Eleven Months

Gavin turned 11 months the day we went for a waterfall hike in Costa Rica! The trip was awesome and such nice weather so it was hard to come back to a very cold Toronto. Our classes are very hit and miss now with naptime...I hate to mess up his naps, so usually just go with his cues and if that means we miss a class, I at least get my naptime break! He can nap anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, but usually around 1-1.5 hours is normal. After getting back from Costa Rica he has decided to HATE getting in his stroller, which is making grocery shopping a bit of a challenge and is killing my back from wearing him in the carrier more often! Hoping for warmer weather soon and maybe he'll be ok in the stroller again.

He has a MASSIVE tooth coming in on the bottom right side, not a back molar, but one of the middle ones. His eye teeth on the top are coming in too, so I guess we can blame some of his moodiness on teething.

Gavin now signs "more" (by clapping), and also consistently signs "milk"!! That was so exciting to see him start signing milk, and it's been really helpful for both of us I think that he can communicate that. I try to nurse him as soon as he signs it to positively reinforce the sign so I think he's gotten the hang of it now! He also sort of signs "finished" by wiping his hands together when he's done...but a better indication that he's done is a high chair freak out, swiping all the food off his tray or throwing food onto the floor. He is incredibly moody and quite determined. If he really wants something and you try to take him away from it or take something away from him, he cries loud and hard. His mood seems to turn on a dime and he can go from laughing to crying in a second. He is cruising around a bit more so I'm trying to keep shoes on him in the house so he has a better grip on the floor. We really need to start baby proofing more since he's into all the cupboards and drawers. I'm always watching but better safe than sorry. He discovered the toilet paper and has gotten away with two good rounds of emptying the roll, and has almost totally emptied a Kleenex box at Nana and Papa's.

Sleep is still our biggest challenge. I'm constantly second guessing our decisions from one minute to the next. When you're on hour 2 of trying to get him to sleep, bouncing and nursing and feeling like you are actually going to lose your mind, it's easy to just want to stick him in his crib and let him cry. Easier said than done though since I'd never be able to make it past 2 minutes. Then there are the night where he snuggles in, nurses for a while, pops off on his own and sleeps for a good few hours in between us in bed. Those are the good nights. As I write this, he has finally gone to sleep at 10:00 after almost 2 hours of trying to get him down. So tonight is not a good night. Since his birthday is just around the corner, we're starting to think about when the right time would be for Baby #2. We both know we want them to be close in age, but seriously, I can barely do life with our busy, temperamental sleeper as it is, let alone being pregnant, let alone having a newborn to deal with too! One thing's for sure....if Gavin is still sleeping with us by the time I get a big belly...we're going to need a bigger bed!

Nine Months

New Year, Nine Months!

This little explorer is pulling himself up (confidently to his knees, cautiously to his feet), bouncing/dancing to music, hiding and finding things, and crawling like a maniac all over the place! When he wants something, he is FAST. Pulls himself up on our legs and loves it when Daddy comes home from work and they play! He likes turning the pages in his books and knocking down block towers. He weighed in at 19 lbs at his 9 month checkup, so hasn't gained too much in the past 3 months (around 18 at 6 months), but this is still normal. He decided to learn how to crawl up stairs ALL BY HIMSELF (we had finished a class and I left him with friends to go pull up the car since it was a super cold day, and found out he had followed someone up the 3 little stairs at the studio!) and now likes to practice stairs at some of our favourite places to go (Baby and Me Fitness, Children's Storefront). He has learned how to hold his cup by himself too and likes drinking water from it at dinner.

Gavin got a pretty bad cold, enough to take him to the doctor because of his bad cough. Just a virus so nothing to worry about, but it meant a week off of classes to not spread germs, followed by a week of Mommy being sick, so no classes again! January was a long month of going a bit stir crazy in the condo...super cold outside most days but we try to get to classes or the Storefront as much as possible. Gavin's best friend is David, born 7 hours earlier on March 31! They are very similar in mannerisms and it's nice to be able to talk to his mom about going through the same stages. We meet up at Baby and Me classes and the Storefront for lunches and playtime. Gavin's favourite soup at the Storefront is the split pea soup! He loves playing in the basement with the kitchen set, climbing the little steps to the book area and pulling books off the shelf and will play with and kiss the baby dolls. So cute! He also went through a "scrunchy face" stage:

He seems to know what we mean when we say "be careful" and will consistently "sit down" when told. "No" is sometimes listened to, sometimes not! He has started clapping which is the cutest thing in the world, and might be close to signing "more". Bedtime has been challenging - maybe we are trying to get him down too early since he will often nurse but then pull away wide awake and want to play. Sometimes we'll just let him play to get his energy out and find it's best to wait until he's SUPER tired before even trying to nurse him down. Had one 6 hour stretch of sleep this month!!! Unless I fed him in my sleep and never remembered...

Better Late Than Never...Eight Months

I told myself I HAD to get these done before Gavin turned ONE...which is now a mere 9 days away! How did this happen?! Here's a look at the past few months in the life of Gav.

In December, Gavin turned 8 months old. This was a pretty perfect age for all the excitement of Christmas! He was interested and totally in awe of all the decorations and music but didn't once try to tear down the Christmas tree. Such a good boy! He still loves peek-a-boo, is starting to pull himself up to standing and follows us all around the house or will come find us when we call him. He rips his socks off about 5 times a day and sometimes grinds his tiny teeth which drives me crazy!!

We decided to ditch the winter weather and went with Daddy on his marking trip to San Diego! Another good flight, but getting there very late meant a not very good cab ride to our hotel. His sleep was a bit off the whole time due to the time change, but we knew that would be difficult, especially only being there for a few days, so we just went with it. Crawling around in the hotel room, he learned to go from crawling to sitting! He also liked pulling all the clothes out of the suitcase. I'm sure it was a nice change for him to be out in the stroller without the Bundle Me cozy bag, sweaters and hats. It wasn't too hot, but sunny every day and warm enough for t-shirts. We went to the San Diego Zoo and he seemed to like looking at all the animals and just being outside with Mommy and Daddy all day. One night we tried putting him to sleep in the stroller so we could take him with us up to the rooftop pool for a quick dip in the hot tub. He was not thrilled about not being included so of course woke up. We got a few minutes at least. Drove up the coast to Laguna and Newport Beach. He was a good traveler getting there but not so happy on the way to Newport Beach or on the way back. Taking him down to the ocean was so fun, after a very west coasty breakfast bowl and green smoothie which we shared with him. He was a bit afraid of the waves and wind so stuck close to me.

It was a bit hard finding things for him to eat on the trip. I'm not wanting to give him too much salt, sugar, etc. so it's sometimes challenging finding something for him to eat at restaurants. I was a bit more relaxed though and let him taste a bunch of different things, like the fantastic burgers we had at Urban Burger or minestrone soup, and found him some squeeze pouches of pure applesauce which he seemed to really like, plus always had some apples and bananas and of course, Cheerios. He still seems to be a good eater, loves fruit, sweet potatoes, peas and soup. Not a big fan of meat, but likes beans and ground meat (turkey) in burgers, meatballs or chili. We are pretty positive he is allergic to butternut squash after giving him some soup and enduring a night of throwing up (at Lindsay's in Milton - so much that our sleepover turned into a late night drive home!).

Gavin babbles a lot to himself and has some different tones of voice. He smiles a huge grin all the time but it's still sometimes hard to get a good laugh out of him. For some reason he's started finding it hilarious when he gets out of the tub. I'm usually in the tub with him and pass him out to Daddy and he squeals and laughs and kicks his arms and legs like crazy! So weird... Still sleeping in bed with us, waking frequently and nursing through the night. Will sometimes sleep in though which is nice.

Christmas was super busy but lots of fun. Gavin ended up getting what we're pretty sure was fifth disease on Christmas Day. He'd been fussy and not really himself the day before and had a low grade fever and we noticed the rash on Christmas Day. Definitely not acting like himself so not as into opening presents as he might've been if he was feeling well. Lots and lots of nursing, cuddles and some good naps. He gave us a great gift New Year's Eve when he slept from 10:00-12:30, letting us have a fun evening and midnight celebrations with Kyle and Shannon (and Dad and Rob).

Ten Months

We have a confident stander on our hands! At ten months, he pulls himself up on everything and towards the end of the month is starting to cruise a little bit along the coffee table or back and forth from table to couch. He got a bit too adventurous one day pulling himself up on the high chair and fell and got a huge fat lip! When it happened, it bled quite a bit and I worried he might need a stitch in his lip - seemed his tooth had cut a big chunk out of his lip. Was really swollen that day and a big red mark on it the day after. 
  
Daddy had gone away for a weekend and got back late after Gavin was asleep. When he woke up in the morning and saw that Daddy was back, he gave him a huge hug! So sweet! He does the cutest things, like climbing into his baby bathtub on the floor, sometimes just to sit there! He loves watching the trains from the futon in his room and will sit right on the windowsill to watch them go by and waves when it disappears. We try to go swimming every so often and he started kicking on his back and blew some bubbles! He is a good helper and likes putting clothes in and out of the laundry basket and loves playing with the swiffer! He is getting into a lot more now, opening and closing drawers (sometimes on his fingers!) so I really need to watch him since we haven't baby proofed that much. He gets into the kitchen drawers all the time and likes to play with utensils, and sometimes pulls all Daddy's socks out of his drawer. 

Another big trip for the little traveler! We went to Costa Rica for 10 days and spent time on the beach and in the rainforest. He was pretty good on the long flight, and it was nice having extra hands - Nana, Papa, Uncle Rob - to help. We took him down to the water the first day and he was pretty apprehensive - didn't quite like the loud waves and didn't want to be put down in the sand. By the next day, he was cautiously exploring the sand and was soon all over the place, playing in the sand, splashing in his little tub on the beach, making mud with the sand, and his favourite - crawling right into the waves lapping on the beach! It was SO hot on the beach so we had to keep him in the shade and he spent most of the days in his bathing suit or diaper. He is having two fairly consistent naps during the day, but the timing depends on when he wakes up. On the trip (maybe the time change or with it being lighter in the morning), he was up super early, sometimes 5:00am. Tried to also get him in bed early, and thought he might sleep more soundly after so much fresh air and activity and in a king bed, but seemed to wake just as frequently as normal. We made him some soup (broth, tomatoes, beans, rice, carrots) so he could have some familiar food but he didn't seem to want to eat too much. Usually eats more at breakfast and lunch than at dinner. Still loves fruit, though bananas are hit and miss, and we took a big supply of Love Child Organics fruit and veggie purees so we could make sure he got some greens and we had something to take on the go for restaurants, on the plane, etc. Towards the end of the trip while in the volcano area, he must've been starting a growth spurt because he was eating SO much! One breakfast it was a full pancake with some pear puree "sauce", tons of fruit and rice and beans! 

He is a bit too interested in our phones now, so it's hard to get photos of him when he lunges for the phone every time! He now knows how to press the home button and sometimes even "talks" to Siri, which is hilarious. We've given him my old Blackberry loaded with Raffi songs so sometimes that is an acceptable substitute, but he's smart enough to know it's not the real thing. He claps and waves all the time now and is starting to clap in his high chair to sign "more". He talks up a storm in all different voices and often says "s" or "z" sounds. Sometimes Daddy even calls him "zee zee" since he says that so often! He sometimes says "dadada" but not too often and will say "mama" but not necessarily in the right context. Close enough though!