The day of the great cookie exchange brought about quite a bit of action at the Winslow abode. Gavin got some more skills and is rolling onto his tummy all the time now. This is AMAZING, we have been working several times a day to make this happen, so this is a HUGE feat! Kudos to his therapists on that, I clap hysterically every time. I think I actually startled him once, whoops. He must be in that “anything you can do I can do better” stage because he is all squeaky mouse when his big sissy is doing something or has something that he doesn’t have. I expected that from Lulu not him, but on the flip side, it’s doing great things in motivating him to move that little bod of his. His temper is kinda funny to see, I am sure he doesn’t appreciate me finding humor in it, but it is too cute! He has figured out to release the ball into the hoop today (which is a 9 month developmental skill woo hoo, ya baby) and figured out how to flip open a door to make his farm light up—the kid’s got skills, skill-a-licious!

Lauren, on the other hand, was busy writing the CEO of the North Pole while I was baking (since she declined her nap time today, man that is always devastating). I had to write them down because they were so funny I had to pass them along. Every sentence began with Dear Santa:

Dear Santa,
Don’t forget my house, I live between Libby and Lainey.

Dear Santa,
Don’t forget to feed your reindeer, we don’t want them sick. I would like to help you with that.

Dear Santa,
if your bag is to full of toys, you can drop them off at my house.

Dear Santa,
If your bag is to full and you drop them in water, a mermaid will probably give them back to you.

It’s been a crazy busy day, and if I never see another cookie pan that will be fine (who am I kidding, who doesn’t love cookies?!) Tomorrow dance class and a house revamp before book club! Okay, I’ve gotta go, Lauren just came in here and said that she was going to change Gavin—code red!

Life is good in the Winslow house, Gav seems to be bouncing back, but I think that Lauren may be coming down with it though. I guess it's inevitable if one gets it, we all get it. She asked me before she went to bed tonight to call all of her friends and let them know that she was sick and would not be going to their houses. She fell asleep in the middle of her list: Payton, Libby, Lainey, and snore!

Well we had an exciting turn of events, Gavin rolled from his back to his tummy on purpose and is starting to stay there all because of a little orange plastic basketball from the Smo's (thanks Smo's for encouraging our future athlete)! He's obsessed with this ball; he must have it in close proximity at all times. It's an awesome tool to make him work his strength up! He's starting to get so opinionated and gives a little whimper when things are not going exactly the way he wants them. I must say, he whimpers for a millisecond before he gets pretty much exactly what he wants, but kids are meant to be spoiled.

I bought a food processor, apparently Gavin feels that he is above the baby food variety and prefers big people food, but doesn't have the chompers yet to handle the textures, so this is a new project to bulk him up. He is finally up in the 15 lb. range again for the first time tonight so we hope to keep him climbing, c'mon lucky 16, I wish it took me this long to gain 8 lbs.! The kids are going to help me bake a zillion cookies for our cookie exchange, but Lauren doesn't mind as long as she gets to lick the beater. She has to lick it on a certain stair, it’s a little ritual, after every ingredient she asks if I'm done yet. Gav is making leaps and bounds in his lip smacking talent and now I have to do a double take to see if it's him making all that noise or Jay. We've had a fun week with Sally, Annalyse and Nick and T. Things are getting busier and busier as the holidays approach! Cary and the girls will be here in no time and then Mike, Hien and Sam and things will really get stirred up! Lauren is a little perplexed at what exactly Santa does since she found out about these toy making elf characters, but she did give her list to him at breakfast with Santa. I asked her what she was going to ask for, and she told me she was going to “think about it.” Well, better get some sleep, why is it that kids never sleep in? That would be awesome! Take care and happy holidays! Hugs, Jill.

[mygal=gavinxmas]

Well, the bubble has somewhat burst, since Gavs and I are sick, again…ugh! It was sweet though, we took him to the doctor today and his big sister, Lauren, would not leave his side. She told the doctor it was because Gavin likes her and she made sure that he was not hurting him, because she was his “big sissy”, my little warrior princess. For me however, she wanted to watch me get my flu shot so I had to be brave. She is fascinated with shot giving, hence she watches the growth hormone shot being given to Gavin. Funny how a little needle makes you cringe, but it wasn’t so bad. She also wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be ‘left behind’ and that I would be coming home. She doesn’t like me going to see the doctor after I had to stay in the hospital last year. She was taking her mommy home and that was that.

Gavin is falling short on his development milestones, which I know is no surprise but it’s just frustrating. I just want things to be easy for him, he shouldn’t have to work so hard for everything. Whenever the doctor asked a question I felt like saying, “ya he does that, of course he does that… he crawls, he says mama, dada”…but—-nope none of the above, I just wanted him to stop asking.

When you have a sick kid, sometimes it’s like being caught in a forest fire. It feels like it’s coming fast and it’s right behind you and you are just trying to stay ahead of it and put out the little fires along the way. You’re just clutching and running as fast as you can trying to get out of the grasp of this disease. You just want it to go away and stop, but it’s relentless.

Anyway, I am just beat, this cold has us both wiped out and Gav is losing weight again. I absolutely hate the numbers 14 and 15 because we have been between 14 and 15 lbs for like two months now. I know it could be worse, I know that we are so lucky that he eats on his own, but I think we will throw a party when we see 16 lbs! I anticipate a feeding tube for Christmas, my poor baby. But thank God for green beans because for the last three days, it is the only solid food that he will eat.

He’s obsessed with babies, they make him light up…it’s fun to see and he does this new lip thing. He’s getting jealous of his sister when she has a sippy cup and he doesn’t. He wants to be part of all the action, especially if there is a flashlight to be found. He’s such a miracle! Hope this finds you all well and enjoying the holidays around you! We have seen such kindness through all of this, it’s heartwarming to see how much good this world has to offer. I know that someday, my kids will be out there “passing it on”. Take Care!