I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to take a flattering photo of the two newest members in Gavin's pearly white line-up due to their position on the rarely-seen upper gumline. So, with apologies to my little gigglepuss, here are a couple rare pictures of Five and Six:

Of course, the majority of the photos taken daily show a sweet, innocent, darling baby boy ... perhaps none more than this:

From the time Gavin was born, we never put him in a nursery to nap in a crib during the day. He stayed in the living room because we wanted him to be used to a little noise and commotion, and learn to sleep anywhere. Around ten o'clock this morning, I received an e-mail from my husband asking me to quietly come into the living room to snap a picture of our son taking his morning nap. I think we've succeeded with our original goal!

On this cold, rainy Thursday, 

• Gavin's new favorite toys are socks. Now that the weather is chilly, he's wearing socks all the time...until he pulls them off. He'll carefully examine them and then carry them with him as he crawls off to find more toys. Don't even TRY to take a sock away from him. Let's just say we warned you!
  
• We have a comedian on our hands. Occasionally while eating, he'll bite down on the spoon, grin and chuckle as we try to wrestle it free. It's one of the few things he seems to do just because he thinks he's being funny!
• Our little comedian also enjoys biting our noses. Sometimes it seems he is just curious, but other times he laughs while leaning in to snare a schnoz.
• Gavin has a crush on Cali Lewis of GeekBrief. Every morning when Daddy plays the daily video podcast on his computer, Gavin will crawl over to his fence as close to the computer desk as possible and stand up to watch.
  

There are also a few things Gavin is NOT doing anymore. A pleasant habit to leave behind is drooling. Gavin started drooling buckets at two months and the flood didn't let up for months. To say there was constantly a stream of drool from his bottom lip to his chin is definitely not an understatement. He'd go through several shirts and bibs every day so it's nice to not be doing quite as much laundry!

I also recently realized that Gavin's rolling phase was extremely short. Last month he was rolling as a method of transportation, but after just a week or two he learned to crawl and hasn't rolled since. Our little boy is just growing up so fast!

Today, Five and Six officially made their grand entrance into Gavin's gumline. His upper lateral incisors have finally poked through. You might expect to find a photo to document such a momentous occasion. Gavin has foiled those plans, though, and remains fiercely protective over his upper gumline. So instead, I share this photo:

Gavin has mastered tongue curling. He's been doing this often lately and we think he's trying to soothe his sore teeth-bearing gums. It sure is silly-looking and I'm a little jealous since I haven't mastered this skill yet. How 'bout you? Give it a try!

The second big milestone Gavin reached in the past few days was standing unassisted. He'll stand for just a second or two at a time and then fall down. Since he'll only stand like this a couple times a day and for such a short period of time, it hasn't been possible to photograph this milestone, either, so I'll share another completely unrelated photo instead:

I'm not exactly sure why Gavin is sneering, but I suspect it has something to do with the attire Daddy dressed him in. That's a too-big flannel shirt with overalls underneath, a fish in his pocket, and socks Aunt Kristen got him in France. It's his Parisien redneck look, I suppose.

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You may have wondered how hard it could be to take a though-out and well-prepared photograph of a peaceful baby playing quietly with his toys. It may be easy with other babies, but our baby feels compelled to touch, taste, and shake everything he sees, expensive gadgetry included. Towards the end of the video, he even goes after the video camera that was recording him go after the still camera. At his nine-month doctors appointment, I'll ask the pediatrician what age we can expect a grasp of minimum focal distance.

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Our little buddy loves to roll around on the soft bedsheets, though he has a penchant for trying to crawl right off the edge of the bed. In this video, I keep him well distracted and entertained, while Mommy plays the important role of fall-spotter, as well as camerawoman.

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A fun (and quick) game.

Mr. Constant Motion was up to another busy, exhausting week. I suppose "exhausting" just refers to Mommy and Daddy. Gavin's energy level never diminishes!

• Teeth #5 and #6 are about to make their grand appearance. His next set of bottom teeth should be arriving next, but it looks like he'll be getting another pair of top teeth first!
• Gavin spends a lot of time every day standing and cruising. He stands at his fence, holds on to the laundry basket, hangs onto Mommy or Daddy, leans against the wall beside his changing table during a diaper change...
• Standing all the time inevitably requires bending over to retrieve a toy. He is able to squat to pick something off the floor and stand right back up again.
• We've noticed that Gavin seems to be slimming, which is no wonder after watching him all day - he doesn't stop moving! We won't have weight confirmation until October 1st when he'll visit the pediatrician for his nine-month well baby exam.

Gavin's quartet of teeth will soon be adding new members!

...standing on the recliner...

In other news, autumn has arrived in North Carolina! The weather during our daily morning walks this week has been delightfully brisk. Gavin had to ditch his usual lightweight nightshirt walking wear for a thick long-sleeved shirt with warm pants and socks along with a blanket. We'll have to look for a warm hat soon. His little ears get awfully chilled wearing only a baseball cap!

It's already three weeks into the college football season, but today was the first time Gavin experienced a game. Florida State started off with a bye week and last week's game wasn't televised. Today, FSU beat Chattanooga 46-7! Yay!

We invited Grandpa and Aunt Kristen over for a football party and Gavin was more than excited to provide sideline entertainment. He was also a little eager to get his hands on all our food!

Go long!

Did you see that, Aunt Kristen? Yeah, it was an awesome catch!

Gavin needs to work on his tough-guy linebacker face.

Gavin wore the official Nike Seminoles jersey - just like the players wear. Number six is worn by Antone Smith who made two touchdowns today!

What has Gavin been up to in the past week? Many things, as usual!

• Peas have moved to the top of the list as Gavin's favorite food. He loves peas and oatmeal, but doesn't like adult applesauce or mashed sweet potato anymore. It's frustrating because he ate them so readily in baby food jars but he won't eat the "real thing!" 
• Mr. Sucky has turned into the ultimate pacifier. When Gavin is really tired but refuses to sleep, we pop Mr. Sucky in and he immediately drops his head and is asleep. It's actually quite funny, like we flip a switch and he's suddenly asleep!
  
• We found Gavin's tickle spot - right underneath his chin! 

Tickle! Tickle!

This is what Gavin was doing while I was writing this blog entry. It doesn't get much sweeter than this!

Yesterday we spent a little more time enjoying the great outdoors in our new town. We picked up some subs at Harris Teeter (our "new Publix" and, yes, it's a funny name for a grocery store) and headed to the Falls Lake dam for a picnic lunch and a bit of exploring. Don't ask Gavin about the picnic part. He missed the whole thing. Seems he likes to take a nap every afternoon. Odd boy, that Gavin.

So, Gavin slept on the blanket while we chowed down (and were pleased to discover that Teeters makes subs just as good as Publix) and woke up just in time to be loaded into his backpack carrier. Gavin loves his backpack carrier.

See? Such a happy, rested little boy.

It was a bright, hot, sweltering day and Gavin kept pulling off his hat as we walked along the top of the dam. Naughty, Gavin.

We walked to the bottom of the dam and gazed into the churning water. Gavin started shouting at the "big bath tub" as it rushed by. He wanted to jump right in and splash around.

This afternoon made me even more eager for fall which I didn't think was possible. I can't wait to get out in the woods every weekend with my boys in just a few more weeks when the weather gets cooler and the leaves begin to change color!

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Muddy thinks looking through the holes in his stacker rings is really funny. French, on the other hand, not so funny.

A snapshot of Gavin at 35 weeks old:

• Until this week, Gavin didn't know how to sit down from standing. He usually sat down only after getting too tired and falling down on his behind. Now, he has learned to buckle his knees and sit on the floor much more gently.
  
• Gavin is standing stronger every day. He often drops one hand when standing at his fence and can stand without much wobbling while holding on with just one hand. He may start standing completely unassisted soon!
• Gavin's favorite game is peek-a-boo. When Daddy covers his head with a blanket, Gavin will crawl over, pull it off and laugh hysterically when Daddy says, "Peek-a-boo!"
• Today was Gavin's first three-meal day. He ate oatmeal with Daddy for breakfast, regular unsweetened applesauce for lunch, and peas for dinner. He's also drinking four 8-ounce bottles a day now.

We would also like to take a moment and apologize to Gavin for any embarrassing photos we may post on this blog. We try to be discreet, but sometimes we can't help ourselves. Blame Daddy for this idea, Honey...

Gavin heads upstairs to fix Aunt Kristen's plumbing :).

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Over the weekend, I cooked up Gavin's food for the first time. He has been eating Earth's Best organic jarred baby food for the past two months and I finally decided it was time to switch to homemade food. Since we're living on one income and want to keep it that way, I'm always looking for ways to cut costs and making baby food averages less than half the price of buying jars at the store. It's also healthier and fun to make! I started by making a food that Gavin has already eaten (peas) and a new flavor he's never tried before (peaches).

For starters, one fresh locally-grown North Carolina peach...

Cut it in half and bake in the oven for about ten minutes...

Peel the skin off and puree in the blender...

And store in BabyCubes!

Now, time for some veggies...

Cook them up and throw them in the blender. This step took just a bit longer than pureeing the peaches. Those thin skins are fighters!

And load up a few more BabyCubes. Wow, baby food peas that are actually green! What a concept!

And the verdict...

Gavin would have licked the bowl of peas clean at dinner tonight had I let him! Tomorrow, we'll give the peaches a try.

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It turns out that the downside of Gavin developing hand-eye coordination and learning to crawl is that he becomes bored very easily. When he's strung out on a napless evening of overstimulation, he slides from a passively upset baby into the pugnaciously upset little beast you see yelling for attention here. We took him over to his grandparents house for dinner, expecting him to fall asleep on schedule, shortly after arrival. There were too many exciting faces and new toys, though, and even good ol' Mister Sucky couldn't calm him down. Strapping him into his booster only led to the yelling and table-slapping behavior. He stayed combatively inquisitive until the drive home knocked him out. Eventually, he'll realize that he can explore all the fun new sights and sounds much better after a good nap. In the meantime, we don't expect any more invitations to dinner.

Gavin likes to make faces at us through his baby fence. I used to worry that his father's weirdness would rub off on Gavin. Now I'm worried that Gavin's weirdness will make his father even weirder... ;)