The Daily Gabe

Adrift in a Sea of Green

Gabriel loves the outdoors. But he does not love grass. We're not sure why. He's not afraid of very many things. His first time on sand, he embraced it so enthusiastically he wanted to eat it. He tried to climb the steep flight of stairs at his Aunt Eileen's all the way to the top and pushed Grandma away when she acted as spotter. After repeated warning growls, he continues to grab at Dexter whenever we turn our backs. But grass made him cry the first time he sat on it. Our best guess is that he must think its a vegetable we want him to eat.

Today was a beautiful spring day and now it seems he will tolerate sitting on it, but he will NOT crawl. He doesn't even really want to touch the stuff. Here, we got on video the dilemma of his favorite ball being just out of reach on the grass. You can actually see him battle with the difficult decision of whether to crawl on the icky green stuff or risk letting the ball get away. Its hard being a baby.

Note: We are having trouble getting this video loaded (its much longer than the others) it'll be up as soon as we can.

It Continues...

With his first curse word last night (Oops, I think we need a swearing jar at our house, now!) and tonight, real proof that all our bedtime work is paying off. Every night, the last thing Mom does before she puts him into his crib and says "night-night" is sing a little song. Tonight, eyes drooping, he cut the song short by pushing her face away and saying "ni-ni" himself, more like an order.

Oh, and Uncle Tom: Edible bubbles, great idea! Gabe has been known to do a face-plant into the tub trying to get a taste of those things.

Language Explosion

In the past two weeks of being together all the time, everyone has had a lot to say. Suddenly Gabe is imitating and saying words like he wants to be the next guest host on The View! A few quotes:

• "Dada" Seems to be the universal word for just about EVERYTHING right now.
• Says "Dexter" practically perfectly! Even gets the impatient, exasperated tone just right when when the dog's not listening on occasion.
• At a ball-pit held one up and said "ba!"
• "duck" and "quack"
• Playing peek-a-boo with a favorite toy and a box, imitated Mommy saying "there it is!" Sounded more like "eh i-i!"
• Has repeated "ah-duh" a couple times after he was asked if he was "all done?" Also made the sign for it!
• "Ee-Ka" for Ian. They just LOVE eachother...soooo cute!

Also, check out our new YouTube video. This is actually from over a month ago, but it took us this long to get it online. Sorry if it makes you a little seasick...It kind of enhances the whole nautical theme, though, don't you think? And please avert your eyes from the disgusting tiles in the tub. Yikes!

Spring Break

Today is the start of our second week of spring break. We just love the year-round schedule. Well, until July. For now, though, we LOVE it! Gabe just went down for a nap. He seems to be dropping the morning nap all of a sudden. Hey...wait...all the books say he's not supposed to do that until 15 months!!! So not fair! Just one more area he seems to be a little advanced. As for the others:

• last night before his bath (keeping in mind he had on a fairly wet cloth diaper) he sat on our bathroom scale and weighed in at 23.8 pounds!
• He seems to be getting a cuspid now, after already having all eight incisors. Way more than any of the other babies I know his age. On the one hand, we'll be really glad to get all this teething DONE with. On the other hand...does this EVER end? I mean, for most of us it ends with impacted wisdom teeth in adulthood. Then the root canals start. Oh, and somewhere in there will probably be braces. Yikes!
• He's started cruising around by holding on to things and he's gotten so good at crawling we can hardly keep up with him. He's like a little spider racing accross the place all the time. Usually he's speeding to the tiniest, sharpest, most dangerous object that no adult can see. We are on the balls of our feet at all times.

Oh, and for those of you that were jealous of our beautiful sunny February weather, you can rest easy knowing all our spring break plans have been squashed by cold, cold rain and intermittent snow and sleet. Of course, there are lots of fun inside things to do, also. Turns out the entire population of Portland had the same idea yesterday. We just couldn't fit inside. So, we convinced Gabe that the grocery store was a museum. And the beautiful thing is he still believes us.

Catching our breath

What a week! Two new teeth! A fever that peaked at 102.7 with no symptoms other than wanting to be held all the time that came and went over the weekend. Whew...I thought I was exhausted before...Now I'm not sure I have words to describe it! It was nice that the active little boy who always wants to wiggle out of my lap and crawl away became my cuddly little baby again for a while, but it sure was hard to watch him be so miserable. Hopefully we'll have more updates and pictures soon.

To All the Family in Iowa: I Swear We Are Not Bragging

Here is how we spent our Sunday afternoon:

Gabriel is wearing sunscreen in this picture. Sunscreen! And lets just say, that hat is not to keep him warm. Mom and Dad were in nothing but t-shirts (well, and pants, too). Spring is on its way!!!

He Speaks!

For a couple months Gabe has been saying "mamamamamama" whenever he is hungry, sad, tired, lonely or things just aren't going the way he would like. And usually it means he wants Mama, but we're not entirely sure just what that word means to him. Last night he said his first real word.

Every night when he takes his bath, we blow bubbles and sing the bubble song from Book Babies:

(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
Hello bubble, hello bubble
Won't you land, won't you land?
Right in the middle, right in the middle
Of my hand, of my hand.

Last night, like always, I pulled out the California Baby Cranky and Overtired Bubble Bath, held up the wand and said, "Do you want bubbles?" Gabe grabbed for the bubbles and squealed "bubba!"

9 Months Old

Today Gabriel had his 9 month appointment at the pediatrician. He continues to over achieve in size. He weighed in at a whopping 21.5 lbs and is 29 inches long, with a 46cm head. Not sure why the head is the only thing they gave us in metric, but whatever that is, its the 75th percentile and so is his length. Weight is at the 85th. We can only hope his test scores will be as consistently high someday.

So, now that he has made it through the full nine months OUT of Mommy and he seems to be gaining plenty of weight, the doctor and Mommy and Daddy ALL agree, its about time he give up at least one or two of his average of 3-4 night feedings. So, we had a little talk. It's time. We are going through with sleep training. It was a very hard decision to make because we know it will involve some crying. And that is about the hardest thing in the world for Mommy to hear. But we finally feel that he's old enough to handle it and we are sleep deprived enough to try anything. Besides, he's climbing out of the co-sleeper now, so the only safe option is the crib. We decided to try the methods in this book. It is the best compromise between our only other sources, Weissbluth and Sears, and sensitive to the emotional needs of everybody involved as we do this.

Tonight is the third night and so far he has not cried more than 5 minutes. The first night, he slept six beautiful, blissful, amazing hours. IN A ROW! He hasn't done that since last October. Today he took a two hour nap. In his crib! By himself!!! I didn't know what to do with myself! I really, really, REALLY hope this continues....

Life Will Never Be the Same

We are so proud of our 10 year old german shepherd, Dexter, who must be digging in the depths of his elderly soul to muster up this kind of patience. Gabe can crawl now. And for anyone who knows Dexter, Gabe's main goal is Dexter's absolute nightmare. He MUST touch those paws!! See for yourself.

The Family of Substantial Foreheads

Gabe seems to have inherited Mommy's forehead, which is prominent to say the least. And Daddy's is rapidly becoming larger and larger. We are a family of substantial foreheads. Nice big prefrontal lobes around here. So its not really surprising that Gabriel's latest way of showing affection is to bump foreheads. Today when Mommy picked him up from daycare he head-butted her in the most loving and gentle way about 10 times in a row and then sealed it with one of his famous open-mouthed, suction on the chin kisses. Feel the love!