5 months and 5 days

5 months and 5 days is my clever way of excusing myself out of being late on Gavin's 5 month blog. It's been a rough few days here in the Gillespie household. Gavin came down with a cold on Saturday, which he promptly gave to both Ryan and I. So although Gavin can sleep through the night like a champ, Ryan and I are tossing and turning and going through pounds of cough drops.

Ryan and I have both been very busy at work this week, so coming home to play with Gavin is a nice escape at the end of the day!  But because we're so busy, we haven't had Gav's 5 month appointment yet, and won't until next week after I'm done with every teacher's favorite activity: parent teacher conferences!  I do wonder now that I'm a parent myself if I will one day turn into one of the crazy parents that is convinced their child is a genius even though their kid still can't pronounce my name, or shares way too much infomation regarding their marriage at conferences.  Yes, these and many other strange things have happened to me at conferences.  At least we get a day off when its all over!

But back to Gavin! Despite having a cold, Gavin is in a very pleasant mood. He did a great job taking his 5 month pictures, and fending off attacks from Rufus and his posse. We already posted the slideshow/movie of Rufus' revenge, but here are a few still shots that were my favorites, followed by our letter to Gavin.

Dear Gavin,

It’s your 5 month birthday! It’s a new year, and a new you. You’re doing so much more in 2010 than you were just a few weeks before. Now you’re sitting up on your own (although you still tumble over sometimes). You CAN roll over, but you seldom choose to do so. You love laying on your side, but we think you just get a little shocked when all 19 pounds of you goes rolling from one side to the other!

You’ve also made a lot of discoveries this month Gavin. Just a few weeks ago, you found your feet! We don’t know if you’ve realized yet that you have an amazingly large big toe, but you have decided that your feet are just as fun to eat as everything else in our house! You also discovered “solid” food this month. Since you’re now eating 8 oz bottles, we thought it might be time to try some rice cereal, but you don’t seem too interested just yet. For now you hold the cereal in your mouth, smile at Mommy and Daddy, and then spit it right out on your bib. But you do like to sit in your high chair and watch Mommy and Daddy eat their dinner, and we love having you at the table with us Gavin!

In the last month you’ve also found many new ways to play! It doesn’t hurt that you were very spoiled during your first Christmas, and received lots of new toys to play with! You’ve learned that it’s always more fun to knock over a tower of blocks than it is to build one. You’re starting to realize that balls can be rolled back and forth, and that sometimes they roll out of reach. But you’re just beginning to find the right moves to scoot yourself towards objects you want! It’s the beginning of your independence Gavin! Soon you won’t need Mommy or Daddy to take you where you want to go, and bring you the toys you want to play with. We used to think it would be so great when you could do things on your own, but now we’re not so sure. It’s nice to be needed :)

You’re also much more entertained by Mommy and Daddy these days. Daddy makes up all sorts of songs and dances that make you smile and laugh. You love any word that contains the long o sound, and Daddy seems to think that means all his songs should involve the words poop or booty! You also love to grab Mommy’s face and inspect her accessories. You’re especially fascinated with earrings and Mommy’s hair. Both are fun to grab and yank on with all your might!

Every month Gavin you’re becoming more of a little boy and less of our tiny baby. It’s exciting and bittersweet to watch you grow and learn. But it’s also amazing to realize that every morning, when we walk in your room and see you smiling back at us, we love you even more than we did the day before. We don’t know what new things you will have learned and discovered next month, Gavin, but we do know that we will love you more and more! Happy 5 months Gav!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Gavin Vs. Rufus - Part V

Letter to Gavin for 5 Months is on its way but thought I'd post this video for now.

A week of firsts

I have to admit, this week I'm just not in much of a blog writing mood. And I don't have a lot of cute pics to post, so that doesn't help either. But I've been good about blogging weekly-ish since Gavin was born, and since that seems to be the only thing I can be consistent with, I'm not giving up now!

Besides, this week was pretty exciting for Gavin. He had two major "firsts:" He found his feet for the first time, and he had his first taste of "solid" food.

I'll start with the food experience. If there's one thing you should know about Gav, its that he loves to eat. And since he is struggling to stay satisfied for more than 2 hours at a time between bottles, and since I caught him trying to take a bite of my Quizno's the other day, we felt it was time to try some rice cereal.

As a new mom, I honestly thought that this rice cereal I had read about in all my Mommy books was basically going to be a more expensive version of Rice Krispies, but thats clearly not the case. Its basically rice dust that you mix together with water or formula to make something thats even more runny and less appetizing looking than oatmeal. So I get why Gavin isn't that into it just yet. He eagerly opens his mouth for the first bite each time, having forgotten how much he disliked it the day before. But then once he gets a taste, he scowls and while staring straight at you, spits it out on his bib. So we'll see how it goes. We have the first food experience on video, but its on our fancy camera and I don't have the technology know how to post it just yet.

For now, here's a pic of Gavin enjoying his high chair before his first bite of cereal:

And before we get to Gavin finding his feet, I have to include this heart meltingly cute picture of Gavin and Daddy loving each other

I actually took about 10 pictures of them in various poses here, but a bunch of them ended up blurry. Sigh.

Also, here's a pic of Gav hanging out in his pack and play, proving that he still loves that bears mobile

And here is the video of Gavin finding his feet. Now that he's discovered these marvels of the human body, he is determined to get his feet in his mouth. Make your bets now on whether he is successful or not...

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. 

"Well we know who the Christmas ham is..."

Gavin's 4 month appointment was on Monday, and when he weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs 3 oz, the title of this entry is what the nurse said!  I think its pretty appropriate since not only is Gavin our chunky monkey, but he really is a ham.  He is constantly smiling for girls at the mall, making people laugh, and showing off for himself in the mirror.  I wonder who he got that from....

Gavin has had an exciting few days!  Last week, Grandma Gillespie came up to do some shopping and spend some time with her favorite grandson :)  This gave Mommy and Daddy the chance to go to Wildfire for dinner to enjoy some chopped salad and adult conversation (although our conversations seem to always steer back to Gavin, no matter where the conversation started!) 

This weekend, Grandma Mayner came over to babysit so Mommy and Daddy could attend a few Christmas parties.  Gavin and Grandma had a fun time playing in his jumper and "dancing," and Mommy had a little too much fun at her parties and learned that hangovers and babies simply don't mix.  Suddenly I understand why its a universal truth that no one's mom drinks, and if she does have even one drink, shes already tipsy and hence an absolute blast to watch.

Gavin and I have also gotten to hang out for the last few days, because I'm currently enjoying the most wonderful time of year, winter break!  We've accomplished a lot in our days home together.  Gavin is starting to really enjoy his jumper, he is trying to sit on his own more, and he even rolled over for the first time!  I know I said in a blog when he was like a month old that he rolled over for the first time, but that must have been some lapse in gravity in our house, because it never happened since then. Therefore, I'm counting this week as the first time it officially happened.  Gavin seemed very pleased with himself for rolling over from his tummy to his back, but once he realized that it didn't get him any closer to the toy he wanted, he was over the whole accomplishment pretty quickly.

Also earlier this week, Gavin turned 4 months old!  It's also the time of year when back in 2008, we were just realizing that Gavin existed, although we didn't know if he was a boy or a girl, and we definitely didn't know what an awesome kid he would turn out to be.  Here are some shots from his 4 months shoot with his buddy/nemesis Rufus:

As always, these shoots start out friendly...

But soon Gavin and Rufus were locked into a staring battle.

And when Rufus blinked, Gavin went in for the attack!

Rufus tried to fight back, but Gavin attempts to land some low blows...

...and some biting for good measure.

Rufus is worn down by all of Gavin's dirty tactics.

And Gavin is thrilled to get the pin.

Gavin declares himself the winner, while Rufus slumps in defeat.

But the cops show up and break up the fight just as it is ending.

Their brush with the law makes the boys realize that all this fighting is silly and they are soon friends again.

Also, this week Gavin met Santa!  Santa really liked Gavin's green outfit, and Gavin did a great job of waiting in line for almost an hour to meet jolly old St. Nick.  From the look on his face, I think Gavin was too excited to remember to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. Maybe next year!

And to conclude the world's longest blog entry ever, here is our 4 month letter to Gavin:

Dear Gavin,

As your Uncle CJ said when he wished you a happy 4 month birthday, 0.33 is the new 0.25! (It’s a math joke for your nerdy math teacher mom :)

What a great month it has been Gavin! Since your 3 month birthday you have celebrated Thanksgiving, met your great Grandma Gallagher, attended a few Christmas parties, gone holiday shopping with Mommy and Grandma M., and been baptized.

You also reached some major milestones. Now not only do you smile, but you laugh as well. There can’t possibly be a better sound in this world than your giggles and squeals. Whether it’s Mommy tickling your tummy or Daddy talking to you about baseball, your peals of laughter are constantly ringing through our home, and we love it!

Another milestone you can check off the to-do list is rolling over! Just this morning, you started out sitting up playing with your toys. You started to lean to the right, and plopped over on your tummy. But your “car” toy was too exciting to ignore, so in your attempts to see it better, you flopped right over on your back! You couldn’t see your car anymore, but boy were you pleased with yourself for figuring out how to start moving around on your own!

You’ve also started sleeping through the night more consistently now. And while this might not be a very exciting milestone for you, it’s thrilling for Mommy and Daddy!

It’s only a few days away from Christmas, and we’re so excited to share this holiday with you Gavin. Your stocking is hung on the fireplace, your presents from Mommy and Daddy are under the tree, and your Christmas CD is playing while you sleep. The most exciting part of this holiday for you is probably all the flashing lights and wrapping paper to play with. But for Mommy and Daddy, it’s the realization that Santa delivered the news of our most precious gift almost a year ago, and now you are here to enjoy the celebration of Jesus’ birth with us. Happy four months and Merry Christmas Gavin!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Santa Claus is coming to town

Its been a while since our last blog. We've been pretty wrapped up in the end of the year and the upcoming holidays, and don't have much to blog about just yet. But Gavin's 4 month "birthday" is this week, and Christmas is just around the corner, so we hope to have more interesting updates soon!

Until then, here are some pics to keep you current on Gavin's cuteness. We did a photo shoot this afternoon for our Christmas card (yea, by the time you get it, it will be more like a Happy New Year's card). Gavin was actually quite cooperative, considering he has been not that happy the last few days. We suspect he may be starting to teethe. Or maybe he's just not taking Daddy's threats about Santa's naughty list very seriously. It probably doesn't help that "Santa's" presents are all just sitting out in the family room for Gavin to see. Mommy is a little lazy like that.

Here's the out-takes from our photo shoot.  You'll have to wait patiently by your mailbox for the really cute pics!

Our happy little elf in front of the tree.

Gavin sporting his adult size Santa hat...finally a piece of clothing thats too big for him!

Naughty or nice?  You decide.

Tummy time isn't nearly as easy with a giant Santa hat on your head.

Gavin's best impersonation of the drunken mall Santa.

After a long photo shoot, Gavin is all settled in for a long winter's nap.

Christmas time is here...

Christmas is in full swing here in the Gillespie household! Our Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated inside and out, and Gavin's stocking is hung on the fireplace with care. Christmas is my favorite time of year, so I fully intend on spoiling Gavin this holiday season, and I'm sure Santa will be kind to him as well :) Although, at least this year, it looks like Gavin might be more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual presents!

Gavin has only recently started to interact with paper products, but he's already a big fan. We tried to take a birthday picture for Uncle CJ this week, just like we did for Uncle Kevin about a month ago. But this month, Gavin was very interested in the piece of paper wishing Uncle CJ a happy birthday, and tried his best to shove the entire thing in his mouth. So we ended up doing a birthday video of Gavin devouring CJ's birthday wish. That video is on Facebook, because I'm saving a super cute video for this blog!

Gavin had a busy weekend. He went shopping with me and Grandma Mayner on Saturday at Gurnee Mills. Gavin did a great job shopping, although he wasn't really interested in staying in his stroller where he can't see any of the action. So he spent a lot of time bjorning and flirting with the ladies.

Today, Gavin went to a Christmas party thrown by Miss Jeanne, his daycare provider. Gavin really enjoyed hanging out with his baby friends, and we liked meeting the other kids and their parents. Miss Jeanne threw a really great party, and gave Gavin some very thoughtful presents!

At first, Gavin was more interested in trying to eat the wrapping paper than he was with the actual presents.

But once we got home and assembled his present, Gavin decided to check out his new loot.

Gavin also used his new toy to show off one of his new tricks, sitting up on his own! Its not really sitting so much as it is leaning forward and propping himself up for a few seconds until he plops over one way or the other, but its still a start!

It took him a few minutes to decide, but finally Gavin agreed that Miss Jeanne picked out a pretty cool present.

Miss Jeanne also gave us a really neat present, a calendar with pictures of Gavin at daycare! She took so many great pictures, but here's a pic of the March pictures when Gavin was rocking a sweet mohawk.

Gavin didn't want to be a party pooper, but Miss Jeanne's party was during nap time, so this is what Gavin looked like after the short 5 minute drive home.

Even though it's just starting to feel like winter time, Daddy says pitchers and catchers report in just a few months. He and Gavin like to talk about all the fun they'll have in the spring. Gavin thinks this is a riot. The video below shows off Gavin's newest skill, laughing! He is still learning though, so right now it kind of sounds like someone stepping on a Canadian goose, but its still music to our ears!