Luke 1:46-47

Tonight was a milestone among milestones.  I cannot express to you the anticipation and excitement of this milestone.  Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is the night that Mr. Gavin Cox laughed for the first time. 
This has been much anticipated by his mommy and daddy for quite some time.  We have had many a false alarm, but tonight was undoubtedly the night.  Gavin is quite accustomed to making a "joyful noise" and he make happy shouts quite often, but I never considered it a laugh until tonight.  He didn't just chuckle- this boy cracked up with gusto!
For some reason it hit me with more nostalgia than any of his other milestones to date.  My baby will laugh millions and millions of times over the course of his lifetime.  But tonight, in less than half a second of time, God allowed me to be there to witness the very first laugh.  I cannot tell you what a gift it was to hear my little baby's giggle for the first time in his life, the expression on his face, and the joy of knowing that even though there were many more to follow, I got to be there for the first.
I miss several hundreds of hours of my little boys life doing something far less rewarding than watching him grow up.  I live with the regret of knowing that those are moments I won't ever get back.  I am grateful for a baby boy that doesn't compare me to all the mommy's that get to spend their days with their babies.  And I'm grateful for a God that knows how to give me little snippets in life of undescribable joy that remind me that no matter how much I love my baby boy, God will always love him more.  

The man in the mirror

One of Gavin's favorite things to do is lay on his changing pad.  No joke- this kid can be crying and fussy but if we go lay him on his changing pad, suddenly the mood changes.  I'm not sure what it is about his changing table- but it might have something to do with the friend that he's made:

For those of you who can't see the uncanny reseamblance, Gavin's new friend is himself.  There is a mirror behind his changing pad that Gavin has just now discovered.  While he has always like his changing table, this new discovery adds a new element of fun during changing time, bedtime or any other time that this new friend likes to come out and play. 

 The mirror has been fun since he was born.  Early on he would catch the reflection of the light up in the corner of the mirror and just stare at it.  It's only been just now that he has seen things more on his eye level.   

 Mom and Dad love it too!  Where else can you get great front pictures as well as back pictures? 

 

One of life's new found simple pleasures!

5 Months old and sweet potato pie!

Mr. Gavin Cox has arrived at the ripe, old age of 5 months and celebrated this birthday in first class!  Matthew, Gavin and I had a special evening together Thurday night enjoying the 5 month birthday milestone and making special memories as a family.  It was an action packed evening!

In keeping with our theme, we took his March calendar picture! 

We also did a super cute naked/neck tie photo shoot...because that just seemed like a 5 month old thing to do.

 

Can you see why this mama is so in love with her little man?!  Oh my- such cuteness!  And way to go, Dad, for being such an awesome photographer!

The big milestone of the day- drum roll please- was that Mr. Cox had his first big boy food!!!!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen- Gavin had his first taste of veggies; fresh homemade sweet potatoes!  Check out his first big boy meal:

Look at those taters!  Simple, cheap, healthy and made with love! 

I'm not sure that he knew what he was getting himself into- the airplane came in for a landing and he was met with a new texture and taste. Then he gave us a little treat, by letting us know exactly how he felt about our new little experiment.

 

 

 

Believe it or not, he ate the whole bowl.  We made sure that he enjoyed every last bite though- even the stuff from his chin!  And he's had it for dinner every night since then.  Way to go, Gav!

Happy 5 month birthday to the 3rd member of our little family unit! 

The many faces of Gavin Cox

You know how expectant mothers can have their unfounded fears of the unknown?  Since I was such a calm, cool and collected pregant mother, I can hardly relate to such a statement (if you can't hear the words dripping with sarcasm, then please re-read), however I did have just one or two fears when I was pregnant.  Now I won't go into the myriad of things that I worried over for 9 1/2 months- and don't you dare ask Matthew- but one of my lesser worries was that I would have a boring baby.  That's right.  I stressed more than one time that I would have a boring, bump-on-a-log baby that didn't have any personality.  I am not sure why this was such a fear since I don't really know any boring babies.  I do recall once in college working in a church nursery where there was one child who was rather blah, but he might have just been constipated on that particular Sunday.  All that to say, I am not sure what started in me this unfounded fear of having the one boring baby on the planet. 

But you can all rest at ease, my friends.  Mr. Gavin Cox is NOT a boring baby.  And he has the faces to prove it!  This kid is hilarious! If he's not talking, singing at the top of his lungs or training for the "jam your fist in your mouth" marathon, he's doing something else that is equally entertaining.  And I LOVE the faces that this kid makes.  I cannot even tell you how happy this mama's heart gets when she sees her baby boy making faces.  This is what I'm talking about:

From day 1 (or I believe in this case day 2) he had the uncanny nack for silly faces. 

That actually freaked me and Matthew out- thinking that my fear that he would be cross-eyed had come true.  We were happy to find out that this was only a phase:).

When we first got home from the hospital, we played "photo shoot" at least twice every day.  We would basically sit with Gavin on the couch and snap a picture of every face that he made for the next 10 minutes.  Now with that in mind, it's no wonder that he didn't become cross-eyed...and believe me the memory on our computer has not appreciated that either.  But none-the-less, we did get a few shots that we have deemed as priceless:

The na nanny boo boo. He doesn't get in trouble for sticking his tongue out at his parents just yet, but that day is coming-

His first grin- he sure was yucking it up about something-

His rise and shine, double chin-

This is his Austin Powers- all he needs is the pinky up and the "One million dollars" question-

 Have you ever seen Pinnochio when he goes to Pleasure Island and smokes the cigar and turns green?  This is Gavin's impersonation of that-

"I'm not so sure what I think about this whole Thanksgiving thing."  You mean I really have to eat a turkey?

And this one- just pure sweetness-

Say what?

Pure Sweetness Part II 

I love this- the "purse your lips and drool" look.  He does it well!  

I love this one becuase I have no idea where he got that raised eyebrow.  He's pretty good at it though.

And this one just melts my heart.  This look says "Mom, can't I stay up just 5 more minutes?  You can't say no to me when I'm looking at you so sweetly!"

And this one is his face when he finds out that I can!

Signs of Life

I found myself looking around our house the other day with an undoubted conclusion: a baby definitely lives here!  If a complete stranger were blindfolded, morphed into our house and plopped down into our living room, he could make one very easy assessments within seconds of his arrival (after taking the blindfold off of course) without the need of even looking at one picture: A baby definitely lives here. 

This is what I'm talking about:

Baby equipment lines the walls of the living room

It doesn't just line the walls- it wraps itself completely around the room

The kitchen cabinets have now been peppered with baby items

Strange new things are finding their way into our dishwasher, counter tops and drawers

  

Naked people now bathe on my kitchen island (clarification- only ONE person bathes in the kitchen and that is Gavin.  All other members of the Cox household bathe and/or shower in standard, non-kitchen pre-designated areas)

The other thing that this blindfolded stranger standing in my living room would probably realize is that we are extremely messy people.  The baby had little to do with that- that's been a fact since the beginning of time; or at least since Matthew married me.  Since this stranger has nothing better to do with their time than wonder around blindfolded in people's living rooms, he might as well clean my house while he's at it.

4 Months

In keeping with our monthly tradition we took pictures of Mr. Growing-like-a-little-weed for the month of February. 

Gavin is now 4 months old and is so stinkin' cute I can't believe it.  He's weighing in at 14 lbs and 6 ounces.  His biggest achievement to date is that he has made a new discovery: his high voice.  He spends most of his day singing at the the top of his lungs and then smiling about it- and you would smile to if you could hear it.  He just talks and talks.  In fact some days when we lay him down for his nap, he stays awake for several minutes- not crying, but talking.  I cannot imagine a happier sound than the high pitched squeals of my little Gavin. 

He also has made another monumental discovery- his fingers.  It's a rare moment when you can find Gavin either not squealing or doing the finger chomp.  He has scaled back from his three month goal of trying to eat his whole fist to this month chomping on his first two fingers.  We just try to tell him "all things in moderation."



Some days it's surreal that only a few short months ago we were just a family of two.  But we're a family of three now and loving every minute of it!