With his extended family visiting for Easter, Captain Whizzers gets extra toy time. Grandma keeps the frog moving fast for awhile, but when the frog stops to rest, Gavin awkwardly investigates.

Today Gavin celebrated his first big holiday - Easter! He tagged along with Jeff and me at church all morning. Jeff ran the sound booth for all three services while I rang in the handbell choir.

He was at church for a long time and was SUCH a good boy the entire time! He patiently sat in his car seat carrier while we practiced our handbell pieces bright and early at 7:30. He slept beside Gramma in a pew during the first service (she has a magic touch, after all) until the handbells were finished ringing halfway through and I brought him to the choir practice room to feed him. When the choir members started filtering in after the conclusion of the service, he was smiling for everyone.

During the first half of the second service, he stayed in the nursery and played with new toys. It was chaos with crying toddlers when I left him and I cried after leaving the room. When I returned after ringing during that service, though, all the kids had calmed down and Gavin was sitting in a bouncer staring in awe at the fishes with the other kids crowded around. It was so strange to see him in the middle of so many other kids since he hasn't been around other babies before.

I brought him to the back of the sanctuary to listen to the sermon and then around to the front so he could hear the magnificent Widor Toccata for the first time. I want to make sure he appreciates great music! After playing in the nursery and being awake for so long, he actually fell asleep (if he can sleep through a piece of music like that, he can sleep through ANYthing!). He stayed asleep the entire time he was in the nursery again during the third service and during the third sermon. His grumbling tummy woke him up by the end of the service and I brought him up to the front of the sanctuary again right in front of the organ and brass quintet to listen to the music. He seemed to enjoy it :).

After church, we returned home for lots of food with the family. He had a small Easter basket and was read his new little Easter story book.

Gavin's new favorite game to play is "airplane." We must warn anyone who wants to play this game with Gavin that he drops unexpected drool bombs! He's smiling all the time now and has the cutest laugh. This past week he also started touching toys with his hands. He still keeps his hands in fists, though, so it looks like he's punching his little frog toy. Check out the latest video of this and some other recent videos including Gavin sitting in his Bumbo!

Today Gavin went to the doctor for his two-month well-baby exam. He continues to be on the big side for his age. Here are his new stats:

• 15 pounds, 8 ounces (97th percentile)
  
• 24.5 inches long (83rd percentile)
• 42 cm head circumference
  

Gavin was a brave boy during his vaccinations (he cries harder when he's hungry) and slept the entire drive home. He even smiled at Dr. Jones, although that was before the shots! :)

Earlier this week, Gavin practiced his tough guy face in preparation for his shots:

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Captured on video for your viewing pleasure, our little Muddy sits upright for the very first time.

Gavin's daily photo shoots are becoming more difficult by the day as he gets closer and closer to sucking his thumb. His best efforts so far include trying to cram his entire fist into his mouth and slobbering all over his fingers. We suspect that it's only a matter of days until he finds his thumb!

The photos below are outtakes from today's shoot which finally resulted in a hand-free shot, but you'll still notice his lower lip is awfully drooly!

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The little feller is starting to show more interest in colors, shapes, and noises. Alternately, it could be that Traci and I are getting better at entertaining him. I would've set this video to some playful music, but the butterfly on the gym sings a song when you bump it. After just three and a half minutes of this video, I'm sure you'll find the song a bit vexatious, as well.

Gosh, it's been a while since I've updated. Now that Gavin is awake so much more during the day, it's harder to find time to type updates or do anything besides process the day's photo shoot!

The biggest news is that Gavin's Grandmommy was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks ago. Her surgery yesterday was a success and the cancer was localized and didn't spread to the lymph nodes so her prognosis is excellent. Please continue to pray for her! She was finally able to visit last week and Gavin was more than happy to drool and smile for her (more on that later!). Now we just have to wait another month until Gavin takes his first plane trip to Raleigh to visit the rest of the Zillers and Matthewses. We are all excited for the trip and a one-layover plane trip with a three-month-old should be interesting ;).

Lately, I feel a little sad already packing away clothes that Gavin is growing out of and realizing that the daily routine has already changed so much since January. Our baby isn't a newborn anymore! That became very apparent today when he finally lost his cord stump. I think he was trying to go for a world record or something! Seeing all of the new things he's doing, though, makes me more excited for what lies ahead instead of missing what used to be.

Days go by now without the Moses basket getting any use. Gavin slept in it for hours every day during his first few weeks. Except for a few short cat naps, he is awake most of the day from 8:00 to 8:00 now. And he's not content to spend those waking hours just sitting around. It seems that Jeff is always moseying into the den where I work from home during the day with Gavin strapped to his chest facing forward in the Baby Bjorn. Gavin loves walking around, that's for sure! It's nice to know that he's able to see distances now and his eyes are maturing so he's not going cross-eyed all the time anymore!

Gavin's newest hobby is licking. He'll lick and slobber on anything that comes within inches of his mouth. During Gmommy's visit, he also fell in love with the activity bar on his bouncer. He would smile and stare at it in awe. Now, he's developed a fear of the monkey on the bar. He won't be able to take his eyes off the monkey and will start crying. It looks like he inherited his mom's strange fear of monkeys. :)

He's starting to show more interest in his activity gym although after a few minutes of play, he grows bored and wants to be walked around the apartment again. We try rolling him over on his tummy for the "tummy time" but he just gets frustrated. He still hasn't lifted his head while on his tummy, but he gets plenty of time strengthening his neck during the hours that he is held by us every day!

Gavin is also "talking" now and trying to laugh. He makes all sorts of babbles like he's trying to carry on a conversation and will "talk" more whenever we talk back to him. He even imitated Jeff a few days ago and they were sticking their tongues out at each other for a while. It was too cute. Gavin is also becoming quite a ham in front of the camera. Most days, I'll put the camera up to my eye and he'll immediately start grinning and smiling up a storm. Check out a new video to see a smiley photo shoot from last week when Gmommy was visiting (you'll have to register to see it since Jeff has all of the videos except for the most recent one locked down now). He gets so excited and starts pumping his legs up and down when that big black camera is out.

Just as cute as smiling is Gavin's pouty face. I have yet to get a good picture of it but Jeff has it on video. I feel guilty laughing at him whenever he pouts, but I can't help myself - it's so adorably funny!

Perhaps the only thing that I don't miss is being woken up by a crying Gavin at 3:00 AM! He's asleep in his crib by midnight and will sleep until at least 7:00 AM now so Jeff and I are sleeping quite well these days.

I'll try to post sooner next time. Gavin's two-month checkup is in a week so an update will definitely be posted by then.

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We took the G-Man out for a walk in the park - sort of a test run for future outdoor activities. Basically, he acts the same outdoors as he does indoors. He is still bonkers for bottles, whacko for walking, and psycho for sucky. He doesn't care where he is when you give him what he wants.