It's All In There!

Several people have remarked that Gavin resembles Dad, but he definitely has traits of Mom as well. As captured during his Saturday Night Bath, Gavin showed that he has a laugh and smile just like Mom did back in the day when having lots of fun.

Gavin's First (And White) Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Despite the original weather forecast, we received a significant amount of snow from this last storm. By morning, a couple inches covered the ground making it an official White Christmas for us. Gavin was pretty excited about his good fortune scoring a White Christmas on his very first Christmas holiday. He insisted we give his new snow suit a test run with a walk in Winter Wonderland.

Kiersten and I were very excited for Gavin's first Christmas, but we assumed that he would barely notice as we conducted our various rituals. At first, he seemed overwhelmed sitting among a pile of his presents unsure of what was to happen.

However, after a little coaching, Gavin got into the full spirit of unwrapping as he discovered the fun of tearing the wrapping paper, tugging on ribbons, and banging on boxes. Of course, he tried to eat the wrapping paper as well. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and Gavin seemed to have great fun getting 100% attention from Mom and Dad all day long.

Two Front Teeth For Christmas!

Although Gavin has had both teeth for a couple weeks, they are more visible at this point. More importantly, today was the first time we were able to collect visual evidence of the teeth. Of course, Gavin just saw the opportunity to turn on some extra cute-factor and really nailed this shot.

Gavin Meets Santa

Time almost eluded us on taking Gavin to meet Santa. Fortunately, we managed to hit the mall on Sunday and Gavin was able to tolerate the hour long wait.

Overall, the experience went well. Gavin was not frightened or traumatized during his first Santa encounter. If anything, he seemed confused by the affair. If his mind could be read, he was probably thinking "Mom, why did you hand me to this strangely dressed character and hide behind that camera whiz-a-ma-jig?" He looked cute while never looking at or smiling at the camera, so we just picked the silliest looking picture of the bunch. So far, the two formal pictures we have had taken of Gavin have been less than ideal portraits. But he is just a baby and that is have the fun of it.

Santa himself did not seem so enthusiastic. I imagine it is more entertaining to meet children who can talk to him. Afterward, I realized there was a subtle change in the air around Gavin. I chuckled as I whispered to Kiersten that I had a theory why Santa was less than thrilled to have Gavin on his knee -- he pooped on Santa!

Eight Months Old!

Yesterday, Gavin turned 8 months old! It has been quite a ride up to this point -- he is rapidly growing from our little baby boy into a fairly big boy. Approaching 23 pounds, Gavin is wearing outfits in the 1 year old range. Although we loved his infant car seat, we got him a new seat because, as you can see, he was running out of room!

Among his many new milestones are:

• His two front teeth came in before Christmas (9 Dec and 16 Dec).
• Enjoys eating, especially now that he is getting some protein along with his veggies.
• Eats solid food 2-3 times a day.
  
• Sits up for an hour or more at times.
  
• Stands with some help and supervision.

Also, on the eve of turning 8 months, we discovered that Gavin can get into a hysterical laughing fit. Of course, we captured it on video to share!

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Ski Season 2007-2008 Opens!

We opened our ski season this past weekend with a trip to Copper Mountain. It took weeks of planning and negotiations with Gavin to get him to allow us out of his sight for a day. The terms of the deal were:

• We only go away for a day-trip,
• Green beans be provided for dinner,
  
• We would employ his favorite, locally-available baby sitter.

Being a shrewd negotiator, Gavin also secured a spot on an upcoming winter land trip. He has listened to the tall tales Mom and Dad enjoy telling him about the Good Old Days skiing in Vermont. Preparing for the kind of legendary cold he has heard about, Gavin found a cozy snowsuit on sale and cannot wait to try it out.

Now This Guy Loves Carrots!

In the realm of eating, Gavin has explored many foods and has been making some serious progress in increasing his success rate (ratio of food in the stomach versus amount of food remaining on his bib). He can even take the spoon with a small amount of food, avoid painting his face with it, and eat off the spoon.

Gavin has not been an enthusiastic eater, seeming to tolerate most food we have offered. Tonight, he demonstrated his love for carrots (a Dad favorite) as well as the fact that Gavin is indeed a baby. After all, only a baby can wear food like this and still be cute.

Gavin's House of Style

Gavin has been exploring his sense of style. In our opinion, he can pretty much pull off any look. He debuted his sporty-shades theme in Boulder over the Thanksgiving weekend and attained immediate celebrity status. People who caught a glimpse of this suave boy rounded up their family and friends to share in the moment of stunning infant coolness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the heels of Gavin turning 7 months old, he attended his first Thanksgiving dinner. For the occasion, his Grammy came out for a long weekend for her first Thanksgiving in Colorado.

Gavin eyed the Thanksgiving feast which consisted of a 16 lbs brined turkey and gravy, corn bread pudding, roasted apples and butternut squash, cranberry relish, tossed salad, and sweet potatoes. His menu was less traditional -- Zwieback Toast, cauliflower and squash, and formula.

The Answer Is Four

Gavin is learning new things each day. Here he shows off a few new practical tips he's picked up:

1. When you can't find your Zwieback Toast, a nylon strap will suffice to satisfy the uncontrollable desire to gnaw.
2. The answer is ALWAYS four.

The Classic Eat the Toes Trick

Nearing his 7-month anniversary, Gavin showed mom he had figured out how to perform the classic baby maneuver, "Eat the Toes".

This was the first time he was observed demonstrating his youthful flexibility (Dad shudders at the thought of trying such an act). Of course, Gavin also provided some insight into his developing common sense...after all, he waited until bath-time to suck on his toes when they would be clean. That-a-boy!

Gavin's Hiking Equipment

Shopping for Gavin's hiking carrier.

Good Morning, Gavin

At Gavin's six month check-up this past week, his doctor wanted us to encourage him to get to know his feet and become used to putting some weight on his legs. We also thought his daily play zones have become a bit too routine. Since the activity mat that we received as a gift has been very entertaining -- Gavin even discovered one of the toys was on a pull-cord we didn't know about -- we thought the new activity toy should be an upgrade of the mat. And by upgrade, I mean literally since he would need to stand in the new toy.

As you can see, Gavin was clearly surprised when presented with his new play center. He took it like "white on rice," as my CYO basketball coach used to say when coaching us on defense. Gavin's favorite perch has always been on my shoulder where he can turn and look in any direction. The new play center allows him to do the same, just at ground level. And that seems just dandy to Gavin.

Different Skies

Funky clouds and spectacular lighting were on the bill for our nightly backyard show known as the sunset. I am not sure what the conditions were tonight, but the clouds were in a formation I had never seen first-hand. It almost looked like someone picked up a small section of calm ocean shoreline and stuck it in the middle of the sky. The picture below is just a snippet of the whole line, so it does not come through. I just liked the post-production colors.

Happy Halloween!

Good Morning, Gavin

No caption needed.

The Poop Stops Here

Today was the first official day of fairly normal gastro-intestinal processing and bowel movements. Since Wednesday of last week, Gavin's dirty diaper production tripled. We certainly did not demand that he try harder in the Number Two Arena, so we are assuming that Gavin had his first viral battle.

Thankfully, he won without any extraordinary measures. He was very uncomfortable, cried quite a bit, got completely off his well-tuned sleep schedule, and was generally not himself. We picked up two tips that we found very useful in dealing with Gavin's bout of viral diarrhea. First, use baby powder in combination with diaper rash creme (or Triple Butt Paste -- I love the stuff). Second, switch to a non-milk-based formula -- Gavin appeared to develop a lactose intolerance since the virus chased out all the good microbes from his system.

While the whole experience was a stinky mess, Gavin put up some impressive numbers:

• 9 consecutive days of 4 or more poops.
• 28 consecutive poopy diapers over the course of a 3 day period.
• 84 total diapers (36 diapers is a normal 9 day period).

How did mom and dad fare? Gavin's previously mentioned sleep schedule had been taken for granted. We have been sleeping through the entire night for several weeks. That, of course, went out the window with the illness. It's one thing to wake up and feed a hungry baby. It's an entirely different ball game to wake up to a screaming baby and change an abnormally messy diaper. However, we knew Gavin had the short end of the stick in the arrangement and he always flashed a brief smile after being returned to fresh and clean state.

As you can see from today's photo, Gavin is exhausted, or pooped if you will, from his ordeal. We are glad it is over and are very happy to return to the normal routine.

Catching On Quickly

Gavin has been intensely watching his parents at mealtimes the past couple weeks. He has scrutinized sipping techniques of both hot and cold beverages and spent countless minutes analyzing the use of tools that allow them to put stuff in their mouths. You may not be aware of this, but Gavin is a HUGE fan of putting stuff in his mouth. He would like to meet the inventor of such wonderful stuff so that he can offer a congratulatory drool.

Today, Gavin found his moment to shine. Turning his thorough analysis and observations into practice, he demonstrated that he could, in fact, manipulate an object called a spoon and "get it in the hangar" as Gavin has heard his dad say.

Bravo, Gavin!

First Snow Arrives

The first snow of the season arrived in the Denver-metro area on Sunday. Of course, there have been a few storms in the mountains, but this was the first snow where the snowflakes fell just outside our doors and windows. The picture below is a before-and-after photo, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, respectively. For the after-after picture, just refer to the before picture...the mile-high style sunshine has already cleaned up the storm.

It is a pretty good system. Places like NYC could use quick-melting snow. Storms only look pretty during the storm in New York. Once it hits the ground, it turns into black goo -- nobody enjoys trodding through that!

We knew the cold and snow were coming, so we have been working on building Gavin's outdoor attire and were prepared for winter weather. There was no way I would let First Snow come and go without showing Gavin, so after bundling him into his winter-wear (Polartec suit, hat and mittens), we took a short walk into the snow. Honestly, Gavin seemed unimpressed. It was barely an inch and the grass was still visible, so I cannot say that I blame him. He impressed me, though, by tolerating the wind better than he usually does.

I am sure he is just waiting to sled down the hill behind our apartment, which just happens to be kid-sized. Do they make infant sleds?

Gavin Goes Skydiving

So he has not gone skydiving...yet. However, Gavin is determined to perfect his free-fall form long before he begins walking, let alone strapping a parachute to his back.

Good Morning, Gavin

This guy has really mastered the art of sitting up.

Gavin Meets Rice Cereal

Gavin ate his first "solid meal" today. I use the terms "solid" and "meal" loosely because the cereal is really a bland paste and he only ate a couple teaspoons. I suppose that's good for a baby...a fiery bowl of chili would probably not go over so well.

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Good Morning, Gavin

Gavin was a little home-sick for NYC today so we put on his FH t-shirt to make him feel better.

Gavin Laughing In His Swing

It's been a while since Gavin appeared in a movie here, so here he is. You'll find a few laughs and smiles.

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Turn That Baby Upside-Down

The first time Gavin made a move to invert his world was on the trip out here at 38,000 ft. Up until a week ago, he had not made further attempts to execute the maneuver. Now, it has become his favorite pastime. Whenever Gavin gets board or needs a little entertainment, he slides down to your lap until he is perfectly positioned across it. Then he arches his back and inches his way across said lap until he can dip his head backwards. Once this has been achieved, then he inserts a fist into his mouth, smiles, and giggles.

Is this a new, disturbing epidemic sweeping our nation's babies? Find out on tonight's Dateline...

Good Morning, Gavin

"Go Blue and Gold!"

Gavin looks smashing dressed up in the colors of his dad's alma mater (high school).

First Day of Fall

We celebrated the first day of Fall by taking Gavin on his first hike. The sign welcoming hikers to the trail was a bit intimidating, but Gavin insisted we push on. It turned out that the "hike" was really a stroll with some "natural" stairs. Of course, we were not climbing, so there was nothing we needed to be worried about.

The real purpose of the day's activity was to make a trial run of using our baby carrier for hiking. We have had the Ergo carrier for a while, but today was the first time Gavin was loaded into it on my back. We had hoped that he would like it and that it would pave the way for some light hiking in the near future. Gavin did the normal things we expect from him as if we were just taking a stroll through the neighborhood. I could not see him as I walked, of course, but he did give me feedback through the acts of grabbing my shirt, rubbing his face in my back, and scratching my back with his tiny nails. He is a perfect little back-scratcher, who knew?

Although the walk was short, the falls were impressive and we were pleased with how the baby carrier performed. Next weekend will hopefully find us a bit further in the mountains taking on a more challenging trail.

The rest of the hiking photos are on Smugmug, Boulder Falls (Gavin's First Hike).

Good Morning, Gavin

Cowabunga, Dude! This picture will most certainly fuel a serious revenge plot later in Gavin's life.

Have You Ever...

Have you ever felt like the driver in front of you was inexperienced?

The Real Story:
Fortunately, this child was not in the driver's seat alone, nor was the car moving. While I was in the driver's seat of my car, I was not moving either. More on that later.

Good Morning, Gavin

The weather has turned cooler here, so Gavin is breaking out his fall clothes. Besides sportin' a fine smile, he is showing off a classic one-piece hoodie.

Fantastic Sunset

There was just the right amount of clouds to catch the Sun just after setting behind the Front Range.

Good Morning, Gavin

I continue to slack off. However, Gavin is always ready to bail Dad out writing a new post by posing for another picture-perfect GMG shot.

Good Morning, Gavin

I am way behind in my blogging duties, but wasn't it worth the wait?

Where Are the Updates?

I know, I know...for the stalkers and other interested parties out there, yes there are more updates coming on the move. In the meantime, I put up a gallery of our move-in and a walk around the apartment complex.

I've had enough of unpacking, assembling furniture, and making trips to the dumpster to throw out boxes and paper. TGITAALW (Thank Goodness it's Tuesday After a Long Weekend) -- Gavin had his first lesson today about acronyms -- and I am looking forward to getting back to work.

Good Morning, Gavin

Sorry, Ashok. There's a new monkey boy in town.

Translocated

We did it. Put simply, we left NYC this morning and, on one-way tickets, arrived in Colorado this morning (thanks to the miracle of time zones). In slightly more detail: we closed on the sale of our apartment, got rid of our car, and got our junk carted from NY to CO.

I plan on going back and rehashing events, cover the final thoughts as we left, and talk about our first day here.

For now, enjoy this picture of Gavin deciding that hanging upside-down was incredibly fun while riding an airplane at 40,000 feet.

Moving Day 2: The Actual Move

As predicted, the stress was gone this morning. Mostly because Gavin decided to be ahead of schedule and woke up at quarter to six. I have never been one to want to crawl back into bed, but lately it seems it is all I'd rather be doing. Since our coffee got packed along with the honey (we didn't specifically say don't pack any food you come across), I figured Gavin and I could just go to the coffee shop. The baristas remarked at how awake he was, putting all us early-rising veterans to shame.

After Gavin set the early tone, the movers arrived fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. Following a quick tour of items to be packed, they went to work hauling boxes downstairs and wrapping up the furniture. I was excited to watch everything leave, except for when a few boxes fell off the cart -- at least it appeared to be boxes without breakable stuff. Still, knowing that we were getting one step closer to the moment when we step over the threshold of our new home became a satisfied relief -- transformed from yesterday's near nervous breakdown.

The activity of moving was not as intense or hectic as the packing, but Grammy gladly took her grandson out for yet another local adventure to help him avoid the crankies. Gavin made his second appearance of the day in one of the three neighborhood Starbucks. This time, however, he slept in the Shrine of Caffeine. Once he finished his nap, somehow he coerced Grammy into buying him yet another book. You might think to yourself "Wow, what a bookworm!", but in reality, these are just pretty chew toys to Gavin.

Before the wandering duo returned, I got a call I had been waiting for all morning from the driver responsible for carting our belongings across the country. We had several items in a self-storage facility and I had to let them in. It was good to meet the driver in person -- I feel better knowing he can put a face to all those items he is truckin' cross-country, even if it makes no difference to him. We chatted about our hometowns, his being in the Denver area and mine, as the driver put it, in "The Queens". I got a real kick out of calling home, "The Queens". His question was phrased something like this, "So, Jeff...are there any good neighborhoods in The Queens? I had a job once in a bombed-out neighborhood and had to pull a Rule 14-111." Note, I am pretty sure I am making up the rule he quoted, but you get the idea.

So today is over, our stuff is gone, and we are feeling that Rocky Mountain High. It is a complete 180 from how yesterday's emotions ran. Now we are looking forward to wrapping up all the last minute items, sealing the deal at the closing, and making our exit from NYC next week.

Good Morning, Gavin

Many photo applications have a red-eye removal tool. What us shutter-happy parents need, though, is a drool removal tool!

Moving Day 1: Packing

Today was Day 1 of the move. We have anticipated it for weeks, planned the items which we would need to keep, and discovered we had accumulated a lot of stuff that was not worth moving. In the final preparation last night, I cooked the last meal that I will ever prepare in our Queens apartment -- since my knives and our pots would soon be boxed for Colorado (leave comments if you want the recipe).

We hired the moving company to do a full pack. So far, it seems to have been worth it. The entire apartment was wrapped and boxed in under three hours. I don't think we expected the whirlwind performance of the crew, which consisted of a person for each room. There was barely any room to walk through the apartment for about an hour.

How do you manage a baby in such a ruckus? Trick question, you don't. The solution is to hand the kid to Grammy and let her take him on a long walk through the neighborhood. Maybe stop in a shop or two and buy him some nice outfits and books. By the time they returned from their local tour, the most intense period of the packing was finished.

The walls are bare, the office shelves have been cleared, and the kitchen cabinets are empty. I freaked out when all those things I take for granted being there were suddenly gone. The fact that our home of ten years is going to hold that title for only a few more days is sinking in a bit more each day. I think I'll feel better, even think more clearly tomorrow after the movers remove the boxes and furniture. The apartment will be back in its empty state, almost as it was back when Kiersten and I first moved in together. I'd like to think we are passing on something special to the new owners -- that they will have as interesting and as memorable a journey as we have had living here.