Corn Husks and Dirt Clods

Pointing that camera at me again, are ya?

Gabriel loves playing with the dried corn husks in the back yard.
He carries them around and rips them apart.

"That's yucky, Gabriel." He still likes biting into dirt clods.

On a separate note, Gabriel is still chattering away. He says "hot" and blows on his food. He says "Brrr" with shoulders raised and head shaking for cold food (he thinks it's funny when we do this). He says "patty cake" and claps his hands (unprompted even... I was just changing his diaper when he came up with that on his own, I wasn't even singing yet).

Smart Little Kid

Gabriel LOVES imitating us. Gabriel has been watching Paul and I play Wii Fit using the Wii Board. He pulls out the board from under the coffee table and steps onto it and dances around (like he's playing a game). So the other night we set up a game for him. This game throws soccer balls at your head and you have to lean from one foot to the other while on the board to hit the balls with your head and dodge the shoes that are coming at you. What completely amazed us was that during one part of the game Gabriel got hit by one of the shoes and the screen shook. Then Gabriel made the sign for hurt!! We think he got it! He did this twice, so it wasn't a coincidence. He's so smart.

Quilt Lengths

How do you measure a baby's growth? By quilt, of course.







(11/05/07 and 9/24/08)

Playing

Just after a nap, hanging out with Dad in the gameroom.

Having lunch.

Cousin Everett came over to play on Saturday. Everett would flop down on Gabriel's bed and this would make Gabriel laugh and laugh! Here they are before that, just hanging out together.

Boyhood

Our cute boy!

Gabriel LOVES drinking from the hose.
And when mommy turns off the water, he'll still find a way to drink from it.

We saw giant beetles in our backyard, probably 1 1/2 inches long. They had shiny green outlines and belly.

Signs

Gabriel, do you hear something?
Gabriel, where are your ears?

14 Months

Gabriel is now 14 months old. We took him to a small local farm. He loved seeing the cow and chickens and he even touched the pig's snout and stroked the goat's horns. Sadly, Gabriel fell off the playground there and landed on his face and got stabbed in the head by the stick mulch there. Only a few drops of blood, thankfully. On top of that pain, his bottom molars have poked through and are working their way in. The rest of his lower gums are very swollen, so I'm sure he'll get more teeth soon. He hasn't been eating much lately and is pretty miserable. The highlight of today was definitely the slide. Gabriel went down the big kid spiral slide several times and LAUGHED all the way down.