Long Time, No Blog

Pictures first for those of you who lose interest quickly and don't really want to read about our summer:

We stated at National Harbor, right on the Potomac River for our D.C. trip, this is a picture of the walk from our hotel to the river. Those teeny people are Garth Lee in between Mimi and Papa Randy.

There was a "buried" sculpture on the shore called "The Awakening" and Garth Lee had fun playing in/on it.

Garth Lee's signature pose on one of the docks.

One of Gavin's naps with Garth wearing the wrap, a nice break for Mama.

He was OUT...so cute!

Our reason for going...Garth Lee decided he wanted to go to Washington, D.C. to see the "original" flag, and here was the exhibit. (No photos were allowed of the actual flag)

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

"The lawn"

The famous ruby slippers at the National Museum of American History...periodically, someone has to clean each individual sequin (not actual rubies) of the slippers.

Each state has 2 statues in the Capitol and here we are with Mr. Stephen F. Austin himself. An interesting tidbit of info is that the other states made their statues very large and grandiose, that Texas is actually the only state that made their statues life sized, which is very interesting considering everything is supposed to be bigger here.

Washington Monument

The oldest existing statue of the Father of Our Country, located in the Capitol building.

Love Garth Lee's face here

Lincoln Memorial...there are A LOT more steps than it looks like in this picture...This was the one time that Papa volunteered to stay at the bottom with Gavin in the stroller.

Arlington National Cemetery

Mimi and Gavin having a conversation on our river cruise

Gavin giving Mimi kisses

Bad angle?

Mommy, you did not seriously just post that picture of my thighs, did you?

Well, at least get a picture of my good side :-)

Gettysburg reenactment soldiers

So one of my friends threatened to delete me from her favorites (literally and figuratively) if I didn't update my blog, so I better get to it! We have had quite the eventful summer, we took 3 major trips: In June we went to Washington D.C., in July we went to Utah and a couple of weeks ago we went to San Antonio.

Of course all my pictures have yet to be downloaded, but I do hope to get them on here ASAP.

Gavin is 6 months old now, which is hard to believe. He is sitting up very well and I think he will probably be crawling in a couple of weeks. His biggest loves are his jumper/exersaucer and to nurse. I just came back to work after having close to 2 months off and he is now on a bottle strike, so Daddy is having to bring him up to work to nurse. Luckily, he is a good eater of pretty much any baby food and he also loves baked potatoes and little baby crunchy snacks, so I'm pretty sure he will survive one more day "without" me (I'm sure I will see him at least 2 more times today to nurse ;-). Gavin hasn't met a food he doesn't like, he loves his garden veggies and he hoovers squash, of course he also loves the fruits. He is such a well mannered baby, always quick to smile at anyone willing to look. His only issue is sleep and probably according to everyone but me, his sleeping issue is actually my sleeping issue, he does exactly what I've trained him to do...sleeps right next to me nursing on and off all night long. Go ahead, judge me, at least I am a little more confident now since I can at least argue back that this isn't my first 'rodeo' and yes, I do know EXACTLY what I have created because I already have a 6-year-old version :-)

Speaking of the 6-year-old...Garth Lee is now officially a first grader (and no longer sleeping right next to me nursing on and off, thank you very much). He just finished his first week of school and he is doing a little better at getting up in the mornings. After the first day he said he had fun BUT he didn't like that they didn't get nap time or recess anymore. They still have P.E., but not the same recess they had in kindergarten. He always got in trouble during nap time last year because he never slept and was disruptive so I really didn't get the longing for that except that he was just tired from not being used to getting up in the morning. He likes his teacher and has some of his old friends with him from last year, so I'm pretty sure he will do great.

Our Washington, D.C. trip was AWESOME! We went almost everywhere we could. Gavin traveled great, never cried on the plane. He was a good little travel companion. He didn't love the stroller, but he still rode in it a little and other times was either carried or in my wrap (on me or my mom, and even on Garth some). My parents went with us and it was truly an awesome trip, everyone had a great time and we learned a lot too. I never would have attempted this trip with a 4 month old with just Garth, me and the kids, so I am sooooo grateful for my parents for going, making it not only possible, but actually VERY enjoyable.

We went to Utah in July for Garth's Dad's wedding in Logan. It was a 21 hour trip to Clarkston, UT and there was less than half an hour of crying and at least half of that was me ;). Gavin and Garth Lee did so great on the looooong trip. We met a lot of nice people up there as Betty Ann's family was having a reunion/baptism/blessing/wedding so everyone was there and they were so welcoming and nice, it was so great. Clarkston is a teeny town, but it was so beautiful! We drove to Highland, UT after the reception and stayed the night with Garth's cousin Michelle in their new 12k sq.ft. house, it was AMAZING and we had soooo much fun with them, even seeing one of my missionary friends from 10+ years ago. When we left there, we went south to St. George, UT to stay with Garth's Aunt Tammy for a couple of days. It was HOT!!! We had a great time with the family there and it was sad to leave. We took 2 days coming back and it was also enjoyable, even the kids did fine, but we were so glad to get home.

We went to San Antonio to visit Kelton and his family and to see their newest addition, Auva Mae, be blessed and to celebrate Garth lee's 6th birthday with his cousins there. Garth Lee got to go to Six Flags with Autumn and Daddy and to Schlitterbahn with everyone but me and Sarah and the babies. It was so great to see them and to meet baby Auva. We had such a great time and we can't wait to see them again when they come visit us, hopefully soon!

Thanks everyone for such a great summer that I will never forget :-)

First Laughs

Dear Gavin...

The car may not be the most exciting thing ever, but it gets us around so we aren't stuck inside all the time. Crying and screaming will not help the traffic move faster, trust me I've tried that one. No matter how much you scream, you are not getting out of that seat so you may as well just accept it and LOVE it!

If you ever want another sibling, EVER, you will need to let me put you down asleep in your crib sometimes.

It would be great if you could let me know if you are you finished pooping yet or if I should wait to change your diaper.

Be nice to the boob, don't scratch and punch it. This includes pulling back suddenly to see how far the nipple will stretch. If you want to let go, just open your mouth.

Dark = sleep, light = wake. It's a really easy pattern to follow, trust me.

I am the only one with the boobies that feed you.

I'm going to tally up the total of all the wasted milk that you won't drink from the bottle and take it out of your allowance one day.

Please bend your elbow when I try to put your carseat strap over your arm.

If you can fall asleep so easily during the day I know you can do it at night too.

I am not going to play with you at 2 in the morning. Feed you yes...play with you no...so just go back to bed and we will play in the morning.

When Mommy is changing your diaper, the whole process would go much more quickly if you'd lay still rather than kicking like mad. I'm good...but the moving target is a challenge.

And most importantly...It IS possible to sleep without a boob in your mouth. Oh, here's an idea - take a binkie!!! Then you can pretend to have a boob in your mouth and I am free to move.

Love ya butter bean!

Milestones

School is out for the summer so I guess I officially have a first grader. Wow, time sure flies!

Kelton graduated from medical school and has moved his family to San Antonio for his residency for at least the next 4 years, then to who knows where from there. They left Tuesday morning and it was very sad for all of us. One thing I was looking kind of forward to when they left was not having Garth Lee ask me every single day at least 3 or 4 times if we can go see Autumn...to my dismay, bright and early Tuesday morning, Garth Lee woke up and asked me if we could go see Madison ;)

Garth Lee had closing ceremonies for t-ball last night. His team came in 4th place, just missed getting a trophy, but he did get a medal so he was pretty happy. I have to say Garth Lee has improved probably the most of anyone on his team this year, needless to say I am very proud of him. He started out as catcher, then went to outfield and then he ended up as short stop and a pretty good one at that.

At the closing ceremonies last night, Gigi got Gavin to laugh for the first time, and luckily I got it on video. It is hilarious because we would laugh with him when he laughed and it scared him so he quickly went from laughing to scared and back again a few times.

Gavin has been acting hungry after I feed him the last few days and he is about 16 pounds these days so Garth and I decided to try to see if he would eat some rice cereal mixed with breast milk and boy did he go to town. He has absolutely no tongue thrust reflex and he didn't spit one bit out. He would smile when I would give him a little bite and would suck on his fist when he wanted more and I wasn't giving it to him. I didn't want to give him very much because I didn't want him to get a tummy ache but he just kept wanting more. I still only gave him about 2 tsp, but it was a successful first solids experience.

This is my first 3 day weekend at work since having Gavin. From now on, I will be working a 3 day weekend every other week, that comes out to about 6 days a month which right now seems like a lot, but Daddy does such a great job with the Gavster that I am feeling more and more comfortable being away sometimes.

Garth and I just celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and we went out on our first date since the baby was born. Mom watched Gavin and we went to see a movie and to dinner. It was nice. I would love to say I didn't worry, but I did...a lot...mostly because the little booger would not take a bottle and in the evening he is the fussiest. The great news was that while we were out Gavin was great and happy and he took the whole bottle from Mom! She is kind of a grandbaby whisperer so I don't know why I was so surprised ;)

The Offended Becomes the Offender...

So it really bugs me when my buddies don't blog...and here I am with a forgotten blog.

What we're up to:

• Only a week left in t-ball for Garth Lee, they have had a streak of hard losses, but it is clear that all the kids have really improved...after the last game Garth Lee told me that t-ball just may not be his sport
• Gavin is growing and growing, I'm going to take him to get weighed Monday for the last time at the weight clinic. He was 13 lbs 1 oz 2 weeks ago, so I am pretty sure we are looking at somewhere in the 14.5lb range for his 3 month which is about 75th percentile which is pretty good considering he was born at about the 30th percentile
• Gavin slept for 5 hours in a row last night for the first time...I know a lot of kids are already sleeping through the night for real for a while at this age, but for us this is big and by definition "sleeping through the night"...for one night at least
• Garth was able to hood Kelton yesterday and it was a special moment for the whole family. The Hooding Ceremony was very long, but all the kids did pretty well. I did have to find me a corner to nurse in at one point...but it went very well, Gavin was just chillin' most of the time and slept some of the time, I'm afraid we are about to get out of the portability stage but I look forward to each new stage so I am ok with that...for now...in the infamous words of Melanie Lynskey a.k.a "Lurlynn" in the 2002 Reese Witherspoon movie "Sweet Home Alabama"--'This 'uns still own the tit, so I kin cart him inywhayer' ;)
• Garth Lee only has 2 half days left of kindergarten...I can't believe he will be in first grade in the Fall
• We got our tour approvals for when we go to Washington, D.C. and we are going to get to go through the Capitol and the Pentagon so we are excited...it is crazy all the security stuff you have to have in beforehand, we aren't going until the week of the 4th of July and I have to have all of our security clearance stuff in by this week or we can't do a tour...it's getting close and we are so excited
• I turned 29 on the 14th...we got a new car and traded in the Armada...Garth said Happy Birthday! when we got it but I'm not so sure that saving $150 a month constitutes an actual 'present'...but I could be wrong...and I'll definitely take it, I love my new car!
• I'm back at work every other weekend, Garth is a great daddy and takes care of the babe when I am at work. Two weeks ago I worked one 12 hour shift and Garth had to feed Gavin bottles in the afternoon (in the morning, I nursed him during breaks at work) and he really didn't like that at all...after the first one though he decided that was all he was going to get so he sucked down the others. I am of course nervous about leaving him again, but miraculously he is just fine when I get home so I think I will start to chill about it soon...maybe ;)
• I'm still campaigning for a Flip camcorder for my real birthday/Mother's Day gift so maybe I will actually have some video up soon?!?!

2 Month Stats

Well, I have a pretty fussy (but thankfully sleeping) baby right now. He is hurting and is running a little fever after his shots today...poor guy. He cried a little when he got them and then he slept for a couple of hours after and I have kept him medicated with Tylenol every 4 hours, but the last couple of hours he has been struggling a little. I know he will be better in the morning, I just wish morning were here already.

Height: 22.5in (I think longer, she didn't stretch him out enough on the table, but we will go with what the 'official' stats were)

Weight: 11lbs 15oz

I can't remember what his head circumference was but it and everything else was right around the 50th percentile and it is all following the curve beautifully. His weight is increasing a little faster than the curve, which is fine since we got off to a slow start.

(Warning: Possible TMI alert!--and my apologies to grown-up Gavin for some of the following)

At 2 months, Gavin :

• Holds his head up for a long time, especially when he is held upright (Daddy thinks he tilts to the right--which could be to compensate for his undescended testicle--jk)
• Still only has one descended testicle, but I am confident that the other is on it's way down(we have until 6 months before we have to go see the urologist)
• Can roll to his sides
• Loves to visit with people, especially in the morning, will smile and coo...but I have to be right there in his face or he thinks I am not paying him enough attention and gets a little upset
• Usually only cries if he is hungry, tired, or in his car seat (we have actually had a pretty good couple of days with the car seat thing, so knock on wood that we continue improving in this area)...oh and he cries when he gets shots too (but who doesn't?)
• Loves it when his big brother talks to him and especially loves him to sing to him...there have been a couple of times in the car when Gavin is very upset and Garth Lee will just make up words and sing them to Gavin and he will calm down a little, it is very sweet and makes Garth Lee feel good to help
• Still gets up A LOT at night, I did a sleep diary last night and he got up 7 times from 8:30pm to 7:30 and his longest stretch of sleep was 2 hours and 21 minutes :(
• Is still in our bed since it is easier to feed him (and easier for me to sleep while he eats those 7 times a night)
• Still LOVES my wrap that I wear him in, it is like a sedative, I put him in and WHAM he is asleep in seconds...except, of course, the few times I have tried it at home when he has been fussing at night, then it just makes him madder--oh well, I LOVE it, there is no way with his aversion to the car seat that I would ever get anything done away from the house without being able to carry him in it
• Is 99.9% breastfed, he has had 6 ounces of formula since he has been born...3 for jaundice, and 3 one night I just didn't have enough...we have tried a couple of other times when we thought he was still hungry but he hasn't taken any since he was a couple of weeks old
• Is eating every 1.5-2 hours all day long, it is very rare that he will go more than 2 hours and sometimes in the evening will eat every hour
• Poos every 2-3 days (improved from every 7 or 8)...but we were doubly blessed today, so who knows
• Will not take a bottle anymore...we have tried a couple of times the last couple of weeks with both breast milk and formula and he just chews the nipple and smiles up at you...it's cute, but worrisome since I am working some starting soon and he is going to have to take a bottle or he will be a very hungry boy (or Daddy will bring him to me at work I am sure if it gets that bad...here's hoping it doesn't)
• Has grown out of all of his newborn clothes and is pushing a size 2 in diapers, I think the next time we go to Sam's we will get the 1-2 in between size
• Has come around on the bathing thing...I'm not sure he exactly enjoys it, but he doesn't cry anymore even when I wash his hair
• Is a delight and I love him more everyday and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings (especially today)

Family Photos--All of Them

After a baby is born, sleeping when the baby sleeps is very smart...but after a couple of months, it becomes lazy (in my own humble opinion)...not that a nap here and there is not warranted (and just so happens to be my favorite pastime), it is time for me to get some stuff done other than just sleeping/feeding/changing/etc. So today I am doing stuff while the baby sleeps...I got dinner in the crock pot (yes this counts as cooking dinner), took a shower, pumped milk, did some dishes, folded laundry, downloaded our pictures, checked email, blogged...oh crap, he's waking up...lesson #1, they don't sleep as long when your warm body is not right next to them...oh well, maybe tomorrow we will be back to "sleeping when the baby sleeps", I'll keep you posted ;o)

Another Weight Post

I went to a medical supply store in town last Thursday, which was Gavin's 7 week 'birthday', that will let you weigh your baby and then feed them and weigh them again so that you can see how much they are getting at a feeding (or at that feeding at least). I know that different scales can be very different, but Monday Gavin was 10lbs 6oz at the hospital and Thursday, at the medical supply store, he weighed 11lbs 3oz (after eating). He ate 2.6oz at that feeding and it had only been an hour and 45 minutes since he ate...which explains why he is gaining so well...he's eating A LOT.

The nurse there said that an ounce per hour it has been since the last feeding is a pretty good rule of thumb for this age, so he is eating quite a bit more than that, but it is nice to have that as a guide for when I go back to work. I have been stressing quite a lot about going back, even for one day because I feel like I am feeding all day and that Garth isn't going to have a way to pacify Gavin since he doesn't take a pacifier and whenever he cries, I just feed him...Garth won't really have that option without wasting a lot of milk and as anyone who has ever nursed a baby (or knew anyone who has ever nursed a baby) knows, that stuff is liquid GOLD and it is truly a tragedy if ANY is wasted...anyways, I know that was a lot more info than anyone wanted to know, but that's kind of how I roll...;)

And since we are on the subject of weight...it is time for it to start coming off me! Garth and I both have some baby weight to get rid of (I really need to lose about 30 pounds...15 more pregnancy pounds and 15 that I still needed to lose before we got pregnant) so we are going to start going to the gym together that is right across the street from where we live. I'm not going to post how much we weigh here, but I will hopefully be posting how many pounds we are losing. I have a goal of losing that 30 pounds in the next 4 months which is a realistic 2 pounds a week...here's hoping typing it out will make me feel accountable and help me to get my rear in gear.

Genealogy

Here's proof that it is fun to do genealogy:

So above is a family picture from this weekend of our family...

And here is a picture of my great grandfather and his children, of which the top left boy is my mom's dad, my "Grandaddy" Jesse Mickey...

So, when looking at the two pictures, there is something...let's say striking...about my grandad and his brother...something that my son seems to share with them. You'll have to guess what it is that they have in common, but I've heard it is quite eerie the resemblance ;)

Pictures From Cousin Sara

My cousin Sara (not to be confused with my sister-in-law Sarah) took some great pictures at our house on Sunday with her new camera...

This is a great candid shot of Garth Lee playing with Eliza's phone...just silly!

So cozy...this was after I broke down and let my mom give Gavin a bottle of breast milk...he was nursing ALL afternoon and it is really hard to play hostess when you have a baby hanging off your boob...so I gave in and he sucked it down and is showing yet another glimpse of the 'milk coma', showing it works just as well if the milk is coming from a bottle.

Gavin looks a lot like my OB here...kind of funny, in a creepy sort of way ;) I tried to post a picture of him here, but the only one I could find wouldn't let me copy the picture, so here's the link:
http://www.covenanthealth.org/view/apps/FindAPhysician/Detail.aspx?ID=254

He is VERY concerned about something here (most likely why he looks so much like my gyno)...Gavin has very expressive eyebrows ;)

There are those brows again

This is Sara showing off her camera's zoom...I'm jealous.

Sooooooo cozy! Love it.

Here are Garth Lee and Autumn...so serious...looks like they are talking about health care and the economy again ;)

Well excuse me now while I go shopping for a new camera.

Blessing Day

Look familiar? If you've ever looked on my mantle it does...only it's a different kiddo ;)

Here's the "original":

Today was Gavin's blessing and Garth and Gavin both did did wonderfully. Garth blessed Gavin with health and strength, that he would go on a mission and that he would find a companion that he would be with for eternity ;) He also called him Randall instead of Gavin...which is his middle name, so it's not really like he changed it up there...it was a close one, but I think we'll stick with Gavin :)

Here are 'the boys' getting ready for church (notice the matching ties)...try to ignore my husband's "smile", he is smiling-for-pictures challenged...oh well, at least he is cute in real life ;)

I did actually catch a smile from Gavin, he was looking at his big brother. It's still a little hard to actually catch a smile on camera, but they are getting more and more frequent, so it won't be too long now I don't think before we will be getting lots more on record.

I nursed Gavin right before the blessing so that he would hopefully sleep and not cry during the blessing...it worked and here was a picture of him in my lap...I like to call it the 'milk coma'

A little out of order, but here are my boys just hanging out. Big brother Garth Lee loves to hold Gavin and here he is giving kisses.

Here's my big man with his most GQ pose before the blessing in our yard...please excuse the weeds (you probably wouldn't have noticed though if I didn't say anything, huh?...nah they are pretty hard to miss)

Here we are just one (medium) happy family ;)

Just like this picture of his little outfit and tie. It came with a little sewn-on bow tie and I cut it off so that he could wear his matching tie.

This was after the get-together we had at the house after church. It was also Garth's birthday this week so we did a little celebration for Gavin's and Caroline's blessings and the birthday. We had probably 70 or so people here, probably more and we had a blast, but we (and the dogs) were pretty tuckered out afterwards...this was the scene in the basement after the last people left and Mimi came to pick up Garth Lee.

Spike found Gavin's padded bum a cozy resting place for his weary head.

We had a great day. You can't get much better than fun, food and fellowship. Here's hoping we all have a restful night...especially Gavin (so I can too). We have had a good 6 weeks, some hard days/nights, but WAY more better ones...I'm pretty sure we're going to keep him ;)

Rambo

So my husband and son(s) are watching the cinematic classic Rambo XXVII and I just had to record Garth Lee's comments. He's one of those really fun people to watch a movie with that asks LOTS of questions and gives his commentary throughout the movie and I am sitting here listening, laughing out loud...here are a few:

"Daddy, what's a Russian?"
"Are all Russians Bad?"
"Why is that good guy soooo wet?"--this is the one that made me laugh out loud

I know it's not the greatest movie choice for a 5 year old...but maybe it is soooo cheesy, it takes the scary out?

Weight

For posterity's sake (and mostly because I wish I had this stuff written down from Garth Lee)...Gavin weighed 9lbs 8.6oz on Monday. He started *really* smiling today too but I didn't get any really good pictures of it yet, I'll keep trying ;)