Mr. Independent

Gavin has certainly become Mr. Independent (as I'm sure most 2 -22 year olds are!) His second week of school was GREAT! He didn't cry at all and he had no accidents. He likes to talk about his teachers and classmates and pretend to "take attendance" at home by getting a paper and pen and marking it while he makes Mark, me, and Marley say "HERE" when he calls our name. He is starting to sing new songs that he learned in school and has learned a prayer to bless his food. We are so glad that his transition only took a week and that he is at such a great school with caring teachers.

After school, he has started to play outside with a little girl that lives next door (she is in Kindergarten). We drew him lines on the sidewalk in chalk as his boundries so he could play without us hovering over him. Somedays, he doesn't even come into the house until dinner time - so you could say he has been a busy little guy lately. He just seems to have grown up in a week to me (preschool, completely potty trained, playing with kids in the neighborhood, and a very soon to be big brother).

Below are just a couple of pictures of the past week....since we are all back at school, things have been pretty busy for us!

Yesterday we spent the day at the beach with the Ducotes, Martins, and Staffaroni's. Beach days have a whole new meaning now that Mark has someone to "play" with. Before Gavin, he wasn't able to just sit and relax long enough for us ever to go to the beach together, but now he has someone to play with ;)

Gavin has a small table in the dining room where we keep his crayons and paper - one day he decided to use crayons on his dry-erase board....

and the dry erase marker on the WALL!

Mr. Independent now sleeps in a toddler bed with no bed rails - he can crawl in or out of the bed whenever he wants. On the weekends, he will wake up and usually come to our room to wake us up. Yesterday he first went downstairs to get a Dora DVD, then came up to wake us up with his demands to watch Dora.

Today, he dressed himself before he came in - I was so impressed that he got himself completely dressed and he even MATCHED! Here is what he picked out...

By the way, when I asked him to take his picture this morning his response was "no" (a very typical response of his). A few minutes later he asked for my help in opening the shed door, so I bribed him and said I would help him if he let me take a picture, so he turned around and said "CHEESE!" Guess parenting requires a little give and take?!