The naked southpaw.

Mommy is out with her friends this afternoon so Dad has decided to take over the blog.  Gavin and I decided to watch some baseball and hockey today and have a "man's day" at home.  It's been a lot of fun and we also decided it was time for Gavin to start working on his pitching skills. (and yes Mom... when you're gone Dad get's too lazy to dress your son. He's content showing off his studly physique anyway.)

The day started with Gavin studying some TV
to figure out his form.

Gavin decides that his favorite pitch is going

 to be the spit ball.

He looks a little ashamed when he gets caught

"loading up the ball" by the ump.

A quick video of Gavin's new pitching skills.

The "Naked Southpaw" is pretty pleased with

 himself after striking out the side.

Hi Daddy!

Ryan is in North Carolina for work again, so this blog is mainly for him so that he can see some pictures and video of his favorite boy!  Before Ryan left though, he and Gavin gave me a wonderful first Mother's Day!  They let me sleep in after a night of partying at Shari's bachelorette party.  Then they gave me some beautiful flowers, a new iron (I swear, I really wanted a new one, that wasn't one of those roll your eyes gifts), and some scented candles.  And best of all, Ry cleaned the fridge and freezer, and dry-vacc-ed (that's definitely not a word) up all the dead bugs in the basement! 
Ry left for NC on Monday, and Gav and I drove him to the airport.  Gavin did a great job hanging out in the car, and we had a good time Monday night.  However, Gavin has proved on Ryan's other business trips that he likes to wake up early when Ryan is out of town, and this was no exception.  Gav was up at 5:11, but luckily he has these CDs that Ryan's mom gave us that Gavin just loves. So I put on his Music Machine CD and that bought me enough time to drag myself out of bed and take a shower.  Gavin was being pretty cute during breakfast this morning, so I took a few pics and a video.  Enjoy!

Gavin posing with one of my Mother's Day presents.

Gavin enjoying one of the greatest baby inventions...puffs.  Its essentially fruit flavored air that keeps Gav busy long enough for me to eat breakfast in the morning.

Nothing pleases Gavin more than finally freeing a sock from his foot!

More attempts at crawling.  I'm pretty sure that just like rolling over, Gavin already knows how to do it, and is just faking his inability at this point.  Gavin is an excellent faker these days.  He also fake coughs and fake laughs to get attention and amuse his peers.  I can foresee the parent teacher conferences now...

Finally, here's video of Gavin this morning.  He was saying "dadada" all morning until I started taping...

More fun in the outdoors!

In addition to going to the Zoo this weekend, we also decided to tackle our front yard.  There was much weeding, planting, trimming and mulching (is that a word?) to be done.  Luckily for us, Gavin decided to take a nap while we worked, and when he woke up, he was happy to help us out.  Or at least, he was happy to sit outside and watch us work!   We've got some great pics below, and two cute videos in the post after this!

Gavin inspecting the flowers Mommy picked out.

Gavin was thrilled by the bubbles

Every once in a while, Gav managed to pop one!

Another first for Gavin, his first time on the swings!  He was not very excited for the first few pushes...

...but he warmed up to it pretty quickly!

"Mom, get out of the way!"

Daddy and Gavin and their matching hats

Gavin also took his first ride on the rocking horses. 

Outside videos

We've spent a lot of time playing outside lately. Here are two very cute videos of Gavin enjoying the great outdoors.
Gavin's first experience with bubbles:

Gavin's first ride on the swings:

Zoo!

Today Gavin took his first trip to the Zoo!  Ryan will confirm that I LOVE zoo's, so it was money well spent on Brookfield Zoo's part when they sent us a flyer about their Zoo membership.  I immediately signed us up for a year's worth of family fun at the Zoo, and Ryan immediately started making fun of me and my "Zoo dollars."

But I think after today's visit, Ryan is on board with the Zoo pass.  We left early so that Gavin could nap on the way out there and so that we could beat the crowds (yes, we have already turned into "those" parents.  We haven't reached the level where we back our car into parking spots...yet.)  So after parking in section Gorilla 14, we loaded Gavin into the stroller and made our way into the Zoo.

After finding the "you are here" on the map (those of you that know that story about me can pause here to laugh at my stupidity), we decided to head towards the Africa exhibit. 

Gavin's first exciting encounter with zoo animals was the camels. 

 Actually, he was more excited about the giant bumblebee that was flying around the camel exhibit, but I didn't get a picture of that because I was frozen with fear.

Our next stop in "Africa" was one of my favorite animals, giraffes!  A fellow zoo goer was nice enough to take this family pic of us with the giraffes.

At this point, Gavin was still more interested in people watching than checking out the animals.  But we decided to go around to a different part of the giraffe exhibit to get a closer look, and this is what Gavin looked like once he finally caught sight of the giraffes:

Yes!! Another giraffe fan in the family :)  Here is another cute pic of Gavin admiring the giraffes

You may be wondering why this next picture is included in the blog.  It's because I thought these were bears.  Yes, I know they are bison.  In my defense, I thought they were bears from far away, and they were located in an exhibit called Great BEAR Wilderness for heaven's sake.  Either way, Ryan felt it was important for us to document another instance of the Erin Zoo Syndrome, in which my IQ drops by at least 20 points the minute I walk through the Zoo gates.  So here are bears, I mean, bison:

After some delicious lunch at the Bison Grill (no, I did not have a bison burger), we visited the Reptile House.  Gavin was running a little low on energy here.  He got a little tired of us excitedly saying "Look Gavin, a insert animal name here!"  Apparently sitting right next to a snake is not smile worthy in Gavin's book.

Our next stop was Tropic World, which was one of my favorites back in the day.  I wasn't sure if Gavin would like this exhibit or be as excited about it as the snakes...

He loves it!  Gavin was thrilled the minute we walked past the waterfall at the entrance to Tropic World.  The sights, the sounds, the smells, who wouldn't love this magical place :)

Gavin caught sight of this monkey that kept swinging back and forth, and he was mesmerized by him

Last stop in Tropic World is the gorillas, and since my camera was running dangerously low on battery at this point, this is where our pictures come to an end.  Gavin was really interested in the gorillas as well, probably because they were all involved in his favorite activities; napping and eating!

So my camera ran out of juice, but I couldn't resist this last photo op, so luckily my phone takes pretty decent pics.  Check out my two favorite dragonflies: