Smiles for Miles

I think it was two weeks ago tomorrow that Gavin got kicked out of the gym nursery, and he's been so unhappy ever since. We've battled fever, runny nose, probably a sore throat, teething, and maybe some tummy stuff. It's awful. If you've been here, you know that. Two weeks is an eternity when it comes to a baby that's impossible to please.

And then, yesterday, during the midst of a s***storm at work, I received the text that turned all our frowns upside-down. From Dawn: "I don't want to jinx anything, but Gavin has been happy all morning." He's been waking up early and taking only one short nap each day...and still, his energy level is through the roof, and every time he looks at me, he smiles.

G and I met Dylan at Juan Jaime's for dinner yesterday after work. Gavin was embarrassing and yelled loudly for a long time. He had some wiggles he needed to work out, and he just wasn't up for sitting in his high chair in those moments in-between shoveling guacamole into his mouth. I can handle that. Yes, we got out of there as soon as possible and felt rather mortified, but I knew the reason why he was unhappy, and it was for a normal, healthy reason. We got home and decided to re-think eating out for a while. There's always take-out...

You have no idea what this turn-around in his mood does for our collective quality of life. Gavin's not suffering from something, I'm not constantly stressed out and overwhelmed, and Dylan doesn't have to deal with either of us. The smiles continued into this morning, so after being on-the-go for quite some time, I took the opportunity to get a few things done at home, but mostly I just relaxed with G. We've got a lot on the agenda for the afternoon and into tomorrow so here's to hoping he can keep this up for a long, long time!

When does he learn how to clean himself?

Exploring

Playing with plastic. Perfectly safe.

Drool much?

Get me out of baby jail!

Yes, he's still high-maintenance and high-energy, he's loud, and he eats a full meal every couple of hours. But that's the Gavin we know and love, so as long as he can throw a smile in every now and then, we are a-okay.