Our little buddy isn't quite ready for hide-and-seek yet, but his new crawling skills leave him well prepared for a good chase now and then. In order to best preserve his funny little noises for eternity, I wired him for sound before tempting him into chasing me from the master closet, all down the hallway, through the living room, past the dining room, and almost into the kitchen. Upon reaching the kitchen, he finds something even more interesting than chasing a frightened daddy backing away while screaming like a little girl.

Gavin's first Labor Day weekend got off to a fun start this morning. First, he hit the swings at the playground.

Then, he cooled off in the pool...

...and watched Gmummy perform water tricks.

And then there was time to play his favorite game with Daddy: peek-a-boo!

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Twenty feet of baby fencing won't stop our endearing little boy from getting as close as possible to show his love. After conveying his joy and excitment to me through the holes in the fence, he proceeds to cross another "first" off the list: "cruising". While he has known for some time that he can walk forward while somebody holds his hands, he has never before tried to move while balancing against a stationary object. Seeing here that his duck is out of reach, he cruises over a couple steps to gain access. I was just trying to get a funny fence-face video, and he goes ahead and reaches a new milestone on me!

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It really sounds (to me) like he's delivering his version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". He very well could be, as it's a song that I've sung to him on occasion to calm him down while I'm driving and can't reach him. Admittedly, the melody is thrown under the bus after the title phrases, but give him a break, he's still shy of eight months old. In addtion to the lovely singing, you viewers are also treated to his new consonant, "b", some funny toy banging, and a bit of his priceless eye-rubbing.

Phew! Another week has already gone by!

• Gavin is an excellent crawler now. It's hard to believe he first mastered the clumsy gimpy-leg crawl only two weeks ago. He's crawling from room to room, will follow our voices if we move to another room, and has even learned which door Mommy is behind all day long! He's crawling so much that he's developed "crawler's knee" - a permanent light pink hue to his knee caps
• The cats appear to be safe for now. We expected them to be the perfect moving targets once Gavin started crawling, but he's suddenly lost interest in them completely.
• It took over a month, but Gavin loves eating solid foods now. He enjoys all six flavors of stage 1 Earth's Best baby food including, for the first time this week, peas! He completely rejected that nasty green gruel weeks ago when we tried several jars and I have to admit that I didn't blame him because the peas really stink. Now that he enjoys stage 1 food and we know he doesn't have any digestion problems, Mommy got a blender and will start making Gavin's food this weekend. There's only one jar of commercial baby food left in the pantry!

When I left my office at noon today for my lunch break, I entered a very cute scene. While Daddy vacuumed the carpet nearby, Gavin was crawling all around, up and down the hallway, thoroughly enjoying himself and his new newfound mobility. 

I love letting Gavin be a "free range baby," exploring anything interesting that crosses his field of vision and following him closely behind to see where he wants to go next. He's become quite the expert crawler in such a short period of time and has already overcome his initial fear of linoleum. Of course, it's impossible to let him safely roam all the time so most of our living room is now Gavin's play room enclosed in baby fencing.

This gives him plenty of room to crawl around and keeps his toys corralled. It also keeps the cats away although Burt has mistakenly jumped in several times and proceeds to pace the perimeter looking for an exit. He never does and we have to rescue him.

Gavin loves pulling himself up and standing with the fence for support. He'll stand for several minutes but hasn't figure out how to sit back down yet. When he's bored from standing and wants to sit down again, he'll get frustrated, start wiggling around and eventually lose his balance and drop to his rear end. Hey, it works for now!

Poor Gavin gets confused time and time again. He'll fall asleep in the familiar environment of his car seat and wake up somewhere completely new with a very quizzical look on his face. Today, that new place was William B. Umstead State Park. He was so tired that all the jostling involved in removing him from the car seat and inserting him into his new baby carrier didn't rouse him one bit.

With Gavin asleep on my back, we headed into the woods with Daddy, Gmummy, and Great Aunt Faye (Gmummy's sister who just moved to North Carolina last week - yay!). He finally woke up about 15 minutes into our walk staring at the back of Mommy's head.

Once he realized what an interesting place he was at, he was wide awake and enjoyed bumping along, watching the trees move by.

Gavin was an excellent hiker and gave his brand new baby carrier two thumbs up. Over the next few months as we start leaving the summer heat behind, expect many more woodsy updates!

One year ago today, we had our second of two ultrasounds and saw our baby's face for the first time. On the right, Gavin on August 24, 2007 and on the left, Gavin today. He's filled out quite a bit in the cheeks, don't you think? ;)

Seeing these photos side by side makes me more emotional that I expected. I remember the day the ultrasound was taken so vividly and, at the time, don't think I even dared to imagine how big, healthy, curious, and adorable that sweet baby would be just one year later.

Gavin has had a very busy and successful week. He learned to crawl and cut two new teeth! A few more notes about Gavin's past week...

• Due to Gavin's newfound mobility, we decided to create a safe play area by enclosing much of the living room with baby fencing. 
• One consequence of the fencing is that we discovered Gavin enjoys pulling himself up and standing while holding onto the edge. There simply wasn't much he could attempt to pull himself up on before the fencing arrived but now his legs will get even stronger!
• Gavin is becoming more independent every day. He is often content to sit and play with his toys by himself, searches out a pacifier if he needs one and puts it in his mouth, and spends a lot of time exploring his new play area by crawling, sitting, and rolling.
• Despite his independence, he is still often in need of a warm hug or just to be carried around to help sooth his aching gums and, well, because that's just the type of lovable baby he is!

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Lil' Muddy has already learned how to incorporate all four limbs into his crawling action. In this video, I tempted him into crawling with an interesting Lego crane on the other side of the room. He paused for reflection a few times, but eventually made it to within inches of the crane, only to be distracted by the tripod leg, and then the mini-shotgun mic mounted on the top of the camera (thus the cacaphonous soundtrack accompanying the armpit closeups). In conclusion, he is strong enough and coordinated enough to get anywhere he desires, the only effective limit on his range being his own attention span.

Tooth Number One and Tooth Number Two poked through without a hitch nearly three months ago. Today, we welcomed Three and Four after weeks of anticipation. Poor Gavin has been clingy, cranky, and drooly for a while now so we're all ecstatic with the latest development! Hopefully he will now enjoy a couple more months pain-free until the next teeth arrive.

It's not the most flattering picture, but Gavin is quite shy about showing his upper gumline so this was a difficult shot to get!

Gavin is a crawling maniac now! He has quickly graduated from his gimpy-leg crawl to a real, alternating leg crawl. He's crawling everywhere and moves so fast!

Earlier in the day, Gavin tagged along on a house-hunting trip with Daddy and his paternal grandparents, who have been visiting for the past week and will be moving to the Raleigh area soon. He approved of the quality carpet in this house...

When Jeff checked on Gavin during his nap this morning, he was welcomed with a new sight: Gavin sitting up in his crib! While he learned to sit up all my himself over a week ago, Gavin hadn't done this yet in his crib. Daddy immediately started removing the nuts and bolts on the crib to lower the mattress so Gavin can't climb out!

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Our funny little feller's bum-hopping, rolling over, and backwards sitting-up have finally twisted together into what may be considered a crawl. His newfound method of locomotion involves the use of two arms, one foot, and one tucked-in shin. If you watch closely, you'll see he alternates which leg gets used, like some amateur-of-disquise forgetting which side to fake-limp on. These are his first crawls, so you can't expect too much. He tuckered out after a few crawls, and we started getting ready for a trip to Babies R Us to load up on babyproofing supplies.

It's already time again for the weekly Thursday update:

• Today, Gavin crawled!
• Gavin has added pears with rice cereal to his lunch menu and has successfully given carrots a second chance at dinnertime. He loves them now! He also loves eating bath bubbles in the tub by the handful. We're assuming those are consumable.
  
• Gavin thoroughly enjoyed his second trip to the playground. He belly laughed the entire time he was swinging and let Daddy raise him a little higher than last time.

This morning, Gavin decided to take advantage of the slightly-less-oppressive weather Raleigh is enjoying this weekend by bringing his parents, Grandmommy, and Aunt Kristen to Shelley Lake. We walked the two-mile paved trail through the woods around the lake while Gavin rode in the BOB. Of course, we had to take a break halfway around for a photo shoot where Gavin practiced walking in his shoes again. We'll have to get a baby carrier soon in time for the cooler autumn weather so we can explore the unbeaten paths in the area that aren't accessible by stroller.

Daddy helps his Mini-Me get his footing

Gavin leads his entourage of Aunt Kristen, Grandmommy, and Daddy

Gavin and Mommy

It's been a busy week for our mobile-but-not-crawling-yet-baby!

• Gavin started eating two meals each day this week. I feed him rice cereal while on my lunch break and he eats fruit or veggies with us during dinner. Today, I mixed some apples with his cereal and it was his favorite meal so far!
• He is able to change from prone to sitting by pushing backwards onto his knees and then further to his bum. I've been waiting a long time for him to pick up this skill, since he would previously lay on his back while kicking his legs and flailing his arms whenever he wanted to sit up!
• He enjoys combining his toys by picking up one in each hand and then pushing or banging them together. His favorite combination is a wooden rattle and Daddy's head.
• Gavin's strong enough to stand from sitting if we're there for him to lean on and hold onto.

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Yes, I just can't get enough of this rolling around! The boy who made us so proud with his prolonged sitting last month now takes off on a whim, tack-rolling toward the drawer, accidently ending up somewhere equally interesting: under the handles of our reusable shopping bag.

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Inspired by Muddy's almost-crawling of last night, I set up the camera for him to try again, and perhaps improve his technique to a full crawl. He didn't learn to crawl in front of the camera, but he did give another demonstration of his rolling/scooching action, used to tack like a sailboat towards the object of his desire, Mommy's file drawer.

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Mommy took a break from unpacking (still... *sigh*) and picked up the video camera to capture this rough snapshot of Gavin's abilities the day before turning seven months old. He's scooching on his tummy, gurgling, "gheeh"-ing, and (for the first time ever) opening desk drawers, much to my surprise. If you've ever seen photos my mom took during our summer vacations years ago, you'll know where the thumb-in-the-picture gene came from!

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I came across this tidbit while trying to make more room on the hard drive. Recorded on April 28th, 2008, it shows our buff little feller working out at the gym. While polishing his body for the ladies, his gaze occasionally wanders across his mirror, whereupon he smiles brightly at his own handsome visage, confident that his workout is going well. This was not the first time he recognized himself, but the first time I was able to capture it on video.

This evening we had dinner at my parents' house on Gavin's seven-month birthday. He kept us all entertained by showing off his mobility as we tried to tempt him to crawl. He's making real progress and is showing more promise every day.

"Remind me again, what's my motivation for this scene?"

"Is this toy-time, or an eye test? I can hardly SEE my toys from here!"

"Alright, time to buckle down, then. They never let me stop until after at least a couple faceplants."

"I've rolled and stumbled hither and yon, can we call it a night?"

For nine months I carried a baby inside of me. For ten hours, I endured intense pain to birth that baby. I've rocked that baby to sleep, cried along with him when he hurt, and felt pride and joy when he learned something new. Yet, nothing has made me feel more like a mom than something I've only been able to do in the past few weeks.

When he's finished a bowl of cereal or veggies, I take a damp cloth and wipe off his messy face. Is anything more motherly?! Perhaps only when he's able to voice his complaint in response to this gesture, "Aw, Moooooom!" will I feel even more like a mother!