yes, lilah’s been here for two months now. (to celebrate, we have a doctor appointment scheduled.) and she’s a very big part of the family even though she’s still quite small. she’s been smiling and laughing and lately has been smiling a lot at gavin. he’s too busy to notice most of the time but still is quite concerned with her welfare.

he makes sure her crib is up to standards by close inspection daily, he checks out the changing table a few times a week. he also tries to make sure she gets enough to eat. just this morning he offered her his tasty red block to nibble.

when she’s not sleeping or eating, lilah likes long walks around the living room, cuddles, and sucking on her thumb.

Gavin saw Mama and Daddy playing Dance Dance Revolution the other night. He wasn’t overly impressed. Mostly, he was irritated by Mama and Daddy not dancing with him! He was very excited, though, when Mama made Lilah “walk” down the hall after him. Hilarious! Gavin’s been eating sun-dried tomato and goat feta penne with rice pasta. It’s his current favorite. The game of the week is ring-around-the-rosey. He’s been saying something that sounds like Mama and something that sounds like Daddy often recently. However, he’s quite furtive and we still aren’t entirely sure if these are happy accidents or not. However, just in the last couple of days I know I’ve heard him say (and mean) go, swim, night, tree, and jump along with the other words he has been using frequently.

I (and Chris) have been worrying for so long about his language development and alternating between wondering if there’s a problem since he’s behind other kids and knowing in my gut that he’s fine, he’s just taking his time.

I read recently that kids who are like Gavin (slow speech development but understand everything that’s said to them) often end up being recognized as “gifted” by middle school. Now I know every mom thinks her kid is a genius, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Gavin follows that pattern. I did. And I keep thinking about my school experiences and thinking that Gavin is just doing things his own way, like I did as a kid.

I was a very strange kid when compared with my peers. Very intent on social dynamics and didn’t understand formulaic schedules and projects. I was always wondering why I was expected to do something and I wanted things to be meaningful. I wanted to finish things, not just leave them in the middle after the appointed twenty minutes was up. I stared out of windows and didn’t pay attention to lessons. I struggled very hard with meeting the classroom expectations that seemed to come naturally to all the other kids. I wondered what was wrong with me. In fifth grade my teacher asked if I wanted to be in the Extended Learning Program, which was the once a week program for gifted kids. I was so excited to be doing things that were more challenging and interesting and so relieved to know that I wasn’t stupid.

In light of my own experiences, I’m confident Gavin will speak lots of words and in full sentences when he’s ready and he’ll be fine. He’s really working on it now. And in the meantime, I enjoy our unspoken communication and am so grateful that he likes to cuddle and give kisses and hugs.

Lilah is doing great, has a chubby little tummy and is starting to be a lot of fun to make smile and laugh in her funny squeaky-toy sounding laugh. She already agrees with her brother that the colored lantern lights we have in our front room are really great.

here’s gavin and mama looking at the camera.

gavin’s trying to coax mama into helping his penguin toy jump off the edge of the table…again.

lilah is smiling.

what a cute girl!

here’s a shot of gavin honing his samurai skills

gavin and lilah playing with the baby gym

here’s lilah’s first smile on camera

another little smile

lilah checking out the living room

The pictures of Lilah were taken while she was wearing a gown that my Grandma, June McClenahan gave my parents when I was born and which I wore home from the hospital. My sister also wore it when she was a baby.

i threw together a short 7-8 minute movie of some of the video clips we had lying around of gavin that i’ve been meaning to do something with. more of these will be forthcoming, but in the meantime you can see it on my blog

here’s Gavin having fun with his football.

here’s Lilah practicing being a big girl and holding herself up on her tummy.

Gavin is getting better from his cold and feeling much friskier. He’s enjoying going for walks in the fallen leaves, picking them up and looking at them and the crunching noises they make when we go over them in the stroller. Lilah is doing well too. She’s been briefly interested in looking at lights and colors lately. She’s been smiling for a week or two and smiles at me frequently. She mostly smiles little closed-mouth smiles but once in a while I get a big open mouth grin when I’m playing with her.

Today Gavin wanted to hold her hand when I showed him her little fingers. He said “bay-beee!” He was also very excited by the embroidered duck on her outfit today.

In other news, we kept a list of the words and signs he used over a weekend a month or two ago and then again just this last week. The first time he had a total of 18 words and signs….this time he was up to 37! Yay Gavin!! He’s making so much progress.