18 (almost 19) Months

Gabriel looks so much bigger to me than he did in the posts a couple months ago.  He doesn't really weigh that much more than he did at 15 months (he's now 25 pounds) and he only grew 1.5 inches (now 32.5 inches) but he just acts so much more like a toddler.  So, here are some random pictures and captions to update a little on what Gabriel is up to these day. . .

Aunt Stephanie is hilarious

Why is she staring at me?

Why is she pulling my hair?

I'm not quite sure about her, but my cousin is pretty cute so I'll put on some music for her

Gabriel still loves to read.  His favorite book seems to rotate.  He has a one word name for some of this favorites.  Before bed tonight he wanted to read "Hammy" (Green Eggs and Ham).  Others times we read "Hat" (Cat in the Hat), "Sock" (Fox in Socks), "Pop" (Hop on Pop), "Rock" (Rocks in My Socks),  and "Cordy" (Corduroy).  He also really likes Where the Wild Things Are (he always says "HOT" when you read the last page of the book), SkippyJohn Jones, Alexander and Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, and his Disney Storybooks.

What does this growing boy eat? Everything.  If there is one thing that it's harder for him to eat it's meat.  He will eat plain chicken dipped in ketchup, but he's not a huge fan of other meat (although he does eat it sometimes mixed in something).  Favorite foods: grapes, strawberries ("sabbies"), apples (it's obviously hard for him to bite -- he spent quite a while licking one today before I cut it up), cucumbers, edamame ("beans"),  and broccoli 

What does Gabriel do for fun these days?  Climbs on and in EVERYTHING, plays with the DVDs, carries around random things that aren't technically toys, chases Loki, wanders around outside, plays in the car while it's sitting in the garage (there are lots of cool buttons in there), goes to class at Romp and Roll, the library, the park, the pool. . .

He has so much to say.  It's still mostly babbling, but he knows so many words all of the sudden.  Taylor realized that he's asking what things are called too.  I can't really think of a way to type what it sounds like, but he points at something he doesn't know, asks what it is, and then repeats whatever you tell him.  I can understand why only parents can understand most of what their child says.  He knows the name of most animals, household objects, and simple things outside, but it would be hard to understand him if you weren't around him everyday.

Helping Daddy put together patio furniture

Helping to take apart the futon

He loves to brush his teeth

And he loves his new step stool

There was a fawn in our yard for a few days.  His mother was leaving him during the day and coming to get him at night.  Gabriel loved it.  He was standing at the back door pointing up the hill and shouting "Fawn! Fawn!"  I'm not sure if it was Taylor cutting the grass (even though he left a large area where he was hanging out), but he's no longer there.  Gabriel is really liking having a back yard though.  He likes to watch the birds, squirrels, and rabbits and wander around.  He tried to eat a random flower today and then gagged though. . .not a fun moment.

Gabriel loves his Daddy!  Happy Father's Day!

Such a cute and sweet boy

On a not-so-cute note he now thinks that when you tell him "no" it can be ignored and he laughs when he gets popped on the hand.  Oh, new realms of disciple that we must now figure out.  But, it's hard to stay mad at him when he has such a sweet smile and likes to say "please?" so sweetly.  We love our little man.

Pixar

I will start this post with a question.  Does the following picture make anyone besides me want to cry?

Anyway, Gabriel has his first obsession and its name is TOY STORY.  I'm not entirely sure how it started, but in all his days/weeks/months of playing with the DVDs (taking them out of the cases, reading the covers, etc) he always liked the Toy Story ones the best (thanks again Aunt Tiffany).  He would pull them off first, bring them over to show us, and spend much time "reading" them.  So, one day we watched one.  And the rest is history.  He cannot get enough Toy Story.  And while I figured he'd get sick of it after a while the fascination only seems to grow.  Mind you, we don't actually watch the movies that often, but I think he asks about 10 times a day.

In the store looking at the action figures.  I thought his mind was going to explode

Examples:
#1: We were checking out at Target the other day.  This is how the conversation progressed with the woman at the checkout:
Woman: "Hey there cutie, what's your name?"
Gabriel: "BUZZ!!!!"
Woman: ?
Me: He really likes Toy Story
Woman: "Oh, I see"
Gabriel: "WOODY!!!"
Woman: "Hmmm"
Gabriel: "JESSE!!!"

#2: We were in the store again today.  Every time we turned a corner Gabriel shouted "BUZZ!!!"  He actually does that on a routine basis at home too.  Part of his daily routine consists of finding books with Toy Story characters, getting out various playing cards with Toy Story characters, or his daily removal of the DVDs from the shelf.

#3: We have several Disney storybooks.  He finds the Toy Story ones to read and skips all the others.  He seems to pick a character a day to focus on, though Buzz is certainly the winner with Jesse coming in second.  Today I read one of the stories that doesn't have Jesse and he kept saying "Jesse, Jesse, Jesse!" until we found a story with Jesse.

And while Toy Story is certainly the winner, we at least are not without options.  We have never watched The Incredibles, but he likes to look a them in the Pixar Storybook (he for some reason always points to Mr. Incredible and says "Toby".  That's certainly not his name, but whatever he wants to call him is fine).  Then the other day he started saying "Sulley!" seemingly out of nowhere.  I think we have attempted to watch Monsters Inc and Monsters University but he never seemed to care much.  Maybe it's because he's in the Disney Pixar storybook. At any rate we were out shopping today and found the action figures on sale ($5 for both), so I decided to give them a shot.

 Gabriel has never had a comfort toy.  No blanket that calms him down.  No special item that we have to take everywhere.  I'd say that closest thing is whatever his current book obsession happens to be.  I have NEVER seen him do what he did today with these toys.  He took them everywhere.  In every room in the house.  Into the kiddie pool.  Into the storage shed.  Into the garden.  He was inconsolable when he couldn't take them to bed (he kept whimpering "Sulley, Sulley, Sulley").  I guess his parents love Disney and he's destined for the same.  What do you think would happen if I bought him the Toy Story action figures? ;)

Mother's Day

Yes, I am aware that it's two days before Father's Day.  I've gotten a little behind.  So, I'm going to do a few posts (we'll see how far I get tonight) and get things semi caught up.  But, we've had a lot going on in the last month.  We bought a house!  So exciting but also so much to do.  Maybe I'll post some pictures at some point (once we're a little bit more unpacked).

For Mother's Day I got treated like a queen!  I got to "sleep in" two times that week.  The first time I still woke up at 6:30, but I dozed and stayed in bed until after 8.  It was amazing.  Then the actual day of Mother's Day there was a little sleeping in, but not too much since we needed to have time for breakfast before church.  This is how I was greeted when I came downstairs:

I had no idea that Gabriel was so creative and artistic!

For those that don't know, the smell of cinnamon makes Taylor physically sick.  You can imagine my surprise when I realized that Gabriel had convinced Taylor to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  At first I thought he had a nosebleed. . .

Taylor is going to be less than thrilled that I took and posted this picture!

We had quite a feast.  Cinnamon rolls and turkey bacon.  Yuuuuummmmmm.  I mean, eggs are good too, but cinnamon rolls and turkey bacon are never served around our place (especially since a certain someone who shall remain nameless things that turkey bacon is an impostor on real bacon)

On a separate note, don't feed a toddler cinnamon rolls before going to church.  It's not a nice thing to do to the nursery workers.  Needless to say Gabriel thought they were awesome. 

I loved my card and the magnets that Gabriel made! 

This wasn't actually done on Mother's Day, but it was on our porch door before we moved and I had to take a picture.  I felt sad cleaning it off.

And this wasn't taken on Mother's Day either, but I felt that every post needs a picture of Mr. Gabriel.  He made his mommy feel very loved!