Firsts and '14

I last wrote to you one month ago – oops! I’ve had lots of ideas brewing since then, but I’m sure it has been a busy month for you too. Gavin turned 3 months then and, yes, you can do the math, he is 4 months today! We have had a lot of “firsts” in this last month alone, and many, many since September. As we turn the page into the new year, I thought I’d pick a few of my favorites to share with you. May your 2014 be full of equally funny memories!

• first birthday as a parent: To me, this was obviously an opportunity to receive another gift. I figured Gavin for sure wanted to celebrate Mommy’s birthday in a big way! So, when I asked the husband what Gavin got me, he replied (dumbfounded): “Oh, that’s a thing?” Yes, that would be a “thing.” Of course the child buys the mom a gift, and of course when he is 3 months old he needs his dad’s help! Fortunately, Gavin busted open his piggy bank and got dear dad to take him to the mall. It took him about a week (I guess he was figuring out what he wanted to get me), but he did deliver a very sweet and thoughtful gift, wrapped and all! I’m sure next year he will do more advanced planning.

• first Christmas as a parent: We were really excited about this one. We wanted to make all these traditions with Gavin – Christmas jammies (favorite baby pajamas for year-round are Hanna Andersson - check out their sale here), a Christmas book, a special “first” gift (click here to see what Santa brought - he shops at Pottery Barn Kids!), handprint ornaments, the works! I know everyone says the first Christmas doesn’t really matter, but it mattered to me, and I was going to make it great. I give myself an A+ for planning all of the above, but the execution was a bit rough. After I threw up my Christmas dinner, I proceeded to throw up a few more times throughout the night. There was no special storytime or sipping yummy wine while watching the Christmas tree twinkle (ok that second one is a mommy and daddy tradition, obviously no wine for baby). The worst part of all is that I am literally the WORST at puking. I do it about once every 5 years on average and so my experience is limited. I keep my eyes closed and I cry. This makes for poor aim and a lot of emotion. I won’t go into any more detail, but not even keeping your eyes closed can protect you from asparagus between your toes. The perk of the whole day was that Gavin – like mother, like son – LOVED opening his presents, well he loved watching me open his presents. I have to admit, getting to open twice the gifts was pretty sweet for me. I can’t help it! I love prezzies. Another perk was that he remembered to get me a Christmas gift – I think he felt bad about forgetting my birthday, so he really made up for it and got me a night at Salish Lodge. What a doll!

• first time baby rolled over: This was another one I was waiting for. All Gavin’s facebook friends have been doing it, so this mama’s competitive gene was brewing tough… (sad but totally true). He flopped over a few times but totally accidentally, so I didn’t really count those. He doesn’t really seem to have any interest in this trick, which shocked me because 1) like stated above, we are a very competitive family (well at least him and I are… husband also doesn’t seem to care about this trick) and 2) he is always twisting and turning to see what’s going on, so I thought he would just do that with his whole body and roll over. Not so much. I realized that he is really twisting and turning so he can see the tv, an ipad, computer or phone. Have screen – he will follow! (I need to figure out how to use that as a training technique!) Then one night, he got really angry in his crib and BOOM! Flipped over like a fish! I couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked, in fact, that my precarious balance of the baby monitor (need one? i recommend this Motorola or this one is its sister and great too) and the soup-bowl sized mug of hot chocolate became… unbalanced. All of the sudden, the monitor was submerged in the cocoa. Gavin was flipped over upstairs, the monitor was taking a bath in the hot chocolate, and I was screaming. Fortunately the husband came to his senses quickly and removed the monitor (we left the flipped fish for a few minutes while we problem solved this pricey piece of technology). To say the least, all 3 of us had a terrible night’s sleep! The monitor had to sleep in rice, so I was a puddle of worries until (smarty pants) husband set up his phone with some (smarty pants) app so I could watch Gavin sleep from my phone. While this sounds cool and high tech, it kept breaking and had no sound capabilities, so my little ears were straining all night. Rough. I don’t even want to know what people did before monitors, iphones and Ziploc bags full of rice to fix all of the above. The worst part is, I don’t even really like hot chocolate! I was drinking it because I didn’t have any wine open and felt like a lush opening a bottle for myself. You know the feeling – everyone gets it (sometimes). So I thought to myself, “Have some hot cocoa. It’s winter and you have a fabulous mug to put it in.” I also had a delicious salted caramel hot chocolate mix – which I do like. Well I did, until we got in that fight. The moral of the story is I never would have balanced my wine with the monitor (not even the cheerleader in me can tackle such a feat), so therefore, back to the vino for the night cap.

• first time baby laughed: he had mastered the squeals, but we kept trying to get a real laugh out of him. The husband (he thinks he’s funnier, so this just added to that silly lie he tells himself) finally got him to do it! Even though he was the first one to make it happen (and clearly my competitive issues were all fired up), it was a very sweet moment. The best part is Gavin’s laugh is a low chuckle and he is very stingy with it… we probably work for at LEAST an hour a day to get just a snippet of his giggle. Hopefully, he will feel more generous soon.

•  first time got pooped on by a bird: this is just in general – this had NEVER happened to me – Praise God – but when Gavin was just a few weeks old, it did! We were on one of our delightful fall walks when we literally got SHOWERED in bird poop. Fortunately, the faithful Bugaboo was there to protect Gavin. Had he not been snuggled in that Cadillac of a stroller with the basinet “hood” up, he would been attacked by bird poop in the face! Gross! Also fortunate was that my favorite color is black and therefore the black stroller came clean and hid any remnants. WHEW. The bird totally aimed for him and missed me, but he did manage to hit my pregnant friend on her coat. I felt that was especially rude, since she is pregnant and the scent of bird feces is just extremely obnoxious, especially in the first trimester. But we all survived.

I sure hope 2014 is treating you well so far. It’s going to be hard to beat last year… having a baby kinda tops my charts for favorite year award. But as this little person grows and grows, it really does just keep getting better, so I predict that we have a lot to look forward to… and I look forward to sharing it with you! Xoxo and happy, happy New Year!

practicing his horseback riding skills

awkward christmas eve pj selfie!

checking out his new toys - see - not interested in rolling