10 months and growing!

We missed Gabriel's 9 month check up and the next time we could get him in to the doctor was this week, so it was more of a 10 1/2 month check up, but at least we got it in! He now weighs 18 lbs. 10 3/4 oz. and is 29 1/4" tall. For those of you who want to know where that is on the chart...his weight is about 8th percentile and length is 60th...so that makes 2 long and thin boys in this house! {Why can't I have that body style?}

Here are some other things that our little guy is up to lately...

* He is crawling all over the place. He chases his brother around the house and giggles, wanders into the bathroom, and picks up everything he finds on the floor!

* He eats ONLY table food. About 2 months ago he started yelling at us during meals...watching longingly as we ate yummy food while I shoveled mushy veggies in his mouth (although they were organic home-made mushed veggies:) So I gave in and started giving him soft versions of our food. Now he pretty much eats what I cook for each meal....including chicken, beef, cheese, eggs, sausage, and noodles. He LOVES food! It's a good thing he has 8 teeth...that's right...8!!

* He is drinking water and breastmilk out of a sippy cup during meals. He is really good at using the cup and we are working toward using that as the only source of liquid...since he is almost a year old. He doesn't drink bottles, so that's not a worry, but I am starting to get ready for my freedom to be gone for a few hours without pumping. We both love nursing and plan on doing it for as long as he wants:)

* He sleeps like an angel! He takes two naps that are about 1-1 1/2 hours long and sleeps from 7pm until 7am. He also loves being in his bed and hardly ever fusses when it's time to go to bed. Last night I was out with some friends during bedtime and Chris gave him a little milk from a sippy cup and he went straight to bed! No nursing or bottle...I wasn't quite ready for that yet!

* He just started pulling up on Tuesday. He is very excited about the new perspective. Bathtime is more interesting since he wants to pull up on the side of the tub :)

* His favorite thing to do is pick a toy up over his head and let it fall to the ground. He does this over and over ( usually until brother comes over and takes the toy! ) and laughs every time he does it! He also loves to clap his hands and "sing"...it's the cutest thing!

* His first bit of sassy emerged this week. When we are holding him he will hit our face. He gets really sad when daddy says "no" in his stern voice. I do the "place on the ground and walk away" method...we will see if it works!

* His vocal cords are very healthy! He likes to screech and growl...two tricks he learned from his brother. He says "dada" quite a bit and we have heard a few mummblings that sounded like "mama" but still not the clear word like I'm waiting for.

* I have no doubt for the love that Gabriel has for me as his mama, but this boy is in LOVE with his daddy. When Chris comes home from work every day Gabriel starts smiling from ear to ear and doesn't take his eyes of daddy until he comes over to pick him up to give him a big hug. It warms my heart.

* He loves playing with Christopher and laughs histerically at everything Christopher does!

* He is in the middle of the stranger anxiety. He doesn't notice new people right away, but after about 15 minutes he suddenly realizes that he doesn't know someone, and turns to look at me with a face of horror...tears welling up in his eyes.

I could go on and on about my little G Man. He is a highlight of our lives and we are all so blessed to have him. He is so full of life and happiness!

Show and Tell

I was just going through my pictures from this month and picked a few (ok, so I'm crazy about pictures and couldn't just pick a few) that I had to share.

Here is the picture of the sky as we were driving home a few days ago. Christopher started pointing out the window saying, "Look mommy, pretty clouds. Paint up there!" I LOVE seeing things from his perspective. I wouldn't have given this beautiful sky a second look if not for his beautiful 2 year old mind.

We have been finding time to get to the park a lot. We have discovered that Gabriel loves to swing. His little feet just wiggle and he giggles every time I push him and say "weee!!!".

Christopher is lining everything up...from bath toys to blocks, to farm animals. Watching his mind at work is pure entertainment.

He has also learned how to share with his brother more and more. Last week we were in the middle of the "MINE" phase...I'm so glad that is on its way out! Now I catch him giving Gabriel rides down the hallway in boxes and sitting next to him reading a book. I cherish these moments!

{ok, so he is actually taking a toy out of Gabe's hand, but Gabe doesn't care yet, so I'm picking my battles!}

Christopher has been enjoying his art more than ever lately. In this picture, I mixed oatmeal in with his finger paints and let him go to town on a huge piece of paper. He loved the texture!

And here is some good ol' fashion watercolor painting.

Gabriel has had several bumps and bruises in his life, mostly thanks to his brother, but since he has started crawling I am anticipating more self-inflicted injuries like this one...

He was crawling over to see his brother outside, and slipped on the sidewalk, going face first into the pavement...OUCH!!!!!

{within an hour it looked much better!}

We have been loving McDonald's lately...cheap meals, playing for the boys, and ICE CREAM for dessert! Who can beat that...oh, and I don't have to cook or clean! It has been a weekly event around here...part of me feels like I'm a bad mom for this, but I'll forgive myself!

And I snuck this one in here just to show you what an extremely adorable and happy little guy we are blessed with. And I wanted to prove that we don't eat every meal at McDonald's. ;)

Look for Gabriel's 10 month stats coming soon. I know I haven't done this in forever...it's time to get back on track!

Messy Fun

Since Christopher is stuck playing with babies all day, I have been trying to have a few "big boy" projects for him to do while the babies are napping. This week we made a mess and had lots of fun! I found a recipe online for something called "clean mud"...sounded interesting, so we tried it. Christopher called it "wonka suds" because it ended up looking like the suds that get all over the big truck on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Here is how we did it...

We took about a half of a toilet paper roll and ripped it into tiny pieces. I thought this would keep Christopher busy for a while, but instead he did it for about 5 seconds and then said "Mommy you do it."

Then we took a bar of soap and shredded it with a cheese grater. Again, I had to do this part because I didn't want his little fingers getting shredded.

Then you get some warm water.

Mix it all together, with your hands of course. And have a ball!

Squish it in your fingers, smear it around, pick up handfulls and plop them in the bowl....

And what you get in the end is a happy child!

I would do anything for that face :)

What's a trip to the fair without cotton candy, deep fried oreos, and near death experiences?

I was really excited to take the boys to the fair this year! They were both old enough to sit in the wagon and actually enjoy some of what the fair has to offer.

It all started off with some fun times in the animal barn, looking at cows, sheep, baby chicks, and horses.

Christopher spent a lot of time in the huge tractor tires filled with corn. He wanted to feed the baby cow, but we told him the farmer had already fed him for the day.

Then we went straight to the pony rides. This was, by far, my absolute favorite thing to do at the fair when I was growing up. Who am I kidding, if they would let me do it now I would still jump on one and ride around and around!

Take a close look...notice something funny about Christopher?

Yeah, that was him last year, and this is him this year!

Can you believe how much older he looks! And I thought it was pretty funny that he just happened to get the same (or at least looked exactly the same) horse two years in a row.

Then our fun trip to the fair took a turn for the worst when Chris (big chris, my husband and father to my children!) noticed that they had a sheep riding game. Is this sounding like a bad idea yet? Just wait. He insists on going over to the tent to check it out. They have a sheep "rodeo" for kids under 6 years old. They strap a rodeo vest and helmet to them and put them on a sheep. No saddle or reigns to hold on to, just wool. They set the child on a sheep, let the sheep out of the gate, and off they go...child bouncing violently until they fall off and hit the ground. Sounding like a stupid, dangerous thing to do yet? Well, Chris thinks this would be a blast for Christopher, and Christopher agrees because he trusts his dad to not throw him under the truck...or sheep. As much as I disagreed and begged, everyone there assured me that Christopher would not hit the ground and the cowboy would run along side to pick him up before he fell off. I agreed to that. That's not what happened. What happened was my little guy...2 1/2 years old...put a death grip on this sheep, they let him out of the gate, and he held on for a good 3 seconds. He hit the ground. My heart stopped. I wanted to run out there and pick him up and hold him forever. He walked over to us, stars floating in his eyes, and said "I fell off the sheep. Guy picked me up."
He ended up winning second place and got to stand on the podium and talk into the microphone for everyone to hear. (I think that was his favorite part)

I'm still not over my devestation from what I saw, but Christopher seems to be fine.

I did have a long discussion with Daddy Bear about this and we will be making better choices in the future.

So after all that drama, we all needed some extremely unhealthy food to calm our nerves. We stopped at the cotton candy window and fried goods window to stock up on goodies before we went home. Have you ever had deep fried oreos, by the way? I know what you are thinking...G.R.O.S.S.!!! That is what I thought last year until my (diabetic) friend made try one. Imagine a funnel cake, then put a warm gooey chocolatey oreo cookie inside of that. That's deep fried oreo. Heaven my friends!

Here is the difference between being a first time mom and now. Christopher would have never been able to taste the deliciousness that is cotton candy at the early age of 9 1/2 months, but I feel bad for Gabriel when everyone else gets to have something and he is left out of all the fun. He got to have his first taste of cotton candy...and do you think he loved it? Um, yeah!

I am so glad the fair is done and over with this year...that was more than I could handle!

I have lots of things I need to put up on the blog, so hopefully I can catch up this week :)

Baby Shower Gifts

I went to a baby shower this past weekend and brought a basket of (mostly) handmade gifts for the new baby. I tried a few techniques that I have never done before and for first attempts, they didn't turn out too bad.

I tried hand stitching a felt star on this onesie, but it ended up crooked, so I added the swirls with fabric paint to make it look like it was crooked on purpose. I hope it worked...

On some others, I applied iron-on embroidered letters(wish I could do the real thing!). I love personalized gifts...and they can be very expensive to buy!

This is a burp cloth that I used fabric paint and foam stamps to stamp his name. Mama loved these!

Here is the finished basket!

One of my dream jobs is to own a gift company that makes all kinds of gift baskets. I'm not very good at it, but it's fun!

I love...love...love to buy gifts for people, but it can be depressing when you don't have $50 to drop on a gift for every shower or event you go to. Try to think of fun handmade gifts that will mean more to the recipient.

If you have any other ideas for handmade gifts, please leave them in the comment section :)

Busy Little Beavers

Our "honeydo list" is in full swing around here! We are tackling one room at a time, trying to decorate (since most rooms never got that to begin with), re-organize, and repair/finish repairs that have been put on hold for the past 3 years. Maybe one day everything will be done...and then we will be ready to move!

Christopher loves...I mean LOVES...to help daddy mow the grass. Every time he hears a mower anywhere near our house, he stops and says, "oh, mowing grass", then returns to what he was doing. It's halarious. I hope that he still likes it this much in 10 years when it is his "job" to mow our lawn. ;-)
Gabriel has been busy learning how to crawl. For over a month he rocked on his hands and knees, then started lifting his bottom up and rocking on his hands and feet. I thought he would never crawl, but alas he did. And now I find him in the bathroom, dog bowl, or fishing for Bear's hairballs under the couch. Be careful what you wish for!

I love crawling babies!

I just had to throw this pic in here because he is looking SO big! His personality just cracks me up every day...he is beginning to be a bit of a drama "king". Wonder where he gets that from...