yesterday afternoon, i decided to put henna in my hair. this is something i do fairly regularly. chris was at work and gavin was in his exersaucer, happily watching signing time. i mixed it up and put it in my hair and then covered my hair in a plastic bag (not the most attractive thing, but it gets the job done) to let it sit for a half hour or so.

i went out to the living room and gavin saw me, he looked at my head for a bit, then went on watching signing time. a few minutes later he was done with the dvd and was whining for me to pick him up, so i did. he started crying. like i was someone else. i think the smell of the henna and the bag on my head was too weird for him. he didn’t calm down until after i fed him, at which point he was content with the idea that yes, i was actually his mama. he was very pleased after the rinsing was complete.

Go-Go-Gavin started crawling the weekend before Easter. He especially shows off his new skills when a cat looks like it might be in reach! He can get around quite well now though and is also holding himself up in a kneeling position and holding onto things.

He still loves to go for walks (he loves feeling wind on his face, and I think he likes moving fast!) and is also really enjoying watching “Signing Time” dvd’s. I’m not sure how much of it he understands, but I think he does get some of it. Mostly I think he finds it great entertainment! And he likes seeing and hearing the other kids. He’s been splashing like crazy in his bath lately so we tried the rubber ducky this last time and it was a huge success. He loves it and carried it out of the bath and into the bedroom to get dressed.

Here are some new pictures of the baby. He thinks he is related to Dr. Evil in the first one…..ha ha.

gavin has been eating lots of butternut squash. he really likes it and smiles and starts waving his arms around and stomping his feet when he sees the container and spoon.

he still isn’t quite crawling forward (backwards is easy) but between scooting around, crawling backward and rolling, he can get to where he wants to be. if he’s over by the videos and we put him back on his blanket, it’ll take him 15-45 seconds to get back to the videos. he really likes pulling things off of shelves. it’s very exciting. and once, he tried to pull the tablecloth, with food and books and other paraphenalia off the table, and would have succeeded if i didn’t rescue the tablecloth from his mighty grip!

he’s also starting showing signs of separation anxiety from me. if he’s upset or tired and someone else tries to hold him (sometimes including Chris) he cries/screams. i wish that wasn’t the case, but i guess it’s a normal part of development. it would be nicer if this happened when he was not quite so heavy!

i sometimes turn on the ceiling fan in the bedroom when changing him so he can watch it go around. these days, most of the time a distraction is needed while attempting a diaper change, otherwise he’ll roll and scoot right off the table and prevent you from getting a new diaper on at all costs!

last week i hauled his exersaucer out onto the lawn and put him in it while i did some much-needed weeding of the front “flowerbeds” (which might be more accurately called weed extravaganza.) he really liked being outside. some neighbors came by and stopped to chat about the baby and try to coax a smile from gavin, which he gave. and the neighbors were so thrilled! it made me think of all the other times when people i meet around town are so eager to try to interact with gavin. people are so enthusiastic about babies and want so much to be a part of their experience, even if just for a moment.

babies and kids can be so charismatic. it feels like having gavin is a gift not only to me and chris and our family, but also to the community (and maybe world) at large. seeing this makes me realize how huge the love my family and others had for me must have been when i was a child. it’s a good thing to know. it’s not that i didn’t know this before, but having gavin around and being on the other end of things makes me realize in new ways and to a further extent. i hope that when gavin is older, he’s able to understand his immense worth to me and others.