Thank you, Santa!

Christmas morning is so much more fun when you have a little one...

Winter entertainment

We have been fully embraced here in Hyrum by the cold and snowy arms of winter. To pass the time I've been giving Gavin cooking lessons. Here is his very first concoction. Looks delicious, Gavin! Today I put him in his new snowsuit for the first time and pulled him around the yard in the sled. I think he liked it! We need to find mittens that fit the little guy so he can get the full experience.
We cruised around the yard for a little while and paused in the back forty to check out the cows. Gavin saw the cows and started mooing (yes, he is BRILLIANT!) so I hurriedly flipped the camera to video mode to capture it. Of course he stopped as soon as I got the thing working. If you listen verrrrry carefully you can hear the sound of me wheezing from exertion. Pathetic.

He's got charm, style, and bipedality

It occurred to me that I haven't posted actual evidence yet that Gavin is walking. Well skeptics, here you go...

Mmmmm... cranberries

I cooked a post-Thanksgiving turkey over the weekend and made some whole berry orange-cranberry sauce to go with it. It was pretty tart stuff but Gavin LOVED it. In fact he loved it so much that once the cranberries were all gone he demanded to have the lid from the container. OK, I admit I put a little more sauce on the back of the lid after he started licking it. Sometimes its just too tempting to add fuel to the fire. Good thing it was almost bath time.

I do all my own stunts

Gavin loves the push-behind truck he got from Grandpa Dale for his birthday. He's still a pretty wobbly walker, but when he's got the truck to support him he practically runs through the house. In the last few days, to my horror, he's started climbing up on things. Tonight he demonstrated how he can stand with both feet on the seat of the truck, then splay his feet out from under him in order to land on his bum on the seat. It got even better when he caught us watching him and really started showing off by bouncing himself up and down while hollering in delight.

Can it really be December?

Today we went for a hike in old Sardine canyon and it was practically warm up there - until we got up closer to the ridgeline and the wind picked up and BRRR! On the way back down a horse and a mule wandered over to us. Gavin thought they were the coolest thing ever and gave them lots of squeals in response to their... uh... how do you spell the snorty sounds a curious horse makes?

The importance of dental hygeine

Gavin finally has a couple of bottom teeth poking through his gums. He's fascinated by his parents when they brush their teeth and he's also fascinated by the bathroom sink. He's figured out how to turn the faucet on by himself and has no qualms with dousing himself with cold water. I think he would have sat there for an hour if we hadn't intervened.

Gavin is 13 months old!

Gavin grows and changes before our eyes each day. He’s so full of energy and curiosity. He loves to explore and really loves being outside. It’s a joy to introduce him to new things and see his reaction. In the past couple of months I've visited friends with new babies and its hard to believe Gavin was ever that small and floppy! But then I look back at the pictures from his early days and WOW. He really was that small and floppy. So much can happen in a year...