A few quirks

Before I had Gavin, I thought all kids generally liked the same stuff. Not so! Here are a few things Gavin has never wanted anything to do with:

Candy or sweets of any kind - this was the case up until this week. I had no idea how I was going to bribe him into potty-training, but as I was baking Christmas cookies this week, he wanted to try the M&M's and Hershey's kisses, and he liked them. I've given them to him before and he would actually spit them out.

Stickers - whenever we're at the grocery store, people offer him stickers. I usually turn them down, but if they give them to him, he'll hold it and look at it for a while, but will NOT let me put it on his shirt. Same goes for sticky name tags. If you stick anything on Gavin's shirt, you are not his friend.

Press-on tattoos or hand stamps - most other kids seem to love getting their hands stamped when they enter a play palace, or gym class, etc. Not Gavin. It scares the living daylights out of him. He had to have one once at Out of This World Pizza, and he cried and cried. He'd calm down, then look at his hand later and start crying again and trying to rub it off.

Night light - he must have complete darkness in his room to sleep. This includes tin foil over the window + blinds + navy blue curtains.

Parachute games - we've tried this numerous times in toddler classes and he clings to me and claws at my neck like the parachute is going to eat him or something.

Movies or shows other than Blue's Clues - what I wouldn't give to have Gavin sit down for 60-90 minutes and be engrossed in something. Blue's Clues is a great show, but it's only 20 minutes long, and sometimes Mommy needs a longer break. :)

Anyway, these are just some of the little oddities I wanted to remember later on. Maybe he's not the only one with these little quirks?

Enjoying fall

It seems like a really long time ago that I took these pictures, but it was only a month. It's been cold and rainy for weeks now, so I need to look at these to remember that it will get nice again...someday.


At the park down the road

Gavin's favorite part of the entire zoo

More fun at the park

Here are some shots of Gavin "helping" Mommy

And these are just random cute pictures. This one is of Gavin and 3 of his playgroup friends.

Why doesn't this work like Daddy's?

And here is Gavin upset after I caught him putting on my eyeliner. He wasn't in trouble, he just got mad that I took it away. :)

October happenings

I am constantly running 2 months behind on this blog, but chances are, most of you have already seen some of these pictures on facebook anyway. If not, here's what we were up to in October:

Visiting pumkin patches

Trick-or-treating with the neighbors

Meeting cousin Ella!

Our little talker

We can't keep up with all the new things Gavin is saying these days, but I've been keeping notes with the intention of blogging them when I have a little extra time. So, here are some of the cute/funny things Gavin has been saying over the past couple of months, in totally random order:

When I put him to bed at night, he beats me to the punch and says, "wuv you, cose eyes, no talkin'" and "sing da Baby Mine song"

When he found a piece of petrified food on the floor one day, he brought it to me, put it in my face and said, "eat dis, it's gross". If food spills on the floor, or his lap, or in his bib during meal time, we have to pick it up and dispose of it before he can continue eating.

Whenever he hears a noise, and can't see what it is, he says, "I hear da hair-dyder", or "I hear da washin' masheen". Sometimes he knows who's using it and will say "Daddy's oozing da hair-dyder", or "Mommy oozes da bacuum". If I'm washing my hands or washing dishes, he says "washin da sink!"

When throwing a fit if he doesn't get his way, he'll stomp his feet and yell "Stop it! You're okay!", or he'll imitate us and say "just one more bite!", or "eat more corns". If he hurts himself, he turns to us and says "whah happen? Kiss it!"

He is obsessed with lights and making things work or go on and off. He is particularly fascinated by: "steet-nights", "fash-nights", "night-switches", ceiling fans (or any fan for that matter), garage door openers, door bells, lights at the grocery store check-out counters (he regularly demands that the checker turn the light on and off). There is also a broken street light up the street that flickers on and off, and he often insists that we "go for walk and see boken steet night".

When he wants something, he says "have it" or "too far way, can't reach it". Or he demands that we do something for him like "open garage door, ring doorbell, turn on da night switch, fisk ick (fix it), or get more bass (batteries)" if his toy stops working. We're working on getting him to say please without being reminded. However, he is VERY good at saying thank you and you're welcome.

He LOVES to sit in Mommy or Daddy's car, and is rarely read to get out when we ask him to. When we ask if he's all done playing in there, he'll say, "Nope! Stay in da daddy cah!" He does this in the bathtub too if we ask him if he's all done taking a bath. "Nope! Stay in da bat tub!"

When I'm getting Gavin dressed and ready to go somewhere, he asks:
"go bootcamp and see da uh-er kids?" or "go n'get gocies?" or "go da library?" or "Go to Bennett's house?" If we're going to the grocery store, he assumes we're going to "get more eggs and bannas". Most commonly, he asks to "go Stahbucks and get da juice". He loves to go on coffee dates and sit in the big chairs with his squeezable juice pack. When he's done with it, he gives it to me and says "skeeze it skeeze it!" because he insists there's more, and then he'll say "fro it in da tashcan"

When I tell him we're going to Gramma's house, he says, "Gonna go Gamma's house n'see da cee-fan, n'da fie-pace, n'Gabbydog?" (We do not have a ceiling fan, a functioning fireplace, or a dog, so it's VERY exciting.)

About 20 times a day, Gavin will say to me, "Hi Mommy, what ding?" (what are you doing?), or "Hi Mommy, how you? What's goin' on?" Usually, this happens when we're in the car, so I tell him I'm driving and ask him what he's doing. He usually says, "I'm riding". When we return home after an outing, he'll usually ask me, "Daddy home soon?"

Gavin likes to dig around in my purse when I'm not looking, then he'll run up to me with my nail clipper in hand and say, "I got da nail kippers, gotta kipp da nails".

While playing with his knights, horses, and his medieval castle, he makes the knights walk up the stairs and he says, "go upstehs and get more diapahs". Once, one of the knights was "givin da horsey a diapah change".

When we tell Gavin that family is coming over or we're going to see them, he refers to them as Aunt Keesy (Kristin), Dek (Derek), Meg, Buggy or Wivvie (Olivia), Wees (Eilise), and Char-ee (Charlie). He also likes to be funny and say to me, "Hi Daddy. Dats not Daddy - dats Mommy!", or vice versa. If we laugh at him, he says, "Gaffin's funny!"

Gavin's favorite toy currently is the iPad, because Paul has downloaded a bunch of fun kid apps. Gavin is always excited to "go pay wit da EYEpad!" I also got him a plug-in nightlight that is in the shape of a sun & moon. It's too distracting to him as a nightlight, so he just runs around all day holding it and "playing wit da shunshine!"

I can't think of the context of when he says this, but he answers my questions a lot with "cool" or "shuuuuure".

Once a week, Gavin's good friend, Madison, comes over to play, as well as her baby sister and her mom. When they pull up to the driveway and Madison comes to the door, Gavin gets so excited and starts dancing, and says, "Maddi!!! Keesti!!! Rachel!!! Come over!" When they get ready to leave, he says "danks for coming!"

Annual family picture time

Two weeks ago, we had our annual informal photo session. It's funny to think that last year, we thought it was difficult with a barely-walking 1-year-old. But 2-year-old Gavin really gave this photographer a run for her money! We met her at McMenamins Roadhouse, where there is an open field with flowers and a rustic barn where Gavin ran around almost non-stop for 30 minutes. The only time he did stop was to play with door handles. Have I mentioned before how he is obsessed with doors and their hardware? These doors happened to be locked, so it was extremely frustrating that he couldn't open and shut them repeatedly. After about 40 minutes of running around and refusing to go where instructed, he threw a huuuuuuuuge tantrum and we had to cut our session short and leave in a hurry. The photographer actually managed to get a few decent shots with what she was given. And we'll take what we can get, just so we don't have to go through that again for another year. :) Maybe by next year he will actually smile on command?!




She took this one while Gavin was on the loose

This is just before the tantrum set in...

First ever photo of Gavin laughing

This part, he thoroughly enjoyed :)

Our big 2-year-old!

Everyone says it, so we might as well too. We can't believe Gavin is 2 already! It seems like we were just celebrating his 1st birthday. The difference between 1-yr-old Gavin and 2-year-old Gavin is amazing. He is speaking in sentences, counting, running, dancing, jumping, and playing educational apps on the iPad like a pro. :) He surprises us all the time with the stuff he knows, and frequently reminds us that we need to watch what we say around him. :) On the flip side, he is also very sensitive and prone to tantrums. We're still trying to figure out how to deal with those... But, wow, they can be draining!

We had a great time celebrating Gavin's birthday with my mom, dad, Ryan, Derek, Kristin, Meg, and Olivia visiting. I made a Blue's Clues paw print cake because that is Gavin's favorite show (the only show he'll watch). He's a pretty picky eater still, so he didn't try any of the cake, and he also doesn't like to get messy, so there was no smearing of the frosting. (Not that I'm complaining!)

Here are some pictures of the party and Dad & Ryan's visit.

September

Where did the whole month go??? We finally got our summer, then bam! it's fall already. Here are some fun things we did in September. (Gavin's b-day pics will be in the next post.)

Playing at the Children's Museum

Sharing a snack with Madison at Munchkin Playland






Meeting our playgroup at Out of This World Pizza (a gigantic warehouse full of kid fun, and pretty good pizza)




Gavin is still a little tentative when going down slides and likes to hold my hands. So here he is waiting for me. :)




There's also a little scooter racetrack, which Gavin LOVES. The scooters are different colors, but otherwise the same. But Gavin has to try one, then switch to another one a few times, just to get the best one.




Here we are enjoying a family dinner out. Gavin lasted about 20 minutes with the crayons before we had to take shifts entertaining him outside. Now, he always asks if we're "going to a rest-aunt" when we get in the car.


Gavin also loves his coffee outings to Starbucks. Before I reach the counter, he runs ahead of me to the open display case, picks out his "geen juice", and hands it to me to pay. Then he sits in his big person chair and drinks it while Mommy gets her coffee. He loves to "go Stahbucks and get da juice". :)