9 Months

For once, I am going to put up a post just before a birth date milestone. :-) Gavin will be 9 months old in two days and he has gone through a complete developmental burst in the last two weeks. He pretty much went from crawling to pulling himself up to standing. And he made it up the first step on the staircase much to my surprise. This kid is officially on the move. He also is so determined and focused. When he wants to do something, nothing stops him. I was vaccuuming the other day and he was right on my heels crawling right behind me.

Gavin has also started making all kinds of cute sounds. It is his own version of talking. And he loves to clap his hands. He just discovered that. He will clap to Devin's Bob the Builder video...really cute. He watches Devin dance and sing and Gavin sits there clapping. Such pure happy bliss. Gavin has also started signing. He will sign for "more" pretty consistently now. And he smiles and talks so loud when I sign "done." It is our own way of communicating. I'm a big believer in baby signing.

Gavin has two teeth on the bottom and one tooth on the top. I am guessing the other top tooth will be here shortly. He does look a little silly with only one tooth on the top. And he loves to stick his tongue out to feel all his teeth. The teething part has been really rough on him. He doesn't sleep at night very well and gets up often. Thankfully he'll go back down, but requires some soothing. Rich's dad went in to get him the other day from a nap and said Gavin was standing up in his crib for the first time. Another new first. I haven't seen him do that yet, but I bet it will happen soon. He does spin in circles in his crib pretty well. Sometimes I reach in there in the dark thinking I'll find his head and I find some feet instead. To this point, he hasn't been very good about rolling from his back to his tummy, but I think that has changed too.

Gavin had a cold two weeks ago so I took him in to the doctor to make sure everything was ok. He weighed in at 25 pounds. He's a big boy! He ended up just having a viral infection which cleared up on its own shortly thereafter.

Bath time continues to be a favorite for Gavin. He sits in the tub on his own and splashes and splashes. He also tries to stand up so that is when I pull him out. He needs to figure out that he has to stay seated to get to stay in the tub.

Devin is doing very well also. He is 3 1/2 years old now and such an independent boy. He LOVES his toolbelt and anything Bob the Builder. He has a video that he loves and sings the songs and dances with his hard hat on. I have to get more of it on video and I'll post a link.

Devin is doing very well in school. He still struggles every morning asking if the fire alarm is going to go off. But they replaced the whole system so I PRAY that we won't have any more fire alarm issues. His teacher says that Devin is doing extremely well at school. We are thrilled. We saw a really good lecture last week about the benefits of a Montessori education. It is a bit lengthy, but so worth the time. You can see it at http://www.goodatdoingthings.com/ Just click on screencasts and the play the first presentation titled, "Good at Doing Things."

Rich and I had the opportunity to go out of town last weekend to celebrate my birthday. Rich's sister and family all helped with the kids so we could have a much-needed getaway. We are very fortunate and blessed to have such a support system. We greatly enjoyed our time away and feel recharged. Thank you guys!!

I have a few pictures to post and will do that soon. I just need to get them downloaded from the camera. In the mean time, thank you for checking in on us.