…is here.

she was born at 3:09am this morning after we arrived at the birth center at ~1:20am. erin pushed all of about 40 minutes which was longer than it would have otherwise been because lilah had her cord wrapped around her a couple times.

lilah weighed 8lbs. 8oz. and measured 20″. not only is she a beautiful red head, and already way mellow, when we brought her home this morning and gavin met her for the first time, he smiled and looked interested, which is a much better reaction than we feared. he’s already shaping to be an awesome big brother.

mommy and baby

Gavin has been not eating any dairy, egg, wheat or other gluten for a long time now. Yesterday he decided he wanted to try wheat again. We’d been thinking of trying some things again soon anyway, but had been waiting until the teething process was over since that affects him as well. It gets really confusing when there are so many things going on at once. Hard to tell if one thing or the other is causing a problem, or if it’s a combination.

Yesterday we were having lunch and Gavin reached over and snatched a (vegetarian) chicken nugget from my plate and stuffed it in his mouth gleefully. He proceeded to eat it in two bites. The second bite which was most of the nugget took him about three minutes to get down, but he was determined. The “meat” in the chicken nuggets we eat is mainly made from wheat so we watched him last night and didn’t see much going on. Of course one nugget may not be enough to tell.

So today for lunch he ate four whole chicken nuggets. That’s alot of food for him! He was quite pleased, since he always wants what his Mama and Daddy are eating. Now we watch for yucky diapers, irritability from tummy pains and stuffy nose. Hopefully we won’t get any of those and Gavin can continue with his nugget munching in the future.

I’ve been sadly neglecting my duties in maintaining this blog. Hopefully it’s a temporary thing.

In recent Gavin news, he went to the Dr. for his 2 year check-up and all is well. He’s in the 50th percentile for both height and weight so he’s growing well, even with his food restrictions.

He was absolutely terrified of sitting on their scale and being on the exam table. It was pretty heart-breaking for me. I don’t really know why they have to make the weigh-in so much scarier for kids his age by having them strip all the way. I mean, if a diaper on would help them feel a lot more secure, why does the incremental difference it would make in their weight really matter? I understand it’s a big difference in a little baby, but in a toddler? I’ve decided that with him from now on and with the new baby when older than a year or so I will ask if we can just keep the diaper on please.

We talked about him being a little behind in verbal development and she encouraged us to just watch his progress carefully for a few months and take it from there. She was very quick to say that he’s very interactive and social so she’s not concerned about Autism or anything like that.

We had a lead test and hemoglobin levels done and he had no problems there which was nice to know for sure since we are living in an old house.

All in all, Gavin’s a healthy boy.

He’s going through the “terrible twos” now, which really aren’t all that terribly. It’d be slightly easier if he’d actually say what it was he wanted instead of pointing or pushing and pulling of his parents to show what he wants. But I don’t think him having some preferences and strong ideas of his own is all that “terrible”.

His heart’s fondest desires this week are: a flashlight (we have mini-raves where we shine the flashlight in moving patterns and Gavin runs through them), a vacuum cleaner with many attachments (not turned on though, that’s scary!), and a spray bottle (to spritz oneself and then stare in shock as you have cold water running down your face, and even more fun to spray Mama or Daddy and hear them shriek).

It’s been so hot here lately that Gavin sometimes wakes up from his afternoon nap drenched in sweat. He doesn’t find it very comfortable and usually cries for about twenty minutes after waking up in such an icky state. Also he’s not very understanding about holding still while I comb tangles out of his hair. So, we decided it was time for a cut!

The stylist (yours truly) had to be very skilled at cutting Gavin’s hair at a relatively even length while dealing with Gavin’s swiveling head (he really wanted to see what was happening) and keeping the very shiny and attractive scissors out of his hands without appearing to
Gavin to be keeping them out of his reach! The whole process took about half an hour and was done in the bathtub for maximum distractions and washing ease.

This is Gavin enjoying his new low-maintenance look while playing in his block fort in the living room.

Gavin’s been up to alot recently. He’s working on his driving skills… of very small vehicles. He drives his trucks and cars up chair legs, up human legs, down the halls and just about everywhere. He’s really enjoying toys that move.

He’s learned how to open doors by himself, something he’s been aspiring for months now. He loves to go in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. He likes to wave “hi” and “bye bye”. He tried on Daddy’s shoes once too. Very funny but not so easy to walk in.

And he’s been working on talking. He says several words now. On the list we’re sure he’s actually saying (it can be hard to be sure) are: cat, meow, hello, juice, wow, fish, ball, mama, and dada. I’m also fairly sure he says “tickle”. The words we hear the most are ball, meow and juice. They are the most useful in his daily life.

He’s been maturing alot in the last several months and I think his new perspective will be a great help when the new baby arrives. I hope that he doesn’t have too tough a time adjusting to the changes. I’m really thankful Chris will be able to be here at home with us for a while to help with things and to make sure Gavin gets what he needs. I think that will make a big difference.