Happy Birthday BJ!

So happy to celebrate this day with you!  You are a wonderful husband and a great dad!

My "helper" Gabriel

Here are some of the things Gabe has done today to be helpful:

Doing dishes.

Entertaining Luke.

Feeding the monkey to keep him happy.

Good thing I have a son who does so much to help me (and make me laugh)!

Gabe stuff :-D

Gabe is at such a fun (and busy) age.  I admit sometimes I feel like pulling out my hair when I just can't seem to keep up with his energy on the days that he just runs from one thing to the next (i.e. this week when he sat on Luke, then poured a cup of water on the couch, dumped a box of cereal out onto the floor trying to get a snack, grabbed at the hot oven when it was open and barely escaped getting burned, climbed up on a kitchen chair to wipe his hands on the painting in the dining room, filled his diaper basket with Legos, balanced on the seat of his tricycle to push buttons on the television, climbed up on top of the entertainment center.... the list could go on and on...).  By and large though, he is very happy and fairly obedient for a 2 year old, and we seem to have gotten past the stage where he said "no" to everything automatically.  He rarely throws a tantrum when he has to stop playing to eat, or have a diaper change, but he sometimes does throw a fit if we try to take away his toy monkey while he eats.  He does on occasion have to go to time out, which is sometimes in the crib, and usually he will start yelling "happy!  happy!" to let us know he is ready to be happy and get out of time out.  He also sometimes says that in the morning after waking up- I think he is a little confused sometimes about why he is in bed.  He is communicating so much better, speaking in short sentences, and trying so hard to enunciate.  He has a very unique way of pronouncing some things:

Grandma is Ma-hmah
Grandpa is Bappa
Gabe is Babe
Marissa- Sassa
Cara- Caca
Collin- Lollin
Flower- Hlah-hlow
Geek- drink
Nannich- sandwich
Ice hmeam- Ice cream
Ded- red
Neen- green
Lue- blue
Puh-po- purple
Eh-hlent- elephant
Key-key- monkey and blankie
Mah-hmoom- vacuum

Gabe says so many other words, and for the most part they sound just like you would expect- normal pronunciation- and he is stringing more and more of them together.  He is learning to pray, and he is starting to anticipate what to say a little bit.  He really enjoys praying.  Gabe also does pretty good at saying please and thank you. I often remind him to say thank you, and one day after I had him pick up some books that he scattered all over the room, he said "Mommy, thank you Gabe!"

Gabe sings a lot.  He loves to sing "Baby Beluga", the alphabet song, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)", and a few others that he sings on his own during the day.  He also likes to sing along with us for "I am a Child of God", "Heavenly Father Loves Me", "Little Red Caboose", "How Much is That Doggy in the Window", "Jesus Said Love Everyone", "Jesus Once Was a Little Child", "Jesus Loves Me This I Know", and a bunch of other ones.

Gabe likes to point out colors, body parts, objects in the room, people in pictures, and foods.  He loves dancing.  He likes to try to count, usually saying "One, two, three... six!  EIGHT! Nine, nine, TEN!"  He knows his name and that he is two years old.

Gabe also recognizes the way to go to Grandma and Grandpa T's house.  He gets very excited in the car when we get close, and when we arrive, he is shouting "Ma-mah's house! Bappa's house! Yay!" and he runs into their house saying "Hey!"  He loves to grab his Grandma's hand and pull her out of the kitchen, into the family room, down onto the couch, and look at a doggy snow globe with her, or play with the stuffed dog and bear puppet that he has been fascinated with for about a year.

Gabe is tickled and gets so wound up when Marissa or Cara come over to visit. He is just beside himself with glee, and he runs around, jumps, screams, squeals, laughs hysterically, and generally makes a ton of noise at the attention and tickling he gets from them. 

Gabe loves giving hugs, playing with buttons and anything that is mechanical or technological. He loves being outside, going to nursery (finally!) at church, reading books, Thomas the Tank Engine, visiting with family, and looking at animals and things in nature.  Gabe really loves his monkey.  He carries it around for hours, puts it in the high chair, the baby swing, the bouncer chair etc.

Family Pictures

We took a drive up the canyon yesterday and really enjoyed the changing colors of the leaves- brilliant reds and yellows mixed in with the greens.  Gabe loved being up there.  We took pictures right before we left, so the kids weren't too thrilled at that point, but I think we got a few good ones.  Here are some of my favorites. All photos were taken by BJ's dad, Ron.