So when is the first day of spring?

Its that dreaded time of year...the holiday hangover.  Christmas and New Years have come and gone, and now its just another 3 months (or 4 or 5 when you live in Illinois) of boring, cold winter.  Today is the last day of winter break, and I have mixed feelings about it.  It was great to spend a lot of time with family and friends, but I had also forgotten in my 2 months back at work that spending the day alone with Gavin is still a full day of work.  Granted my co-worker is pretty cute, but its still a long day, especially when you're trapped inside.  Gavin and I are very much looking forward to summer break when we can get outside and do all sorts of fun things.

But I digress.  Gavin and Ryan and I had a wonderful holiday season.  We started off the holidays with Christmas at our house.  Santa brought some presents for Gavin, and he was mildly interested in them.  I made the mistake of telling Ryan to make a fire for our present opening experience, and Gavin was far more interested in watching the flames than looking at all his new loot. 

Here's Gavin laying in the aftermath of Christmas morning.  This was always my favorite part of Christmas, wallowing in the avarice and greed, and eventually falling asleep amid a sea of torn wrapping paper, like Randy in A Christmas Story.

Of course Gavin's favorite present was the $2 rattle/teether.  That and the wrapping paper. 

After Christmas at our house and the most crowded Christmas Eve mass I have ever been to, we headed to my parents house.  Here is Gavin entranced by Grandpa, and Ryan entranced by college football.

Gavin and Grandma on Christmas morning.  Like a typical excited kid, Gavin woke up at 5am this day, but was only interested in eating and then taking a nap.  I don't think thats going to be the same story next year.

Gavin checking out some of his new loot.  This particular toy seems to both delight and frustrate Gavin at the same time, and I can see why. In my sleep, I still hear some annoying woman's voice say, "Roar like a lion, roooaaarr.  I'm a lion."  *Shudder*

Next on our Christmas tour was the Gillespie's house in Geneseo.  Here's Gavin playing with Grandpa.  Gavin is still in his pj's at 2 in the afternoon, but in his defense, so was everyone else. 

Gavin being very cute with Uncle Shane.  Gavin and Uncle Shane were locked into many staring battles during our time home in Geneseo, but they are clearly still good friends.

Gavin also went to visit Great Grandma Pettit while we were home.  This is the only picture that even sort of looks like Gavin is happy instead of throwing a huge fit.  Which is unfortunate for Ryan since he has that insane smile on his face.  This will also completely embarrass Gavin when he's old enough to read this blog, but this picture was taken just before Gavin started making his modem noises.  Which was shortly followed a noise that can only be descibed as the sound of coffee percolating.  Which was then very quickly followed by me using the back up onesie for the first time.  Good times.

This is Gavin relaxing with Grandpa after a bottle.  Gavin looks like I do after a meal at the Cheesecake Factory: no longer able to move because I'm this close to a food coma.

Uncle Bren and Gavin bonding.  Uncle Bren wants to "borrow" Gavin for a night so that they can woo the college girls.

While we were in Geneseo, Ryan's parents offered to watch Gavin for a night so that Ryan and I could have a short getaway.  We went to the casino CJ works at and had a wonderful 24 hours!  We napped, we had a nice dinner with Allison and Kyle, we gambled, and we slept some more.  Being a parent has made me much more appreciative of the small things in life like a dinner I didn't make myself and consecutive sleep.  It was great to have a day to hang out with the hubby and remember how much I love my little kiddo.  Thanks to Uncle CJ for the gift certificates, and to grandma and grandpa for watching the Booger.

We've been back at our house for almost a week now, and we've done a lot of relaxing and enjoying the rest of break.  Below is a picture of Gavin "enjoying" his jumper:

Lately Gavin is becoming frustrated very easily.  I think its because he would like to be more mobile and active than he can currently pull off.  And since I don't speak Gavin, I don't know where he wants to go or what he wants to do, and nothing could make him madder.  This picture above is a pretty good representation of the face I see a lot of these days, usually accompanied by a high pitched squeal of pure PO-ed ness.  I'm going on record now as saying that I'm looking forward to the day that he can crawl and move around on his own, but I'm sure I'll eat those words later.

And although Gavin can get worked up in 2 seconds, he can also go right back to being a cute, happy baby again.