Sunday, November 28, 2010

Fascinating

Somethings are just fascinating... especially to a baby.


Nothing is more fascinating than big brother.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mommy and Me time

For some reason, having two children now doesn't mean double laundry, it means triple or quadruple the laundry. I'm lucky if I get the boys down for naps at the same time so that I can get some me time, but most days that is just wishful thinking. The house seems messier and as a family we just seem busier. For some reason, leaving the house to go run errands or to get anywhere seems to take twice or three times as long. Not all of it is to do with having two children, but we definitely have had an adjustment (a very good adjustment though).

I keep thinking that Dallin is adjusting just fine to the addition of a baby brother. He didn't regress in potty training (he is a champ at this) or in any other areas. He loves giving Gavin attention and is really cute with him. But...lately I noticed more and more there is some jealousy of having to share mommy's time. This week I especially saw it when I'm giving Gavin more time with his breathing treatments.

Tonight I put Gavin down to bed, ignored the dishes and clothes waiting to be folded and played with these.


Mater and McQueen raced around the house sometimes crashing, sometimes running from the Ghostlight (Dallin's favorite), and sometimes flying. Then instead of reading two stories before bed, we read four. At the end of the first book, the little boy hugs and kisses his mom. The next thing I knew I had a little boy hugging me tight and giving me one of his really yucky kisses. (Dallin calls all kisses yucky and if he gives a really good, long kiss on the cheek, then he tells us it was yucky.) What a reward and definitely well worth my time.

Bronchitis

Poor little Gavin is using a nebulizer four times a day plus three other medicines to help him breath and clear out his lungs. The first time he used one in the doctor's office, our doctor came in after wards asking where the crying was. Gavin was sound asleep. He has cried a couple of times, but most of the time he just smiles at me and makes faces. Maybe he is just enjoying his one-on-one time with mom!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Nurturers

There are times while I'm teaching preschool that Gavin has to just wait for what he needs like when nine 3-4 year olds are waiting for their snack and Gavin decides that he wants to eat too. Gavin will let us all know that he doesn't like being put second. On this particular day, Gavin was being very clear that he wanted something and one by one my 3 to 4 year old girls got up and started playing with him on their own initiative. If you know Gavin then you understand that if someone just looks at him let alone plays with him, he is the happiest of babies. He was in heaven when four girls chose to play with him.
Now where were the boys in our preschool class? Sitting at the table eating their snack. Apparently a crying baby doesn't make them jump up and try to help especially when there is food in front of them.

Girls will be girls and boys will be boys.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

It's Official

Gavin is legally Gavin David now and part of our family. Of course he has been with us since he was two days old so nothing has changed, but now it's official. Although we like our adoption caseworker, she no longer needs to come into our home and observe us and ask us silly questions that she is required to ask like, "How do you feel about Gavin?" It just feels wonderful to know that Gavin is stuck with us no matter what!

Finalization was a little different with Gavin. (You can read about Dallin's experience here.) Dallin was born in the state of Texas, and he was six months old. Since Gavin was born in Florida, we should have gone back there to finalize. Florida is very nice though and will finalize over the phone, and it can be done earlier. Gavin is four and a half months old right now. Instead of heading to a courthouse, we went to LDSFS where our caseworker is a notary. We called a number that connected us to our lawyer and judge in Florida. We were sworn in by our caseworker here and then our lawyer asked us some basic questions. The judge then signed the papers saying Gavin is ours! The video below is a short clip from the end.

Now that finalization is done, we set a date. Mark your calenders because on December 23rd, our family will be sealed in the temple for all eternity. We can't wait!!!

To learn more about temples, go here.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Halloween Fun

Brace yourself for the cutest pumpkin ever


and a super fast, super tough Dash!


We spent Halloween weekend at two Trunk or Treats, our churches and my parent's. Dallin was really excited to trick or treat and get tons of candy until this girl showed up...Jessie. From then on, the star struck little boy followed her around everywhere. If she got away from him, he asked over and over and over again, "Where's Jessie?". He got up the courage twice to give her a hug and even a kiss. This took courage because when Jessie is around, Dallin is very shy apparently. This picture may get framed and we might need Jessie to autograph it. Can you imagine what he would be like if we took him to Disney World???


When Dallin wasn't chasing Jessie, he did do some trick or treating.

One car had bobbing for apples and Dallin immediately put his face in trying for an apple. I couldn't catch a picture because he would pull out before my slow camera could take it, so this is a friend doing it.

Daddy and Gavin passing out candy

All the grandchildren went to my parent's truck or treat on Saturday.

Two Stickin Cute Pumpkins! Gavin and Cousin Alex

What a fun Halloween!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Four Months- October 26

Time sure flies. This sleepy, tiny infant is turning into a chunky, squirmy, smiling baby. Between the chubby cheeks that even strangers try to pinch and his loud giggling, Gavin is becoming very popular.

Here is what has happened with Gavin this last month:

Bringing a toy to the mouth- A first
Gavin can also find paci when it is in his mouth. He will pull it out and hold it in his hand. Sometimes it gets back into his mouth, usually backwards, but he is getting the idea.

This outfit is another hand me down from big brothers Caleb and Dallin. Although Caleb and Dallin are six months apart, Carter and Gavin can still be twinsies thanks to Carter's chunkiness.


Four months means rice cereal! This chunky boy is ready! The pictures of his first feeding were taken with my camera phone. Not very impressive.


What is this?

It wasn't so bad.

By the second try, Gavin was already getting the hang of eating.

The Stats:
Weight 16 pounds 8 ounces 77%
Height 25 1.2 inches 75%
Head 41 cm 24 %

At two months, Gavin's height was in the 15th percentile so this was a pretty big jump to the 75th percentile.

We love having Gavin in our house. Nothing beats his smile and giggles!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Camping in October


Have you ever had a super, big blond moment? I've had multiples in my life, but I had a great a couple of weekends ago. Where we live, October is a great month to go camping. Dallin went camping on the Father's and Son's camp out a few months ago, and since then has talked of nothing else. We kept telling him all through September that we would take him camping when it got cooler. He kept thinking that meant the next day. We finally set a date, booked a campsite, invited my parents along and got ready to go. It was 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, the car was packed like we were going on a week long vacation instead of just over night, and Dallin was bouncing off the wall trying to but not succeeding in containing his excitement (Gavin was probably in his car seat watching his brother jump.) At the last minute, I went into the computer room to print off the reservation confirmation and see the date, October 26th and 27th. My heart starts going crazy as I ran to the calendar. It was Friday the 22nd not the 26th. I ran to the calender in the kitchen just to make sure and see the problem. The kitchen calender was already on November due to the fact that I booked a babysitter for Stake Conference three weeks in advance and wrote it on my calendar. I was so proud of myself too for being so on top of getting a baby sitter. You can imagine the embarrassment as I told Zane and called my dad. After about an half hour on the phone though, we found another campground at the KOA and off we went.

We did the normal camping things like cooking tin foil dinners, roasting marshmallows (Dallin's favorite), "hiking" in the morning (more like a nature walk), and swimming in the heated pool, shuffle board, and playing on the playground (hey, we were at a KOA!) We had a great time.




The "dinosaur footprint" we found on our hike.

Besides the blond moment, the real "highlight" of the trip was trying to sleep with Dallin. He went to sleep without any problems at 9:30, but he woke up around midnight. There was a karaoke party up the road from us that was extremely loud until about 1 a.m. Dallin lay in bed saying over and over again, "noisy." It was also very light outside with the full moon. Dallin kept asking for pancakes thinking it was morning. We were so desperate to get Dallin to sleep and not to wake my parents and Gavin, that Zane put him in the car and drove him around town until he fell asleep. This worked great except he didn't transfer into the tent well. After awhile, I got up and drove him around town. By now, Dallin was wired and asking for his car bed. I finally just parked the car, leaned my seat back and resigned myself to sleeping in the car. Dallin was buckled into his car seat and at least this way his talking wouldn't wake my parents or Gavin. When Dallin realized the plan, he decided to choose to go to sleep in his sleeping bag in my parents' tent. It was 2 a.m. When he woke in the morning, Zane was kind to take him to the playground so the rest of us could still sleep (there are benefits to camping with a playground!) Now when Dallin asks to go camping constantly, we just remind him of the driving around town at 1 a.m. I'm not willing to do that again anytime soon. We might be camping in our backyard for awhile first.

Gavin slept great, but still woke up at 4 a.m. for a feeding. It was a pretty miserable night sleep so when we got home from camping, the whole family took a nap for a long time. Besides the night time, we had a great time.

Monday, November 1, 2010

National Adoption Month


National Adoption Month is here! As part of the celebration of the miracle of adoption, our FSA group (Families Supporting Adoption) will be posting on the FSA blog responses to the statement: Adoption has blessed my life. My response was posted today so check it out here! If you too want to tell how adoption has blessed your life, email me your story and pictures (my email address in on the side of my blog.) I would be happy to get it into the right hands to be published. You can check out all the adoption stories all month long by clicking on the button on the right of my blog.