Miami- meet Gavin party

Visit to Miami (meet Gavin Party)

Mia and Pop pop did many things together. First, they made pizza, later they planted a hydroponic lettuce plant and

later they made sugar cookies together (here is a butterfly cookie cutter)

We frequently went to the pool in the community center (it is tough for a new infant to spend a summer outside without direct sunlight)

We also went to the beach, well kind of. We went to Matheson Hammock Park where Dave and I were married.

Here is Mia at the beach having snack

Celebrating a belated father's day with pancakes

We went to the museum of science and had a nice time dancing, playing with legos, seeing animals (including sting rays) and watching a magic/science show

We also went to a little water park called Palmetto Gardens

One afternoon we ran around outside in the cold rain and then, to warm up we went in the warm (not too hot for Mia) tub and played with sand toys and listened to music

Our family of four just before the Meet Gavin party

Eric, one of the guests at the party, with his big sister present to Mia (she loves the "puppy book")

Mia with her cousins, Vera and Nava, at the party in the kiddie corner

We had a good time with the Palmers. Gavin loved his big cousins who showered him with love, especially Denise. I had a great time swimming with them and watching Gary play with Mia (its clear that she loves her cousin Gary a bunch). Ethan was particularly enamored with Gavin commenting on his soft skin, following him everywhere and wanting very badly to feed him with the bottle. He is going to be an amazing big cousin.

2 months old

Watch him grow!!! (he smiles and coos too)

A sleepy smile at one month

Gavin's smile at 2 months

12lbs, 11 oz at 1 month old

14 lbs, 4 oz at 1.5 months old

16lbs, 14 oz at 2 months old (the size of an average 6 month old)

This month cleared up your acne and your gas but unfortunately not your gooey eye yet. At 6 wks you need a size 2 disposable diaper, we know this because we are going to go camping and to Miami so we'll be using them but by 8 weeks these are hardly fitting. We moved from small to medium cloth diaper covers recently too. Aunt Nichole sent us some clothes just recently and I was shocked that a 9 month sized outfit was snug on you. You began this month in 3-6 mo clothing and are now in 6-9 month stuff! You are enamored with our crazy wallpaper and the outdoors catch your eye too. This greater awareness of your surroundings has made you recently become happier to just sit on your own for bouts of time, whereas before you always wanted to be held. Although you still want to be held to stay asleep well, which after I went back to work at 8 weeks, led to a daddy who wears you in a baby wrap in order to get his dissertation done standing, nay swaying, while typing. While we were convinced you had a social smile when you just barely turned 1 month old, you are smiling now without being tickled (see above). Just a smile will make you smile now, which is too cute and this is the month (6/15) where you started cooing. Even during the height of gassiness at 6 wks or so you are a very easy/tame baby who just wants to be held/cuddled although tummy massage and leg exercises were necessary at times because you were going through a constipation/gas phase at the moment. By 8 weeks this gassiness has basically resolved and you seem to only poop once a day. While this is usually in the mornings sometimes it is too early (4-5am) and your grunting wakes us up. You still wake up every 2-3 hrs at night though you can sleep 4-5 for your first shift, which starts between 7-9pm. You tolerate your sisters constant hugs with grace, she loves to shake your hand ("nice to meet you") and do raspberries to your tummy and squish your cheeks. . . all with no attention paid to whether you are asleep or not. She is very concerned when you cry and tells us "he's huwwy" (that is, he's hungry). During your bathtime it is Mia's job to pour water on your belly with a little cup. Today you peed in the bath! Although we tried giving you a bottle of breastmilk on your month birthday (see below) you did not want it but a week later you took milk from your daddy in a bottle. Nowadays, Mia (and in Miami, your cousins Ethan and Bryce) even helps feed you your bottles. In the car, she calls you her "back seat buddy" and holds your hand and shakes toys in front of your face.

First bottle attempt from daddy

Tummy time for Gavin

Gavin and Mia on the play mat

A new (for us) ride

Meet Avi (is that how it is spelled Bridget?)

When Bridget and Kevin came up to visit we ended up talking about how she got this fellowship in Belgium and needed to sell her car. And then we started talking about how we can't even fit anyone besides the 4 of us in our car and that has been hard with visitors (though don't get me wrong Vicki, I loved squishing in the front seat with you and Dave in a non-bench car--ouch!). Negotiations ensued and voila, we have a 2000 Toyota Avalon and our dear friends Maria and Charlie saved the Crystal Ship from an early grave (Gary's U Pull it) and are taking her to Buffalo for their lives next adventure.

Now Mia can hold her backseat buddy's hand and wiggle his toy for him. Unfortunatley she once even managed to unbuckle his chest strap and she has also discovered a little light in the corner that she can turn on but other than that we are tickled to a) have another seat in the back and b) to give Dave the option of being passenger if he so desires. It is no mini-van but a step in the right direction for a family of four I'd say.

Welcome to your new family Avi!

camping trip

Annual June camping trip

What is halfway between Philadelphia and Boston you ask? Bridgeport, CT but since they don't have camping there we went to a place in Southbury, CT called Kettletown state park slightly favoring Matt and his crew for the drive (2.5 hrs for them, 3.5 hrs for us). This was a jam packed weekend with Dave's 31st birthday and father's day to boot!

Here are the "backseat buddies" on the drive up and over. Gavin doesn't like car trips as much as his sister used to and since he had not yet become either a proficient thumb- or pacifier-sucker we were reaching around and contorting ourselves to reach into the backseat and give Gavin our pinky to suck on. With the tiny Sentra we had no room to be in the backseat with the two carseats.

Dave, Randall, me and Mia walking to the beach

Uncle Matt, Randall, Mia and me walking to the beach

A beautiful ray of sunshine (photo taken by Dave)

The whole crew at the beach

(even sleeping Gavin)

Some things to remember:

Mia's first slumber party! The kids all decided they wanted to sleep together in Matt's palace (er tent). Mia wanted to sleep next to Jeremy and Randall just wouldn't stay in his bag. Both Mia and Randall ended up in Matt/Harold's bed the next morning.

I made Dave a spice cake that didn't really end up coming out right (couldn't find maple extract for icing and didn't realize until much later that I forgot the eggs) but it tasted yummy.

Playing the outdoor games with Jeremy and Matt while the little ones slept was a nice time.

We had S'mores one night oh and remember how tough that fire was to start Dave?

Oh and next year we will totally be as organized as that group across the way from us -yeah right! they were just too perfect with their red/white tablecloth. . . it made Matt's blood boil ;)

Story time with Uncle Matt

Father's day kiss

and hug

as we packed up and headed out for a father's day brunch

Binghamton Friends Visit

Kim and Earl visit, followed by Bridget and Kevin. . . sending some warm Binghamton love our way. As Bridget would say, "thanks y'all"!

Kim with Gavin

Gavin in the Sleepy Wrap at the train station on our way to Magic Garden on South Street

A great family shot (thanks Kim) at the Magic Garden

The next morning at a cafe eating lunch with this gorgeous family of 3 (everyone kept asking Kim how old her baby was)

The other side of the table at the Metropolitan Cafe

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Our visit from Bridget and Kevin was a short one but we enjoyed our time together and appreciated that they didn't think it was too lame that we just needed some down time at our house.

Mia update

Mia is asking so many questions these days! "what is this"? "why?", Ms. Inquisitive is about 3 feet tall and 34 lbs, wears anywhere from 3T to a size 5 or small (entering real kids sizes). Shoe size is still an 8 I believe but she took another kids shoes home from daycare recently (9/10) and they actually almost fit! Mia wears undies during the day and pull ups at nap/night.

Mia definitely has friends now and refers to her cousins as friends, which is cute. She is very social and makes friends on the playground with ease.

She has shifted her sleep patterns a bit (naps later), and was (for an entire month!) testing us by getting out of bed after we finish bed routine and coming into bed to snuggle with us in the middle of the night. One way Mia tried to get us to interact with her after bedtime is to take off her pull ups but this one time 6/14/11 we let it go and figured we'd just change her sheets in the morning but morning came and our little nude Mia had gotten out of bed and went pee pee in her potty (we keep one in her room). . . way to go Mia! I would just love to snuggle with her at night but she fidgets and kicks and sings for hours and then no one gets any sleep. Needless to say she is better at staying in her room now.

This summer we've been making iced mint tea and Mia likes it a lot. Playing with clay is still her favorite pastime, next to bathing in the sandbox at daycare (ugh, the sand gets EVERYWHERE) and "painting" with colored body soaps in the tub (thanks Vicki!). We let her try her first piece of gum:

but after 5 mins or so she swallowed it despite the fact that we kept reminding her not to. I think she is just not ready yet despite the fact that she really wants to be a big girl with gum. We also let her try soda recently for the first time (a Shirley Temple). She squinted a bit at the carbonation and then just wanted the cherries and had only 2 more squinty sips before ignoring the drink the rest of the night.

Mia insists on using the same plates and utensils as us all of the time now and will never sit in a highchair or even booster seat at a restaurant. She is becoming so independent that she got herself dressed all by herself this morning (7/18/11). Of course this means backwards pants but her shoes are now going on correctly more often than not, which is quite a big achievement for her. She is even insisting on putting the toothpaste on her toothbrush on her own.

Funnies:

• when Bubbe said, "I love you too Mia", Mia responded, "I love you one" hahaha
• I want to remember how Mia always said poo poo by pronouncing it pew pew :)
• when looking at a picture of Bubbe and Poppop Mia said, "look Bubbe, it's your friend, Poppop"
• she has used hunger as an excuse to avoid bedtime for quite some time now and tonight said to Dave, "get off the bed and give me food please". He did everything he could to hold back the laughter at such a rude sentence ending so politely.

7/11/11 representational art extends to Mia. Dave told her to draw herself and she put a circle on the paper and when he asked, "where are the arms" she put 2 sticks nearby and he continued with "where are the eyes" and she put two dots in the circle and the mouth was a little line in the circle and the hair was a squiggly line on top of the circle, two more lines were legs. She also painted "a parade", which was a nice array of colors and inspired by our 4th of July parade no doubt.

The artist prefers to paint "nudy" than wear a smock most days.

This painting was made for Charlie and Maria who were visiting at the time.

"A parade"

(likely inspired by the 4th of July parade we had gone to earlier that month)

This one ("Mia") is a little slanted (two legs are southeast here and together whereas the arms are on either side of the head. the flat thing on top of the circle is hair and of course the eyes, nose and mouth are inside the circle).

Here is a different one with a very flat hairdo, slightly discombobulated face, loooong arms and 2 legs close together. This was was daddy - gorilla arms :)

1 month old

A month in the life of Gavin William (1 month old)

Although born a mere 8 lbs 8 oz, Gavin has ballooned to an impressive 12 lbs 11 oz at his one month visit (that was a gain of over a pound and a half in 1 week!!). After a few days of beautiful skin he has had baby acne for the remainder of his first month though it began to clear during the first 2 weeks of his 2nd month. He initially had some pretty rough tushy rashes but we quickly learned (thanks to Christy, our midwife) that spraying his butt with baking soda water after big poops and letting him air out after that has made the zinc oxide that his pediatrician says we should, "put on as thick as cupcake frosting" irrelevant. I swear his eyes are 1 shade from brown though Dave used to insist they were blue and now has inched over to hazel (we have $50 riding on this. . . common brown eyes!) Speaking of eyes, I noticed it during your first time nursing, what seems to be his iris leaking into his pupil was caught by his pediatrician at 10 days and seen by an opthamologist at 1 month old. They say it is a persistent pupillary membrane from the iris that never retracted from the lens. Luckily (at least so far) it doesn't seem to be in your main field of vision. We are going back at 4 months to make sure you haven't begun to favor your other eye, which incidentally has a blocked tear duct and all the fun goopiness that Mia's eye also had.

You fall asleep easily but don't stay asleep very well without someone holding you (Mia was the opposite and took forever to put to sleep but would stay in the crib for her whole nap). At night Gavin sleeps on daddy's or mommy's chest (usually daddy's) or in between mommy and daddy or (my favorite) on your side next to me using my arm as a pillow. I love this position because I can gaze into your eyes or easily smell your head, that sweet fresh new baby smell! During the day we try to transfer you sleeping to the bassinet or co sleeper but you don't stay asleep for more than 30 mins before you start waking (in arms or a carrier you can sleep hours). This has begun to change in your 2nd month. But during your first month I carried you in the Moby when I had things to do and daddy carried you in the baby Bjorn. Although your sleep schedule is still not organized you are definitely sleeping longer at nights and during your recent 6 wk growth spurt you slept almost 6 hrs from 9:30pm to 3:15am! When waking up you go through an hour long stretching routine before actually opening your eyes. You seldomly fully cry (though gas is a trigger of real crying). Mostly you just grunt or fuss a bit. You got a little cold early on. Makes for loud congested sleeping (poor boy). And as the heat of late spring approaches you are developing a heat rash on your chest. Although I still try to squeeze you into 0-3 mo or 3 mo clothing out of denial for your growth, you really fit more comfortably into 3-6 mo clothing although realize you wear cloth diapers, which take up way more room than disposables.