Waffle Massacre

Last month I gave Gabriel his first waffle. HE LOVED IT!! I kept a close eye on him so he wouldn't choke on a chunk of waffle (don't worry--I know how you worry, reader dear). It was actually kind of funny--he maimed the poor waffle.

 Freakin de-LISH!!

 I took it away from him and he just looked at it for a minute and then he started to play with it LOL

Just Some Cute Pictures

We went to the beach. We played. We left the beach. We went to my sister's house. Both showers were occupied. Bummer. So I took pictures of my cute baby. SWEET!

He is so much fun!!

Bounce-a bounce-a bounce-a --FLOP!

Gabriel has sooo much energy. A ton. Lots and lots. I'm going to have to have a big yard for him to run around in. When he gets frustrated and wants to go nuts, I put him in the jumper and let him bounce it out. He can go for almost two hours before he gets bored!!

One day I put him in the bouncer and he went nuts jumping to his little heart's content. I went in the other room to clean and when I went back to check on him, this is what I found! LOL He didn't wear down, he just jumped and jumped and jumped, got pooped and zonked. Like *that*. hahaha

(The pictures and the video were taken on different days...duh)

As a responsible parent (I try...), I always want to encourage Gabriel and any future children to eat healthy foods and choose nutritious snacks. I know that I will only have *so much* control over what they eat for *so long*. I don't want to completely deprive them of candy here and there or occasional junk food either. My hope is that I will impart some knowledge and good eating habits while they're young. Then when the unhealthy, horrible, yucky junk food monster rears its ugly head sometime down the road my kids will (hopefully) make healthy choices! ....right?

 Yummy fresh pineapple!

 Delicious strawberries!

 He's already trying to snag some healthy goodies!!

...and then I turn around and find out that my mom is completely undermining my efforts....

*Sigh* I guess that's what Gamma's are for though....*grumble*

The past eight months have been the craziest, funniest, most tiring, and loveliest time I've had in a long time...

...thanks to this little boy!

Is he really eight months old? REALLY?! Has it been that long?? Yes. He has been eight months old for five days now. Oh my...it is evident in so many ways. He is getting so big and doing so many new things.
Like ALMOST crawling..

For now, he is rolling and scooting his way around the living room getting himself stuck in between and underneath furniture.

...and he stands if he's got something to hold on to...

...he's starting to grab onto things and pull himself up...

He chatters and jibber-jabbers a lot. He says "ba ba ba ba" and "duh duh duh duh" and "guh guh guh guh" and "la la la la" and, my personal favorite, "ma ma ma ma ma".

 He still razzes a lot, but now he'll compete with you...

He started waving on the fourth of July and does it all the time now! He always waves at me while I'm changing his diaper, which is pretty funny.

 Gabriel nods his head too. When he does, it is a full-body gesture--it's so cute!!

Feeding Gabriel used to be a messy and, I'll admit, dreaded task...

At first I thought it was just lack of experience on both our parts. But then I caught my mom feeding Gabriel with a little plastic spoon of Lily's that we somehow ended up with. Ah-HA!! It was the spoon. I had been feeding Gabriel with a flexible silicone spoon. I figured it would be gentler on him and less of a shock since his bottle nipples are silicone too. I was wrong. I switched spoons and viola!! A much cleaner, happier, enjoyable experience for everyone involved!

These pictures are over a month old and feeding has gotten even cleaner since then! But every once in a while I'll still get one of these:

Bottom line? My baby boy is growing up way too fast. He is always trying to do more, see more, say more and eat more. He's got to figure out why that is here and how can he get it over there.

He is always trying to squirm away so he can go explore...

These are mostly all things he has been doing for weeks now which, in baby time, is quite a while. Crawling is just around the corner and walking soon after. The first year goes by to fast! Everything happens so quickly!

His personality comes out more and more every day and I'm pretty sure he is someone I would hang out with even if he wasn't my son. Seriously. Gabriel is the coolest, funniest, cutest little guy I know!