Happy Half Birthday, Gabe!

Gabe is six months old today, and he is one round and happy little dude. The last time I weighed him (on our wildly inaccurate scale) he came in around 21 pounds. And that was a couple of weeks ago.

Gabe now passes toys freely from one of his hands to the other. Sometimes, when less-than-happy, he will complain “yah yah yah yah” and a “da” or “ba” will sneak into the mix. He laughs easily, in intoxicating gales. In the bouncy chairs at home and at daycare, he now launches himself on great springy trajectories, sometimes even lifting his feet from the floor. And he turns in them freely to get at the toy he wants – which is usually whatever he can get in his mouth.

No teeth have emerged yet. He (along with Chris and myself) has weathered a second cold, but thankfully he is shrugging this one off. For him, it’s been just a little cough. Chris, on the other hand, feels run down and spitting out ectoplasm. I have escaped my nemesis, “lung-butter”, thankfully.

I have caught on that I need a plan for weekend mornings, because, of course, Gabe wakes up promptly at seven and wants to start his routine. If I get him and myself dressed and out of the house, then I’m much more likely to enjoy the rest of the day. So, destination coffee shop! Maybe next weekend I’ll take the (silly) barista’s advice and change Gabe on the sofa. Perhaps a good soaking of pee will convince them that a changing table in the restroom would be good for business.

Next weekend I will also be having a designated mom-sleeps-in morning. I have avoided this so far because I wanted to keep up my milk supply, but in a strange turn of events, Gabe has started turning up his nose at most of his daily formula bottles. And my milk supply immediately picked up the slack. So, a skipped nursing may result only in wet discomfort for me, which I can tolerate.

Happy half birthday, Gabriel!

Daddy and Gabe in the Snow

Michelle took a great picture of Gabe and I when we took him out in his snow suit to get a look at the white world around the house. I feel it is an excellent commentary on how I've felt the first six months have gone. Your own life blurs into the background and your child's life becomes the focus. So long as Gabe's happy I'm pretty darn happy too.

Shiny Happy Baby

Gabe is doing really well, and both Michelle and I are recovering thanks to his recent shift back to sleeping through the night. Michelle had a rough morning since I stayed up late last night and slept in, but hopefully I can return the favor to her tomorrow. Gabe has been super playful, and full of giggles the last week. I'm getting ever better at getting peels of laughter out of him. Still Gabe squealed in delight upon seeing Michelle when we picked him up daycare on Thursday night. I mean daddy can be funny which is all well and good, but Mommy can be funny and makes yummies.

Gabe is becoming ever more dexterous with his hands. If you hold a toy in front of him he'll reach out both hands and grab it. I've watched him accidentally pass a toy from one hand to the next, but it seems unintentional still. The above picture contains my first real lens flare. After years of mocking thanks to photoshop, it feels weird to take pride in this one but I really liked how the light just caught the tips of his fingers and the top of the toy.

I kept stressing how big he's gotten and its pictures like this one that drive the fact home. He's twenty pounds plus now and just barely fitting into the 9 month old clothing. We'll have to go shopping for 12 month stuff next week. It seems preposterous since he turns 6 at the end of this month. The whole graduated weight set doesn't even count anymore, he's gaining weight faster than my poor arms and back can add strength. I'm going to have to start wheeling him into daycare in the stroller because the car seat is just too heavy.

Changing time has become more challenging and potentially more fun. Gabe can move and shake with the best of them, and you never know if he's going to grab a handful of foot, junk, or poop. Luckily we've avoiding poop grabbing so far, but it is only a matter of time before it happens. He's just getting to damn quick.

If a toy is worth grabbing, then it is worth tasting. Everything goes into Gabe's mouth these days.

Out of the pile of photos from earlier this was the universal favorite. I want it as my desktop at work so I'm posting it in a larger resolution format.

Gabe loves banana, much like his mom and dad. If we plop a piece in the little sucker mesh bag contraption he'll pulp it and finish it off and beg for more. It is almost the same process he uses with us, because at the end of the day I know we both feel pulped and drained. If he keeps sleeping through the night, we might just end up a little less drained:)

Under the Sea

We have a Vick's warm mist humidifier which I really like. I like it so much that I run it almost every night. It's kept me from getting nose bleeds, which I like even more. Since its steam the air doesn't get the typical humidifier ionized smell and in theory it is killing any bacteria instead of sending them airborne.

They tell you to clean it regularly. Well more like after each use, which would be a pain so I translated that to mean once a month. When I open it up to clean it out I was greeted with this cool salt formation that you see above. It was pretty easy to clean everything off and now my humidifier is back to being fully operational. Overall this is a humidifier I would recommend, especially if you get nose bleeds in the winter or a cold.

Chompers?

Ms. Kathy watches over Gabe at day-care and she told Michelle that she could feel teeth. Tonight after giving Gabe his bottle I felt for myself as he chomped on my finger. I think I can feel his front teeth coming in on the top and bottom, so I think she's right. With all his amazing drool production it doesn't surprise me in the least that it is finally time for some teeth. I think we'll stop and pick up some baby gum numbing gel from the drugstore on the way home tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to raging baby with sore gums, though I am looking forward to taking pictures of him smiling with his little white teeth.

There is no Spoon

We want the food in.
Yet so much of it comes out.
The bib eats its fill.

I find amusement in the concept of starting a baby on solid foods. It seems to me it comes closer to "We've started coating our baby's face in rice cereal and apple sauce, and hope to have some in his stomach in a couple of months." Now I'm sure that Gabe accidentally swallowed some, but I think the majority ended up on his face, hands, bib, and his parents.


Just as soon as the next spoonful comes in, the last spoonful comes out.

This is the first time we used an actually baby spoon at home, and in general I think Gabe thought it was just another gumming toy. A sticky, gooey, gumming toy but one just the same.

For these two shots I was using the flash, and we had fully relinquished control of the spoon to Gabe.

I took a series of photos of Gabe while he was having some tummy time. With some funny faces from myself and quick moves back to the camera I managed to get a wide range of facial expressions out of him. Being a totally biased father, I couldn't pick just a couple so I put them all into a larger file. Click on the image to get the full huge file:)


I originally posted this under Michelle's account. The troubles with having two people on the same computer:)

Christmas Photos

Chris took beautiful photos for us this Christmas!













By the way, if you want to save a copy of these images, first click on the image to bring up the large version. Then right-click on the large image. This will open a menu that gives you the option to save the image. You can then display the image on your computer, or you can burn the image to cd and take it to be printed.

We love you!

Gabe the Boomer and How Cloth Diapers Rule For Non-Diaper Things

Cottony goodness.
You keep the world's goo at bay.
A noble duty.
As I was feeding Gabe his bottle this evening before bed he started squirming. Squirming lead to crying. Crying lead to farting. Farting lead to patented explosive digested material projection. While I've had some close calls in the past, I now have practical experience in dodging fecal matter while at the same time catching it on approved surfaces, such as the re-usable diapers we use for all sorts of handy tasks.

If there is any one unsung hero of the baby product world, it would have to be the cotton diaper. Even if you never to intend to use them as diapers, they are just so handy to have around. To start with they are the pawns on the stain front. I could care less if they get stained or if they need to get shredded and tossed onto the compost heap when they are no longer salvageable. They handle spit-up, drying the baby after using wet wipes, drool wiping, emergency poo or pee containment, napkin duty, tissue substitute, cough sound dampening, peekaboo barrier, and more.

If I had known about them in college I definitely would have bought a package for cleanup duty as they are way more absorbent than most 'dish' towels. Party foul, no problem! Slap a cloth diaper on it. A true multi-purpose tool for the ages.

Insert Foot in Mouth

It's official - today, Gabe got his toes into his mouth. I have to get serious about keeping him free of toejam now. Yuck.