Progress and mama!

We have been busy almost every night working on our lists of things to do and other various projects, and we have made some good progress!  We have de-junked a bunch of clothes, random craft supplies, and too- old- to- use electronics equipment, given furniture away, gone through every bedroom and closet in the house and organized/ repacked everything, redecorated our master bedroom, and BJ and Charles built shelves for our storage unit.  Whew! It has been exhausting but it feels great to have more room and to know where everything is. 

While the menfolk worked on the shelf, I made some wall hangings for our bedroom, out of styrofoam and fabric.  I think they turned out pretty well for making it up as I went!  And all I did was use hot glue, styrofoam, and cardboard- no sewing.  I blogged about how I did it here.

 
Gabe has been growing and changing quickly.  He still uses signs, but he babbles a lot and many of his words are becoming more recognizable.  He still loves to make animal and car sounds.  Most exciting of all, in my opinion, is that he has started saying "mama"! It sounds more like "muhmuh", and he still calls me "baba" sometimes, (he actually called me "dadda" when I picked him up after work yesterday), but he will repeat "mama" if I ask him to!  That makes me happy.  We have enjoyed being outside for the few days it has been warm enough to spend time out there, and we are looking forward to the weather warming up so we don't get too stir crazy!  Also we are looking forward to warmer weather and the end of flu season and cold season.  Gabe seems to catch everything, and if he does, it inevitably turns into an ear infection.  So Gabe is on antibiotics again for the 3rd ruptured eardrum in just a few months.  Boo.  Gabe's pediatrician says there is nothing we can really do to prevent him from getting them.  I have heard some good things about chiropractors helping babies and children who are prone to ear infections.  Anybody heard anything about this?  Anyway, here are some pictures from the past few weeks or so.