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!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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.