Cuddly and Huggly

Gavin gets very cuddly when he first wakes up from his naps, especially his afternoon nap! Here's a video of him rolling around on our bed and eventually coming to me for cuddles. He LOVES our bed and the pillows!

He also decided to play peek-a-boo one day, so I got a quick video of that. It's the first time he's actually initiated the game.

We were able to make it out to the playground one day and he enjoyed the swings again. He's still too little for the other playground equipment but the swings are great fun!

Now that he is pulling himself up and cruising around on the furniture, Gavin loves to pull things off tables. One day he got the wipes and crawled around with one in his hand for awhile. Then he stopped at his high chair and it looked like he was trying to clean it!

We were also able to talk to Daddy again this week!! They pulled into a different port in Japan and had a few days to get off the boat. I didn't get any video or pictures this time but Gavin was very happy to talk to his Daddy again. Hopefully this means that he won't cry when Daddy comes home this time!

Here's an article about the Topeka pulling into Japan: Topeka in Japan

Carlton will be home to help out when the movers come in April and help get the dogs situated at the kennel as well. We plan to have the dogs stay at the kennel here on Guam for about a month after we leave and then they will fly to the east coast. Hopefully we will get into military housing by the time the dogs arrive. They will be flying into Boston. Since Edge's kennel is so big, he will only fit on certain planes and the Boston airport is the closest to CT that will accommodate those larger planes. My truck will be turned over to the vehicle shippers a couple days before we leave and we will have to get over to Baltimore to pick it up. It's the closest port to Connecticut for military vehicles or maybe all vehicles, I am not sure. Either way, we have to go to Baltimore to get the truck.

Needless to say we will be fairly busy in April! For now, I am getting ready for Gavin's first birthday!! I am getting him a smash cake and can't wait to see how he reacts. Hopefully I will get a good video of it!

Silver Lining

Carlton recently had a port call for a couple days and we were finally able to see and talk to him!! It had been about six weeks since he left and the boat was on radio silence, so we didn't have any communication with them at all. It was great to talk to him and see him on video chat! Gavin was thrilled to have Daddy on the screen and be able to interact. (Before Carlton left, we recorded him reading a few books to Gavin and I have been playing those for him almost every night) Here's a cute little video of Gavin and his Daddy talking:

After talking to Carlton, it looks like we are definitely leaving Guam in May! A month later than we were hoping but at least I found out that Carlton should be home to help out with the movers when we have our household goods packed up! That will make things so much easier. Plus we might have time to do a few things on the island before we leave for good!

The new plan is to fly back through Hawaii and stop there for a couple nights so we can adjust to the time difference a little more gradually. Jet lag is going to be brutal! We will be flying to San Diego and then driving across to Connecticut, stopping to visit family and friends along the way! We are so excited about this road trip and can't wait for everyone to meet Gavin!

Here is my handsome little Valentine's Day date this year!! I had a very hard time getting him to be still long enough to get a picture!

Cute onesie - "I'm ready to go in coach. Just give me a chance!" From Ace Ventura Pet Detective Movie.

I just happened to catch him after he somehow managed to get a piece of banana on top of his nose during breakfast. It took him awhile to realize it was there! You might be able to tell or maybe not, but he has his two top teeth coming in now!

Last weekend we attended a friend's birthday party at Gab Gab beach where Gavin got to experience the beach for the first time. I wasn't sure if he was enjoying it or not since he didn't seem super thrilled. You can see in the pictures, he is kind of smiling but not really. Then about ten minutes after the pictures were taken, he threw up all over me. So apparently he wasn't feeling well!! Poor guy was sick several more times into the night but luckily it didn't even last 24 hours.

I also took pictures for Gavin's 11 month mark! Hard to believe he will be a year old next month already!! Many of these pictures did not turn out because he just will not sit still! LOL Here are a few that kind of turned out okay.

Elephant from Grandma & Grandpa for V-day

The elephant my parents gave Gavin for Valentine's Day sings "You Are My Sunshine". He loves it!! Not only does he enjoy the song but he loves chewing on the elephant's feet.

For an early birthday present, my friend Laura sent Gavin a bubble machine and a huge bottle of bubbles!! I took this video the first time we used it to get his reaction. I had to keep moving the bubble machine because he kept wanting to grab it and I didn't want him to dump bubble solution all over the floor. She also sent him a baby rain stick which he really enjoys!

Rain stick

Ready for the beach!

Mr. Cool

Dapper Dude

Daily Happenings

Gavin is over his mild hand, foot, and mouth disease and he spent a few hours at daycare again today. It's great for him to interact with other kids his age and it's great for me to get stuff done around the house that I normally don't have time to do! Nothing too exciting going on this week, so I thought I'd share a couple videos of Gavin doing his daily stuff!

Breakfast on the weekends is usually eggs and I was making him one egg with cheese on Saturday. He would eat about half of it, along with fruit, and I would give him the other half on Sunday. Well, this past weekend he ate the whole egg on Saturday and again on Sunday! Along with about 1/3 of a banana and some cheerios. Growing boy!

I got Gavin a walker about 3 weeks ago and at first he hated it! He couldn't figure out how it worked and the toys on it really didn't capture his attention. I kept putting him in it a few times a week and now he has finally figured out how it works and that he can get around a lot faster than crawling! So this is just a short video of him tooling around in his walker.

This last video shows Gavin doing one of his favorite activities. He LOVES rolling around in sheets/blankets. Anything that is soft! When he was a couple months old, he really loved having the burp cloth rubbed against his skin, so apparently that has carried over. He usually does this after waking up from a nap - he loves to roll around on our bed and bury his face in the sheets, blankets, and pillows. So cute and funny to watch!

New position in playpen

Now chewing on drawers!

Supermoon and Underwater World

This past week was a little different....after Gavin's 2 hours at the daycare, he developed a rash and fever 2 days later. His pediatrician didn't think it was anything to be concerned about since the fever broke after one night.

Then a couple days later the rash changed a bit - instead of covering his whole body, like it was in the beginning, it faded in most areas except for his hands, legs, and feet. Also the spots got bigger and some had fluid in them. I sent pictures to his pediatrician and they think he has a mild form of hand, foot, mouth disease. Luckily he doesn't seem to have any sores in his mouth and he hasn't developed a fever again, but HFMD can last 1-3 weeks.

So instead of putting him in daycare again this week, I decided to take him out to see Underwater World which is an aquarium out in town. I figured he would enjoy getting out of the house and seeing something different! They have a nice walkway with the aquarium forming a tunnel over you, so you can watch the fish swim all over. Then you go upstairs and they have various tanks with a variety of sea life. Gavin seemed somewhat interested.

Checking out Moray Eels

And a big fish!

Seahorse statue

Stingray

Random Carabou sign in tank

Sea Turtle

Moon Jellyfish

I also got a couple pictures of the Supermoon early this morning. Just had my point and shoot camera handy though, so the pictures do not do it justice. In case you didn't get to see it, here's a link to some pictures and info: Supermoon

And for fun, here are a couple pictures of Gavin after enjoying a pasta dinner. He makes SUCH a huge mess but he also REALLY loves pasta!! In the first picture, you can kind of see his two bottom teeth!

So happy!

Ten Months!

Gavin hit ten months old on January 18th and I had a difficult time getting a picture of him with the 10 month sticker. All he wanted to do is chew on it! BTW Gavin now has two teeth (both on the bottom)! He never shows them when he smiles and I haven't been able to get a picture yet!! Here are a few pictures I managed to get:

Gavin has been pulling himself up to stand on anything he can now. Unfortunately he had a little incident with a stool a couple weeks ago. He ended up pulling the stool over on top of himself, so he hit his head on the tile floor and then the leg of the stool hit him in the forehead. Needless to say he was not happy about that! The stool is now out of reach in the laundry room so we don't have a repeat incident! The bruise is now healing but here's a pic of his war wound.

Other than that, Gavin has been continuing to explore new foods. Recently he has been eating rice cakes with hummus which he really likes. He also had his very first day at daycare this past week! I dropped him off for just two hours so he could enjoy playing with other kids his age and he was served lunch as well. According to the women in his class, he is a very good eater!! I guess he was the last kid in the high chair and still looking for food after they gave him the lunch serving of rice, BBQ chicken and apples. He has also been enjoying his Daddy Doll!

Cute pajamas!

In other news, we are delayed leaving Guam by about a month. Originally we were going to be flying out on April 1st but after the boat left, Carlton found out there was a good chance he would not be able to get back to Guam in time to leave by then. So he delayed us to make sure he is home in time so we will all fly back to the states together. Hopefully this also means he will be able to help out with some of the move!! The big pack out with the movers will still be handled by me I think, but he might be able to help with the dogs. We will see.

I decided to get my hairs cut a bit....something a little cooler and a little easier to deal with! Especially since Gavin really seems to enjoy grabbing my hair and holding on!

Christmas and Good-bye's

Before we left for our trip to Tokyo, Gavin had his 9 month check up and he is now 20 lbs 12 oz (56 percentile) and 29.5 inches long (88 percentile)! Carlton had some time off, we took Gavin to the playground for the first time and he got to swing! He really enjoyed it once he warmed up to it!

Since we were in Tokyo on Christmas Day, we decided to open our gifts when we got back home. Gavin got a Daddy doll since his Daddy is going on a fairly long deployment (for Gavin's age), Carlton got a nice cast iron pan, and I got a tablet!

We also took advantage of Carlton's time off to go see a Christmas light display in town. The Governor's mansion always does a Holiday light display, so we checked that out and got our picture taken with Santa!

Guam snow = soap bubbles

I am very glad we had some family time over Christmas because Carlton his now gone for his Winter/Spring underway. We won't be able to communicate with him while he is gone and we are not exactly sure when he is coming home. He is supposed to get off the boat at some point to return to Guam so we can head back to the states. The date of that is still up in the air though and I will be handling the household goods shipment and shipping the truck on my own - should be interesting. For now, Gavin will have his Daddy doll and some videos with Daddy reading books to him so that he remembers his Daddy while he is gone!

We were able to go to the pier and see Carlton off before he left. Here are a few pictures from our goodbye's. We will miss him!!!