Go Wildcats!

Don't they just both look great in purple... and what a great way to kick-off the first weekend of college football. Well, Gavin and Daddy watched the NU (Northwestern) football game - (nice first win for the Wildcats) while mommy went shopping... now that was a great Saturday!

** Check out those NU shoes (thanks Beth and Karl) & NU t-shirt (thanks G&G Gillard). Just the perfect attire for the big game today!

Family weekend

We had our 3rd annual family weekend in Cincinnati last weekend. It was great. Grandma and Grandpa Cross, Uncle Ryan, Grandma and Grandpa Gillard, Uncle Tom, Aunt Heather and cousin Ty were all here to hang out and have some fun. We went to the zoo, grilled out and have a great time. Family is really the most important thing in life, so we were glad to share some quality time with everyone.

Speaking of quality time, here is Gavin and Ty in the bath tub. Ty is splashing more than Gavin can on his own and that really cracks Gavin up

For more photos of the weekend, here are selections from Heather and Tom, G&G Gillard and G&G Cross, the first web site is a shared family photo sharing site, so others photos on there too

http://gillard.shutterfly.com/

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2Cbt2bRwyYvYg

http://photos.walmart.com/shareethumbnailshare/AlbumID=31671600/albumcount=1/p=670251219709993631/l=13741645/g=6643957/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=670251219709993631/l=13741645/g=6643957/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Baby Yoga

So, Gavin is now much more mobile and nimble than he was before. A steady progression of being able to do more and more from sitting up on his own to crawling. Once he could crawl he could also go from crawling to sitting up with a little practice. But you can totally see him trying to figure different things out along the way, like pulling himself up on things, standing up with help and many other movements and positions. Probably his favorite, that also looks cool, is what you will see in the video below. When others observed they asked if we taught him yoga and specifically downward dog or down facing dog position. Of course the answer to that is yes and here is the fruit of our labor...

August 19.

Officially crawling

Here is some crawling action from August 17. Finally off our stomach and on our hands and knees, most of the time anyway. Cruising around like crazy, moves pretty quick now, faster by the day...

Pushing on popper

One of Gavin's favorite toys to play with, even more so now that Grandma Cross helped him to learn how to push it down, is his ball popper. He likes it so much he has two, one upstairs and one downstairs.




This video is from August 12.

Army Crawling

Good video of the pre-cursor to all out hands and knees crawling: army crawling. Or something like that. Pulling with hands, pushing with feet (only left one though for some reason) and wiggling any way I can to move around. Also, some good cup banging and sliding and of course, Mommy commentary.

This is from August 10 and had been doing this type of moving for a few weeks and in a week or so, was officially crawling. Video coming soon...

(Not) Mimicing Mommy

Some of the videos that fans of the Gavin Blog tell us they love most are those that highlight Mommy (aka Stacy) interacting with Gavin in very special (and very hilarious) moments. Like talking to one another and mimicing each other, or sort of anyway. Well, we have a few treats for you:

First video is from July 28 and second is from August 10.

Rolling in crib

And so begins the barrage of videos from the last month or so. We will try to mark some developmental milestones and accomplishments.

This first one is one of our favorites, he does not do it as much anymore now that he can sit up, but before that any time you went into his room following sleeping, he would roll back and forth across the crib until you grabbed him, funny stuff...

This is from July 19th.

Gavin is on the MOVE

So - where the heck has Gavin been - WELL - he is been on the move - literally. In the last month he started army crawling to full-blown crawling and he is everywhere now - even on the "move" to IL to Grandma & Grandpa Cross' home on the farm. Scott and I took a vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for a week - and Gavin got to spend time with the grandparents and LOTS of my family too.... he was on the "move" seeing lots of people, going here, there and everywhere! He loved spending time with G&G Cross and I know they loved having him there too. Here are a few people he spent time with and also things he did:

Gavin loves when Grandpa talks on his cellphone (and he does that often) - and then the

cellphone becomes a fun toy to push buttons...

Uncle Ryan was teaching me how to drink water from a "big" boy cup...

Is Gavin in a tent with Grandma? Oh yes - Grandma took Gavin to Curves (where she works) and they got to play in the tent - known as "Camp Curves."

Eating lunch with Great-Grandpa Cross - and do I see someone holding the spoon by himself?

Of course, Gavin took a trip (maybe more) to Cracker Barrel to eat with Great-Grandma & Grandpa Kastner.... (here is Great-Grandma Kastner). I think Gavin LOVES that my family sure likes to eat....

Andrea (my 1st cousin) came over to play with Gavin lots too...

Love spending time with A. Mary Ann...
And - Gavin even got to see my good friend, Kris who was visiting in IL and now lives in South Africa.

Trip to Illinois- August 2-9, 2008

Blog updates are coming!!!

Hello fans of the Gavin Blog. We here at the Gillard family appreciate all your support, comments and loyal viewing of the blog. We want to apologize for slacking on our postings and let you know that updates are on the way.

A sneak preview of what to come is Gavin army crawling, Gavin crawling, Gavin being more chatty, more animated and of course Mommy being very silly in videos (everyone's favorite). Also, a trip to the farm to visit Grandma and Grandpa Cross for Gavin while Mommy and Daddy treated themselves to a nice sunny vacation. Finally, we just had family weekend here in Cincinnati with all of Gavin's grandparents, aunt and uncles and cousin Ty, and there is some great pictures and videos of that. You will get to see it all soon.

By the way, Gavin is over 9 months old and doing great.