Happy Halloween

A friend gave us a pirate costume for Gabriel. He played with the sword first, then the flag was a big hit. I love his expression here.
He actually let me dress him up in the pirate shirt for the church's Trunk-or-Treat party Friday night.
Here's Gabriel trick-or-treating for the first time as he goes car to car. By the 4th car, he quickly learned that if he said "trick-or-treat" people would give him candy. He was amazing and so well-behaved as I was stationed at the kid's activity table.

Smiles

He's too cute, I need to get pictures of Gabriel back up here.
"Cheese"
Hey, there's a red light on the camera.

Gabriel-isms

Gabriel continues to enjoy fighting with the inflatable swords. His new phrases include "1, 2, 3, Fight" (I think he's been watching Paul play Street Fighter too much and he spreads his legs in a stance before attacking now). Gabriel also just started saying "Oh oh, I see that now" or something similar. It cracks me up. If we're looking for something and I point it out, he says that. He also has an adorable habit of saying a nursery rhyme when he falls down. Just now he tripped and fell and said "cock-a-doodle-doo, my dame has lost her shoe." After trying to figure out what he said, I couldn't help but chuckle. When Paul came home from work the other day, Gabriel got super excited (like he normally does) and started rattling off the nursery rhyme "A was an apple pie, B bit it, C cut it...." He got all the way to N nodded at it.

Oh, and he's been saying "dank cue" all the time, whenever I give him something or help him. It's adorable!

And we confirmed our suspicion that when Gabriel says "Hap tum?" he is saying "how come?" a child's famous WHY?

20 Weeks Belly Picture

It seems only fair to take belly pictures of the second baby too. Not the best picture of me, but oh well. In Gabriel news, we found a "baby brother" baby doll (after looking in two more stores) and he doesn't seem allergic to it. Ironically, he doesn't have much interest in this one.

Baby Doll

Since Gabriel is going to be an older brother a few other moms suggested getting him a doll that he can play with. It's a good way to introduce the idea of a new baby coming into the family and a good way for him to have his own baby to care for later.



I was surprised by how immediately he became attached to this doll! He pretended to feed the doll, talked to it, and shared his toys. He even asked the doll if it wanted milk or goldfish to eat. The best part was when he was teaching the doll the baby sign language for fish (taking the doll by one hand and showing the sign with his other hand)!! The sad part is that he is VERY allergic to this particular doll. It is heavily scented (something I didn't notice at the store) and he broke out in a rash the last two days. This doll is now in quarantine and we're off to buy another. It's sad because Gabriel keeps asking where his baby doll is.

It's a ...

... BOY !!
Gabriel is getting a little brother! The ultrasound appointment today was great. Both our mothers were there to "see" our baby for the first time. He squirmed around and let us see those necessary parts. Everything is healthy and normal.
Gabriel's room is painted light green for his jungle theme and the two boys will eventually share a room. So I wanted to think of a different theme for the new baby but something that could potentially match. Between the creative mothers and Paul and me, we came up with a pond theme. I loved the little frog and turtle clothes Gabriel got once, so I'm very excited. Not sure what I want to do yet, but I feel inspired and excited to be creative in my welcome of this new little boy.

Rain!

First real rain of the season, I think. Anyway, it's been raining hard all day and it's 4 in the afternoon now. Gabriel begged to go outside in the rain, so I bundled him up the best I could and we took the "U for Umbrella" out with us before naptime.
The first thing he did was run around and trip and fall in the puddles, twice. After getting mostly wet, it was all about playing with the umbrella. He was running and laughing the whole time.

Swords and Beach

Here is another picture from Paul's DnD Boffer Adventure on Saturday. We met at John's apartment, so Gabriel got to play fight with his cousin before the adventure really began.
On Monday we went to a beach in Santa Cruz. Here are my guys smiling for the camera. Both of them are so cute!!!

Paul's Birthday Weekend

Paul wanted to do another DnD Boffer Adventure for his birthday party. (We had the party one week before his actual birthday.) A huge group of people gathered at his friend's apartment complex. Rachel ran the game while Paul led the badguys.
Gabriel really got into it!! He charged the players enthusiastically, swinging his sword and smiling.

Drumming (Rock Band Style)

We got out the ice chests for Paul's party on Saturday. They instantly turned into drums. His vacuum toy has been a guitar for weeks.



Then dad gets drumming and they have a rock band!

More Pictures

Gabriel caught a mild cold this week. So we discovered the kid's tv show "Blue's Clues" through NetFlix as a distraction. It's his new favorite show!! Here he is hugging Wall-E and watching Blue's Clues with a big grin.
Animal cookies in a box, need I say more?!
I made fudge for the first time. I found a super simple recipe while flipping through a cookbook to find a recipe for dinner (heehee). It was delicious but a little on the caramel side for texture.