Letter to Gavin: No. 2

Dear Gavin,

The last letter I wrote to you, you were 25 weeks old, well, technically speaking, I was 25 weeks pregnant :)

I still want to pinch myself sometimes, to see if this has been a dream and you are really here. Today, I was looking at you, and I thoUght to myself: I don't want to forget one second of this. Of you, of every sound you make, face you do, cry you wail.

You are now three months old. You have changed so much since you were born! You now have hair on the top of your head (your daddy feels much better about this and is less paranoid about you getting his hairline), you smile all the time, you are about 4 lbs heavier and 5 inches longer! You giggled for the first time two weeks ago, and you still don't seem to recognize that Miss Kitty exists. You sleep through the night! In fact, the other day you slept for 12 hours. I wasn't sure weather to do cartwheels or call the doctor...You make the most adorable noises. You squeal when you are excited, and you coo and make agoo sounds. When you see daddy, you get SO excited, you wiggle and little bit and then give him your huge mouth open grin. He gets you so riled up, and you love that he mimics your baby coos, and you repeat them back to him. I love how I get your softer side, your little coos, because those make up for the screaming in my ear, and the poop from your exploding diaper.

My whole world revolves around you, and I love you more than I could ever put into words. You are our little boy, and I just want you to stay little forever! I know that can't happen, so, I will make sure to write down all these little memories, so that we will always have them, and I will never forget the little things. I love you, man cub! Happy three month "birthday."

Love,
Mommy

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! Well, Gavin's first Easter was great! Although, I feel a bit like a heathen for not even bringing him to Church for the occasion. Ryan, Gavin and I spent it down in San Diego with our friends, Neil and Jordan. We love going down to visit them, it's nice spending time with people from home and/or not affiliated with the Marines, it's a nice break.

We are currently babysitting, or cat-sitting rather, our friends little kitten, Gibbs, and man am I glad that Miss Kitty is a fat lazy old lady! This kitten has way too much energy and is into everything! He is such a cutie though, so I guess I can forgive him for getting on my kitchen counters and puking on our floor...twice. :) Speaking of Miss Kitty, we are potentially looking for a foster home for her while Ryan is deployed. (I plan on bringing her up to Odessa with me, but I'm just not sure how she would handle it with my parents dog, and their cat that's already pretty pissed she is sharing her house with the dog. Also, I'm not Dr. Doolittle, nor Ace Ventura Pet Detective so I don't really want to share my space with that many animals under one roof.) All that being said...does anyone know of someone who would like to have a cat for about six months? She is kind of a freak, but she'll make you feel like the most loved person in the world, guaranteed! Also, we will even be willing to provide food and litter if needed. We really don't want to send her back to a shelter, so if everyone could get the word out that would be great! Thanks!!

Gavin has been doing well. He is really getting into a good sleep pattern, which makes me very happy. I just need to remind myself that when he gets up at 5am...I am happy...I am happy...I am happy.

Let's see, what else is new? Now that I have figured out how to upload videos to YouTube, hopefully I can try and get some more videos up! Here is the video of him rolling over, at one day shy of one month old!

http://youtu.be/BV3u615HjIU

And our week in photos:

Gibbs, our temp kitty.

G-Unit.

His best friends. Turtle, Elephant and Lion.

Stinky Fingers Magee.

He's SO sweet!!! Just look at that face.

He's pretty into the TV lately. 

Happy Easter, everyone!

Uffda!

The time is just flying by! Gavin is getting so big. Today was a big day! He giggled for the first time! He has been super close a few times, but today, was legitimate giggling. Not going to lie, I teared up a little bit. Of course, it was daddy that had him cracking up, no surprise there. Daddy gets the huge grins and excited coos, and mommy gets the sweet and soft coos and snuggles. It evens out I suppose :)

Good news, I got the giggles on video, which can be seen here: http://youtu.be/MUwIAtMNm6I

Ryan and I went apartment shopping today, trying to scope out a place that we want to live when we move back down after his deployment. We have it narrowed down between two, but pretty much we have our minds made up. They are called the Island Club Apartments, which can be seen here: http://www.islandclubapartmenthomes.com/apartments/photogallery.do?lid=en_US&pid=1951. What a difference from our current place!! Hopefully we are able to move out of here without too many issues...HA! Yeah...Right... Our other option, is a town home on base. There are pros and cons for each places...The Island Club is absolutely beautiful. They have hardwood floors, updated kitchens, a fitness center and is pretty close to the freeways. The on-base housing is a bit larger, has a garage and is really convenient for Ryan. It's a tough choice, but I'm sure we'll make the right one.

We have been realizing that we have a lot of prepping to do before Ryan leaves, so I'm sure I'll be stressing out about that for the next two months...finding out Power of Attorney, obtaining a storage unit, giving our 30 days at pine crest, planning block leave, and all the traveling of moving.

Uffda!

2 Month Check-Up

I took Gavin in for this two month check-up (nobody look to notice that he is almost three months....) and the doctor said he is doing great! He is in the 50% percentile for everything. He is now 23 1/2 inches long, and weighs a whopping 12.15 lbs! He is growing so fast! He is starting to get heavy to lug around everywhere! Ha.

We got a referral to see a different orthopedic doctor, through the Naval Hospital, and hopefully we will be able to get Gavin into physical therapy for this foot. We decided to try that route, because he hated the boots so much and if there is an alternative, you can bet I am going to try it.

The doctor was amazed at Gavin's progress, as he is holding his head up on his own, rolling over and pushing himself up onto his arms when he is laying on his tummy. We also got his vaccines today, he did really well, and only cried for a few seconds. He has been pretty fussy and needy this morning, though. Poor little guy :(

Alright, finally some more photos!

Left: Gavin at 1 day old, Right: Gavin at 77 days old

Gavin and Daddy. This is one of my favorite pictures, ever.

Mornings = Happy Gavin Time 

Gavin's new trick: grabbing things. Specifically mommy's hair and mommy's face.

Another new trick: slobbering. everywhere. See the string of slobber? It's staring...

What up?

Pretty fly for a white guy

This is what my early mornings look like.

A friend of mine introduced me to modern cloth diapering. We're gonna do it. The diapers are so cute and we'll save a boat load of money! Has anyone looked at diaper prices these days, almost $40.00 a box! Also, a super random side note, this same friend told us about Dr. Browns bottles and even though most of the people who probably read this blog do not have little babies, they are amazing. Gavin was getting gassy and fussy, but the first time we used the Dr. Brown bottles, it was like a different baby!

Chunky monkey.

Quick Update

This past week was a long one! I had my last official week of work, however, I might go in here and there...we'll see. Ryan, Gavin and I had a good weekend though, we went over to a friends house and had dinner, and ended up spending the night over there, and then on Saturday we just lounged around the house, and then on Sunday we ventured out to get a few groceries, scope out some apartments (if Ryan deploys, we will be moving into Oceanside next year because I am sooo close to shanking the current apartment manager), and to catch a view of the huge waves from the "storm" we had today. 

Gavin doing great, we think he is having a little bit of a growth spurt, because he has been a little fussier than usual and all he wants to do is eat and sleep. On Friday night, he literally slept through the night, which was AWESOME...I wish I would have taken advantage of it and slept myself, dang! He is changing so much each week! He is doing good at rolling over, and is getting stronger everyday. He is really checking his surroundings out, and is ALMOST laughing! He has the most adorable pouty face, and sticks his lip out with all his might. I'm not going to lie, I have let him cry for a while so I can look at this face, and I've tried to get a picture of it. Haha! We are working on getting him on a schedule, this is night number two...so far so good, his bedtime is 9:45, for now, and we'll gradually get that earlier and earlier until it's about 8:00pm. Last night he went down to sleep about 9:30pm, woke up at 2:00am, 7:00am again, and then 10:45am...Slowly but surely we are getting there! Our goal is to eliminate that 2:00am feeding. 

I'm using Ryan's computer to update, so I don't have any new pictures at the moment, but I'll try and put a few up later! 

Baby Announcements....Finally!!

I have finally ordered baby announcements and will be putting them out in the mail as soon as I get them. I have most everyone's address, however, if you believe that I may not and you want one, please send me an e-mail: haugekl@gmail.com

There haven't been too many changes since my last post a couple days ago, but I know that I need to start changing my sleep schedule, because everyone (including Miss Kitty) is sleeping except me! It has become my normal, so I need to start adjusting back to going to bed earlier, especially since Gavin is doing so much better sleeping through the night!

This will hopefully be my last week of work, which feels both good and nerve racking. I have worked some type of job since I was 14 years old, so this is going to be a huge change for me. I am worried that I will get bored, so I am going to need to find a hobby (a cheap one!) to make sure that I keep my mind busy. I plan on doing a lot of walking with Gavin in the stroller, so hopefully I'll keep fit and also work on my tan, and start to look a little less Twilight Vampire and a little more Southern Cali.

I can't remember if I posted this in the last one, but Gavin and I will be up in Tacoma and Odessa May 1st - 8th, I am already dreading packing for this trip! I will be flying, which will be good because it's only a three hour flight, but I am extremely hesitant flying with a three month old, by myself at that...wish me luck!

2 Months

Well, we have come and past the two month mark! We've been pretty busy, so I haven't had much time to update the blog, sorry!

Gavin has been growing like a weed! I swear he feels pound heavier, and is finally starting out grow the newborn size clothing and is solidly wearing 0-3 months! He is so much more alert and really focuses on us and objects. He absolutely loves the kitchen. Everything about it, it's hilarious. He is really smiling a lot and starting to attempt giggling. It is the cutest thing EVER. Nights are starting to get a little bit better, if for nothing else because we have a routine down. He starts his "nights" at around 7:30 or 8 and wakes up to eat around 11 or so, and then will sleep until 5 or 6:00am. It's pretty nice, though it still doesn't work out for the best sleep for me...

It has been a pretty hectic month here in the Scrupps household. We found out that Ryan is on a list to deploy sometime late spring/early summer. This news wasn't extremely shocking, but that didn't make it any easier to hear...Obviously, this could still change, and most likely will several times. As of now, it would be a six month tour in Afghanistan. This brought on many different topics to discuss two of the main ones being 1) My job and 2) What Gavin and I would do while he was gone. With the prices of fuel and daycare (bringing Gavin to work wasn't the most efficient way to get stuff done) I decided to sit down and calculate what I would actually be making after those two items and my own personal bills. I would be lucky to make money. If fact, I would almost be be paying to work. Uh, no thanks.. Which brings us to item number two, we decided that Gav and I would move back up to Odessa. So in the past week, I gave my notice to work, and have started mentally preparing myself for a deployment.

I am bummed that Ryan will be deploying, but at the same time I know that it is to be expected, this is our life, and we both knew this was part of it going in. I know that Ryan wants to go, because what is the point of joining the Marines and not ever getting a chance to deploy? I want that for him too, I want him to have that experience. Obviously he doesn't want to leave us and I don't want him to go, and I will worry like crazy and probably give myself an ulcer or two...it's just complicated. So that's where we are at, we are preparing for our lives to be shaken up and I am preparing to move. AGAIN. Ugh. Uffda. Gross. Lame. What I really want to do is insert a ton of expletives, but I'll try and be family friendly, however, once I am in the actual process of moving, no promises. I despise moving, and this will be my 11th move since 2006.

Here is the part I know that you are all really here for! Photos!

You can really see the difference already!

Chillin' in the Moby Wrap (a gift from my cousin Ronda, and it is a LIFE saver for me because he is super needy and wants to be held all the time, and this way I can actually get stuff done! It's like getting an extra two arms!)

Can you spot the baby? Once Ryan leaves for work in the morning, like clockwork, Gavin wants to sleep with me and won't sleep another 20 min in his bassinet. Little stinker.

Baby toes! Don't you just want to eat them! (When Sophia was down here visiting we talked about how strange that expression is. Seriously, why is it that when you see baby toes your first reaction is to say you want to eat them?...These are the things I think about.)

Yay! I'm a big boy with my big boy jeans!

Sittin' in the bumbo.

His favorite place to sleep, on his mama.

This cracked me up the other night. Look at his arms and hands. HAHAHA, what a silly boy.