There once was a baby boy who liked to dance. He would shake his tiny booty to the slightest hint of a melody, be it a song on the stereo, a movie soundtrack, or even the cacophonous bleating of a so-called "musical" toy. This boy impressed all his relatives with his ability to discern a tune and squat rhythmically in response. His parents looked for different ways to expand his musical repertoire, playing a multitude of genres for him as he stacked blocks or pulled Legos apart in the living room. He danced more, and even threw in a little clapping here and there.

When researching local playgroups and other baby activities, the little bumshaker's Mommy and Daddy heard about a series of music and story programs at the local libraries. The little boy and his father both enjoyed a quiet story program at the closest branch, and decided to try a larger and more musically-inclined program at the larger library inside the city's beltline. The program promised, "songs, rhymes, fingerplays, and lots of interactive fun for ages birth to three years". 

The big day finally arrived. The boy and his dad rearranged their morning routine in order to be at the library before "Rhyme-Time" began. They eagerly followed other parents and babies into "Program Room 6A" as the Wiggles sang a prelude from a boombox. After the room was almost full with 40 or so humans of different sizes, the doors closed and Mrs. Stacy began the program. The little boy was very excited, and shook his butt to the music, clapping along with the rest of the group when appropriate. He enjoyed song after song, not bothering to stop dancing between musical pieces. He happily obliged his father during the rhyming stories, becoming a willing puppet to the various waving, pointing, and stomping motions. The little baby boy even showed marked interest in the other babies around him, taking particular note of a crying Gavin Highsmith, as I held my son tight and exited the room, exchanging a knowing smile with the father of the giddy Rhyme-Time participant. Gavin continued to whimper until we left the noisy group far behind us, taking shelter in the tranquil Non-Fiction section.

I had high hopes for our first Rhyme Time, and even though Gavin clutched me tighter as each new and scary person entered the room, my spirits were buoyed by the sight of that little baby boy and his father, eagerly lapping up the noisy music and dancing. Upset upon entering, Gavin was crying out loud halfway through the first song, and I decided to leave as the third song began without Gavin's agoraphobia abating. I am not worried or upset in any way, however, and I will certainly be taking Gavin out more, not less, after today. With the common cold making it's rounds through our family, we haven't been getting out much over the last month, and a streak of shyness seems to have taken hold of our little Gavin. He'll come around, he does like him some music. Much like the aforementioned baby boy, Gavin will shake his tush at the slightest hint of a melody. On the way home from the attempted Rhyme Time, we stopped at a teacher supply store and picked up some baby castanets with which Gavin may further explore his sense of rhythm. Next week holds another Rhyme Time, and another opportunity for Gavin to learn about the sounds and sights around him.

Feeling a bit cabin feverish from being held captive at home by slowly melting snow all week, we headed downtown this afternoon to visit the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It was a surprisingly impressive museum, one you'd expect to find in a city much larger than Raleigh, and was extremely busy. We'll be sure to go back again since we probably missed a lot of the displays. Gavin was shy with so many people around and wanted to be held during most of our visit, but he enjoyed seeing and feeling new things.

A skinny crab...

There was actually a display where you could guess which animal the scat belonged to. The black bear had the largest, um, sample.

Sea coral feels interesting...

The ginormous whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling was very impressive...

As were the little possums...

Gavin stands in the footprint of an Acrocanthosaurus - a large dinosaur that looks much like a tyrannosaurus and once roamed the land that is now the southern portion of the United States.

Man, if his foot was this big, I wonder what size diaper he wears!

While navigating the streets back to our car, we stumbled upon the state capitol building and decided to take a walk around.

Free of any mamby-pamby hand-holding, Gavin gets a good stride going.

Sidewalk cracks are normally tricky to navigate, but Gavin just plows through with blatent disregard for Mommy's back.

In honor of a very special day, January 24th, Gavin prepares a message for his grandma.

These photos represent each day of Gavin's first year of life - 367 to be exact since 2008 was a leap year and his first birthday is included as well. Not long before Gavin was born, I got the crazy idea of taking Gavin's photo every day of his first year. Wouldn't it be neat, I thought, to be able to someday show Gavin a photo from each day during his most formative year. Never again in our lives do we develop and grow so much in just one year so this seemed to be the perfect way to capture the changes.

Throughout the year, I posted the photos daily on Flickr. Now that the collection is complete, I have added them here to Gavin's web site and created a better interface for browsing the images. View Gavin's first year of photos!

It's interesting to see the the compositional changes through the year. For the first two months, almost every photo is a head shot. Gavin simply didn't do much and his little face was just so darn cute! The "couch shots" became a habit by his second month when I'd often prop him up on the couch for his daily head shot (February 23rd):

Sometimes, I tried disguising the couch by putting a pillow behind him (February 24th):

Heading into his third month, he was able to hold his head up so we often took advantage of the late afternoon sun streaming through the bedroom windows for a tummy photo on the bed (March 18th):

As he became more active, there were more interesting settings and opportunities to take photos. I started to capture his developmental milestones, like cutting his first tooth (May 26th):

And I started taking my camera out of the house more like this trip to Target when Gavin sat in the cart for the first time (June 29th):

Eventually, the photo composition became a far cry from those early headshots (August 24th):

And Daddy and Gmummy took a few of the photos as well!

While a great keepsake for Gavin, this was also a way for me to learn to take better pictures. When you take a photo of the same subject usually in the same setting (our living room almost every weekday) every day, you're forced to avoid boredom by becoming a little adventurous. I became more comfortable just capturing Gavin as he is and not trying to create the perfect portrait studio image every day. November 19th created a photo that no professional photographer would ever take, but it perfectly captured Gavin's quirky behavior at ten months old!

I'm still not sure what the final plan for these 367 photos will be. Maybe, they will only ever be part of Gavin's web site or I may eventually create a photo album or book. For now, I find myself browsing through them on my computer quite often, reminiscing about how quickly Gavin grew through the course of the year yet how long each of the phases seemed at the time. Please feel free to do the same . :)

This morning we awoke to a blanket of white outside. Doesn't Gavin look excited?

Flurries were falling from the time we woke until one o'clock in the afternoon. While some areas of the Triangle saw nearly a half foot of snow, we measured three and a half inches - plenty to completely cover the grass and stick around until tomorrow!

We took Gavin outside early in the morning and he was not a happy snow bunny. He manages to look amused in this sledding photo. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. There is no sled in the photo.

When we ventured back outside after noon, nearly all of our morning footprints had been completely covered by fresh snow and I took a cumulative measurement.

So beautiful...

We thought Gavin might have fun making a snow angel. We were wrong ... very wrong!

But he makes a cute impression, no?

I wasn't expecting this reaction to fun, glorious snow!

We managed to get a few smiles near the end when Daddy started throwing snow in his face.

It didn't last long since his face started burning, but at least I got a few happy Gavin snow pictures!

Gavin was so happy to play back inside where there was no mysterious cold white stuff.

On this inauguration day, I think he should have followed his new president's call, "brothers should pull up their pants." Maybe Gavin is just trying to tell us that he isn't quite ready for the new 18-24 month clothes I bought him over the weekend!

Gavin has a family history with presidential inaugurations. His great-great-grandfather, Herb Rorer (GGma's dad), walked in the inaugural parade with his boy scout troop 96 years ago. President Woodrow Wilson had been governor of New Jersey (and president of Princeton University) and requested that Herb's Princeton troop attend. This is a scan from an actual print taken by a Princeton photographer who accompanied the scouts.

View the Video

Gavin started making this throat clearing noise on his own, but was also quick to imitate me when I prompted him with a clearing of my own throat. Perhaps he genuinely had a tickle, but then decided to play Monkey-See-Monkey-Do. Between throat clearings, you'll see him try to elicit a response from me, first with his lip-smacking kissy noises, and then more subtly by licking his upper lip. He has been chuckling at us all week whenever he sees us copying his lip-licking. If this was a game of Monkey-See-Monkey-Do, I'm not sure which of us was the monkey.

We spent a chilly Saturday morning indoors and decided to break out the crayons to let Gavin color for the first time. He actually colored on the paper instead of the puzzles, carpet, our faces ... so I consider the activity a great success!

Sure, Gav. The other end of the crayon makes pretty colors, too (and, apparently, takes more concentration).

Gavin got upset, as usual, when Daddy tried to help him. Our independent boy likes to figure things out on his own.

Gavin's mop has been getting pretty shaggy again so last night was time for his second haircut. He didn't enjoy it any more than last time, but I was able to get the deed done faster so there were fewer tears. Mr. 24-Hour Bed Head before the cut:

And after:

Today was the third time Gavin has been left in the care of someone other than a family member. All three times were in a church nursery - once last Easter in Florida while Mommy and Daddy were both "working" during the services and the second time was last week. This morning we were attending a church new member class again. Since Gmummy is also taking the class and Aunt Kristen is busy at her church on Sunday mornings, we ran out of babysitters. Gavin had no problem leaving us at Easter and was only fussy before we picked him up last week since it was close to naptime, but the pager light up halfway through our class today indicating the Daddy needed to pick him up. The sad little guy had been crying for ten minutes. There are several more hour-long classes, though, so we'll keeping trying and he'll eventually learn that Mommy and Daddy will return to him in a short time. We're impressed with the childcare provided by the church and it's a good opportunity for Gavin to interact with other kids and adults.

When we returned home, Gavin was his usual happy-go-crazy self again and was content to play by himself. I didn't realize that he had found my water bottle until we noticed him laying on the floor drinking out of it! He will still only drink formula and milk from a bottle, but enjoys water from a sippy cup and, evidently, my Kleen Kanteen!

The winter birthday marathon continued this afternoon with an early celebration for GGma. Her 83rd birthday on Tuesday but the entire family couldn't attend on a weekday. Fresh off an introduction to crayons, Gavin signed her card all by himself much to GGma's delight. Gavin provided the entertainment, as usual, by sharing his Lego bricks and chasing Aunt Kristen in circles around the kitchen.

Have you ever seen a prouder great-grandmother?

I bought Gavin this rugby shirt at Gymboree the previous day (big sales AND I had Gymbucks to spend - woo hoo!). I could lie and justify that I bought it because it's rare to find boy shirts without a hint of blue or that it's a unique color combination, but it really caught my eye just because it's garnet and gold! (go Noles!)

This blog now has an RSS feed for those geeks like Gavin's parents who like to read their web content with a feed reader. The link is the last item in the sidebar or just click below:

•  Gavin's Blog RSS feed
  

I've only tested with Google Reader so I can't guarantee it'll work anywhere else!

The temperatures are dropping here in Raleigh (and everywhere else in the country) this week so Gavin has been donned in full winter gear for our morning walks. This is what he has worn most mornings for the past two months:

Obviously, the goal was function over style. Even Gavin is perplexed by his mismatched appearance.

The gate at the kitchen entryway has been no match for Gavin. He broke one picket off the day it was installed and broke two more this week. Honestly, Mommy. I have no idea what happened to the pickets.

I know I CAN fit through, but don't think I SHOULD.

Gavin's relationship with the new basketball hoop he got from Aunt Cindy and soon-to-be Uncle Chuck for his birthday has quickly progressed from fright to inquisitiveness to adoration. He is now able to "shoot baskets" which basically involves dropping the ball as he pulls down the hoop which triggers sounds of crowd adulation.

I think this distance counts as a three-pointer.

Today was Jeff's 30th birthday. I can say that because he's a man and it's OK to give away a man's age but not a woman's (for some odd reason I've never understood). I'll be joining him on the other side of the hill in a few short weeks, so I was kind to him on this milestone birthday!

The day started with our usual 2 1/2 mile walk around the neighborhood with temperatures in the upper thirties much to his delight. The last few mornings were quite warm in the fifties so we welcomed the opportunity to don our scarves, hats, and gloves again. I worked all day so he wasn't relieved of Daddy Duty, but Jeff opened presents when we returned from our walk and was delighted by three new LEGO sets. For the second time in as many years, Gavin gave Daddy an Indiana Jones LEGO set.

The boys spent a busy morning playing with LEGOs - Jeff assembling his new kits and Gavin playing with his own Duplo bricks.

Gavin thought Daddy's new Indy gangster car was much more fun than his Duplo car.

Gavin likes to walk around holding his Duplo container lid against his face so the world is tinted green. I'm so proud to say that's half my genes in this photo...

One of Gavin's latest habits is bringing us his new John Deere shape shooter barn. It's just the right size for him to carry around by the handle and he enjoys watching us put the shapes in the holes. Gavin always cheats by putting them all in the circle hole since it's the only one big enough for all of the shapes. Some day he'll learn the difference between a circle and a triangle!

In the evening, Gavin decided to terrorize the cats, as usual. Doozer is smart enough to keep her distance. Burt, however, always puts up with the abuse.

I've said it a million times over the past year, but our Burt is without a doubt the most patient and loving cat ever. He puts up with so much tough love from Gavin and still loves him SO much. It's so cute when he walks up to Gavin and rubs against his legs ... usually less than a minute after Gavin tried to tear his ear off or steal a fist full of fur!

Gmummy read Gavin one of his favorite books, Jazz Baby, as his bedtime neared and he started getting droopy-eyed.

And Daddy finished lulling him to sleep with some Dr. Seuss.

We took advantage of a beautiful mild afternoon to spend some time outdoors before the temperatures plunge again. It was Gavin's first visit to Blue Jay Point County Park, a great park nearby on Falls Lake with several trails and large open fields. We started off on the trails...

It has been too cold to traipse in the woods for a while so this was Gavin's first time in the backpack in almost two months.

He was really thrilled about it ... honestly ...

We haven't been hiking since Gavin learned to walk so we let Gavin explore a short level part of the path on his own two feet for the first time.

He enjoyed crunching all of the dead leaves and pine needles under his shoes.

I went walking in the woods one day ... in the very merry month of ... January.

The ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah...

We brought Gavin's soccer ball to play in the field. Unlimited space for tiny baby legs to walk and walk!

No way you're getting this ball, Daddy!

Gavin actually dribbles the ball quite well by walking behind it and kicking a bit with every other step.

OK, your turn now, Daddy. Show me what ya got!

I'm beat. Let's call it a day, Daddy.

Nope, Gavin's not sick. He still has never been sick even with Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Kristen all having colds over the holidays! We took our little bundle of craziness to the pediatrician this morning for his one year well baby exam. Here is his new set of stats:

• 22 pounds, 12 ounces (50th percentile)
• 31 inches long (90th percentile)
• 49.2 cm head circumference (97th percentile)
  

The doctor says he's in perfect health and developing right on track. Gavin has only gained one pound since his last check-up three months ago and has grown one and a half inches. He has grown ten inches since he was born! The doctor pointed out how amazing that is. No other time in your life do you grow that much in a single year. Babies are really amazing little creatures!

Doc checked out Gavin's leg since I was concerned that he walks on the outer edge of his right foot with his foot rolled over, but he said it was nothing out of the ordinary. Gavin had his finger pricked for a hemoglobin test to check for iron deficiency (results were perfect) and was so upset by the band-aid on his finger that he barely noticed the three "bee stings" on his leg through his tears. The doctor said that he expects year-old babies to cry through their check-ups and he probably will be just as fussy at his next two well baby exams as well. Oh, joy.

I don't quite remember how this thing got on my leg, but I seem to remember a screaming baby was involved...

The diaper-and-navy-sock look is quite impressive, isn't it?

Gavin was given the OK to start drinking whole milk and wean off formula. Daddy gave him some milk in his sippy cup this evening but he wasn't thrilled about it. We'll keep feeding him formula until he's eating a more well-rounded diet of solids and drinks more milk.

OOH! MILK!

oh. milk.

On Sunday, Gavin self-fed a few spoonfuls ... of air. The first few scoops of oatmeal didn't make it into his mouth, as you can see. Once the spoon was empty, though, he pretended to scoop food from his bowl and then put the spoon into his mouth several times. It was so cute!

Gavin continues to insist on holding a spoon or two when he's being fed. Otherwise, he'll try to grab the spoon we're feeding him with. We'll try to teach this self-feeding idea as quickly as possible so we aren't washing all of Gavin's spoons after every meal!

After cupcakes, custard, and singing "happy birthday," everyone moved to the living room where Gavin opened his gifts (with a little help).

Hurry up, Daddy. The anticipation is killing me!

I don't know, Grandpa. Horizontal stripes are just all wrong on you. Other than that, though...

A little preventative maintenance before putting Wheely Bug through his first road test.

Fly, Wheely Bug! Fly! Buzzzz buzzzzzzz!

Lovin' the Wheely Bug!

I'm all growed up now. *I* can ride my all by myself!

Gavin thought the self-propelled tractor he received from the GG's needed a little more power.

A posed family portrait ... how did we manage this?!

Gavin shows us the proper way to complete his new transportation puzzle.

Mommy and Daddy knew this latch puzzle would keep Gavin's fingers busy for, well, a few minutes at a time, at least.

Tired of all his new toys, Gavin returned to his old standby: playing underneath the dining room table.

Hey, Gmummy! Let's play!

Now, stuck your bum in the air and look at your feet, like this. C'mon, Gmummy! You can do it!

This simple portrait was probably the hardest shot to take all day!

I also wanted to get a "birthday suit" shot, but including the dreaded birthday hat was asking too much, I suppose. Surely this thing isn't made from naturally-occurring substances.

One year old in his birthday suit.

View the Video

Not impressed with his first cupcake or our singing, Gavin begs to be rescued from the celebration in his honor.

View the Video

On a very windy day during our Florida trip, Grandpa and Gavin kick the ball around, and then Grandpa plays catch while Gavin plays botanist. Gavin does occasionally like to dribble and roll the soccer ball at home, but once in the Great Outdoors, he was more interested in the giant seagrape leaf he found than playing catch.

View the Video

In Episode 16 of Season 9 of the Seinfeld TV series, Jerry teaches George the showmanship technique of "leaving on a high note". After pleasing the crowd, a good performer makes his exit quickly, so as to leave them wanting more. Gavin has been paying attention to our nightly Seinfeld viewing, apparently, as he remembered how to properly end his performance of putting the ball back into the ball popping toy for the first time. He thought he was just playing with the toy his grandparents gave him, but when he put the errant ball back into the chute, the crowd went wild. Our little feller took a quick victory lap around the room and then promptly made his exit, before his stellar act was "buried under a pile of gaffs and bad puns," as George says.

The theme for Gavin's first birthday party was a Winter ONE-derland. Cute, eh? If you Google first birthday party theme ideas, you'll discover that it's one of the most common themes for winter birthdays so it's far from original, but I loved the idea of decorating with snowflakes for our little one-of-a-kind Snowflake. :)

Gavin enjoyed the snowflakes and balloons. Bring on the cheese!

The party started at 1:10 PM, the exact time Gavin was born. We served a dessert menu including these vanilla/vanilla cupcakes. Having never baked cupcakes before, I searched for the perfect recipe and found one from Billy's Bakery in New York City. Martha Stewart says they're the best cupcakes in NYC and, while not a Martha fan, I couldn't pass on her judgement! Daddy piped the white chocolate snowflakes on top. "Piped" is one of those fancy Food Network words that, for us, means "melt the chocolate in the nuke box, pour into a ziplock bag, and squeeze out of a snipped corner."

Along with the cupcakes, we served Goodberry's frozen custard which I can easily see becoming a tradition. Chocolate and mint chocolate chip were the selected flavors. Gavin ate a small spoonful of the chocolate custard but wasn't impressed. When he's begging us to stop at Goodberry's every day in another two years, I'll enjoy reminding him that he refused it on his first birthday!

We found this darling birthday hat for Gavin to wear but, as expected, he wanted nothing of it. Whose idea was it to put this dreadful thing on my head, anyway?!

It was YOU, Mommy! I knew it was you!

Party attendees were GGma, GGpa, Grandpa, Gmummy, and Aunt Kristen. Mommy and Daddy attended as well, of course, but were busy behind the still and video cameras out of the group shot.

Hmm... Now what do we have here?

I shall give this unusual specimen my signature one-finger touch test.

Or maybe I'll just give some to Gmummy so I'll know if it's safe to eat.

And that was exciting as cupcake eating got with Gavin. No typical icing-smeared-all-over-the-face moment for our picky eater.

Gavin has been cutting his first molar and soothes his aching gums by cramming all of his fingers into his mouth. He sought comfort with Gmummy while everyone shifted to the living room for the opening of gifts.

On the eve of his first birthday, here is a snapshot of Gavin:

• Lately, Gavin loves sharing. He's always handing his toys to us.
  
• Gavin has eight teeth and is currently cutting a top right molar.
• He still won't eat many foods, but loves baby oatmeal, yogurt, apple sauce, and most fruit.
• He falls asleep between 8:00 and 9:00 at night and wakes up at 7:00 AM.
• Gavin doesn't speak any distinctive words, but says, "haaaaaa," as a greeting. He also says "mamama" and "dadada" a lot and seems to think that all cats are "Burts" based on his greeting of the Florida Highsmith cats.
• He loves to wave "hi" and "bye." He's recognizes many departure signals like putting shoes on and the jingling of keys and will start waving.
• Gavin also loves clapping. He easily mimics clapping and will start clapping whenever anyone says, "Yay!" or anything else that sounds like praise, especially when directed at him!
• He doesn't sit still for storytime except when reading The Great Smoky Mountain Salamander Ball or Jazz Baby. Forget about any book that doesn't rhyme!
• On Christmas Day, Gavin stood up in the middle of the room for the first time so he's now up and down and confidently walking everywhere.
• Gavin's best friend is Monkey. They always cuddle up for naptime.
  

This afternoon, Gavin helped Daddy decorate for his party. He loved the balloons, especially when Daddy let the air escape in his face!

Gavin's blog has been redesigned for the new year! I've been wanting to give this blog a facelift for a while and this new colorful design better conveys Gavin's crazy personality. I develop web sites every day at work so designing this blog is a lot of fun since I can do whatever I want, not just what a client tells me to do!

Geek talk ... the blog should be working flawlessly if you're using Firefox or Safari browsers. Internet Explorer 7 isn't displaying everything exactly as planned and I haven't tested in IE6 yet, but the majority of visitors to this blog are Mac or Windows/Firefox users so I've given Microsoft the back seat.

Well, I can't post a blog entry without a picture, so here is Gavin helping Aunt Kristen with his good luck fishy face during a game of Yahtzee this afternoon.