Happy 30th Birthday BJ!

It's true: BJ has finished his 30th year of life. I am fortunate enough to have spent the last 5 years at his side, and look forward to many more years together.
I could wax profound here, but let me just say that I love you dearly BJ, and wish you the happiest of birthdays!
I will let BJ give the birthday synopsis if he so desires!

14 Months Old!

Well, the time sure does fly. This has been a fun month as we continually see more and more of Gabe's fun personality emerge. Here is his "bio" for the month:

Gabe LIKES: playing with his toys, unstacking and knocking things down, graham crackers, poking people's noses, playing "chase", exploring anything and everything- rooms with open doors, trying to open the toilet lid, opening and closing cupboards and drawers, climbing over obstacles, and watching people blow bubbles.


Gabe LOVES: Grapes, fruit, cheese, playing with Mommy and Daddy, playing peekaboo and pattycake by himself, having stories read to him and turning the pages, going outside, bath time, playing with real or pretend phones, remotes, etc., playing roll the ball and throw the ball (he has pretty good aim too), and kick the ball (with some help), looking at himself and others in the mirror, making people laugh, or gasp with "surprise".

Gabe does NOT like: eggs, nap time, nose wipes, sitting still for too long, being in confined spaces, strangers trying to hold him.

Gabe hasn't started walking independently, not that I think he couldn't, but he seems to be content with crawling (which he started late as well) or holding on to things as he walks. He will take a few steps, but then he "dives" toward whatever his goal is. We put some shoes on him, which may help, but we shall see!
Gabe is starting to communicate more with us, not so much by him speaking, but in gestures, grunts (!), and a few signs. He evidently understands a good deal of what we say to him. He will sometimes point to his mouth when he wants to eat, and clap his hands when he wants more of something. He looks at the picture of Jesus in his room when I say "Where is Jesus?" and he crawls toward me as fast as he can if I get my keys out and say "Let's go bye-bye." When I remind him to be gentle, he reaches out and strokes my hair as "gently" as he can. He gives kisses when asked to, and sometimes without being asked. This week as I have picked him up, he puts his arms around me and pats me on the back.
Gabe still takes a 1 hour morning nap, but I think we are about to phase the afternoon nap out; we end up with a lot of screaming and lately he is pretty happy to just keep playing- and then we put him down for bed an hour earlier, at 7pm. :D Gabe goes to bed pretty easily though, we lay him down while he is still awake, and although we sometimes hear him crying a little bit (like if he hears any loud noises) he usually goes right to sleep and doesn't wake up until 6:30- 7:30 in the morning.
We have had some concerns with Gabe's health this month. First, we were worried that Gabe might have a milk intolerance because he was throwing up for a week, so we took him off milk completely. We have started giving him cheese again and other things with milk, even making rice cereal with milk, and no problems so far, so we will see what happens with that. Then last week we all got pretty sick with congestion, aches, pains, slight fevers, etc. and Gabe started having difficulty breathing with wheezing so we took him in to the after hours clinic and got him started on breathing treatments, which we have been continuing at home, but with less frequency as he is getting better. Poor little guy is used to the mask on his face and just leaves it alone (for the most part) while we sing songs or read books. Then we found out he is getting another ear infection. Big surprise. The doctor really recommended that Gabe gets tubes put in his ears, so we may be doing that soon.
Gabe is really a pretty happy kid. We love him dearly and think the world of him, as parents do of their children. We have so much fun with him and are really enjoying watching his personality develop.

Happy September!

Every September, I feel that mix of sadness at summer coming to an end, and excitement about all things fall. Thinking of all the things that were on my summer- to- do list, and exploring all the possibilities of fun activities yet to try. I am excited for the leaves to change colors and the weather to cool down a bit. I can't help but imagine the smell of crayons, erasers, and freshly sharpened pencils (I might just take a little walk down the aisles at Office Depot for fun). It almost makes me long for school days again. Almost. September also reminds me of canning peaches, immunizations, eating tomatoes, and packing sack lunches with apples and peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread (notice a food theme there?). But I digress.
With the beginning of September, I have scaled back my work hours a bit, so I am only working 8 hours a week now. It is nice to be able to spend more time with Gabriel. Speaking of Gabe, he is cutting his 13-16th teeth right now, two of which are molars. Poor kid. He also has a cold this morning. In addition, he has to sleep in his pack and play, because we took his crib back to Target last weekend (it was recalled) and we haven't had a chance to get a new crib for him yet.
On the docket for today: naps, sorting through piles and piles of papers, sewing some new pants for Gabe, possibly even making my bed. Ha.