14 Months

This month I have learned that Gavin is a boy and I need to let him get messy like a boy!

His favorite place to play is in Dakota's pin in the dirt! Oh yes, we have to take a bath daily with this boy.

We went to The Cove and were just going to wade in the water. Gavin had a better (and much messier!) idea--get all the way in! The water was almost clear before he started kicking around in all the sand/mud. I think this was the best day of his life.

Eating is of course a messy time, as well. He's into putting his hands up and in his hair while he eats--with food all in his hair by the time we're done.

This is probably the worst yet: Mexican food at El Charro.

Tunnel Time!
(This is my favorite picture of him right now)
with Nani...
...and Braden.

Braden and Gavin have been going to the park together lately, too. These two really are best buddies! Braden comes up and hugs Gavin every time he sees him. What a great friend!
(Great picture, Elizabeth!)

Gavin's favorite part of shopping: riding in the front of the cart waving.


When Dad takes him shopping, he gets an Icee treat (just a few sips)!
No wonder he likes his Dad better than me!

Gavin has fallen in love with Dakota. This was a video I sent to Ryan on my phone during Sesame Street one day:


He either lays on her...

...or just kicks her out of her bed completely.

We have been enjoying the weather outside so much lately.

We even got a swing set from some friends of ours! Thanks, Dave and Krista! Gavin starts laughing knowing he's going to swing the minute we start walking toward it.

Ryan planted a garden last weekend and Gavin is very interested in what's growing.
Just kidding! He just wants to play in the dirt!

We have tried many hats on this boy that don't fit. I finally had to get a hat that was size 4T-5T!! So for now he's wearing Ryan's visor!

He looks like such a big boy in it.

This is what he did before he was really confident in walking. Sort of a walk/crawl through the yard.

Now look at this boy go! What a difference a month can make! He loves holding on to things while he walks, and he can now squat and get back up on his own.


Hopefully next month I'll be able to post that he actually wears SHOES! When I put them on, he cries and just stands still or sits and refuses to walk. Gavin, that is not an option, my friend!

Ode to the Blanket

I don't know how Gavin will sleep without his blanket when we have to take it away when he's older.

He only sucks his thumb when he has his blanket--what a blessing!

We leave the blanket in the crib during the day and he only has it at naps and bedtime. Well, it was hanging out of the crib today and he grabbed it and carried it around everywhere.

I've been wanting to get this video for a while. Every time he gets his blanket, he turns it around until he finds the tag. What a sweet boy I have.

So You Think You Can Dance?

Gavin is already preparing to try out for the show at a year old...

3 Months

First let me just show you what I looked like at 3 months with Gavin...

And here I am about 5x bigger 3 months now! How big am I going to get?!?!?

I'm trying to be creative and not always have Gavin hold a sign with a number. He's holding a pretzel that I bit into the number 3. He soon ate it right after the picture of course!

We went to the doctor today in hopes of finding out if we were having a little boy or little girl...but we have to wait 5 more weeks to find out! Dr. Roberts did an ultrasound and at first said it looked like a girl, but then from another angle she said boy, so really 15 weeks is too early to tell because things are still growing and changing. She tried to do an internal ultrasound to get a closer look and the umbilical cord was right in the way! Her hunch is that it's a girl, but she's not sure. And I KNEW with Gavin that he was a boy, and I have no clue with this one! We'll be happy either way with a healthy baby! We'll find out May 12!

Spring Has Sprung

We have had so much fun with all the beautiful weather we've been having!

Gavin's first time in the sandbox at Anchor Park with London and Phoebe...

He really likes kicking his legs around in the sand the most.

More fun at the park with Libby and Lucy (and Braden, but he's not in the pictures!)

Gavin does great crawling up the playground to go to the slides.

This boy loves, loves, loves to swing!
He cries if I get him out before he's ready to be done.
We swing every day in our backyard! It's such a great time to teach him things. We're working on animal sounds right now. He can bark like Dakota now!

We went to Ben & Jerry's on free ice cream cone day with Shannon and Libby.

This was Gavin's very first ice cream cone.

Yes, I just let him have it and hold it and get as messy as can be. Thank the Lord for baby wipes!

Here's a video to show how much he loved it:


He ate every last bite! Including the whole cone.

Every time Ryan has to mow the yard now, he takes Gavin with him. I think he'll be able to mow by himself next year. :)

Ryan has also been taking Gavin in the stroller running. This is what happens when this boy doesn't take naps like he should!

Our neighborhood kids have been outside with us almost every day. Gavin got a balloon at Kroger and Laney (in the picture above), a.k.a. Dakota's best friend in the whole wide world, tied the balloon to Dakota's collar. This poor dog walked around like this for about an hour!

These same neighbors have chickens in their backyard. Gavin loves them! It's like a field trip to their house!

Hooray for Spring!

Happy Easter!

We always travel to Chattanooga for every holiday, so it was so nice to be able to stay in Knoxville this Easter! Ryan's parents were out of town, so my parents and grandmother came up and we had a picnic after church at a local park by the water. It was so relaxing! It was a GORGEOUS day!

Mom (being the teacher) filled each Easter egg with 1 jelly bean and taught Gavin to open them and eat the jelly bean, so she put eggs all around for him to open. He really got the hang of it!

My sweet boy.

I think he enjoyed eating the jelly beans more than finding the eggs!

"Want to try one, Dad?"
Hope everybody had a Happy Easter, too!