Gavin 12 months (GAH!) and birthday recap

My boy is one! My, how that year flew by. It's hard to imagine I now have a toddler, and not a baby! :( In my eyes, he's still a baby... at least until he's walking, then, I'll get on board with the word toddler, okay?! :)

 - Last month, I told you how I attempted to trim Gavin's hair at home... it just did not cut it (get it?!). A few weeks later it was already growing out and looking all disheveled. We took him to Cookie Cutters down the street (I was so nervous) right after he woke up from his nap (and had eaten). The whole ordeal only took about 10 minutes... those stylists are FAST! They had cute little seats and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playing on all the tvs... Gavin just sat there, smiley as ever, and the girl just snipped away without him even noticing. I was so relived, because it seemed like every other kid in the place was screaming. I'm hoping he keeps this up for future haircuts, too!

- Gavin's been into everything lately (I think I say that every month?) and it's just the cutest. He loves looking for "keey" (kitty) under the bed, watching the washing machine, playing with mommy's laptop, bath time, wagon rides and chasing "doddy" (doggy) around the house.

- We've had a FANTASTIC sleeper on our hands since he was pretty much 7 months old. He consistently sleeps through the night, and as of late has been sleeping 13 hours on the weekends and letting us sleep in until 8:30ish! We almost always have to wake him up for daycare during the week (6:30am-ish). He's finally gone down to 2 naps a day (he loved sleep so much, he was on 3 naps a day until 11.5 months old!) which makes weekends sooo much easier to get things done/run errands. His naps are usually 1.5-2 hours, sometimes longer.

- Eating has still been weird with Gavin. Gavin is super picky, and if he had his way, would only eat puffs for every single meal. I've been trying all sorts of finger foods and it's so hit or miss with him. He's still eating some pureed food but we just keep trying new foods to get him used to it. The pediatrician said it's normal for this age and to just be patient. We're also trying to get him used to sippy cups, because we are on the waitlist to switch to a new daycare & they require him to be 100% off bottles, eek. He started whole milk last week (we've been mixing it in with his formula) and it's going well so far.

Being a good little eater at daycare

-Gavin's been getting more comfortable with "cruising" around the house and can stand up unassisted for about 10 seconds before he loses his balance & plops on his butt. He can take a couple steps when we hold his hands (and when he's using his walker activity toy) but doesn't seem too close to walking yet. I have a feeling it will be a couple more months. He's starting to make out words (dada, mama, keey/kitty, doddy/doggy) but I haven't had the aha! moment of "oh, it was his first word!" because they haven't been clear... so I don't know when that officially happens?

- At Gavin's 12 month checkup, everything looked great. He's clocking in at 19 lbs, 10 oz (23%), 30.25 in (67%). He had to get 3 shots and a finger prick (to test for iron) and he was not a happy camper :( We have to go back for the 2nd dose of flu shot in 28 days.

- His birthday party was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better day, truly. I really wanted a low key party and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to! I'll put more effort into the birthdays he can actually remember and will know what's actually going on :) I had minimal decorations (a few Pinterest ideas came into play)

Stole this idea from Lauren!

 Gavin slept in until 9am (birthday gift for mom and dad??) & was in such a good mood all day. He woke up from his first nap around 1:30; everyone got to the house around 1:00pm. We had food (everything from Costco, haha!), played with Gavin then opened gifts. He is so spoiled! He loved everything.

We did cake after gifts (I made his smash cake using this recipe, which was perfect because it made about 16 cupcakes, too!) and he was super unsure of the cake, it was funny! He made me feed it to him, and after a while, my dad smashed some cake in his face for photo ops :)

Gavin continued to play with his new gifts with his friends Adalyn & Oliver, and the party ended around 4:00.

This year has been such a whirlwind! I remember the beginning, being clueless/scared/stressed, and slowly feeling more like a mom as each month went by. I look back at myself a year ago, and wish I could just grab her and say "you're doing a great job, you'll make it!". I can finally see how people decide to have more than 1 kid :) I love the little person Gavin is becoming and cannot wait to see him develop as time goes on!

I haven't decided if I'm going to continue with the blog. I do enjoy capturing his moments so I can look back on them, but I honestly dread it each month and I'd rather be spending the time playing with Gavin or catching up on my DVR. I guess we'll see how I feel in a month!

Gavin 11 Months

Well hello there! Sorry for being a bit tardy, I just have NOT had the time to do this update! Our days are so much longer now that we are commuting to work together (and our daycare is out in the boonies) so we leave the house around 6:50am and don't get home until about 5:50pm! Then we spend about 1.5 hours with Gavin (snuggling/playing/eating dinner/bath/bed) before it's 7:30pm and we still have to cook/eat dinner, work out, clean/pack bottles... it's exhausting! Ok, enough complaining...

- I decided at the beginning of the month it would be a good idea for me to attempt to cut Gavin's hair myself. Per my paragraph above, our weekdays are crazy and we seem to always have something going on during the weekends, and I doubted how well Gavin would do in a chair at a salon. I cut his hair while in the bathtub (just the back and the sides) and when it was wet, I was like "ooh, I think it looks okay!". Well it dried and kind of ended up looking like Gavin cut it himself, haha! It's already grown so much so I am thinking of taking him to a kids' haircut place nearby next weekend so they can fix what I messed up!

-We drove to visit our friends Eric & Amy in Cincinnati a few weeks ago (and their son Carter and dog Oscar) and spent the night at their house. Carter was just shy of 1 year old at the time and such a shy little man! Him and Gavin had fun playing together, and Oscar (a labradoodle) and our dog Callie (a goldendoodle) had fun running around and wearing each other out!

- What would a monthly update be without you telling me Gavin was sick again? :) Oh, daycare, I loathe your germs! Sunday 7/20 Gavin was just NOT himself. He had a high fever (103 degrees) and was just soooo tired all day. He wanted nothing but snuggles and even fell asleep on my chest! He hasn't done that since he was a newborn, so it was kind of nice :) 

We chalked it up to a random fever, until Monday he started getting bumps all over his bottom and elbow.. at first I thought: eczema flare up & diaper rash. Well at daycare the bumps were becoming more frequent and his teacher thought it looked like hand, foot & mouth. I took him into the pediatrician the next morning, and wouldn't you know it, that's what he had! His rash wasn't terrible but he had bumps on his elbows, knees, feet, upper back and apparently a killer sore throat :( He had to stay home from daycare a few days and unfortunately there are no meds to get rid of it so he had to just ride it out! The rash is sill kind of lingering but he was feeling back to his usual self after about a week. Luckily, once you have hand foot & mouth you *Shouldn't* get it again so at least that's over with and his immune system continues to get stronger :)

- We visited my family in Cleveland 2 weeks ago because my brother was in town from Denver. We decided to leave right after work on Friday so Gavin could sleep a bit in the car on the drive up... it worked fairly well! On Saturday we went out on the boat for a short ride (Gavin did well, but HATED his lifejacket!) and then hung out at the house. We went out for a bit with Brian Saturday night (grandparents "babysat" aka stared at the monitor while Gavin slept!) and then Sunday we went to lunch and then it was already time to go home! We actually get to see Brian again in 3 weeks as we take our first solo weekend trip together (kind of an anniversary trip I guess!) and are leaving Gavin with my parents!

-Developmentally, Gavin is doing great. He's doing really well with "walking" while we hold his hands but is still kind of wobbly. I have no idea when he'll start walking, and am just fine with him crawling for now. He is getting really weird with food and still only likes purees. I've tried giving him "solid" food like tiny pieces of avocado, peas, bread, strawberries, cheese, etc... he is just not a fan! It's weird because he gobbles up Gerber puffs... we are just taking baby steps to eating solid food and taking things slow like Gavin wants to!

- His current obsessions are: Callie Milo, his new drum from Grandma & Grandpa Hertvik, tupperware containers, playing "peek a boo", reading, baths (LOVES playing with the water coming out of the faucet) and just getting into EVERYTHING. Every day we find something new to babyproof! The other day my friend Mindy was asking our friend Angela & me what we did to babyproof (since she will have to soon!) and Angela suggested these things that clamp your toilet shut... I thought, that's a strange thing to need... then, 2 days later, Gavin is OBSESSED with opening & shutting the toilet lid! Ohh what an adventure with our little guy!

I can't believe his birthday is coming up! Ahh, see you next time at his 12 month update!! :( 

Gavin 10 Months

Well hello there! It seems like I was just writing Gavin's last monthly update - I am not sure how Mindy keeps up with weekly updates because it's hard to find time to do these!! :) Here's to another great month and what I think is the best age we've seen so far :)

- We started the month off with a visit to the pediatrician not even a week after his 9 month checkup. He developed a staph infection on his cheek and it was SO scary! It started out very small and we thought it was a bug bite. It got bigger and worse looking over the next few days and I decided I should bring him into the doctor. I'm glad I did, because the day we took him in, it looked like this! :(

The doctor had to take a culture which was torture for poor G. They sent it off to Children's Hospital and sent him home with some antibiotics. It cleared up quickly, but he still has a red spot on his cheek today. I'm really hoping it doesn't leave a scar on his poor face!

- Gavin started pulling himself up shortly after he turned 9 months and now he does it all the time! At first he was a little unsure of how to get back down after he pulled himself up, but he's gotten the hang of falling back on his butt somewhat gracefully :) He's taken a few steps when we hold his hands but I don't think he is anywhere near walking yet!

- We had a nice visit with my parents a few weeks ago. My mom might have more of a shopping problem than I do.... she brings Gavin an outfit every time we see him! Haha, I can't complain, because that means less money I have to spend on clothes!

- Father's Day was nice and relaxing... Matt's birthday is only a week before Father's Day (that will be fun every year with getting him gifts!) so I combined his bday and Father's Day gift, which was a kayak! Gavin had his first time in the baby pool, too. I was all excited to set up his pool and have it ready when he woke up from his nap. Little man woke up on the wrong side of the crib, because he was not happy to be in his pool! He sat in it a few minutes then started crying. We're going to make another attempt soon!

- I went to Put in Bay with Ashley 2 weeks ago, which meant 3 nights away from Gavin :(

I had a wonderful time on the island, but I'd be lying if I didn't say Gavin was on my mind most of the weekend. I knew he was in good hands with his daddy, but that is a long time away from him! Matt did a great job with Gavin and even took him to our friends' party for a few hours solo.

 I'm so proud of him! It was nice to spend time with my friends and have some "me" time, but I'm so glad to be back home :)

- We took Gavin to Comfest last weekend where he met up with his buddy Oliver. Comfest is great people watching, so we just got some beers and hung out on a picnic blanket with the kiddos. It's legal to go topless in Columbus, so the boobs are out in full force at Comfest (it's basically a hippy festival)... so Gavin saw his first pair of non-mom boobs, haha!

- Mindy had a wedding in Ohio this weekend, so she was able to stop by on her way up to stay with us for a night! I was so excited to meet Miss Ella! Her and Gavin had a fun time playing on the floor... Gavin had fun stealing Ella's pacifier!

- We had a night away on Thursday to go to a friend's 4th of July party and watch the downtown Columbus fireworks. Lynette (my sister in law) watched Gavin so we could go for a few hours. It was so fun!

- We went to Cambridge during the day on the 4th to see Matt's family. Gavin was a ham the whole time, per usual, but didn't take the best naps there. He is hit or miss with his naps in the Pack n Play.

I think he likes the TV.

- We spent some time with the Petruso's in the evening on the 4th :) love these kiddos together!