Saturday, January 30, 2010

Gabriel and I drove to West Lebanon to visit with Nana, Papa and Angus on Saturday after swim class. We met at Friendly's and had lunch. We even enjoyed sundaes despite the bitter cold temperatures outside. Gabriel is definitely a fan of sundaes. He would moan and nod his head while eating the bites of sundae. After a good lunch, we went shopping at Kohl's. Gabriel got a new palm pilot toy (just like Mommy's) and he seems to really enjoy it. It looked like a good car toy and it seemed to keep Gabriel's interest. Then we went to K-Mart where Gabriel and Papa tried out a wheelbarrow from the toy section. I find it interesting that Gabriel still isn't walking much without holding on to something. He certainly can walk, but just doesn't. Crawling seems to be his fastest mode of transport. We saw his first steps back just before Christmas and thought for sure he would walk by the new year. He instead went on a walking hiatus, just to surprise us with 5-8 step walking episodes at his January 10th birthday party at Grammy and Grampy's house. And though we encourage him to hold our hands and walk, he doesn't like it. And he walks around the house holding onto his play gate, or the wall, or the fridge. So in K-Mart, Nana showed him a wheelbarrow. Gabriel has to lift the handles up, balance, and push- and he can seem to do all of that while balancing Papa's soap and seeds in the bucket area. He later tried out a toy lawnmower too. His teachers are telling me that this is consistent with what Gabriel is doing at school too. He uses pushing toys to walk all over, but he certainly isn't needing them for balance.