New Faces, New Tricks, New Traditions... All in a Week's Time

The week of Christmas was quite eventful for the Toth Family. So eventful, in fact, that it took me a couple of weeks to recover and then a couple more to catch up with photos and blogging.

We had a great time this Christmas. Everything we did had so much more meaning because we got to share it with Gavin. We had lots of fun enjoying all of the firsts and thinking through some of the traditions our family will have. Gavin is by far the greatest gift we received this year.

So here are the cliff notes of Gavin's first Christmas and our trip to California.

Gavin's first plane flight (outside the womb, of course.)
Loving standing and playing with his Papa.

Our valiant knight, Oliver.

A new family tradition-- new PJs on the eve of Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning and Gavin's first stocking. He was quite enamored with the gummable keys in his stocking.

The making of Toth Family Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas evening. Quite scrumptuous. Way to go Tony!

Tony introduced Gavin to his first Tommy Burger. Don't worry. No burgers or soda were consumed by Gavin in the taking of this photo.

Crowns from our Christmas Crackers.

Gavin with his Gramme and Grampa.

Cyrus Toth. Is he cute or what?

Tony's longtime friend Marie. She was witness to Gavin's first rollover. Gavin's other new tricks included playing with his feet, additional talking sounds and wiggling his way to a 180 degree rotation.

Ivan was excited but a little apprehensive to hold Gavin but he did a great job!

More Cousins! Ivan, Gavin, Elitza and Cyrus. Not Pictured: Baby #4.

Good Friends. Gavin meets Jenny and Henry (and Jeff, not pictured). The boys are 4 weeks apart and destined to be great friends.

Gavin with is Uncle Philip and Cousin Oliver. Where's Auntie Colleen?

Gavin: "Why am I awake Papa?"

We had a pre-Christmas dinner with all of the family. Time got away from us and we started opening gifts after 8:30. After realizing that we couldn't experience gifts without Gavin, we scooped him out of bed and interrupted sleep. Needless to say he was a little confused.

This blurry picture demonstrates some of the chaos of the gift opening extravaganza.

Cousins Sicily and Olvier. They are the cutest!

Another introduction: Cousin Rocco and Uncle Warren. (Also Cousin Sicily and Aunt Nichole.) These guys are only 8 days apart. They made the same facial expressions and noises. It was a crack up.

Grampa and Gavin hit it off from the start.

Gramme and Grampa were having so much fun with the company and festivities there was no reason to leave it all and sleep in a cozy bed.

Gavin got to meet Jen and Steve Sweet-- VIPs in Tony's life.

Friends from the Laguna Crew-- the Sweet boys, Bryan and Brooke.

Our adorable little reindeer.

Gavin made more friends-- More folks from the Laguna posse. Casey, Garret & Cindy, Cameron and Laura.

Ummm. Islands. Yummy. And Laguna friends. Jill, Casey, Cindy & Garret, Cameron and my boys.

Gavin just needed a little introduction to his feet and then they were instant friends.

Four Months Old and Snow is Falling

Gavin is now Four Months Old! (as of last Saturday) Not an extremely eventful marker except that it means that we are only two months away from solid food. Right now that is a lot to get my mind around so it's good I still have two months.

Gavin continues to be a good natured, fairly mellow baby. In fact, many people comment that he's like his dad. He is often caught wide-eyed observing and soaking everything in. At church, at the store, and in other new and social situations, he is very content to watch and learn, often with very little wiggling. We can almost see the wheels spinning in his head.

We went to the doctor for his four month check up today. Gavin is weighing in at 14lbs. 9oz. and almost 26" long. Doc said he's healthy and on the right track.

We've been enjoying Christmas concerts, parties and events and now our first snow fall of the year and Gavin's first snow. He's not much for the cold, but the bundle sack that fits on his car seat is very warm and cozy. So cozy, in fact, that it's almost recipe for an instant nap.

What a joy he is!

A Few More Firsts

We've enjoyed a few more "firsts" in our family as of late:

1. Tony and I went on our first date A.G. (after Gavin). We left him in wonderful hands with our friend Corky from church and enjoyed a very nice and very indulgent dinner (thank goodness we had a gift certificate). We were away from Gavin for 2.5 hours and enjoyed the time alone. I am happy to report that I was quite relaxed during our date (but I was also very excited to return home to our son). The best part is that Corky said she'd do it again sometime. So there will be a date #2...

By the way, we went to the same restaurant a year ago, almost to the exact date (only 2 days off) for a Christmas party. That was the day that we found out we were pregnant. :)

2. We got Gavin's first Christmas tree last week. And it turns out it's the first Christmas tree that we've actually purchased since we've been married. We decided not to cut down any more trees in our backyard and instead went to the tree farm and cut down one of theirs. We decorated the tree and I had hopes that it would capture endless hours of Gavin's attention. So far he's not really captivated by it. In fact, we were about to put the star on the tree and I told Tony to wait because we couldn't do it without Gavin. So, I went and got him out of his crib (it was time to eat anyway) so that he could experience the tradition. He's was sure to let us know that he much prefers his own tradition of eating.

Weather report says that snow is coming to us this weekend... that will be another first.

Our Little Vocalist

Our little guy has a set of lungs and he's discovered them in a new way. This past Sunday, while we were in the kitchen preparing lunch, we thought we heard him screaming in the living room. Turns out he was screaming, but it was a happy, "I'm experimenting with a new skill" kind of scream. He LOVES his voice.

It's quite loud and can be heard across the house. Seems like he's most vocal while he's playing with his "friends" on his floor gym in the living room.

Here's a video bit of our Happy Screamer. The camera angle is a little off because I did a "sneak attack" filming so that I wouldn't distract our little guy from his entertainment.

Oh So Thankful

Hey there friends and family. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I can hardly believe it's come and gone and Christmas is around the corner. We are thankful and feel blessed beyond what we could ask for-- for our family and friends, our church, our Lord. And daily, actually hourly, our hearts swell with thanks for our son Gavin.

We enjoyed Gavin's first Thanksgiving with family and a great feast in our home. In fact, it was our first Thanksgiving or Christmas to celebrate in our own home since we've been married. Thankfully, I was not really "in charge" of the dinner meal. Andrew and Connie, Tony's brother and sister-in-law, did most of the work.

We took a mid-day walk down at the beach on the Dungeness Spit to work up an appetite. Gavin was working on his nap and kept bundled up because it was quite cool.

Here's the gang and the feast: Me and Gavin, Ellie (8), Andrew, Ethan (10), Connie and Alex (6). Tony is of course, taking the photo.

We loved having Andrew's family with us and Tony was thrilled to have folks to play laser tag with in our yard. He set up barricades, obstacles, etc. and they finished with a fire in the fire pit and s'mores. Connie and Gavin and I went shoppping.

Gavin LOVED having his cousins over. He loved the attention and all of the noise and activity. It was so fun to hear him talking up a storm. I'm not sure if he was responding to the attention or trying to make sure that he was still heard over the commotion. It was such a sweet treat, none-the-less. Now he's back to being stuck with just his Mama and Papa and it's a little bit more quiet in the house. But he continues to reward us with wide eyes, raised eyebrows and squeals so expressive and so sweet I want to bottle them up.

Just before Thanksgiving, the three of us were fortunate to have a getaway to the West Coast. It's beautiful country and our two nights away were so relaxing. Tony even got in some surfing. Note the hood, gloves, booties and thick wetsuit he wears to surf in Washington. Not quite the same as his Laguna surfing days.

These little cabins were great and the view was even better. We liked to dream of having one of our own someday.

At the start of our trip, after a 2 hour windy drive, we took a hike out to Cape Flattery-- the most NorthWestern Point of the contiguous United States. It was so beautiful. Rain Forests, Sea caves, sea stacks, etc. We really enjoyed it. Gavin, on the other hand, was first enamored with his Papa (see below) and then decided to talk another nap.

On the subject of sleep...

Ah, sleep. Wonderful sleep. Naps. Nighttime wakings. Baby sleep. Sleep deprivation. You name it and we talk about it. Maybe even obsess about it. Sleep is a hot topic for us young parents. At least these days I can talk about getting more and more sleep. (Sorry, I'm not trying to rub it in.)

Last night Gavin slept for more than 8 hours straight. It was awesome! Of course, I didn't sleep for 8 hours. About halfway through my body woke me up wondering when Gavin was going to eat. And then I had to go to the bathroom. And other times I had to listen to make sure he was still breathing. And then a couple different times Gavin made noise like he was going to wake up, but then went back to sleep. So I'll have some adjusting to do, but Gavin seems to be faring well. He's hopefully transitioning into sleeping through the night on his own. Hallelujah!

Gavin in his crib. He still loves the swaddle. Doc recommended giving him access to his hands but then he tries to fit both his hand and the pacifier in his mouth at the same time and nobody is happy. Supposedly he'll just decide one day to give up the swaddling. We'll see how that goes.

You might remember that I shared about his propensity to cry in the car seat. Well, that seems to have been minimized a bit. A week or two ago we got in the car just as his nap was supposed to start. I stopped at the Starbucks drive thru on the way to church and realized after a few minutes that he'd fallen asleep without a peep. Yahoo!

Our little angel sleeping in the car. I'm so glad to have one of these fancy mirrors to see him while driving.

He still has his moments when he can't fall asleep-- for whatever reason. Probably sleep deprivation most of the time. On Monday we drove out to Bellevue (2+ hours) to see the dermatologist and do some shopping. Later on in the day we had one of those "episodes" where Gavin is really crying and can't get to sleep in his car seat nor will he keep his pacifier in his mouth. It was at this point that I learned the value of consistency and repetition. You see, Gavin loves it when I sing to him (go figure). We have our daytime songs (many thanks to my Sissa) and our night time songs. I sing the same five praise songs each night while rocking him before setting him in the crib. So, in the car I decided to sing those same songs hoping they would lull him to sleep. He settled a bit during the songs and when I finished the last song-- Amazing Grace-- he went right to sleep. It was truly amazing. Make no mistake, I'm going to keep singing those same songs for a while. Even if there are others around that have to hear my cracking voice.

Gavin is Three Months Old!

Last Thursday we celebrated three months of life for Gavin. No big hoopla, just a lot of pictures taken. I decided to dress him in one of his 3-6 month outfits (the little bear outfit)-- he is maximum capacity in the 3 month clothes and I've been dying to try out the new clothes in the next size up. Nevertheless, I felt pretty silly all day for having dressed him in such a big outfit. He was swimming in it. I still can't quite figure out the whole sizing thing. For a young boy that is probably 15+ pounds, he still fits in many of the clothes for babies up to 12 pounds. Guess it's not an exact science.

I suppose there was one event worth nothing on Gavin's "birthday." We took him to Bainbridge Island to see the Pediatric Opthamologist. He has a Port Wine Stain birthmark on his left cheek and near his left eye that first brought us to the Pediatric dermatologist. She referred us to the eye doctor since sometimes these birthmarks can affect the eye. Thankfully, Gavin's eyes seem to be just great. The funny part of the experience was that Gavin had his eyes dilated.

Later, while we were at dinner in Silverdale, he was so wide eyed, obviously trying to figure things out. He is generally attracted to and amused by light, but watching him this time with his eyes dilated it was like he was on a wild trip.

A few days before he turned three months, Gavin found new sounds. He was walking along my stomach and generally enjoying himself when out came new gurgles, squeals and coos. It was so much fun and has continued since. We've yet to be able to catch these conversations on video, but we've at least caught the "walking," which is one of his favorite activities.

He's also using some of these new sounds to communicate his frustration instead of going straight to crying. On the other hand, he has also figured out that he can scream and very quickly let us know his displeasure-- often when trying to put a shirt over his head. A few cries and he's back to smiling. He's still a pretty happy little guy, but definitely developing personality.

Here is a video of Gavin's walking. Just before the end he realized that his papa was off to the side with the camera and that's when he lost his concentration and fell. We get a kick out of his walking, but I definitely need to work on my arm strength for this activity. He's a 15lb. weight and gaining.