I love to see the temple...

Saturday was an important day for our family. Gavin was sealed to us in the Atlanta Temple. This gives Gavin the same blessings that he would have had from birth were he our biological child, most notably making us an eternal family. This means that if we keep God's commandments and the covenants we have made with Him we will continue as a family unit after we die. We will be able to be together forever. We were lucky enough to share this experience with some important people in our and Gavin's life. The Kozaks, the Carnells, Dustin Hansen, Marie Knight, Robyn Padgett, and Hannah from LDSFS were there. And our officiator was Dustin's grandpa, the same man who sealed the two of us together as a couple in 2002. Afterwards we learned that the sister that brought Gavin into the temple to join us had known him when he was 3 or 4 months old, which I thought was really cool. Somehow instead of pictures really short video was taken for our group photo and some others, but I'm just glad our batteries didn't go dead as they're prone to do.

Sunday Jake gave Gavin his baby blessing at church, which went really well. Now we feel like Gavin's adoption is really completed. We have felt like he was ours since the beginning, but now we feel like the process is done. The only thing left is to pay the final lawyer bill, which we haven't received yet, which for some reason I find scary. And to get the amended birth certificate and new SSN.

Fun at Grandma's house

Gavin also had a lot of fun playing at my parent's house. Here he is riding the train my dad bought him:

Playing in the garage:

Memorial Day at the beach

By Memorial Day Gavin didn't mind the water anymore - he actually liked playing in it.

Gavin could have sat and played on the beach all day. He would dig in the sand, then the water would fill in the hole, and Gavin would dig some more. Over and over and over.

I was pleasently suprised Gavin left his hat on the whole time we were at the beach. I was worried about his scalp burning. I had tried to put sunscreen on it, but ended up mostly just making a crazy hairdo.

First walk on the beach

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to visit my parents in Ft Walton Bch, Florida.
I bought Gavin sunglasses for the beach but as you can see he didn't really like them:
We drove down to Florida on Friday but unfortunately it was rainy. The sun didn't come out until Saturday evening, so that was our first chance to take Gavin to the beach. He absolutely loved it. He wasn't too keen on the water at first, but he loved the sand. He took off walking/running down the beach, yelling in excitement. Gavin was so excited he tried to tell a lot of the people walking by how he felt. He is quite an outgoing little guy. I was amazed how Gavin just kept walking and walking. He didn't even get upset when he fell down in the sand, just got back up and kept walking. He didn't even mind walking in the deep sand further away from the shore.

Gavin's first steps on the beach Saturday evening:

When Gavin first got to the shore he ran out as the water receeded. He was not happy when a wave came in and the chilly water came up to his waist. That was the only time he cried at the beach, but only for a couple seconds.
This is what excitement looks like in a toddler:
This was taken after Gavin leaned over and stuck his tongue in the sand: This is actually where Jake and I met - at the beach behind the Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island:

Drying off after attempting to get all the sand off Gavin:
He was still excited on the car ride back from the beach:

Video of Gavin's first walk on the beach

15 month checkup

Gavin's 15 month checkup yesterday went well. The doctor didn't find anything of concern. Gavin now weighs 23.32 lbs, is 31.5 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 19 inches. This puts him in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. The doctor didn't say what his percentile was for his head circumference but she did comment to him, "you have a big head."

It's Official!

We finalized Gavin's adoption today. It took all of about 5 minutes. We sat at a table in the judge's office, were sworn in, and then answered a few questions about where we live, Gavin's name, when we took custody, etc. Then the judge signed the papers and that was that. We brought our camera, but nobody mentioned taking a picture and we really just wanted to get it over with and done anyway. Gavin was excited because there was a huge plant in the judge's office. He really likes plants, tractors, and animals. Farmer Gavin? Anyway, we're glad it's done. To us he was already ours anyway, but it's nice not having anything legal hanging over our heads now.

My First Mother's Day

We had a nice peaceful Mother's Day yesterday. In lieu of a present we bought a whole bunch of food storage, along with a shelving system from http://www.shelfreliance.com/. I've been wanting one of these systems for awhile now, and was excited that they ran a mother's day special - buy $1000 worth of food storage, get the $400 shelf system free, plus free shipping (FYI $1000= 74 #10 cans of fruits and veggies). We already had a lot of staples so we mostly bought fruit and vegetables. We're going to wait until we move to put the shelving system together. For now all the food is stored under our bed. Jake was nice enough to grill steak, chicken, and corn on the cob for dinner, but unfortunately a freak hail storm started as he was finishing up. Really weird:

Spinning

This morning Gavin spun himself around in circles for the first time and then fussed when he fell down from being dizzy.

Good thing we don't have knick knacks

Gavin's effect on our living room

Before:

after:
before:

after:

Climbing

Earlier this week I left to run an errand. When I got back, Jake said to me, "He's climbing onto everything now." That about sums it up. Pretty soon we're not going to have any furniture left to remove from the living room.

Everyday stuff

Gavin still really likes books. Most of the time now he won't sit still to listen to a whole story, but he likes flipping through the pages with me pointing items out and naming them. When he wants me to name something instead of pointing to it himself he grabs my finger and points it to the item of interest. He pulls out his board books every day and browses through them:

Learning to eat eggplant parmesan with a fork - he holds the fork in one hand and eats with the other!

Where's Gavin?

Gavin has really been into playing peak-a-boo lately. The way he likes to do it is to hold an object in front of his face or duck behind furniture. We say, "Where's Gavin?" and then he removes the item or jumps up and laughs. Lately he's gotten creative. Last Sunday at church he used the bulletin to hide his face to play peak-a-boo. Also, he now thinks that when he ducks down in his crib we can't see him between the slats. He crouches down looking at us between the slats until we say "Where's Gavin?" Then he jumps up and laughs. This morning Gavin finally played peak-a-boo the correct way. First thing this morning when he stood up in his crib he took his hands and covered his eyes. At first Jake and I just kinda stood there puzzled. Then I realized what he was doing and said, "Where's Gavin?," much to his delight. He removed his hands and laughed. Maybe he dreamed of the correct way to do this. The only problem is Gavin thinks he can just put his hands anywhere on his head for this game. He tries putting them both on his hair, one on his eye, one on his ear, etc. We are trying to teach him it only works when he covers his eyes.

#3

Monday Gavin had his 3rd haircut. He looks so grown up!