Weekends have turned into Mommy-and-Gavin time lately. Daddy has been working most weekends and the 10:00-6:00 schedule he's been assigned lately has allowed us to drop him off at work and keep the car for the day. Whenever Jeff works a shift that ends with store closing at 9:00, we're stranded at home without the car since Gavin is already fast asleep by the time we'd need to pick him up.

We don't usually do anything too exciting on the weekends. There is always the weekly Harris Teeter grocery shopping trip and this weekend, we also went to Earthfare for our monthly stocking up of organic staples (heaven help us if we ever ran out of toddler cereal bars!). Last weekend, we were able to stop by the library for Rhyme Time. Gavin attends at least one of the many weekday sessions every week, but there are only two Saturday sessions a month. Playgrounds are usually off-limits because they're too crowded when the weather is nice. No matter what we end up doing, however mundane it may seem, I just enjoy the mommy-and-son time that makes me so jealous of stay-at-home moms!

In addition to the usual shopping trips this weekend and a lot of reading at home, we went for a walk in Aunt Kristen's neighborhood on a beautiful, cool Saturday afternoon. Gmummy came, too, and we stopped at a new gelato and pastry shop during our walk. Gavin and I shared a dish of chocolate hazelnut gelato. The first bite of cold, creamy goodness caught him off-guard but he quickly dug right in and was soon oblivious to his surroundings as he helped me devour the bowl!

I had to eat fast before Gavin devoured the entire bowl...

Gavin was so engrossed in gelato consumption that he barely noticed Gmummy snapping away with the camera. Don't you be getting any ideas like stealing my gelato, Gmummy!

Even more exciting pictures of Gavin eating. How do you stand the excitement of some of these blog entries?

At home, I tried a brief photo shoot. I need practice taking pictures of active toddlers who don't sit still long enough for me to focus the camera and don't like having their picture taken. Fortunately, I have a subject that exhibits those exact qualities in my very own home.

Don't let these images fool you. This kid does not like his picture taken anymore. All of these photos were taken during a noncontiguous 7.38-second time period in between grunts, frowns, and turned backs.

Gavin agreed to reluctantly pose for this snapshot only after I showed him a picture I'd just taken on the LCD screen of my camera. The kid loves seeing pictures of himself. I'll jot that tip down in my photography notepad. It only worked for one round of several shots but at least he cooperated for a few seconds!

I was so desperate that I even tried the old cliched, "Smile!" which goes against my photography philosophy. This is the face I get as a result. Note to self: Never as a child to "smile" or "say cheese."

Then, he just started getting goofy. Gavin likes contorting his mouth, showing his teeth, sticking out his tongue, etc. Perhaps if we stopped laughing at him when he does these things, he'd stop doing them but he's always being the comedian trying to please his audience.