Mirror Mirror

Up until these pictures whenever Gabe saw himself in the mirror he'd follow a very set pattern. He'd look confused for a moment, smile, and then turn his head away bashfully. On my birthday this past Thursday when I showed him the mirror he reacted differently. This time he reached out to it, and felt his hands against the mirror. He then leaned over close with his face and stuck out his tongue. When his image did the same action he beamed and looked up at me as if for confirmation that it was safe, and then proceeded to keep making faces and touching the mirror. Michelle was fast enough that she managed to grab the camera and get back to capture these images of the event.


While I don't think that Gabe understands that it is himself in the mirror, I do know that he hasn't been treating his image in the mirror the same since then. He does seem to understand that the little boy in the mirror will mimic his actions and he seems to enjoy that.

Gabe's Garden

I've been planning to make a garden and play-space for Gabe in the front yard. Chris helped me gather the rocks from around the yard, and today the ground was soft enough for digging. Also today, our neighbor Shannon, who has just turned 13, helped me to stack the rocks. And viola! It's starting to look like a proper garden.

This is the view from our front door.

(This was posted by Michelle, actually, who keeps forgetting to log in as herself when using Chris' computer.)

Cheerios!

This weekend Gabe started getting Cherrios into his mouth on his own. The look of joy on his face when he'd get one in his mouth was priceless. While I wouldn't call the process nimble, the very fact that he can manage at all impresses me to no end.

Daddy Time

Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma?

After his bath last night, Gabe addressed me by name! And again, in the middle of the night, and again when he woke up this morning. "Ma" is his new favorite syllable. I am smitten!

Soap Nazi

Getting a sharp image with a hand-held camera in a dim bathroom is pretty much impossible, but the painterly soft edges and yellow glow appeal to me so much more than the zombie-colored flesh illuminated by a flash.

Gabe loves bath-time. He now splashes and reaches for any toy or object in sight. He particularly likes the overflow drain, because of the interesting sounds it makes, and this recycled deli container. However, I think Gabe is as yet unclear on the difference between soup, and soap.

Six Months and Change

One Teeth Two Teeth, Sharp Teeth New Teeth. . .

Gabe stopped to yell repeatedly yesterday while I nursed him at the daycare. I guess that must have been right when his second tooth was breaking through.

He's been quite the trooper through this teething business. It’s a cruel joke that Nature plays on babies, having that nice, soft sense organ get perforated by sharp objects. It was so sweet and cute when he gummed my fingers before. Now, he is doomed to be scolded for biting. Cruel world! He hasn’t chomped my nipple yet, but I let him gnaw my finger today, and it’s like half a pair of scissors has taken up residence in there.

I would have expected teething to wake Gabe up during the night, but he has been sleeping pretty much straight through. And he continues to be astoundingly easy to put to bed at night – just tuck him in and kiss him good night. Almost always, he is asleep in five minutes. Just now he went through his happy chatty sequence, where, in some untranslated baby language, he gave a diminishing dissertation on something profound. On other nights, while nodding off he has conducted orchestras.

Now if only he would carry over his easy-to-sleep habits to naptime! The poor folks at daycare spend upwards of an hour getting him down, twice a day – and they are lucky if he sleeps more than half an hour. Today, Cathy tried giving him banana mixed with rice cereal to see if that would help him sleep better. The results seem positive: an hour-plus nap, and he ate over half a jar!

Tonight is Chris’ night for uninterrupted zombie-killing, but I’ve got a couple of hours before I will need to sleep, so I get to play some Fallout 3 myself. Hooray!

Chompers!

Gabe's first tooth is tiny and sharp, and his second tooth is on its way!

All of that fuss. . .

All of the fuss that Gabe has made over being put down to sleep these past nights - it was just his way of telling us that he is ready to do it himself! Early this morning, and again this evening, I simply tucked him in and walked away. In five minutes flat he winds down from fussing to babbling to finger-sucking to the thousand-mile stare, and onward to blissful slumber!

“He looks like I do first thing in the morning.”

When I get up in the morning, Chris then rolls over into my spot and proceeds to wiggle about until he has taken up the entire bed, and limbs and blankets are every-which-way.

Gabe’s sleeping patterns have been changing too frequently lately for us to get a handle on. Tonight I couldn’t nurse him to sleep, couldn’t rock him to sleep, couldn’t sing him to sleep; and when I put him in his crib he went straight to enraged. Desperate, I called in Chris, and retreated to the shower.

Just as I was (reluctantly) turning off the water, Chris came in with the monitor – which was relaying angry wails. Chris wanted to give Gabe some time to cry it out. Okay, I said, let’s try it for five minutes and see how it goes.

I envisioned the screams increasing in intensity to boiling kettle heights. And then I envisioned the screams just going and going and going at their current level. And then. . . I realized he had paused. . . and resumed with less intensity. And paused again. And resumed, sounding sleepy. And paused. . .

He didn’t even sound pitiful, which was something else I had feared about the cry-to-sleep method. He sounded . . .humorous. Gabe was fighting sleep, and losing, and nothing else. As we listened to his last sleepy protests, Chris and I were actively laughing. It took less than five minutes before Gabe was silent – and a nice comfortable silence, at that.

Chris, being the good Daddy that he is, had to go in to make sure that the baby wasn’t dead. And he came back to report that “he looks like I do first thing in the morning.”

Babbling Baby

Gabe has kept us both busy this weekend. I will be the first to admit that I don't quite see weekends as the great bastion of relaxation and rejuvenation that they once were. Heck, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to going into work tomorrow and letting Gabe spend the day in day-care playing with his little friends. That said, Gabe was a bundle of giggles, smiles, and flirtation this weekend. I don't think I've ever seen Gabe laugh so much as he did on Saturday night in his bouncy chair with me making faces.

He's also into full on babble mode. I didn't really expect it this soon, but he really is kicking out the Da,Da,Da,Da,Ba,Ba,Ba,Ba,Ma,Ma,Ba,Ba in long chains and short chains. He tends to go for Da,Da the most and while I know he's not associating the sound with me yet it still makes me smile to hear it.