He may be a fat chunk, but he's MY fat chunk!!

I love my kiddo so much--it's insane. I love his laugh. I love his cry (really--I do!). I love his crawl. I love all the cute little sounds he makes and his crazy-baby outbursts. I love his odd sense of humor. I love the way he head-butts people (softly) to show affection. I love it when he dances/bounces to music. I love everything about him.

ESPECIALLY...
..
...
....
..
.
....his chub. His fat rolls. His chins (yes, plural). I love those chunky cheeks so much I could just squeal!!

What a fatty!!

 Uhh--can you say "WALLPAPER"!!?! Yes, please!!

The fact that he looks like he's licking his lips in this picture (he's acually just sticking out his tongue) is just the sprinkles on the icing on the cream-filled cake. Like he just ate something...my little chunk of adorable chubby baby....ha!

Love it.

A True Hawaiian

Gabriel

LOVES

the beach.

Like, a LOT. He is a true islander! And, having been born in Honolulu, I can most definitely say he is 100% kama aina (native Hawaiian) LOL! Gabe loves to be in the water. When we go to the beach, he just sits and chills in his floatie ring almost the whole time. Doesn't fuss. Doesn't get bored. (both of which Lily does after about five or ten minutes...) He would hang out in the water for hours if I let him!

Anyway, sometime in July, we found this awesome beach/lagoon on the southwest side of the island at Ko'Olina. I think there are three lagoons in that area. We went to lagoon 2. It was GORGEOUS!! There are wave breakers, so the water was just a little wavy--mostly pretty calm. I put Gabriel in his floatie ring and we just cruised around the lagoon for about an hour or two! It was such a nice day and there were little tropical fish in a few areas that we could see just by looking down into the water--they were swimming around our feet! Little striped fish and spotted ones and all different colors. Gabe had a blast--he even kicked his feet to help with the cruising! Hahaha!! (couldn't get a video of the kicking though...bummer) He's my little water baby! 

When we first got there. He was excited to get in the water!!

All suited up and ready to go!

Assuming the position. This is how he kicks back in the water every time. I put him in his tube, he adjusts to the water temperature, I throw some cheap bath toys (that have now become beach toys) in the water inside the tube (it comes up from the leg holes), and he just hangs out and splashes around with the toys!! Perfect setup for him!

Ko'Olina Lagoon 2. If you ever go to Hawaii, check out this spot (Can you see the wedding in the background?! Hahaha...)

Checkin' out the ladies...

Basking in the sun...ahhh.....(reLAX--he has tons of baby sunscreen on)

It's hard to get him out of the tube while it's in the water, so this is what I've resorted to...works pretty well...

See?! He wants to get back in the water!

Our beach secret? Skip the beach towels on the sand--save them for drying off. Spread out a sheet instead and tuck the corners under the sand to anchor it down! It gives you more easy, clean sitting space, and it's easy to shake the sand off of when you're packing everything back into the car! (unlike towels, which like to hide sand in all their nooks and crannies...)

It will be an odd adjustment moving to Utah with him. He's never really been in cold weather. And the dry climate is going to be a shock for him. I can't wait to see what he does with snow though!!

[Photos and video in this post are from 7/17/10--oops! This should have come before the previous post chronologically....oh well...]

Going, going, GONE!!

Gabriel gets faster and faster every day. It's both exciting and a huge bummer... Exciting because my little boy is learning and developing so well!! A huge bummer because that means my little baby is growing up.... :'(   Because he is becoming increasingly mobile, he is into EVERYTHING which means more work for mamma. But that's okay--it's something that I'm happy and willing to do. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be a mother (there are so many women out there who would give anything to have a child) and to have such a healthy, happy baby. I am truly blessed!!

[Photos and videos in this post are from 7/21/10]

I really need a better yard...

I feel really bad that Gabriel doesn't really ever play outside unless we're at the beach. Our yard kinda sucks. The fast majority of it is a GIANT patio--which is nice....if you're not a baby who doesn't mix well with hard surfaces. Even if the hard surface wasn't an issue, the patio is surrounded by rocks. The people who own the house decided that they didn't want to deal with grass, so they replaced it with rocks. Not nice ones, either. Not cute little smooth ones or pretty/interesting rocks. Big, chunky, ugly grey rocks that are more of a pain than the grass would have been. Really people?! What are we supposed to do with ROCKS?! So they pretty much eliminated the "yard" from the back yard. Alas, we only have a small patch of grass in the front of the house. And the grass sucks. It's not nice soft comfy grass. It's like crab grass--ONLY WORSE. This grass makes crab grass seem like Charmin. I hate our yard. So we just avoid it.

Except on this day, July 8th, which was Gabriel's first real prolonged grass experience!!

This one's my favorite...

[Photos from this post are from 7/8/10]