I seem to be pulling the camera out less these days so before I went too long without taking a photo of Gavin I turned his usual evening bath into a photo shoot last night. Sometimes it's easy to forget about documenting these usual, every day occurrences, so while this may not be the most exciting entry in the blog, it's a good snapshot of Gavin's bathtime at 15 months old!

Gavin likes to line up all of his vehicle and sea creature squirter toys on the edge of the tub...

There's nothing wrong with that, Momma. I like to keep the bathtub tidy.

Here he is making his vroom vroom truck sound. Yes, I know his hand is on a crab, though. What's your point?

Gavin thinks it's hilarious when I toss his foam shapes and they stick right to the side of the tub. He laughs so hard. It doesn't take much to amuse this kid.

After I pull the plug, Gavin sits in the tub the entire time the water empties and watches it go bye-bye down the drain. I'm trying to teach him to pull the plug himself when he wants to get out of the tub, but he won't. I guess that's a good thing since he'll probably learn to pull the plug around the same time he decides he hates baths and then we'll have a big problem on our hands!

Pruney baby feet are the cutest!

After his bath, he walks straight to the kitchen for his bottle of milk. We've finally been successful in taking the first step toward bottle weaning. He actually drinks milk from a cup now! He'll usually only accept the cup for his late afternoon serving of milk. The breakfast and bedtime servings are still bottles but we're getting there!

Two years ago today, we learned we would be having a baby and this blog began. For two years, a baby has been our top priority and always at the forefront of our minds. I've restarted this blog entry several times because I'm not sure exactly what to say, probably because attempting to summarize the past two years in a single blog entry is an impossibile task.

Most of all, I've learned that babies are amazing little miracles. I can't even fathom that Gavin was a tiny embryo one millimeter long two years ago and that he's grown into a little person with most adorable giggle, hilarious personality, and sweetest face God ever created. I even experienced it day by day and still don't understand how it's possible. It has been an incredible and miraculous two years!

Gavin's second Easter was pretty uneventful compared to last year. For years, I've spent the entire morning at church ringing handbells for three services and Gavin spent the entire morning with us at church last year since Daddy also ran the sound booth. We're still not very involved in a Raleigh church yet, so Easter was a little bare this year since my family really has no other traditions other than church and eating lunch together. Turns out most people color eggs and go to Easter egg hunts. Who knew? ;) We'll have to try that next year. The church we're joining in a few weeks held their egg hunt weeks ago and we completely forgot about it since we weren't in the Easter frame of mind yet back in late March.

First thing Sunday morning, Gavin woke up to find his Easter basket sitting in the middle of the living room filled with toys. The Easter Bunny brought him the Fisher Price Little People Easter construction set. Little People wearing hard hats? No way!

The Easter Bunny had placed plastic eggs all around the living room. Mommy and Daddy pointed them out so Gavin could collect them.

We attended the service at Aunt Kristen's church where Mommy, Kristen, and Gmummy rang handbells for one service. Then, we headed to Kristen's house for a make-your-own sandwich lunch. Gavin was more interested in the big wooden contraption in the living room that made pretty sounds when you bang on the keys...the louder the better!

Gavin went home for a nap and then we visited the GG's for a short while. Determined to get a picture of Gavin posing with his Easter basket, we plopped him on the bed when we returned home. He was thrilled, thrilled, I tell you, to participate in yet another one of Mommy's photo shoots. Isn't his exuberance contagious?

He tried to escape, but he should know by now that he can't outsmart a photo-crazy Momma with a camera.

I compromised and decided to forego the lame posed portrait and let Gavin do his own thing.

Really, these photos are so much better than if he had actually posed.

Gavin agrees that free-for-all shoots are much more fun, too.

There is one small window in our living room that Gavin has designated the exclusive habitat of his Fisher Price Little People. He keeps them all lined up on the windowsill, not allowing them to partake in the fun he has with their cars, trucks, airplane, schoolbus, farm, or parking garage. If we put the people in the cars, he takes them out and puts them back on the windowsill before sending driverless car after driverless car down the corkscrew ramp of his parking garage. For the purpose of demonstration, I removed all the people from the windowsill, set the camera rolling, and left Gavin to his own devices.

Several times each week, Daddy or Gmummy take Gavin to one of the many local city or neighborhood parks. Weekends are a time for the big state park hikes so it's rare for Mommy to accompany Gavin on a trip to one of the small parks or playgrounds. This afternoon, Mommy and Daddy took Gavin to the Tyler Run park in Wake Forest. It's a great place with wide open spaces, trees, a little playground ... lots to keep an active 15-month-old busy for a while. The partly cloudy weather was perfect for picture taking!

Gavin found all sorts of nature goodies including rocks...

Flat rocks...

Tree roots...

Pine cones...

Sticks...

Whenever he finds something, he always has to share...

Gavin says, "It's go time! Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum..." You know, from that Seinfeld episode where Jerry gets the old personal trainer and ... oh, nevermind.

Gavin had lots of fun running down the big hill ...

Before heading to the car, we stopped by the playground for a few trips down the slide. We'd try the swings, but he hates them now which I don't understand since he used to love swinging!

He soon found the wood chips to be more interesting.

View the Video

As mobile as he is, Gavin rarely remains still long enough to show off any of his new skills. While we had him captive in the bath, we ran through a few of the tricks we could think of.

Climbing the shelves to steal Daddy's computer mouse...

I could take this picture every day. Gavin napping on his tummy with his knees pulled underneath while cuddling Monkey...

View the Video

When Gavin wants to get somewhere quickly, he moves his feet up and down at a higher frequency than normal and swings his legs in wider arcs. He isn't getting much efficiency from the extra energy he's expending, though, as his forward speed doesn't increase by an amount commensurate with all the crazy hip-switching and high-stepping. Oh, and he likes the way the hard footfalls modulate his voice, so sometimes he yells constantly for effect. At least the yelling serves to clear the cats out of the way - they head for high ground when there is baby-running going on.

At the point in the video where you see him trip and then stare at the carpet for a bit, he is examining the drool that slipped from his mouth when he fell. I wish we all had faster internet connections so I could upload the HD version, where yall could see sunlight twinkling in the thin stream of drool.

This morning, Gavin visited one of his favorite places in the world - the pediatrician's office! *sarcasm off* It was time for his 15-month wellness exam. Here is his new set of digits:

• 23 pounds, 10 ounces (45th percentile)
• 32 ½ inches long (90th percentile)
• 49.7 cm head circumference (97th percentile)

His growth since the last check-up three months ago was the same as the three months before that - one pound and 1 ½ inches.

Gavin's dislike of the doctor's office is growing with every visit. Today, he even screamed when he was being weighed. Of course, this was after he was carried naked down the hallway to the scale with nothing but a puppy pad loosely wrapped around him. There could have been girls in that hallway, after all. His doctor is fantastic, though, and jokingly warned us that next time Gavin will probably start crying the minute we pull into the parking lot. He began his summary by saying that Gavin has a very healthy set of lungs and is extremely strong!

Here, Gavin demonstrates his own body fat analysis as he tries to convince us that he can perform his own wellness exam. See, I don't need to see the doctor anymore, Mom!

Has another month gone by already? Here is what Gavin's up to at 15 months old:

Gavin helps set the dinner table. I give him bottles of ketchup, mustard, or other condiments and ask him to put them on the dinner table. He does! However, he grabs them off the table immediately after putting them there.

We taught Gavin to whisper. This ability comes in handy when Gavin is in a yelling mood. He thinks it's funny to mimic us speaking very quietly.

Gavin only uses Mr. Sucky when he sleeps and now associates his pacifier with sleeping. If we give him Mr. Sucky and put him in his crib but he's doesn't want to sleep, he'll stand up and throw it out of the crib to let us know! When he wakes up in the morning, I hold him over his crib and let him drop Mr. Sucky onto the mattress until he needs it when he returns to his crib for a nap. From here, we'll start weaning the pacifier from his nap and eventually at night.

Speaking of sleeping, Gavin is self-weaning to one nap a day. Most days, he gets grumpy around 10:00 AM and naps once around 10:30-12:30. He usually doesn't need an afternoon nap anymore and is ready to go to sleep for the night around 8:00-8:30.

We're taking baby steps towards bottle weaning, but Gavin is still pretty insistent on beverages being served in their proper vessels. This means milk should be served in a bottle and water in a cup. We give him milk in a cup once or twice every day and he managed to surprise us by taking a few sips from the cup of milk sitting on his tray at dinner once this week so we're hopeful this is progress!

Gavin is slowly making progress with table foods. He loves any yogurt we feed him, eats 1/8 cup of real oats mixed with his baby oatmeal, and loves organic fruit bars that Gmummy found at Food Lion. Applesauce is still his favorite food and he likes bread now. Everything else is finger foods from our lunch and dinner plates. Most doesn't go over well, but he is offered many different foods and eagerly tries everything at least once.

He is getting better at spoon-feeding himself but usually gives up after five minutes, preferring to feel his food ooze between his fingers.

Gavin loves to run. We probably love watching him run even more. He's too cute!

Gavin throws all his bath toys in the tub when I start the water. I have to keep a close eye on him because he's also thrown in his dry towel and once nearly tossed one of Mommy's shoes.

"Good boy" is his favorite phrase to hear. He immediately breaks into an ear-to-ear grin and starts clapping at himself.

We have a little climber. Gavin climbs onto the bottom of the step kitty tower and the kitchen safety fence.

All four canine teeth have started breaking through. That brings the tooth total to 16 and means he only has his two-year molars to go! Sixteen teeth in less than a year ... he's handled it better than I would!

He still does not speak any real words. He'll say "buh" when we talk about Burt or Buzz-Buzz and he repeats "mamamama" a LOT, especially when he's upset. Otherwise, he has all sorts of letters, syllables, and gibberish. He's very loud and talkative even if he's not saying real words!

Gavin understands most of what we tell him including "go pet Burt", "go tickle Daddy", and "bring me a LEGO."

Slapping one or both hands on his thighs means "no."

He hates getting his diaper changed and will immediately start slapping his legs when we merely mention the word "diaper."

Gavin smiles and waves "bye-bye" to me every morning when I tell him I have to go to work (and then usually follows me right into my office).

His favorite toys are Duplo LEGO bricks (which he can consistently attach together now), the Fisher Price Little People parking garage, and Buzz-Buzz, which he terrifies the cats with by pushing around the living room at lightning speed.