Turkey, Travel, and all-that-jazz

Our Turkey-Week festivities have kept us/me busier that anticipated, which is why I haven't had an opportunity to post, and sadly it is coming to a close as well must be venturing back to South Carolina. But not to worry Gavin-fans, we will return in a few short weeks. I did want to say that it was really great to see those of you that we could--and we really appreciate those of you who traveled to visit with us. And to those we didn't get to this time, we hope things will be different at Christmas and that we'll be able to expand the number of people we can visit (and the duration of those visits).

Anyways, I must get busy packing for our return journey home. Once the dust settles this week, I hope to put together a photo montage of the various wonderful images we have from Gavin's first trip to Illinois. But until then, I hope these two images will hold you over.

Happy After-ThanksGivings!!!

Aunt Laura comes in and then home we go...

Sorry for the delayed post today, but I have been trying to get everything ready so we can venture to Illinois for the holiday break. The big help during this crazy time has been Gavin's Aunt Laura who came in on Friday to hangout with us for a few days and to make the journey home with us. As you can see, here are a few photos of her and Gavin.

The big news is that during Laura's visit Gavin has slept all night two of the three nights. I tell you, I think the kid does it out of spite. Nonetheless, it has been a pretty enjoyable past couple of days, and I'll try to get at least one post in during out time in Illinois.

See many of you soon.

a bit o' laughter

We had a pretty big milestone this past weekend: our first night away from Mom. Gavin and I got to hang out by ourselves Friday night and nearly all of Saturday as Nikki had to be in Nashville for some work-related things. I think it was more difficult on her than on us, but we all managed to survive.

That is not to say that Friday wasn't without its own challenges. Gavin was a bear all day on Friday--fussy, angry, didn't want be held, didn't want to be put down, didn't want to sleep, and so on. He and I just tried to survive one another for most of the day, hoping to make it until the evening when we would venture to the monthly social gathering for my program (open to all connected to RCID). Of course, once we got there, he was the model child. On the one hand, I was completely appreciative that he behaved so well and just had people fawning all over him. On the other, I was angered a bit as he was clearly just putting on a show after putting me through the ringer all day--I tell people he has been a bear all day and he sits there perfect, content, charming...well played, son, well played. There seems to be a bit of spite in the child, and, unfortunately, I think he gets that from me.

Anyways, aside from the few new photos here, below you will find a brief video with a snippet of our day on Saturday--some of our more joyous moments--as we waited for Nikki to find her way home (battling traffic jams along the way). It is quite amazing what a few giggles can do for team morale!

Cooperation...a lost art

My apologies about the video not working. Google has been having issues today--at one point I couldn't even log in to my account without getting redirected to a service error message. As such, I have finally had a moment to post this through YouTube and embed it. Again, sorry! Enjoy.

Well, I was hoping to post some footage today of Gavin "chatting" and laughing, but one of us was less than cooperative. He was just a carrying away and when I turned on the camera. . .nothing. He even stopped moving and just sat there, quiet and motionless. I know he does it out of spite because as soon as I turned off the camera back to life he came. We tried again. . .nothing. We played this game for 30 minutes or so and finally I just decided to snip together a bit of footage and go with it as I am running out of time this moring.

Anyways, enjoy the clip below. For such a tiny thing, it was quite a frustrating game. Maybe next time he will decide to play along...like now, as I type, and he just jabbers away at the screen.

Monday afternoons

The question should be, who is watching who?

Clearly some folks are pretty worn out.

As you can tell from the slideshow below, we have started adding cereal to our diet. This has been a "trial and error" adventure, but a fun game nonetheless. And it was nice having Gramma Nance & Granpa Joe here during this adventure.

Anyways, enjoy the slideshow. . .I didn't have time to add music, but these work so well I didn't think they needed it.