Beach Trip

So, we went to the beach.  Taylor and I were talking one night about how it would be fun to take Gabriel to the beach before we become a family of four and we were pondering what would be the best way to do that.  That same week the opportunity arose for us to attend RUF Summer Conference with me serving as the nurse for the week and Taylor teaching a seminar.  It also worked out for my mom to come along too.  It was a great opportunity for all of us to get away and for Gabriel to have lots of new experiences.  In true Gabriel fashion it only took him a day or so to develop a routine for the day: wake up and get into Mommy and Daddy's bed (sharing a room was actually kinda fun), eat breakfast, run laps in the conference room next to our room, watch Disney Jr with Grandma Cheryl while Mommy and Daddy did some work, go to the beach, eat lunch, run again in the conference room, take a nap, play at the pool, eat dinner, go to the nightly RUF meeting and sing songs while on Daddy's shoulders, and finally go to bed.  He also thought that going to the laundry room was really neat.

Riding down in Uncle Matt's car was great (because of the extra space).
Gabriel talked about it a lot.  He also spent many hours sucking his thumb
 and playing with his own hair, leading to this little curl that I found so cute.

Much of the week was spent on Daddy's shoulders

The only way he'd go out in the ocean.  He played in the waves a little bit
one day but got clobbered once and decided that the ocean isn't very fun

He fell in love with Grandma Cheryl's granola bars

The pool was his favorite even though he spent most of
the time outside of it throwing his toys in and laughing

Nightly meeting singing songs.  He would clap after each one and want to sing some more.
I think the big group of excited college students was really fun to him.

Watching Disney Jr with Grandma Cheryl.  Since we don't have cable at home he decided that Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sofia the First, and Doc McStuffins are all pretty exciting things to watch on vacation

Mommy's glasses!

Eating some BBQ before he decided to run in the gravel

Two skinned knees after he ran in the gravel.  He also got a blister over the course of the week and got very excited about showing it to his pediatrician when he had his wellness exam after we got home

Excited to have fruit loops for breakfast every day.  This dining hall is the best.

He really wasn't wild about the beach but he liked burying his hands and feet in the sand
 and playing with his toys in a big bucket of water.
You'll notice Mike W and Flick the ant are floating in the bucket off to the side.

Silly

He actually was saying "cheese!" and looking at the camera for once!

Here are a few extra pictures that I found after writing this post:

Life is a tantrum

Being 2 years old is just tragic.  No one lets you do any of the things that you want - like climbing on the counters, beating a glass door with a plastic bat, eating Rice Krispie treats for breakfast, or letting you walk around in a dirty diaper.  No one will let you stay up all night watching movies or reading books.  It's not ok to hit the dog or throw things at her.  No one lets you walk in wet paint or go outside when it's cold with no shoes on.  When he's really mad that he can't do something specific or eat something specific he dramatically yells "I can't do ANYTHING!" or "I can't eat ANYTHING!" If we're holding his hand to walk in a parking lot and he doesn't like it he yells "You're hurting me!" Parents just don't let their kids do anything worth doing, which means that every 15 minutes (or so it seems to Mommy), there is cause for whining or a total meltdown.  This makes Mommy very tired and wish that pregnant people could drink all the caffeine that they'd like.  Oh, another great offense.  I was in the kitchen today making lunch and he stormed in and said "Mommy!  Stop cooking! Get out of the the kitchen!"  Quite the opposite of cute.

Ok, I've said what I needed to say.  Who would like to see a couple pictures and read some funny things that Gabriel has said lately?

As of last week Gabriel started frequently saying to his Daddy, "Hey! Taylor!"  He's stopped for the last few days.  It was hard not to laugh and encourage this as it was really random and funny.  Around the same time he started randomly calling me "Mama" sometimes.  I think it's kinda cute but I'm not sure where that came from either.  He usually uses it when he needs something ("Mama's going to read me this book?")

"Mom, just because I put on Daddy's shirt is no reason to take my picture.  Stop."

Pre-haircut

Serious boy during his haircut.  For the first time he insisted on sitting alone.  He walked back and climbed up in the chair.  When I asked if he wanted to sit in my lap he said "No, I do it myself."

Ahhh, much better

Playing "Cello Wars" at the Children's Museum

Quite the little fireman.  Another favorite thing lately is to shrug
his shoulders at something random and say "What????"

When he sees characters in books or on TV that he doesn't recognize
he often pauses and asks very seriously "Who's this little guy?"

Driving "Lightening McQueen" at the mall. 

Trying out the baby carrier

Learning how to take a selfie

One very cute thing that he's started doing is asking me to pick him up in a different way.  He for some reason doesn't just say "Pick me up."  He says "Mommy's gonna take care of me" and then proceeds to look up at me and wait for me to scoop him up.  It's really sweet.

And one more shot when we were playing around when we were home sick.  He has caught so many little viruses this winter and I'm ready for the snot, fevers, and vomiting to be over.  Now I think he just has allergies but enough already!

It's a. . .

BOY!  I think my first reaction was shock, follow by relief.  I'm not sure where the relief came from, but I'm assuming it came from knowing, on some small level, what to do with a little boy and knowing that we don't need to buy lots of clothes or repaint the baby room/guest room (which currently has a blue accent wall).  However, as it sinks in a little more I have mixed thoughts about it.  I never saw myself as "boy mom" but I guess I never thought about it too much either way (boy mom/girl mom/both).  At any rate now we will have a house full of boys, so Loki and I will have to band together.  And Gabriel will get bunk beds when he ditches the baby furniture soon to pass down to his little brother.

Everything looked great on the ultrasound, but apparently he's measuring a little big so my due date may be off by a little bit (not that that particular date means much.  He'll come when he's ready).  He also would not stay in an ideal position for looking at everything so I'm going to have another ultrasound in about 3 weeks to get some better anatomy on the heart and lower spine.  For most of the scan he had both legs up around his head and was peeking his mouth out between his knees making cute faces.

 As far as I'm concerned I started feeling sick again this week.  I am really hoping that it's just a little viral thing, but the fact that I wasn't hungry all week and the thought of just about anything makes me sick makes me wonder otherwise.  I know some people are sick for the majority of their pregnancy, but maybe the fact that I feel better today means it was just an off week and I don't have 20 more weeks of this feeling to look forward to.  Lastly (for anyone who gets grossed out stop reading) it seems that I developed a hernia at some point when I was pregnant or delivering Gabriel.  I noticed it several weeks ago and went to the OB about it the next week.  It's very small and will hopefully go away after this baby is born as well, but there is the possibility that it could get to be more of a problem over the next few months.  They are just going to keep an eye on it.  She told me not to lift anything heavy (but that since I'm used to lifting a 30 pound toddler not to stop doing that for now - thankfully), but no other heavy lifting or strenuous abdominal stuff.  So, if you were going to ask me to help you come move in the next few months I have a good excuse to decline ;)

I am really starting to be able to feel little man kick around in there, especially in the evening before I go to bed.  I guess he's a night owl already.  Other than that everything is moving along fine!

Someone is Getting Too Big

One reason why I wish that I made time to write on here more is because Gabriel is always saying the funniest or cutest things.  I don't want to forget any of it and the fact that I will makes me a little sad.  It seems like every day he learns something new and finds some goofy way to express it.  He amazingly has started to say "yes" sometimes (thought he only knew "NO") and when you ask him something he isn't sure about he says in a very goofy voice "I don't know."  He's also a big fan of saying "I can do it myself!"  He talks constantly.

Favorite things to watch right now include Mickey Mouse, anything Pixar (especially finding Nemo or the Incredibles), Planet Earth, and most recently Star Wars.  He learns a lot from those Planet Earth DVDs.  We watched one a while ago where you see fungus growing at a sped up rate.  He was so fascinated.  At first he said "fungus is gross!"  Then I explained that I like fungus on salad so he decided it was ok.  We ate a salad the next night with mushrooms on it and he woke up the next day proclaiming "I ate a lot of fungus!!"

Gabriel is a constant bunch of energy.  Never stopping unless there is a show that he likes to watch.  He likes going to the mall (he thinks that wandering around Dick's Sporting Goods is really exciting because, in his words, "it's cool").  He also likes getting soft pretzels.  Yum.  He loves Chick-fil-a and playing in their Play Place.  It has been a long time goal of his to be able to climb to the top of the Play Place and go down the slide.  A couple weeks back he accomplished this task.  He was so proud of himself.  And it made his mommy want to cry.  He's getting too big and independent. 

All of the climbing is a lot of work. Someone had to stop and take a break

A few weeks ago Gabriel was crying in the middle of the night and it seems that he was having a bad dream (which happens sometimes).  I went in and picked him up.  He kept crying but when he finally woke up his eyes popped open, he looked straight at me and proclaimed "I want butter on my biscuits!"  I don't know why I found that to be so funny but I did.

Another serious fascination for Gabriel has become his music.  We bought him two new CDs (because his other music was getting a little old).  A compilation of Pixar songs and a Piano Guys album.  He loves both, but the Piano Guys certainly wins out.  He wants to listen to "Cello Wars" over and over and over again (which led to his interest in Star Wars, being Darth Vader, and trying to make sounds like a Wookie) as well as "Code Name Vivaldi" and "Beethoven's 5 Secrets".  He also loves to sing hymns with "Amazing Grace" being a bedtime favorite.  I was singing that to him before his nap today and when we got to his favorite verse we sang "The Lord has promised good to me. . ." and he interrupted and shouted "Oh! Like apples!  Apples are good!"

Nap time has changed over the last month.  While it still happens every day (so thankful for that!) he doesn't just drift off quietly.  He usually sit in his bed reading himself books for a while.  Sometimes I have to go in there and remind him that he needs to to go sleep, but ultimately him learning to have some quiet time each day is a great thing in my book. 

Other activities he enjoys are playing at the children's museum, storytime at the library, going to the park, and his weekly Romp and Roll class (I think that he's more fascinated by his teacher than playing there sometimes.  He adores "Miss Jessica"), 

And now for a few more random pictures:

VT baseball game

He said he was "sitting like Daddy"

Reading in the car.  Something I realize I need to
discourage because he has a tendency to get car sick.  Yuck

Playing with Play-Doh with his new "Mousekatool" Play-Doh toys.  He saw these at a store one day so I bought them for Easter.  He kept reminding me that I had bought them and that he wanted to play with them.  He remembered for a month.  I'm surprised at the things that he remembers sometimes.

Reading in the nursery at church

Not able to hold still for a picture on Easter