Fifteen month updates...better late than never!

Well since Gavin turned ONE, the last 3 months have FLOWN by! Moving forward, I probably will be less stringent on updating the blog as regularly, but definitely hope to update it as often as I can to help in scrapbooking some of the memories of our little man.

Our little family has been uber busy the last 3 months.  This mama has been taking an online grad class I need to do for continuing education to maintain my therapy licensure.  Despite being busy, that hasn't meant we've been lacking in the wonderful moments these last few months.

For Gavin, these last three months have included a transition to a new sleep schedule.  He is almost fully transitioned to his new room at the daycare center he goes to, which is for toddlers.  In this room they only take 1 nap per day and it's been quite a big adjustment for him to go from the 2 naps to one. But he's now there, sleeping at night from 7pm to somewhere between 6 and 6:30am, then napping from 12 or 12:30 for about 2 hours.  We also just started adding in a blanket to his crib for sleepy time.  He hates to have the blanket on him as he doesn't like having his legs restricted.  He is still quite the active sleeper, and moves around all night.  So we just lay the blanket next to him and he cuddles up to it.

The other major milestone for Gavin has been the beginning of walking.  Gavin initially preferred doing a lot of army crawling and then overnight figured out the whole genuine crawling thing.  From there he was pulling up on everything in sight, scooting around furniture and walls, and walking holding onto our hands.  In mid-November (the 14th to be exact!) he took his very first big boy step to his Daddy.  I missed the first official step but Tom called me over when this happened and Gavin took his 2nd official step towards me.  Since then he's been taking lots of little steps (up to 8 in a row at this point) and we bought him his very first pair of high quality shoes (from Stride Rite).  We love how proud of himself he is when he's taking steps.

Speaking previously of daycare, in his new toddler room, he has a new daycare teacher named Rose who is very kind and enthusiastic with the kids.  Everyday they go outside (unless it's super cold) and do daily art projects.  They also send us daily emails and pictures from their activities which I love.  So far he's already gotten to play with play dough, water color paints (and he licked the paint brush), and did an experiment with snow.

I know some struggle with this toddler age bracket, but I personally LOVE it.  I find Gavin's predictability with naps, eating, etc. much easier than the major unpredictability of how he was a year ago.  I also love seeing how his personality is developing more and more everyday.  He talks and babbles a lot lately, especially a lot of dada's and mama's, uh-oh's, and trying to say other words like water and bottle and dog.    One time about a month ago while giving Gavin a bath, he looked at me very deliberately and said "hi, mama", and my heart just melted!  He also loves to go pet Marty, our golden retriever, and sometimes even tries to lay on him which is very cute. Luckily Marty has been very calm and understanding of Gavin for the most part.  Gavin also loves to clap his hands and can even do it on cue when we ask him to.  One night while rocking him to sleep, I sang him a lullaby and when I was done he looked up to me and gave me a round of applause.  It was just the cutest thing ever.  He also makes a ton of funny faces including sticking his tongue out, smacking his lips, and trilling his lips.  One of the down sides of this toddler era is the growing presences of tantrums. He really likes to push some boundaries, primarily regarding things he knows he's not supposed to touch, like our Christmas tree, Marty's dog dishes, and our exercise equipment.  We really try to focus on positive reinforcement with him which has proven to be really helpful so far.  And you may call this too much information, but about a month ago, Gavin gave us another "first" I could have lived without...his first time pooping in the tub.  Gross!

We've been glad that since July Gavin has been on a major lucky streak with his ears, meaning he hasn't had a single ear infection since then! He did just recently develop his first major cold of the winter season.  He had a lot of coughing, some wheezing, and a sinus infection that he needed antibiotics and a nebulizer treatment for.  He's been a major trooper and is on the upswing now!

A couple of other highlights of the last 3 months have included some trips to the library, where he gets to play with new toys and bring home lots of fun books.  Gavin has found a true love of books and will often sit on the floor with a book in his lap "reading" to himself.  For Halloween this year, Gavin dressed up like a giraffe, and we went trick or treating to a few of our neighbors houses where he was a big hit.  Mama and Dada thoroughly enjoyed all the candy he raked in as Gavin wasn't able to indulge in it this year.  For one of our faith group gatherings, all of our babies dressed up in their costumes and it sure was fun seeing all our cutie pies in their big puffy costumes.  We also enjoyed a trip to Grandma and Grandpa Denison's house for Thanksgiving Day.  We also went to the Macy's 8th floor display with friends, Becky, Jeromy, and Linnea Carlson, to see the Christmas display.  We also had friends Jeff, Alisson, and Megan Rasmussen over for dinner to celebrate the first baptismal birthday of both Gavin and Megan who were baptized on the same day together at our church.  It was a great time to celebrate and reminisce about the last year of both of our babies' lives!  Everyday I enjoy seeing Gavin interact with others, especially with Tom.  Tom has been such a wonderful father and has the perfect balance of being silly with Gavin but also with a tremendous amount of caring as well.

Life is good.  Really really good.  I absolutely love being a mother, it's really something that I can say has made me feel more complete, more fulfilled, and Gavin brings me joy everyday.