Gavin turned 14 months old this week. In the past 3 days, I've had 4 different people tell me that he's changed into a little toddler overnight! It seems like all of a sudden we have a walking, talking (in his own way of course) little boy whose baby face is turning into a little boy face - with a full head of fluffy white-blonde hair that seems to grow longer by the day. So what's Gavin up to these days? He has a little vocabulary that now includes mama, dada, bibi (his cherished bear blankie), no-no (hear this most often as he is throwing his food on the floor), bye-bye, ni-ni (night night) and ball. He likes to imitate sounds, like animal noises and the choo-choo sound that the toy train makes. He still loves to play chase and he loves to play ball, whether we roll it back and forth or walk around giving it little kicks. He will blow kisses and give hugs, and still likes to snuggle (yay!). He shows lots of emotions, going from belly laughs when he's tickled to fits of anger when he's taken away from something dangerous that he thought would be super-fun. This happened pretty fiercely last weekend when Gavin and I took a trip together to Lexington to celebrate his cousins Emily and Ellie's First Communion. As we waited to board the plane, he noticed the door open to the jet bridge, and stared down that long, downhill carpeted hallway towards the plane. He took off with a racing crawl and threw the biggest fit I've ever seen when I scooped him up
just before he made it past the door's opening. Arched back, full volume screams, wild leg kicks - wow. Definitely got the attention of the other passengers (I'm sure they had their fingers crossed they didn't get seated near us! Ha.). He knows what he wants, that's for 
sure. And speaking of our trip, what a great time we had! We got to join both the Reder and Burkholder clans for a big celebration for Emily and Ellie. We also celebrated Mother's Day and gave my mom a neat recipe book of all our favorite recipes - both the ones that we remember growing up and new ones that have become our own family favorites now. We all have a copy, and we plan to do future editions in the years to come. It's full of funny family photos that go along with each recipe. So, we enjoyed a Mother's
Day breakfast as we sifted through our new cookbooks! Back at home, Erik and Cassidy had a great daddy/daughter weekend. They went to the children's museum, had a lunch date at McDonald's and 
spent a day with Grammy and Grandpa Brown, which included a fun trip to the Brookfield Zoo. She had lots of stories to tell me when we got back Sunday night! I arrived home to a vase full of flowers and some special Mother's Day cards. It was a wonderful weekend.Here's a short video of Gavin the walker!
