...WE Did It!



Such a big boy!! Suit shopping with Daddy!



Well. We Made it! Gavey did so great at his first day of big kid school. I'm so proud of you baby!! When I finished my work and rushed over to see you, and there you were sitting backwards at the little kids table chatting and smiling. Whew! What a relief!

I LOVE that I get a little sheet at the end of the day that tells me about everything you ate, how long you slept, and what you did. Yesterday you read "Barney Goes to the Zoo", marched in place to the music, ran around the playground, played with musical instruments and cooked food in the pretend kitchen. I'm tired just writing all of that out, sounds like one fun filled day to me!! You did so great with the exception of NAP TIME! Just as I suspected. Instead of sleeping the 2 hours you typically sleep, you slept 20 minutes. Total. Gavin!! I had a feeling you wouldn't sleep very good. You're very stubborn when it comes to sleeping and if everything isn't like you want it, you won't sleep. I hear stories of kids who can be playing and fall asleep. Yep, that's definitly not you. Hopefully you ease in to it a bit more today and sleep a little longer. You didn't go to bed until around 9:00 last night which is WAY later than your usual bed time so maybe you'll be a little tired out by nap time. We were too busy out celebrating Carly's 21st bday. You ran all around the restaurant and were THAT kid. Daddy even won you  ball so you kicked that and threw it at different people and ran from one end to another. I used to be so annoyed with parents like that, but yep we were totally them yesterday. Normally when we go out we make you sit in your highchair but since yesterday was a PARTYYY we had to let you get a little crazy, right?! Ha.



Carly's Bday!



Alright now that we have the play by play of your first day at school, this girl needs to get ready. THREE student presentations through out the whole day today :( Boooooo. I wish they were all first thing in the morning so I could get them out of the way but not how it's going to work.

Perfect way to start our day!!

First day of Big Kid School

Posing with Daddy before my 1st day of School!

The day has finally come...

Gavey started his first day at Playhouse Child Development Center today. I was such a wreck about this yesterday. Ok, maybe a wreck is stretching it but I had a little pit in my stomach all day...Then this morning I had to go in and wake him up for the first time in forever since little sleepy pants usually can sleep in however late he wants to. Anyways, he got up, ate a little breakfast, and snuggled and watched Yo Gabba Gabba. Once daddy was ready and after we took lots of pictures, we packed the car, and drove you to your new big kid school. And you know what...?

It really wasn't that bad!!

Part of me is a little excited for you.We walked in and it seems so peaceful and fun and relaxing in there that I think you're going to LOVE it! They had music on in the background, and there was only 3 other kids all around your age. The most there will ever be is 6 and I'm ok with that. If there are more than 4 kids than there will be 2 helpers which means you will always get lots of love and attention which is wht's important to me. I never want you to feel neglected or unloved, or ignored and I know this won't happen here. ((I'm such a mom! Ha!) They also serve breakfast every morning, so all I have to do is pack your lunch M-R since Friday is pizza and applesauce day. How fun is that?! You also follow a loose curriculum where you have independant play, and then craft time and sensory play where you will play with music, dance, read books, play with play-doh, etc. In the morning and afternoon you get outdoor play time which I know you will love since you love being outside. They also told me to call anytime, and really made me feel at ease. You know what Gav? I think this will be a harder adjustment for me than for you! The good thing is, this week I'm primarily working from home with just a few student presentations throughout my afternoon so I can get you early, and let you ease into this whole thing...or let me ease into this whole thing.

The only thing I'm a littttle nervous about is nap time. We have a little routine where we eat lunch, and snuggle and then you go up to bed no problem. It will be a little different here since you sleep on little beds, and in a big room next to your little friends, and no mommy... :( Jenn said it usually takes around a month to get into a routine so I'm glad they realize that and they will do everything they can to make it an easy adjustment for you. They play light music, dim the lights, read a book and then quietly go down. I kind of wish I had a nap time like this, it sounds amazing! I think you should enjoy it, because some day you will give anything for a little nap during the day!! :) I also packaged your MoMo so that should make it a little easier. You started asking for it at night, and if we don't have it upstairs for you to hold before you go to bed you won't go to bed. You just say MoMo, over and over again. It's the cutest word ever and it's so adorable you need your little MoMo for bed time. ahh so cute!

MOMO:

Alright well Mom needs to get cracking. I have presentations to plan for an office to clean, and marketing material to organize. Oh shoot and my expenses. Ugh. Forgot about that one. Well, while you are off playing, singing and dancing I will be cleaning, organizing and prepping. Woo Hoo! Let the fun begin!!!

Gavey Mommy Day

Guess what my favorite day is in the whole world?? Christmas?! No... New Years?! No... My Birthday?! Close... but my absolute favorite day ever are Gavey Mommy days. I mean technically EVERY day is Gavey Mommy day, but on our special ones it's all about Gavin and doing fun things!

Today's Gavey Mommy day was full of lunch dates, shoe shopping and hair cuts. We then finished it off with pizza and wine (or water in a sippy cup for Gavman) at Rellis. Seriously today was so fun. The weather was perfect and everything went according to plan.

We started our day at the gym where Gavey played with his little buddies in tot watch. It's so cute to look over while I'm running and see your little nose and eyes peering over the window at me. Although sometimes I get a little tired of waving and turning my head to the side, but you know what, if it makes you happy I would upside and backwards. I really should get up and run outside while I can before the weather gets cold and save the treadmill for winter but maybe tomorrow ;) My pace has definitly improved though, I average 8:30-8:40/mile which is exciting seeing as I used to run 10 minute miles. While in Chicago I ran down Navy pier at 7:34/pace but I think I always get over excited when I run somewhere new...or I should just run outside more?! Ha. Ok I'm getting side tracked.

Anyways, we started our day at the gym, and then we came home and read books. I actually tried to get you to watch Yo Gabba Gabba so I could answer a few e-mails but you said, "Noooo books!" So, we grabbed Thomas the Train and read it. Then we read it again. Then you ripped a page, and we read it again. Then it was mommy's favorite time of the day. Gavey's nap time!!! My time to pick up the house, catch up on e-mails and sample/track for the new semester. However after about 35 minutes you were ready to get back up and hang out...I would be lying if I said I ran up the stairs the minute I heard a peep out of you but, I didn't. I let you cry for like a half hour....ahhh I know I feel guilty. But I was in the middle of trying to solve a beginning of the semester crisis that really needed my time. Sorry big guy!

We then got up and had snack then made our way to the other side of town. You see, I've been smashing your little feets into your shoes and you've been ok with it, but I started to get the impression they were too small. Especially after we went through FOUR pairs of shoes this morning and every pair you cried and cried the minute I put them on...mind you 3 of the 4 you've never worn ugh!! Anyways, I thought maybe we better go shoe shopping. So away we went to stride rite, and Gav!! you are a size 7!! The shoes you've been wearing are 5's!!! Ahhh!! Oops! So 98.00 later we were out the door and you my friend are set with 3 new pairs of super cute shoes! I also bought you your first pair of Sperry's so we can be matchy matchy. You love them and the minute you put them on, you slid off the bench and ran around the store...until you got distracted by the full length mirror. You then stopped and hung out there for awhile. Ha. You're totally your father's son ;)

Then...I have been kind of feeling you look like Bruce Jenner lately. Well Bruce before he got his latest haircut. Your hair is long and and mullety in the back. You've had one slight trim before that Ashley did but I didn't want you to have a full blown hair cut yet. Anyways, we walked in and they bribed you over to the seat with three suckers. You were ok with the sucker until you had to sit on the booster by yourself. I then held you, and she cut your hair. Gavey you did so good!!! you just sat there with your sucker and smiled at yourself in the mirror the whole time. I am so proud of you. You now have a super short hair cut and look so grown up so it's a little bittersweet. You're known for your "crazy" hair but, now you can be known for the super big kid with the double crown...which explains your crazy long and uncooperative cowlick.

THEN... we left and went and saw daddy at work. We got to see him and Jackson's momma. You didn't want to leave daddy though, and his one customer said, "there's the movie star. that boy is going to be a movie star someday." Ha. I don't know about that, but you are a star in my book ;)

THEN...we ended our mommy/gavey day by hitting up the DeWitt park. You played with a little girl you met Elizabeth who's 2 1/2 and you're actually a lot taller than her. She's either really little or you're really big, or maybe it's happy combo of both? You LOVE going down the swirly slide. this time you actually didn't run down it, or go down backwards or on your belly. You sat like such a big kid and went down without a problem. Must be the haircut. You did this over, and over, and over.

THEN...when daddy got home we played with your trainset than went to Rell's for Thirsty Thursday. The pizza hit the spot and so did the wine... ;) you were so good. When we were leaving you ran into your BFF Carly and played with your new ball and didn't want to leave her. Perfect ending to the night.

Alright, now that we have the play by play of our day, I think I'm going to kick my feet up and try and convince your dad to watch Top Chef with me...and maybe go find another glass of wine.

Raising the Bar

I was talking to one of the pastor's at Riv yesterday and he made such a great point that I now can't stop thinking about. Well ok I mean yes I can stop thinking about it, but it keeps popping back into my mind... It was about being a mom/dad in today's society and how so many guys graduate from college, and live in their parents basement instead of leaving the "nest" and starting their lives as individuals and as men. I was telling him how even though Gavin is still little, things like this make me think. I want to raise a successful son who grows up, has a great job, great wife, etc. I don't want my son to be one of the crazies who goes into a movie theater shoots people, or a son who's on teen mom, or in and out of jail. He then stopped me. He said something along the lines of, "That's a good goal, but why not raise the bar?"

Why not set your standards for your son higher than that?". He said how so many times in society we talk about not wanting our sons to be deadbeats, or murderers, or "losers" but that should be a given. What we should want is to raise our sons as strong Christian leaders and men. Raise them to be a man who stands up for what is right regardless of the costs, a man who respects women, a man who stands firm in his faith and is God fearing. I know a lot of this sounds so old fashioned, but I mean is it really? This is the type of man I married, and shouldn't this be the standard of the man that my son will become?

I know this is pretty deep. A lot deeper than pretty much anything else I've wrote on here but it's one of those things that caught my attention. He's right, why shoot for the standard when what I should be doing is raising the bar on my own standards...I appreciate the reminder. Which is why I'm writing it here. So I don't forget :)

Happy New Year!!

Ok well not really. But kind of. My new school year starts in a week and I'm honestly SO ready to get started! For those of you who don't know, I work on college campuses as an outside sales rep. When the semester begins again...so do I! I met with my manager last week and we spent a couple hours going over my 4th Quarter Plan. I'm pumped because I'm ready to close my year off strong and make my number. I want to be able to look back on Jan 1, and know I gave it all that I have. She also left me with a really great thought. "Pay attention to what and who you surround yourself with." I love this because it's so true! If you surround yourself with positive, motivated people, you too will most likely be positive and motivated. If you surround yourself with negative people, full of excuses, you will be that person. Such a great reminder.

With the "New Year" starting, I was thinking what better time to start this up again?! You would think since my summer is a little lower key I would have been blogging my life away. I think that I do better with this when I have a little more structure and motivation to sit at my computer. This summer has been such a CRAZY fun whirlwind!! Literally every time I think hmmm maybe I should jump on the old blog, I end up going outside for a run, playing with Gaveypants, hanging out with Bry and just relaxing and enjoying every minute. I think I also turn into a little anti-computer over the summer since I'm attached/live on it during the busy season. In some ways I'm kind of bummed because I feel like I missed keeping track of SO much!! But, I guess it's better now than never, right?!

We also have a few new BIG changes going on now that summer is coming to an end...

First. I think we're going to take our house off the market....and I have to say I'm pretty happy about this! Trying to keep it clean for showings when my Gavs is running around drinking the cat's water, throwing toothbrushes in the toilet, and pulling everything out of my cupboards is so stressful. Not to mention constantly cleaning the fingerprints off of the doors and mirrors, chasing the cats outside, and making sure our lawn is mowed, garage is clean and toys are back under the porch. I'm stressed just writing this. Ok. This doesn't mean we're going to turn into dirty dumpy people, but this does mean, I can relax and enjoy my house, my son and my family a little bit more. To be completely honest, I think we put our house on the market out of boredom. We were bored with our house, we want something newer/bigger, and it just seemed logical. But, you know what? We're not motivated in the sense that the thought of selling it, finding a new house, and moving is NOT what we want to do. I actually love my house and I want to be here a few more years. I want to turn the basement into a movie/play room, and redo the outside, and ENJOY our house. We've only been here a few years, and you know what, I'm not ready to leave the house that is our first family house. I'm still too attached :) Needless to say this is a huge relief, and I'm ready to take the for sale sign down, and not have to drive around DeWitt like a creep because I have people looking through my things. Now we just need to tell our realtor.... I think I'll leave that to Bryan ;)

Next- Gavey baby is going to start "school" soon!! He was supposed to start this week but since Carly isn't going back to school right away, we get her for another 2 weeks. We've been SO lucky this summer. She watches Gavin and Jackson (his little BFF) at either my house or Natalie's house. It's so nice because the boys play so good together, Carly is great with them, and she will pick him up on the way, or come here and watch him. We've been beyond lucky this summer and a little too spoiled!! Since Cindy- Carly's mom who Gavey used to go to retired right before the summer was over, we needed to find a new one. He will be going to Playhouse Child Dev Center in downtown DeWitt. When I went to check it out I LOVED it!! There is only 3 kids in the "toddler/baby room" and the most she will take is 6. They have the whole upstairs, and their own fenced in area to play outside away from the bigger kids. They also have a "light curriculum" where they read books, learn little lessons, play outside, etc. It costs a lot more than what we were paying but I think he's going to love it. Although...we may have another option. I swear I'm like a serial daycare dater in DeWitt BUT... I just found out that one of the people who go to Riv runs a daycare out of her home right down the road from me!! Her husband is the highschool football coach, teaches HS biology in DeWitt, and she watches Gavin in the nursery at Riv. I absolutly love her because she always comes up to Gavey and talks to him, and tells me how he's so good and that she loves watching him when she's in there. I mean seriously, who better to take care of him?! Ahh! I hope it works out. Plus the ironic thing is, one of my best friend's friend's (did you get that?!) sends her boys there. AND she only takes kids who's parents are teachers because she likes to have her summer's off...Um perfect, because we have Carly lin the summer! Ok I need to take a deep breath, because I only talked to her hubs about it today and he gave me her number to call tomorrow. I would just be beyond ecstatic if it worked out....If not, I'm still very very happy with our other choice. Either way, he'll be in great hands and one happy little boy :)

Alright well this wouldn't be an official update without any words on my Gavey Gavva...Ok so wait. To be honest I'm not sure where to even begin because it's been SO long since my last little update so let's try and give it a whirl:

• Your favorite word by FAR is No. Whenever you're asked a question, the answer is No. Gavin, are you a good boy? "No." Gavin, do you love momma? "No." Gavin, are we going to have a great day today? "No." Gavin, do you want to play with Jackson? "Yes". Such a stinker you are!!
• The only show you will watch is Yo Gabba Gabba. I'm not going to lie, I tried to get you into Bubble Guppies because I think they look so cute but you weren't having it. Granted it's not like you watch that much TV. Only when momma is trying to make dinner/breakfast or I try to squeeze in a few e-mails here or there... Shhhhh!! ;)
• Your diet consists of graham crakers, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, milk and water. Seriously that's it. You won't eat anything else. All you want is hot dogs and mac and cheese. Although, I did make zuchhini, onion, and cheese "cupcakes" the other day and you ate them rigth down! Woo Hoo!! I need to find more fun things like this that I can "trick" you with. Your dad's not a fan that I called them cupcakes though. He got his hopes up a little too much when he came in the door, and I told him I made cupcakes for dinner. :)
• If you could live at the park you would. You LOVE it. You love climbing up the slide. You literally get mad if you start to climb up and then you accidently slide down. Ha! You climbed up the huge curly slide the other day when we were there just the two of us. Hey Mr. Strong man- slow down!!
• You love to run!! If I say Gavin, let's run! You pick up your little knees and run as fast as you can. Seriously. So. Cute. You also still LOVE to kick the soccer ball all over the backyard, wrestle, and jump on me if I'm laying down for 2 seconds for a breather. You're 110% all boy! That's fo sho.
• Nothing makes you madder than when I get out my laptop and shut it if you get close. Holy temper freaking tantrum.
• When we walk places and you decide you don't want to do it anymore you stop and sit down, and then lay down. Take today while at church. I'm walking across the room trying to find your dad, and you decide to lay down on the ground and scootch on your back across the floor. While there are like 100 people trying to walk around you, and while I have my arms full with your sippy cup, diaper bag, blankey, and a cup of coffee. Thank you Gavin.
• You are a little talker. Everyone has been commenting on how much you talk now. It's so cute and I am constantly video taping you like a creeper. Your fav words are HIIIIII (really loud) and BYYYYEEE (REALLY loud and repeatedly) whenever you walk away from a person, the cat, a book, really anything. My favorite word that you say is Bubbles...Your dad always says Good night Bubbles, and you say Bubbles back.. He just does it so you say it but I'm afraid you're going to think "bubbles' means goodnight at this rate!!
• Whenever we put you down for bed, you yell BYEEE and then we shut the door and you say Bye another 4-5 times and we repeat it back. It melts my heart every time. Can we do this until you're 30 and still live with me?! Ha kidding. Unfortunatly. :(
• You sleep with 4 blankets. Three of these are little mini ones and you gather them up every night before you go to bed and have to snuggle with them during our Ba and Story time. Then you have your big star one that we cover you up with. You can't sleep without them. All four of them. (Although tonight I hid Mo-Mo your monkey little blanks so I could wash it without you seeing it.... Yesterday when dad tried washing your star one you kept taking it out of the clothes basket and when he put it in the washer you had a melt down. Yikes.
• Last time we went to the Dr's you were in the 100th percentile for height and I think 78th for weight. Such a big boy!!

Alright. This is a NOVEL. I guess that's what happens when you update this once a year :) It's now 11:30pm and I need to get some sleep...It is wayyy too late for this girl!! :)