Happy Birthday #2 Gabriel!

We had a fun little celebration for Gabe's 2nd birthday this week (we had one a week or so ago with my family in CA as well, but I wasn't really prepared to do a party while we were on vacation).  We didn't do anything particularly exciting in the afternoon, other than Gabe got to eat goldfish crackers in the living room while he watched some clips from 40 Years of Sunny Days (best of Sesame Street).  In the evening, we met BJ's parents for dinner at Cracker Barrel and had a nice visit, then we all came back to our place and watched Gabe open his presents.  I guess we all chose well, because once he figured out that opening presents got him new toys, he was jumping up and down and squealing with each one.  He is crazy about vehicles of any kind, so he loved his tricycle, cars, and train set that he got.  Since he is always standing up and making his cars go across the entertainment center, we thought it would be good to get him a little table and chairs that were just his size.  He loved it.  Kind of a lot of big-ish gifts this year, but he was ready for some big-boy toys, and all our kids will benefit from this stuff, I guess.  Anyway, I think BJ and I had at least as much fun as Gabriel watching him unwrap all his stuff.  We had planned it for quite a while and we were pretty excited!



Gabe just cracks me up.  When I give him a stern look after he does something slightly naughty, he tells me to be "bappy"- which is funny since we tell him to be happy when he is throwing a tantrum (or have timeout).  I can't help laughing.  Lately his favorite word to say is "no" (welcome to the twos)- even when he doesn't actually want to decline something.  So he will say no first, then what he really means.  Example: "Gabe, it's lunch-time.  Do you want to eat a sandwich?" "NO! Sess..." (Sess= Yes)  "Do you want a drink of milk?" "NO! Guk..."  "Can I have a kiss?" "NO!..."- he gives me a kiss.

Gabe wants to know what everything is.  He brings me an object and says "uhtsiss?" until I tell him what the object is named, then he repeats it several times.  He has names for most things he comes in contact with.  They don't always sound much like their real name, but he sure tries!  He has been really fascinated with letters of the alphabet, and of his own motivation has learned the letters X, O, F, B, T, V, and Y, and identifies them correctly almost all the time.  We often hear him singing or humming the tune of the ABC song/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- occasionally singing a phrase, then going back to humming.  Recently, we wondered if he knew the words to any other songs that we often sing him, so we made up a little game where we sing a song, omitting the last word of a phrase, to see if he would sing the word- and most of the time he does!  It was so fun because after doing that for a while, he started singing even more words of the songs along with us.

Gabe continues to love on Luke.  He rocks the baby in the baby seat, he pats his head and tummy, puts a pacifier in his mouth (sometimes after tasting it himself), sings the baby songs (usually Baby Beluga- we're not sure, but he may think Baby Beluga is Luke), and occasionally tries to share his toys with Luke.  For a while he was calling Luke "Eeeee", then "Lllll", then it was "Doot", and now it is "Guke".  Gabriel still refers to himself as "iyel"- sounds like the last part of his name. 

The changes I notice in Gabriel's development seem to be coming more and more quickly.  Sometimes I feel like time is passing way too fast.  Then again, it's fun to see what comes next.  I look forward to what the next year brings.