Gabe - right now

I just posted a huge post, and then my computer froze up and lost it all. Lovely! Anyway, I’ll try my best to recreate what I posted.

I haven’t taken many pictures of Gabe lately. I have tried to enjoy being with him more, and focus on making sure I catch all of the pictures less. I think too often the scrapbooker in me would focus on getting the photos more than making the memory, and I don’t want to do that with his childhood. However, there are some interesting little things I wanted to share about our lives right now.

• Rolling – WOW! Gabe rolls like crazy – I think he was meant to be a rolly-polly. He loves to roll under things especially – like the couch (which he doesn’t fit under), coffee table, our bed – he is so curious about what’s under there! He also gets so frustrated when he starts rolling into something – like a wall. He tries and tries to get through and can’t understand why he can’t keep going. It’s interesting to watch this aspect of his personality. He also likes to play steamroller and try to roll over things (like me when I’m lying on the floor).
• Gabe no longer is content with just lying on the floor all the time, or even spending time in the bouncy chair or swing. He wants to be SITTING. He will fuss until I sit him up and then he’s all smiles. However, he hasn’t completely mastered the art of sitting on his own, and falls after a while. Sometimes he does better than others. He just likes being in the action, and sitting like a grown up.
• Gabe’s become quite the taste tester lately. He had mastered rice cereal last month and so this month we started some new stuff. He wasn’t sure he loved carrots – about ½ way through the bottle he’d had enough. So we’d just have ½ of a jar at a time. But tonight we tried sweet potatoes and he gobbled up the whole jar, and was looking for more. He’s also tried some little finger cereals like Cheerios (which just got mashed all over) and little tastes of bread, cinnamon roll, potato, banana, cucumber and lime. Lime was his favorite and he cried when we took it away. He’d suck and chew on it and then every couple of minutes he’d shudder and grimace. I wish I’d had my camera – it was cute.
• Cory has become Gabe’s best bud. He gets so excited when Cory comes home from work. Today Cory was gone before Gabe woke up and all day Gabe seemed to be looking for Daddy. Cory didn’t get home until right before we were going to bed around 9:00, and Gabe was so excited. He curled up with him for a story and lots of smiles.
• Gabe is becoming a bookworm, and I love it. We spend quite a bit of time together every day reading in our big comfy chair or lying on the floor together. We read board books, pop-up books, magazines – all kinds of stories. We even go to the library on a regular basis to get fun stories to read. I think part of it is selfish on my part as I love children’s books, but Gabe seems to get into it too. I hope that he develops a love of books and learning.
• Gabe loves to pull funny faces. Lately his 2 signature faces are to stick his tounge out (which he does constantly), or suck his bottom lip under for a funny look. When someone smiles at him he’s also pretty great at giving a big gummy smile.
• One of Gabe’s favorite things right now is to watch me dance and sing around the kitchen. He smiles, laughs and bangs his hands on his high chair tray. He really gets a kick out of mom making a fool out of herself. That will probably be par for the course as he grows up too.

There are so many fun things about Gabe that I wish I could share with everyone. Everyday is an adventure and a challenge. But I can’t think of any better challenge I could be working on right now. I just love this little guy to pieces!