Gavin and Mommy headed out bright and early on Friday morning in search of Black Friday deals with Gmummy and Gauntie Faye. We started at North Hills shortly after eight so Gmummy could get her free snow globe at JC Penney (she has one for each of the past ten-or-so years now). We also received free reusable bags and gift cards at REI as a few of the first 300 shoppers to enter the store.

After browsing the sweaters, hats, and bedding, we drove to Triangle Town Center for some major shopping! Gavin was a bit overwhelmed by the department store crowds and by the time we all met Aunt Kristen (who starts even earlier than us and shops all over the Triangle!) at Sweet Tomatoes for lunch a few hours later, he was exhausted and beyond cranky. While he refused to sleep in his stroller, he immediately fell asleep in the car before we left the parking lot and enjoyed the rest of his day at home.

I didn't take any photos while out shopping, but captured a few shots of Gavin's bargains when we returned home. I've been wanting to get Gavin an Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids for quite a while and when I finally saw them on sale, I couldn't resist any more! The slip cover still needs to be ironed, but Gavin loves his toddler-sized chair!

Gavin is outgrowing all of his shoes so we hit Stride Rite to find footwear with a coupon in hand and the shoes we loved were also on sale! Score! I say "we" meaning just me since Gavin does not enjoy strangers touching his feet and couldn't wait to leave the store. These size 7 1/2 (a tad big for his size 7 feet, but he'll grow into them!) brown boots work great for both church and play...

We also bought a pair of navy Keds sneakers. Note that we also gave him a haircut recently - his shortest yet at 5/8" all the way around. Gosh, he looks so grown up now with his short hair and big kid shoes!

How cute are they? This kid is all set with footwear until summer!

I couldn't pass up these "old man pajamas" at Belk for 60% off. Gavin, why do you have that crazy look in your eye?

Of course, the box Gavin's chair came in is nearly as fun as the chair itself!

Gavin spent his second Thanksgiving with Daddy, Mommy, Gmummy, and Aunt Kristen just like last year (Grandpa always visits family in Pennsylvania for several weeks every fall). On Thanksgiving morning, we headed to Gmummy's place early to watch the Macy's parade. Gavin made himself right at home as usual by pulling out his toys. He has a giant tub of Mega Bloks at Gmummy's...

We always have fresh-baked cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving morning. They've always come from a can in previous years, but I made them from scratch this year and will definitely do the same from now on! With the turkey baking away in the oven, Gmummy took a long break to watch the parade...

Meanwhile, Gavin took his horse out to the back pasture for a ride...

Giddy-up, horsie!!!

... and he picked out a few stories to read from his book basket...

He ignored the television except when the Rockettes danced. Hmmm...

The turkey was ready to be carved shortly after noon. Yum!

The morning of playtime wore Gavin out and he was ready for an early nap before we sat down for the meal. He grabbed Monkey and when I asked if he was ready for a nap, he dropped to the floor right where he'd been standing! I'll take that as a "yes." Maybe he'll join us at the table again next year!

Aunt Kristen took the dish of cranberry sauce as her own after it was passed around the table...

Gavin was slowly waking up from his nap by the time Daddy was ready to rest from his meal. Have you seen anything sweeter?

Gavin doesn't like turkey or mashed potatoes yet, so he had his usual lunch including yogurt. He never passes up yogurt!

We went to GGma and GGpa's apartment for dessert. Gauntie Faye was visiting as well so it was a full living room! Gavin enjoyed GGma's cranberry upside down cake.

And Gmummy shared a few tiny bites of her cappuccino chip cupcake with mocha buttercream frosting that Aunt Kristen had made for Gummy's birthday two days earlier.

Mommy and Aunt Kristen paged through GGma's Christmas in America book, a Thanksgiving afternoon tradition we've kept for many years. No, we did not plan to dress nearly the same!

With adequate sugar highs, the women sat down for a game of Bananagrams. GGma LOVES games and nearly beat us all!

Gavin and Daddy chose to watch a few episodes of Handy Manny on the iPod instead...

Today, we had our level two ultrasound and had the pleasure of watching our new baby for over a half hour! While we saw the new baby at 12 weeks to quickly check the size and heartbeat, this was the "big ultrasound" where numerous measurements are taken, all the organs are checked, and we learned ... baby 2.0 is a BOY!

The ultrasound technician was wonderful for the half hour she worked through her checklist and we watched our baby. She narrated everything she was doing and explained to us what we were seeing on the screen. All the black spaces on these images are fluid, so portions of the amniotic sac surrounding the baby are always visible. Gray areas are tissue and the bright white areas are usually bone and cartilage.

Here's a profile of the head with a cute little nose! I think that's a hand floating in the black space in front of baby's face. His hand was up by his head almost the entire time the ultrasound took place.

These are the best nearly full-body shots we got. Baby's head is on the left and the torso with spine on the right.The technician pointed out the bladder (a black circle as it was full of fluid!), kidneys, aorta, and all four ventricles of the beating heart.

The technician made a few key measurements including overall length (baby is currently about six inches from head to foot), femur, and head diameter and circumference. He's perfect so far!

Baby's foot!

Of course, we have the traditional "alien shot" of baby's face! The technician examined baby's brain from the top down, showing us that the brain is evenly divided in two, the cerebellum is the correct size, and blood flow through the brain is normal. It's amazing what you can learn about your unborn baby!

We have the photos that clearly reveal baby is boy but I'll save him from possible future embarrassment by not posting them on the internet! Trust us: he's definitely a boy!

Gavin was eating the last of his toast when I had cause to say, "oops!" For reasons still unkown to me, he found that particular word to be rather uproarious. Being the sharing kind of guy, I grabbed the video camera before further provoking him. Note that I was not making any funny faces or other gestures, I only said the word "oops" repeatedly.

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WARNING: This video is over five minutes in duration, and the humor contained is muted and sparse. Its value lies mostly in the form of a developmental snapshot of Gavin at 22 months.

TRANSLATION: Grandmas only.

All are welcome to view, of course. Perhaps you're on lunch break at work, or are avoiding cleaning the bathroom or something. I'm merely warning you not to hold on until the five minute mark, expecting bust-a-gut hilarity, tear-jerking cuteness, or amazing feats of toddler intellect.

Nearly two weeks have passed again since the last blog entry. How did we let that happen? So, here are two weeks' worth of stories and happenings around our rambunctious household.

Most noteworthy and deserving of its own entry, I suppose, was today's checkup on Baby 2.0. Everything is "perfect," as the doctor said after addressing every item on her checklist. Weight gain is perfect, tummy measurement is perfect, Baby's heartbeat is perfect (145-155 beats per minute), and I got a lovely prick in the finger to check iron levels - perfect. We were looking forward to hearing that heartbeat most of all and it immediately came through loud and clear the second she placed the doppler on my belly. We have the Big Ultrasound next Wednesday so we'll hopefully be able to refer to Baby Girl or Baby Boy by Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, Gavin's pants fell off. Fell off ... while he was wearing them! I glanced over and he's standing there with his jeans at his ankles. A quick shake of each foot and they were off completely. Should I mention that these are size 12-18 month pants and Gavin is 22 months old? Gavin has no rear end and he certainly didn't get that trait from my genes! Daddy always says he's like, "a frog stood up and put on a pair of pants." Most of the time, Gavin wears cloth diapers which provide ample posterior padding and keep his pants up. Occasionally, like yesterday, he leaves the house wearing a disposable that is much thinner. He really needs two pants collections - one to wear with cloth diapers and one to wear with sposies. Until we have enough money to supply him with a double pants wardrobe, maybe we'll just invest in a belt.

Speaking of diapers, Gavin has reached the take-off-my-own-diaper phase. If he's only wearing a diaper, he'll take it off. When changing his diaper, we have to pull his pants back up as soon as possible because he'll immediately peel the velcro open with a sly grin on his face. As long as he has pants on over his diaper, this isn't a problem although, as previously mentioned, it isn't always easy even keeping pants on!

Gavin has become quite fastidious. At random times throughout the day, he walks into the kitchen and reaches up for the sink. He used to do this whenever he was thirsty because his cups are usually drying on a towel laying on the counter. Now, he just wants to wash his hands. I don't know where he gets these hand-washing urges from because they never occur before or after he's eaten or when he otherwise has obviously dirty hands. It's always at completely random times. I pull over a dining chair, he crawls up, and leans over to let the water fall over his hands. He doesn't quite have the scrubbing part down yet, but it's very promising that he loves washing his hands so much!

A little rain has never stopped a Highsmith from playing outside!

Gavin still doesn't speak words. I fail to mention this in his monthly updates anymore because it would become redundant month after month and I suppose I'm a little worried about people judging him. It doesn't bother us one iota that he doesn't speak words yet because he exhibits every other sign of understanding communication and hearing, but I'm still fully expecting his doctor to recommend a speak therapist when he goes to his two-year check-up in January and I'm fine with this. Life might be a little easier if he could speak some words, but he still communicates very well with us, especially "yes" and "no." He says, "uh-oh," at the correct times (whenever Mommy is being a klutz or anything falls to the ground) and says "mmm" a lot when he eats, but no actual words like "Mommy" or "Daddy." And he says, "da" (I swear he's just saying "yes" in Russian), "ga", "ba" ... all sorts of sounds ... all ... the ... time. He never stops "talking" all day long and he has the cutest little voice. I want to bottle it up and preserve it forever!

Speaking of topics avoided in recent months, Gavin still doesn't eat a varied selection of food, either. His day consists of a cereal bar for breakfast (he tired of oatmeal months ago), a cup of milk during our morning walk, buttered toast around mid-morning, yogurt and graham cracker-and-peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, a banana and milk in the afternoon, applesauce and pancakes for dinner, and then more milk while he's read his bedtime stories. He also loves chocolate milk and Nutella on crackers, but we limit those. He would eat an entire box of cereal bars every day if we let him - they are by far his favorite food. Until his diet expands, we focus on making the foods he does eat as nutritious as possible. That means only Earth's Best cereal bars - they have twice the vitamins and minerals as their Gerber counterparts. His pancakes are homemade from scratch with whole wheat flour and applesauce substituted for butter. Almost everything he eats is organic - milk, unsweetened applesauce, yogurt, peanut butter... We have an organic-only policy in our house for all dairy products and fruits and veggies with thin skins. We've learned that forcing food into his mouth has absolutely no positive effect, so we'll continue putting new foods on his plate and over-act about how yummy our food is, hoping that someday he'll want to eat more of the foods we do.

It seems that most second-born children are very calm and easy-going babies (Jeff is a second-born. Need I say more?) and I'm beginning to see that this is ingrained even before birth. Of course, from birth, second-borns have to share Mommy and Daddy's time with brother or sister so they never have their parents complete attention. But even now, Mommy can't rest on the couch for the evening when "that's what her body is telling her to do" because big brother needs a play mate and a bath. Mommy doesn't say, "that box is too heavy to lift," like she did when pregnant with number one because, even though he's more than the 25-pound lifting limit imposed by the doctor, she simply has to pick up and carry around 26-pound big brother countless times every day. In short, Mommy can't baby herself like she did while pregnant the first time if there is a toddler in the house. So, Version 2.0 is already becoming more mellow by the day. I can just feel it!

Gavin and I went to Petsmart yesterday for the first time. It's officially his new favorite store. There were dogs for adoption outside on the sidewalk, and birds and fish inside. He was smiling so big that his cheeks required two zip codes instead of their usual one. There were no kitties, though, so I told him the truth: Cats are the most awesome pet available so they were already taken, but no one wants a loud, stinky dog or boring fish or birds so those were still available. You see, we feel that the truth must be told at all times. We're taking him to an aquarium by the beach for his second birthday. I'm even more exciting now than I was before. He is going to have the time of his life!

Gavin has been going through another adjustment period. Daddy started a part-time job at REI several weeks ago and has trained a couple nights a week for the past few weeks. Gavin seems to have noticed that Daddy isn't around all the time like he used to be so it's been a little hard especially since he became such a Daddy's boy during Mommy's first trimester when she was so boring! He's fine when Daddy's gone, but the actual process of leaving and the tears when Daddy finally comes home have been difficult.

Waving bye-bye to Daddy as heads off to work.

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We didn't feel that Gavin would enjoy trick-or-treating at the houses of strangers, so we only took him to see his relatives. After singlehandedly depleting his Gmummy's candy supply, we settled in for some leopard peekaboo, horsey, funny walking, and a good spin to cap off the evening.

Twenty-two months old and two months to two years old! Gavin is certainly keeping us our our toes and thoroughly entertained!

Gavin can still sit at his LEGO table and play for up to an hour. Nothing else keeps his attention that long besides reading!

Gavin likes to fake talk. We tell him to talk and he'll start yapping on and on with all sorts of syllables without putting together a single word. He finds himself quite amusing when he does this. He understands everything we tell him, can pronounce every vowel and letter but still won't say any words. I suppose he doesn't see the point of real talking yet!

He is making lots of connections between real objects and pictures in books. When he sees a picture of a cat, he'll point to Burt or Doozer if they're in the room. One book has a sand box so he always points to the back patio where his sand table sits. Any time he sees a monkey, he has to find Monkey and lay him right on the book over the picture! After pointing to any plane in a book, he always looks up and points at the ceiling.

Gavin says, "uh-oh!" whenever something falls on the floor (even when it's another customer dropping something at the supermarket!) or I say, "oops!" I've realized I'm more of a klutz that I originally thought since I hear "uh-oh" after all of my "oops!"

Gavin is a master hider when playing hide-and-seek. At the end of the day, he knows that certain sounds upstairs mean that Mommy is coming down to the living room so he hides from me with Daddy's help while I "try" to find him. While his hiding places may not actually hide him so well, he remains remarkably still and quiet while "hidden." His best hiding places to date are in a full laundry basket and under my desk behind the chair.

Gavin requires company briefly when falling asleep for his nap or for the night. Mommy or Daddy lay on the floor beside his crib for a minute or two while he settles down. Occasionally, he reaches a hand between the bars of the crib for a hand to hold. It's incredibly precious!

He loves to wear mittens.

Gavin loves any Berenstain Bear book right now.

Another favorite book is a DK Publishing's Finding Nemo book (we love DK Publishing books!). He likes Dory, Nemo, Marlin, Bruce, and all of the popular characters but his favorite, by far, is Pearl the little flapjack octopus. You know, the character that is in the movie for all of five minutes at the beginning as one of Nemo's new classmates who accidentally "inks"? Yep, she's his favorite. His face lights up and he giggles as he points to her in every picture on the page. Only after he points to every picture of Pearl will he let me start reading the words on the page!

Gavin was recently prescribed his first medication. He went to the doctor two weeks ago and was diagnosed with a sinus infection and minor ear infections (never ran a fever, though) so he was given amoxicillin. He loved it and eagerly looked forward to taking his medicine twice daily for the past ten days. He'd often say, "mmmm!" as it went down his throat! Figures that a kid who's as picky an eater as Gavin would actually love nasty medicine!

Nothing is more frightening in Gavin's world than the THX sound intro on some movies. It's gotten to the point where he starts wimpering whenever we insert a DVD into the player.

Gavin's new favorite snack is peanut butter and graham cracker sandwiches.

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Gavin found a pumpkin just his size. He wanted to carry it, but found it a bit too heavy.

Commander Highsmith confidently walked to his launch vehicle, the mighty Toyota Rav4, which would transport him to several space stations on his mission to obtain a payload bay full of chocolate and sugar.

So relaxed and confident was he in his ability to complete his mission successfully that he took time to casually pose for a few photographs by the press just moments before launch.

Launch was a success and his shuttle first docked at the space station GG near the planet Raleigh. Commander Highsmith faltered only slightly in his braveness when he sought the help of a PSD (Plastic Soothing Device) to assuage his growing nerves.

Once inside, he was briefed on the space station's status from its commander, GGma. While she indicated nothing was amiss, Commander Highsmith noted an unusually high temperature inside the space station and was eager to depart and continue his mission!

His mighty Rav4 shuttle traveled to its next destination: space station Grents in the galaxy of Wake Forest.

The crew here is extremely friendly and Commander Highsmith immediately recognized his peers.

He walked right in without any hesitation and filled his CCC (Candy Collecting Container) with cups of chocolate and peanut butter, a favorite of his ground crew at Mission Control. Mission success!

He completed another mission object inside the space station: crumble the cup of chocolate and peanut butter into tiny bits of chocolate and peanut butter.

Commander Highsmith easily won the admiration of the crew for his courage and cuteness. Well done, Commander!

Yes, this Halloween costume was solely the fulfillment of Mommy's unrealized childhood dream.

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Creepy Eyes started as a way for Mommy to entertain Gavin in the backseat. He picked it up himself and established it as a mainstay in his comedy routine. When he wants an instant laugh, he will either make his monster sound, "GA!", or whip out the old Creepy Eyes. Also featured in this video: his old-timey car horn, the first ever "ooooowee", muscle flexing, correct identification of his right and left hands, a failed attempt to instigate speech, his trucker signal, and of course, more Creepy Eyes!