Gavin Video

These are the awesome dance moves of a 3 year old.

Pictures

I added what pictures I had, but clearly did not take enough.

Wardrobe Update

An occasional obsession for spurts of a few days has been wearing underwear on his head as a mask (pulled down so he is peeking with one eye through the leg hole). Of course one day last week, he insisted on wear them to school because he was a superhero and that was his mask. Luckily they are clean underwear. I am pretty sure Allen would have been horrified, but I figured what harm could it be, I'm sure he'll take them off at some point. They thought he was hilarious and much to my surprise he was still wearing them when I picked him up at the end of the day.

Then another day last week he insisted on wearing "sock-hands" another mini obsession where he wears exactly what is sounds like - a pair of socks on his hands like mittens. These are his "spider-man gloves". Again, he wore them most of the day; only taking them off to eat. Not because it was difficult, but because they might get dirty.

And then the icing on the cake was this wonderful holiday weekend. We started Thursday morning not wanting any clothes and Allen found a pair of black pants and convinced him they were black spider-man/venom pants so he was thrilled. The trouble- no matching shirt. Allen tried a black shirt which said "Elmo is my Homeboy" to which Gavin cried, "That's not a venom shirt, that is my homeboy shirt. I don't want my homeboy shirt." So he figured he didn't need a shirt and would be like the one 5 second scene in spiderman where Peter Park has no shirt on (how he has latched on to that scene, I don't know). I told him he had to wear a shirt to thanksgiving (to which he replied over and over again that he would not get cold-obviously totally unaware of the social niceties we all play especially when extended family is around) and agreed to wear a zip up jacket as a compromise. What jacket does he grab- a puffy royal blue vest (clearly not serving my purpose of looking "normal" let alone not having sleeves to stay warm). Not exactly what I had in mind! After much "discussion" we convinced him to switch to something else and wore it zipped up all day - no one really could tell that he was not wearing a shirt underneath it.

What did he find while at my parents - Mimi and Poppy, but the pair of black knee high hose my mother had taken off after a long day of cooking and being the hostess. He couldn't be more pleased because now he had a pair of black spider-man/venom GLOVES! They might have been alittle stinking, but he was thrilled and insisted on the one's Mimi wore and not a clean pair to come home. Then for the entire next day, he wore "Mimi's gloves" a lot of the day.

(knee high hose on his hands)

Saturday, also insisting on still wearing his venom pants we at least convinced him to wear a solid black shirt as a venom shirt, but he wanted desperately to be outside without a jacket so you could see his venom "costume". So we put a second black shirt (the "homeboy" shirt underneath). This worked, but later in the day, he decided to be regular spider-man and put his Halloween suite on (which we wear almost daily).

In my attempt to convince him to take off the outfit I found a new shirt he had not wore with a robot or car or something on it. He was excited and immediately put it on over his spider-man suite. Now, let me remind you that he is wearing two black shirts, a spider-man suite, venom pants and now a new forth shirt (feels alittle like the 12 days of christmas). How is this child not burning up. Luckily-no plans for going out into public, so who cares.

Sunday I told him we had to take some of these clothes off, he was clearly getting hot, rolling them up etc. What did he find and want to wear? A pair of blue swimming trucks with bugs all over them and you guessed it NO shirt. Talk about one extreme to the other. Oh and don't forget Mimi's socks /knee high hose on his arms.

This morning, I said he could wear his bug pants (which he really wanted to show his friends at school). If he wore a pair of pants underneath because it was cold. So he went to school in a red striped shirt, blue swimming trucks with blue pajama pants underneath and Mimi's hose on his hands. They have to think we are NUTS!

I am learning to chose my battles and honestly, who cares if he matches right now. It does, however make for some interesting pictures. I'll try to post some soon.

Potty Training Update

Potty training is obviously going so well I haven't had anything to report in a long time. Our first accident since our 2nd week of potty training was while he was napping at daycare last week. He woke-up saying "I am still a big boy, I tried." - How cute. I know our second child will be an absolute nightmare because everything has gone so well with Gavin. That is an honest hesitation I have for having a second. It can't go this well twice.

Update

All is still going very well with potty training. I finally broke down and bought pull-ups for nighttime. Luckily he doesn't mind them.

Otherwise, we got his Halloween costume (Spider-Man)on Sunday and he has worn it every evening since then. It was a battle to get it off the first couple of nights, but that is improving. He will at least wear a jacket while eating meals so he doesn't completely ruin it before Halloween.

I'll get pictures up soon.

Sign of a Good Day for a 2 year old

If a two year old could have a concrete measurement of a good day, I am sure it would be by the amount of dirt between their toes. I'm pretty sure Gavin had a fun day today.

We spent the morning at the Down Syndrome Indiana fundraiser called the Buddy Walk Downtown. It was a cold, but beautiful day. However, from all the rain this week, it was a muddy muddy mess. I wish these pictures truly showed how dirty he reality was. His pants, shirt, and shoes were covered in mud. He insisted on wearing crocks, which I wasn't thrilled about with the cold weather. In hindsight, they were probably perfect because they are so washable. The bad thing was they would get stuck in the mud and he would walk out of them.

The other "interesting" part of the day was this was our first truly public/large group outing were there were lines for a bathroom (portalet). Luckily we never had to wait for more than 1 person, but the portalet was absolutely disgusting!! I thought they were bad to go in myself, but imagine a 2 year old and everything he wants to touch, let a lone needs to touch just to get up on the potty and pee. Luckily I bought a potty seat to take with us places so he doesn't fall in and this was the first time we really used it (THANK GOD!). On top of that, imagine the level you must bend down to to help a 2 year old get their pants up... It was not fun.

Luckily they also had portable hand washing stations with running water, soap....

Later that night we went to hear Allen play in the Muncie Music Festival which was cold, but fun. Gavin enjoyed watching his daddy play drums and the music. Of course, again we were at a large public place with limited bathrooms. This time there was alittle more waiting, but at least it was an indoor bar bathroom (not exactly my first choice, but after the morning a major improvement).

Days 12-10/9/09

OK...I'm tired of keeping track of actual days now that we are in double digits, but I can't believe it has only been 2 weeks. Gavin is doing so well, you'd think we've been working on this for quite a long time. We have not had any accidents since last Sat (day 11) and I am very proud of him. Last night we had 2nd public outing with a family gathering for Allen's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. His 4-year-old cousin, Jackson, was there to play with (who is of course potty trained) so it was good for him to see another kid have to stop what they are doing to go to the potty. We haven't seen his other cousins (twins) since we started this process.

We also are on day 3 of trying undies at night. He has been waking up at night dry and really fighting the diaper, so we reluctantly tried it. So far....so good with that aspect of potty training too. I'm sure that is where our biggest trouble will be, but no yet.