Gavin....

I'm not exactly sure where or how to start this blog post but all I know is that my son sure makes me smile. Maybe I should start with how my days usually begin. 

So, Gavin still sleeps with Matt and I. I always told myself I refuse to let my child sleep in bed with me but it happened. Matt was deployed the first month of Gavin's birth and since he woke up every few hours to nurse, it was just easier to have him in bed with me. I could have gotten him use to his bassinet but it was such a comfort to have him next to me. So, fast forward 15 months and he's still sleeping in our bed. Matt and I love it though. He's such a bed hog and cuddle bug and when he stays the night at his Mimi's house and we do have the bed to ourselves all we can talk about is how much we miss our bed bug and we don't sleep as well. Weird, I know, but this is what Matt and I love. Though, we both have agreed that when we have a second child we will put the baby straight in his/her crib and not even do the whole bed thing. We will see if that even happens!! ;) I'm sure I will break down and bring he/she in our bed when Matt works nights.

Anyway, I didn't sleep at all last night. I mean... literally did NOT sleep!! I had so much running through my head. Gavin has been waking up a lot earlier than normal. I have his pack 'n play in our room because we intended to have him start sleeping in that to get him use to sleeping alone but still in our room but that hasn't happened. Lately, I've been extremely tired and with Gavin waking up extra early, I've been sticking Gavin in his pack 'n play,  turning on Yo Gabba Gabba, and going back to sleep as long as he will let me. He usually lets me sleep for another hour before he wants breakfast. This morning he woke up, got out of bed, came to my side of the bed, grabbed the remote and placed it in my hand. This is how I woke up. He wanted to watch Yo Gabba Gabba!! He let me sleep for two hours this morning before waking me up to eat breakfast!! It makes me smile with how sweet he is. He normally wakes me up with a hug and kiss and saying "hiiiiiiii" in the sweetest voice imaginable. We get up and have our bowl of oatmeal and we play. Lately, he's been refusing to take naps. He fights them so bad that I have to lay in bed with him and hold him down. He kicks and screams until he finally passes out. It's so funny to watch him fight it because his eyelids are so heavy and he starts to fall asleep and then he catches himself and tries to do whatever to keep himself awake. He is such a stubborn kid. I have no clue who he gets that from!! ;)

Our days usually consist of us playing and watching cartoon movies non-stop. He's been extremely affectionate lately. He will go play with his toys and then randomly come over to me and give me a hug and kiss!! He makes my heart melt. I had no idea becoming a mommy would be my life's greatest joy!! He's also obsessed with dancing. Every time he hears a catchy tune he drops whatever he's doing and gets up and shakes his booty!! He's quite the dancer too. I think he gets his love of dancing from me. Though his daddy loves to dance but not as much as I do!! As I type this we are watching Hairspray and he just loves this movie with all the music!! Other things he's obsessed with include his blankies, lights, and brooms. He can't leave the bed without all his blankies. Whatever he see's is what he grabs. He even gets this excited giggle when he gets them. He walked into our bedroom today whining for his blankey and when I started to walk in there with him he started to laugh with such excitement!! It just made the extreme exhaustion that I feel go away!! He loves playing with the broom. Matt hasn't been putting it away after he brooms off his car in the morning. He's just been putting it by the front door. Gavin finds it and tries to sweep. At least I'm getting some extra help around the house!! Hahahaha... He's constantly pointing at lights and saying "light" or "pree light". He's such a smart cookie and loves looking at the Christmas lights. Oh and I forgot, he's also obsessed with tickling me. He'll tickle other people but mostly comes up to his daddy or I and starts tickling us while saying "tickle tickle tickle tickle". It's truly adorable. It's hard not to laugh which makes him do it even more!! I love this kid!!

Gavin has also been very much into hiding things for the last two months or so. When we can't find things we have to search every cupboard and drawer he can reach and every toy that he can hide things in. We've found the TV remote under the bathroom cupboard. I guess I should have seen that one since he can only get into the bathroom when Matt or I are in there. We usually keep all doors shut so he can't get into things he's not suppose to be in. You know.. .for safety reasons!! We find socks, toys, sippy cups, diapers, remotes, and other things in the most random places. It keeps life interesting!! =) Life is so much more joyful with him. He is definitely our families source of entertainment!!

The Sh*t word and more.....

Every Friday we go out to dinner with Matt's family. Last night we all went to Denny's and afterwords, Matt and I decided to go over to his parents house. It's been a while since we've really just sat down and visited with them. Well, Gavin pooped and it smelt horrible. While Matt was changing Gavin's diaper he looked at Gavin and said "Wow, you made a huge poop", and Matt's mom replied "No, he made a big sh*t", and in the sweetest voice ever Gavin replied "sh*t"? We all started laughing so hard because it was really funny because it was so unexpected. It was so unexpected that it should have been expected!! Thanks mama Root for doing your part to expand Gavin's vocabulary!! I was hoping to keep those words out of his vocabulary for a while longer but I guess it was bound to happen!! =)

The other word that seems to be Gavin's favorite word is "NO". I ask him to say please and he shakes his head no or will say no. He'll give me a kiss though, so I will take a kiss over please for now. He says Thank You!! He's very good and very consistent about saying Thank You. He will say Hi to everyone and he'll say bye bye. My favorite is when he goes up to people and starts tickling them and he will actually say tickle tickle tickle tickle....! I can't even begin to list all the words that Gavin says. He says a lot of words. Hi, bye bye, mama, dada, papa, mimi, gama (grandma), wa wa, cookie, tree, lights, all gone, pree (pretty), pree lights, blankey, peas (please, when he does say it), thank you, Rachel (sounds more like eachey), baby, Emma, ball, dog, kitty, and I know I missing more but it's really hard to remember them all!! =)

Gavin's 15 month checkup.....

Yesterday I took Gavin in for his 15 month check up. He weighed 26 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile); Length- 30.5 inches (50th percentile); Head- 18 inches (50th percentile). He only got one shot this go around. When we moved back to Moses Lake I called the Moses Lake Clinic to schedule Gavin's 12 month appointment. I called in late August thinking I was super early, but apparently I was super late. They couldn't get Gavin in for his 12 month shots until October 29th which is 5 weeks after his 1st birthday. So, when we finally got in for his appointment he was behind and they had to give him an extra shot. They took one of the shots that he would have gotten at his 15 month check up and gave it to him early. Now, I just need to call in a few weeks to schedule his 2nd flu shot. 

So, while I had the doctor in front of me (I really like Dr. Beaubien by the way. She reminds me a lot of Gavin's pediatrician back in Everett whom I ADORED) I asked her a few questions about general things. One was his sudden sensitivity to anything tomato based. Since his reactions don't go away within an hour or so she recommended I give him nothing with tomato's for 2-3 months. He's so sensitive that when Matt and I went to Inca's and I used my fork that I was eating enchiladas with to give him a bite of beans he broke out. I made sure my fork didn't have any visible sauce on it, but it didn't matter. He broke out. He's eaten lasagna and enchilada's in the past and has had not problems. I just had no idea how long to wait to reintroduce tomato's to him. She said he'd probably out grow the sensitivity but since he seemed to be more sensitive to them than most kids she recommended that I wait a few months. 

Gavin has also decided that he no longer likes milk. He took himself off the bottle a week after his 1st birthday. I can't get him to drink plain milk. He refuses. I started sticking ovaltine in his sippy cup. Not a whole lot but just enough to slightly flavor his milk. I figured ovaltine is a lot better than nesquick and Hersey's. Less sugar and more vitamins and minerals. Anyway, he loves it. He will guzzle it down. I just hate giving him chocolate milk. It makes me feel like a bad mom who doesn't care what goes in her kids body but that is so not the case. He just won't drink his milk. Now, he loves yogurt and he LOVES cheese. So he gets his dairy in other ways. Dr. Beaubien said if chocolate milk is the only thing he will drink then keep giving it to him. She also told me to keep trying to put less and less powder in it, but every time I do, he throws it on the ground and won't drink it. What do you do? He drinks more water than anything else and loves water. That's really all he ever wants. He even asks me for "wa wa".

Also, Gavin has been extremely curious about what's going on when I go to the bathroom. As most moms know... you can't use the bathroom without the little ones following. I told Matt that he needed to start taking Gavin with him and Gavin has been so amazed at what's going on. He's been pretty vocal about going to the bathroom even though he calls everything "poo-poo". He pee'd on the bathroom floor and pointed and said "poo-poo". I told him no, that's "pee-pee", but he doesn't care. Everything is "poo-poo". He tells me when he goes to the bathroom in his diaper too. I asked Dr. Beaubien what she thought about us getting him his own potty and she said it was a great idea. Now, I fully understand that he may want nothing to do with it and that's fine. We'd wait, but how awesome would that be if he loved it? That would be great. I also know that there is a chance that he may regress, but this kid seems to be very smart. I don't just say that because he's my son, but because that's all I hear from other people.

Well, Gavin appears to be a healthy kid. He's a great size she said and to keep doing what we're doing. Now, just to get my rear in gear and start going to moms groups so he can meet other kids his age other than his cousins. =)

Here We Go Again.....

So, I've tried doing this whole blog thing before but I found it confusing!! My biggest trouble was trying to figure out how to search for people I know. I found that I had to know their URL to be able to add them and that's not easy. How can I possibly know what someones URL is if I don't know who's on here? So, if any of you have any helpful tips or suggestions to make this go around a lot easier, I'm all ears!! =)