Movie Star Potential

Gabe loves all types of glasses and usually wants to wear them if they are sunglasses. He has a pair of small ones of his own, but somehow mine and Jules' are much more fun. He needs help to get them over his ears just right and he sees Jules with them pushed up on top of her head so he has to try that out too. He just brings the glasses over and says “help”. This time the perfect moment was caught by the digital camera. He’s even pointing as if to say, “Right back atchya Baby!”

No More Sippy

Gabe is learning to drink from a big boy cup. He always asks for ice and water in his cup just like we have. I am teaching him to tip it slowly to his mouth and use 2 hands and he works hard at not spilling it and making a big mess. I think he’s got the hang of it!

Corn

Corn has been a fave of Gabe’s since he first started eating table foods. He loves anything made with corn or corn flavored. I’ve always cut his corn off the cob or made nibblets for him up to now so this was a first for him to get to actually eat it off of the cob. He had a great time with it.

Daddy’s Little Helper

Gabe was thrilled to get the SandBoat home and start seeing it assembled. He helped unwrap the packaged pieces and pull all the parts out of the box. Then he ran around picking up the Styrofoam and playing on the large box that it all came in. At one point he even accidentally knocked all of the washers and screws into the grass. He was just trying to help! We found them all and got the new toy put together and filled with sand. It’s a big hit. He can’t wait to have friends over to play in it. Now, we need to get a shovel and pail for him to dig and build sand castles with.

Gabe gets a job

We just got a new SandBox that looks like a boat for the boys to play in this summer in the backyard and Gabe was so excited. He really wanted to help push it to the car and help Pop Owen.

No, No, Fido!

OK, Year of the Dog has officially become a problem. Is this an identity crisis? Now the kid is trying to eat Wilbur’s food right out of his bowl weather the dog is trying to eat or not. He just B-lines it over to the dog bowl and dumps it over or stick his hand right in next to Wilbur’s snout. I have even had to fish kibbles out of his mouth. I think I recall Gabe being pretty interested in the dog food too once he was crawling, but Good Lord!

Eating Out

Gavin loved sitting in the high chair and watching Gabe play on the outdoor equipment at this local fast food restaurant when we went out to eat, recently.

Polar Bear

We got this little winter outfit for Gabe when he was about this age but because he was born in Feb and Gavin was a summer baby, they aren’t able to share as many outfits as we had thought because they are in the same size at the wrong season. Anyways, even though it’s really warm this time of year, I just had to dress Gavin in the adorable little Polar bear suit and snap his picture before he outgrows it. We have a picture of Gabe in the same outfit. I just had to see the similarities.

That is not what that’s for…

As you can see, Gavin is a brave little daredevil and thinks he can do big boy things. He really shocks me at times when I see him doing these new things. I guess Gabe did it too, but Gabe was older, like 11 mos. Gavin is only 8mos. Guess what they say about the younger ones doing things early because of an older sibling is true.

Begging

Well, I’ve mentioned that Gavin happened to be born in the year of the Dog….but he’s taking the whole thing to a serious EXTREME! He pulls up to the table to ‘beg’ for table scraps and everything. It’s funny to glance over while we’re eating and all we can see is his tiny fingers, peeking over the side of the table. Gabe thinks it’s so silly.

First bike II

So, as you’ve heard, Gavin thinks he can do all things Gabe does. Now, he’s trying to ride this small trike that Gabe has. He just wants to do it by himself and he can’t even reach the floor on it. He crawls over to it and stands himself up, which always scares Jules because it rolls away from him most of the time. Today, she put him on it and pushed him back and forth a bit so he could see what it was like and he was so happy. Must he do EVERYTHING Gabriel does?

I promise, they ARE supervised!

What more can I say? The boys are always up to something and we have to keep our eyes on them at all times. Boys will be boys.

All my Rowdy friends are coming over tonight!

We hosted a St. Patrick’s Day playdate and unfortunately it was a bit rainy and overcast outdoors so the kids had to be inside, but we made the best of it. Gabe loved having all of his little pals over to play with his toys and color in their St. Pat’s Day booklets. We had a really great time and ate lunch together too. I love the days when they get to play hard until they’re worn out so they nap well. It was an all around great social event. Hope we get to do it again soon!

Size Doesn’t Matter

I think I may have mentioned before that Gavin is completely convinced that he can do everything Gabe can do. He thinks he can talk, walk, eat table food, and so on. Well, now he’s decided he needs to be at the bathroom sink brushing his teeth and trying to climb up Gabe’s step stool. It’s really cute, but I hate for him to be trying so hard to grow up so fast. You should see the two of them up there together though.

Year of the Dog

Gavin is a Natural “Year of the Dog” baby….We took the boys out for hibachi and Gavin took to it like a fish in water. He was in his natural element, chewing on chopsticks and flirting with the attractive Japanese servers. He just sat in that high chair and smiled at everyone. He wasn’t even afraid of the show on the grill in front of us. What a kid!!

Ah, Welcome, Gabriel-San

We took Gabe to a local Japanese Steakhouse recently with some friends of ours and their son, to experience hibachi for the first time. I must say first that his favorite part of the entire night was the giant salt water fish tank at the entrance of the restaurant, but he liked the food and the show too. He even tried the chopsticks out and the ginger salad dressing. He was a tad bit frightened by the flames because we always warn him about things that are HOT, but Daddy was there to console him and tell him it was alright. We had a great dinner and will likely go back again soon!

Pulling up

Gavin pulls up in crib for the first time. He wasn’t happy when I snapped this picture but I wanted to document the event. Oh well.

First bike

Gabe got a brand new tricycle for his 2nd birthday and he just loves it. He is not quite able to figure out pedaling yet, but he can stand over the seat and push it with his feet on the street. He likes wearing his helmet too and it looks so precious on him. He asks to ride his bike all the time. I just know he’ll be doing it by himself real soon.

True Crawl

Gavin has started to raise up on his hands and knees more to actually crawl instead of dragging himself in the usual “army crawl”. I’m really excited to see this, but he only seems to be interested in going a few feet and then he flops on his belly and books it in his “army crawl” position. He certainly is faster that way.

Light's out

Gabe is now tall enough to reach the switches in our house and we are living almost completely in the dark! We have lever light switches and he can barely reach the bottom while standing on his tippie-toes, therefore, he can only turn them OFF. He is really proud of this newfound skill. Mommy and Daddy seem to find ourselves asking for him to turn them back on, without any luck. Nothing like changing a poopy diaper on baby brother when half way through, ‘that’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia!’ Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be sad when he’s even taller and can reach the top switch too. That just means he’s growing up!

Higher and Higher

Gabe has been counting from 1-10 for a while now and loves numbers. He can now say all of his ABC’s too. He has just learned to count and identify numbers 11-20. He is really proud of himself. He finds numbers all over the place; grocery aisles, street signs, house numbers, mailboxes, etc. Daddy combs Gabe’s hair 20 times each night after bath-time and Gabe does all the counting. Take a look at this video so you can see for yourself.

Reading at 2

Gabe got this Elmo chair for his birthday and he loves it. It wiggles and giggles when he sits in it and that makes him giggle too. He really has a passion for reading that I'm sure he gets from his father. Books are a big hit with him and he has lots of them on our bookshelf as well as a box full in his bedroom.

He will bring us books and crawl into our laps and say "read" all of the time. Recently, he has found a few that he really enjoys and we've read them so many times with him that he can just about recite them back to us. He is very proud of this and we make a big fuss over him and how smart he is when he does it. (So much so, that he will actually say "mart" now when he does something he thinks we'll be proud of...then he waits for us to agree and tell him how smart we think he is!) See, he is pretty smart, isn't he?

Tonight after bath time, he fished out a book he likes, sat down in his Elmo chair, and began "reading" to us and Gavin. He knew exactly what to say on each page (which he calls "hage") and when to turn the "hage". When he was done he cried "END" loudly!

So, there you have it...Gabe is reading at age 2!