Christmas Eve Traditions

The traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Dave's family is seafood chowder. Judy's mom always made it, and so she does. I love the seafood chowder. One of the sad things about not being close enough to be with Bob and Judy on Christmas Eve was missing out on the seafood chowder. (And missing them, too.) This year since Bob and Judy came out to celebrate Gavin's first Christmas with us, we decided to gather the ingredients so that Judy could make her chowder for us.

We bought the shrimp, crab legs, lobster tails, and salmon. All the seafood was cooked and prepared. The potatoes were diced, along with the onion and celery. Judy added her magic to make her delicous soup.
Instead of going to candlelight services at church, we decided to stay in due to the weather. Mason loved the snow.
Without church, Gavin had to provide our entertainment for the evening. He was happy to oblige.

GrandBob and Gavin play.

Gavin got into bed at his usual time. Dave and I were in bed by 10, since Gavin had us up early. It's a good thing. Gavin woke up at 1:15; I guess he was excited about Santa. At 2:30, I put him in bed with us, where he finally drifted to sleep, after he rotated crossways in the bed so that I was getting kicked all night, and Dave was being headbutted.

I Must Be Dreaming

Because it is a white Christmas this year! It started snowing yesterday morning and didn't stop till late last night. This drastic weather change was really unexpected since it was 75 and I was wearing shorts on Wednesday!!! But while the wonderful snow was nice to look at, it also hampered some of our plans. We weren't able to make it to Christmas Eve services at the church (the roads were/are really icy), and our friend wasn't able to make it to have dinner with us. But the sun it out today, and the snow is melting fast. That's a good thing too since there is about 2" of ice on the road in front of the house.

Pushing Up

Each night after bath time, Gavin has playtime on the floor before he gets his pjs on and heads to bed. Dave and I love watching him play. Increasingly, he's rolling around more and moving more.
Thursday night, Gavin pushed up on all fours for the first time. Since then, he has continued to push up. He gets up and then rocks back and forth like he's revving up and getting ready to go. It won't be long.
He's pretty proficient at pushing himself backwards Saturday morning, he scooted from the dining room to the living room. He was stopped when he ran into the entertainment center and couldn't go any farther. This morning after his bath, he was pushing up on all fours and bouncing his legs forward. He hasn't figured out that his hands have to move, too. I was amazed this morning when he did a full push up. Not a sissy, knees down push up. A full on toes and hands only push up.
So, tonight when it was pj time, Gavin had to show his new trick to Dad. He did a few push ups. We quickly grabbed the camera hoping to catch our strong guy in action. A little patience was all it took.
Check out his form.



And, who can resist pictures of a baby in his diaper?


I know that Gavin will be crawling before he goes back to school. Boy will his teachers and friends be impressed. I have to admit that I'm glad that he's learning this week. I'll actually get to see this first. I've worried that I'll miss it. I'm sure that I'll probably miss his first steps. Well, maybe he'll hold off 'til Spring Break to try that. A girl can dream, right?

Bacon Playdate

Gavin had another playdate tonight with his buddy Dean. This is the second playdate that we have done with Lindsey, Matt and Dean. We all have a great time when we get together. It is so nice to have friends that have a young infant. There are no expectations, or worrying if the boys will behave, be in a good mood, or do something embarassing. Because with a 10 month old, and a 13 month old, you can never tell what is going to happen next...tantrums, dirty diapers, throw up, or even when Dave kicks over the dogs water bowl...

Incidentially, I am calling it a "bacon playdate" because Matt and Lindsey brought an appetizer with bacon to the first playdate, and we brought a bacon appetizer to this one. I see a theme forming....which is awesome because really, doesn't bacon make everything better?

Gavin and Dean didn't play together too much. I think that Dean is being independant at this stage, and Gavin is pretty stationary. But G did enjoy all the cool toys that Dean was nice enough to share. We are definitly going to have to tell Santa to get Gavin some toy balls to play with...he loves throwing and playing with toy balls.

Time out from all the fun for changing time!

Miranda playing peek-a-boo with Mr. Dean.

Dean showing G how this crawling stuff is done. FYI - Gavin is getting up on all fours now, but hasn't put it all together yet. He can go backward, but not forward yet. Any day now we think, and he will be mobile.

Thanks for the playdate Dean!

Bathroom Demolition Work

So, the bathroom renovation isn't going quite as quickly as I would like....It seems that we hardly ever have any free time on the weekends anymore. During the week we have maybe an hour of down time from 9:00 till 10:00 after we get G in bed, and get the house organized. So that doesn't leave much time to bathroom work. But never the less, it is progressing slowly but surely.

Today I took out the old tile that was around the jacuzzi tub. It is going to take a little drywall and plaster work to get it ready for new tile, but it shouldn't be too bad. In several places the drywall came off in chunks with the tiles since they used adhesive instead of thinset to set the tiles. Hopefully I can make some good headway over the Christmas break and get everthing finished except for the floor tile. That is the biggie that is still looming out there....

Sushi Anyone?

It seems that Gavin has aquired a taste for sushi....I wonder where that came from?

Playing in the Leaves

We enjoyed a nice afternoon outside today. I got some final raking done, and Miranda and Gavin got to enjoy a cool sunny December afternoon in the front yard. We have found that Gavin loves to be outside. It doesn't matter if it is hot or cold, he just loves the feel of a breeze on his cheeks and all the sights and sounds that go along with the outdoors. Gavin kept himself amused by playing with the plentiful leaves and sticks that I had raked into piles.

We waited for the sun to set a bit so that we could get some good light to take pictures of Gavin in the leaves. Please excuse Gavin's outfit - I dressed him this morning. Evidently the racoon shirt wasn't an appropriate match with the overalls according to Mama....Some of the images need a bit of Photoshopping, but we got a few pictures that are workable. That boy needs a haircut though...

Mama let helped Gavin "jump" into the pile of leaves several times...he was giggling like crazy. Then he started bouncing up and down and thrashing around in the pile of leaves. No wonder the little guys was tuckered out at 7:00 tonight. He was a tired little boy and ready for bed early.

O, Christmas Tree

We finally have the tree up and decorated. We had to do it in stages this year. First came picking out the tree at Lowes (they seem to have the best trees), then it sat for a couple days in some water. We got it in the tree stand one night, then lights the next night. Last night we finally got it decorated with all the ornaments. It is a nice looking tree, not nearly as big as some we have had in the past. But then again, we don't exactly have the time to decorate a big tree like we used to have BG (before Gavin).

Gavin loves looking at the lights on the tree. He just gazes in amazement. We sat him down next to the tree tonight for some playtime. He discovered that the ornaments can also function as toys.

I don't think that he was too happy that an ornament toy got taken away from him. Incidentially, Gavin has hit a bit of a tantrum phase when something gets taken away from him that is "his". He gets really mad until you divert his attention to something else. We are hoping that the tantrums subside eventually.

Gavin Must Read the Blog

After venting yesterday that Gavin doesn't like any foods, today he decided to chow down on some crackers. We had soup for dinner, and Gavin has been wanting food to hold onto lately. He typcially just likes to just hold onto it - dropping it occasionally for Mason. This time he grabbed the cracker, stuck it in his mouth and started chomping on it. We were both dumbfounded. After a few seconds it was obvious that he knew it was food and not a toy. I was worried that he would get choked on the pieces, but he chewed and sucked on the pieces of cracker. It looked like he had done it before...

He devoured two crackers before losing interest. I say devoured two, but it was probably more like a half to a full cracker. Lots of crumbs fell to the floor. Mason was more than happy to help with the clean up effort. I think a wonderful friendship between Gavin and Mason is about to begin.

As you can see, it was Christmas pj day at school today too....

Our Picky Eater

I have to vent just a little bit....

Last week our pediatrician told us to start feeding G all sorts of fatty high calorie foods because he needed to gain more weight. It hasn't exactly worked out as planned so far. Gavin is eating less than he did a couple months ago (from what I remember), and that is what has Dad worried. He seems to call it quits when we are feeding him whenever anything out of the ordinary happens. This could be a taste of something he doesn't like hits his lips, tasting something new, when he slouches and I attempt to sit him back up, when he is making a diaper, when the dog walks by, etc. It has become stressful and frustrating to say the least. Probably the most frustrating this is his pickyness that he has developed. Here's a list of foods that G likes and hates (there is no in between).

Likes:
Oatmeal - sometimes when he is in the mood...other times only a spoonful or two...
Sweet Potatoes - loves em
Peas - eats them at school all the time
Green garden vegetable - again eats them at school all the time
Ice Cream
Real Bananas - not the baby food version

Hates:
Green Beans
Peaches
Bananas
Broccoli and Carrots - can't blame him on this one, it smelled terrible....
Mashed Potatoes - gag
Gravy
Scrambled eggs - threw up
Cooked Carrots - threw up
Cooked Peas - threw up
Sausage pieces - gag
Chicken - threw up
Any mixed fruit baby food
Any meat based baby food - the Turkey Tetrazini (sp?) went over like a lead balloon....

Maybe when our mood is right:
Pears
Squash
Bread pieces
Puffs - likes to play with them more than eat them

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest....