13 Months

Gavin has been a busy boy this month!

Got to see his Unk from New York for a couple of days!

We went to Charlotte with Ryan on a work trip a few weeks ago. Gavin and I had time to kill so we went to Ikea. He fell asleep right when we got in the parking lot. So I got him out of the car--didn't wake up--and put him in the cart--still didn't wake up. I shopped at Ikea while he did this for over 30 minutes:

He is learning so many new things!

Learning to have an attitude is NOT one that I'm fond of! He scrunches his nose up when he's mad.

Learning to read with Nani...
...and Pop.

He learned to unroll toilet paper! You can't see his face very well here but he was SO proud of himself!

He figured out to raise his arms up like this so we'll pick him up.

He is a PRO at going down stairs. I hope I can get a video one day of him backing up to the stairs. He starts backing up about 1/2 a mile too soon. So cute.

His favorite thing he's learned: how to get in the cabinets.
Why is this skill so important?
To get to his favorite thing: Lucky Charms marshmallows (we do not buy sugary cereal normally, but I am pregnant and couldn't help it!!)

Speaking of food, he's getting the hang of it for sure.
Yes, this is a whole piece of pizza and he ate every bit like this:

A pineapple core? Don't throw it in the trash, Mom. I'll eat it.

No need to cut up cheese, either.

For his birthday, we set up a playroom in our sunroom to keep all of his toys. He loves it!

Braden and Gavin are going to start a band in it, I think.

And the big new thing as of last week? WALKING!!! Just a few steps at a time right now, but we're working on it every day and he's getting better and better!

We love our precious growing boy!

Birthday Surprise

Gavin got a lot of great gifts for his birthday, but this shirt he opened up from us was the best surprise of all I think!

He's still trying to overcome the shock (along with the rest of our family!!).

"I'm going to be a what?!?"

Yup, another one is on the way! We're due October 6! And yes, we DID in fact plan them to be this close. They'll be 20 months apart. How fun that they'll be able to play together and be friends!! I know it will be really hard at first, but it'll be so worth it later on!

It is crazy how much bigger I am this time around. I feel like the day I took a pregnancy test, I felt pregnant. This first picture I already look it! I wanted to have Gavin take pictures with me this time. So here's 1 month...

...and 2 months (Gavin is holding 2 chopsticks that he likes to drum with).

It's shocking how big I am getting so quickly. I think my body just remembers what to do since it hasn't been that long so I'm getting bigger a lot faster this time!
3 months is just around the corner! It's FLYING by this time around!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The shirt says it all...

Look Who's Talking

If only we could understand what he's saying (or should I say screaming)...


He has said "dog" only once--I think it was a coincidence that he just happened to be pointing to Dakota at the same time. Ryan's first word was "dog" also, so I hope that was it!
Otherwise, it's just Gavin's language that I wish I understood!

12 Months

I so enjoy doing these month overviews that I don't want it to end at 12 months! I may have to keep the countdown going until he's 2!

Gavin looks like it's totally normal that his Dad just stuffed him in a vase.

"Umm, guys, how am I supposed to get out of here?"

He learned to ride on my shoulders this month!

We keep him away from Dakota's dog food ALL THE TIME...until a couple of weeks ago. We just let him get into it to see what would happen. He went crazy, throwing it around the bowl everywhere. And Dakota is such a neat dog that she kept eating the food around the bowl that he kept throwing out to pick up. And oh yes, he tasted some--and spit it back out.
I don't know what this boy would do without his dog.

Hangin' out with Libby and Lucy--of course looking at Dakota through the front door.

This boy LOVES to help me do the laundry. He loves to climb in the laundry basket and take all the clothes out and hide in it. He also loves messing up all my piles when I'm folding! And putting all the clothes on his head. He's so funny.

It has been really fun for me to see Gavin figure things out. He now knows how to look under things to look for toys that rolled under. Under the fridge, couch, table, you name it.

Gavin isn't walking yet, but he is oh so close! He is constantly standing without holding on to anything, but if you try to get him to walk to you, forget it. He's got the crawling thing down pat and he's stickin' to it. He walked like a pro behind this toy at Lucy's party:


12 month stats from the doctor:
Weight: 23 lb 8 oz (75%)--I can't believe it is not more! I think maybe he's lengthening out.
Height: 28 in. (50%)
Head: of course still off the charts!

Birthday Boy

I'll first state the obvious that I can't believe my little boy is ONE!!! Everyone always told me time would fly by--well, they were right!

We started off Gavin's birthday weekend with a trip to Chattanooga to have a family party at Ryan's parents' house on Saturday.
We can't wait for Spring to get here to play outside!
He got some great musical toys for our little music maestro.
Check out these guns, ladies.
This boy loves his food.

I haven't let Gavin have any sugary things until now. The sweetest thing he has had (that I know of!) is a graham cracker. So, needless to say...
He LOVED his cake.


For Gavin's friends birthday party in Knoxville, we did The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme (based on Eric Carle's book).

These were the invitations that I made:

Aunt Amanda made the cake. Doesn't it look amazing??

We had balloons in the shape of caterpillars:
In the background, I had an Eric Carle DVD playing, but I think everybody was having too much fun to watch! If you've never read the book, here's The Very Hungry Caterpillar part of the video. It's so cute!


We had a caterpillar time line of Gavin's pictures from birth through 12 months (you can blow the picture up to see the picture more closely hopefully):
I chose this theme because in the book, the caterpillar eats and eats and eats and eats and gets fat...just like the Gavster!! (Check out the 7th picture in the time line if you forgot how fat this boy got!) So all the food at the party was from the book:
Please remember that I'm a kindergarten teacher at heart and I haven't been able to teach for a whole year now--so it kind of exploded into his party! So I made place cards to go along with each food item--one for each page of the book:
I have to teach for a second...the book is actually wrong and butterflies come out of a chrysalis, not a cocoon, but I decided to write it just like the book. :)

Gavin got so many great new toys for us to play with. Thanks everybody!
He is one blessed little boy!

And onto the cake...
Aunt Amanda let him eat the entire head of the caterpillar. And I'm so glad it was red icing! Gavin definitely continued with his messy eating habits. This is the one day where you want them to be messy, and he certainly did not disappoint!

No amount of paper towels could contain this mess. Bath time!
He looks so proud of himself!
It turned the water pink!

Here's a video for my family that didn't get to be there to see Gavin tearing into the cake.
This is a long video so just watch what you want!


Happy Birthday, Gavin! We love you so much!