Baby in a Box

Last night was Open House at the school. Gavin stayed with me for a while until Dave could come pick him up. While I had a blanket and a toy for him, this file box provided some fun for a while. After he grew tired of this, he sat on my lap and flirted with the moms who were asking me to print schedules for their students so they could meet the teachers.

Gavin's core strength has improved a lot in the last week. Just last Thursday or Friday, his teacher Miss Kim was commenting that she'd been working with him on his sitting up. We were laughing at the fact that he eventually slumps to one side or the other. In the last few days, he's gotten much better at leaning forward to support himself. Tonight he was doing a really good job sitting up, until Mason walked by. Then Gavin followed him with his eyes and his entire body. My boy's growin' up.

Babies, Babies, and More Babies

Note: I started this post 2 weeks ago. I've waited thinking I'll get pictures. But one must ask in order to receive, so here's the post minus two baby pictures.

Love was in the air about 40 weeks ago. And, our friends have the babies to prove it. This mini-baby boom started on August 12th and concluded on the 27th.


First there was Lily on Wednesday, August 12th.































Next, Branlyn Nicole arrived on Thursday, August 13th, weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.




















Mindy's twins, Callen and Luke, also arrived on the 13th.






There was a brief break, then . . .

Tenli Isabella on Monday, August 24th.




Robert William on Wednesday, August 26th.
















Madelyn Jewell debuted on Thursday, August 27th.

Whew. I'm tired for them. A wonderful journey is just beginning. The ride gets easier by six months, I promise. Hang in there. We love you all.

Tough Day for G

Gavin had a rough day today. We had his 6 month doctor appointment yesterday, and he got three shots - one of which was a flu shot. In the past, after shots he runs a fever for most of the day and then is fine usually before he goes to bed.

This time it didn't work out that way. He was really restless last night. I think that he woke up 3-4 times during the night. Then this morning he was very stuffy and running a fever. This has continued all day long. He hasn't been a happy camper to say the least. Mama seems to be the only one who can sooth him when he is feeling bad. Dad functions as a baby holder during the times when he is feeling better. There has been a lot of baby holding going on around here today.

Mama went to Wal Mart today to pick up a few supplies. While she was there she picked up a few new toys for Gavin. He passed some time this afternoon (while he was feeling good) playing with his new blocks and plastic animals. There were a few smiles thoughout the day today, but not nearly as many as we are used to from Gavin.
He's asleep right now. We shall see for how long. Oh yea, the air conditioner decided to die today too....thankfully it has been raining all day so it is still cool and only a little humid. Hopefully the rain keeps things cool till Monday when I can call someone to look at the AC.

Refrigerator Art

Have you ever seen better refrigerator art from a 6 month-old? Gavin is truly gifted (blessed with sweet teachers who make projects for Mama and Dad).

These are thumb prints decorated like little bees.

Gotta love that smile and those little footprints.

Job Perks

One of the perks for Miranda's job is that we always get to stand on the sidelines for her school's football games. She is required to be at all of the games to make sure that the students behave and to keep some semblance of order. This week her school played at the new Cowboy's stadium in the Kirk Herbstreit Varsity Football Series. This is a sponsored even where several teams play over the course of a day. We had been to games at the old Texas stadium, but this was the first time that we have been to the swanky new Cowboys stadium.

Miranda and G posing on the way into the stadium.

After taking an elevator ride and walking though the tunnels under the stadium, we finally found our way to the field....we had VIP passes of course. :)
Gavin wasn't sure what to make of this huge building until he saw the giant high def TV hanging from the ceiling. This was his expression for literally 2-3 minutes.
Here was our view of the high def TV from the field. The screen is a 160' x 72'!
That view doesn't really do it justice....Here is a view from the stands where you can see the players underneath. The screen is so huge that 75% of the fans in the stands just watched the TV screen instead of the game that was right in front of them.
This is how Gavin spent most of the afternoon. Chewing on his football, with a constant gaze upward at the electronic wonderfulness.We also walked around a bit. I guess if you pay $90,000 for season tickets to the Cowboys you deserve a nice concession stand and lounge area. Incidentally, there are 3000+ Sony LCD TVs in the stadium, and all the concession stand menu boards are on LCD TVs - talk about a waste of money.
We also visited with some friends. Gavin loves Aunt Glenda....and Aunt Glenda loves Gavin. He's holding on tight.....
Oh yea - there was a football game that was played too. We won! 28 - 7 thanks in part to 21 points off turnovers. The kids played really hard and earned the win this afternoon. I can only imagine what a thrill it was to play a $1.2 billion dollar stadium and have their images and highlights up on the huge screen for everyone in the stadium to see.

lol

We have been on a mission to get footage of Gavin laughing. It has been a bit of a challenge to say that least. Whenever he is laughing we grab the camera only for him to start focusing on the camera, and he forgets what he was laughing about. It took me making "pppppbbbbbtttt" sounds with my lips to get him laughing, but it worked this time.

Yum, Yuck, Yum Squash

We have been given the go ahead by our pediatrcian to start Gavin on baby food. We were instructed to start with one yellow vegetable and try it for 2-3 days, then try a green vegetable for 2-3 days, and repeat. That way we will know what he is allergic to if anything. We picked squash as his first food. We wanted to ease him into it, so we mixed the squash baby food in with his normal rice cereal.

His reaction initially was that he liked this new stuff and was eating it as fast as we could put it in front of him.
Then I guess his taste buds came around, and they decided that this squash stuff was terrible! He was making faces like he was sucking on a lime. He even gagged a few times...we felt bad for the little guy so we decided to try again the next morning.

The next morning we did the same thing - mixed the baby food with the normal rice cereal. He was back to loving the squash again. We have since had two more meals with the squash, and he ate just about everything each time. Up next peas....I have a feeling which way that one will go.

Yellow Jacket in Training

Gavin had an awesome introduction to college football on Saturday! He got to watch Georgia Tech cruise to an easy opening game win. Good things are in store for the Jackets this season - or at least they'd better be with the way that the ACC stinks. And he also got to see Georgia get killed by Oklahoma State. G was dressed for the occasion in his game-day best for most of the day.

We had been also working on his passing game in preparation for the season. He has a plush football that we have been playing with. I think that he has perfected the touchdown celebration football spike. But we need to work on him throwing the deep ball a bit more.

In all seriousness - we did have a great time as a family yesterday, spending time together in one place just enjoying each other's company. It was nice to not be running around for a change.

White Boys Can Jump

Dean was kind enough to let Gavin borrow one of his toys. Dean has grown too big to use his jumperoo, so Gavin was ready to give this new thing a spin. It took him a couple sessions to figure out exactly how it worked, but he caught on quickly and is now bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. I think that the jumperoo has overtaken the swing as Gavin's favorite pasttime in the house. Thanks Dean (and Lindsey and Matt)!

Really, I Am Smart . . .

Today at 10:15, I found a voice mail message.

"Miranda, this is Megan. We just noticed that Gavin doesn't have any bottles today. He's OK now, but we know he'll need those."

"Oh, crap," I think. "I'm in this meeting. When will we get out? What time did he eat yesterday? About 11? Hmm. Can I call Dave to go home and pick up his bottles? Do I have time to go get them before he gets hungry? This meeting. I haven't pumped yet. But I guess I could. But I don't have a bottle to put it in. Oh, I guess I can go nurse him."

Really. It took me that process to get to, "I'll go feed him." I promise I am smart. I am capable of taking care of Gavin. His school bag was filled with diapers, so I didn't notice the lack of bottles. I was concerned with being sure he had juice for his rice cereal, which we forgot Monday. I did so well for the first 4 weeks. How did I fall apart this week?

Tomorrow's a new day. Gavin will get to school with everything he needs: milk, diapers, juice. But most importantly---love.