Christmas 2010

So this is waaaayyyy late, but I'm doing my best!

I had to work on Christmas day (booo!), so we did our Christmas morning stuff on Christmas Eve instead. Gabriel doesn't know the difference anyway... He was his usual cheery self!

He was a little confused by the wrapped presents under the tree. He doesn't really understand holidays, so he had no idea what was going on or why Mamma was taking more pictures than usual... He could see that everyone was pumped about something, so he emulated and got a little antsy himself.

After breakfast, we went with tradition and dug through the stockings first! Gabriel got a couple of small toys, a little book, and some baby/toddler snacks, with an orange in the toe of the stocking of course!

Getting Gabriel to open his presents was no easy feat. He had no interest in unwrapping his gifts whatsoever. He would start to pull the paper off and then get up and walk away. It took about two hours to get all of his presents unwrapped - and it's not like he had a ton of gifts! We had to keep dragging him back to the present at hand....it was a lot of work.

While opening presents, he would get distracted by other loose wrapping paper and bows...

My mom hit the jackpot with her gifts this year. (He also LOVED the rainstick, musical books, and duplos from Nana and Papa and clothes and nursery gear from Grandma-ma and uncle Darick!) She got him a toddler tent

...and a V-Tech learning scooter. He helped Daddy and uncle Darick (and Mommy) put it together and then went to town! He LOVES his scooter!

It was a great Christmas. We had a huge brown sugar glazed ham with all the fixin's for dinner on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day, Linda made roast beef and we stuffed ourselves again! I am happy to say that Gabriel is really bonding with Uncle Darick and Grandma-ma!

Beach Baby or Snow Angel?

One of my big concerns moving from Hawaii to Utah was the climate change. Gabriel was born on the island and never left until we moved to Utah. The year that we lived on Oahu was an unusually warm one (says the locals) - especially the winter. The whole time we were there, I don't think the temperature ever dropped below sixty degrees. So you can see my concern flying my son to Utah at the beginning of what is always a snowy winter.

As you know from a few posts back, one of the first things we bought when we arrived was winter gear. I was nervous and excited to get Gabriel in the snow. I had no idea how he would react. We geared up (coat, gloves, snow pants, snow boots) and waited for a good snow....

HE HATED IT.

I thought it was funny.

I pretend to complain about how Gabriel likes McKay more than he does me, but it's simply not true.

He only likes Daddy more than Mommy when Daddy is home. 

When it's just me and Gabe, he's a mamma's boy! He is my shopping buddy, see?

He is seriously SO much fun. My favorite toy person.

At the end of the day, Mamma is his favorite for some things and Daddy is his favorite for others. I'm still the only one who can get him REALLY laughing hard!!

Cooped Up

I have come to notice that I spend much too much time in my house. I wake up, go to work, come home....and chill. I don't leave unless I have an appointment or an errand to run. I mean, obviously I get cabin fever and just HAVE to get out of the house.... but a good portion of the time, I just wanna kick it at home.

That's rather selfish of me, though. I do have a child. I'm sure he gets sick of playing with the same toys and watching the same movies. I've made a goal to get out more often. If it were warmer and I wasn't smack dab in the middle of an awkward and potentially dangerous situation right now, I'd take Gabriel for walks to the park a LOT more. He loves the swings! (He's still kinda too little to play on the other playground equipment. He likes to watch other kids play....it's funny and weird)

I just love my sweet little guy! He is such a cutie pie - I will never get tired of his adorable face and silly antics!

[Can't talk about "potentially dangerous situation" at the moment, so pretend I didn't mention it for the next thirty days or so... Don't worry :0) we go for walks at much more public places like the mall for now.]

Meeting Santa

Gabriel met Santa for the first time at the Finch (stepdad's family) Family Christmas Party. I really hope to get a picture of Gabriel absolutely terrified on Santa's lap someday. He wasn't scared for the Easter bunny last year either...

What a bummer.

I wasn't sure how he would react to Santa and Mrs. Clause. Turns out he was over it before it started. Gabe doesn't give a crap about Santa...

In The Studio

December was a busy month! Amongst all other necessary errands and to-do's: Finish the last album. Egans' Theory (band for which McKay was the ridiculously talented bassist) has been winding down for while now. They had a few songs that they hadn't recorded yet, though, so they have been spending time in the studio laying down tracks for their last album. I've spent my fare share of time in the studio watching and listening to McKay and his various bandmates record (he was in a different band when I first met him called Volition--I don't mean to brag, but they were signed TWICE (label issues) and played some pretty big shows...) and I didn't really want to go. I could tell that this was something that meant a lot to him, though, so I went to show support. We brought Gabriel with us and he was so patient! He sat quietly while Eric mixed and mastered tracks.

Eric was surprised at how well-behaved Gabriel was *totally bragging* and decided to take a play break for him! He popped Gabriel up onto his lap while he messed with controls. After a minute, he whipped out a microphone and let Gabe play with it. He got a kick out of hearing his babbles through the speakers!

We had a good time and the album is turning out great! (Still some recording to be done)

November Videos

All the fun of November caught on video:

We went to Cracker Barrel with some dear friends of ours and Gabriel LOVED the mini rocking chairs!!

Gabriel and McKay clicked right away. No matter what McKay was doing, Gabe wanted to do it with him! Even cleaning! Here, they are sweeping up Gabriel's cheerio mess.

As he gets older, Gabriel continues to explore the world in his own strange little way...

Gabriel will play with just about anything. He is such an easy going kid! He doesn't even need toys - he'll play with packing materials.

As we moved into November, Gabriel started getting better and better at walking. What was once a somewhat wobbly little toddle (as you can see here) has turned into a pretty solid walk/jog/run!!

Bless his heart - Gabe just wants to be like the big people. He wants to eat what we eat (which is usually okay, but he doesn't have many teeth so he's still sort of limited) and drink what we drink and do what we do! 

And there you have it, folks! All caught up on November happenings!! December soon to be posted!