First Memorial Day

Gabe's first Memorial Day got rained out but Baby Gabe donned his red, white and blue anyways. We stayed in and had company over for dinner.

Our friends Freeman and Kim are having their third baby and boy is their 5 yr old son, Alex, excited about it.

Kim is weeks away from her due date and Alex has already taken a Baby and Me class and he knows ALL there is about being a Big Brother! He's going to be great with the new baby. He told us all about how he knows how to change a diaper and "wrap him up" (swaddle the baby).
He also told us we should be careful of the "hole in his head" (baby's soft spot) and that he saw a baby whose "foot got stuck" (on the tour at the hospital he saw a newborn getting his first shots in the heel). Amazing how much of that information about babies he took in!

I loved hearing about all of it from Alex's point of view and he was rewarded with holding Baby Gabe. Look at that proud smile and Gabe is so content in his lap. Awwwww

First Memorial Day with Alex

More Visitors

Today we had more visitors from Mommy's work. One of the students that was in my middle school class last year and his mom came over and brought a bag of gifts for the baby. It was so nice to see them and catch up. This student, Andy, moved to another school and isn't in my class anymore, but we have kept in touch throughout my pregnancy and it was a joy to have him and his mother over and see him with Gabe. Here he is holding the baby. So sweet!

Miss Pat and Andy with Baby Gabe

Visitors

We had visitors this week! One of Mommy's friends from work came over and brought her son. "Auntie Donna" is Mommy's wonderful teacher's assistant and her son is Malik. Auntie Donna talked and sang to Gabe and helped Mommy out SO much during the pregnancy that her voice was very familiar. It was nice to see them.

Auntie Donna & Malik

Daddy's Little Helper

Pretty much any weeknight after 5pm or any given Sunday, this is the picture of Daddy & baby time. We have a Boppy, which is a U-shaped pillow that I use for support when nursing, pictured below (light blue). It is a wonderful invention and Daddy agrees.

Daddy often has work to do or other computer related issues that require his attention and he has found an alternate use for the Boppy. Although he's not nursing, Daddy wraps the Boppy around himself and props it up near his laptop or his desk and multi-tasks!

Gabe sits with him so contently and listens to music or watches the computer screen. It's so adorable to see the 2 of them together. Daddy sometimes has a head set on and he sings to Gabe and they spend hours bonding this way. Gabe has even fallen asleep in the comfort of Daddy's lap. This is the start of a true computer addiction, er, I mean genius!

Workin' Hard

Cutie Pie

Baby Gabe has a baby papasan chair that plays music and vibrates. He loves to sit in it and watch the ceiling fan in any room. This particular day, we were in the kitchen and I was washing dishes and cleaning up and he was enjoying his time in the papasan seat....I turned around from the sink and he was talking up a storm and cracking himself up. Pretty soon we were both giggling and I just had to snap this photo. Such a funny baby.

Cutie pie

No steroids needed

Ten days shy of being three months old (that was a mouthful), and Baby Gabe has flipped himself over. We were giving him tummy-time, and voila!, he went from being on his stomach to being on his back.

Wondering if this was a fluke, Jules repositioned him on his belly and went to get the camera. By the time she had stood up, he had flipped again. We kept trying to get a picture of him turning over, but he kept doing it faster than we could get in position. Finally, he started to tire and slow down, and you can see the last flip of the night here.

A momentous achivement, which means that now we have to be careful when we lay him on the changing table or bed. He still can't go from back to tummy, but at this rate, we are going to be signing him up for the gym soon.

Turning over is hard work!

Heads up!

We work on "tummy time" just about everyday for at least a short while so he can build up his strength. Gabe is really getting good at holding his head up. The pediatrician tests him on this skill each time when we go for his check ups. We go see the doc again when he's 4 months old.

So strong!

A gift

Daddy's cousin, Leslie, sent a baby gift from Texas and we think it is so cool. It's a six pack! Well, a 6 pack of personalized pacifiers just for Baby Gabe. They are blue and just the right size and they say Gabriel on each one and he loves them. We love them too because if he gets lost, people will know who he is. Maybe next time we should get some that say "If lost, please return to..."

Gabe with new paci

Closer look

Personalized Paci Close up

Latest Discovery

Baby Gabe's most recent developmental discovery is his hands. He is now coordinating his movements better. He flails his arms all around constantly and looks wildly at them when they move. It's so funny. He keeps those hands balled up tightly into fists most of the time and Mommy says they get clammy and smelly because he rarely opens them. He gnaws at his clenched fists and sucks his fingers alot. He mostly does this in his swing when the paci falls out of his mouth and his parents aren't readily available to help him retrieve it from his shoulder or his lap.
The latest find is the thumb. He is able to pry it from the fist with help from his top gums and hold onto it for dear life. He gets so frustrated with the process and it usually takes him a while to get just the thumb into his mouth. His remains determined and is often successful. We are discouraging thumb sucking and pushing the paci, but I caught this on film.

Thumb sucking at it's finest

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's...

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

So when Owen, Patti and Steve were here a couple of weeks ago, we went shopping at our local baby superstore. That place has it all I'm telling you! Gabe got tons of loot from all involved and Daddy couldn't resist the themed costumes. Unfortunately, masked and caped superfriends are required to be a little older than 10 weeks of age because those suits only come in toddler sizes, so we went for this one, sans cape. Here he comes to save the day!!

SUPERBABY!!

No More Tears

We promised bath time had gotten better and here is proof. No more tears is really a true statement about our most recent tub times. Gabe is a good boy and he enjoys his bath. He's so adorable when he's all wet and when he sees himself in the bathroom mirror beside the tub he smiles. And those hooded towels, Oh! Too cute all bundled up with only his face peekin' out.

This green infant safety "hammock" that hangs over the wash tub makes it so easy to hold onto his slippery little body and keep his head above the surface of the water so new mommies don't have to be head cases! At least once per bath, he gets a handful of baby soap into his mouth before Mommy can rinse it off, ick!

Bath Time

The Stork

The day after Gabe was born, our friend Julie had a stork placed in our front yard as a surprise. Mind you, this was not the normal "Congrats on the kid" stork. No, this was a gargantuan monster stork. This was the Storkie, the Loch Stork monster. It had to have been at least 30 feet tall (okay, maybe six feet tall). Either way, it was big. (As a humorous aside, my Dad came over to put a normal sized stork in the yard. When he saw ol' Storkie there, he got a case of stork envy and decided one stork was enough).

"Hey Kidnappers! Come here for newborns!"

The stork was actually a rental. Who knew you could rent giant avians? At the end of the week, Storks by the Yard came and took ol' Storkie away. But they left the birth announcement. Of course, we did what any new parent would do, and immediately hung it on the wall. Over the changing table.

The sign on the wall

Now, little did we know at the time, but this would turn out to be the best decision that we would make in the entirety of Baby Gabe's life to date. Set up a college fund? Nah. Baby-proof the house? Can be done later. Nope...the best thing in the world was hanging that stupid birth announcement on the wall over his changing pad.

You see, for reasons that Jules and I can't fathom, every time he is laying on that pad he looks up at that sign. And he cracks up. Not an occasional, maybe coincidental grin. Nope, a full on smile, accompanied by a sound I can only take to be baby laughter. And talking. Lots of talking to the sign.

What the hell does he see?

Look, I have been drunk enough to probably have a conversation with an inanimate object. Lord knows that in my past I have dated women that are probably dumber than that sign. But I can't figure out why Gabe laughs each and every time he sees the sign. It baffles me. It's like the sign is telling him really good jokes that only he can hear when he is laying there.

Whatever the reason, it is, by far, the most rewarding thing we have done in our short time as parents. His overwhelming joy at that sign just makes your heart melt.

I wonder if I can get a sign made for me....

"Gotta get more stork sign!"