Sillyness!

I have a lot of random, silly pictures and a few video clips from the last month, so I thought I'd share a few. Gavin always tones it down when he sees the camera come out, but this should give you an idea.

The Airplane Stand

Bowl-head

Silly Diaper Boy

Monkey

Silly Bowl Dance

Big Boo-boo

Gavin has been doing what I refer to as "coffee table gymnastics" for several months now without injury. Lately, though, he's been attempting some trickier maneuvers, and Monday evening that resulted in our first trip to the Emergency Clinic.

A little Dermabond glue was all it took to fix him up, and unlike myself, I actually think he enjoyed playing in the waiting room for 2 hours!

Here's the damage:

As you can see, he wasn't really phased by it. The doctor even let him choose a toy from the "pirates chest." He chose a stuffed softball, which he refused to part with the rest of the night.

Hopefully, this will be not only our first, but also our last emergency medical visit!

Oh, and upon returning home, we almost had a trip to the emergency vet. Macy ate a sippy cup made of very hard plastic that shattered into lots of small - and some not so small - sharp pieces. Even the tiniest of the sippy cup remains were completely clean of yogurt residue! She did vomit some of it back up, along with a few of Gavin's crayons, but seems to be doing fine now. I love dogs!

Chasing Ducks

After enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving at home and a nice visit with Gavin's big brother, Derek, on Friday, I thought it would be nice to take a walk and get some pictures of Gavin before all the fall colors are gone.

It turned out to be quite cold, but even the wind and sleet did not bother Gavin. We took cover in a gazebo, but after being freed from the stroller, he had no intention of staying put. He was so excited to see the ducks!

Peering around the corner. Hmmm...where should I go first?

"Hi ducky!"

Here I go...

"Hi ducky, hi ducky, hi ducky..."

Look at me. Off to get more duckies!

No pictures, Mommy. I think I see more duckies...

Gavin, come back.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Bye-bye, Gavin. Mommy's going the other way...
"Hi ducky!"

Gavin, please come back...

"Hi ducky, hi ducky, hi ducky!"

Got you! Time to go home, Gavin!

Bridge Street

I'm starting to really like Huntsville. I've discovered some great parks and activities for Gavin, and there's a lot of new development - including some "big city" amenities...like shopping! Bridge Street Center opened a few weeks ago, so we took Gavin to check it out. It's far from done, but some of the stores are open and you can already take boats out in the man-made lake. Bridge Street reminds me a lot of Oak Brook Center. It doesn't have department stores, but there are many upscale boutiques and restaurants which are new to Alabama. They even have a beautiful carousel, which I'm sure Gavin will enjoy. Just watch out for those AL drivers that have never seen a parking garage before!

15 Months

As usual, I'm a little late getting this posted... Gavin turned 15 months old on Thursday, and he had his well-baby check-up.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 24 lbs (45th percentile)
Height: 31.5 in (65th percentile)

It still amazes me how quickly he changes, grows, and learns. His vocabulary is expanding and his pronunciation is really improving. "Hi, Macy" actually sounds like "hi, Macy" instead of just "hi, Ma." Watching football on Sunday, I swear he said "go Bears!"

He impressed me over the weekend (not hard to do) when Chuck asked if he wanted to read Cleo. Gavin responded, "na." So Chuck asked him again, and again he said "na." Then Chuck asked if he wanted to read Itsy Bitsy Spider, he went and found the book and brought it over to read. I was shocked that he understood so much - I guess I haven't been giving the little guy enough credit!

He's always been independent, and is getting more so every day. This month, he is rebelling against clothing. At least he's willing to wear a diaper...

In case you're wondering, he got into the rocking chair by himself - quite easily, in fact.

Socks and shoes are the most difficult to get on him because he insists on doing it himself. The problem is he's just not very good at it yet. On the positive side, trying to put his socks and/or shoes on can keep him entertained for a good 20 mins!

Also of note this month, he has discovered that crayons are for coloring (not just eating).

He's definitely all boy, and crazier than ever. Here are a few pictures of playtime, wrestling with his stuffed dog, Howie...

I think I've said - or at least thought - this every month, but this age is definitely the most fun so far!

Finally, it's Fall!

I'm really excited about the cool weather, and this morning seemed like a great opportunity to enjoy the autumn leaves at Monte Sano State Park. Gavin had the whole playground to himself, and he took full advantage of it!

This park has a play area that just right for toddlers, and it was great to see Gavin climbing around on the playground equipment -- and even better to sit back and watch without constantly needing to "rescue" him from danger.

Of course, Gavin still likes to play with rocks, twigs, etc., but they go in his mouth a lot less. He spent quite a bit of time this morning studying the different colored leaves and collecting acorns.

Back at the playground with a favorite leaf...

Gavin went down the smallest of the slides a few times, but he still wasn't sure if he liked it. Here he is contemplating another trip down.

Here's some footage of him crunching through the leaves. I thought that all this fresh air and exercise would lead to a big nap when we got home...silly me, because instead he decided to skip his nap.

A Day at Early Works

Gavin had his first trip to Early Works, Huntsville's local childrens museum, and I think this expression on his face says it all.

He spent a few minutes playing in Biscuit's Backyard, but I guess climbing things just isn't as fun when it's all foam and there's no chance of getting hurt...

Because after a few minutes, he was ready to go. The fishing "pond" caught his eye on the way in, and he was ready to play!

Surprisingly (at least it was to me), he was really focused on fishing. It caught his attention and held it! He didn't like using the fishing pole, but he was quick at grabbing them with his hands. Even though the pool was full of many different colors, shapes, and sizes of fish, Gavin selected the familiar rubber duckies. He collected them, one by one, and put them in a pile on the floor. I put them back in, showed him some of the other objects, and he went right back to collecting rubber duckies!

After 30 mins of fishing, Daddy (not Gavin), was loosing interest, so we decided to move on. After several trips back across the museum to the fish pond, Gavin finally found another fun activity in the "work zone," which has giant legos, tinker toys, and some other fun building materials.

Before leaving the museum, Gavin tried to sneak off with Raggady Andy's hat. If it was up to him, I think we would have stayed until closing!

Happy Halloween!

This is the fourth Halloween since I moved to Huntsville, but it's the first time we've been home so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, we had a steady stream of trick-or-treaters and Gavin loved seeing all the costumes. He even gave out some candy...although I think he wanted to keep it for himself!

Since I was sick over the weekend, I didn't take any photos during pumpkin carving and we skipped the Halloween parties. We had a really fun Halloween, though. Here's some footage of my little monster doing the "Monster Mash." And he has been a little monster lately... We've had some pretty severe temper tantrums (screaming, uncontrollable tears, turning purple, etc.) over seemingly trivial things, like putting on clothing and leaving the turtle toys in the bathroom after bathtime is over - I'm afraid the terrible two's have hit us already!

Scarecrow Trail

Until today, it hasn't felt much like fall here in Alabama. I've been trying to get in a festive mood despite the warm weather, so Saturday we went out to the Huntsville Botanical Garden to see the scarecrow trail and Halloween decorations. Gavin had a wonderful time exploring the children's garden, although he was more interested in the pebbles and sticks on the ground than all the fun play areas...

The garden has several fountains for the children to play in. I've been wanting to take Gavin here all summer but we never quite made it. Since it was in the 80s, he was able to play in the water a little... I guess I still haven't quite got this mommy-thing down because I really should have brought a swim diaper and a change of clothes.

Somehow, Gavin has developed a fear of falling water - the shower, rain, most large fountains...but the fountains in the children's garden were gentle and he really enjoyed them.

Here's a few more pictures of my little guy exploring the children's garden. I had the hardest time keeping him out from under this bridge!

Gavin's favorite part was an area called the "Storybook Garden." I don't know if you can see in this picture, but the vine growing up the gazebo is covered in purple beans - it looked really cool.

He had fun in the maze, too. The vines were past their prime and starting to thin out, exposing the structure they grow on. I followed Gavin into the maze, but when he came to a dead end, he decided it would be easier to crawl through a rabbit-size hole in the fence and left me standing there to find the way out on my own!

Finally, a scarecrow! Gavin didn't pay much attention to the scarecrows, but he did like this one with the turtle theme (I think it was sponsored by a gardening club). He kept saying "hi" and hugging the little turtle!

After we finished walking through the children's garden, Gavin was ready to get home for a nap (and Daddy was ready to get home for football), so we decided to call it a day. But we did make time for a hayride!