Santa had all kinds of tricks up his sleeve!

WOW!!!

We have had a REALLY big week around the Heim household. As if the holidays aren't hectic enough with traveling, last minute gifts, and figuring out times to see family and friends that haven't been seen all year, our little one decided to throw in a twist of his own. Gavin started walking this week! I personally think he was a little upset that he didn't have everyone's total attention all the time so he made it his mission to come up with something to direct all eyes back to him. And he did just that! Greg's mom and sisters were keeping him on Monday night and he had stumbled around a little over the weekend. I told Greg that the girls would have him walking before Christmas and sure enough I got a text from Addison that read... "GAVIN JUST WALKED ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM!!!" And of course I started crying. I couldn't get to him fast enough!

Of course Christmas was wonderful. We went to the Fort to celebrate with Greg's side of the family and my Dad's family on Christmas Eve. We got a visit from Santa at Grandma Heim's...didn't go so well for Gavin. It was his first time to see the jolly ole' guy up close, and he wasn't too stoked about it. (Hey this is Greg, in Gavin's defense "Santa" did say "Booga Booga" real loud right when he sat down and then whispered in his ear that he wasn't actually Santa Clause but Mark Curlett and just showed up cause Mom and Dad gave him a liquid thank you gift wrapped in a purple velvet bag. Ya'll know what I'm sayin. No wonder the poor guy was cryin. Seriously though, thanks to Mark for doing that. Maybe next year he can hide behind a bush outside and jump out and yell "Santa's here!" really loud and give him gifts that way).

We woke up on Christmas day, opened presents from the Heims', and headed back up to Rogers to do gifts and dinner with my parents and Meme. Santa was VERY good to all of us this year! (Hey Greg here, also notice in the background the pastel monkey riding the dumptruck and Gavin is astonished with the gold ribbon. I mean this kid has some focus. Very impressive for a 1 year old).

And my little boy (yes, he is now a little boy. :( not a baby anymore) just seems to keep adding to his bag of tricks! He is in the process of learning how to call the Hogs...he thinks it's the funniest thing EVER and is trying so hard to get the motions down! And dad is teaching him how to drive. Or at least letting him pretend to drive. Which he thinks is hysterical! Here's a sneak peak of the little man behind the wheel.

(That's right Greg here again) Yep, you better believe it ladies and gentleman, Gavin not only started walking this week he also started driving! I mean, they grow up so fast. Of course I set some ground rules such as no drinking out of the sippee cup while driving and no talking to or playing with bun bun. This video was taken at the end of our first driving lesson at the Promenade in Rogers. I will say that the older he gets the more he throws little fits and complains. For instance, he's getting particular about the baby food we give him, he cries when you leave him in a room by himself for hours at a time, and "he can't reach the pedals". I mean come on, time to be a big boy. Anyway, he did a good job with his first time behind the wheel (and may I add that those dorky little bike cops at the Promenade are such fascists, I mean how about you let me parent my own child thank you very much.) We were gonna practice parallel parking but it was cold and mommy and daddy were done shopping so we went home. Happy upcoming New Year everybody! (By the way, Kara thought the whole "leave him in a room by himself for hours at a time" made us sound like bad parents but I always make sure Savvy babysits when we're gone. I mean seriously, like we wouldn't have a babysitter.) Geesh

Hey everybody, it's Greg, I can't sleep and I figured I'd go ahead and make another post all by myself. I'm a little bit like Haley this way (and she knows what I mean) in that I get these extremely random ideas that I want to tell people about and I think they're funny so you people reading this are just gonna have to sit there and take it. So for our first picture, I want everybody to take a good hard look at the items in little G's crib below and tell me if there is anything that is a little weird.

Give up? Well the fact that there's not one glow worm but two glow worms is a little strange to me. I mean who invented this doll anyway? It's got arms but no legs, it's face lights up, and its a worm wearing a hooded sweatshirt. I mean I'm pretty sure they were around when I was a kid which is kind of strange and there's two of them here. I honestly have no clue how he aquired the second one but there they are, apparently reproducing (and glowing of course) all around my sleeping son. It, however, is pretty adorable how he sleeps like that with his bun bun. And his um worms.

For this next picture I wanted to show once again what a great job Kara did with the decorations for Christmas this year. But it's not the beautiful decorations that are the highlight of this next pic. Prepare to be awed.

That's right, Savvy's back on the blog. I'm actually really proud of myself with the way that I used the light to really bring out her muscle structure. If you look really close you can almost see where her stomach ends and her neck begins. Just breathtaking. By the way, as I type this blog right now, Savvy is snoring so loud, that is sounds like a tuba player getting in a fight with a bunch of bullfrogs. Ridiculous. After seeing this picture I realized that I need to make an effort to take Savvy on more walks. I mean I know she looks great but if she's gonna win some more blue ribbons she needs to put in a smidge more effort. So anyway I got her leash on her and she gets all excited cause she knows what we're doing, she's actually pretty smart, and I open the front door. We start to walk up the front yard, emphasis on the word up, Savvy doesn't do up, and to make a short story shorter, she's winded by the time we get to the mailbox and I'm freezing cause it's like 4 degrees so we decide to go back inside. I give her a dog biscuit, I make a white russian and we both watch TV. All in all a pretty good father daughter experience. Also, if you were wondering, she's not able to have puppies. Sorry about that. There can only be one Savvy.

This next picture is quite possibly the cutest pic of Little G ever. You see I usually have bath duty cause its just easier for me to lift him in and out of the tube. So naturally I decided to give him a little mohawk and snap a picture. Here ya go.

Pretty stinkin cute. Hey Greg, is that fireman ducky cover for the bath faucet? Yes, yes it sure is.

To finish it off I found this picture online so I thought what the hell. I figure there's at least one guy out there that might read this blog and appreciate it. For those of you that don't know, it's the characters from one of my favorite movies, Anchorman, with a little Razorback flare. Go Hogs.

A few of Gavin's favorite things...

In my attempt to get into the spirit of Christmas, I've had to look to my little one for inspiration. Usually at this point I have all my shopping done, presents wrapped and under the tree, and stockings waiting to be stuffed. Not so much this year. Between work, life, and sick baby, things have been thrown off a little. A lot. Thrown off A LOT! However, I'm trying to recover and my goal is to have my shopping done by Saturday and presents wrapped by Sunday. Monday is my last day of work for almost 2 weeks, and I want to enjoy my time off with Gavin and Greg ( and the rest of our family and friends, too!)

I just read my friend Sarah Thomas's blog and she decided to "reflect" on her daughter's favorite things. What a great idea! So here are a few of Gavin's favorite things...

Bun Bun. His little blue bunny blanket.

He chews on it, loves on it, sleeps with it, eats with it, you name it. It's Bun Bun or bust.

Girls. He LOVES girls. Especially DeDe (my mom), Aunt Hay Hay (Haley), GiGi (greg's mom), Aunt Addi( Addison, greg's sis) and Aunt Anni (Annalise, greg's sis). And any other pretty lady you send his way!

That being said, he loves guys, too. His face lights up when he sees Bob-O(my dad), Pappa Skippy ( Greg's dad) and Uncle Kyle. And all of his uncles for that matter. I'm pretty sure he knows who loves him. :)

(Double whammy in this picture. Uncle Kyle AND Bun Bun.)

Floor vents.

He is obsessed with the vents in our floors. Nothing you can say will keep him from pulling them up. I guess it's just that they're so shiny and warm...and the fact that we constantly freak and shout "NO!" when he pulls them up...he just can't help himself! (Hey this is Greg, found him with the vent cover off the other day and his arm up to his elbow down the vent. I guess he thought Bun Bun was makin a run for it. He's quick for a tiny person. Oh and he thought it was hilarious of course.)

TOUCH.

His favorite word. And action. He must touch everything. The ornaments on the tree, the TV when he's watching "Jack's Big music show" on Noggin (if you don't have kids you will someday understand that this is an essential channel), the light fixtures....he is so intrigued by everything. I love it. (Yeah this is Greg, hell I like Jack's Big Music Show. I mean they had a Bongo Bird on there the other morning actually playing the Bongos. I mean it looked like a puppet but you never know.)

Trucks.

This is a fairly recent discovery. He is officially boy. Trucks are his favorite toys. (Hey this is Greg again, I like trucks too cause lets face it they're just cool. I mean they got big wheels, you can put stuff in them, I get it.)

His daddy.

He is just as much a daddy's boy as he is a momma's boy. And he should be. He has the best dad ever! Greg is so good with him and I couldn't imagine a better father for my son!

ME.

He loves ME. I love it. It's the best feeling EVER. It's hard to explain, but if you've experienced it you know exactly what I'm talking about. TOTAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Wow. (Hey Greg one last time, just wanna say I have the most beautiful wonderful wife in the world. She puts up with me so I know she loves me! Hey, what if I walked around with a giant bun bun, that would be weird. Or if I had a fascination with floor vents, I mean at my age? Even weirder. Anyway, Peace out and Merry Christmas!)

That being said, I need nothing for Christmas this year. All I could ever ask for was given to me almost a year ago in this sweet, precious, (sometimes ornery) little boy!

Disco Elf!

For those of you who don't know me well, I would have LOVED to have been a part of the disco scene in the 70's. Disco is my favorite! Well, since I didn't get to live it then, this is the next best thing. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/GTUeWCFx61EbJbrRTWlJ

Parent's night out!

Somebody LOVES the camera!
Greg and I took a night away this past weekend to go to Little Rock for my work Christmas party. Uncle Kyle and Aunt Hay Hay were kind enough to volunteer to keep the little man. He obviously had a GREAT time! We don't get out very much since we've had him...he didn't seem to mind that we were away! He loves being with them. He has a HUGE crush on Haley. Anytime she walks into the room he becomes completely oblivious to anything else that is going on. His one and only goal is to get her undivided attention! Needless to say, he does a pretty good job. I'm pretty sure he has her wrapped around his little finger.

Poor little guy has 2 ear infections right now. He has been such a trooper considering the circumstances. I woke up to him and the monitor this morning at 6 o'clock and he was saying "touch...touch..." Touch is his new word...and after "Mama " it's his favorite! He has to touch EVERYTHING! No object is spared. I love it! He is constantly trying to talk to us and communicate. It just keeps getting better everyday!

Yes he's real and no you can't have him.

Hey everybody, Greg here again. Hope everybody had a great thanksgiving. A couple of weekends ago, we went and got some Christmas Pics done up in Rogers and it turned into "how cute could we make Gavin day". As you can see it wasn't very hard. We also dressed Kyle (my brother in law) in the same outfit but they just didn't come out quite as good. Not sure why.












Here's another one of Little G. Merry Christmas everybody.







Here's Little G at Thanksgiving with Uncle Kyle. Apparently Bun Bun has been injured and/or sleeping and he's very concerned. Kyle is of course reassuring him that Bun Bun is just fine and will be his very special friend for a long time. Footnote: Bun Bun is Gavin's little bunny blanket that he has become attached too and sleeps with every night. Hence the concern with Bun Bun's well being.

Whooo Hooo! Bun Bun is just fine and everything is ok. Never in my life that I thought I would type the words Bun Bun multiple times on a website but everything changes when you have a child, trust me on that one and he loves that little blanket.

And this ladies and gentleman is the one and only Emily Heim (formerly Barry) doing air guitar at Papa's Pizza in fort smith. That would be Eric's wife of course. I assure you that she was high on life and um not partaking in anything else. Of course not. We had a great time that night and its always fun to go out in the fort during the holidays cause you get to see random people.

This picture was taken by Kara monday morning. Apparently Gavin really likes milk a whole lot. It's always funny cause he seems to understand that what you hand him is something you drink out of so he always does this. He's a smart little thing.





And I just wanted to highlight the wonderful job my beautiful wife Kara did on our Christmas tree. It is the by far the best tree we've ever had and I was especially impressed with the ribbon look.

Merry Christmas everybody!