Gabe's 6 month update

Well, I'm so late on this that he is closer to 7 months old now, but oh well. The reason I held off posting this is because his doctor's appointment kept getting pushed back. He finally went in yesterday and now we know all of his stats. He weighs 16 lbs 2 oz and is 26 1/2" tall. That puts him between 50th and 75th percentile for height and between 25th and 50th for weight. I don't know how I have two long and thin boys...if you have ever seen a baby picture of me you would know why I'm so confused! They definately have daddy's body type when it comes to that...Chris was little until about jr high.

Gabriel is doing so much these days, it is hard to even think of all the new things to tell you about!

~He has found his toes! They are his favorite toy and it makes me laugh to see his chubby little body roll around trying to get them in his mouth. He has this funny dance that he does when he tries to get his right foot into his mouth and then his left leg starts kicking (I think he's trying to get momentum for the other foot!) and then he looses grip of the right foot and they both start kicking and he starts giggling. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

~He is doing baby crunches to try and sit up when he is laying down. He's going to be a buff little baby before long! He still hasn't rolled over from his back, but both his doctor and I agree that he has the ability to, but just doesn't want to be on his belly. In an effort to give him the motivation he needs, we are giving him more time on the floor with his toys out if reach. The hard part about this is that Christopher likes to lay on his brother when he is on the floor, which is not good!

~He already has two teeth! This is great for him since he isn't a big fan of baby food. We started giving him baby rice cereal when he was about 5 months old. After about a week he liked it enough so we moved on to baby oatmeal cereal. After he mastered those, we started with green beans, then peas, brocolli, carrots, and now squash. I have also given him some applesauce and bananas. When we started with baby food, I was giving him store bought organic food because I didn't have time to make fresh baby food and the farmers market doesn't have any produce yet. That only lasted about a week. Now we are just mashing up steamed vegitables that we buy frozen. Frozen veggies aren't my favorite thing to give him, but it's all we can do right now until the farmers market gets some more stock. He likes having more texture than pureed food and is really enjoying all the flavors. He also loves to eat teathing biscuits and pieces of bread.

~He is sleeping from 6:30 or 7:00 at night until 7:00 in the morning...with zero feedings at night! Love it! We moved his basinet out of our room and he sleeps much better that way. I think we were bothering him with our noise from moving around in bed because he used to wake up once a night, but when he's not in our room he doesn't wake up at all. He also takes two naps per day; one around 9:30 and another around 12:30. He doesn't like to take evening naps, but he gets to bed early so I don't worry about it.

~He loves to play peek-a-boo and just cracks up laughing when we play games with him. He is so smiley all the time, especially when Christopher talks to him! He also talks all the time. He talks when he eats, when we are in the car, and when he plays with his toys.

~He is still nursing and we are both enjoying every day of it. I was out of town last weekend so he had to take bottles for daddy, and he did great! We were both excited when Sunday came and we could spend some mommy & baby time together.

~He has noticed Bear (our dog) lately. He loves to watch Bear and smiles when Bear looks at him. Just wait until he starts crawling...I'm sure he will chase Bear all over the house! It's a good thing Bear has learned patience in his old age.

~He is an independent littly boy who doesn't use a pacifier, bottle, or mama to go to sleep. He is so good at going to sleep on his own...just lay him down with a blanket (his favorite fuzzy white blankie) and let him do his thing.

~He grabs everything within his reach! We have to really watch what we do when we are holding him because if he is sitting in our lap while we are eating or drinking, he will try to grab it!

That is all I can think of that he is doing these days. He's tons of fun and a blessing for our family! We had his 6 month pictures taken and they turned out really cute! I will post them on here as soon as I get them from the photographer.

The Joys of Sisterhood!

I just got back from a ladies retreat at Lake of the Ozarks. The theme for the weekend was "The Joys of Sisterhood" and I was blessed by my sisters is Christ this weekend! I came back from this with an amazing sense of peace that allows me to connect with the women at my church (and in my life) better than I ever have because we all now know that we are here to build one another up instead of judge each other's shortcomings or blessings. God is so good and he has blessed me so much!

I must say, it was really hard to leave all of my boys (especially with Gabe being only 6 months old), but Chris put all of my worries at ease and took wonderful care of the boys. He paid attention to their schedules, made sure they got to bed on time, and even took them to our neighborhood garage sale and bought a Little Tykes Playhouse for the backyard! I couldn't be more proud of him!

My good friends Cassi, Kelli, and Cammi were my roomies for the weekend. They endured my scheduled breast pumping sessions and didn't even freak out when I dripped breastmilk on the table! What good friends :)
This is a picture of the beautiful chapel where we had worship service on Sunday morning. The whole front is windows that looks over the cliff over the water and resort...breathtaking!

Three's Company

We have been busy lately with having 3 boys in the house. The babies, Caden and Gabriel, are so cute and I have fun playing with them all day! Gabriel turned 6 months old last Sunday (on Easter). I will have pictures, the doctor update, and more info about Gabe at 6 months coming soon!
Christopher has turned in to my little helper. He helps me feed Caden and throws his diapers in the trash for me. Today, we were playing in the playroom and Christopher wanted me to play his harmonica. When I started playing, he walked over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Sshh. Caden. Sleep" Last week was pretty hard for him...just learning how to handle this new adjustment, but this week he seems to be finding his niche. He was singing "rock a bye baby" all day today!
We are also trying to get this whole potty thing down, which keeps things interesting during the day :) I had to snap this picture for the scrapbook! I am really looking forward to getting lots of pages done at the next Scrap-a-palooza.

A New Adventure

I have been thinking of how to earn extra income for our family while still raising our boys and staying home with them. Actually, Chris and I have been doing a lot of praying and talking about the subject...and patiently waiting for God to show us how to make this difficult task work. Well, Friday we were contacted by a family who needed full time care for their little boy and we met with them that evening. We are so excited to start watching their little boy--yes, another boy!--during the week while his Mom and Dad are at work. Today was our first day with Caden and it went really well. Of course, all three boys are learning how to deal with the new transition, as am I, but I think this new adventure is going to be a lot of fun for us! Here is a cute picture of the boys playing on the floor together. Christopher thinks he has a new baby brother...it's so cute! The only sad thing about this is that Christopher can no longer to go the preschool at our church since I can't get all three kids out of the house in my car. We are really disappointed about it because he enjoyed going to school at church and he will miss his friends, but we are trying to figure out a way to get him there next school year, which starts in September. Hopefully we can make it work! In the meantime, we are staying busy with our new little buddy.

Coloring Eggs

Well, we started out with a bunch of these...

then Christopher wanted to do this by himself, and actually did so without making a mess.

And then we did some more until...

we had all of our eggs colored. How beautiful! Doesn't it just make you think "springtime"!?

We had so much fun working on this together!

Gabriel had fun watching us and playing with his toys. And Daddy had fun playing photographer.

What a handsome little guy!

We can't wait for tomorrow when we get to find them! Oh...what fun :)

Wounded Soldier

Lately Christopher thinks that any little thing needs a bandaid, or as he calls it, a "banaid". He told Daddy that he had an owee on his head, so Daddy got the ace bandage out of the closet and wrapped Christopher's head. I cracked up laughing when I saw it...he looks like he either had a face lift or is a wounded war veteran. He even has the pitiful looking face to match!

Gabe's First Day of Sunday School

So, this quarter at church I am teaching the baby class in Sunday School. It was timed perfectly because Gabriel is almost 6 months old so he can start going to the class. Last Sunday was our first time and it was so exciting...probably more for me than for him! The class is 6 months to 2 years old, but most of them are on the younger end of that.

This is what we do in class:

* We start out by giving the kids cheerios as their parents drop them off. (Gabe will have to wait a while for that!)

* The we introduce all the kids so they can become familiar with each other.

* We sing songs about Jesus and God and other fun things. While we sing, the kids get to play with a little toy that goes along with the song.

*After we sing songs, we say a little prayer and then let the kids get down and play until their parents come to pick them up.

I'm so excited to be able to experience Gabriel doing this...it worked out so great! After my 3 months is over he will be in class with the new teacher and Christopher will go to his class. That means I can just sit in adult class and learn...with no babies on my lap! That will be a new experience for me! :)

Preschool Easter Party!

Christopher's preschool at church had an Easter party for all the kids on Thursday. Even though he wasn't feeling the best, we still were able to come up just for the party. We got there just in time...they were just on their way to hunt for eggs when we got to his classroom. The weather was getting a little rainy, so instead of hunting outside on the playground, they did it in the sanctuary. It was so funny to see all the pews covered in eggs!
Here is Christopher waiting patiently with the rest of his class, the Ladybugs, to get their eggs.

And he's off! The tricky part of the whole thing was limiting their eggs. The older classes were coming in after us to hunt for eggs also, so each child had to find 10 eggs and then stop. Try explaining that to a two year old!


After the hunt, Christoher and his friend Gracie sat down to open their eggs together. He did so well...even after I told him he couldn't eat any of the candy! It was a good thing because after the hunt they went back to the class and had the party. I now know that a party for two year olds means giving them lots of sugar! Get 'em sugared up and send 'em home!

Candy!

Jumping Beans...

Christopher had two birthday parties this weekend...and both of them had big inflatables for jumping around. Needless to say, he was in heaven! He could jump for hours until his little cheeks get rosy and he's dripping sweat! These pictures are from Gracie's party. Gracie and her mommy used to watch Christopher when I first started back to work when he was about 5 months old, so Gracie thinks Christopher is her little baby...even though he's not a baby anymore! When all the kids piled on this chair for a picture, Gracie had to make sure that Christopher was sitting in her lap...so cute!

Our good friend, Jason was Christopher's jumping buddy all afternoon. He would go up to him, tap his leg, and say "Jas help" because he wanted to go in the big obstacle course inflatables. They had such a good time together!

Here is the princess and her prince charming!
He is getting so big! Every day he does something that surprises me, whether it's doing something sweet and thoughtful for his brother or saying a new sentence that he's never said before. His little brain is just in overdrive right now with all the things he takes in each day!

It is so awesome to see him develop friendships with so many people...it really makes the phrase, "it takes a villiage to raise a child" make sense because all of these people have a big impact on his personality and growth! Thank you to everyone who loves my kids...you are so special to us!

Learning to Dress Yourself is Complicated!

I just had to take this picture! Christopher decided to take his shorts and underwear off just to put them back on all by "self" as he says. Well...I don't know if you can quite tell in the picture, but he has both legs through one leg in the underwear and shorts. So Funny!

Just so you know...before I was done posting this, he asked me to help him fix them! I didn't think that looked very comfortable :)

New Favorites!

We are a bunch of growing boys around here and we have lots of new favorite things! Gabriel's new favorite is his Jumper...he loves to jump in it and laugh and look around the house. He loves being able to sit up and be independent. He's our little jumping bean!
One of Chrisopher's favorite things right now is enjoying the beautiful weather outside, and one of his favorite things to do outside is draw with his sidewalk chalk. He has gone a long way since last year...he very rarely puts it in his mouth now! :)

Mommy's favorite time is naptime! Most days Christopher and Gabriel take a nap at the same time...which I love! They are both getting so big and independent. I love how their relationship is developing! Gabriel laughs at Christopher all the time and Christopher loves to help mommy with Gabriel. Gabriel is working on getting bigger than Christopher so he can get him back for being a little too rough sometimes...oh brother! I love my little guys so much!