Gavin's Likes and Dislikes, the 6 month edition

So as promised, we have some Gavin blogs to catch up on.  The Gavin vs. Rufus 6 month chapter is still in the works, but hopefully this blog will keep the loyal Gavin fans happy until we can come to contract agreements with the two adversaries.

At 6 weeks old, I did a list of Gavin's likes and dislikes, which are just funny to me now since at 6 weeks, I don't know how I thought I could tell what Gavin liked.  Perhaps I was judging by the level of whining?  At any rate, I thought it would be appropriate to update that list at the 6 month milestone.  I'm sure I'll think these are just as funny on Gavin's first birthday.

Likes:

• The "Chew Chew Chew Your Food" song: Gavin has ventured into the world of solid foods, although not very willingly.  We started with rice cereal, and then oat cereal (see the Dislikes section), and Gavin was uninterested.  That is until Ryan made up the Chew Chew Chew Your Food song.  Gav finds this song hilarious, which gets him to open his mouth.  But the laughing gets him to spit pureed carrots all over your face, the floor, himself....

• Music in general:  Gavin is a music fan, although his taste level could be questioned.  His favorites include Patty Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider, any song Ryan makes up that involve the words poop or soup, and the Belly Button song (this is a real song, thanks to my friend Kristin for teaching me about it, it is sometimes the only thing that calms Gavin down!).  Gavin also enjoys when he and I dance to the music in my iTunes.  We have determined that he enjoys Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, and Thriller, but is not a Justin Timberlake fan.
• On a side note, Gavin not only loves the song Thriller, but also the dance.  We had a staff talent show at work, and in order to practice my Thriller dance, I would put Gavin in the Bjorn and dance with him while facing a mirror.  He particularly likes the zombie part with the claw hands and high knees.
• Having things just a certain way:  Gavin is a man who knows what he wants.  There are many things that Gavin will only tolerate a certain way.  The baby laptop screen on one of his toys must be down, the book on the same toy must be turned to the dog and cat page, towers of blocks must be knocked over, and buckets and tubs must be empty of toys.  I can't imagine where Gavin got this slight OCD-like tendency :)  See the video in the other post for a good example of this!
• Hugs from Paige:  Paige is a little girl at Gavin's daycare that is almost 2 years old.  Paige loves to play with Gavin and always eagerly waits while I unbuckle Gavin from his car seat every morning.  She also loves to hug everyone goodbye when she leaves daycare, and since I usually arrive around the same time as Paige's mom, I get to witness the Paige "hugs."  Paige usually saves Gavin's hug for last, so he is in his car seat by the time she's done hugging everyone else she can find.  So she will come up to me and ask "hug Gavin?" and I'll tell her that yes, Gavin would love a hug.  Paige leans in, hovers over Gavin, and rubs her nose against Gavin's face ever so lightly.  It melts my heart every time.  And Gavin LOVES it.  He is usually a little whiny when he's in his car seat, but when Paige "hugs" him he is completely quiet and always has a big smile on his face. One of the many reasons we are blessed when it comes to Gavin's daycare.
• Mommy doing crunches:  9 months of pregnancy and eating donuts with abandon didn't do any favors to my abdominal region, and now that our trip to Vegas is 5 weeks away, I've been starting to do crunches whenever I can.  This usually means doing crunches while Gavin is busy hopping away in his jumper (another big like).  Without fail, once I start crunching Gavin will stop jumping and becomes engrossed in my workout.  Unfortunately for my self esteem, he finds my crunches hilarious and laughs and giggles the entire time.  Although I have to admit, my 6 month old mocking me is a great motivator and diet tool.
• The "I Love you Daddy" book: Part of Gavin's bedtime routine is for Ryan or I to read him a story while he's having his bottle.  Since he was first born, one of Gavin's favorites has been the I Love You Daddy book, which is about a Daddy Bear and Little Bear.  Daddy Bear helps Little Bear to do all sorts of things he didn't think he could do, and Little Bear always thinks to himself that he loves Daddy, but never says it.  Gavin always listens wide eyed (and usually stops drinking his bottle) when Ryan reads this story.  Part of the charm of the story is that Ryan does great Daddy and Little bear voices.  Now whenever we put Gavin down for a nap, if he's being a little fussy, Ryan does his Daddy Bear/Little Bear routine and Gavin giggles and laughs and then rolls over and goes to sleep.  Today he did the same, except at the end he looked at Ryan, said "dada" and then rolled over to sleep.  Sounds like I need to start reading those I Love Mommy books more often if I want Gav to say mama!

Dislikes:

• Rice and Oat "cereal": As we mentioned above, it takes some work to get Gavin to try solid foods.  Gavin's usual strategy with cereal is to let us put it in his mouth, but then just open his mouth back up and let it slowly drool out onto his chin.  The only thing we accomplished when giving Gavin cereal was more laundry for Mommy.  In Gavin's defense though, I tried some of his rice cereal, and you couldn't pay me to eat that slop.  Maybe Gavin just has a refined taste.
• Fast flowing milk:  You may be sensing a theme here.  I don't want to go so far as to brand Gavin as a "picky eater" just yet, but he certainly has a lot of preferences.  For those of you that haven't seen the giant wall of bottle nipples at Babies R Us, there are actually a lot of choices.  Babies start with a slow flow nipple, and on average, most babies move on to the medium flow at 3 months, and then to fast at 6 months.  Well,  we JUST got Gavin to switch to the medium flows about 2 weeks ago, and he's still not too happy about it.  Gavin drinks milk like a food critic drinks wine.  He takes a sip, swirls it around in his mouth for a while, and then finally swallows.  Then he stops, takes a little breather, and goes back in for another sip.  It can take him 45 minutes to finish a bottle sometimes.  He will make a great designated driver someday, but for now, his drinking habits are highly frustrating!
• Putting on shirts: I'd say that Gavin is just trying to be like his Uncle Bren by not wanting to wear shirts around the house, but I think the real reason Gavin doesn't like to put on his shirts is because he's like his mother.  I HATE having things close to my neck.  I can't wear turtlenecks because I feel like they're strangling me, and I will elbow you square in the eye if you even put your hands near my neck.  And sadly I think Gavin has inherited this trait from his Mommy.  When the shirt is all bundled around Gavin's head while we're trying to get his arms through the sleeves, Gavin is howling and whining, but the minute you pull the shirt down, he's completely fine again.  I'm still hoping Gavin inherited at least one flattering trait from me, instead of all my foibles!

• Being alone:  Unlike his father, Gavin doesn't really crave alone time.  Gavin will tolerate being "alone" (for example, he is in the jumper in the family room and I'm in the kitchen making a meal) for about 2 minutes, and then the whining begins*.  The whining slowly escalates until I poke my head back in the doorway and then he smiles at me and jumps again.  Its eerily like that Family Guy commercial where Stewie says "Mom, Mommy, Mama, Mom, Mommy, Lois, Mom..." forever and then finally Lois yells "What?!" and Stewie just smiles and says "Hi."
• *Ryan and I have figured out that Gavin's whining sounds an awful lot like the smoke monster on Lost.  I don't usually hear whispers just before hand, and I certainly don't get impaled by a giant rock afterwards, but its menacing just the same.

Combining two of Gavin's favorites: no shirt and spending time with Mommy.

Happy 6 months Gavin!!

Happy half a year Gav-o!  We love you very much buddy. 

I wanted to post on Gavin's actual 6 month "birthday" even though I'm not prepared yet.  But coming soon:

• Gavin and Rufus:  the saga continues
• 6 month letter to Gavin
• 6 month update: Gavin's likes and dislikes

Stay tuned!

I cannot go to school today said little Peggy Ann Mckay

The title of this blog is the first line of a Shel Silverstein poem called "Sick" that I memorized in the third grade, and it aptly describes the last week here in the Gillespie household. 

Last weekend, Gavin had a very exciting Saturday.  He went with me to a friend's baby shower and got to hang out with his buddies Olivia and Jack, all while being told what a cutie he is by my coworkers.  Then Daddy picked Gav up from the shower and drove him down to Uncle Kyle's for some boy bonding time.  But by Sunday morning, Gavin was starting to get sick, with a runny nose and a yucky sounding cough.  He still went to "school" on Monday, but when I went to pick him up that afternoon, he looked like he'd had a rough day, and sounded even worse.  So Tuesday Gavin took his first day off of school to go to the doctor with Ryan.  The doctor said its likely just a bad cold but decided to treat Gav as if he has bronchitis based on his breathing sounds and the fact that he hasn't had all his pneumonia shots yet.

The good news is, Gavin does seem to be getting better.  The bad news is, Gavin is on day 5 of a 10 day medication that gives him quite the tummy troubles.  After going through his original and back up outfits at school on Friday, Ryan had to bring over 2 more outfits to make sure he lasted through the day!  Our washer and dryer are pretty much running non stop at this point, and winning the "not wiping" game is becoming more and more crucial. (I'll save the explanation of the "not wiping" game for another day, but I think you get the gist of it!)

So obviously our blog writing has suffered due to a very busy week filled with lots of sniffles and coughs, and much less sleep.  But in spite of his cold, Gavin is for the most part a pretty happy baby.  He has become an expert sitter and hardly ever tumbles over anymore.  He loves to sit and play with his toys, as you'll see in the pics below.

Gavin has also become a sneaky roller.  I think Gavin wants us to believe that he can't really roll over, so he only does it when we're not looking.  You could watch this kid lay on his back for 20 minutes and nothing will happen, but look out the window for 5 seconds and when you look back, he'll be on his tummy, staring up at you with this look like, "what, I was like this when you set me down!"

But as skilled as Gavin is rolling from his back to his tummy, he's not so proficient when it comes to doing the other 180 flip.  My theory is that he doesn't like flopping over like a sack of potatoes, because lets face it, rolling over when you're 6 months old and 20 pounds is not a graceful act.  This means that the new reason Gavin is waking up in the morning at 5am is because he's rolled over onto his stomach, decided against that decision, and is then unable to roll the other way.  I'm not sure if this is better or worse than last week's trick, when he would "Austin Powers" himself in his crib.  Which is Ryan's way of describing how Gavin would manage to wedge himself horizontally in his crib so that there was no room to move anymore.  Its awfully funny to watch Gav try to squrim his way out when he's wedged, but I don't know if there is anything more cute than seeing your son looking at your through the crib rails when you walk in the door.

The other new development in Gav's life this week is that his first tooth is starting to break through!  I just noticed it this afternoon when we were playing and he was chomping on yet another toy.  I'll be honest, I got a little teary eyed at the realization that my baby boy is becoming less of a baby very day.  Teeth are for big kids and I don't know if I'm ready for that yet.

Well, I've rambled enough for one post.  Hopefully life will be a little less eventful in the weeks to come and I can do a better job of blogging!  Here are some great pics that we've taken in the last week or so.  And Ryan's not here to make fun of me for posting a million pictures, so enjoy an unreasonable amount of Gavin cuteness :)

Here is Gavin showing off his prowess as a sitter.  As you can see, he is also a viking when it comes to drooling.

Gavin is a very studious player.  He likes to know every feature of a toy before really starting to play with it.  Gavin also likes to be in control of his toys, so the fact that this ball moves around on its own is very intriguing to Gav.

I would say a third of the pictures I take these days look like this.  I don't know how Gavin has outsmarted the delayed flash on my digital camera, but he now looks like a drunken sailor 33% of the time.

Gavin loves to be "naked," maybe just because its winter and being a summer baby, he doesn't really get the chance to rock his birthday suit very often.  No matter the reason, he makes for quite a cute sumo wrestler.

I forgot Gavin even had this outfit until I desperately searched for clothes after Gav had pooped through 2 outfits before 10 am this morning.  Who knew hoodies were so cute on babies?

This picture makes me want to find a way to squeeze his cheeks through the computer screen.

This picture would be about the time that Ryan would start harassing me for putting up so many pics, but I wanted to include this one because Gavin looks much less like a baby and a lot more like a little boy in this picture.

Daddy tickling the back of Gavin's neck.  I have a hard time remembering that I can't tickle Gavin all day just so that I can hear his adorable little giggles.

Gavin trying to get Daddy to stop watching Nascar.  I don't get it either Gavin!

I've got about 15 minutes to write this before Lost starts :)

So with conferences last week, and a fairly busy weekend, I've been slacking a bit on this blog.  And now its Tuesday and Lost is back, and I find my blog guilt is forcing me to write a blog as quickly as I can so I can figure out what the heck happened when Juliette blew up that bomb!

Since we wrote last, Gavin had his belated 5 month doctor's appointment.  He is now 19 lbs 6 oz, and 28 inches long.  Which is actually "on" the charts for the first time in a long time!  He's in the 90th percentile for length and 95th percentile for weigh.

The doctor's visit was interesting, because it seems as if Gavin has already figured that place out.  He gets a little uneasy when we walk into the examination room, and gets more worried as the clothes come off, and once he is set in the scale or on that tissue paper on the examination table, its all over.  There will apparently be no need to spell out S H O T, because he already knows what's coming.  As Ryan said, until Gav is old enough to eat lollipops, its going to be hard to convince this kid that the doctor's office is an ok place.

The good thing is, the "nurse of doom" who hands out shots all day is actually a very sweet lady (maybe I just think that because she always tells me how cute Gavin is).  She always tries to make Gavin smile after his shot, and does a great job of making the shot as easy as possible.

This weekend, we took Gavin with us to a friend's 30th birthday party up in the Milwaukee burbs.  There were lots of other babies and toddlers at the party, and Gavin was very excited to attend a social event with some new kids to interact with.  Eventually though, he got tired of making small talk so it was time for bed.  It was practically a baby slumber party, with 2 pack and plays and a tent full of toddlers, but Gav did a pretty good job of snoozing while the adults kept the party going.  Overall, it was a successful night out with the little guy!

We don't have a lot of new pictures to share, but here's a few recent ones that we've taken:

Here is Gavin trying his best to look tough, but its hard to get street cred with cheeks like that (and the doggy on his shirt isn't helping the cause either)

Gavin telling Daddy that Ace King really isn't the best hand to go all in on

Gavin LOVES his jumper lately.  He really loves to make as much noise as possible while in his jumper by bashing rattles and rings against the plastic, but its hard to capture that in a picture. 

Another picture of jumper joy