Many months in review (long overdue!)

I am significantly behind in the blogging world and have been thinking for some time that I need to blog about our recent happenings. So here it goes!

 It's so hard to believe that Gavin is over 2 years old now (27 months to be exact)! He amazes me everyday with how much he has learned and I am so proud to be his Mommy. It's so hard to sum up all the wonderful things that make Gavin, but here's a few....

**Gavin loves all things to do with transportation. I'm talking LOVES. He knows the names of all sorts of transportation including: dump truck, school bus, city bus, train, car, taxi, plane, boat, semi truck, bike, motorcycle, fire truck, police car, ambulance, and race car (you get the picture eh). He loves pointing them out as we drive around. When we turned his car seat around it was like a whole new world to explore and see.

**Gav also loves being a little chef in the kitchen. For Christmas he got two kitchens for his play room, one from his Uncle Corey and one from his Uncle Aaron and Aunt Emily and he LOVES pretending to whip up food like pizza, eggs, and make coffee for Daddy. Mommy may also have just as much fun playing with his pretend food as he does! We also made Christmas sugar cookies in our grown up kitchen and used a recipe for cookie paint so Gavin got to paint each cookie a different color. It was a blast to have him as my little helper and to see how cute he was in his apron.

**Gavin has a happy go lucky, full of life personality. My little guy brings out smiles from all he encounters any times he shows his smile (complete with heart melting dimples) or laughs his contagious giggle. Our dog, Marty, is a common cause for bringing out Gavins giggles and he loves to tell "puppy" or "Marney" (as Gavin calls him) to sit, lay down, or beg and finds it quite hilarious when he listens to him. Lately when Gavin's especially excited he'll let out a big squeal as well. 

**Gavin is a Daddy's boy through and through. He loves to yell out "my Daddy!" and run up to give him huge hugs. To witness the bond these two have is something that brings me such joy.

**His current daily routine has been the same for many months. He wakes up between 6 and 7 (closer to 7 lately--hooray!). He has breakfast right away and reminds us by telling us many times as soon as he gets up that he is "hungry!" Getting him to change out of his pj's is normally a bit of a battle because he only ever wants to wear his "truck" shirt (shocking huh). Breakfast for him is usually either cereal, pancakes, or eggs with fruit. At daycare he goes to a music class in the morning and then plays outside. He has a mid morning snack and lunch at 11:30am then takes a nap starting at 12 to anywhere between 2 and 3. Then he has his afternoon snack and normally plays either outside or in our play room in the basement (when not at daycare) for the rest of the afternoon until dinner at 5:30pm. We then do baths normally every other night and go to bed between 7 and 7:30pm. Going to bed is a bit tricky on occasion because Gav only wants Daddy to put him to bed. I know it's a phase but this is certainly a challenging part of parenthood at this time. Luckily I'm a-ok in his book any other time of day :)

**Potty training has been an adventure we've been embarking on since Gavin was 22 months old. He enthusiastically started this process with much assistance from daycare as I was skeptical with having him start this early. It helps that daycare has tiny toilets the kiddos size. At home we have a froggy potty and he has been doing so well using it. We really haven't had to try very hard to get him motivated to sit on it which has surprised me as I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been. He has started wearing pull up diapers and is so proud of himself for being such a "big boy".

**Tom and I like to get out of the house on the weekends so we have taken full advantage of our Minnesota Zoo and Children's Museum memberships. Gavin loves watching the fish and penguins get fed at the zoo and to "wake up" the dragon in the castle exhibit at the Children's Museum. We also make some semi frequent visits to Mall of America because we live so close and Gavin loves to watch the rides and play in Lego Land.

**One of Gavin's most recent loves is "Froggy", which is a frog whose real name is Pepsi at his daycare who swims in a fish tank. Every single day when we drop him off and pick him up from day care, "see Froggy" is one of the first phrases he tells us and pulls us over to the tank. He excitedly narrates what the frog is doing, such as sleeping or swimming through his tunnel.

With just having experienced his 3rd Christmas (where has the time gone!!), we took full advantage of Gavin being old enough to "get it" this season. It was so fun getting to have Gavin participate in helping to decorate the Christmas tree and see his fascination with the lights and ornaments. (I won't dwell on how he knocked it down 3 times from a bit of over excitement--luckily never got hurt doing so). Gavin also loved pointing out our wreath on the front door and icicle lights on our house every time we drive up our driveway. We also took a trip to the Macy's 8th floor display (an annual tradition we've started with wonderful friends Becky, Jeromy, and Linnea) which was lots of fun. I got Gavin an "elf on the shelf" we named "Elfy" and he got a major kick out of finding out where Elfy was hiding everyday. He would gasp and point every time he found it. We also continued a tradition we have had for many years to sing Christmas carols around the piano while Tom plays the songs for us. This is one of my most favorite parts of Christmas for sure. We also sang happy birthday to Jesus and Gavin impressed us by knowing all the words to the song though we had never taught him (good ol daycare!). On Christmas Eve Gavin modeled his new Santa Elmo pajamas and we set out cookies and milk for Santa. Gavin stole a quick bite from Santa's cookie but he must have been forgiven as he certainly got spoiled silly the next day with gifts. Being the first grandchild has made him one lucky kiddo that's for sure. We loved watching him help everyone open their presents Christmas Day and see how he was more excited about the bows than his gifts.

I can honestly say the only gift in the world I ever need is just to look at my sweet little boy. He brings me ongoing everlasting joy and that little guy has me wrapped so tight around his finger. He challenges me in all the best ways and I feel like I've grown so much by being his Mommy. I really mean it when I saw I never could have expected how much I could have learned from such a little human. I'm so looking forward to tons of memories to come...and I promise I'll try to blog a bit more often, though Gavin certainly keeps me on my toes!