16 Months!

Our snuggle-bug Gavin is 16 months old!

~He has cut 4 molars, two on top and two on bottom.  His upper canines are visible, but haven't cut through yet.
~He enjoys stacking blocks and does a great job!  He's easily able to stack 5 blocks.  If Mommy or Daddy starts the stack, he typically continues until about 8 blocks.  He may be able to do to more, but knocking down a block tower is far too entertaining!
~He continues with his "baby talk" and his receptive language is flourishing!  He doesn't have too many recognizable words, although he commonly says some "words" during appropriate times.  For example, he enjoys bringing us shaker cars repeatedly and will often say something similar to "again!"  Also, he occasionally says sometime remarkably similar to "you're welcome" after being thanked for something.  He frequently holds objects/food towards us, as if he wants us to label it.  After being given it's name, he occasionally giggle before continuing on his way.
~We've successfully eliminated his morning nap and he no longer has his sleepy appearance in the morning.  He has been taking great afternoon naps, typically lasting 2.5-3 hours.
~Gavin has recently learned how to go down stairs and loves it!  He does a reverse crawl and caught on very quickly after we introduced it.  When asked if he wants to go downstairs/to the basement, he'll immediately drop what he's doing and make a mad dash to the basement door, shrieking most of the way there!
~We've had remarkable improvement in his skin!  Previously, we were applying his steroid cream and medications daily.  His face would look fine in the morning, but would start to have some bumps as the day progressed.  While working on cutting his molars, we noticed that his face appeared slightly chapped.  We began applying Vasoline daily at bed time which resulted in great success!  We've also been avoiding egg whites, garlic, and peanuts in his diet.  We haven't applied his prescription medications in weeks and his skin looks perfect!  We're hoping this continues!
~Gavin makes an adorable revving car noise, similar to a raspberry, when playing with toy vehicles!
~When asking for food, he'll point at the object, sign "more", sign "please" and then flash a smile.
~Gavin seems to enjoy picking up toys!  He'll happily bring toys to the appropriate bins and giggle as he puts them away.  We hope this behavior continues!
~He enjoys clicking his tongue and thinks it's comical when we do it in return!
~Gavin blows kisses, but not always on demand.  He'll give a sweet "a-mah!" on the back of his hand, which makes is extra adorable! He also gives sweet, sometimes sloppy, open-mouth kisses on our cheeks or lips.

15 Months!

Our little man is 15 months old!

~Gavin loves to walk!  He's able to walk very quickly and frequently roams the house.
~Overall, he's a pretty quiet guy.  But, when he talks, he seems to have something to say!  He's transitioned from babbling to "baby talk", including multiple sounds, pitches, etc. in longer phrases.  He says Mama, Dada, Bye-bye, Ni-ni (night night) and tries hard to say "cookie"
~Gavin came down with his first bug this month, including a fever, fatigue, runny nose and cough for a few days.  His eyes were also quite puffy and goopy after waking up.  We took him to the doctor, who confirmed his cold and said he had a bacterial infection in his eyes.  We gave him a few doses of antibiotic eye drops and he returned to his normal self soon!  He was a super-snuggler during his sickness.
~His receptive language skills are flourishing!  He understands and appropriately responds to many things we say, including going to his highchair when we ask if he wants to eat, going to the basement door when we tell him we are going downstairs, and going to his room, retrieving a book, and taking it to the recliner when we ask if he wants to read a book.
~Gavin has cut two top molars.  Two bottom molars aren't far behind.
~In addition to "more" and "all done", he also signs "please" which is adorable.  Rather than going across his chest when signing, he rubs his hand on the same side of his signing arm, giving him what we affectionately refer to as his "chicken arm"  He also flashes an adorable smile when signing it, making it nearly irresistible!
~He likes identifying other's eyes, nose, and mouth and is pretty accurate!
~He no longer drinks bottles during the day and nurses at bedtime.
~Gavin is transitioning into taking one nap a day.  He frequently fought morning naps at the babysitter's house.  On weekends, he was more likely to take a morning nap, but then didn't sleep in the afternoon.  We recently made the call to only put him down in the afternoon unless he looks tired around the time of his morning nap.
~He seems to be developing a right hand preference.  For example, when we recently handed him a crayon, he grabbed it with his left hand but then changed to his right hand before coloring.

14 Months!

Our sweet Gavin is 14 months today!

~Gavin is a full-time walker!  It's very rare to see him crawl.  He's able to go from sitting to standing independently and is getting faster everyday. He's very proud of himself and frequently roams around the house.
~He loves to eat and is our "meat and potato" boy.  He has enjoyed all meat, especially chicken, meatballs and hotdogs.  He also gobbles up spaghetti and pizza. He frequently gives an enthusiastic "Mmmm!" after taking a bite of food.  He continues to make pretty comical faces at cold foods.
~Gavin enjoys drinking milk.  He gets one bottle/nursing during the day, which we're thinking of weaning from as he drinks a good amount of whole milk during the day.  He nurses before going to bed at night.  He gets very excited about this nursing, so we predict he'll continue for awhile.
~He continues to babble quite a bit and will imitate intonations and some sounds.  He frequently states/babbles "My Mama!"and says bye bye ("Ba-baaa!"). He signs "more" and "all done" and we've just introduced "please."
~Gavin loves to play chase!  He's sure to giggle when you follow him saying "I'm going to get you!" and shriek in excitement when you catch him!
~He'll blow raspberries when asked what an elephant says.  He also does it when playing with cars.
~Gavin frequently points to objects of interest and things he wants.  Lights and pictures are recent interests.
~Wanting more result interpretation and a local allergist, we took Gavin and his allergy test results to the same allergist we saw for Brennan.  He wasn't completely convinced that Gavin's allergies and eczema are related because he's not severely allergic.  He prescribed an antibiotic ointment to use, should his eczema seem to get infected.  He also recommended keeping a diet diary to help determine triggers for his flare ups.  We're continuing to avoid garlic, peanuts, and egg whites, but will use "trial and error" to see if he reacts when exposed.  Since his appointment, his face has looked great the majority of the time, but he has had a few red, blotchy days.  We're also increasing how often we apply his CeraVe lotion.  The allergist also said that his Vitamin D levels weren't very low.  After reading some information about the dangers of too much Vitamin D, we stopped giving him his supplement.  If he continues to have flare ups over the winter, we may give him smaller doses to see if it makes a difference.  He also received his egg-free flu shot.  We have a follow up appointment in January. 
~He has an adorable smile and infectious laugh!
~Gavin loves to snuggle.  He still likes to snuggle Mommy for a few minutes when she returns home from work.  He also frequently comes to us while we're playing on the floor for a brief snuggle.  When you ask him for a kiss, he'll snuggle instead--not quite right, but still adorable.

He Walks!

We were finally able to get a video of Gavin walking!  He's doing a great job and getting more confident each day!

Mr. Patriotic

While talking about preschool today, Brennan mentioned that they say "the pledge"  He recited it several times!  (Sorry about the direction of the video!)

Allergies All Around!

We were anxious to hear back from Gavin's allergist.  We emailed the doctor, 3 weeks after the draw, to inquire.  We learned that he is allergic to peanuts, egg whites and garlic.  He had not yet received the remaining results.  We emailed again yesterday, 4 weeks after the blood draw, to ask again.  We learned that his IgE was normal (11).  He also reported that he is Vitamin D Deficient.  His result were 21.5, with normal being between 30-100.  He recommended starting Vitamin D3 2000 IU daily as a supplement.  He also said we need to eliminate peanuts, egg whites and garlic 100%.   We're supposed to report back if this treatment plan doesn't result in improvement in a month.

Just days after being diagnosed with a double ear infection and Upper Respiratory Infection, Brennan had an allergic reaction over the weekend!  He's never had peanut butter, telling us that he "doesn't like it." He had a few raisins and craisins out of a bag of trail mix.  Within a few minutes, he looked like this:

. 

We took him to Urgent Care, but it closed 5 minutes before we got there.  Since the reaction seemed to be contained to his eye, we decided not to take him to the ER.  We gave him allergy medicine, which helped with the itching and redness.  By the next day, his eye returned to normal.

We were able to get him into a local allergist today and a prick test was completed.  He desperately wanted to itch his back, trying to roll onto his back on this exam table and rub his back on Mommy while sitting on her lap.  He tested positive for a peanut allergy and was given a prescription for Epipens.  We're supposed to  avoid all peanuts, including foods fried in peanut oil and foods manufactured in plants with peanuts.  He is able to have tree nuts. We'll go back in a year to refill his Epipen prescription.

13 Months

Our sweet Gavin is 13 months old!

~Gavin enjoys eating table food!  Some of his favorites include spaghetti, pizza, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, peas, carrots, pears, oranges, crackers, and desserts!  He also enjoys drinking milk!
~After not hearing back from the allergist, we contacted him.  He had not received all of the blood work results yet, even though we completed the blood work nearly 3 weeks earlier.  Results he had received showed reactivity to egg whites, peanuts and garlic.  He suggested eliminating these foods 100%.  We're anxious to hear back from him with more results and details. His skin has been looking much, much better, but he still has occasional flair ups.
~He's made huge gains in walking!  He is able to stand independently and has taken several consecutive, independent steps!  We've seen him take up to 6 steps on his own!  He can go quite far if holding our hand(s).  He prefers crawling, but is becoming much more confident in walking!
~In addition to signing "more", he's also signing "all done" by waving his hands in the air above his head!
~While he has fun at the babysitter's house, he's always excited to see Mommy and Daddy when we return from work.  He waves his arms in excitement when Daddy arrives to pick him up.  When Mommy comes home, he immediately crawls to her, pulls himself up on her legs to be picked up and snuggles for a few minutes.
~He's a very good sleeper!  He puts himself to sleep easily, usually quickly playing in his bed for a few minutes before heading to dreamland.  He woke up a few times overnight closer to his 1 year birthday.  After learning about his minimal weight gain, softy-Mommy went into his room for a quick nursing session.  Since then, he's slept through the night without issue!  He's starting to occasionally skip his morning nap.
~He makes several funny noises, including clicking his tongue, "th", "shh", quick breaths through puckered lips, and elephant noises!
~He enjoys looking at books for short periods of time.  He likes pointing to pictures in books and consistently identifies babies and dogs.  When he sees a book he wants/looks at a book, he'll repeatedly say a throated "k" sound.
~Gavin loves to take baths!  As soon as he hears the water running, he'll drop what he's doing, quickly crawl to the bathroom, and bang on the door/attempt to reach the doorknob of the closed door.  He's also been known to try to crawl into the tub while we're undressing him!  He enjoys playing and splashing in the water!
~We're seeing some glimpses of drama in our regularly very calm and happy baby.  When frustrated and tired, he'll briefly lay his head on the ground and whine.  Is this the beginning of temper tantrums?!
~Gavin enjoys picking up toys!  He'll pick them up, put the in their container, move the toys around with his hand, take them out, repeat.  He also regularly empties the tupperwear drawer.
~He likes to show us things that he's holding, as if he's saying, "Look at what I have!"
~He enjoys throwing balls! 
~Gavin continues to be a climber!  In addition to climbing on the trampoline and Brennan's bed, he also climbs on toy containers and our mini-slide ladder.  He's also climbed on a stool, then climbed onto the couch.