April odds and ends

The goal of this evening was to update with a heart felt and touching post about Gavin's first Easter AND his 6 month birthday, both of which occurred yesterday!  However, as usual, life got in the way. Long story short, the camera is stuck in Matthew's car which is at the fire station which means it's not in our house where the pictures that need to be uploaded are.  You would think that would mean I have a great opportunity to clean my house, make Gavin's food for the week, put away the 100 Easter eggs that seem to have exploded all over house or something else a little more worthwhile...but those are all really dumb ideas.   So instead of doing one of those or another of the 150 other things I should be doing right now, I am now doing a blog post on things I have learned in the month of April! And do you know WHY I am doing this?  Because I am the mama...and I am in charge. 

So without any further ado; 5 lessons I have learned throughout the month of April:

1) Three heads are better than one!

This picture is SO CUTE!  This is Gavin with his two cousins, Bennett and Paxen.  This is the first picture we have ever gotten of the three of them where they were actually being still!!  Bennett just turned 3, Paxen will be 2 in July...and Boy Cousin #3 is on the way to arrive in August! We hope someday that we will get a picture with all three (or four!) of their faces...but for now, we'll settle for the back of their heads.

2. Gavin is a class act!   

How cute is my little vintage baby?!  This little outfit was given to Gavin by a very good friend when he was born (when Gavin was born...not the friend. Ha!).  She got it from a vintage store and the outfit is circa 1979! 

Now, I have to proudly say that is WAY before Gavin's daddy and mama were ever even born, so this outfit is truly a classic.  Wait, wait- what's that?  Is Gavin already rolling his eyes at his mother?

3. Even babies get bedhead.

 

Gavin has been rocking out some seriously cute early morning bed head and sleepy face.  Matthew and I love waking him up in the morning to see what cute position he's curled up in or what cute little face he makes right when he sees us for the first time in the morning.  One of the top 5,897,549,327,254 joys of being a mother!

   4. Who says you can't feed a baby pickles?

Gavin has a new favorite snack!  As you can see from the picture above it's PICKLES!  Now before you go and call DHS on me, let me explain!  I heard an old wives tale that pickles are supposed to help babies teeth.  At first I thought "no way" but I heard it a few more times.  So by the time I found myself at the Mazzio's salad bar looking at the pickled okra, I had done quite a bit of word of mouth research to validate my selection of a gerkin as a logical choice for a snack. Now I'm sure I'll get all sorts of articles emailed to me saying that pickles cause gout or lead to ADHD or that some new study by the American Pediatrics Association shows that all things that rhyme with "ickle" are harmful to children under the age of 17....but I'm going to live on the edge for once!  I'm so metal!

5. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I'm not sure if it was when I was getting a slobbery kiss from the cutest-chubby-cheeked-blue eyed boy in the world...

or watching one love of my life giving kisses to the other love of my life...

or seeing the daddy who raised me loving on the little boy that I am raising now

but during one of those events, the thought occurred to me "I've got it pretty darn good."  I have to think that for every one thing in my life that I wish I could change, I have at least a dozen things that I wouldn't change for the world. 

And there you have it folks.  I'd say that's pretty good for a Monday night!

Who couldn't love this face...

Enough said.



April showers bring...

Tornadoes!

Gavin Cox is well into his first tornado season in Green Country!  Last Thursday as Matthew and I were dodging storms and making trips around town in between twister sightings, I realized that it was Gavin's first tornado warning!  In typical Matthew and Jordan fashion, we had our camera there to snap the momentous occasion!  Gavin has now officially heard the KRMG bing bongs...and is well aware of meteorological overhype (did I just make up that word?) during storm season!  He will now know that a tornado warning in the city of Tulsa/Broken Arrow means nothing...most of the time.  For all of you non-Oklahoman's, I will put it in perspective- in my entire life I have "taken cover" 4 times.  Total.  Gavin has yet to take cover..but 2011 storm season isn't over just yet.

See Mr. Cox- rather chill- during his first ever tornado warning.  As you can see, he has taken on our rather laid back perspective on the whole ordeal. 

Happy Birthday Aunt Sassy!!!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful sister, sister-in-law and aunt!  

We got you a birthday card...but Gavin ate it. 

   

So since he couldn't send the card he sent a slobbery birthday hug instead.

  

Have passport, will travel

We got a special delivery in the mail for the Gav-Meister this past week: his passport!!! 

Gavin Cox is now free to roam about the world!  And roam we shall!! God has blessed Matthew and I with some amazing overseas adventures and we only hope that He will do the same for Gavin.  We just hope that Gavin avoids emergency rooms on other continents better than his daddy does!

The Deparment of Homeland Security has never produced a more adorable document!  Look at our little world explorer and his travel docs!   

 I bet no one has ever been reprimanded for trying to eat their passport like Gavin did.  Watch it, son- they frown upon that at airports and border patrol checkpoints!  

We hope that our little globetrotter fills the pages of his passport with the stamps of many nations!  We hope that he will see many sights in his lifetime, meet many new faces but most of all, share with many about the Hope of all mankind!  It's exciting to think that the next time Matthew and I find ourselves treking through the Vietnamese mountains or driving through the Bohemian countryside, we might have a third party joining us on our adventure.  Point us in the right direction and we're on our way!

Just a little side note while were on the subject: we would like to send a shout out to our readers in Malaysia! We're not sure who you are, but if you leave us a comment, maybe we'll come visit you!  

Opening Day!

I was given strict instructions Friday morning before Matthew left for work that our son HAD to be dressed in as much Texas Rangers garb as humanly possible in honor of Friday, April 1st being Opening Day for the Texas Rangers.  Gavin comes from a rich heritage of die-hard Texas Rangers fans, so I knew that to not comply was not an option.  Gavin spent his Friday proudly sporting his Texas Rangers "T" shirt, his very first ball cap, and he even had a few short minutes to play bat and ball before his mother rushed him out the door.  Gavin's game day attire looked a little something like this:

 

 

 

You can practically hear tiny little baby cheers as Gavin realizes the excitement of this day!

As I said before, Gavin has a rich Texas Ranger heritage and he was destined to be a fan long before he was ever born.  Gavin's due date was October 17th.  I remember the day when Matthew asked if we could watch the world series in the delivery room if the Rangers happened to be playing.  Since it was only June at the time I told him that we'd have to wait and see, but he actually wasn't too far off.  I started having my first round of contractions on Friday, October 22nd while we were watching the division championship that the Rangers won.  As the Rangers ran through celebratory showers of sparkling cider, Matthew knew that his son would be born into a world where the Texas Rangers were World Series contenders.  Gavin was born two days later into a sea of blue and red and claws and antlers.  If there was any doubt at the hospital if Gavin Cox's family was Ranger fans, they had to have been completely oblivious. 

One of Gavin's first sights in this world was his proud daddy standing over him wearing a Texas Ranger's t-shirt.

Matthew calls that picture the "ugly cry" but I happen to love it!  Gavin was so enthralled by the sight of the Rangers logo that he expressed his enthusiasm the only way he knew how: he pee'd on Matthew's shirt. 

He was then welcomed by a host of visitors who paraded their team apparel like a badge of honor.  This is Matthew's family who sported various Texas Rangers attire throughout the next week.

 

(I think it's worth mentioning that it's hours later and Matthew is STILL wearing the shirt that Gavin pee'd on earlier in the day- our apologies to the many people he hugged that day.)

 The Pelley family also made sure that Gavin knew who to love by wearing their Ranger garb and even giving Matthew...er, Benjamin...I mean Matthew- a shirt when Gavin was born. 

Gavin was brought home from the hospital by Daddy sporting his Texas Rangers pride, just in red this time.

 On Gavin's first full day home from the hospital, the world celebrated the Rangers first appearance on the world series stage.  Gavin and his Daddy were there with great anticipation. 

Gavin probably thought that Texas Ranger apparel was the official uniform of the Cox family...and uniform gifts were lavished upon Gavin with much generosity at his one week birthday.  If you can find Gavin among the host of Rangers tee's, then you win $5!

Mom even got in on the action and was in full support as we cheered the Rangers on.

Among the blur of Gavin's first few days of life, it's fun to see it scattered with Rangerful memories.  It was a surreal moment for Matthew, a lifelong Ranger fan himself, to hold his own son as he watched his team at the pinnacle of baseball accomplishment for the first time.  Definitely two dreams from two opposite ends of the spectrum coming true at the same time.

So Gavin is destined to love the Rangers.  Names like "Boo"shele, Ryan, Palmero and Hamilton will ring throughout our home with heroic esteem along with Batman, Superman and Andy Rooney.   

And while this tiniest of little Ranger fans isn't quite the tiniest any more...  

I definitely think he's still the cutest!

The 3,000th picture!

For those of you who wondered if our Canon camera Christmas gift was wise investment...here's the answer.  Today we snapped picture number 3,000:

Yes, that's our Gavin spitting first thing this morning.  He's a very serious spitter...and we are very serious picture takers.  For those of you doing the math, that's 3,000 pictures (well, by the time this blog hit the presses, we are actually at picture number 3,093) since December 25, so that's just a tad over 4 months.  I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot of pictures!  Would you believe me if I said that's 31.24 pics per day?

Well done, Cox Family!  We love our Christmas gift!!