Swimming

Paul's family had a reunion this past three-day weekend. Gabriel went swimming in a big pool for the first time. He loved it and kept wanting to go back in. Other than that, we've been pretty busy lately.

Stayin' Cool

Park Day

Paul and I took Gabriel to Alum Rock Park yesterday.
So much to see:
Gabriel loves swinging with his dad (look at those teeth!):

Dancing

Here is Gabriel dancing. He seems to do this most often in front of Paul when he comes home from work.



Gabriel is also communicating more with us. We've been teaching him a little baby sign language to help him. His "bye-bye" wave is used most often and means "bye" (to Paul in the morning), "outside" (as in, let's go outside and play with the brooms), and "car" or "truck" (as in, I hear the garbage truck). He'll sign "eat" by pointing to his mouth when I ask him if he's hungry, and then he runs to his high chair. Yesterday was very exciting because while he was in his high chair, he purposely pushed his sippy cup off the side. It crashed to the floor and, like usual, I said "all gone." He made the sign for "all done/all gone" and when I repeated the words, he got a HUGE triumphant smile.

Big Eyes

Compare the picture above to Gabriel in October.
He's so helpful when mommy is working! We love that grin. Glad I could capture it on camera.

13 Months

I came into the game room to this:

My little monkey has been climbing that folding king chair all by himself. This time he pushed it up to the game shelf, stood on it, and found some wooden dice to chew on:

I wish I could take more good pictures. I was just thinking how different life is than when he was first born. My subject doesn't lie still for photo opportunities. I spend most of my time chasing after him. My shots are blurred images of the things he's exploring.

Last night, Gabriel took the first step to eating with utensils. With a little of my guidance, Gabriel dunked his spoon in the applesauce bowl and put the spoon to his mouth. It was very exciting for us to see. He used his right hand, and his left hand adjusted his grip on the spoon when needed. He still eats other food with his fingers and I'm still feeding him some baby food to make sure he has a balanced diet. A diet besides sand from the park and bits of paper!

Sweeping with Dad

We know Sunday is a day of rest, but this was more play than work yesterday. Gabriel very distinctly waved "bye-bye" which has come to mean "outside" (and sometimes "daddy" because we wave bye-bye to daddy every weekday morning). So he waved and ran to the backdoor. So we went outside. He loves playing with the broom. Then we played on the playset too. Gabriel can go down the slide himself, it's so fun to see.