Gavin

Where do I begin with this little man.  He is such a firecracker and certainly gives me a run for my money.  He's such a loveable character.  He definitely knows how to push mommy's buttons too.  

Gavin is a ball of energy.  He is potty trained but we've had some major set backs with all the changes he's experienced since September.  Once brother Reid came home and he started preschool a new potty training experience was introduced to Tim and I.  Gavin started holding in his poop.  I won't go into much detail, but it has been a roller coaster ride trying to encourage this boy to go to the bathroom.  It's been a painful process for mommy and for Gavin.  We have had good times and not so good times with this big milestone.  Our newest and the most effective idea we have come up with to encourage him to go to the bathroom regularly is the "Potty Plane".  I printed 6 clouds, numbered them and laminated them.  Then I printed out a picture of Dusty from the movie Planes and each time he tells me he has to go to the bathroom he gets to fly on a cloud.  Once he reached the 6th cloud, which sometimes could take days, because most of the time I was having to put him on the toilet, he received a prize, usually a matchbox car.  We are finally getting to the point where HE will tell US most of the time.  Now he insists that somebody be in the bathroom with him.....so now we have to work on the independence aspect.

Another big milestone for our Gavin was he became a Sunbeam.  We did our usual special Sunbeam dinner on his first Sunday in the "big" primary and he loved being the center of attention.  We did breakfast burritos, cantaloupe, pineapple, and red, orange, and yellow peppers for dinner.

He's getting so big and I enjoy his enthusiasm for being such a BIG boy and being able to see big brother in sharing time.  His little testimony and love of the gospel is growing more each day.  He is trying harder each day to be like his Savior.  He is a thoughtful little boy and is always happy to help and share with others.  

This boy is always looking for a good laugh.  So I of course had to join in the fun!

If you notice the look on Gavin's face in this picture we call this his Bulldog face.  He does this quite often and if something doesn't go his way he says, "I'm mad!"  Our rebuttal has become "Don't be mad, be glad.  It's your choice, but it won't ruin our day!"  Usually he is instantly saying, "I'm happy, I'm happy!"  Silly kid loves to get a reaction out of anyone who is willing to play his game.

Gavin loves race cars.  He loves pretending to run around the kitchen table as if he's doing laps at Nascar.  He loves lining up all his matchbox cars and racing them.  He loves playing with the race car video games at our local mini golf place.  He may have a future as a race car driver.

Right now Gavin has an orange soccer jersey from Turkey (courtesy of Noah and Kendra) that he has to wear almost every day.

He asks me every day if he has school.  Probably because we never know if we are going to have a snow day or not.  The kid doesn't have a normal routine this winter because of the crazy weather.

The only music Gavin wants to listen to right now is either Christmas music or Coldplay.  Oh and the song by Pharrell Williams, "Happy".  We play that when he's in a bad mood and it cheers him right up.

At bedtime Gavin started doing this hug routine with Tim and I.  I just smile every night when he goes through it with us.  This is how it goes:  He starts with a monster hug, monster hug kiss, huggie, then a huggie kiss, then a superhero hug, then a superhero hug kiss, finally an Eskimo kiss.  We can't leave the room until he has gone through all of them.

So this is a glimpse of what Gavin is up to right now.  He's a fun loving, energetic, creative, strong willed, funny, goofy, sensitive, hard working, and helpful little man.