mom and Dad to hand him over and have him be put under more than anything else.

 

 

 

 

I have a feeling this spring and summer will be quite interesting with this little one running all over the place.  He is all boy. Dirt, leaves, sticks, rocks, balls, anything that moves...he goes from one thing to the next, to the next.  I hope we can figure out his sensitive skin so he can actually enjoy the outdoors.

It amazes me at how hard and long it took for us to decide to have baby #3 (well, it felt like forever, since our first 2 are 16 months apart, but I know 4 years may not seem that long at all to others). But I look at this sweet boy and wonder what on earth life would be like without him.  There was a place for him all along in our family, before we even knew it.  And he fits that little place so perfectly.