More from July & Daddy Coming Home!

I am glad to report that Ryan is FINALLY back from Florida! Gavin and I have been "roughing" it for the past two weeks while Ryan was in Tampa doing some training for work. He had a pretty good time! I am not going to lie, I was a bit envious of him...haha! Though, I'm not sure how I would have faired in the that Florida humidity.

I wanted to make sure that Gavin was busy, mostly so he wouldn't be cranky that Dada wasn't home, so I tried to do several activities "treats" with him. Like I mentioned we went to Playwerx, and to the beach. Well, we also went and got frozen yogurt and happy meals at McDonalds together. Gavin's "favorite" thing though was meeting Elmo. I wish you could sense my sarcasm when I say the word favorite.

The company who leases our house here on base, Lincoln Military Housing, is really good at planning weekly and monthly events. One thing I noticed in our newsletter was "Play Dates" that were being sponsored by a Joint Medical health service place here in Oceanside. I saw that Elmo was going to be coming to meet the kids, and that there were giveaways, story time and free massages for the moms. Well, obviously you had me at meeting Elmo...HA yeah right, free massage....So we went! I got my little massage and Gavin got to play with little kids. And then it happened. Elmo. I didn't even see it coming, but Gavin did and the second he laid eyes on that red furry creature, Gavin was a stage five clinger. He had an iron grib on my leg and was scaling me like...running out of analogies. But he was climbing up me to make sure I was holding on to him to protect him from the beast.

This was after we tried sitting on Elmo's lap. This was literally as close as I could be to Elmo and let Gavin down. He kept one eye on Elmo and one eye on me. 

I tried to show him all the other kids dancing and hugging Elmo, and how funny and silly it was. Nope. Not fooled. Well, Elmo sat down and was making itself available for picture time. Of course I had to try. Well, it didn't go well. When it was our turn, I walked towards Elmo to set Gavin on its lap and I don't think I would have been physically able to release Gavin's grip from me. It was hilarious. Well, until Gavin started whimpering in fear, and then I felt bad and gave up. We just watched Elmo at a distance.

So that was something that we did to entertain our time while Daddy was gone. Another thing we did was master the meaning of "timeout." Gavin has been mastering the tantrums and learning how to press the perfect buttons. Well, one of my is hitting. So every time he hits me, he gets to visit timeout. Needless to say, he makes timeout look good. I smile and laugh while his little nose is in the corner because he looks so cute!

Gavin's newest phrase is "Cheese!" We taught him how to say it, for literally cheese, his string cheese which is one of his favorite snacks. Well, I started teaching him to say it so that he smiles in pictures. And it is SO cute!!! Now, he will pick up my phone and just say "Cheese!" hhahaha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_EMZs_Q5c

Our July in a nutshell...

Well, not TOO much is new around here lately! :)

We are laying low lately! I've been so annoyed with our weather lately, it's been so gloomy! Usually we have the June Gloom, but it has lasted for a majority of July too! Bascially, it's a very low Marine Layer that covers the coast, and maybe four miles inland or something, and it is just grey! It usually is supposed to burn off by noon, but lately it has been lasting all day, every day. So it is just warm and muggy, yuck! I hate humidity! It's been about 80% humidity, so pretty gross, but could be worse!

I finally got Ryan to help me plant some grass to fill in the spots in our "backyard." I have been DILIGENTLY watering it like he told me too and guess what...IT CAME UP! (I'm not sure if I blogged about it last summer, but we tried to plant new grass in Odessa and well...it didn't turn out very great). I will post some pictures soon! I am going to wait until we cut it as we had to wait until the new grass was at least two inches tall, but all the grass that was there is like a jungle and looks pretty trashy.

Gavin and I checked out a new location the other day, it is called PlayWerx in Carlsbad, CA. OH my goodness. He was in heaven! It's like an indoor playground, but everything is soft and bouncy. Gavin was literally running and laughing and screaming. He was in heaven! We played for two hours straight, and he was pooped afterwards! I can't wait to take him back again with Daddy this time! Here is a video and some pictures from our little outing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMLjxD9l1AQ

Some other big news is that Gavin is off the bottle! THANK THE LORD! It's been my fault. I haven't been very active on weaning him. I got him down to two bottles a day (morning and night) before our Odessa Vacation, but thought it might be best to wait until we were home to completely wean him for ease sake. Well, that came and went and he was still on the bottle. So three days ago I decided enough was enough and I told him as I was giving him his "nigh nigh" bottle, that this was the last one and that tomorrow the bottles have to go buh-bye. He gave me a confused look...

Then morning came and the power had gone out that night, and my phone was dying so we went to the car to charge it and had breakfast in the car. With the distraction, excitement of playing in the car and change of schedule, he didn't ask for his bottle once.

Gavin playing in the car while I was charging my phone. Also, may I add, this is like the 7th time we have lost power is less than six months. UGH!

That night, he had a little milk in his sippy cup, but then after he went to bed he woke up every two hours, and one of those wake ups he was screaming for his "bah bah." It was sad, but I stayed strong and he hasn't asked for once since! It has been three downs now, bottle free!

Alrighty, here are some random new photos over the past few weeks!

 Check out those cheeks!

 He's learned how to say "cheese!" Now he grabs my phone and says CHEESE! What? It's like I take a few pictures of him or something?

 I love this chumba wumba. He is watching Dora the Explorer. Poor mommy!

 Gavin and I had a date at the beach the other day! It was FINALLY a sunny day!

The many faces of my Gavin.

Odessa Vacation!

Well, here I am with at least 100 excuses as to why I haven't updated. But, I'll save a couple of those for later :)

I realized that I never put up a post about our Odessa/Seattle Vacation...oops!

In May, we traveled up to Washington for our first, real, vacation. It was everything and more. We had a mini family reunion, a surprise party for my dad and my baby brother graduated from high school. All in the same weekend. It was crazy, but it was awesome! Gavin got to meet and play with new aunties, uncles and cousins. I finally got to see so many family members I haven't seen in years, and best of all Ryan was with us this time. He's real and not imaginary! (It's a joke with us because he can never make it to any of our family functions it seems like!)

Ryan and I were able to have a full day date, going to the spa, dinner and movies while Gavin stayed with grandparents. We celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday with most of our family. It was great! Gavin was able to run and run and run. He had endless people to chase after him and wear him out. I was worried he might be depressed once we came home!

Here are a few pictures from our vacation!

Our little family at my dad's surprise 25th Anniversary of Ordination party

 Gavin's first experience with eating dirt. An entire handful.

We watched the boys ride motorcycles and Daddy took a break to chase Gavin. Love the open gravel roads to run!

Ryan had his nephews out at the farm and took them for rides on all of the equipment. Gavin was loving to watch and was waving as everyone was driving by!