In the Meantime...

So on baby shower day, you'd think Chad and Gavin were having a boys day somewhere....well, not exactly the case. My Dad (ever the instigator) called late Sat night and started a conversation like this..."so what do you think the chances are that Chad could get a babysitter tomorrow?" Hmmm....turns out he had Bulls tickets to the playoff game and was hoping to take Chad and my brother. So started the search. Luckily for us, we have amazing friends that love our son so the search started and ended with one phone call. The Agemas. Gavin spent the day with the Agemas and apparently LOVED every minute (except for the first few after Daddy left). They played...and wrestled...and played...and chased balls...and read books...and played...and laughed all day. He was very good for them including a solid nap and not much whining (or so they say). I have to admit though...from the pictures...I hardly think they are lying. So thank you Agemas for enduring our crazy rough-housing boy all day and doing us a huge favor. We SO appreciate it and will return the favor with sweet little Jackson any day!! (And thanks for the pics Amanda...those of you who read her blog will find these very familiar! :) )

Gavin enjoying a favorite pasttime with Uncle Dave.

Lunch time!

From one funny man to another.

Gavin is helping Jackson have a snack.

Showing Jackson the ropes of his own toy.

Gavin wedged in Jackson's tunnel.

Peek - a - Boo!!

Awww...time to wake up!

Baby Shower Day

On Sunday I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law Heather. We had somewhere around 35/36 women in my house for the occasion. It was crowded...a bit humid...loud...and very fun. It was so fun to have all of our family and close friends here to celebrate Heather and Kyle and their new baby on the way. My Mom and I had tons of fun organizing and planning for Heather's day....hope she enjoyed it! Unfortunately this pregnant woman was not to into having her pic taken (what? 8 months pregnant and not wanting to be on camera a ton? i've never heard of that. :) ) ...so I only got a few pics of the set up and a couple of her.

Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge

This past weekend we went to an indoor waterpark near Starved Rock called Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge. We stayed in a cabin-style villa with our friends the Agemas and the Thomsons. The weekend was quite an adventure for Mr Gavin. Sat morning we took him to the waterpark where he played and splashed for almost 3-4 hours. Needless to say he was exhausted!! He loved every minute of it though. The highlights for him were definitely the slides, running through waterfalls and playing with water that shot up out of the ground. He was a champ the whole time and loved all the pool time. This was both Lauris's and Jackson's first time in a pool...Lauris was pretty content but Jackson was having none of it! It was still fun to all hang out together for the weekend. The kids were awesome at napping and pretty good at night while the parents played cards, games, ate, drank and laughed alot. We had a great time and can't wait to make it a yearly event.

Gavin thought he was pulling a fast one stealing a toy from Lauris.
The water shooting was super exciting.
And awesome to shoot right up between your legs.
Lauris and Lisa taking in all their surroundings.
Gavin wanting to splash with Lauris.
Woo-hoo...all by myself!
Poor Jackson was none to happy about the whole situation.
Moms and Babes...aka Babes and Babies.Three kiddos forced into play by their Moms.
Running through the waterfall was HYSTERICAL.

Daddy play time!

Making sure he has an audience first.

Fun at the park.

And the arcade...um what??

Getting ready for the lazy river.

Floating away.

Family Fun.

Just can't catch that water.

Choo-Choo riding Harris style.

OT/PT Evaluation

So we finally had the OT/PT evaluation after waiting for weeks for the date to arrive. Gavin was awesome. He had so much fun playing with the two ladies and all of their toys. He was very interactive and overall very cooperative.


However, the best news of the day came when both...yes, I repeat both...therapists said he did NOT need therapy at this time!! You could have picked my jaw up off the floor when they said it. I was seriously so excited, I almost cried. Here is a breakdown of what they said:


PT - He is very strong and although he does W-sit, she saw him use 5-6 different sitting postions on his own. The walking on his tiptoes isn't totally abnormal and could be calf strengthening at this point but it could have an emotional attachment to it. For example, he does it often when he is excited and/or upset. He does push his chest out a little bit but his shoulders, chest and core are all very strong. As for that left foot...she says it isn't consistent and thinks that when his left leg gets stronger, it will work itself out. If not, she'll reevaluate in a couple of months.


OT - She had a little more concerns but overall he falls into the normal levels for most things even if he is a little behind. She again talked about the toe walking but her only real concern was how he doesn't sit still. He is constantly going which means sometimes they can't settle their body down or are constantly in sensory overload so to speak. However, she also thinks he is just a 19 month old little boy who likes to be rough and active. He does have some low tone in his mouth and hands which we will work on. Her main concern was of course speech and she said that if there is no improvement in a few months, she would possibly work with him in conjunction with the speech therapist to stimulate speech as well as working on the sensory aspects. So basically one therapy hour where they two of them work with him at the same time.


So....overall, they were impressed with his strength and definitely his comprehension. So that is all good. The OT definitely wants to reevaluate in a few months but at this point, it is speech only and that is awesome.


I was so excited afterwards, I could barely speak. It was such a huge answer to prayer for us. I had spent majority of the previous night tossing/turning/worrying/praying about this evaluation. I have been asking God to show me some improvement...A single word...anything...and He finally did. It may not have been in the form of a word, but this was just as gratifying. To finally take Gavin to an appt where they tell me he is NORMAL. It just a huge relief to know there isn't more that we need to work on and struggle with. For now, we just focus on speech.

Happy Easter

What an amazing Easter we had to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! We are so blessed to celebrate Christ's victory on the cross. Thankfully we had a pretty nice day to enjoy as well. We actually hosted my family at our house this year for Easter. All in all, it went pretty well. I had premade most of the food on Saturday so on Sunday, it was just time to heat it all up. It was my family as well as my Grandma and Grandpa Yonker who hadn't seen our new house yet. Gavin was loving the fact that he had all kinds of attention and had so much fun showing off ALL of his toys. After a nap, we had some fun as he opened an Easter basket from his Grandma Harris and we did a makeshift Easter egg hunt around the family room. We weren't sure if he was going to understand but it didn't take him long to figure out the object of the game and soon he was running around snatching eggs as fast as he can. It was a fun day with family and we are so blessed to celebrate together.

Our family Easter pic

Opening his Easter basket.

Testing out his very first recorder.

Playing bubbles with Uncle Kyle & Auntie Heather.
Seriously...he was having so much fun.
Easter egg hunt.
He figured it out VERY quickly.
Some eggs were in funny places.
Checking out the loot..cheerios, raisins & goldfish.

Loving the Leonards

Just a few short days after our last visits, Carrie and the kids came to stay the night. It was SO much fun to see them and long overdue. Again, the kids had plenty of fun running around and Carrie and I relished the time they napped and went to bed so we could spend hours catching up and chatting. We followed it up the next day with yet another trip to Choo-Choo Johnny's where they kids had SO much fun watching the trains. Can't wait until the next time we get together...up in MI!

Poor Taylor - She was so tolerant of Gavin's tackling.

They were in a playland of their own.

Three little bugs snuggling on the couch.

Two peas in a pod.

Tay enjoying a much needed break from the boys.

They were like little birds with their mouths open for Cheerios and hands open for stickers.

Riding the train.

Taylor's turn.

Our little lot of engineers.

Watching the trains go by.