Welcome to Vreeman Family Website
Musings, media, and miscellany from the Vreemans in Fishers, IN
Christmas Greetings 2009
Dear Friends -
We are so very grateful for the many blessings, adventures, and fun of this past year, and hope that this finds you well and enjoying the joy of Christmas.
With Love,
Dan, Lorrie, and Gavin
Smoky Mountains Vacation
On a bit of a whim, we planned a last minute vacation down to Gatlinburg, TN and the Smoky Mountains with our friends the Sellers. With their two boys Landon (22 months) and Luke (8 months) plus Gavin (12 months), we knew this would be quite the adventure. We had a great time exploring Gatlinburg and seeing a bit of the Smoky Mountains on horseback in addition to enjoying time with friends. We've posted a few media highlights from the trip below:
October 2009 Gatlinburg, TN vacation gallery (Gavin 1 year) : thumbnails here | slideshow here
One year and walking
In the words of the wise Bill Cosby - "those of you with or without children, you'll understand." Time sure flies. One year ago seems like just yesterday. So much to be thankful for, so much fun. Gavin hit the big one year mark, and is now picking up steam with this walking business; his longest stretch so far is about 15 steps. I could say a lot about the adventures of the last couple of months, but I think it'd be better if you took a look at the media collection instead:
Gavin's 1st Birthday Party - Part 1 (pre-party walk-through)- Gavin's 1st Birthday Party - Part 2 (cupcake)
- Gavin practices his walking
- September 2009 gallery (Gavin 11 months) : thumbnails here | slideshow here
- October 2009 gallery (Gavin 1 year) : thumbnails here | slideshow here
11 Months
Gavin finished off month 11 today after surviving 4 days with Dad. The Vreeman boys had fun together while Lorrie saw kids at the hospital and went to a peds continuing ed course. There was the infamous "zip tie" event and the first push toy excursion. Gavin was pretty disappointed that he wasn't able to rock out with me and Uncle Phil at the Creed concert Saturday night, but we did listen to their music all day at home and I showed him how to use drop D tuning. At this point though, Gavin is mostly concentrating on his percussion and DJ mixing skills.
Last year at this time we were thinking he could be coming any day. We definitely didn't know all the adventures that lay ahead...
Practice and breakthroughs
Gavin's 10 month old nervous system loves to practice. Squatting up and down, playing catch, investigating how straps and buckles work, splashing in the tub. Ad infinitum. And that's how it was with the first step on our staircase. In June, Gavin started to take an interest in the living room stairs and just kept practicing going up and down the first step over and over. This continued for about a month or so until one night when had the Sellers and Taylor families over for a cookout. Inspired by the older kids going up the stairs and the larger audience, Gavin took off and climbed the whole flight (with me spotting behind). It was a breakthrough moment and now he can't leave them alone. In the time I've been trying to write this post he's gone up them at least 6 times. Here is one of the runs on video (though 2 min 30 secs is one of his slower times).
The last few weeks have been filled fun adventures with family and friends: Mike and BZ's 40th birthday, an afternoon adventure at the Indianapolis Museum of Art with Uncle Joe and Aunt Rachel, visits from both sets of grandparents, fun at the Indiana state fair. Here is the full media collection for the last few weeks:
- Gavin waxes poetic and eats some rice
Gavin does the sit n spin with a tape measure- Gavin learns to use a fork
- Gavin climbs the stairs
August 2009 gallery (Gavin 10 months) : slideshow here | thumbnails here- August Indianapolis Museum of Art adventure (Gavin 10 months) : slideshow here | thumbnails here
Family vacation - round 2
All of us thoroughly enjoyed our extended weekend vacation up at Houghton Lake, MI - especially Gavin. As you can see from the photo gallery below, he certainly didn't lack for attention. I guess that's what grandparents are for. The weather was beautiful, the setting very peaceful, but most of all we loved getting the time to spend with family to enjoy stories and laughs, good food, kayaking, late night bonfires with s'mores (every night), and all sorts of other fun. We've added a couple of videos and a photo gallery of the trip:
- Houghton Lake, MI Vacation Gallery: slideshow here | thumbnails here
Now that Gavin has turned the corner on 9 months, we've also started a running collections of photos over on Picassa. After a couple of days with constant attention from many people, Gavin has really started to perfect his showmanship.
- Gavin 9 Months Gallery: slideshow here | thumbnails here
His latest motor development (which he learned up at Houghton Lake) is pulling to stand. It's still a bit of a challenge for him, but he keeps practicing more and more each day. Cruising is not too far away!
Teething biscuits are a bit messy
We've just arrive up here in Houghton Lake, MI for a couple of days on the lake with Mom and Dad and Phil. The weather is beautiful and we're looking forward to a relaxing couple of days. Last weekend we had a great time at the Fisher's Freedom Festival. It was Gavin's first fireworks display. Funny enough, he decided to go to sleep just when they started. (It was about 10:00PM). We've added a few last photos to Gavin's 8 month gallery. The other highlight is a series of photos for another messy experience with teething biscuits. Gavin gives a little after dinner commentary in this video:
