Thursday, February 3, 2011

Cabin Fever Fun

Now that we're in the thick of winter, its more of a struggle to come up with activities to keep Gav happy.  Gavin LOVES to go outside, even when its bitterly cold.  If he even sees me or Ryan start to put on our coat, he runs over, grabs his shoes out of the basket, plops down on the floor, and hands us his shoes to put on! 

So in an effort to get us out of the house and burn off some energy, I signed Gavin up for his first gymnastics class.  "Gymnastics" is a strong word for what Gav does in this class.  Its more about gross motor skills, learning to play well with others, and learning to follow a teacher's directions.  So far we've attended two classes, and Gavin is having a blast!  The first class was a little rough.  Class starts with free play, which Gav spent shooting hoops.  But then all the kids are supposed to come sit on a circle rug and do a few activities with Coach Kelly.  Gavin wanted no part of the circle time (he's not really into being told what to do, I can't imagine why :).  So we hovered on the outside of the circle and watched the other kids.  I of course started worrying that my kid was never going to participate in circle time, but then a very nice dad told me that his daughter just sat in the corner and cried for her first 4 classes, so then I realized that I was just being a crazy parent again :) 

The second week, Gavin participated in almost all the circle activities, and was much more excited about trying new things.  He attempted a summersault and a log roll, and thought about getting on the swinging bar, but backed out at the last second!  We also discovered that Gavin loves ball pits!  Gymnastics class has two ball pits, and Gav likes to climb into the deeper one and sink in until just his head is "above water." Here's a few pics of gymnastics class:
Post-basket celebration!
 Tolerating circle time only because there are maracas involved.
 Group basketball time.  Gavin deftly avoids the unique defense of blocking the basket by laying on the floor.
 Buried in the ball pit!

Gymnastics isn't the only way Gavin fills his free time during the winter months.  He also likes to make up his own games.  Most of these games consist of throwing something in the air, and then asking "Where it go?"  To which the other player has to reply with some version of "I don't know, can you find it?".  Then Gavin excitedly nods his head and runs off after the thrown object.  Gav recently discovered that tissues make this game even more fun, since there are so many to throw, and they float down in such fun ways.
Marvelling at the seemingly endless Kleenex box.
 "Look at them all Mom!"
 Posing with the Kleenex King.
 Still amazed at just how many tissues fit in one box.
 Happy to be making a mess!
 Confused when the box is finally empty!
 This clean up attempt didn't last very long!



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Christmas 2010. Better late than never!

Phew!  The holiday season is over and I still feel like I haven't caught my breath yet.  Needless to say, blogging has fallen to the wayside for a while here, but we're back with a vengenance! Here is Christmas 2010:

 Gavin's loot from Santa and Mommy and Daddy.
 Gavin likes to test the weight limit on his toys before opening them.
Most of Gav's presents this Christmas centered around his love of coloring.  This toy makes music as he colors.  This is actually the only time Gav has used it for coloring.  He now just treats this toy like a radio!
Gav also got a lot of new books for Christmas.
Santa brought Gavin an easel, which is definitely Gav's favorite present.  He has already created several masterpieces with the help of his trusty easel.
Just a cute pic of the Gavvers.
Gavin loved playing with Grandpa's trains!
The boys contemplate the wonders of the electric train.
Grandma provided Gav with some holiday attire.
That is one cute Santa!
This Christmas was so different from last year.  Gav had just started to sit on his own last Christmas, so we opened all his presents for him.  This year Gav was able to rip into his own presents, but he was only interested in removing just enough wrapping paper to figure out what was underneath!
Gav also felt it necessary to give every piece of ripped wrapping paper to Mommy.
More train time with Grandpa.
Gavvers and Brycers.
Grandpa and his favorite boys!
Ok, not a Gav pic, but Bryce is my nephew and he's adorable so its allowed :)  And look at this face Bryce is giving his Daddy for making him ride the stuffed giraffe!

We had a wonderful holiday season celebrating with family and friends, and we hope you did too!  We're looking forward to an amazing 2011!

Mom, get to work and start blogging again already!!

Dear Mommy,

You have totally been slacking off on documenting my cuteness lately.  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I get more and more awesome every day, and if you don't write about it and post adorable pictures, then my fans are going to revolt.  And we just can't have that.  So get back to blogging soon, or else you'll see more of this face.
Thanks a bunch!
Love, Booger

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Da Bears!

Gavin, like everyone in this family, is a huge Bears fan.  He was all decked out in his Bears gear and ready to watch the game when he spilled milk all over his Bears sweatshirt.  So Mommy took off his sweatshirt, and it seemed to unleash the true Chicago Super Fan in Gavin.  Enjoy the pics!

 Stretching out and getting ready to cheer on da Bears!
First things first, time to select some game time snacks.
Puffs aren't quite a polish sausage, but they'll have to do.
"Mom, I only had a baker's dozen of those puffs, but these pants are already starting to sag!"
Showing off the Super Fan physique.
 Contemplating who would win in a fight, Coach Ditka, or a hurricane named Ditka....
Wiping up the Eagles fans' tears....DA BEARS!!

Thanksgiving 2010

What a great 5 days off it has been!  This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Gillespie family, which is a slightly bigger dinner than the Mayner Thanksgiving.  Here's a before pic:

Side note, Gavin had a blast running up and down the length of the tables in the basement.  He also loved watching his "cousins" army crawling underneath all the chairs!  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of this.  Gavin loved trying to play with the other kids (who are at least 3-4 and older).  His favorite thing to say right now is "Hi!" so he was a very welcoming guest at Thanksgiving dinner.  Tyson (one of Gav's "cousins") told his mom, "Mommy, he's funny!  He keeps saying hi to me!"  So cute!

Dinner was delicious as usual (thanks to the Carroll family and everyone that helped cook and clean!)  This was the first Thanksgiving where Gav could sample the cuisine, but once he saw the bread, it was a struggle to get him to try anything else.  He ended up eating about 4 rolls, a little bit of turkey, some corn souffle, and some jello.  Gavin has an incredible appetite right now, and really eats about 5 meals a day (breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, dinner and second dinner!).  Here's a pic of our view of everyone enjoying dinner (keep in mind that we still had about 15-20 people that aren't in this shot!
Gavin hijacked the camera from me to take this pic of Grandpa enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner.
Gavin enjoys a post dinner story time with Aunt Allison.
Friday morning was spent laying around by the fire, instead of fighting with crazy people for LCD TV's, but by Friday afternoon, Gavin was ready to get outside and play.  Gavin LOVES to play outside, which I am so grateful for.  (It always makes me happy to see Gavin use his imagination when he plays, instead of just punching a bunch of buttons on some singing, spinning toy.  I fear the days when Gav will completely tune me out while he texts his girlfriend and listens to his "young people" music on his iPod, so I'm enjoying the days when he's not completely addicted to technology.)  Anyway, it was unfortunately quite cold outside on Friday, and we lost one of Gav's mittens, so we had to improvise:
Yes, those are adult sized stretchy gloves on Gav's hands.  They didn't last very long, so we decided to take Gavin to Monkey Joe's (an indoor kids place with a bunch of inflatable stuff) so that he could burn off some energy.
Playing in the "mini monkey zone," a part of Monkey Joe's that's meant for the littler kids.  The rest of the place had this huge inflatable climbing walls, slides and bouncy houses.  I was a little tempted to jump in myself!
 You know Gavin is thinking hard when he sticks his tongue out like that, just like his Daddy!
Gav's attempt at blowing kisses to Grandma.
 Look at that grin, what is this kid planning?
Gavin wrapped up the holiday weekend with a visit from his cousin Bryce.  Bryce is 2 weeks old now, but still in that sleepy newborn stage.  Gavin did at least pay attention to Bryce this time, but he still wasn't too interested in his first cousin.  Here's a pic of Daddy helping Gav to get an up close view of baby Bryce:

Sunday, November 14, 2010

My Cousin Bryce

This Wednesday, Gavin's first cousin, Bryce Robert, came into this world!  Gavin is very excited for a best bud to pal around with, and Ryan and I are excited to be an Uncle and Aunt!  We couldn't wait to meet the newest addition to the Gillespie family, so our little family of three headed out to Geneseo this weekend to meet Bryce and congratulate Shane and Karyn in person. 

Before we met Bryce, we stopped at St. Ambrose to catch one of Bren's basketball games.  Gavin was excited to see Uncle Bren play, and even attempted to say Uncle Bren (although it was right in the middle of one of Bren's free throw shots...Gavin doesn't understand basketball etiquette yet!).  Gav also loved the sound of the ref's whistles and all the clapping.  And Gav did such a good job of flirting with the cheerleaders that one of the girls threw him a mini basketball!
Gavin and Grandma both were nervous watching Uncle Bren play!
 As usual, having fun with Grandpa.  I'm sure Grandpa was explaining all the officiating to Gavin.
 Tuckered out on the drive from St. Ambrose to Shane and Karyn's place, but still clutching his prized basketball!
Baby Bryce!!  What a cutie, and so little! 
 Proud Aunt Erin, and Bryce's daddy in the background.
 Ryan gets a turn with cuddling Bryce.
 Oh my goodness, look at this bundle of cuteness.  Bryce loved snuggling up into Ryan's sweatshirt!  We miss him already!!
I would have loved to get a picture of Gavin and Bryce together, but Gavin was tired and more interested in one of Karyn's teddy bears than Bryce, so it didn't happen.  Maybe Gav will take more notice of his cousin over Thanksgiving!

This past week was pretty busy.  Basketball season started at my middle school, so I worked a few nights keeping the scorebook.  And Gavin has started getting several molars, which apparently isn't a very fun experience for anyone involved.  So I completely forgot that we had a few cute pictures from the weekend before that I never posted.  Last weekend, Larry, Mary, Bren and Kevin came up to our place to see Gav and celebrate Kevin's 21st birthday!  Gavin loves spending time outside, so we took a little trip to our neighborhood park.
Gavin loves to steer the playground.
 Daddy always takes the cutest pics of Gav.
 Playing on the baseball field with Uncle Kevin.
 Having a lazy morning with Grandpa and Daddy.