Happy 7th Month Gavin!

Today Gavin turned 7 months old, I really can't believe that he is that old and that I have been off of work for 8 months now! And I have not gone legally insane! Ha Ha! Gavin has had somewhat of a rough few days, with getting another tooth Monday. And of course, the mean Mommy I am, I took away the Binky today. I originally said at 6 months it would be gone, but we decided to do it gradually and only let him have it when he is in the crib for naps and nighttime. He only cried for 35 minutes this morning! Of course I cried a little too, but then he slept for 2 1/2 hours! Daddy had a VERY HARD time putting him to bed tonight. He stayed upstairs with him for about 10 minutes while he cried. It was not nearly as bad as it was this morning, so I think by the weekend, he will forget all about it.

Gavin also took a huge (OK maybe not that big) fall today onto the edge of the coffee table. I think Greg was expecting him to be black and blue all over when he got home. But he did have a nice little scratch over his eye. With a little bit of puffiness. I think I was more upset than he was when this happened! But like my sister and Mom said, this is just the beginning to him taking falls.

Last night Greg decided to see if Gavin would like taking a shower. Of course our little fish absolutely loved it after he had already spent 20 minutes in the tub and then another 10 in the shower! I completely thought I was doing great, recording this new first and of course, I DID NOT HAVE THE RECORD BUTTON ON! I am a ding dong! Whoops.

On another note, this past weekend was spent celebrating Frankie and Jackson's 2nd birthday! I cannot believe that they are 2! They are very funny, with very different personalities! I have attached a few pics of them eating their cupcakes, I think they had a wonderful time as did we. I can't wait for Gavin to get old enough to be able to play with them along with big sister Pyper. And yes, Frankie does look very innocent here, but do not be fooled! She is our little firecracker!

The Boys

A lot of people ask us how Crash and Elvis are doing with having Gavin around. There is a lot of people that are afraid of dogs or don't believe that dogs should be a part of a household. Greg and I thought, Gavin is coming into our family, and our family includes the two pooches. The only real difference that you will see around our house is the dogs are no longer on our bed. We have both seen how dogs can be pushed aside once a baby is brought into the home and they become somewhat ostracized from the family. We did not want that for us. We made a point to have both dogs with us when we came home from the hospital, we let them check him out, give him some licks and generally love on him. The first two months of his life he slept in our room next to the bed. Gavin would sleep right through the dogs barking at 3 in the morning and Elvis would snore through Gavin crying at 4 in the morning. So they got acclimated to each other early on!

Let's begin with big brother Crash. Crash has always been very interested in Gavin, licking and smelling him from day one. I thought my Mom was going to have a heart attack when she saw me holding Gavin at about 3 days old and Crash walked up and started licking his head! Greg and I figured, why not let them both (Crash and Gavin) get used to each other early on. Crash is also very protective of him, if he thinks he is hurt or upset he is the first one to investigate. A lot of nights after the peanut is in bed, Crash will lay on the landing so he can be close to Gavin but also near us. The other day Gavin and I were playing on the floor and Crash came and laid about a foot away from us. Gavin scooted himself over to Crash and put his hand on Crash's paw. Crash took his paw out from under Gavin's and laid it on top. It went back and forth for awhile, it was very cute.

Elvis on the other hand......well lets be honest, Elvis is a very independent/aloof dog. He really was only upset that we took his stairs away from the bed and he wasn't allowed to sleep with us anymore. For so long Gavin has been on a higher level, (ie the swing, bouncy, etc.) that Elvis really did not take that much interest in him. But now that Gavin is on the floor 80% of his day, Elvis is pretty into him, especially his toys (Before anyone says anything, I have read about dogs/kids toys. I know that they should not share toys and we do not allow the dogs to grab, lick, touch Gavin's toys & vice verse for their toys). Anyway, the first few times we put a blanket on the floor for Gavin, Elvis would immediately lay on it. So we just started letting them lay together. That novelty soon wore off for Elvis. But every once in awhile Elvis will love on him, but he is not quite the licker Crash is.

Now Mr. Gavin on the other hand is very fascinated with the boys. If you ask him where Crash is, he will immediately look for him and the same for Elvis. So he does know their names. If they are anywhere in the vicinity of Gavin, he has to be watching them the whole time. When we swing outside he is always turned sideways so he can watch the dogs and see what they are doing. He loves sitting in his high chair, because as soon as we put him in it, both dogs are right there. I think they have learned from Pyper, Frankie and Jack, a baby eating means food on the floor for them. They have yet to get any food from him yet, but I give it a month!

Greg finally got to see Gavin crawl last night- they were laying on the bed together and the dogs were playing at the bottom of the bed. So Gavin crawled to the end of the bed to watch them. We have been laying on the floor with him trying to get him to crawl to one of us, I guess we should have been using the dogs! In the mornings, when I go upstairs to get Gavin, both dogs usually come with me. Gavin always has a smile for me when I walk into the room, but he gets downright giddy when he hears the dogs collars and then sees them. He is like a little kid on Christmas morning!

So far so good with the mingling of the three of them. It will be interesting to see how they all are together once Gavin gets more mobile! We keep joking that we are going to get a saddle and let Gavin ride around on Elvis!

A week of firsts!

Our little munchkin, Gavin has had a HUGE week of firsts. For the past month it has been a waiting game for his teeth to come in. He has been drooling, mashing his gums together, chewing on anything he can get his hands on, and having random bursts of outrage.


Finally the tooth popped through on Monday, granted I didn't get the opportunity to see it until Tuesday, I just felt it. Gavin has a very adverse reaction to people trying to put fingers in his mouth. Let alone try to pry his mouth open so we can look at his new tooth.


Then on Tuesday the little turkey took a few crawls. He has been somewhat mobile for a few weeks, his favorite way of getting around is rolling everywhere. Which is always fun when I leave the room for a minute and return to find him down the hallway or under the coffee table. He has yet to make another stab at the crawling, he will get up on all fours and then realize that he would rather roll.

He then finished off the week with me walking into his room and finding him sitting up in his crib playing with his fish mobile on Wednesday. Daddy couldn't wait to see it, but he had a better first when he walked into his room Thursday morning and found him STANDING in his crib. We quickly lowered the mattress, or our little monkey may very well hop out of the crib! Standing is his favorite thing right now. He loves holding your fingers and pulling himself into a standing position and taking a step or two. I think he will just get up and walk before he actually gets down the whole crawling concept.

Gavin is also getting very animated and funny. He loves to mimic you, whether it being sounds, laughter, kissing faces, raspberries, etc. My all time favorite is this thing that he started doing about a week ago. Greg and I have never done it to him, so unsure of where he picked it up at, but hilarious! When he is frustrated or mad he will scrunch up his face and furrow his brow and make blowing noises out of his mouth. Somewhat like a monkey. I have attached a picture of what it looks like. I finally took some video of it, I will try and upload soon.

It has been a huge week not only for Gavin but for us also! Makes me realize that we need to finish with baby proofing our home!