Gavin: six months

This happy guy loves people and attention! Just about anyone can get a smile and a laugh from him.

His favorite game is peek-a-boo.

He's got the sweetest laugh, and is very ticklish! I love to tickle his cheeks and his big round belly :)

He babbles "dadada" all day long, and very occasionally a "mama" will slip out when he's upset. I'll take what I can get!

Gavin is scooting like a pro, and he'll rock on his hands and knees. Oh boy, crawling is not far away! It's actually really great, because now that he can move around and get to what he wants, we don't have to hold him all day long (though I still get plenty of snuggle time!)

So far he has tasted oatmeal, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and banana. And he doesn't like any of it! Paul even gave him a lick of candy cane, for cryin out loud, and he hated that too!

His sleep habits are more or less the same (three naps a day, and wakes up 4 times a night), except now he refuses his binky and he rolls all over; kicking, pushing, and scratching us all night. We're tired. Just so tired.

This little boy is giving me dark circles under my eyes, is literally breaking my back in my efforts to bounce him to sleep, and is somehow making me love him more and more every day!

Thanksgiving

We have so so so much to be thankful for this year! I won't list everything here, but it definitely includes family, and the opportunity we had to visit for Thanksgiving.

We began with an 11 hour trip to meet my family at my Aunt and Uncle's place in Georgia (it's only supposed to be 7.5 hours, but there was a lot of holiday traffic accidents). It may be because we expected the worst, but we were pleasantly surprised by how well the kids did in the car! Actually, it's probably because of our awesome new van! We put Jenna and Liam in the back, and I sat in the middle to keep Gavin happy and distribute snacks. We only stopped twice, Gavin and Liam slept a bunch, and Jenna didn't ask for the iPad the entire trip!

We had lunch at Cracker Barrel (of course), Jenna read books and worked on her new Fashion Designer book, and Paul and I listened to Jim Gaffigan's new book. An overall enjoyable ride.

I'm not usually a very good photographer on vacation (too relaxed!) and this trip was no different. But I did manage to get a picture of the reason we made the trip - my Momo!

She wanted to get all her great-grankids together, and it was wonderful!
Jenna and Liam had so much fun with their cousins. They barely even noticed when Paul and I snuck out with my cousins to see Mockingjay.
And the FOOD! Yum! I would almost make the trip every week for that good southern cookin'. Almost.

We got to break up the trip back by stopping at Paul's sister's house in South Carolina for a couple nights. They even postponed their Thanksgiving dinner until Saturday for us, so we got two Thanksgivings this year!
We spent our time eating, chatting, shopping, waiting for Hilary's baby girl to come (she was born Dec. 5), and we took a walk to feed their neighborhood ducks.

And that was our Thanksgiving!

In other news, Jenna lost her 7th and 8th teeth in just a week! That tooth fairy has been working some serious overtime! I think she deserves a nap ;)