Posted by Christina on Saturday Mar 6, 2010 Under Gabriel, Pictures
Gabriel turned 11 months old on February 27th. One year ago, I was very much pregnant and so excited to meet my little boy.
Gabriel still has eight teeth, although he has been working on more for what seems like forever. He is constantly gnawing on his hands.
He stands on his own fairly often without holding onto anything. We are waiting anxiously for him to take his first step.
In the last week or two he has really increased his language skills. It seemed to happen overnight, and now he is trying to say quite a few words. He can now say "up," "mama," "daddy," "puppy" (pup), "grandma," "bye, bye," "uh oh" (oh oh), and "kitty" (kkkkkk). Currently "up" and "kitty" are his favorites to say.
Gabriel's current favorite foods are bananas, potatoes, pasta, and cheese. (I think he takes after his mom on those last three.) This month he has also enjoyed pineapple and strawberries.
He takes off his socks and pants almost every time he takes a nap. We usually find them flung across the room somewhere. His latest trick is tucking one of his socks behind the crib where it meets the wall so mommy can't find it. He has, however, stopped throwing his bear blankie over the side of the crib so often.
He eats three meals a day, and lately, we've also been throwing in an afternoon snack (usually cheese, fruit, or yogurt).
He wears size three diapers, mostly 12 month clothes, and takes two naps a day. (One around 9:30 and one later in the afternoon around 1:30).
Most nights he will sleep from 7:30 or 8 until 5 or 6. If he wakes up at 5, I'll nurse him and then he will go back to sleep until 7 or 8. If he doesn't wake up until 6, it's 50/50 whether or not he will go back to sleep.
Gabriel got his first significant cold last week, and ever since, he has been obsessed with noses. I think it's because I spent so much time wiping his. He loves to press on my nose and also stick his finger UP my nose. He also likes it when I "beep" his nose.
Posted by Christina on Sunday Feb 28, 2010 Under Gabriel, Pictures
A couple weeks ago Chris's cousin Rachel and her son, Bennett stopped by for a visit. Gabriel doesn't get to be around other kids very often, so I think it's great when he has a chance to interact with other babies - especially cousins! Bennet is a little over 13 months old and Gabriel just turned 11 months old. They seemed to enjoy playing with the same toys, and they are still young enough that they don't get angry when a toy is grabbed away from them (or maybe they're just perfect gentlemen).
Playing with Gabriel's toy car
Sharing? Ha! What's that?
They both really liked this ornament-shaped rattle that is actually a cat toy.
Posted by Christina on Tuesday Feb 23, 2010 Under Gabriel, Videos
Here are a couple videos of Gabriel. In the first one, he is "dancing" (which involves moving his head and shoulders back and forth - he takes after his dad). Occasionally, he will make humming-like high pitched noises while he does it (singing maybe?)
In the second video he is doing a bunch of other things. When he does patty cake and starts flailing his arms around, he's doing his idea of "roll it" (before I actually say "roll it.")
Gabriel can now say "bye bye". We're considering it his first words besides mama and "nanny" (his word for daddy, although Chris is convinced that Gabriel actually thinks he's the nanny). Here's a video of this amazing feat:
We didn't do anything too terribly exciting this year for Valentine's Day. After church we went out to eat at the Chinese Buffet and then geared up for the season premier of The Amazing Race.
Chris got me "Flours" for Valentine's, which he used to make blueberry muffins from scratch. I got him these Miracle Berry tablets that you let dissolve on your tongue and they make everything you eat taste really sweet. They were fun to try. We just squeezed a little lemon juice in water and it tasted like very sweet lemonade. Kiwi tasted like candy, and blueberries were too sweet to handle.
Posted by Christina on Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 Under Gabriel
Gravity has been one of Gabriel's favorite discoveries. He enjoys nothing more than seeing things fall long distances. In the following pictures you can see him throwing his blocks down the basement stairs. He throws just about everything down there. He also likes to drop food from his high chair. We theorize that he might be dropping it down there so he has something to snack on later.
Posted by Christina on Tuesday Feb 9, 2010 Under Life
Last month I celebrated my 26th birthday. Chris kindly brought to my attention that I am now closer to 30 than to 20 so I might as well round up. I didn't do anything especially fun or crazy to celebrate the day, but the weekend prior to my birthday, we got together with my family for dinner at Green Mill and then bowling at Brunswick zone. We also celebrated my brother-in-law, Chris's birthday which was on the 12th. Here are pictures from the evening:
Gabriel wearing Chris's gloves. As you can see, he is enjoying himself.
Posted by Christina on Monday Feb 8, 2010 Under Gabriel, Pictures
Quite a while ago, I think I mentioned how Gabriel enjoyed splashing in Pedro's water dish. We were trying to figure out how to keep him out of it. Our solution was to put the water dish on a kitchen chair so he couldn't reach it. As you'll be able to see from the forthcoming photos, this did not last long. As soon as he started pulling up on things, he was in that dish again. One day, I decided to just let him grab the bowl and see what would happen. I figured that he would spill the cold water all over himself, he would cry, and then never want to touch it again. Tell me how you think that turned out:
