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.

to celebrate Daddy’s birthday this week….

and one more at the park

Laughing at his Daddy at home before our trip to the park

Looking at all the leaves on the ground at Warm Springs Park

Who’s on the other side of this tree?

He was a very cute little devil. (Very well-behaved and happy for a devil, though.) We went to a Halloween party the weekend before and he was initially a bit nervous and scared, but spent the rest of the evening exploring and making new friends. On Halloween, at the park, he mostly walked around and picked up leaves off the ground and handed them to me, but we spent a good five minutes petting the bronze dog sculpture. He especially liked to pet it’s nose, and for me to pet it’s nose.

Climbing!!

He’s fearless! So far, he’s conquered the coffee table, as seen above, the toychest, the armchair, the ottoman, and the couch via the ottoman. He’s very proud of his new ability and shows off his climbing prowess whenever he can.

Halloween pictures coming….check back soon.

Often when I am putting our cats back in their room so I can change Gavin or try to put him down to sleep, I end up carrying him in one arm and a cat in the other. Gavin thinks this is very fun. Sometimes I kiss the cats before I put them down in their room and lately Gavin has been trying to kiss them too. He leans toward the cat and makes a little “ttt” sound. Then he laughs. It’s very endearing, and the cats don’t mind at all, since he keeps several inches away from then with his face.

In the past few weeks Gavin has begun signing in ways that are more recognizable. I’ve seen him sign Dog, Cat, Hat, Eat, Sleep, Bird, Telephone, and he’s attempted Mama and Daddy. I always say before I feed him and put him down to sleep: “It’s time to eat and then time to sleep” and I sign eat and sleep. Today, he signed them back at me! I wasn’t sure at first so I did the signs again, and so did he. He seemed very happy to be signing. Maybe it’s just a relief that he knows that all of my strange finger waving and twirling was me trying to say something to him.

His record this week in walking is fifteen feet without falling. He’s actually so intent on walking that when he falls and there’s nothing to pull up to a standing position, he opts for scooting or walking on his knees instead of crawling till he can get back up on his feet. He’s done with crawling, thank you very much.

We are reading alot these days. His favorites are Goodnight Moon, I Like It When, Five Little Ladybugs and Duck In a Truck. He brings the books over and sits in my lap and we read. As soon as the book is finished, he fetches the next one. I haven’t figured out how he decides which ones get one read per day and which get seven in a row.

He also took his stuffed toy elk for a walk in his stroller the other night. Very thoughtful, as the elk hasn’t had much exercise lately.

this one’s just too cute not to share

here’s Gavin walking

and here he is wallowing in the cat bed

Gavin has been working really diligently on walking this past week, practicing several times a day. He takes one step and then falls down. A few times he’s taken two steps and gotten to me or a piece of furniture instead of falling. He’s really happy to walk around holding our hands though and is excited to try it on his own. I fully expect to report him walking across the room to Chris or I in the next several weeks! It’s very exciting to watch him make so much progress on this in so short a period of time. Go, Gavin, Go!

omg! chris actually posts! does he even have access to this thing?
yes, i know i don’t typically make an appearance here, but erin pretty much covers everything and does so well with the pics…i enjoy reading it as much as you, i’m sure.

this warranted some fatherly postage, however…

gavin has started crying when i leave to go back to work after coming home for lunch. he gets terrifically excited when he sees me come home or drive up and get out of the car. it makes me happy, like i’m the best dad in the whole world that there ever was, and i would be suprised if gavin felt otherwise, having only one…
as soon as i come home he scrambles his way to me or, if erin is holding him outside as i drive up, reaches out for me, almost dive bombing pavement in the process. immediately he wants me to hold him and hug him and play with him and he giggles with glee. gavin has an infectious giggle that makes everything shine with new colors. erin spoke of magic, and when gavin giggles and laughs, it’s magic.

then it’s time to go back to work.

i want to say “i’ll be back soon” and have gavin understand. i think, somewhere, he does. i don’t think he watches me walk away and really believe it’s the last time he’ll ever see me, which i’m terribly grateful for. however, he’s started getting upset when i leave. partially, this might have to do with whether he’s already tired, but even if he’s not outright crying and just starts to get upset, it makes me sad. today, as i walked away from the house he crawled as fast as he could to the door to catch up and stood at the door, looking out the glass as i walked away. erin said he stayed there for about 5 minutes after i left.

i always think about when i was little when i see him doing this, on my first day of pre-school. i remember very clearly screaming bloody murder for my dad after he left. i don’t remember anything else, really, i think somehow they got me to take a nap and after that everything was slightly better, but i screamed and screamed and screamed. “i want my daddy!!!!” granted, i’m sure at that age i already had some abandonment issues. it’s not like kids can really communicate all that. i’m glad that it’s not that way for gavin, but i always think of that when he gets upset as i walk out the door and realize how hard it must’ve been for my dad to leave me at the — in this case — inappropriately named “happy hall.”

and more and more the idea is reinforced just how much i want to figure out a way to work from home. i’m savvy with computer stuff, and they tell me that makes the money. furthermore, i’m informed that it’s money that provides things such as food, a roof over one’s head, and important things like insurance for the little one, so these things should be able to somehow coalesce into a grand scheme that just works. when that day comes, i don’t know, i might do some sort of crazy happy dance. possibly i’ll be doing a lot of dances, seeing as how gavin finds them infinitely entertaining. i really want to make it work…somehow.

gavin also likes when i sing “old macdonald.” i like to include non-standard farm animals (giraffes, for example, even tho they are typically quiet creatures). when i figure out a way to work at home, i’ll have much more time to think of creative animals (real or imagined) to include on old macdonald’s farm. and there will be much giggling and the world will be full of magic.

Yesterday, I was about to go outside to throw some things in the trash, so I went over to put on my sandals. They weren’t where I usually put them and I couldn’t see them anywhere. I spent ten minutes or so looking, then gave up and put on other shoes. Later, I asked Chris if he’d seen them and he hadn’t. I looked a bit more with no luck. Several hours later, I was putting some toys away and when I opened the toychest, I saw my sandals sitting on top. Gavin’s cup was also there. Gavin put them in the chest! What a silly boy.

here’s Gavin in a milk crate. he likes it!

he’s telling me: “babadadaaaaah. badaba.”