Gavin Michael Curt

Gavin *HATES* to have his diaper changed. He cannot sit still for two seconds, so just trying to get him to lay on his back for two minutes while changing his diaper is ridiculously hard. I give him raspberries on the tummy, toys for his busy hands, mobiles for his wandering eyes. Nothing can hold his attention long enough. So I'm getting pretty good at vertical diaper changes and really good at dressing him while he's walking around the house. Last night, I even changed him into his pajamas while he stood in the back of the Yukon at Marin Brew Co's parking lot.

Gavin is really into books. He says "book" so well, and can spot a book a mile away. He likes to sit down with a book and read, making up words and using big and oh-so-sweet voice inflections. I wish there was a way to write how he does this...kinda like "aaaOOOeeeAAAoooEEEaaaOOO" if you know what I mean. It is so cute I keep trying to catch it on video but the camera interrupts his concentration. As fond of books as he is, his favorite word this week is "No," which he says to any question he is asked, usually before you even finish asking the question.
Me: Do you want a drink?
Gavin: No (as he's reaching for the cup)
Me: Let's go to the park!
Gavin: No
Me: Come to your highchair so we can eat dinner
Gavin: No (as he's walking to the highchair)

Gavin learned about jumping yesterday. Mama was being silly, trying to show Tyler how to use the hula hoop like a jump-rope. Every time I got the way too tiny hula hoop over my head, I hunched over to jump over it and Gavin cracked up at this. Eventually, I ditched the hula hoop and just started jumping. Cheap entertainment for Gavin, laughing hard at every jump. God I love his laugh. At every jump, I'd yell "JUMP" which shortly got Gavin yelling the same. Suddenly, he dropped the toy he was playing with, stood up, went into a deep knee bend, swung his arms back, and yelled JUMP while swinging those arms and straightening those legs simultaneously. Wow!! Of course, his feet didn't leave the ground, but he sure was proud of his new trick!

We took Gavin to Roseville Galleria's playground for his first time yesterday. What can I say, he LOVED it! This playground is great because every structure and even the ground are padded, so no matter what he did, there'd be no additional bruises. This got me thinking Kindercare should pad the infant room in similar material. But back to Gavin...as soon as Daddy put him down in the midst of the dozens of kids running all over the kid-sized things to crawl under and climb on, Gavin was elated. He took off walking and screamed loudly. Not the high-pitched scream (thank goodness), just this really loud "I'm so excited I could scream" scream! This was so fun to watch. Shawn determined the playground must be built on a slope because Gavin, who had many parents laughing and pointing at his new walking skills, kept going in the same direction away from the toys. He was also very fond of the couple pieces of trash on the playground, which had me being a litter-picker-upper as I tried to get the trash before he got it into his mouth. This kid is not shy. He does not need a warming-up period, and he does not turn away from other kids when they talk to him, unlike another little boy we know. He just dives right into the pandemonium, making lots of friends along the way.

I don't know how long we were there, maybe 45 minutes...but by the time we were ready to go, Gavin's cheeks were bright red and he was burning hot from playing so hard. I've never seen him so hot. He chugged two cups of water in the time it took us to get from the playground to the car. We will definitely be back to this fun place. Although it is 40 minutes away, it is so well worth it to see him so excited!

I'm working hard on weaning this week. Consequently, Gavin is learning to fall asleep differently. We are working on falling asleep without being held. So, Tyler, Gavin and I all go to bed together, read our bedtime story, and lie down on Tyler's twin bed to fall asleep. I predict Gavin is going to be class clown. This kid is an entertainer. He just turned on the charm for Tyler and me, doing everything he could to get us to laugh. I wasn't a very good participant because I'm serious about them going to sleep. But how could I not laugh at Gavin who kept putting the blanket over his face and then pulling it down with a big "Woooo" every minute? Tyler is a willing participant, laughing and laughing in his deliriously sleepy state. After playing peek-a-wooo for five minutes, Gavin turned the amusement into hitting himself on the forehead. This one really cracked Tyler up. The more I tried to get Gavin to stop whacking himself and Tyelr to stop laughing, the worse it got. So I had to endure hoping they'd fall asleep.

Tyler finally turned over after a few minutes and fell asleep. Not Gavin, he could have gone on forever, or until I finally gave him the boob, but I was determined to get him to sleep without it. With Tyler asleep and me ignoring his continued attempts for laughs, he finally finally got that glazed over look in his eyes, holding perfectly still and concentrating on something far far away, or maybe nothing at all. I froze. Even though I was squished onto less than 1/4th of Tyler's twin bed, I felt like if I moved at all, he'll never fall asleep. So I held perfectly still, watching Gavin's eyelids get heavier and heavier, and realized he took up more than 1/2 of the bed, sprawled out on his back with his arms out on each side, leaving Tyler with the remaining 1/4. This is very new territory for Gavin. . . and me. As I've learned by watching Tyler fall asleep every night for his 2.5 years, I have to hold really still when they're falling into that first stage of sleep so I just lied there, frozen. And suddenly, faster than lightening, whack, his arm flew up for one last stab at staying awake and his clenched fist socked me right in the eye. Yet still, I froze, wondering how I was going to explain my black eye to people at work tomorrow. When Gavin is older, I'll tell him he punched me in the eye the first night he fell asleep without the boob.

Gavin had his 12 month Dr. appointment yesterday. He's 21.5 pounds and 31.5 inches. That puts him in the 90th percentile for height and 40th for weight, consistent with his growth pattern from birth. What does that mean? He's going to be long and skinny, like Papa Neb. He also had three shots poor baby; two in the arm and one in the leg. They vaccinate everything these days including chicken pox. Gone are the days of parents dealing with itchy scratchy blistery children. Guess I won't have to worry about Shawn's memory of his brothers hallucinating from a bad combination of too much sunshine, Benadryl and chicken pox. It's kind of sad though. I remember getting to stay home for over a week, and having the scars to prove it. But that's not as sad as the misery of those itchy symptoms.

Dr. Zubach was impressed when I rattled off all of Gavin's words. He was expecting Mama and Dada but when I mentioned Gavin calling Elmo by name, Dr. Zubach was pleasantly surprised. He looked in Gavin's mouth and noticed he's cutting his molars, which explains why he's constantly got his thumb jammed in the back of his mouth gnawing on it.

Our baby is growing up. I'm really trying to stop calling him Baby, although he doesn't respond at all to his name and he responds somewhat to Baby. I've noticed Tyler is no longer calling him Baby either. In fact, lately Tyler's been saying Gav. Gav is awake. Hey Gav, why are you crying? He must have picked that up from Ms. Michelle because she's the only person I know who says that. But, every morning Gavin and I take Tyler into his classroom for breakfast, Gunnar, who just moved from Gavin's classroom into Tyler's, shrieks with excitement when he sees us, "BABY!" and jumps up and down excitedly like he's the big brother. I guess Gunnar didn't get the memo that Baby is growing up.