Fearfully and Wonderfully: Gabriel Turns 7

Gabriel's birthday passed a couple of weeks ago, but no birthday is complete without a commemorative blog post.

As a family we celebrated the Thursday before we left to go to Georgia for Thanksgiving. We went out to eat at Red Robin (Gabriel loves their "swirly twirly pasta") and then decorated for Christmas. The next day I brought cupcakes to his class at school during lunch and everyone sang to him (he said "having 7 people sing to me is embarrassing"). Then on Saturday we headed to Georgia so that he could be there for his actual birthday on Sunday.

War Machine

Dragon and Army Men

He loves putting up Christmas decorations

Corban's on the left and Gabriel's on the right

Red Robin birthday dessert

When we asked Gabriel what he would like to do for his birthday what he really wanted was to eat at the Ninja (Hibachi) with his cousin Drew. So that's what we did. We followed that with cupcakes, presents, and then going to see the "Nights of Lights" at Lake Lanier Island.

On Thanksgiving day we busted a pinata that Hannah Kate and Henry didn't get to use for their birthday party and then had more cupcakes and presents (we also decided that we need an annual family pinata for Thanksgiving. Too fun).

As far as Gabriel in general, here are some birthday thoughts: Gabriel is really into The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, all things Lego, Narnia, and reading. He still loves to pretend and is very active and creative. He can be quite a leader and can rally others to do things with him (the other day when I stayed at school after lunch for recess he had a bunch of kindergartners running around pretending to be orcs). He likes his Ninja class and violin lessons every week.

Gabriel really loves school. He has friends in his class and is really good with math and reading. I don't know if his work is really challenging enough some days, but he gets disappointed when he misses things at school and is always eager to go. He still is challenged by sitting still and not talking too much. We are trying to encourage him to remember to ask for "a break" when he needs it. Sometimes just a few minutes alone makes a big difference in being able to focus. One day last week his teacher said that he was having a hard time focusing so she sent him to the office for 5 minutes, not as a punishment, but to have a quiet place to sit. She said that when she had him come back he sat right down and finished all of his work. We have taken a break from OT due to some scheduling issues, but we are still trying to use the emotional management and calming down techniques that he learned there. Some weeks go more smoothly than others. Some weeks I feel like we really need more help in this area. But just recently his Sunday school teacher commented that she could see some big changes in his emotional regulation and focus and that was encouraging. Our recent trip to Georgia also went better for him than previous times. He is working hard but it's difficult to remember sometimes that change is gradual.

His silly classmates

Another thing that he's been working with the last two months is some respiratory issues. Back in October his seasonal allergies flared. We started his zyrtec and singulair and occasionally the inhaler that we keep on hand. He continued to cough and cough (especially at night) and he was eventually diagnosed with bronchitis and pneumonia. When we were in Georgia he was running around outside one day and came in with red eyes and lots of drainage. We started the allergy medications again. Two weeks later and he is still coughing and not getting great sleep. He started another antibiotic yesterday for bacterial bronchitis. I don't know why when he gets respiratory things he can't seem to kick it. He has a wellness appointment in a couple week so I want to have a chat about that. Maybe we need a nebulizer machine at home. Maybe we need to consider if he has asthma and needs to be taking some maintenance medications. We for sure need an epi auto injector because bees love him and he gets very swollen when they sting him. His immune system is just a little off, which is fine, but the coughing and not sleeping makes him tired and makes it harder to pay attention when he needs to (I'm right there with him. It's hard to focus when you're tired).

DCA Service Day

He got invited to participate in the regional spelling bee, which he is still a little undecided about. He feels apprehensive about the spelling bee process in general, so much so that at the beginning of the year he said that he didn't want to learn how to spell because that would require him to participate in a spelling bee. He is, however, a pretty good speller. If he doesn't want to participate that's his decision though.

He lost both of his top two teeth in the past week, both of which he pulled out himself. He can truly sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."