Gavin’s been signing alot of new words lately which is really fun to see. The signs are so sloppy it’s hard to tell at first but he can say alot of things now. He also understands much better what I’m saying to him. If I tell him that Daddy will be back in a minute, he understands. If I tell him we’re going to go home and eat, he understands and makes the sign for food. When we get in the car he signs “go” and when we are home he signs “home”. He also signs “cat”, “bird”, “dog”, “more”, “all done”, “sleep”, “mama”, “daddy”, “light”, “snow” and “moon”. He also says the spoken word for some of these when he signs. He says “Nooo” for snow and makes tweeting noises for bird. It’s really rewarding to see him sign a word that he’s never signed before but that I’ve been signing to him for months.

He is a really good walker now, and is even pretty good in big clompy shoes that Mama and Daddy used to make him wear but now he helps put on excitedly. He loves to play new games and to be surprised. We built a fort out of his blocks and put a sheet over it to make a roof today and he had a blast. Also, Daddy makes his new toy stuffed kitty slide down a slide of blocks and Gavin picks up the kitty and hands it back for another ride, squealing in delight. His feet are ticklish and he likes to hand upside down and swing around and around.

Last night I got shocked really badly by the light switch with static electricity and screamed because it hurt and surprised me, and Gavin got upset. That’s the first time I think he’s understood that I was scared and got scared too. Before this, he just thought I was funny when I made a sound like that. I guess he understands that not all sounds are fun now.

These are from quite a while ago, when Gavin and Meara and I went to the park and Meara was photographer. Gavin is wearing his eskimo suit which finally fits him this year! Very cute! I’ve been meaning to put these up for a long time but have been busy and my computer was giving me some attitude as well.

and this one was taken yesterday. Gavin’s tired after running around the house like a tornado all afternoon.

today, gavin grabbed an old cd-rom we were using as a coaster off the dining room table, made a bee-line to my computer, hit the eject button on the cd-rom drive, and put the cd in the tray.

omg! he’s a super-genius!!

(the cd was really trashed, and he put it in upside down so i didn’t let him push it back in. still, though….)

i probably should have/could have posted this earlier, but i got my /gallery page up a few weeks ago on the new server and since doing so, i moved all our pics over to that server. most of them i then added to the gallery page. this means there are full-size gavin pics in the gallery which are good for printing your own copies at home if you’ve got a decent enough printer, as opposed to the resized copies found here.

also, there were a few avi movies that were made either accidentally or on purpose that wound up in our gavin pics folder and found their ways to the new server. those have been posted as well and you can actually watch the movies! this was exciting enough that i have started taking more movies of gavin on our digital camera and will post those in the gallery as well.

you can go to the gallery here. there’s also now a link on the sidebar. the gavin album is here and there’s a SUPERCUTE!!! gavin movie here.

Gavin is walking around well now. All over the house. He wobbles a little bit and falls every so often, but can really move! He likes to be able to move faster but is more insistent on being held when he’s upset or tired. He’s also starting to indicate that he wants kisses and hugs more. Tonight he stopped eating several times and held his face out to get kisses before resuming dinner, while smiling adorably at me. How could I resist?

He’s cutting some more teeth on the bottom, one is just poking through now. He gets pretty fussy from the pain. We’re trying baby Motrin instead of Tylenol and it seems to be a little better.

He’s trying lots of new foods. Black and pinto beans, almond butter cookies, mandarin orange slices. Most of them he likes, including some beans I pulled out of my bowl of chili…he must have already developed my taste for spicy food!

We went to the park and watched the ducks a couple times recently and Gavin loves watching them. He gets so excited he leans as far as he can out of his stroller and makes excited baby yells and points at them. It’s a lot of fun.

We’re having a lot of fun together, reading books, taking things out of containers and putting them back in and toddling all over. He’s also recently become an expert at washing his hands and putting clothes in the hamper.