Happy 1st Birthday, Guy!

Gavin is ONE!!

Little Guy Guy, we LOVE that you are part of our family!  Has it already been a year?!  It seems like you have always been a part of our lives.  You are still an easy going, almost totally content little dude.  You are, however, discovering the art of tantrum throwing, and will quickly let out a screech if you feel like a battle must be fought.  You love exploring and climbing, making both the couch and the stairs your favorite places to be.  You love to play in the water table and the pool, and still enjoy taking baths with your brothers, adding to the splash zone accordingly.  

Going outside with you is fun, well, at least amusing for us because you don't love the feel of the grass on your knees, so you Mowgli crawl to the sidewalk or blanket or into someone's waiting arms.  You do, however, like to dig in the dirt (and eat it), so you get over sitting in the grass pretty quickly as long as there is somewhere to dig nearby.

I thought FOR SURE you would be walking by now (or maybe 2 months ago) since you crawled so early and are such a get-up-and-go type of baby, but you are apparently also stubborn and stuck in your ways, because only in the last week or so have you been willing to walk while holding one of my hands.  I even saw you take one teeny tiny step today, but you will never admit it.  You like standing, and have been able for a few weeks now to stand up in the middle of the room and hold it for a few seconds.  Actually, I've seen you stand and take a big swig of milk from your sippy cup, then just hang out on your two feet and enjoy the view.  You will be walking around by the end of the summer.

Some other things that you have been up to:

• You bang your cup on your tray so hard that it bounces the Cheerios right off
• You are very sneaky while trying to drop food off the side of your high chair when you have had enough.  You also like to drop your cup off the side, and almost every time you do, Chase groans, says, "Guy Guy," in an exasperated tone, and walks from wherever he is at to pick it up and give it back to you.
• You steal Chase's orange chair whenever he gets out of it (and you only cry for a little bit when he comes back to claim it)
• You do most of the motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• Your favorite books are the Gymboree counting book and the Noisy Farm book
• You say Mama, Dada, Papa, more, and night night with reasonable accuracy...when you want to.
• You sign milk and more.  You sign milk with both of your hands, most of the time high above your head.  I think if you said it out loud, you would be yelling it at us.
• You drink from a straw and love Sonic slushes.
• Daddy says that you like your long hair (I still clip it back most of the time :)
• I think you've started to like Yo Gabba Gabba almost as much as Chase does.
• You wear big 12 month and small 18 month clothing.
• You love peek-a-boo and chasing games.
• Your favorite toys are anything that you can hold and crawl around with.
• You listen to NO.  Hallelujah!  I have a child who understands the word NO!!!

Happy birthday, Guy!  We love you so much!