.:|My Lil' Monster|:.

Hockotch!

2011-12-09T16:15:00.001-07:00

Goodness...

I have so much catching up to do, it HURTS!! I'm waaayyyy behind. It's really kind of sad, because Gabriel is growing and changing at such an alarming rate--I'm afraid I'll miss or forget things and that would be so sad!!

The bigger and older my sweet little boy gets, the more fun and crazy life becomes.

I am loving being his mommy, though, and I wouldn't trade it for anything ever.

He is just so fun and sweet and full of light and life. Watching him learn and grow and develop has been absolutely astounding. He is just so smart! He picks up on things so quickly--seriously, this kid is sharp as a tack--he doesn't miss a THING!

Right now, Gabe is in this parrot phase where he will repeat just about anything he hears. This is super awesome and incredibly bad--we really have to watch what we say. You never realize how horrible some of the things you say sound until you hear it come out of a two year old's mouth. Words like "shut up" and "crap" become 'swears' because you don't want to hear that coming out of your sweet little baby's mouth!!

It can be pretty entertaining though. Calling for my husband from downstairs and then hearing a little toddler echo of "Muh-KAY!!" is HI-larious for reasons I just can't articulate. Even more so, the battle that happened the other day:

Me: "McKay, get up--we have tons of stuff to get done." [he was dozing off on the couch]
McKay: "Nooo....I'm so tired. Let me sleep for like ten minutes."
Me: "How is it that you're tired? You haven't done anything all day. Get up."
*Gabriel climbs on the couch and sits on Daddy*
Gabe: "Daddy! Git UP!"
McKay: [grumble]
Me: "You heard the child. Get up."
Gabe: "Yeah!"
McKay: "Nooo...I'm tired...from homework...and stuff."
Me: "No excuses. Get up!"
Gabe: "Daddy!! No essusses!!"
[Laughter erupts. He is awake now. Mission accomplished.]

Gabriel will hear things and remember them hours and days and weeks later, after everyone else has forgotten. He has a favorite video that has a couple of Curious George episodes on it. One of the episodes shows George and some friends playing hopscotch. Gabriel has seen this episode dozens of times and has never exhibited any interest in hopscotch or even an inkling that he understands what the game is or how it's played.

Last night....

[Gabriel is playing pretend and we have no idea what he's doing, which is not uncommon.]
Gabe: "Daddy! [which actually sounds more like 'da-yee' a lot of the time] Move! Ow-wo way! ...peesh ['please']..."
McKay: "Oh. I'm sorry. What are you doing?"
Gabe: "Hockotch!! One tew fee fo fy sits seden..." [he is now hoping around on the kitchen tiles, counting, but not staying in count with the actual hops. These hops are sporadic and not in any specific pattern or direction. All he knows is that you hop and count. We are totally caught off-guard.]
Gabe: "Daddy! Yo tohn! Go! Hockotch!" [Like a good daddy, McKay plays along, even tossing the pretend stone. This continues back and forth for at least ten minutes. I'm still trying to figure out how on earth he go the idea to play hopscotch in his head....then it hits me....George...but he hasn't seen that in at least a few weeks. This kid's got the memory of an elephant.]

I. About. Died. It was SO cute! Not to mention, hilarious!! I only wish I had captured video of it--oh, that would have been PRICELESS to have gotten McKay and Gabe playing 'hockotch' on the kitchen tiles!! And the way Gabe jumps is just too adorable for words. He really gets into the motion. You just have to see it.

So, as you can see, I have a lot to share and catch up on!! Every time I think I've got a handle on things, something explodes and I have to drop the blog for a bit to keep our lives running.... I'll get it together soon - I promise! I keep thinking "Well, when this happens it'll make things a lot easier." or "That life event will give me a lot more free time." Nope. Doesn't work that way. And, sure, I do have free time here and there and, yeah, I totally fill it with useless crap sometimes. But...but....[insert excuse here]

As Gabe [now often, and with just as much gusto as the original speech] would say:

NO ESSUSSES!!

Gotcha, kiddo.

Road Block

2011-09-19T05:28:00.000-06:00

I have a few posts in the works, I promise. There's some new stuff and plenty of older stuff (May-August stuff) to get posted. I've hit a roadblock for the time being, though.

My MacBook (Pro--holla!) has the dreaded "black screen". I did some homework while I was troubleshooting at home and found that there's a known issue with the NVIDIA graphics processor in some builds. If that's the case with mine (and I'm hoping it is!), the repair(s) will be free of charge. Cross your fingers for me.

Until then, I only have our PC to work on and I hate it. I avoid PCs at all costs these days. Ours is pretty new - an HP Quad Core Desktop (6GB of RAM and a 1TB HD) running Windows 7 that we bought in February. We haven't had any problems with it so far, but....it's a Windows-based machine which, I guess, is a problem in and of itself.

*sigh*

I guess I'll just have to deal for now. The Simply Mac store by my house is really fast with repairs, so I shouldn't be laid-up for too long!

[If you follow my other blog, you're going to see this same message there....sorry for the redundancy...]

Potty Time!

2011-08-28T20:44:00.000-06:00

I'm dying to update everyone on recent goings-on, but this OCD.....I want to have things documented, and I want them in order!

So I've made a deal with myself.

I am going to post current stuff AND older stuff at the same time, but I'm going to pre-date the older stuff, so it will show up in order on the blog. What does that mean for you? Probably not much, but those who are using a reader or otherwise "following"the blog might be a little confused over the next week or so. I'll try to keep it to a minimum--I promise!

Now for the big news: Gabriel has started potty training! I know what some of you may be thinking--too soon, right? That's what I thought. He kept showing all of the signs of readiness and I kept thinking "No. There's no way. He's too young. He can't be ready yet....can he?" I guess so. He started showing signs around 16 months or so. There were more and more as the weeks and months went on until it got to the point where I knew he was ready.

For those who may be wondering, here are some of the major signs of readiness:

-Stays dry for two or more hours at a time [Check!]
-Has regular bowel movements [Check!]
-Wakes up from naps dry [a lot of the time, yes]
-Stops an activity while peeing or pooping in diaper [Check!]
-Stands a certain way and holds on to diaper while "eliminating" [Check!]
-Wants to imitate parents using the toilet [Check!]
-Is able to understand and follow simple directions [Check!]

Other (secondary) signs of readiness:

-Can sit and play quietly for five minutes [Check!]
-Can put toys and other possessions where they belong on his own [Check!]
-Can dress/undress himself [uhhh....sorta....but not really]
-Has a name for urine and bowel movements [he does the signs and repeats verbally whatever we call them]

I did some homework and that really solidified it for me. Gabriel was ready. Holy cow, my baby is growing up! Lately, he comes running to the bathroom whenever he hears someone going and he wants to watch the whole process and then he asks to sit on the potty. When he is going in his diaper, he signs "potty", and if he's doing number two he says "Poop! Poop...." and grabs his diaper. He has actually been doing that one for a few months now.

I hopped on my favorite shopping site (aka Amazon.com - I'm an Amazon Mom! Are you?) to find a good training potty. I finally decided on the Fisher Price Ducky Fun 3-in-1 Potty. So far we really love it!

It plays music when he pees in it and the seat comes off and fits on th big toilet for when he's ready to transition. The lid also folds down and it turns into a step stool!

We also ended up getting him a potty seat for the upstairs bathroom. We let him pick it out so, of course, it has Elmo on it.

So far, he has gone pee-pee in the potty 2-3 times in two days. Things are looking pretty good! That is not to say that we haven't had any frustrations....we've started just having him run around naked at home in the evenings. If he starts peeing (which isn't a big deal--there's no carpet downstairs), we grab him and put him on the toilet. It's working okay so far.

Keep your fingers crossed! Do you think we can have him potty trained by the time he's two? I think so. He did number two in the potty today!

In my absence....

2011-08-22T15:49:00.001-06:00

...SO much cute stuff has been happening since the last time I posted. Take, for example, the following:

I die every time.

I just need to gather my thoughts and (lets face it) my pictures and I'll be up and running and caught up in no time! Thanks for your patience and support!

Patriotic Americans

2011-07-12T10:39:00.000-06:00

Our family has a proud military service history. The 4th of July is always a fun time. We look forward to it every year--family gathering, barbecues, fireworks. We love it! Gabriel and his classmates made little Patriotic handprints to decorate their classroom door:

We are, indeed, proud to be Americans! (How cute is that??)

McKay and his older brother, Darick, are both in the Army. They both serve in the Army Reserve and are also both Army ROTC Cadets in the Cougar Battalion (BYU, UVU, SUU, and Dixie). The Cougar Battalion's "Cannon Crew" was a part of Provo, Utah's Freedom Festival Parade (the Freedom Festival is among the largest 4th of July celebrations in the nation). McKay's Reserve unit (also in Provo) was part of the parade as well! All of the reservists in McKay's unit and their families were invited to ride in Army Vehicles in the parade - it was so neat!!

Loading up the cannon | McKay and his brother in uniform

Gabriel and Daddy ready to ride in the parade!!

In the transport truck waiting to get on our way

Riding the route! Gabriel was so cute! He waved and blew kisses to everyone!

He was pretty pooped by the end of the parade. He got hold of Daddy's hat and wouldn't let go!

In other July news...we gave Gabriel a mohawk.

The grandmas did NOT approve...

More of June

2011-07-10T10:19:00.000-06:00

Gabriel's day care center had a little summer party. They set up a few little pools and had a barbecue. It was actually kind of fun! Gabe was the only kid in his age group that came ready to swim, so he had a pool all to himself!

We had another swimming adventure later on in June! We went to the Spanish Fork Reservoir for the first time and we had a blast!

Summer Fest

2011-07-08T09:40:00.000-06:00

Back in June, McKay's ROTC unit's color guard marched in the Orem Summer Fest parade. They marched behind the opening cannon with flags and rifles/bayonets, so (of course!) we went to watch Daddy march!!

Waiting for the parade to start was the worst part. We were closer to the end of the parade route, too, so we had to wait even longer than anticipated...

He doesn't look too happy in the pictures, but he actually had a really good time! He was a little tired, but perfectly content. He's such a chill, kick back kid! I love it.

Finally, we heard the cannon getting closer (they would stop every so many hundred yards and shoot the cannon off) and we knew we'd be seeing daddy soon! Finally, they appeared down the street, maneuvering around a corner. Darick called commands and McKay was an arms bearer.

It's too bad we didn't know what side McKay would be on...he is the arms bearer on the far right in the bottom picture (above), so we didn't get a very good view of him and Gabe was kind of sad.

Since we were pretty close to the end of the parade route, McKay was able to double back pretty quickly and sit with us for the rest of the parade! Of course, Gabriel LOVED that. Such a Daddy's boy....

Yellowstone, ho!

2011-07-06T12:48:00.000-06:00

Around the beginning of May, we took a trip to Yellowstone with our friends, Jeannie and her husband Stephen. McKay and I are WorldMark owners, so we were really excited to visit a new resort! Plus, I had never been to Yellowstone and I couldn't WAIT to take Gabriel to see bison and bears and Old Faithful.

Jeannie, Stephen, and McKay got Stephen's car loaded up and then came and picked me up from work and we were off! It was only about a 6 hour drive - not bad! But as we got closer to Yellowstone, it got colder...and colder....and we started seeing snow....and then more snow....and then--holy crap!--it was piled up twice as high as our car on the sides of the road. Oh boy. We weren't expecting it to be like this.

This was a portion of the road with very little snow--we were actually able to pull over!

Oh well. What could we do?

We arrived at the resort and, my goodness, it was BEAUTIFUL.

We had a three bedroom...condo? That's how they always are with WorldMark, though. It's like a little apartment. There's always a kitchen stocked with all the dishes and utensils and cooking supplies, a washer and dryer, etc. We got a three bedroom so Stephen and Jeannie could have a room, Gabe could have a room, and we could have one. There were two nice bathrooms, a nice balcony, kitchen, dining room, living room, blah blah blah--it was nice! We got there in the evening, so the guys went to the game room and played pool while Jeannie and I went to a local grocery store to pick up food and other supplies. That's one of my favorite parts about WorldMark--you don't have to spend a ton of money on eating out because you can cook in your fully stocked kitchen!

The next day we decided to visit the bear and wolf refuge near the resort. Lucky us! They just so happened to be doing a bear-proof container test that day! Every once in a while, manufacturers of bear proof containers will submit their product for testing. They put food in the containers and put them in with the bears to see if they can get into them (or how long it takes for them to get into the container). Some work great....others, not so much.

Watching the bears and wolves was really neat. The people running the refuge are awesome.

There was a (kind of) weird little museum part...some of the displays were a little disturbing, so I'll spare you those...

They had a fun gift shop that we THOROUGHLY enjoyed!

After the refuge, we continued our journey into the park (We stayed in West Yellowstone and one of the entrances to Yellowstone National Park was like....five minutes away...or less) where we saw some buffalo!

Those are bison in the upper-right portion of the top picture below!

Sidenote: Let it be known that Stephen RAN OVER MY FOOT at this point in the trip. It must be documented. There were some bison walking down the road right next to the car, so we stopped. They were on the opposite side off the car as me, so I opened my door and stepped out to get a couple of shots (Yes, I know that was unbelievably stupid and dangerous....but I had to take advantage of such an awesome shot!!). It was then that Stephen decided to pull forward. I guess he didn't know that I had stepped out of the car and that it was the only thing standing between me and a giant buffalo...? In any case, McKay was furious and nearly murdered the poor guy. This is the "awesome" shot I got....while being run over...

wah wah waaaahhhh.....oh well....

One of the major things I wanted to see was Old Faithful. I got my wish! I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to Yellowstone or know much about Old Faithful, but they can kind of predict when she's gonna blow, so there's a tentative schedule letting you know the general time when the geyser will erupt. We got there at the tail-end of one eruption and decided to stick around for another one. We had some time to kill, which meant we got to do some exploring and picture-taking!

There were so many beautiful things to see!

Finally.....FINALLY! Old Faithful erupted. Over 30 minutes "late". I guess that'll teach us to predict nature!!

This other little geyser erupted around the same time and kind of showed up O.F. - it went WAY higher...

The next day, we decided to explore the resort and found the awesome indoor pool so we took Gabe swimming. And here, I insert my complaint: Sometimes being the photographer is the crappiest job!! I never get to be in any of the pictures and, as far as anyone else can tell, I'm completely uninvolved with my son or in family activites....sigh....

After the pool, we explored the adorable little town of West Yellowstone. So cute, guys. Seriously. To our dismay, a lot of stuff was closed because "the season" wouldn't be starting until the following week. Talk about bad timing. Oh well...

There were large, painted fiberglass bison all over town. I wish we had taken pictures with more of them!

All in all, it was a fun and memorable trip! We hope to return to Yellowstone (DURING "the season" next time) in a few years!

Bubble Boy

2011-07-01T07:21:00.000-06:00

I don't know why it took us so long to discover this, but Gabriel LOVES bubbles. It wasn't until about April/May that we introduced the two of them and he has been obsessed ever since. It's a good thing they're super cheap and easily refilled!

I'm thinking we may need to get him a bubble mower....

I have no clever title for this post

2011-06-29T20:23:00.001-06:00

These are the rest of the little parts and pieces of April that I just couldn't not post....

Gabriel started talking and imitating us a LOT in April, and we love it!

We had a big milestone/first in April - Gabriel pooped in the tub! Did I really go almost 18 months without him pooping in the tub? Yes. But here you have it, ladies and gentlemen:

FYI: I drained the tub and took Gabe out right after this so he wasn't sitting in poo-infested water. I was scooping out toys as the water was draining so I could separated everything from the turd. I scooped up what I thought was another handful of toys.....nope. There was a second turd! Eew! I just full-on grabbed a little poo log! It was gross. I love being a mommy.

Gabriel still uses signs even though he's starting to talk. People who don't know signs look at us weird all the time like "Uhh....what is your kid doing?" and people who do know signs get all excited - "Oh my gosh! Is he signing? That's so cool! What signs does he know?" I brag about it all the time. I just think it's awesome. Yeah, my kid is signing AND talking. Holla!

My little dancer babe loves to move and groove to the beat. Most of the time, I get the camera on him and he stops. We were watching The Cool TV or whatever that channel is called (what MTV should be - they play music/music videos all day every day) and Gabe started feelin' it and was totally rocking out and dancing to the music. I grabbed my phone to get a video and, of course, the beat goes away for a minute....and he started looking for it! (Yes--the beat. He was looking for the beat)

There. April is done now.

Easter Extravaganza

2011-06-07T09:51:00.002-06:00

Easter this year was a glorious mess. I was so excited because I didn't really get to do much with Gabriel last year since he was so little. No egg dying or egg hunts or Easter basket excitement....boooo!! So I was determined to dive in to it this year. First thing was first, though--I HAD to find an EXCELLENT Easter bunny for pictures. (Last year's pictures were hilarious!) I searched the web and called all of the obvious places. No one was going to have an Easter bunny. WHAT?! I was mad. But I just shrugged it off at the time and figured I'd find one eventually.

Fast forward to the weekend before Easter. Gabriel's day care threw a little Easter egg hunt/party for all of the kids. I was PUMPED! This would be Gabe's first Easter egg hunt. I could not wait to see what he would do.

Side note: I was a little apprehensive about putting Gabriel in a day care center. Who knows what kind of care he would get and what sort of germs he would, no doubt, be running around with all day? I love his daycare though! They have structured learning time and play time and naps and meals and snacks and whatever. They do cute little crafts now and then - this is what he "made" for Easter:

A cute little egg holder! Obviously, he just colored it, but I love that he is having arts/craft time! They helped him make a cute little Mother's Day gift for me too with his handprint in paint - framed and with a picture. *LOVE*

Anyway, back to the Easter egg hunt! He was SO READY to be running around outside. He didn't even know what was going on.

We had to keep grabbing him (he just wanted to run around) and tell him "Oh look! What's that?! Go get it!" and "Oh my goodness--another one! Go get it and put it in your basket!!"

He eventually got excited because we were excited.

He loved squeezing the eggs until they popped open to see what was inside!

All in all, he was just here and there and everywhere, but it was cute and I think we all had fun!

Gabriel found a little friend at one point and they followed each other around and played together. It was really cute to watch! And then A. picked up a stick and started hitting things with it and I decided Gabriel needed to play...elsewhere...

After the Easter egg hunt and play time, they had lunch for everyone. While we were eating, my mom called to ask if I had found an Easter bunny yet. Nope. Well guess what? She found one for me (how? I don't know. The woman lives in Hawaii....) at the Riverwoods mall and it was the CUTEST Easter bunny she had ever seen. I was pumped! She sent me the URL for the information (times, location, etc.) and it had a picture of the bunny and the setup--seriously the cutest bunny and set up ever. It was around 11-12ish and the website said the Easter bunny would be there from 10am-7pm. Perfect. Plenty of time. We ran home to grab my camera (it was one of those "take your own pictures for free" setups, which I like better anyway) and we were off!! We got the the mall and the bunny was nowhere to be found. I called the number on the website and the stupid, snotty girl who answered says:
"Oh, he's gone."
"Oh...for lunch? When does he get back?"
"No no--for the day."
"Wait...what?"
"Yeah. He left at noon."
"And he's not coming back?"
"Nope."
"...at all? Not even on another day?"
"Uh-uh."
"But...your website says he'll be here from ten to seven.."
"No--that's for the weekdays."
"Uhhh....it says 'Weekdays eight to five, Saturday ten to seven.'"
"Oh. Well that's a typo."
"Are you serious?"
"Yep. Sorry. I hope you have a nice day." -click-

WHAT?! I was so pissed!! How do you have a typo like that? And here's an idea: FIX IT. Who on earth has an Easter bunny for pictures only from ten till noon on a SATURDAY?! The Saturday before EASTER, no less?! I was mad. But there was nothing I could do about it. I was bound and determined to find a dang Easter bunny, though. Had to. I called everywhere. Again. The best I could find in a 20 mile radius was a WalMart with an Easter Bunny cut out. A CUT OUT. I was absolutely crestfallen and ready to give up. I decided to call one more place. And guess what? Yep. They had an Easter Bunny! So we drove all the way to the A.F. WalMart garden center just to get a picture with him. And let me tell you, it was the creepiest one I had seen in person. We got there and I asked where he was and someone pointed in the general direction. I looked over and around the plants and spotted the head of the E.B. Holy crap. My heart jumped. He was NOT cute. Part of the head had been smashed, so the mouth was all lopsided and weird. They didn't even have anything set up. I was just creepster-bunny sitting in a chair in the garden center. Whatever. We drove all that way and there was NO ONE in the county with a freaking Easter Bunny, so we were posing with this creepy one whether we liked it or not.

...yeah....Gabe didn't really know what to think...

It was just a few days later that my family flew in. I had so much fun with the kids together! My mom and sister love to do all the little bows and headbands and flowers for Lily's hair so, of course, there was always some sort of girly stuff on the table or on the floor. Gabe decided to try out one of Lily's headbands for himself when no one was paying attention. Of course, we spotted him and thought it was hilarious, so we all started laughing. He tore it off his head (embarrassed?) and threw it before I could grab the camera....so of course we had to put it back on him for a picture and he was MAD. Gamma thought it was pretty funny...

My little Gabriella

Dying eggs was pretty fun and relatively painless. I learned from dying eggs with Lily last year that you won't have much dye left if you just let the kiddos have at it. We let them drop an egg into whatever color they wanted and then we would set it aside and let them do another one, etc. Once all the colors were occupied, we'd let them sit for a minute and take all the eggs out and start again. It worked out pretty well!

Love that splash! (upper left picture) Good thing we had some old ugly towels to dye on!

We still had a little bit of an egg dye mess, though....how do you like my little smurf baby?

Our family does one of the usual Easter traditions--a new Easter dress/outfit. My mom insisted on buying Gabriel's Easter suit this year. I, of course, wasn't about to argue with that! The outfit she got for him was soooo cute. Check out my handsome boy in his Easter clothes!

What a little stud!

So another part of the hot mess that was Easter this year was the fact that my sister sent a bunch of stuff for Lily and Gabe and the rest of us from Japan. Of course, true to her character, she waited until the LAST MINUTE to mail everything (haha--I love you Candace), so her stuff was not going to get to us in time. That was most of Lily's Easter stuff....so we had to postpone the baskets until Candace's stuff got to my house. We did, however, do the Easter egg hunt ON Easter Sunday. It was awesome.

McKay and I...I mean....the Easter Bunny....hid a bunch of eggs in my mother-in-law's yard (a few doors down from us--her yard is much bigger than ours) and then it was ON!

Lily, of course, is a seasoned pro and she just had at it.

She is such a sweet big-cousin. She saw that Gabriel didn't have many eggs in his basket, so she would occasionally find one and run over to Gabe and give it to him. It was so cute and sweet to see her sharing like that. Man, I love that kid! She would help us encourage him to find/pick up an egg, even though (I could tell) it was really hard for her to not pick it up herself.

Lily was just so cute and funny running around looking for eggs. She would spot one, hold her basket straight out in front of her, and run to go grab it. And the way she ran was hilarious because the grass was so tall and hard to get through quickly.

Gabriel was pretty disinterested in the whole thing and just wanted to run around and play in the tall grass (lawn mower=broken, so they had a jungle to search through!).

After the hunt, Unka 'Kay (that's what Lily calls him) helped count eggs. When we saw that there were still a few left to be found, we went to do a sweep of the yard and came back to find that our count had been wrong--there was still another on missing....or was there?

Gabriel decided that he wanted an egg and he bit right in to one! He spit it out with an "Eeeeww!!" and we all had a good laugh. I guess eggshell is not very appetizing...

A little later while Lily was occupied in Gabe's room, we put together Gabriel's basket from Nana and Papa Rivera (oh yeah--Daisy sent the whole sha-bang. Easter basket and grass and eggs and candy and toys and everything!) and brought him in to dig through it while Nana and Papa watched on Skype!

He was so cute--sharing with Nana via Skype

He would not take his eyes off of Skype (except to look at candy)

I had to laugh--Daisy sent a chocolate bunny. From ARIZONA. Of course, it arrived as an unrecognizable blob, but Gabriel didn't care!

A day or two after Easter, Candace's boxes (yes, plural--the woman is ridiculous!) arrived. We held the kids hostage upstairs while we put baskets together and then set them loose.

My sister totally went overboard, but Lily loved it!

She sent a super cute little dinosaur set for Gabriel along with a few outfits and a book too!

So yeah--Easter was a little messy and scattered this year, but we got through it and had a blast. It was so much fun having Lily here so the kids could spend Easter together again! We are very blessed and I am forever grateful for that.

April Stuffs

2011-06-05T17:07:00.001-06:00

So.

Here I am.

Playing catch-up again...

Sorry about that.

April was a fun month! My family flew in from Hawaii for about two weeks (minus my sister, who was still deployed at the time), which was a BLAST! Always nice to spend time with my mamma and my adorable niece, Lily. Plus, it's an excuse for the whole family to gather and catch up - we don't do it often enough and we're all less than a half hour from each other.

So they were here for my sister's college graduation, brother's birthday, stepdad's birthday, Easter, etc. Lots of fun stuff! I'll talk about Easter in my next post, though. (Including Easter in this post would just be way too much...)

I was so excited to see my mom and Lily. Since my mom has been Lily's caretaker while Candace has been gone, she has been posting TONS of pictures and videos of her on facebook and I was just dying to see her and get Lily and Gabe together to play. (Last time they were together, Gabe was just BARELY walking, so he wasn't a very good playmate for our wild and crazy Lily bug...)

It was like they were never apart.

Lily was such a sweet big cousin, always trying to help Gabriel (whether he needed it or not!) and constantly keeping an eye on him - "Weh's Daybul? I get him. Weh he go? Daybul!! I find you!!"

He was such a boy about it too. He would pretend to be indifferent, but then if he hadn't seen Lily for a bit, he would get confused ("Wait....where'd she go? She's ALWAYS hangin around...") and go find her.

Love those kids.

~~~~~~~~~~

I feel like every other post is about how much of a Daddy's boy Gabriel is, or about how big he's getting. But I just can't help it. He IS such a Daddy's boy and I love it so much. It is the opposite of what my worst fear was in coming back to Utah and getting remarried. They get along so well, though. McKay and Gabe are best buddies and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Gabriel has officially adopted one of McKay's army hats (yes, I know the real name for it--don't lecture me, military people!). Seriously. McKay had to get another one because Gabe just won't give this one up. He wears it around the house all day every day.

He even got ahold of McKay's beret one day and INSISTED on wearing it the whole ride home until Daddy had to take it back. Love my little cadet!

...and my awesome, handsome hubby! (even when he's smiling weird....and at a weird angle...)

I will never get over how fast Gabriel grows and learns. It kinda makes me sad. I try to enjoy every little second of every stage, but it seems like he is never in one phase long enough before moving on the the next!! STOP GROWING SO FAST, KIDDO!! This shirt is a 3T and, while it is a little big on him, I can't believe he's wearing it already.

He is eating more independently every day...

...and always wanting to drink out of a big boy cup...

...and climbing all over things and scaring the crap out of me!

I just wish he would slow down a bit and let me enjoy all the cute little things that he does and faces that he makes. I think I take so many pictures because I want to be able to look back at everything and anything and be able to remember it to the tiniest detail. Even mundane stuff...like sleeping...

I have no excuse

2011-05-31T22:03:00.000-06:00

Man, I got all caught up just to be lazy and not post for WEEKS and now I'm behind again....I'm so mad at myself! But I promise you that I am working on a couple of big catch-up posts, so keep an eye out for those! I need to get going so I can tell you about Gabriel's 18 month check up!

January, February, March! March! MARCH!

2011-04-25T20:21:00.000-06:00

I know this post title most likely does not make sense unless you grew up in my family, but whatever.

So I hope Racheal doesn't scoff at me for this, but I didn't let Gabriel play with the gift she and the kids got him for Christmas until March. She got him these awesome crayons made especially for little hands. They have a bulb on one end that makes it so babies and toddlers can grasp them more easily and there's a giant crayon tip on the other end. They also stack inside each other. Gabriel LOVES them. But he doesn't color with them. He just wants to stack them....

We have some awesome neighbors (on one side of us) who love to play with Gabriel. The dad is the coolest guy and his son and daughter are such cute kids!! Here, you can see his oldest playing with Gabe. He could see that Gabriel was fascinated by his skateboard, so he stopped and put Gabe on to go for a spin! Okay, so he didn't really go anywhere, but he stood on it for a few minutes!!

My friend's daughter's birthday was in March and we were invited! She decided to do it at Chuck E Cheese's and we had a blast! We got a few tokens and Gabe use almost all of them (all but three) on this:

I can never get enough of seeing my boys hanging out. It's one of my favorite things to see.

Gabriel loves Elmo. I'm talking UNHEALTHY love. He is obsessed with Sesame street. He becomes glued to the TV. Normally if we have something on TV, he watches it for a minute and runs around playing with toys. He never gets like this unless Elmo is on:

Another gift from Racheal--the phone. It was an old toy that her kids used to love and play with and she gave it to Gabriel when we all met up at Daisy's house last fall. He LOVES this phone! It plays music and talks and lights up. She said each of her kids loved it too. We always keep it in the car for him to play with!

See that third picture? He was calling Mamma.

So that was March. I know--I was a little skimpy with the pictures and videos last month. I have no idea why. Normally I have tons of videos to sift through and hundreds of pictures every month. But not March. It was weird for me too, people.

Fun In February

2011-04-20T21:59:00.006-06:00

Okay--in an effort to get caught up, I'm going to try to get February and March squished into just a couple of posts.

Get ready for some blogitty overload, peeps.

Apparently my sister has a magic touch. Everything she buys for Gabriel ends up being his favorite "thing" in that "thing category" (my vocabulary seems to be lacking tonight...don't judge me!). Remember the blanket from a couple of posts ago? Yeah. Like that. His favorite, most requested book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" by Eric Carle. He. LOVES. That book. He loves the colors and the animals and the fact that it's a giant board book. The version of the book that my sister got him has a little slider window on each page that you can slide over and see a smaller preview of what is next--he LOVES that. And guess who bought it for him? Yup--Titi.

Gabriel continues to chug along with the sign language. I love love LOVE that he picks them up so quickly and starts using them every day. Here, I caught a video of him saying "More please", asking for more food. Smarty pants...

I can be crafty from time to time. SHOCKER! I know. I really like Gabe's monkey winter hat and I think it's really super cute. But it's brown and sometimes an outfit calls for something.....not brown. So I decided Gabriel needed another hat. I looked and looked and nothing fit right, so I decided to make it a little project! I found a simple pattern and crocheted it one evening while watching a movie. First hat ever. I think it turned out cute! And it works for all those outfits that need something other than brown...

What do you think?! Not bad, eh? Especially for my first hat/beanie!!

The way life has happened over the last couple of years has put a gap in a lot of my relationships with close friends. I hate that. When I moved back from Hawaii, I promised to do my best to get back in touch with them. I've done well...with a couple....and okay with some.....and not-so-great with others. Still working on it! One friend that I'm pretty positive I'll never completely lose touch with is Jackson. (Jack) We made a lunch date and actually kept it! No change of plans or postponing. It was awesome! He got to meet Gabe and turned out to be a huge hit with the little stinker! They got along really well and I hope we'll have lots more fun play dates with Uncle Jack! (Jack, if you're reading this, let me insert a *hint hint*nudge nudge*wink*...seriously)

Have I failed to mention that my son is a strange, silly little man? If I have never mentioned it before, let me make it known now: the kid is WEIRD. But I really like it. Gabe has a handful of those "touch and feel" books. You know--the ones with different textures that help with sensory development? I kept seeing him wander off with one of the books. He would open it up and lay his head on it. I thought he was trying to tell me he was sleepy, so I would put him down for a nap. Then I realized that he was doing it ALL THE TIME. What the...? So I finally paid closer attention to what page he was doing this with....

Yeah--if you can't tell, that's a furry lion. He likes the feel of the soft fur and he wants to feel it on his face....so he opens the book up to that page, lays it on the ground, and then lays his head/cheek on the book. Sometime for just a couple of seconds. Other times....five to ten minutes or so....HA! Silly boy. Check him out in the first picture--he's sucking his fingers and settled in for a good cuddle with that lion!

So Gabriel is really learning how to pull the strings and push the right buttons. When I scold him, he gets all sad and walks over to me and gives me the kiss face--the kid knows I'm a sucker for kisses. Tricky, tricky, Gabe!! He also knows I'm always down for a snuggle. I started noticing that he would cling to me and get all snuggly when we would leave a place and go to put him in his car seat. What a punk!! He doesn't want to get in the car (because who knows how long he'll be stuck in his (albeit awesome) car seat?) so he wraps his arms around me, lays his head on my chest and gets the most adorable look on his face. Man, he is goooood.... (and mom's a SUCKER!!)

If Gabriel got anything from me, it was definitely a love of sleep and relaxation. After an outing at the mall one day, we decided to stop by Cold Stone and get some ice cream. We grabbed a table and sat down to enjoy our treats and Gabe went right into chill mode! He propped his feet up on the stroller, laid back, and begged for waffle cone scraps. Way to go, kiddo!! That's my boy!! Hahaha! (You can see the begging in the first picture where he's signing "please"...)

And finally, to round off February--pictures of Gabe swinging at the park!! We were in Spanish Fork (my old stompin' grounds!!) so we decided to stop off at Barry's (CLASSIC--Yum!!) and then headed across the street to play at the SF city park. Gabriel loves the swings. As far as going to the park is concerned--he only cares about that and running around. Doesn't give a second thought to the slide or the jungle gym or anything else (except for when Mama makes him take the slide at least once...)

Even Dad joined in on the fun!! I don't think he made a wise swing choice though...

So that was February, folks!! Did I wear you out? Sorry about that....but it HAD to be done!! Next up: MARCH! And I'm taking the same approach. But at least when that's out of the way I'll be able to show you all the fun and cute stuff that has been happening over the past few days and weeks!! (Seriously, the OCD in me will not let me post out of chronological order....)

Wrapping Up January

2011-04-18T16:26:00.026-06:00

Holy crap. This is sad. I get further and further behind every week. Am I seriously JUST NOW finishing January?! I need to get crackin.

Gabriel has been trying to drink out of things like a "big boy" since he was around six months old. But that was usually him trying to drink out of the rinse cup in the bathtub... Now it's everything! He always wants to drink out of a cup. We don't always let him because he would make a huge mess, but every once in a while, we'll give him a little bit of water in a cup.

Gabriel continues to dance and boogie his little heart out. I'm really bummed that I can never catch his most awesome dance moments on video, because they get pretty awesomely cute and funny. He always tones it down (or stops altogether) when I turn on the camera....if I can even get it and start recording in time...

Gabe lives in his own little world and I love that about him. There are times that he will NOT let me blog or work or cook or clean in PEACE, but then there are plenty of times that he plays independently really well also. I have no idea why he does some of the things that he does or what is going through that head of his. I may never know...I'm sure it would be interesting!

And that's it for January 2011!!

UN / FORTUNATELY - My Happy List

2011-04-17T16:00:00.003-06:00

I decided to go ahead and link up to Mamarazzi's Happy List this week. I have soooo many things to be happy about and thankful for!! And, though I didn't intend to, I feel a lot like my friend in one of her latest posts.

I am HAPPY that Gabriel loves bathtime. He splashes and plays and farts and he is just hilarious and fun to watch! Plus, I love the smell of a clean baby!

UNfortunately, while I was trying to take a video of his cute little naked tush, this happened:

If you can't tell what happened at the end there--that was me dropping my phone into the tub. Now I'm "one of those idiots". HAPPILY, I have worked for a company that does technical support for mobile devices (without really telling you what company I worked for, I can say I supported the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch....) so I knew exactly what to do to avoid damage and I took action immediately. My phone is fine. :0)

I am HAPPY that my son is healthy and happy and active. UNfortunately, that means he makes more messes and gets into plenty of mischief!

So I am HAPPY that I have a baby gate. The Gabe-Storm is containable, people.

I am HAPPY that my son loves me so much that he can't stand the idea of not being in the middle of everything I'm doing. UNfortunately, that means he's always under my feet--which can be dangerous in the kitchen. HAPPILY, Gabriel is easily entertained by kitchen utensils!

I.K.E.A.

2011-04-07T21:27:00.002-06:00

I freaking love IKEA. I get into trouble there, though. I see so many things that "make so much sense!" and it's all so inexpensive and I always end up buying things I didn't intend to. I also end up spending a lot more time there than I plan to.

Gabriel took his first trip to IKEA with mommy not too long ago and he was a trooper!! Right in the middle of the bathroom stuff (I think...? or was it window treatments?) they have a little kiddie station that Gabriel LOVED. They think of everything.

I have been dreaming up a cute little toddler room setup and the process has completely consumed me at times. I find myself spending hours online shopping and comparing - beds, dressers, toy boxes, book shelves...oh my...I cannot wait!! IKEA has a pretty good contender for a toddler bed - the length (yes--of the whole bed) is adjustable and it comes with a cute matching toy chest! I also found some cute chairs. Oh yeah--Gabe is totally obsessed with little chairs. If he finds one anywhere--or anything that somewhat resembles a chair--he will sit on it. Who am I kidding? He'll sit on anything. The other day I caught him sitting on a shoe. Seriously, though, the kid is like Goldilocks - a connoisseur of chairs. Only he's obviously not as picky if he'll sit on a shoe. He found a cool little chair that he liked at IKEA though!!

I want to get it. I just have to find a way to convince McKay that the purchase is justified...

Gabriel took on IKEA like a champ!! He put up with my browsing and oohing and ahhing for hours without a peep! He actually kinda got into it with me. He would find something he liked and point at it excitedly and go "Ooh!" or "Oh! Wow!" Hahaha--crazy kid. He was pooped by the time we left though! He conked right out in the car on the way home....

Mess Machine

2011-04-04T09:01:00.001-06:00

Gabriel.

Can make.

A MESS, y'all.

And sometimes, I just let him.

He's a good boy, though, and he helps pick up too! Man, I love my kiddo.

Boo-boo :'(

2011-04-03T20:51:00.001-06:00

Okay, so this is a testament to just how behind I am. This happened in January. Ugh. I always say that I will get caught up and believe me--I really really want to!! But with a full-time job plus wife and mommy duties plus...stuff....makes for a busy life. Plus, I can be a little lazy. And I'm a procrastinator. Basically, there isn't really a good excuse. Aaaannyywaaayyyy.....

So Gabriel was running around playing and he slipped and fell (we have hardwood floors and they can be a little slippery) right on his face! I turned to grab him and saw that he was bleeding. A LOT. I couldn't get it to stop. He split his upper lip...I wanted to cry! I was so upset that I couldn't fix my poor little baby - I was shaking!!

It finally stopped bleeding and he stopped caring and just wanted to continue playing....I was left trembling and whimpering on the couch....

He has since healed beautifully. There is just a tiny faint little scar on his upper lip that you can barely see. Looks like he heals like Mamma!! (We now have "house socks" for Gabriel that have little rubbery dots on the soles so he won't slip!!)

A Boy And His Blankie

2011-03-29T16:19:00.002-06:00

Before Gabriel was born, my sister sent a huge box of baby clothes to me. This girl has a problem with shopping. Seriously. When she found out I was having a baby, she went nuts!! She got him stuff in every size from 0-18 months and he's still wearing a lot of it! One of the other things she got for him was a blanket. It was one of those fuzzy, super soft blankets. When he was teeny tiny, Gabe didn't really care that much about it. But then when we moved to Utah, he became obsessed with this blanket. OBSESSED, I tell you!! I don't know why he suddenly became so attached to it. For a while, he wouldn't go anywhere without it. He took it in the car, to Grandma-ma's house, and drug it everywhere in our house. We started calling him "Linus" (Peanuts) for a while. It was all we could do to get it away from him long enough to be washed!

Here he is in the car with it...

Draggin' it around Grandma-ma's house...I love those jammies...

Video Proof!!

Finally, we were able to pry it away from him. So he doesn't drag it around with him near as much as he used to. However, he cannot, will not, absolutely REFUSES to sleep without it. If it somehow makes its way out of his crib and we put him to bed without it, he will cry until we find it and give it to him--which is really saying something because he is an outstanding sleeper!

Daddy's Boy

2011-03-27T13:27:00.000-06:00

For my 100th post on the baby blog (100 posts!!) I would like to give a shout out to my two favorite guys. Both sweet, handsome, smart, talented, and strong. The first, my husband McKay who works tirelessly to finish his education and ROTC in order to provide an even better life for us, never says no to helping out around the house (and rarely even has to be asked), and continues to be the best example and most amazing father to Gabriel. The second, my sweetheart of a baby boy, Gabriel, who brings so much joy and laughter into my life and always knows when to give Mamma hugs, kisses and snuggles. I don't know what I would do without either one of them!

I still can't get over how cute it is that Gabriel is such a Daddy's Boy! A lot of people assume that I would be a little upset or jealous about that but I LOVE it!! Nothing makes me happier than to see my boys hangin out, bonding.

Watching either Sesame Street or Veggie tales....

Every day when McKay gets home, Gabriel gets the cutest little excited face! He runs as far as the baby gate will let him and waits for Dad to pick him up, saying and signing "Da-da" the whole time. He almost always takes McKay's hat and puts it on himself...then back on Daddy....then back on himself....etc.

Gabriel also loves to step into Daddy's boots and tries to walk around...but they are too heavy for that...

I love my boys! I am a very lucky girl to always be surrounded by such handsome, sweet, loving, helpful, funny, awesome guys!!

That's My Boy!!

2011-03-18T21:55:00.000-06:00

I have always I hoped my kids would be lego maniacs. So far, my wish has come true! Gabriel LOVES his legos (duplos) that he got from Nana and Papa Rivera. I am LOVING it!

I have a bad habit of criticizing parents who spoil their kids (I do this in my head because I fully understand that everyone chooses to parent the way they feel is best and I know that it is not my place to tell others how to raise their children - get off my back!!) I think kids that are handed everything their little heart desires grow up thinking that's how life really is. I've seen kids whose parents gave them everything they wanted grow up to be unappreciative, entitled, irresponsible adults. So I don't buy Gabriel every single toy that I would LOVE for him to have...even though part of me wants to.

I DO, however, buy him book after book after book. It is my FIRM belief that a child can never have too many books. Ever. So Gabriel is steadily acquiring quite the library. He loves his books and I love that he loves his books. They can be found in many different parts of the house. I cannot wait until McKay breaks down and lets me buy a book shelf for them.

I adore my little bookworm! He knows the sign for book and if he can't find one on his own, he waddles up to me with an concerned/eager look on his face signing "book" and I find one for him. He settles into a comfortable position and proceeds to flip through pages, exclaiming "Oh! Ooo! Wow!" while pointing at pictures and mimicking the vocal tones and fluctuations he remembers hearing us use when we read to him. It is SO cute to watch.

I am enjoying motherhood more than I ever thought I could enjoy anything. Gabriel is the absolute light of my life.

Keepin In Touch

2011-03-16T13:41:00.002-06:00

I look at my life and what fills my days and I am absolutely amazed. What seems like the simplest thing nowadays seemed like out of this world impossible alien technology ten or fifteen years ago. Think about all of the things a cell phone can do nowadays. A CELL PHONE. It's a mobile phone, a camera, a video camera, a handheld gaming console, we can send messages to each other instantly, scan a bar code to check and compare prices on almost any consumer item, surf the web, find the cheapest gas in a **-mile radius, download and read a book and much much more depending on what phone you have.

On my computer, the possibilities are nearly limitless. From games to mail to photo editing software. And the INTERNET! Holy cow! Can you believe everything we can do and find on the internet?! If you had told me ten years ago that we would have the capabilities that we have now....I would laugh in your face. We have limitless knowledge at our fingertips in an instant. Need a recipe for Quinoa? Don't even know what Quinoa is? How do you even pronounce that? Google will tell you everything you need to know. Thanks to social networking sites like facebook, I can instantly share stories, pictures, videos and more with family and friends around the world! I could go on and on for pages and still not even scratch the surface of all of the technological advances that have been made in the past five years. (And there continues to be more and more every day! Remember when 512KB of RAM and a 50GB hard drive was unbelievable?! Remember how happy we used to be just to have the internet when it first became readily available tot he public? So what if dial up took 10-20 minutes just to connect? I currently have a 14661 kbps download speed and a 45917 kbps upload speed. For now, that's awesome. OUTSTANDING. Especially for what I pay--Thanks Fibernet! But in a year or two, that may be a joke.)

Easily one of my favorite programs to have and use at this point in my life: Skype. I have family and friends in all parts of the country and in different parts of the world. And I don't know if you've noticed, but I move a lot. A LOT a lot. Over 15 times in the past 5 years. I've always tried to keep in touch with good friends and family and now that I have a son, it's more important to me than ever. Skype makes that possible in ways I never would have imagined. Not only can we talk, but we can also see each other, play games with each other, share pictures and files and more.

Gabriel has learned the sounds of Skype and he knows what each sound means. As soon as he hears Skype's startup sound, he knows he will probably get to see Gama (my mom), Ti-ti (my sister), Papa (my dad) or someone else that he loves. When he hears the skype sound, he perks up and gets an excited look on his face and says "Oooh! Oooh!!" and runs to the computer and starts waving and blowing kisses at the screen--whether there's someone there or not! It's so cute!! I'm not sure if you noticed the pictures of him skyping with Gama on Christmas....he loves it!

He also really loves seeing Ti-ti, who is currently deployed (Navy) in Japan. (She's okay - stationed at Kadena in Okinawa, the earthquake and tsunamis didn't affect her, thank goodness!)

We Skype with "Uncle Mitch" (a good friend of mine that I've known since High School) as well!

I am so grateful to live in a day and age where technology like this is available!

P.S. I updated "Keeping Current With Gabriel"! Check it out!

Rounding out 2010

2011-03-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

So here are the rest of the cute videos from December 2010 and then I can finally move on to 2011!! I'll get caught up here pretty soon...I promise...

Gabriel started plopping his tongue in December (honestly, he may have started doing it long ago and I just didn't notice because he does it pretty quietly...)

We went to Cracker Barrel with my grandpa and his wife and my aunt and uncle. You can't leave Cracker Barrel without wandering through the store and checking out all of the odds and ends they have in there!

Here, my grandpa is playing tricks on Gabriel...

Gabriel has started razzing again--I've noticed a pattern with him and razzing now. He does it a lot when he is teething. There are one or two front teeth coming in and I think his first molars will be making an appearance within the next couple of months...

I almost never give Gabriel candy. Daddy, however, is a different story. He's a sucker--he'll give Gabe a taste of whatever he's eating if I'm not looking! So McKay was eating a candy cane and Gabriel climbed up on his lap and started begging like a sad puppy....so, of course, McKay gave him a taste. Bad idea!! So McKay was sharing it with Gabriel, offering the candy cane here and there and then boop decided that he would take control of said candy cane....but he still shared with Daddy!

It is rare that I can catch Gabriel on video doing something that I've asked him to do. He'll do it all day long until I get the camera out and then he won't do it for the camera. I got lucky with this one and caught him signing "banana" (well...his variation of "banana" - it's supposed to look like you're peeling a banana and your finger is the banana)

So that's all for December - I'm done doing my belated 2010 blogging! On to 2011 and new adventures!!

Christmas 2010

2011-02-28T18:36:00.005-07:00

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?

2011-02-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-02-24T17:09:00.019-07:00

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

2011-02-22T16:58:00.023-07:00

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

2011-02-20T16:43:00.015-07:00

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

2011-02-17T16:41:00.001-07:00

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

2011-02-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

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!

The Rest of November

2011-01-30T17:39:00.001-07:00

Other than the wedding and moving and Gabe's birthday, the rest of November was pretty typical...

...with a few excetpions. Gabriel had to get used to having a pet in the home. McKay kept our cat, Dorothy Mae ("Dot"), and I was a little apprehensive about it. I didn't know if Gabe would be allergic and what if Dot was mean to him or scratched him or something? Well, it turns out Gabriel isn't allergic to cats or at least not Dorothy. She is really great with Gabriel and has never so much as swatted at him! They are very curious about each other and in the rare times she allows him within a few feet of her, he usually just squats and stares at her with an occasional poke or prod. We are trying to teach him to "be soft" with the kitty... As you can see, the cat's safety zone is on the other side of the baby gate!!

McKay's mom watches Gabriel for us while I'm at work and McKay is at school. They are bonding really well! Gabe loves going to Grandma-ma's house to play with toys and watch The Price is Right and Sesame Street.

My brother's girlfriend had a baby girl who now shares a birthday with Gabriel! She is not biologically my brother's baby, but he is taking a daddy role with her, so we see her as family! Her name is Paisley.

Gabriel had his first Library visit in November. I think a kid can never have to many books and it's never too early to read to them and get them interested. We meandered over to the childrens' side of the Provo Library (which is pretty freaking awesome!!) and I let him pick out an armful of board books! Here he is with one of his picks.

This past Thanksgiving was Gabriel's second, but it was the first one where he got to eat thanksgiving dinner!! We gave him a little bit of everything and he loved it!

That's pretty much it for November 2010. Slowly but surely getting caught up!

Gabriel's First Birthday!!

2011-01-27T16:34:00.007-07:00

After the move and all the traveling and the wedding (though small) and unpacking and putting together a house, I was stressed and at the end of my rope! I wanted to just relax, but I couldn't--Gabe's first birthday was just around the corner. Luckily, I had planned ahead and ordered most of the party stuff from Oriental Trading before I left Hawaii. I also got the invitations mailed out before I left.

We decided to go with Hawaiian tradition and throw a "First Luau" for Gabriel's birthday since he was born in Honolulu (and I consider him kama'aina keiki). In ancient times, the first birthday was a big deal and a huge milestone since a lot of babies didn't live that long (illness, disease, etc.). In keeping with Hawaiian luau tradition, I made kalua pork (which turned out friggin' DELICIOUS) and served it with Hawaiian king rolls, mangoes and pineapple with li hing powder. We did a tropical fish and beach monkey theme (the truth? I thought they were both cute and couldn't decide which decorations and party favors to get, so I did both...) and showed Lilo and Stitch for the kiddies. I played Hawaiian music (thank you, Pandora!!) in the background while kids played with balloons and parents mingled and ate.

I was running around like crazy the whole time trying to direct traffic, cut up fruit, take pictures, fill drinks, organize goodie bags and -oh yeah- the cakes weren't frosted or decorated. I was going crazy! Luckily Jessie's awesome husband Geoff and my amazing brother Adam jumped in and helped cut up the rest of the fruit. I got the cakes frosted and covered in sprinkles and threw a candle on the one I made for Gabriel to destroy. TIME FOR CAKE EVERYONE!! Everyone listens when you've got cake. We started by singing Happy Birthday, of course, but the candle wasn't lit....in my rush to get over to the cultural hall, I forgot the lighter. And the backup matches. Shoot, I would have settled for flint and steel...oh well!! I shrugged and went with my wedding day mentality when certain things didn't go as planned "Everything happens for a reason. If it won't matter in five years, it doesn't matter now." I'm fairly certain that Gabriel will not remember his first birthday--much less, the fact that his number 1 candle wasn't lit.

For his first birthday, I wanted one thing.

ONE.

THING.

I wanted what every mom wants. [He better DIVE into that freaking cake and make a ginormous mess out of it. There better be chocolate frosting everywhere. The pictures...will be priceless.]

Well guess what?! My little man delivered!! I was overjoyed. Seriously. (My niece wanted nothing to do with her cake and she most definitely did NOT want to get messy....what a girl....)

Thank you, Gabriel, for making my birthday wish come true! (Did I mention his birthday party was actually held on my birthday? Yeah. His birthday was three days later on a Tuesday.) Mamma loves you!!

After the cake was devoured and the pork was pretty much gone, we cleaned and packed up and headed home. We didn't have Gabe open presents at the party because he takes forEVER to open presents. I don't think he gets the concept yet. We decided it would be best to just wait until we got home. He made out with a pretty nice haul though!

All in all, it was a fun day! I can't believe I've had my little boop for over a year now!! Thank you to EVERYONE who made his first birthday even more special!

A hair cut and a wedding

2011-01-18T14:02:00.002-07:00

I had hoped to be able to hold off getting Gabe's first hair cut until it was long enough for me to get a decent sample for his baby book, but the wedding was coming up and I wanted him to look nice for pictures so I broke down and took him the Marinello. His hair was growing over his ears and collar and it just looked a little too shabby.

I was a little worried that he would hate getting his hair cut and he would raise hell and make it difficult for them to do a good job. I was wrong. He was super chill! He just sat there and let them snip away! The only thing was that he kept trying to get a look at what she was doing, so he turned his head a few times to peek at the scissors. Other than that, he sat super still and was very patient--what a good kid!! All of the ladies at Marinello were impressed and they all mooned over him while he got his first hair cut!!

The 'before' shot

He behaved himself so well!!

Checkin' out the cut...

The next day, McKay and I went to the courthouse and got remarried. We decided to keep it simple since we already did the big "to do" wedding the first time. Now we're officially a family!!

Gabe looked so handsome in his little suit!!

Great shoes. Seriously.

New best buds and Gabe's first winter

2011-01-15T12:31:00.002-07:00

I gotta tell you, finally getting back to Utah was such a relief!! Not that I didn't LOVE my time in Hawaii and in Yuma, because I really did. It was just so nice to know that I'd be back in familiar territory, dealing with weather and plants and animals that I'm used to, and with my sweetheart (McKay)!

Which brings me to one of my biggest worries coming back to Utah: How would Gabriel and McKay get along? I wasn't sure how things would be in that area and it kind of stressed me out. Turns out I had nothing to fear! McKay and Gabriel bonded instantly and have been inseparable--best buds since the second they met!! Here are a handful of my favorite daddy-son moments in November:

See what I mean? I had nothing to worry about! Whew!!

My other big concern? How would Gabe get along with WINTER? I mean, real winter. He had never experience cold weather before. The coldest it ever got in Hawaii was maybe in the 60's... So one of the first things we did was get him his first set of winter gear!

First thing's first: Get a coat!! He wasn't too thrilled about having to wear a coat everywhere...

Next, we had to find him a winter hat. Enjoy the short montage:

I really loved the grey one with the snowflakes, but when we went back to buy it, they were all gone! So we went with our second choice--the monkey hat! It came with a cute little set of matching mittens too! A day or so after getting his winter gear, we had our first REAL chance to test the quality of Gabe's new winter gear at our neighbor kid's championship football game (which he won--Go Morgan!!). It passed with flying colors! Sure, he may have resembled the kid on A Christmas Story, not being able to put his arms down. And, yeah, we have gone a little overboard bundling him up (Long-sleeved onesie, warm footie pajamas, a blanket wrapped around him, a blanket/sack style zip up pajama thing over that, a coat, mittens and a hat)....but hey! The kid was toasty warm!

Next, we take a trip to Marinello for Gabriel's first hair cut and then we're off to the courthouse for the reuniting of two soul mates! Don't miss it!

Off to Utah and into November!

2011-01-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

After Halloween, we still had a few days left in Yuma with the Rivera side of the family! One of the days, we decided to go to this awesome park (sort of like Discovery Park, if you live in/around Utah County and you know what I'm talking about). The kids loved it and we had a blast!

Drinkin' lunch in style!

Ti-ti Jazz with the Rivera babies at the "Tot Lot"

I don't think he's ready for this swing yet...

"Push me, Ti-ti! Forward!!"

Gabe had a lot of fun on the swings with Ti-ti Jasmin

Look at that belly!!

Gabriel loved being toted around the park by Jasmin...

..he even went down the big boy slide!!

It was getting hot, so we decided to relax on the swings...except Jazz - she's always crazy though!

We could tell it was time to go and get some drinks and ice cream when Gabe tried to chew through a plastic water bottle...

One extra little tidbit: This is proof that Gabe's juice addiction is YOUR FAULT, Daisy!! (And Racheal - you two created a monster! A JUICE MONSTER!!!) Hahahaha....

After a super fun week with Nana, Papa, Ti-ti Jasmin, Racheal and the kids, it was time to say farewell...

Another flight, but the last one for a while....at least he fell asleep almost instantly...(again!)

Join us next time to see/read about Gabriel meeting McKay and getting his first set of winter gear!!

KCWG 1.6.11

2011-01-06T13:44:00.001-07:00

[For those who may subscribe to the blog with a reader, this is the 'Keeping Current With Gabriel' page post from January. I have decided to start back-posting the pages to the date they were published.]

What size are his...?

-Clothes: wearing 12-18 months

-Shoes: baby/toddler size 5/6 (depending on the shoe)

-Diapers: size 4

What's he eating?

Remember when Gabe used to eat pretty much anything? Those days are over!! He is getting kind of picky! He eats at regular intervals - breakfast, lunch and dinner with snack times in between. For breakfast, he ALWAYS has to have a banana--the kid is crazy about bananas!! He follows that with cream of wheat, oatmeal, waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, or yogurt. For lunch and dinner, it's hit and miss. One day he loves rice and the next, he won't even touch it! He likes beans and he'll eat bread or tortillas any time. PB&J is kind of a staple for him. He also likes those little vienna sausages, pasta, and whatever YOU'RE eating...lol For snack times, he can never get enough crackers or cereal.

What new things is he doing and discovering?

Gabriel took is first steps at the beginning of September, at about 8 1/2 months old. Kind of early, but he's a boy so it is sort of to be expected. Every week after that he would take more and more steps until, by the time we left Daisy's house at the end of October/beginning of November, he was a walkin' maniac! Now he almost runs! He has really good balance and he LOVES to dance - the kid is a dancin' FOOL. If he hears something that has any kind of beat at all, he starts swaying and bouncing and bobbing his head and shakin' his tush--it's awesome and adorable and I hope he never stops! Even if I'm just humming a song while I'm cleaning or something, he'll start dancing!

We got him volume 1 of "Baby Signing Time" for his first birthday and within just a couple of weeks he had almost all of the signs down!! He does mama, daddy, grandma, grandpa, sleep (which he uses to tell us if/when he's tired), cracker, banana (this is his favorite sign and he does it ALL THE TIME - but that's because he always wants to eat bananas), cereal, eat/food (which he also uses to tell us he's hungry), drink, milk, water, juice, more, all done, cat, dog, and bird. At least that's all I can think of... Being able to effectively communicate with Gabriel is so awesome! It saves everyone frustration and time. I can see that Gabriel loves knowing how to tell us what he wants or needs and it is so exciting to watch him learn and pick up signs so quickly! I am a proud mamma!

Gabe only has four teeth so far - his upper and lower central incisors. They may not be many in number, but they can cause a lot of pain! He bites EVERYTHING. So far, he has never bitten anyone on purpose as far as I can tell. If you stick your finger in his mouth, though, he will bite it (I think he thinks you're giving him food) and it will hurt. That's a guarantee!

Kiddo has learned that he can make faces and his favorite ones are the scowl and the kiss face. It's funny to watch him switch between the two. When he scowls, he leans in to you so he can bump his head with your head so you know who's boss....LOL He loves kisses too though!! For some people, he'll turn and give you the cheek and others, the forehead. For me (9 times out of 10) he opens his mouth at the last minute so I'm kissing a big gaping hole instead of lips!

Now that Gabriel is pretty mobile, he has started exploring more and more. He wants to know what's in, behind, underneath, and on top of everything. He pushes every button he finds and pulls on every string/cord. Lately, he has found it amusing to push the power button on the TV repeatedly. He also likes to unplug things from the wall...oh boy...

What are some of his favorite/not-so-favorite things?

-Toys- Favorite: Things that make noise. Baby maracas, rain stick from Nana and Papa, books that make sounds or play music, and the super awesome V-Tech Zebra scooter/ride on/push toy from Gamma. He's also really into balls and lego duplos. Not-so-favorite: regular blocks and books. Well, the books are hit and miss, actually. But most of the time if I open a book to read it to him, he reaches out like he wants to touch the pictures and then he grabs it and slams it shut.... :'(

-Foods- Favorite: BANANAS. He also loves crackers and cereal (Kix and Multigrain Cheerios) and breads of all sorts. Not-so-favorite: rice. WHAT?! I know--weird.

-Clothes- Favorite: Gabe loves to put things on his head. Loves it! He has the most adorable little winter hat that looks like a monkey and he wears it everywhere! He doesn't really have a "not-so-favorite" in clothing at the moment. I'm glad about that. He pretty much wears whatever I put on him without protest!

-People- Daddy. Oh. My. Gosh. The kid will take McKay over me at any time for almost any reason. He goes to me when he's hurt, but other than that--only if McKay is not an option. If McKay leaves the room, Gabe cries. He wants to go everywhere with Daddy. I pretty much have to lure him with food to get him to come to me. This is not to say that he doesn't like me--he just likes McKay more. I have the consolation prize of being the only person who can get him laughing really hard, so that's a big plus! He still doesn't have a not-so-favorite person. He is pretty good with everyone. He will go to anyone we hand him to, initially. He checks the person out for a minute and then decides whether he'll "hang out or peace out". He wasn't even afraid of Santa, dangit!! Maybe next year.... (is it horrible of me to want him to be terrified of Santa at least once so I can get one of those awesome 'crying baby with Santa' pictures?)

-Misc.- Gabriel has become really attached to a fuzzy white blanket that my sister bought for him before he was born. He drags it everywhere. He's like Linus from Peanuts with that thing!

Mr. Personality

Gabriel is so darned cute. I can't even stand it. He got mamma's dimples, so his smile melts everyone around him. He even has dimples on the side of his head near his temples. It's awesomely adorable. Gabriel's personality is becoming very apparent and is really starting to come out more and more every day. He loves to laugh and play and it's hard to catch him not smiling. The only time he cries is when he's really hungry, hurt, or really tired and those are pretty easy fixes. He is so laid back and easy to fall in love with!! I am so happy that I have been blessed with such a cool kid! He is really the best. I love that he is a pretty even mix of all of us. I see myself and his father in him. I see my dad in him. I see Daisy in him. I see Tramel, Turner, Rivera, etc. Awesome awesome awesome. I'm so lucky!!

I left the above ^ section about his personality the same from the last update because that hasn't really changed. Gabe is super easy-going and fun-loving. My MIL can't get enough of him and she thinks he is the best little baby boy and so well-behaved. He is super chill and just...fun! He knows his boundaries and is very obedient when he is told to stop. He is always trying to make people smile and laugh and is usually pretty successful!

Goodbyes, Airplanes, Extended Family, and a Baby Monkey!!

2011-01-06T11:21:00.001-07:00

October was a busy month for us. It was our last month to spend with my mom and Candace and Lily, so we made the most of it! I will always cherish Gabriel and Lily's sweet little cousin moments. I am so glad that they had so much time to get to know each other and form a bond. I never had that with any of my cousins when we were kids.

I was so excited for October because it's the beginning of fall (my favorite season) and this would be Gabe's first Halloween!! Our awesome daycare lady took Gabriel to a pumpkin patch and this is the pumpkin he picked out!!

I could not wait to get home and see what he picked out. Nicole said that they didn't even charge her for his pumpkin because it was so small!! He LOVED playing with it.

One thing that I still haven't gotten used to is the fact that babies don't slow down! No matter what is happening in life they keep on growing and learning and moving right along!!

Gabriel is an eater, I tell ya. And he cannot get enough to drink either!

When it finally came time to leave Hawaii at the end of October, the members of our church sand "Aloha Oe" to us on our last Sunday and gave us a couple of leis. It was very sweet of them!!

On our last night in Hawaii, my stepdad took us all (my mom, my sister, Lily, Gabriel and me) out for some awesome mongolian barbecue at a beautiful restaurant at Camp Smith that overlooks the harbor. This is my last view of Pearl Harbor:

I scheduled a redeye flight in the hopes that Gabriel would sleep through the whole six hours back to the mainland, so we went from the restaurant, back home for last minute to-do's and then off the the aiport!! Gabriel really liked watching the planes and he was pretty well-behaved for being up so late past his bedtime!

Luckily, he slept the whole way--I was so happy! I didn't get much sleep. I was pretty uncomfortable the

whole time. But my main focus was making sure that Gabe was comfy so he could sleep. The kid moves around a LOT in his sleep! Everyone around me kept commenting on how happy and well-behaved he was. I couldn't agree more! I have an awesome child. ;0)

It was so nice to finally get to Arizona! Gabe was pumped to see Nana and Papa! (Well, he probably didn't know the reason, but he knew I was pumpin' him up for something!!) He kept looking for someone, so maybe he did understand on some level!

We had lots of fun hanging out with Nana and Papa and Titi Jazz! Racheal and the kids met us at Daisy's house and we all had so much fun!

Gabe in Papa's Navy hat

Nana made her awesome rice (arroz con pollo) and beans and Gabriel LOVED it!

We had fun shopping with Nana and Racheal and the kids...

[L-R: Emma, Seth, Gabriel, Stephanie]

The kids just sat on the bench to wait for Nana and happened to leave a gap big enough for Gabriel, so we sat him down and it made for a perfect picture!! This will be great when they're older and they understand what kind of relationship they have.

One of the days Nana and Papa decided to take everyone to Chuck-E-Cheese! This was Gabriel's first time and I got a video of him meeting Chuck...I'll have to post it when I find it!

I gave him an orange wedge--I didn't think he'd like it...

But he DID!! He got mad at Jasmin when she tried to take it from him..

What a goob...

He wasn't playing, but he THOUGHT he was!!

Guy talk with Papa

We ended the month right--with Trick-or-Treating!! Gabriel was a monkey - the cutest one you will ever see in your life - and I was a pirate! I took him to a few houses and went home--he wasn't going to eat any candy anyway. He sure did like playing with it and gumming it through the wrapper though!!

All in all, October was a pretty fun month! It was SUPER busy with all the packing and airport craziness, but we got through it! I am so glad that Gabriel's first Halloween went so well! He made a really cute monkey, don't you think?

What you missed in September

2010-12-29T19:37:00.003-07:00

No lectures--I know I haven't been on the ball lately. Here's the September stuff that you missed!!

September 2nd - Gabe started to free-stand! It was so exciting! He had been pulling himself up for a while, but it was this night that he started pulling himself up and letting go to stand on his own--unsupported!

He took his first two steps this night too!! I just happened to catch them on video!!

It was a milestone evening for sure because later on during his bath, he brushed his own teeth with a big boy tooth brush!

Only days later, Papa (my dad) flew in to spend a week with us! Papa's are the best--they spoil and play and give you everything you want....like cheetos...

Gabe was in heaven--he'd never had a cheeto before!

Of course, my dad didn't think (or care) about the mess that would occur because of this inappropriate snack....why worry? Mamma will clean him up! These pictures do not even come CLOSE to doing the mess justice. It was gross.

We took a trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation because...well...you just have to.

Papa and the babies!

Another stop we made was at the Valley of The Temple. The kids loved the bamboo forrest and the doves and koi fish!

Like looking in a mirror...

These next few crack me up....Lily was on a hand-holding kick and Gabe was...not

"Whoa...no thank you..."

"Gotcha!"

"!? What do you think this is? I will NOT be holding your hand today..."

"Gabe! Come on!" "Absolutely NOT!! Leave me alone! I'll scream!!"

"Gabe..!...?... I don't understand."

*REJECTION*

We had to make a stop at Chinaman's Hat as well

One of our final stops was Sunset Beach on my dad's last evening in Hawaii...

As the days wear on, one can't help but notice that my little baby is turning into a big boy...

Unlike some others, I think it's super adorable that they make baby boy clothes that look just like big boy clothes. I love it when he looks like a little man! HA! This outfit was from Nana and Papa Rivera

Gabe loves to play and I love that he finds joy in almost anything - whether it's a toy, a box, or his own reflection!

We tried to spend as much time with Lily and Candace as possible since we knew we'd be moving and Candace would be deploying (I'm so proud of her!!)

This was Gabe's first time in a baby swing at the park...he was not impressed...

Little Lily bug--she's such a cutie!!

Tune in next time to see/read about the move and our time with Nana Daisy, Papa Ray and Racheal and the kids!

P.S. I just love my little weirdo...

2010-10-22T12:25:00.000-06:00

One of the hardest things for me to do as a mother is to watch my son grow up. While it is cool and fun to see him learn and develop, there's always this little sad peep in the back of my head because I want him to be my baby for ever. I try to focus on the positive, though! For instance, when he was super tiny - I could not wait for him to be able to hold his own bottle!! Don't get me wrong--I loved our special cuddle time when he needed to be fed! And I was happy to do it! But sometimes it was a little frustrating because there were things that needed to be done, and I wished I could just give him his bottle and put him in the boppy so I could finish my housework.

Fast-forward to a couple of months ago.

I got thinking, "You know....he can't drink out of a bottle forever. He needs to start getting used to sippy cups and straws and regular drinking cups..." So I went to the store that same day and bought him a few different types of "big boy" cups. Some were sippy cups with different types of spouts and then I bought one or two with silicone straws. I knew it would be a while before he would be able to use the straw ones, but I decided there was no harm in giving one to him now and then to let him practice and get used to it. Actually, I let him try it out that night. He didn't quite know what to do with it so after ten minutes or so, I poured the formula in a bottle and gave it to him. The next morning I let him try the straw again after he had his cereal. Guess what? He did GREAT! Second try and he nailed it!!

He still tries to tip it back sometimes...

I'm so proud of my smart boy!! But I'm also sad because that means he has taken another step out of "baby" and into "big boy"... I'm not sure how I feel about that...

[Photos in this post are from 8/28/10]

Aub and Tobe

2010-10-22T00:25:00.000-06:00

In mid-August, my sister and her husband came to visit and Gabriel got to meet his Auntie Aubrey and Uncle Toby! He really enjoyed playing with them!! You could tell these two are going to be a pair of pretty awesome parents one day--hopefully soon!! *wink*wink*

Well...that's all I got ta say about that...

[Photos in this post are from 8/18/10ish]

King of the Crib

2010-10-18T01:44:00.000-06:00

Most moms know that the best time to get things done is usually..when? That's right--NAP TIME! You don't always have the luxury of scheduling around nap time though. Normally, I would just set Gabriel down and let him play, but I needed to get stuff done upstairs and the baby gate was nowhere to be found and I can't just let him crawl around upstairs and he's too smart/strong to use anything other than a baby gate to block his path...so I had to put him in his crib. I don't like to do that. 99.9% of the time, I only put him in his crib to sleep. That way, he understands that when he's in his crib it's time to SLEEP! So anyway, I put him in his crib with some toys so he could play while I got stuff done. My back was turned to him and I was busy in the closet when I smelled....baby wipes?

WHAT are you doing, young man?!?!!

...caught ya...

So he knows he's caught, right? And what does he do?

KEEPS PULLING THEM OUT!! He would grab a diaper wipe, pull it out of the box, and then look at me like "...and? What mom? What are you gonna do?"

What a freaking turd, right?! So I turned the diper wipes around and removed everything else in the crib caddy..which left him with nothing to do because, OF COURSE, he doesn't want to play with things that are actually toys....meant to be played with....

So he just stood there. It was kinda funny. He mostly just stared at me...like he thought I would eventually give in and give the wipes back. But I didn't. I went back to cleaning. So then he starts yell-babbling at me! Ha! Like he's telling me off! Hahahaha--you had to be there! It was hilarious!

Then partway through his rant, he's legs decided not to stand anymore and he just dropped out of nowhere! LOL...he tried to recover like nothing happened...

...and then he continued telling me off...I suppose he was ranting about who was REALLY in charge here (not me)...it was his "King Of The Crib" speech...

"Forget about that...I did that on purpose. Now see here, mom..."

"I am in charge of what goes on in this crib! If I want to destroy an entire box of diaper wipes, I will do so AS I PLEASE!!"

"And another thing! I'm getting bigger every day and you can't tell me what to do!"

"Stop laughing!! This is serious!! I'm trying to lay down some ground rules and expectations here!!"

"Is this how it's going to be, mom? I try to assert myself and you just laugh at me? Fine...I'll show you...just wait 'til I'm 17..."

...and then his legs buckled again....

"Whoop! Down I go..."

*grunt* "Just...pretend that didn't happen....I'm really a lot bigger than you think, mom..."

He is such a funny kid and I am enjoying every second of his baby cuteness!! No mom could ask for a more awesome son. His personality just cracks me up! It will be hilarious to hear what he has to say when he can actually talk.... HA!

[Pictures in this post are from 8/8/10]

2010-10-14T01:26:00.000-06:00

What is the legal driving age where you live? ... And when did you start driving? ... Really? My mom started teaching me when I was much too young to even have a learner permit. Mostly on back roads and deserted parking lots... Well, readers, it seems she has instilled in me the same reckless parenting philosophy when it comes to startin' 'em young...

My mom and I were running errands and she needed to "just run in real quick" somewhere....that "real quick" turned out to be a half hour or more... Gabriel got fussy. So I took him out of the car seat and gave him the wheel!! LOL He didn't quite know what to think and he mostly just sat there. (I had to actually put his hands on the steering wheel to get these pictures...) People were walking up to the car, though, and poking their heads right through the window to get a look!! Seriously, people? Back UP!! Get your stranger face away from me! They would pop in and be like "Aww...is the little guy taking the wheel now?" and "New driver, eh? heh heh heh..." After about the fourth ~~freak~~ stranger, I finally put him back in his car seat. I didn't know our vehicle would turn into a tourist attraction....geeze...

[Pictures in this post are from 08/02/10]

Little Muscle Man

2010-10-09T02:31:00.000-06:00

Gabriel is doing more things faster and better every single day. He's so smart and so strong! I just love him.

[Photos and video in this post are from 7/29/2010]

My Lil' Champ

2010-10-04T01:45:00.000-06:00

Brace yourselves--this is going to sound like bragging (and it kind of is). On top of being unbelievably adorable, incredibly hilarious, and oh-so-sweet, Gabriel is a super smart kid. He is very good at a lot of things. This post will be focusing on EASILY one of his greatest talents and passions:

EATING.

You may think your child is a great eater, buy mine's a PRO. Seriously. He will eat pretty much anything. (I even fed him some goat cheese last night...that's a post for another time)

BEHOLD!

As soon as he learns how to open up jars, I'm in trouble...

If I don't move fast enough he will try to eat his bib, utensils, or any other unfortunate object within reach...

Sometimes, to make things easier, I just strip him down and let him go to town. After a jar of baby food, it's finger snacks! I'm learning which ones to feed him depending on the amount of patience I have left in me for the day (some get really messy...ugh)

He LOVES these organic teether biscuits (biscuits in a way that a dog biscuit is a biscuit...which isn't a biscuit, in my opinion...) that I got for him at the whole foods store. They are not mommy-friendly though...

Everyone in the family insists on giving Gabriel all sorts of messy foods and snacks. They love watching him get all gooey and sticky--and he loves it too!! But guess who has to take the gooey, sticky baby out of the high chair and clean him up afterward? Yeah. That would be me.

I have learned to ALWAYS ask the mother/parent if it is alright to give their child any sort of snack or treat. Messy babies make messy mammas....

Watch out, ladies and gentlemen. We have a champion food gobbler and mess-maker in our midst!

[Photos in this post are from 7/23/10]

My little baby is looking like a toddler and I hate it!!

2010-10-02T02:44:00.000-06:00

Back in July, there was a PACOM (Pacific Command--all of the military in the Pacific...command....) beach party at Bellows AFS Beach. My mom, Mike, Gabriel and I all went and partook of the festivities. It was cool. Would have been more fun if I was actually a part of PACOM and knew other people there...but I didn't.

Anyway, if you've been to Hawaii, you'll know that (among many other birds) there are a LOT of pigeons and doves. Everywhere. Gabriel is a little unsure of other living things--besides humans, that is. So it was pretty funny to watch him stare at the pigeons. I couldn't tell if he was terrified or just really really curious...

He just watched it, though, so I think he was just curious. Pigeons are funny.

I am always so amazed at how much Gabriel is growing!! It's crazy! There are times that I look at him and think, "Holy crap--he doesn't even look like a baby. He looks like a little boy." and it makes me sad because part of me just wants him to stay a baby....

Mamma's big boy!!

[Photos in this post are from 7/23/10]

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

2010-09-30T01:41:00.000-06:00

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

2010-09-27T01:34:00.000-06:00

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!!

2010-09-26T03:06:00.000-06:00

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...

2010-09-25T02:59:00.000-06:00

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]

Catching up is fun to do...okay, not really...but look! New pics/videos!!

2010-09-24T02:27:00.001-06:00

Remember that catching up I promised? (A month ago--I know....sorry) Well it starts NOW!! Wahoo!! I'm telling myself I'll do a post a day until I'm caught up, but I can't promise that will happen. But I'm annoyed/frustrated enough that it is definitely possible! There are so many things I want to post and share but I have blog OCD and I simply canNOT post out of chronological order. Can't do it. So travel back to JULY with me, will you? July 7th, to be exact.

Racheal called/texted/emailed (I really don't remember what kind of correspondence it was) and told me that she was at a craft store with her kids and they saw this and insisted on getting it for Gabriel. So she bought it and sent it to us. How cute and sweet is that?! Anyway, Gabriel LOVED it!

This was back when Gabriel was first starting to creep his way across the floor. As you can see, it is his own awesome baby version of an army/low crawl. Ha!

Gabe was immediately fascinated...

He had to bang all of the animals together. Had to.

And then each and every one of them found their way into his mouth! He chewed on all of them in the first ten minutes. "Christened", I like to call it. All of his toys (and many, many other miscellaneous items around the house) have gone through a similar welcome/hazing.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, he hit himself on the head with each of them as well....must be a boy thing...what a weird kid.

Bottom line? Gabriel LOVED this!! He still does!! A big thanks to Seth, Emma, Stephanie and, of course, Racheal!

[Pics and videos from 7/7/10]

It has been almost a whole month and I haven't posted anything and I'm really sorry

2010-08-27T00:49:00.001-06:00

There is a really good reason for my lack of posts though: I have been just plain super busy. Really. I wake up at four in the morning to get ready for work and take Gabriel to daycare.

Oh yeah. I work. A lot. And Gabriel is now in daycare. It totally broke my heart the first time I dropped him off. He didn't care AT ALL though. Seriously. He didn't even know Diane and he went to her without a fuss. She reached out for him and he looked at her and then at me and back and forth a couple of times and then he just leaned over and went to her. No crying. No sad face. Nothing. Most people would see that as a blessing but honestly, it just made me even more sad. I ~~not so~~ secretly wanted him to bawl his eyes out and cling to me and not want me to leave him. But he didn't, so I was sad.

Anyway, I work aaallllll day until the very last minute when I absolutely HAVE to leave in order to get to Diane's on time to pick up Gabe. (She's a licensed home care provider and only watches kids from 6am to 6pm) I am trying to rack up the over time so I will have plenty of money saved up for the move back to Utah. So I grab Gagriel, head home, feed him dinner, play with him for a little while, give him a bath, read him a book, and put him to bed. Not too long after I put him down, it's bed time for me too. I barely have time to shower and eat and do laundry and whatnot, so the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside. I keep telling myself that I'll update it on the weekend when I have some time...but my weekends are pretty full too. That is my time with Gabriel and my sister and my niece and my mom (if she's feeling up to it--she hasn't been feeling well lately). We run around the island visiting beaches and parks and local markets. It makes for a pretty full but tiring life!!

Gabe is lucky. We get home and he's already sleeping in his car seat so he gets taken inside and laid in a crib and he's out for like ten hours--sometimes twelve. Seriously. The kid's a sleeper (got it from his mamma!! hahaha) See the proof?

I can sometimes undress him, change his diaper and put him in pajamas and he doesn't wake up during any of it...

...and he will sleep any time, anywhere, in any position--sometimes he jams himself all up in the corners and edges--I have no idea why....

...and sometimes, as you can see, I just take his pants or his shorts off and call it good...

I love this and am totally amused to the point of slapping my hand over my mouth so I won't laugh and wake him up every time I see it. I don't know how this could ever be a comfortable sleeping position, but it seems to be a favorite of his...top five at least...I think...

I don't know why I think this is so darn cute! Something about that little diaper bum sticking up just makes me smile and giggle to myself. hehehehe

*side note* check out kiddo's feet!! Are you kidding me with those things?! He's almost caught up to Lily and shes TWO YEARS OLD!!

More posts to come--soon. I promise. I have so much catching up to do!! I have pictures from June (I think) that I still haven't posted yet! Better get to it!!

Killing Time...

2010-08-06T01:01:00.000-06:00

In case there are any doctors out there who want to know what goes on in the room while we're stuck waiting ridiculous amounts of time for you to get your high and mighty little hinies in there for a ten minute check up....*grumble*....this is it (in my case, at least)

Gabe was already undressed so the nurse could get his vitals and weigh him and whatnot...

There is a corner wrapped in mirror, which makes five Gabriels (if you're counting the real one). Gabe LOVES to play at the mirrors!!

The Dr finally came in and did his thing and then left us in there again while he checked on...something...I don't remember what...so Gabriel was back in his clothes. He is becoming more and more dextrous every day. I see it in the fact that he is going for smaller and smaller objects and toys to play with. He is a smarty-smart-smart!

(P.S. I love it when he is playing with a toy or trying to look at his clothes or his belly because when he looks down, his chunky cheeks look even chunkier and I think it's adorable!!)

Uncle Alex is a HIT!!

2010-08-02T15:38:00.000-06:00

Last month Gabriel met another one of his uncles--ALEX!! And let me tell you--Gabriel LOVED him! So did Lily - he is a pretty awesome uncle!

Gabe got to sit in the wheelchair...

If Alex was in the room, Gabriel was staring at him. No matter what it took--he always had an eye on uncle Al!! LOL

Al had tons of fun playing with Gabriel. He even read to him!

Gabriel was always trying to eat/play with Alex's watch!

This is, by far, my favorite picture of the two of them...

Alex came and stayed with us for about three weeks this summer. It was so much fun to have him here! Gabriel and Lily were both bummed to see him go :'(

Waffle Massacre

2010-07-31T14:02:00.001-06:00

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

2010-07-27T13:54:00.001-06:00

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!

2010-07-24T23:57:00.001-06:00

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)