11 Month Photos (finally)

We're just over two weeks from Gavin's first birthday (gasp) so I figured I should get on it and upload his 11 month pictures. I still have many stories to tell from our adventures the last 6 weeks, so stay tuned. I hope to add several postings this week.

Here are a few photos from Gavin's 11 month birthday. We spent the week at Black Lake Bible Camp in Olympia with Tony and our middle school kids. The setting is beautiful!
Demonstrating one of his new favorite skills-- Thumbs up! Sometimes he does both hands which reminds his Aunt Tonia of "The Fonz." Gotta love the genuine delight in this expression. Gavin is amazing and so much fun with all of his facial expressions.

Love it!

Action Shot-- Gavin has for a long time expressed his enthusiasm by shaking his arms up and down; sometimes in front and sometimes to the side (seemingly winding up to take off). It brings a smile to my face every time to see the joy he has as he takes in and discovers life.

Demonstrating his exploratory skills. It goes something like this..."Hmmm. What's that? Let me quickly crawl and reach for it and put it in my mouth to see what it is. And if mama sees me do it, it will be an even better game to see if I can get it in my mouth before she stops me."

Other skills we're enjoying:

*Waving-- to anyone, anytime, anywhere (almost)
*Blowing kisses-- again, not always well timed but so cute (Tony's not so sure it's something a boy should do, but I figure since he's still a baby it's harmless.)

*"So Big"-- Raising his arms with and without prompting to show how big he is

*Peekaboo-- Gavin has begun initiating this game. The best is when he finds ways to move is body behind or below objects to play.

We recently took a ferry ride to Seattle. He enjoyed most of the 35 min ride alternately standing on the bench and then bending down behind it to play peekaboo with the other passengers.

*Extrovert-- no question. He is one to scream (yes, scream) with delight when others are around but especially babies and kids of similar size. I may have mentioned this before, but I was keenly aware of his enthusiasm on our recent ferry ride. After a few minutes of "screaming" his greeting to a 10 month old I realized that his voice was probably being heard a long way down the boat. Oh well. I'll take screaming in delight over any other kind of screaming any day.