Gabriel Helps With the Laundry

It is just amazing how fast Gabriel's "firsts" are coming now. Turn up your sound because I narrate this video.

Because of the cooler weather today, I pulled out some of Gabriel's larger clothing with long sleeves. This is an outfit from Nana and Papa and it's a Carter's 9 month size. The pants are a little long, but the top is doing just fine. My suspicion that I should start buying at least 12 month sizes for winter feel confirmed now.

Gabriel and I went to White Park again tonight to hang out with Jaxson and his Mommy again. Gabriel enjoys the swing while Jaxson is not a fan. The boys had a picnic dinner together before the rain came in and chased us back into our cars.

Gabriel Takes A Stand

Standing! Gabriel doesn't get up there by himself, but once up- he can stand independently for a short period. He has even managed a few side steps without tumbling over.

Helping With Laundry

Gabriel and Lucas supervising Mommy on laundry detail.

Taking Steps Towards Crawling

Oh,my! It really is going to happen soon!? Gabriel has been experimenting with getting up on his hands with his belly off the floor, and rocking back and forth, for at least two weeks now. He is able to move a few feet in what ever direction something looks interesting by rolling or inching across the floor.

Today's Scoop

I can't wait to get e-mail's from The Learning Center with notes, and often photos, of the things that Gabriel did during that day while I worked. And I am often amazed at what the teachers pull together for activities. Today they made squishy bags by putting paint under contact paper and sticking it to a cube they have with a mirror on the side. And then later in the morning they played with textured stamps and paint. Playing with sand paper and ice cubes was on the docket for the afternoon.

Jumpy Seat Fun!

Warning! Watching bouncing baby repeatedly may cause motion sickness!

The doorway jumper allows Gabriel to get a good jump on Elleigh and Lucas. As put out as they appear, they continue to sit close to him when he is in the seat. So I can only assume they sort of like the game too.

White Park Play Date

Gabriel and I met Jaxson and Alison at White Park on Wednesday night for a play date. Alison and I were in prenatal pool exercise class when we were pregnant at the end of last year. It was nice to share the joy and comiserate with someone who has a child of the same age. And it was neat to see how simliar and different the boys are in their development. Gabriel took his first swing on the play ground and really enjoyed it. I can't wait to bring him back to swing soon. The boys played on a blankie too for a little while before we had to head home to go to bed. And we've already set up our next play date together.

Candle Fund Raiser

Today is the kick-off for The Learning Center's annual Yankee Candle Fund-raiser!

If you are a Yankee Candle lover and want to make an order, let me know. I have to turn in all of the final sales information by 9/8/09. The candles will be delivered for me to hand out by 10/20/09. The catalog is scratch and sniff, and I will be carrying it around with me until Labor Day weekend. It's hard to believe that I have at least 18 years of school fund raisers ahead of me.

The Boys Like Reading

Daddy, Gabriel and Lucas enjoy a bedtime story together! "Guess How Much I Love You?"

Tough Night at the Dinner Table

I think we got some of the sweet and white potato combination into his mouth. Gabriel was a little tired tonight and kept rubbing his eyes while he was eating. Before eating puree, I gave Gabriel some little chunks of tofu to try. I think he liked gumming them for a change in texture. He likes to grab for the chunks on his tray, but he's still not able to pinch them and get them to his own mouth.

You Make Bath Time So Much Fun...

Gabriel has such a good time in the bathtub. He's always enjoyed his baths right from the start. And now that we have good bubble bath, I actually can get enough bubble coverage so I don't get obscene baby tub photos and videos to post. He doesn't mind having water dumped over his head. He likes to kick his feet, and then eventually he got into splashing his hands in the water too as he got older. Now he seems determined to play with the lever hardware in the tub that releases the water down the drain. He likes to watch us blow bubbles at him with the bubble wand that came with the California Baby bubbles. He plays with his Star Wars bath tub toy set. It's a nice end to our days.

7 Months Old

Our baby turned 7 months old today.

There's mostly brown now in Gabriel's eyes. Just a little blue hanging on at the edges. So my hope that Gabriel would have Daddy's beautiful light blue eyes is long gone now. But they are not as dark brown as Mommy's yet.

Gabriel sits like a champ now. Rarely does he topple over. He even sits up in the tub all by himself these days.

He is interested in what is around him and wants to move to explore. Sometimes he becomes frustrated when he's on his stomach and can't get to things. The care givers at The Learning Center have been holding him up by the stomach in a crawling position to try to show him how to crawl. I prefer to not encourage that sort of mobility at home. He seems to be a people watcher too when he's out and about in his stroller. I can only imagine what he's thinking. And the dogs are some of his favorite things to watch. Even better when they pop up in the chair next to him to say hello and give a kiss.

The Learning Center has proved to be a smooth transition. We still need to secure some days of alternative day care before Gabriel is officially permanent full-time starting 10/5/09. But otherwise, all three of his teachers are fantastic. And Gabriel seems excited to be at The Learning Center when I drop him off in the morning. And on Monday when I picked him up, I almost felt like he wasn't happy to see me and to be going home. They do walks and water play, and paint. Yes, paint! They are quite brave with a whole room of infants. And the staff are always doing something creative with the babies like adding color to the pool water or freezing Jell-O for them to check out. And my favorite is the communication. Most days I get an e-mail, often with photos attached. And I get a little written log of what went in my baby, and what came out, when Gabriel slept, and cute comments about his day on it. And at pick up I am also assured to hear cute antidotes of how the day went in the infant room. I don't know where the teachers get all of their patience.

Gabriel shows interest in toys and seems to get that they are for fun and to be explored. Favorites so far are his Taggies football and his V-Tech baby laptop computer. Gabriel likes to close the lid on the laptop, which makes all of the lights and sounds stop, and then we have to open it back up for him so he can do it all over again. And again. And again. And again. Gabriel also seems to like to spin the wheels on vehicles. And of course the doorway jumper and his exerciser are still main stays, but he's so much more active in them now. Any tag on any item is of interest to be touched and checked out.

And most heart warming is that in the past few weeks, Gabriel has started to actually snuggle back. He has always partaken in snuggling, but now he buries his head into the crook of my neck and his little arms are starting to hug back. And he's started to put his arms into the air in anticipation of being picked up.

He makes parenthood fun, so far. It's hard to believe that someday he will be a teenager and he may never speak to us and definitely won't want to be seen in public with us.

More Photos of Gabriel- Too Cute Not to Share

Shopping Like A Big Boy

Mommy and Gabriel were out on the town today! After cleaning out some outgrown clothes in Gabriel's bedroom, we headed off to knitting with the ladies at Borders. Gabriel flirted, laughed, and pooped through knitting- and seemed to have had a really good time. And I worked about 3/4 of an inch on one of his blue toddler socks.

Gabriel has gotten to be a good enough sitter now that today we tried our first shopping trip without using his infant car seat in the shopping carriage. Instead, I found a shopping cart seat cover at Babies R Us. It lines the dirty carriage seat, and the version I bought has two pillows on the side to help him stay upright. Gabriel really seemed to like sitting up and being able to look all around. We started down the diaper aisle at Target and he was awake, and then after loading in some new cruiser diapers and some old Target stand by diapers, I looked up and he was passed out on one of his puffy side pillows. I pushed him around finishing my shopping having to endure all of the people ahhing over how cute he was.

While in the baby section at Target, I also found California Baby calming bubble bath. It's all natural and gentle on sensitive skin, but also has aromatherapy that is suppose to promote calming. It smelled good, and it bubbled up quite well. This impressed me because the Method bubble bath didn't bubble up for me. Gabriel really seemed to enjoy the bubbles in his tub! I like the bubble wand in the bottle so I can blow bubbles at Gabriel while he soaks. Not that Gabriel doesn't fall asleep without much trouble at night in the first place, but sleep seemed to come to him even faster and gentler tonight than normal.