Gavin James is 10 Months!

So our little dude has hit the double digits!  Gav turned 10 months on Saturday but in my usual fashion, I am late posting.  But I actually have a ton of adorable pictures from this month so I will try to make my ramblings short and let the photos speak for themselves. 

There are a few things that are definitely worth noting before we get to the pics.  The biggest thing is that Gavin is standing, pulling up and cruising. He loves to "explore", or as I would say, "get into" everything!  So needless to say, he's a busy little boy these days.  Now he and Jack can play together for hours which is really great for me!

He's still such a great baby....he eats and sleeps like a champ and is so easy in those respects.  He's always happy and has pretty much gotten over his fear of strangers.  But my sweet little guy also has a TEM-PER!  If he wants something or gets upset he screams at the top of his lungs.  And man, is it loud.  I'll be happy when this stage stops. But I fear the worst is yet to come - ugg!

I also must mention that Gav has a new found love for the Disney Channel, especially Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I know, I'm a bad parent letting him watch TV.  But if Jack is watching a show, then Gav wants to watch because he loves anything that Jack does.  Gav can be in another room but if he hears the Mickey Mouse theme song he rushes in the room to dance.  It's so cute!! 

But don't worry, we don't let him watch TV all day - we've actually been having a lot of outdoor fun these days and Gavin is always in the middle of the action, whether at the pool, park or beach, Gav Gav has just as much fun as the rest of the kids.  We start a music class on Friday so he can spend some more time with babies his own age.  I can't wait to sing and dance with him!  Anyway, here are a ton of adorable pics of my precious baby...

See ya Lamby...

Look at me, I can stand!

LOVE these curls...

Caught red-handed...

Gavin was so determined to drink out of Jack's new cup, that he taught himself how to drink from a straw...

Gavin's other fave is Elmo.  I'm not sure who he loves more, Elmo or Mickey Mouse...

Attack!

I love putting Gav in cool tees.  Here's his Def Leppard tee from Mimi.  Pour some sugar on me...

A little Aerosmith...with some yogurt on it...

Hang Loose Baby...

All smiles with mommy!  But all I can think of is how much he looks like his daddy...

Gav and his diaper posse - Everett and Ryan...

A little bonding time with Jack.  Notice how Gavin is holding a car, just like Jack does in every picture...



First time on a carousel horsey all by himself...

Here's a picture I snapped the minute Mickey Mouse Clubhouse came on TV.  The kid just LOVES it...

Don't bug me mom, Mickey is on...

Here's a little video of the boys doing the Hot Dog Dance...

Christmas in July!

Ok, so this isn't what you're thinking.....there will be no presents given, no fake snow on the lawn, no winter wonderland summer here.  It's actually just a blog post that's only about 7 months overdue!  It's a very long story but the cliff notes version is basically this...my computer crashed and I had only saved my holiday photos on my desktop (dumb, I know).  And for a variety of reasons it has taken me and my IT guy this long to get them back.  But, thankfully they are safe and sound on my new external hard drive that Christian says has like a gazillion gigabytes.  He also claims it will be enough room for every picture I take for the rest of my life.  Has he seen how many pictures I take?! 

Anyway, in my attempt to always be photo-fair with my kids, I wanted to make sure that I documented Gavin's very first Christmas.  Looking at these pictures many months later, it makes me so sad to see how fast the boys have grown and how much they have changed.  And really, do I need to be reminded of how much weight I had to lose - ugg!   But it's not about me right!  So without further ado, here are our Christmas 2011 photos for you to enjoy now.  Feliz Navidad...

Our pretty tree before the present-opening chaos...

By the looks of those bellies, it's clear that my Santa's definitely ate the cookies...

Gavin snug and warm in his daddy's arms.  Ok, so it was probably 70 degrees, but it just sounded cute...

Mommy and Gavin, who is dressed appropriately in the new Christmas jammies that mommy bought him.  Notice below that Jack is wearing a random, navy blue Most Awesome Big Brother t-shirt.  We absolutely could not coax him into his holiday pj's that morning...

Happily opening all his favorite Disney characters....Phineas & Ferb and Special Agent Oso...

Jack still has a little bit of his baby chub here - so cute! But sadly, that's all gone now...

Rockin out to his new guitar, that played Life is a Highway.  For those of you who don't get the reference, it's from CARS the movie, of course....

Jack got a huge red foam chair for his room so that he and daddy could snuggle while reading books...

But clearly it's for more than just snuggling and reading...

Gavin loves the chair too...

After presents it was off to Mimi and Papa's house for family time and more presents!  Here are all the cousins.  You should have seen us try to get a good shot of them all, and this is the best we got...

My little color-coordinated family...

Partyopolis!

On Saturday we threw Jack a superhero themed party at Partyopolis!  Jack had all of his favorite people there including his cousins, friends from the hood and all his buddies from school.  The kids had a blast and so did the parents - we all got to join the kids in the bounce house and on the inflatable slides.  We felt like kids ourselves! But after it was over our bodies definitely felt our own age! It was a super fun day.  But as usual I didn't get the best pictures because it's already difficult to capture a kid in motion, but on top of that I have THE WORST CAMERA EVER!  But I still wanted to document the party, so here are some of the good ones...
Jack's superhero cake, and all the other decorations included Batman, Captain America and Spiderman....

I bought Jack this cool Superman t-shirt to wear...

It even had this cool cape!  But apparently Superman is not popular at the moment so he didn't want to wear it, even after a pep talk from Mimi...

So, we changed into Batman!  Love the sweet rain boots from his cousins in Chicago...

Even Gav got into the superhero spirit...

So, of course, mom and dad had to join in the fun...

Leave it to Marseille to make Batman girly!

 

 All the babies had their own fun in the toddler area...

 But the day was really all about the birthday boy and all his friends...

Mimi finally made it up the climbing wall after 4 tries (check out the 18 month old who is about to pass her!)...

 

Mimi's a pretty fun grandma...



The whole gang!

Happy Birthday Jack!  Hope you wished for something wonderful....

Legos, Bikes & Birthday Cake!

The birthday boy had a pretty jam-packed celebration on Monday!  First we surprised him with a trip to Legoland with his cousins, Marseille and Amelie.  Then home that night for a pizza dinner (his fave), orange birthday cake (a mistake) and finally the opening of his birthday present (a hit).  Here are the highlights of Jack's birthday in pictures...

LEGOLAND!  One of the perks of living in SoCal is that there are tons of family-friendly attractions right in our backyard.  And we get to enjoy them in the most amazing of weather - it was 70 and sunny with a slight breeze.  Perfect!

 Jen and the girls...

This was probably Jack's favorite attraction.  He actually got to drive the car free style - no tracks, no breaks.  And he did awesome steering around the track.  You should have seen him maneuvering around the other cars! He seriously thought he was Lightening McQueen!  I could hear him singing "Life is a Highway"...

Flying a helicopter with dad...

Cousin love...

Time to get wet...

 

Daddy took one for the team while I stayed dry on the sidelines.  Someone had to operate the camera!

Adorable...

Back on dry land!  Having a churro with Amelie in San Francisco...

Building Lego racers...Uncle Christian might have helped a little!  M's car actually won the race!

Jack didn't exactly understand the concept of letting your car race down the track...

Back at home and time for cake!  So I sent Christian out for a small, simple cupcake since we're having a party with a big cake for Jack on Saturday.  He came home with this orange concoction...

Jack seemed to enjoy it...

So did Gavin....until later that night when we were all covered in orange puke...good one dad...

Sweet helmet dude!  Jack actually got this helmet last weekend.  He picked it himself.  This is how they presented it to me when they got home from the store.  Such a Cali-kid now!  He thought it was his only birthday present but we had a surprise for him...

Jack's first real bike!  This was all Christian's doing.  At first I thought it was garish but now I think it's really cool.  And I think Jack looks great on it.  It's a 16" bike which is made for 5-8 year olds but since Jack is a beast he's just going to have to learn to handle it...

My dudes!  I honestly think Christian likes the bike more than Jack does.  He probably wishes he had it when he was a kid...

Jack is already a pro.  Possibly a future in BMX racing...