Busy week....fun day

Well it's been a pretty busy week here at the Ellis house. Nothing terribly exciting going on, just lots of running around, being busy with life. But it's been a good busy, and I can look back on the last several days and feel like I've accomplished somethings. Feels good.

But today Gabe and I kind of took the day off. We jumped in the car and headed to St. George for some shopping. We hit our usual St. George stops (Pebbles in my Pocket, Old Navy and Target) and threw in a picnic at the park for fun. We had a really great time. We picked up Gabe's Halloween costume, got some Christmas shopping done (YAY!), bought some fun scrapping stuff, and had fun.

One of the cute things Gabe did was that we went into a department store (Christensens) and he started saying a new word over and over again. I couldn't figure out what the deal was - or what he was getting so excited about. But then I looked down at him in the stroller and he was pulling at his shoes and I got it. He was saying SHOES! I've been on a bit of a shoe kick lately (last week we bought him the cutest Sketchers tennis shoes that light up!) and he's caught on! He tries to put his own socks on now, and it looks like he might be yelling at me to put on his shoes now too. It was fun to see him pointing to all of the shoes (they have a huge shoe department) and telling me his new word. I'm such a proud mommy!

Some other things he's been doing are:

• Some of the words he's been saying are juice, please (eese), done (when he's finished eating - and he starts pulling his big off) and mmmmm (when something tastes good).
• He makes a rumbling sound for any trucks/cars/tractors/atv's he sees (real, or toys), growls for bears, tigers, or other big animals, and he's figured out that a monkey says "whoo, whoo". Oh - he also knows what a duck says, but it comes out "ack". (Q's are tough for a little guy!)
• Tonight he saw a picture of Winnie the Pooh and I could have sworn he said "pooh" - but he wouldn't repeat it a third time so I couldn't be sure if that's what he said.
• He sings lately like crazy - he'll sing along to anything at all - or nothing at all. He loves listening to the radio, or any music in the car.
• He likes to dance, and if you say "dance" he'll start bobbing his head and swaying back and forth. He's also pretty awesome at doing the "Hokey Pokey". He does the actions for "When you're happy and you know it" and "Twinkle Twinkle" too. Earlier in the week I had music on in the kitchen and he could hear "Twinkle Twinkle" and he was so great at making the stars twinkle in the sky.
• He shakes people's hands. He will stick his hand out to shake other's hands and it is so funny! We went to a wedding reception tonight and he shook people's hands in the line.
• Gabe is SO social! He talks to everyone, and if someone passes in the store without saying hi to him he totally acts upset. It's funny! He also loves to give kisses. And if he wants to give you a kiss it must be on the lips, and most of the time he doesn't give just one - it's like 10 in a row. Definetly my favorite parts of the day!
• Gabe knows where his nose is, and he's starting to get where his toes and eyes are. He loves to 'honk' noses - and once he starts, he doesn't stop.
• Yesterday he was doing this funny thing with his fingers by his eyes. But I finally figured out that he was doing the actions to "Popcorn popping" - the part when it says, "I looked out the window" - he was trying to look out the window with his fingers (but coudln't figure it out). Then he'd start to 'pop' the popcorn.
• Gabe has gotten great at putting his hands up for us to pick him up. It's pretty hard to resist when he is reaching up to you with a big smile on his face. He also likes to trade back and forth between Cory and I when we're holding him - reaching back and forth.
• He loves to climb up onto his little John Deere tractor. He pushes it around really well, but now he'll climb up on it and sit on top. He looks so proud of himself when he does it.
• Gabe's not walking yet....at least not on his own. He does a great job climbing around with the help of the walls, tables, chairs, stools, anything that he can push around. But he just doesn't quite have the confidence to do it himself. I keep thinking that it will happen any day now....but we'll see.

Ok - that was a LONG list. But I use this blog as my journal in a lot of ways, so at least I'll have a record of what all he's doing. Thanks for bearing with me.

Well since we've been busy I haven't been too great at taking pictures, but I'll work on it. Hopefully tomorrow in between conference sessions I can get some pictures of the fall leaves and I'll snap a few of Gabe. We've gone up to see the leaves the last 2 weekends and they've been gorgeous, but it looks like they're even prettier now. Can't wait to enjoy nature with my 2 favorite guys!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!