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.

August

Here are a few pictures from the goings- on of August.  By way of explanation, we had my family here for almost a week while they dropped my sister Cara off at school.  We loved having them stay with us.  And we love having Cara nearby now.  I will post more updates soon.

4 months old- Luke

This is Luke in a nutshell:

Loves being tickled, playing peek-a-boo, being held, going for walks in the front carrier, being part of the action going on at any given time, and watching Gabe play.  He is a pretty "go with the flow" kind of guy- as long as he's getting attention, he isn't too picky about what's going on.

Likes binky, car rides (usually), sitting upright, being wrapped up tight to fall asleep, the baby swing, playing in the baby gym, trying to put toys and fingers in his mouth.

Dislikes: being cold, hungry (well, don't we all?), um, can't think of anything else at the moment that he doesn't like.

About half the time, Luke sleeps around 7 hours at night, but he also frequently wakes up at 4am to eat.  He would probably go back to sleep if I didn't get up and feed him, but you just don't think of these things very clearly in the wee small hours of the morning when your baby is STILL IN YOUR ROOM.  (What am I thinking?  It is definitely time for Luke to move to Gabe's room.)  He is a fantastic napper, however.  I love that he takes 2-3 decent naps a day (1-2 hours each).

Luke is a pretty happy guy.  It is easy to make him smile and laugh, and he seems to be trying to be happy even when he is not feeling well (like last week when he was super congested and struggled at night for several nights).  He, like Gabe as a baby, is serious about eating.  He gets hungry and he must eat right now!  He is pretty solid, and all that chub makes for delicious cuddling and cheek smooching!

Luke now has a head of fuzzy hair, and I get the feeling he is going to have my complexion: the reddish hair, the freckles, light skin, the whole bit.  

It is such a miracle the way babies so quickly entwine themselves into your heart and you almost cant remember what it was like without them.  I so love my little Luke, and his smiles just melt my heart.  Life isn't necessarily a bed of roses all the time, but those smiles help me get through the crazy puke-and-multiple-blowouts-in-public days when I have to take him home practically naked because he messed every single outfit in the diaper bag while we were out.  Not that that ever happens to me.  Ha. Really though, Luke radiates love and happiness and is really delightful to have around- we love him so much!

Anniversary

We celebrated our 6th anniversary a few days back.  Time does seem to fly.  To celebrate we went out for dinner and to a dessert cafe which was yummy, and I surprised BJ by taking him golfing, or letting him take me golfing, however you want to look at it.  He has been saying for some time that he wanted to teach me to golf, and I thought this might be the perfect time, since I was planning the activity and knew that he would never expect me to choose this for our anniversary.  I had a fun time teasing him about what we were doing, and at different times during the evening he thought we were going to the movies, to a play, an outdoor theater, and dancing.  Haha.  It is the first time I have been able to pull off a surprise for him without totally giving it away.  Anyway, we did have a fun time golfing, despite a minor sprinkler incident for which we were refunded our money (but that's a story for another time perhaps).

I'm glad that after six years, BJ is still my best friend, my sounding board, my stand up comedian, my debate partner, cooking companion, and a patient and engaged father to boot.  There are a hundred more things I could say, but I will spare you the mushy-ness for now and just say that it has been a good 6 years with BJ, and I couldn't be happier about the next 60 (at least!).

Funny Stuff

The other night I went to check on Gabe and he was talking in his sleep.  He kept saying "Hlay. Daddy! Hlay!"  "Hlay" is how Gabe says play, and he says that to me many many times over the course of a day; i.e. "Gabe, do you want to eat some lunch?"  "No! Hlay!"

I went to an exercise class this week and I put on a brightly colored headband.  Before Gabe went to bed, he said, "Mommy!  Cool hat!"  He also loves to wear his hat I made him this week.  It is a big boy hat. 

Gabe is finally starting to speak in short sentences at times.  When BJ leaves in the mornings to go to work, Gabe usually says "Bye Daddy! I love you! Daddy bye-bye- car."

Luke has been laughing more and more this week.  He thinks that blowing rasberries/ the elephant sound is especially funny and he tries to imitate.  He blows bubbles and gets drool all over himself but he just grins so big like it is his favorite thing in the world.

 We put Luke in the baby gym thing with music and toys and lights.  Just like with Gabe at first, it was a bit overstimulating.  He was so excited; with his gasping and kicking and flailing he looked like he was going to fly away.  Luke has also started grabbing toys with purpose.  He has some spinning toys on his chair that he bats at over and over.  Gabe tries to get in on the fun too.  

I have had a hard time getting Gabe to eat new foods this week.  However, he sometimes brings a toy or stuffed animal to his chair when he eats.  I have been able to get him to eat something after pretending to feed it to his monkey or bear or cat first.  He laughs and laughs and opens his mouth to eat it.

Bumbo seat: Is it worth it?

Photo from http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3433615

Has anyone used a Bumbo Seat for their baby? Luke is 3 months old and wants to be sitting upright most of the time, but the baby seats we have for him are reclining.  I did not have one of these with Gabe, so we have never tried one out.  They cost around $40 which seems like a lot for a baby seat that will only be used a couple of months.  I guess I am wondering if it is worth it? What are your thoughts?

3 Months Old

I can't believe my little baby Luke is already 3 months old.  That seems so crazy to me, and it makes me wish I could slow time down a bit.

On the other hand, I love interacting with him, and all the grins and coos he gives, and other vocalizations that are so cute.  He started laughing a few days ago, not quite a giggle yet, but a more explosive laugh- a ha-ha, like he doesn't quite know what is happening to him.  It cracks me up.  He smiles a lot at Gabe when he comes close.  Gabe imitates me and in his sweet, high little voice says "Hi baby Luke" over and over and pets Luke's head.  He will sometimes try to stick Luke's binky in his mouth, or share his toys with Luke.  He knows how to work all the buttons and switches on Luke's swing and bouncer chair.

Luke holds his head up on his own and likes to be held upright, not so much cradled, unless is going to sleep.  He still sleeps fairly well, although lately it has been not quite as great because of the teething.  Bleh.  The poor kid and his swollen gums.  I can still feel a corner of a tooth popping out, but it hasn't changed much from last week, so I wonder how long it is going to last. 

Bottles aren't his favorite things, but Luke takes them pretty well.  He also seems to like his binky more than Gabe did.  He doesn't want it all the time, but he likes it when he is starting to get bored, hungry, tired, or having aching gums.

I love my little Luke!  I'm so in love with him, just like I was with Gabe- it's really true, more kids doesn't mean dividing up your love, it means more of it to go around!

Teeth!

It makes me want to cry that my almost- 3 month old is cutting teeth.  This didn't happen with Gabe until he was almost 6 months old.

It is also weird to me that my 2 year old has 20 teeth.  And has for a while.  I guess I have toothy kids. 

Wah.

2 1/2 Months Old

I have been meaning to post about Luke; funny how my days just seem more packed with "stuff" and I don't get as many chances to blog as I used to.

Luke is such a great addition to our family.  He is so mellow.  Gabe adores him, and Luke is so tolerant of all the hugs and kisses he gives him.  I love Luke's smiles.  They are so radiant, and sometimes he just scrunches up his little nose while he grins and coos and it is about the cutest thing.  I love when babies start smiling socially.  That has probably been going on for 3-4 weeks. 

Like Gabe, Luke loves to be held and doesn't seem to like (actually hates) tummy time, so I'm trying to figure out what to do about that.  He has spent a fair amount of time in the front pack when we go on walks, and it cracks me up that he falls asleep in less than a minute after being put in the baby pack.  However, if I put him in and we stay around the house (i.e. no constant walking, just doing chores or something), he starts whining and squirming.

He sleeps pretty well; he takes a couple of naps during the day, anywhere from 45 min to 2 hours at a time.  At night it depends.  Some nights he will sleep about a 4- 5 hour stretch, and some nights he will sleep 6 or 7 hours in a row.  It just depends.  I try to be pretty consistent in the bedtime routine, so I really have no idea what makes him sleep longer sometimes.

Luke has plugged tear ducts like Gabe did.  It's not really a problem, but his eyes sometimes get goopy, and it predisposes him toward eye infections.  Fortunately, we keep antibiotic eye drops on hand, so we can take care of it quickly. 

We finally got out the baby swing and Luke seems to like it.  So does Gabe, unfortunately, so we are doing our best to teach him how to act around the swing when the baby is in it- i.e. leaving it alone.  Luke likes being in the swing best when I am very near him, and he can watch what I am doing.  It is my favorite place to put him while I clean, cook, or fold laundry because he is high enough that he can pretty much see everything, and he is happier and I can get more done.

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.

We're back!

This month (um, I mean June- last month!) has kind of just whizzed on by!  Here are some pictures from the last month.  We had a few significant events I should probably mention:

On June 6th, we blessed Luke.  My parents were able to fly down and most of BJ's family were able to be present, which was great.

We embarked on a 12.5 hour (each way) road trip to meet my family at Yosemite National Park.  My parents and siblings still at home were there, as well as Marissa and Richard, who live about 2 hours away from Yosemite.  This was our first real road trip with the boys, and they did great.  I really couldn't have asked them to do any better.  Gabe was obviously sick of his carseat on the way back, so there were a few minor meltdowns, but he did way better than I expected, and I guess that means we may have more road trips in our future.  We did some fun things while in California, including: descending 165 feet down a spiral staircase down one of California's deepest limestone caves (we didn't go all the way to the bottom though- it was over 400 feet deep), doing a 1/4 mile zip line at 40+ miles per hour, hiking and sightseeing in Yosemite, hiking through Big Trees State Park with the biggest trees I have ever seen, having a little early birthday party for Gabriel, and lots of swimming, tennis, ping pong and visiting.  I love my family!  It was nice to have everyone together (of course we missed my brother Tayler, who is serving a mission in Australia)- it seems like it is getting harder and harder for us all to be together.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Most Common Words

I made this word collage on www.wordle.net.  It shows the most common words I use in this blog... I guess Gabe is on my mind a lot!

Funny Gabriel

 Gabe has been a busy little boy lately!  He keeps me laughing constantly.  I couldn't possibly write every single thing he does (although I wish I could so I could remember every thing about him at this age) but here are some of the things he has been doing/ saying this week:

This little sunsuit is from BJ's Great Aunt Peggy- had to take a picture of him in it for her.

Words
"ahsiss"= what's this?
"guk- guk"= dump truck, any kind of truck
"leeleelolo"= mini loader (tractor)
"att-ol"= apple
"do-ckie"= broccoli
 "ah lo lo"= I love you (accompanied by signing)
"Dute"= Luke
"nu-nu-noh"= no no
"oh-ee-oh-ee-oh"= cheerios, cereal
"annow"= hanger
"ya-ya"= tortilla
"wwwhy"= away
"lallow"= yellow
"c-c-how"= after we say "c-c-cow" -usually says "how" for cow
"hi daddy; hi baby, hi mommy"

 "hen! baht-baht-baht"

Singing
-abc song- "a-d-c-d-e-e-e-o-e-o-e-d-e-d-e-c-e-c....", sings the right tune and everything, but gets stuck in a loop and can't remember the tune for the last phrase.
-"lalala" to whatever tune
-Old Mac Donald Had a Farm- "Yi-yi-yo" and animal sounds
-How Much is that Doggy in the Window?- "wuff, wuff"- between each phrase

This picture is priceless!  Gabe is wearing some 3-D glasses.

Funny/ Cute Things
-Kisses- All the time.  In church on Sunday, he kept kissing me on each cheek and the lips, over and over, and leaning his head on me and making an "awwwwww" kind of a sound.  He still kisses Luke many, many times each day.  He sometimes still says "muah" but usually he makes a real kissing sound.  Also, he is enjoying blowing kisses- it's adorable!
-The other night I was up around 4 am after feeding the baby and I went to check on Gabe and cover him back up, and he sat straight up, said "cheese", and laid back down and was totally asleep the whole time!  Haha.
-Poor guy has been teething again. He has 10 teeth, and is working on 12- the last 4 are big molars. (What the heck? He is still only 1!)
-loves wearing glasses
-Gabriel is the kid who throws bark chips at the park.  Yep, the swing is a fairly good attraction, slides not so much, but the real excitement is grabbing handfuls of barkdust and throwing them at the play structure, on the slides, or just up in the air.  And screaming (with delight).

Gabe with Grandpa C. on Luke's blessing day.  Cool dudes! (Gabe always says "coo" after he puts sunglasses on.)

5 Weeks old

 I know I said this when Gabe was a baby, but it's still true- the days seem to go by so slowly, but the weeks and months just zoom by!  I can't believe that Luke is already 5 weeks old.  He has already changed so much.  

He is holding his head up for longer periods of time, and looking around, watching Mommy and Daddy, and of course Gabe as he runs around the room.  He takes a bottle and his binky pretty well, which is a relief.  He seems to prefer nursing but at least he doesn't reject the bottle.  He is starting to smile more, which we love!  Those smiles are so precious!

We usually put Luke down to sleep for the night at around 11:30pm after one last feeding, and then he will sleep for several hours, waking up anywhere from 3:30am to 5:30am to eat again.  Luke is a pretty mild- tempered little baby.  He does fuss a bit in the evenings, not so much crying as whining, grunting, and grimacing as he tries to find a comfy position.  He also rubs his face which is not good since he has sharp little fingernails.  He seems to have trouble getting burps up, and he also gets hiccups that BJ terms "ferocious" quite often.  BJ is really good at helping him in the evenings- Luke cuddles right up to him and calms down better than he will for me at that time.  

I made these little mitts to keep Luke's face from getting all scratched up.  I made a pattern and tutorial which I posted here for those interested in making some.

 Thankfully Luke is very tolerant of Gabriel's love for him.  He gets squished a few times a day before I can run over and save him from the hug Gabe is giving him.  He also gets lots of kisses on the head and pats all over as Gabe says "sass" (soft) over and over again.

I love watching Luke grow, but it kind of makes me sad at the same time.  I love that newborn smell, and the way he just melts into my shoulder when I hold him.  I love his rolly-polly chubbiness, and how soft his skin is.  He has the same fuzzy hair that is long in the back and nearly bald in front that Gabe had as a baby.  His umbilical cord stump finally fell off a few days ago- it took quite a bit longer than Gabe's to fall off, and it was a bit of a shock, since I had just checked it minutes before, then had to change his diaper while we were in the car in the zoo parking lot- and it was gone!  I found it in my lap... ew.

Luke in the front pack at the zoo.

 Luke loves riding in the front pack.  He just relaxes immediately and goes right to sleep.  He was happy for several hours that way at the zoo on Monday, and we often go on walks outside with Luke in the front pack and Gabe in the stroller, which works really well for me. 

I'm not exactly sure how much Luke weighs now, but I'm guessing it is between 10 and 10 1/2 pounds. 

I love this sweet little boy!