Dreaming of baseball

When Gavin asked me if he could sleep with his glove at nap time today I said sure. Sleep with whatever you want as long as it will keep you quiet and in your bed! When I went to check on him a few minutes later I found him like this!


My collection of amusing pictures of him sleeping continues to grow! Ha! I already have the one of him sleeping with his firetruck, and another of him sleeping with a big, plastic garbage truck. I think this one is pretty funny though. His arm is at such a weird angle. It looks like he is really ready to catch the ball. I wonder if he is dreaming of baseball...

Mr. Independent

We have been working on potty training for a while and it has been quite the ride. I think I could write a book called "Adventures in Potty Training!" We have so many stories that I'm sure Gavin will just LOVE hearing about when he's older!

In the last few months Gavin made the transition from diapers to underwear! He was still in diapers at sleep time for a while longer, but that didn't last long.

Yesterday I finally organized all his diapers and put them away for when the new baby is ready for them (we use cloth). It was a little bittersweet because the thing with cloth diapers is that I got a little attached to them. Yes, I know they are just poop-catchers, but some of them are SO adorable.

While I am SO happy to have a break from washing diapers for a few months, it is a little sad that I will never see him rockin' a big, cloth diaper butt again. But I'm happy that we will get to use them again on his baby brother or sister. AND I get to "aww" over all the teeny tiny newborn cloth again. :)

Anyways, so Gavin has been GREAT about telling us when he has to use the potty and we are SOO proud of him! Normally he will come to us and tell us, "I need to pee!" and we will take him to the bathroom, pull down his pants and underwear, put his Diego potty seat on the toilet, and lift him up to do his business. That's pretty much how it goes.

I thought pulling his pants off would be kind of tricky with one hand. Even though I knew he could do it and would HAVE to learn to do it, I was afraid of taking the time to let him try in case he took too long and had an accident.

Then today I heard someone go into the bathroom and shut the door. A few minutes later I realized it was Gavin. I went in to see what he was up to, and he was sitting on the toilet going about his business! He had gone in by himself, pulled down his pants and underwear, put the Diego seat on the toilet and used his stool to climb up...all by himself!

All this time we have been helping him with what he can clearly do by himself! (Except the wiping part. He is not to be trusted with that yet!)

"No, I do it!"

We have reached the stage of independence. The stage of wanting to do everything himself. The stage where it takes an extra fifteen minutes to get out the door because Gavin adamantly insists, "No I do it!" along every step of the way.

Right now his newest accomplishment is putting on his winter boots all by himself. This requires great patience from Mommy & Daddy when we are in a hurry, because Gavin is definitely NOT.

We want to encourage this new found independence. They are necessary life skills that he will need to master. But sometimes I just want to shove on his boots and run out the door!

We recently got him a baby doll to help prepare him for the new baby. I was hoping it would help him practice being gentle etc. He has been very nurturing to the doll so far, putting it to sleep in his bed and taking it for rides in his toy stroller. The first day he got it, I brought out some of Gavin's newborn clothes so we could dress the doll. Gavin was really into it and he insisted on putting on the baby's socks all by himself. He sat there for what felt like an eternity as he tried over and over to get the tiny sock on the tiny foot. I wanted to help him SO BADLY and it was so hard to sit back and watch him struggle. But he was determined. FINALLY, he got the sock dangling off the tip of the baby's toe and he sat back and proudly declared, "I did it!!" He was so proud of himself. My perfectionist tendencies were screaming at me to fix the sock but I resisted the urge (at least until he wasn't paying attention anymore).

Life is Busy!

Ya so I have been slacking more and more on this whole "Letter of the Week" thing lately.

"J" week was a JOKE unless you count all the JELLO we ate. I also let him JUMP on my bed.

"K" week was even worse. But I have been doing my KEGELS! Does that count? Ha!

We have still been learning the alphabet in sign language but that is about it. We will carry on until the end because I hate to give up on something that I've already started. But we will probably try it again when I am home on maternity leave and have more time to plan things.

Right now I have absolutely no energy after getting home from work and the weekends have been so busy and they just seem to fly by. It feels like there is barely time to do the bare necessities of life, let alone anything extra.

It feels like we're not doing much at all with it, but then once in a while he surprises me with what he has remembered. On Friday, he was in the car with daddy when it wouldn't start and John had to call CAA. Then Gavin started saying "C-A-A" and signing the letters. I was so proud when John told me! :)

Our main focus over the past few weeks has been working on potty training and Gavin is doing really well! He now wears underwear throughout the day and only wears diapers during nap time and bed time. He is so funny. Any time he sees me using the washroom, he says "Good job mommy!" and claps for me.

As for his new arm, at first he was more excited about it and the first day he brought it to daycare he wore it for two hours straight! I think he was all caught up in the extra attention everyone was giving him. He still brings it every day, but only wants to wear it for a few minutes. He likes to show it off to people who haven't seen it yet, but as soon as his brief demonstration is over, he quickly pulls it off and tosses it aside. We haven't been forcing him to wear it. We are just glad he is consistently wearing it on a daily basis, even if it is for such a short time. He wasn't used to wearing anything for most of his life, so it is still a big step for him.

And the important thing is that he is getting used to having it on and he is learning how to use it. He still needs a lot of practice to fine-tune the art of picking things up and holding different objects, but he is getting the basic concept.

It has become his "mighty machine arm". John started calling it that and it stuck. Also, sometimes he makes motor noises when he's using it. And I tell him to "back it up" when he wants to release something and he will say "Beep beep beep..." like he's backing up a truck. He's such a boy!

Here he is showing me how he can hold his Tonka colouring book:


I tried to get some action shots but I'm in need of a new camera so they are really blurry. (Getting a new one for Christmas. YAY!) He was so proud of himself for holding his puck!

Unwanted Advice

So yesterday Gavin and I took the bus up to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. Usually the bus is mostly empty but of course, being Thanksgiving weekend, it was completely packed, the driver was delayed and traffic was horrible. GREAT. And of course, Gavin was a complete two-year-old (and not the good kind). I badly wanted to ask the driver to pull over and leave him on the side of the road. THAT's how bad it was. YELLING , hitting me, refusing to sit down. AHHH! I was mortified. It felt like everyone was listening to us and I was failing some sort of mother test. When we finally stopped for a little break, the guy who was sitting in front of us moved to the VERY front of the bus, as far away from us as he could get.

After our little break, Gavin behaved perfectly, sitting in his seat and looking out the window. Eventually he was so tired, he fell asleep on me and I finally dozed off too. Then I felt someone patting me on the shoulder asking, "You awake? You awake?" I kept my eyes closed, thinking he would see that NO, in fact I am NOT awake, but he continued until finally I opened my eyes, looked at him and said, "Well I am NOW!"

This didn't phase him. This random old man started telling me that if I ever have any problems I can email him because he works at a school with disabled kids as a janitor. I just wanted to tell him that my son is actually NOT disabled at all and what the hell does he know about solving any problems we might encounter? But instead I just kept my head turned away and closed my eyes again to avoid having to talk to him at all. This did not phase him at all and he continued to talk to me, going on about how it takes so much extra love and patience to raise a disabled child.

I just wanted him to shut up and leave me alone. Then it got worse. He asked me "You're not having another one are you?" and actually reached over and touched my stomach!!!!! Yes, the HORROR!!!!!

I pulled away and rudely said, "Yes, I am actually!" and he told me not to eat any bad apples. What the hell is that supposed to mean??

Thank God he got off then, which I guess was why he was so desperate to wake me up out of my long-awaited sleep to have this "heart-to-heart" with me before we parted ways.

I'm sure he had good intentions but seriously.... WTF!

Big Boy Bed

Gavin has one of those convertible cribs that converts into a toddler bed. (This beauty to be exact). We have been meaning to change it over for quite a while now but yesterday John finally got out the tools and made it happen!

Gavin was so excited when he came home and saw his big boy bed!

Then bedtime came and I got the typical "No bedtime!" response. But after the usual routine of PJs, brushing teeth, a few stories, and the "I love you" song, he went to bed without a fight. (Thank God because my show was on!)

Of course, that was too good to be true. A few minutes later he started crying. "At least he's not coming out", I thought to myself.

Then I hear the crying getting louder and there he is in the hall. I put him straight back to bed (with one more "I love you" song) and went back to my show.

A few minutes later it started again. He cried off and on for a bit and then eventually came out again. This time when I put him back he was FURIOUS. Finally, I calmed him down and left the room while praising him, "Good boy!" to which he would repeat "Good boy!"

A few minutes later...crying again. So this is how its gonna be, eh Gavin? I should have known he wouldn't let it be easy. That's just not how he rolls.

But then the crying stopped. And it didn't start again. I got to finish watching the last 15 minutes of my show in peace! We did it!

My show ended and I went to check on him...thinking I might even take a picture of him sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time to document this momentous occasion!

But the door to his room was wide open. And his bed was empty.

WHERE WAS GAVIN??

Asleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed.

Gavin: 1, Mommy: 0

No!!

Well I guess it was just a matter of time before we found ourselves deep in the terrible twos! Really, Gavin is a great kid and a pretty good listener for a two-year old. He has gone through a few hitting phases and still finds himself on time-outs for that every now and then.

But now we have entered the "No" stage. He has been able to tell us "no" for a long time. But this isn't just an ordinary "no". I don't know where it came from. It just started showing itself in the past few days. It is a fierce, rude, "NO!!" yelled at you with a mean look on his face and a strong dose of determination mixed with stubborness. Yes, all of that out of one, "NO!!"

I am not a fan.