Saturday afternoon, we had some friends come over for a few hours. Former neighbors who used to live downstairs came with their two (adorable!) sons and current neighbors who share the same floor with us came with their newborn little girl (also, way adorable!). When we first moved into the building almost four years ago, no one had kids. Now, there are four kids between three couples.

Everyone contributed something to the “finger foods and drinks” afternoon. As a result, even after everyone had a few drinks, our refrigerator looked like it belonged at a frat house more than it belonged to a family of three.

The unfortunate part of Saturday was Sweets started to not feel well midway through the day. He tried to power through our get-together with friends, but bailed to our bedroom before they left. I’m pretty sure he didn’t got out of bed until Sunday morning. So, I bathed and read a book to Gavin, tucked him in bed, walked the dog, made myself a cup of tea and read for an hour or so in complete silence. It was lovely.

Saturday night, sir Gavin woke up sometime in the middle of the night (which seems to be a theme lately – I’m chalking it up to a growth spurt). I pulled him into the guest bed. As he was getting comfortable, he looked at me and waved. Because it was dark, I whispered “hi.” He whispered a “hi” right back to me. So sweet!

Sunday, Sweets still wasn’t feeling well. So, Gavin and I went grocery shopping together. We then went to music class without Sweets. It was an insanely full class. Every student from our regular class. Plus two students coming in for make-up classes. Plus, a handful of grandparents (on top of the fact that most kids come with both parents to class). On top of that, there was a substitute teacher (who we generally don’t like, because we are THAT loyal to Gavin’s current teacher), but as it turned out the kids LOVED her (they were flocking to her in droves by the end of the class – she had one of those really annoying squeaky voices that parents hate, but that kids apparently love!).

Gavin took a 3½ hour nap on Sunday afternoon. I actually woke him up, because it was 4:30 and I was afraid that he’d really mess with his nighttime sleep if he slept much later or longer, for that matter. Parents everywhere say, you don’t mess with children’s sleep and there’s a reason for that. Here’s what Gavin gave us in return for waking him up:

And, that’s pretty much how our weekend ended. In the blink of an eye, it was over. But, not before a family walk to a local, old school ice cream shop for some dessert. Mama had Italian Gelato; Sweets had a Pretzel Sundae; and, Gavin had nothing (nor did he ask for any of ours, which was just fine with me – he doesn’t need dessert just yet!). Did you have a nice weekend?

Today is Primary Day here in Illinois. Usually, due to the timing of the Illinois primary being so late in the political year, it is a non-issue, because one candidate has wrapped up the national nomination. Not the case this year. Though, based on the ads, you’d think only one presidential candidate is running. For the past week, I’ve seen dozens of Romney ads. I’ve seen a total of ZERO ads from the other candidates. I know Romney is loaded, but don’t the other candidates have to at least get their name out there in order to garner more votes?

Then again, based on what Santorum said about Puerto Rico last week and statehood and the Federal law requiring  them to adopt English as their primary language and the fact that no such law exists and given Chicago (in particular) has a very high Hispanic population, maybe it is best he saves his advertising dollars and opts to visit Republican friendly gathering spots instead (though, certainly not his alma mater high school). Furthermore, we want this super sensitive guy representing us across the world? Good grief!

Even though I’m a registered Democrat (I know, huge surprise to those of you who regularly read my blog read the first couple paragraphs of this post), I will still be participating in the primary. There are a number of vacated judge spots that are open. And thanks to a legal friend of mine, I’ve been reminded that not every judge who is nominated is worthy of serving their time on the bench. I’m going to have my say in it.

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Gavin is 16 months old and we haven’t yet cut his hair. It’s not because I’m the mama who will cry when she has to cut her son’s hair. Quite the contrary. I like my guys to be clean-cut. But, Gavin has been sparse in the hair department and hasn’t yet demanded a proper cut. As you can sort of see from the photo above (taken a few days ago), he has some hair on the top, but it’s wispy at best. He has hints of hair on the sides, but let’s face it, there’s still very little. I don’t have a problem with the frontal hemisphere of his head.

At issues is the back of his head, where his hair has grown into a little bushel of baby fine hair. On a good day, it’ll curl and look as cute as can be. On most days, though, part of it curls and part of it just lies flat and lifeless. Not sure if you can see in this photo, but if you look closely, some of this not-very-fun hair is peeking behind his ear.

Ever since Gavin turned a year, Sweets has been advocating to shave his head, arguing it’ll grow back thicker and more “normal,” whatever that means. I put my foot down to shaving (never) and cutting (not until the time is right). But, I did agree that when the time is right, Sweets can take Gavin to his barber. Just the other night, I got the itch to cut it myself. I asked Sweets if I could and he firmly said no. Not because it would be me and not the barber, but because he’s now growing to like it. WTH?!

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Our summer plans are coming together. We will spend two weeks on the East Coast visiting my brother in Asbury Park, New Jersey and my parents on Cape Cod. We are also going to head to Door County (Wisconsin) to go camping with friends (we’ve taken this trip before, twice actually) and will take a few days off for that trip. It’s looking like I’m going to work a total of 11 days in the month of August. More importantly, I will be taking 12 days of vacation (not counting weekends!). Why am I talking about it now if it’s only March? Because it also means I’m going to take a total of near zero vacation days between now and then. Wah!

I keep saying Mother Nature is playing a trick on us. She’s either going to deliver a whammy of a blizzard in April. Or, she’s for real with this real spring-like weather and will deliver us a whammy of a summer, where we’re begging for mercy by June. But, that’s neither here nor there – no use trying to predict the future when the present is so darn ideal!

Friday night, Sweets went to a Bulls game with a friend. Gavin and I shared grilled cheese sandwiches. To change things up, I jumped in the bathtub with him, which totally weirded him out until I started splashing him and he broke out in giggles. We read in bed and I stayed with him until he fell asleep. Then I grabbed a beer and watched Duke lose (it was beautiful, even if it was a bracket buster!).

Saturday, we went to Poppy’s first birthday party. Because it was almost 80° out, we put Gavin in the stroller and walked to the party. We also hung out in the backyard with our good friends to enjoy the weather. Because it was St. Patrick’s Day (and because we gave our son an Irish name), I made sure to dress him in green.

Gavin split his time between climbing a couple stairs and running towards the alley (thank goodness for gates that lock!) and playing with his buddy, Noah. Did I ever mention that Gavin adores Noah? Well, he does. We hope Noah will continue to share with Gavin what he learns from Little Kickers (young kid soccer).

After playing for a few hours in the sun, Gavin promptly fell asleep in his stroller on the way home. And stayed that way, even after I transitioned him from stroller to bed. When he woke up, we grabbed the dog, threw everyone in the car (not literally, y’all, c’mon now!) and headed to our old ‘hood to meet up with Gavin’s preemie twin.

To continue the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, we contributed a few themed discovery bottles, homemade coleslaw and (not green) beer. Our friends made corned beef, potatoes and brussel sprouts (which, I discovered I actually kinda like). We hung out, watched basketball and watched our boys (born 2 weeks apart, both premature) continue to cull a friendship we hope will last for a very long time.

Oh, and Gavin might have discovered a hat to complete his ensemble.

As you can imagine, Gavin was bush-whacked after that day. He slept very soundly on Saturday night. Sunday, I pulled out our jogging stroller (gifted to us second-hand from Gavin’s aunties) to take Gavin on his inaugural run. It’s the first time we’ve used the stroller and would determine whether Gavin would come with me on future runs. I see taking him on weekend mornings with me, if he’ll have me.

The hat was temporary (he grabbed it as I was putting on a visor), but his pajamas came with us (I figure he was comfortable, so why bother changing him!). We went for about 30 minutes and he was great. No complaints about going too slow. He kicked his feet almost the entire way. Not sure if that was to mimic my running or because he was dancing to the music (I had music playing on my phone – not loudly enough to bother the neighbors, though).

After cleaning up and getting dressed, we went to Gavin’s music class and then across the street to a restaurant to meet some friends. The short story of the restaurant was they seated us in the sun (rather than in the shade under a tree – I didn’t notice the open table until after we’d been situated at our table), took 90 minutes to deliver our food (including Gavin’s meal), forgot to deliver Sweets’ beer and then couldn’t remember what beer he ordered, brought me the wrong sandwich, had bathrooms with overflowing toilets and … well, there’s more, but I’ll spare you. It was a DISASTER. I think we would’ve caused a scene if it weren’t for the fact that … well, our toddler did it for us. Thankfully, our waitress recognized what a mess it was and only charged us $7 for our entire meal … to tell you the truth, I would’ve paid 150% of price just to have a smooth-sailing meal.

After saying so long to our friends, we began our walk home. (Oh, did I forget to mention that the weather was so nice for something like the fifth day in a row that we walked to Gavin’s music class?!?) Within a few minutes of leaving the restaurant, Gavin fell asleep. Which is really too bad, because he missed our stop at the gelato place to get some Italian ice cream (yummy!). Once again, Gavin survived transfer from his stroller to the bed, so he had a monster nap. While he was asleep, Sweets went shopping for hats and sunglasses for Gavin. And he came home with some great stuff…

At first, Gavin kept pulling off the hat. But, then we added the sunglasses (yes, those would be Paul Frank shades – our son is too cool for us!). And I think between the fun factor and the fact that Sweets and I were rolling in laughter, Gavin decided he liked the attire.

The weekend was a full one. But, a good one. I’m not sure how much longer we’ll have this good weather, but we’re sure to enjoy it for as long as we have it!

What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods? Do anything fun to enjoy it this weekend?

Now, onto the work you have to do to earn a chance to win this lovely frame. As you’ll recall, we’ve already considered charities that do good for children and for pets/wildlife. Today’s theme will be a favorite for some of you (you know who you are). It’s Women’s Health. In light of what recently happened between Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Koman Foundation, I am interested in learning about other great organizations doing good for women’s health. Since I’ve already donated to Planned Parenthood this year and will not donate to SGK again, let’s take those two organizations off the table today.

Tell me about some other non-profits focused on helping women. Remember to leave me a comment with a link to their website and a few words why you think it’s an important charity to you. Then, spread the good word through your social media outlets! As a reminder, the rules are below.

Rules:

1. You may enter a non-profit organization only once per post; it must be accompanied by a link and reason why you think it’s a worthy charity.
2. You may earn up to two bonus entries for posting about this giveaway on your own blog and posting about it to another social media outlet (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). For each additional entry, please post a comment here with a link to your blog, Twitter post, etc.
3. I will donate 25¢ for every entry on any given day, with a minimum donation of $25 per day.
4. All entries must be accompanied by a valid email address.
5. The person who suggests the winning charity will win the prize for that day (it is up to my discretion which charity I choose on any given day).
6. If multiple people suggest the same charity, the winner will be determined from the selected sub-group (who all suggested the same charity – including bonus entries) by random.org
7. Each person may win only one prize during this blogoversary celebration. However, to encourage entries everyday, if a person who has previously won a prize is chosen as the winning entry of another charity on another day, that person may choose which prize to take home. For the prize they didn’t choose, a different winner (on the day whose prize was not chosen) will be chosen from every entry (including bonus entries) by random.org
8. Entries for today’s contest opened at 5am central time and will close at 4:59am central time tomorrow, when the next contest will open.
9. Winners will be announced at the end of the week after the daily contests have officially closed.

The opinions in this blog post are solely my own, based on my own experiences with the vendors. I have not been compensated to say nice things about any vendor or organization and the vendor has not provided me any products for this contest. All prizes have been purchased at the expense of the blogger.

In short, I’m waiting for the floor to drop from beneath us. No matter how much we try not to compare our children, I think every parent has moments of wondering why their child isn’t able to do the same things that kids the same age can already do. I think, maybe, my feelings about that are a bit amplified, because I wonder what Gavin missed from exiting the womb so early. There’s no way he could be just fine, so it’s not a matter of if, but when some sort of deficiency rears its ugly head. And, it’s usually at his check-ups with the pediatrician when this otherwise quiet anxiety surfaces, because I’m certain the pediatrician will reveal something we hadn’t anticipated.

At every appointment, Gavin’s pediatrician asks what developmental milestones he’s hit. We discuss. And he then makes suggestions for milestones Gavin should reach by the next appointment. These conversations have been very helpful for us to both appreciate that Gavin has been on track (so far) and also to have a few things to keep in mind going forward. After these appointments, I keep in mind the milestones Gavin is supposed to hit and feel reassured when he achieves them.

At Gavin’s 12-month appointment, his pediatrician suggested that by his 15-month appointment, he should understand words (e.g., be able to point to his eyes) and maybe even say a few words. He should be bending his knees, possibly moving in ways that are almost running. He should be able to get something into a spoon (but, won’t necessarily feed himself). And we should be setting the stages for discipline – Gavin will begin testing limits and we should begin to formulate how we’re going to discipline him now and also in the future when he’s better able to understand our words and even able to communicate with us.

Looking back at these notes, I actually feel pretty good about what Gavin has achieved over the past three months. He bends his knees, picks up things on the floor and stands back up without holding onto anything for balance. His walking is much more confident (no more Frankenstein) and he’s even beginning to speed up in ways that predict running is in his near future. He is able to feed himself if we put food on a fork and he can feed himself yogurt and other soft foods with a spoon. Gavin has started toddler tantrums (more on that in another post) and continues to be a very curious boy who likes to explore, which has provided us ample opportunities to explain to Gavin why he can’t do something and redirect him to a more appropriate activity.

But, going into Gavin’s 15-month appointment earlier this week, I was focused on those milestones Gavin hasn’t yet hit. Almost immediately after his 12-month appointment, I began asking and showing Gavin where his eyes, ears, nose and mouth are. Soon thereafter, he began pointing to them when prompted. But, he’s been on a multi-month strike and, of course, I am worried that might mean something more than he’s just bored with the activity and has moved onto sticking out his tongue and picking his nose on command. I was also worried, because Gavin really doesn’t use words (or at least not any that we really recognize). He says mama and dada with frequency and intent (not just babbling), but he doesn’t point to objects or people and say a consistent word. Earlier this week, I got him to clearly say banana, but that’s very recent and he hasn’t had a chance to actually use it in context or even at all without me prompting him.

Needless to say, I was definitely concerned. Not just because Gavin’s pediatrician said he should be able to do these things by 15 months and Gavin wasn’t. But, also because a number of Gavin’s peers are able to talk and point to things when asked. And while I generally don’t compare Gavin to his peers (I’m genuinely happy for all our milestones, whenever they happen), this time I was concerned that Gavin was falling behind. I was concerned that finally, entering this world early was having a long-term impact on his life.

During the appointment, we learned that Gavin weighs 24 lbs (+ 5 oz from his 12-month check-up), is 30.5 inches long (+ 0.5 inches) and has a head circumference of 50 cm (+1 cm). These numbers seem to be inline with where he was at his last appointment, so there wasn’t much discussion here. Gavin got three vaccination shots, cried momentarily, but soon thereafter was waving good-bye to the same nurse who poked him with needles. And, Gavin’s pediatrician inquired about his milestones. When he asked about words, I admitted that he has a very limited vocabulary, pretty much nothing outside of mama and dada. Without batting an eye, the pediatrician asked whether Gavin understands words when we talk to him.

I immediately smiled and said absolutely. Because, you know what? Gavin’s understanding of words has grown exponentially in the last three months. For example, the other day, I asked Gavin to give the crayon he was holding to a friend. Gavin offered his friend the crayon and actually let go when his friend grabbed at it. Gavin can follow instructions when we ask him to put clothes in the hamper, throw away trash, point to his grandparent in a series of photos or pick up a specific toy. Gavin knows who SoMi is and will walk over and pet her on command. If I ask Gavin to drink a little more milk, he will pick up his sippy cup and drink from it. If I ask for a kiss, Gavin puckers his lips and leans towards me. If I ask for a hug, Gavin leans his head in and rests it on my shoulder. And sometimes, when I ask for these things, Gavin shakes his head from side to side and refuses to do whatever I’ve requested. Of course, he always does it with a mischievous grin on his face, so it’s hard to find his “no” anything but charming.

When I reported a few of these things, Gavin’s pediatrician said he was satisfied with Gavin’s development. He said that some pediatricians will say that Gavin has not hit the milestones he should have by 15 months. But, based on our pediatrician’s experience, he said that understanding of words is much more important at this point than the ability to say them. When I mused that Gavin’s recent transition to the toddler room might act as encouragement to start using more words in the coming months, Gavin’s pediatrician agreed. Our pediatrician doesn’t beat around the bush, so I trust that he’s not sugar-coating anything. If he had any concerns or potential concerns, he would’ve voiced them. He didn’t. So, I’m satisfied that Gavin is right on track. And to show he’s right on track, with some prompts from Sweets, Gavin said “teeth” last night … and again this morning.