Mr. Fussy Pants cheers up

Today was a good day, as Gavin was mostly back to his normal happy self. He has been super fussy the last couple weeks. He was sick, then reacted to his immunizations, then was just fussy (maybe teething?). There were a lot of times he just wanted to be held and watch tv over the last couple weeks, which was actually kind of fun, since I've learned that Gavin likes to watch food network. Much better than Sesame Street. While he was fussy, Jake found one thing that always cheered Gavin up: balloons!

His birthday balloons lasted a really long time. When this picture was taken, Gavin was in the middle of a fit. He was crying and crying, until Jake handed him the balloons. Of course, when the balloons slipped out his hand he had a fit again. Gavin's new trick this week is to hand things to us. Here he is handing me his favorite playpen toy of the week, the rice cooker spatula:

Sometimes, though, he gets mad and starts throwing a fit when I actually take what he hands me. He prefers me to take it, say thank you, and then hand it back to him.

Bye bye!

This afternoon a guy came to haul off our broken freezer. As he was loading it onto his truck, I told Gavin the man was taking the freezer bye bye. Gavin waved and waved at the freezer.

Gavin's new tricks

I went to work today and Gavin stayed home with Jake. Tonight after his bath Gavin showed me the new tricks he learned today.

Crawling into the pillow/blanket basket and trying to pull over the lamp:

Climbing into his toy cabinet:

Jake said Gavin learned these tricks all by himself today. So it begins. I'm wondering- do girls do this stuff too? Also tonight, while my back was turned of course, Gavin took 3 steps toward Jake. I thought I saw him take a couple steps yesterday out of the corner of my eye but wasn't sure, but I'd say its now official - we have a walker!

Today

We had a really busy day. Gavin had his 12 month checkup at the doctor's office this morning at 8:30. All is well with his development, and we are already doing all the stuff the doctor suggested, like switching him to milk, feeding table foods, and brushing his teeth. Luckily Gavin's cold has not given him an ear infection. The doctor prescribed some cough medicine with an expectorant in it to help clear out his chest. Gavin now weighs 21.13lbs, is 30.25 in tall, and has a head circumference of 18.75in. The doctor didn't give me percentiles, but I looked it up online and Gavin is in the 21th percentile for weight, 59th for height, and 80th for head circumference. Maybe this is why he reminds me of baby pictures of cousin Joe? Then at 11 I went to my last physical therapy appt for my back. Since my pain is getting much better they went ahead and discharged me with instructions to continue my exercises to further reduce my pain. It is really nice to no longer be in pain every time I clean the house, take a walk, go to the grocery store, etc. I still hurt about a third of the time, but that's welcome progress to me. After my appt Jake and I ate lunch while Gavin finished his nap, then we started touch up painting the house. It went up for sale yesterday, and the realtor told us he'd be back this evening to take pictures to post online. While we painted Gavin watched and played in his playpen. We are so lucky to have such an easygoing baby. Just as we were finishing painting and Jake was leaving for work at 3, with all our paint mess still to be cleaned up, the realtor showed up to take pictures. Luckily his camera battery died, and he went home to recharge it. He said he'd be back in an hour. So I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off cleaning up all the paint stuff and tidying up the house for pictures. Gavin went down for his afternoon nap. I got everything in order, and the agent came back about 4:30 and took pictures. He remarked how nice the place looked, and I told him "this is what it looked like before we had a child." After the agent left Gavin and I played for awhile in the livingroom. Tyler was still in his crate from when the agent had been here. Tyler barked. Gavin barked back. They barked back and forth at each other about 5 times. It was really cute. Then Gavin started eating dinner, and here we are at 6:30. Gavin has been eating for a bout 45 minutes. He is really hungry tonight. Maybe the cough syrup made him feel better. He has eaten oatmeal, whole grain goldfish, carrots, and green beans. He just keeps eating everything on his tray, so I keep giving him more and more green beans and carrots. So that's our day so far. Bathtime is next. Mom, I have been too busy to take any new Gavin pictures. Oh, which reminds me. Gavin now has his own folder in my "favorites" on internet explorer. My mom sent him this link last night :http://appraisercentral.com/cleanscreen.swf. When I showed it to Gavin he laughed and bounced up and down on my lap.

What, me worry?

The biggest suprise having to do with Gavin's birthday was for me. I have been a little anxious about taking Gavin off his bottle when he turned 1. Friday afternoon Gavin drank the last of his formula, so that night he had whole milk in his bottle. He didn't really seem to like it, and only drank a couple ounces. He was also pretty fussy from being sick, and had not finished his bottle the night before either, so I didn't really think anything of it. Saturday morning I gave him milk to drink in his sippy cup with breakfast. Much to my suprise, he drank about half the cup. He continued drinking the milk out of the cup throughout the day. Last night he didn't finish all his milk from the cup, but he didn't throw a fit for his bottle either. Today he drank from his cup all day and drank a whole cup of milk before bedtime with no fussing. Its as if he has forgotten all about the bottle. Go figure!

Smart boy

It amazes me how Gavin is growing and learning. He's starting to actually play with his toys instead of just pounding on them or putting them in his mouth. Today Gavin's nose was still running like a fountain, so he and I stayed home from church. He suprised me this morning when he picked up the microphone attached to his new vtech piano and started singing! He didn't play with this toy much yesterday, but he must have been watching Daddy playing with it because he knows how it works! He played with this a lot today, singing, blowing, and yelling into the microphone.

Gavin also figured out what his ginormous comb is for:

Gavin's big day

Gavin's birthday party yesterday went really well, especially taking into account that Gavin has a cold and his nose was constantly running.

He really liked his balloons. This one and the Elmo one were his favorite.

Mommy helped blow out the candles.

Gavin ate 2 of the marshmallow bears.

First bite of cake:

Getting down to business:

This is Gavin's "this food is cold!" face - he makes it with yogurt and applesauce too. He did eat all his ice cream despite the temperature!

Opening presents:

Gavin really likes his ginormous comb:

Tyler popped this ball tonight, it was fun while it lasted.

Jake liked the presents too!

Giddy up!

He actually prefers standing in front of the zebra and bouncing up and down while it makes noises:

Gavin showing off his hat to his friend Carleigh:

Best cake ever

I made Gavin's birthday cake tonight in preperation for his party tomorrow. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and Gavin really likes it. It makes him giggle.