Cassidy's 5th birthday party

Gabriel got to hang with the girls at the birthday party. As you can see he liked the pinked out Barbie doll. His Godfather got a few moments in with him and Gabriel had a great time. He loves rough play and I am in no condition to do that right now.

Cassidy and Campbell are getting big each time we see them. Gabriel eventually needed some help to get to the car. Mrs. Jen gave him a helping hand, but later he slipped into the snow and had a meltdown (no pun intended). He doesn't like getting his hands wet from the snow. I guess snowboarding is out of the question for awhile. Such a Prima Donna.

SNOW!!!

This was Gabriel's first real experience with snow. He likes to say "snowman" when he sees it. He saw the snow from the front door window and all he could say was "WOW!". Once we got bundled up, he was hesitant on going out in the actual snow and really only made it out a max of 3 feet to his sandbox. He eventually played in the snow for a bit, but refused to wear his mittens so his hands were frozen. He eventually told me they hurt and we went back inside. We did go back out a little later in the afternoon and he had his trains out on the snows edge getting slushed.

"Toing Toing" Leg

Gabriel woke up yesterday and was crying for me to come and get him. He usually comes downstairs himself when he wakes up. For some reason he is limping and refusing to walk on his right foot. He tells me that it hurts and that it is "Toing Toing". I checked the foot and leg out and no cuts, bruises, swelling, redness or other signs of injury. Not sure what is wrong. He can get around and sometimes even jumps and dances in short bursts. He looks kind of funny like he is chafed again, but he isn't. He is saying "cheese" since he thinks I am taking a photo of him. He is so cute...even when he is injured.

Popcorn Dance Craze!

Gabriel would not let me leave after his little birthday snack time. He was having a meltdown for almost an hour until it was CIRCLE TIME! They get to dance and prepare themselves to go home. He finally left my side and had a great time doing the popcorn dance. He is the one in the middle in the grey top and jeans. The video isn't all that clear but it gives you an idea how wildly popular this popcorn dance craze will be with the 5 and under crowd. He eventually went a bit overboard, sucked something in his throat and started to vomit. Gabriel's infamous calling card.

Rainbow Sprinkles Rulz!

Here is a photo of Gabriel and some of his classmates sitting down and having snack time. I brought in some ice cream cupcakes for the kids celebrate Gabriel's 3rd birthday and I will have to remember that rainbow sprinkles on anything is very popular with the girls AND boys.

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabriel!!!!

Gabriel and his birthday hat! It took a bit but, we managed to get a decent photo. Has it really been 3 year since he arrived into this world? Our handsome big boy!

Our big boy waiting patiently for the cutting of the cake. He and his Grandpa get to share a birthday celebration since they are a few days apart on birthdates. He handled the birthday song much better this year!

This is after he opened his gift from his Mama and Papa...a bunch of Thomas and friends wooden trains...as you can see he is sitting in the car seat hording them in his arms. The green bag has more of them. He would not leave home without them!

Here he is opening one of the wonderful gifts he got from Maurice and his family. He learned fast over Christmas on how to rip the wrapping paper. He thinks every box is his and a "present". Wait til you see how he acts when he sees a brown UPS truck.

He and his cousins, Marika, Baby Leah and Markus, are all waiting happily for BIRTHDAY CAKE! I was just glad that it wasn't a big production like the first 2 years! Whew! The video below is a bit dark due to all the sunlight coming in the windows, but Gabriel enjoyed his birthday song and blew out his candles...with some help.

MingMing and the Sleeping Prince

Isn't Ming pathetic looking first thing in the morning? He sadly looks at you and lays there like he did something bad. This is his little spot...same spot as Papa...on the sofa. Almost every school day, he waits for me to bring Gabriel downstairs and the 2 lay on the blanket resting their eyes until Gabriel is ready to wake up and start the school day.

Gabriel waits for his school bus

Isn't he the cutest preschooler ever? OK, so I am a bit bias, but he looks so dapper in his orange coat and carrying his backpack. He stands and waits patiently for his morning bus. Then he looks down the road to see if it is coming. He is pointing at the "older" kids bus, but his is usually right around the corner. We head out every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 0715, no matter how cold it is outside. Today it was about 30 degrees, but we are use to it by now. I finally got a video to load up on the site. Here he is a big boy going up the steps himself and saying his bye-bye's to his Mama. He's come a long way since the first day of preschool! YEAH!!!

Baby girl's face@35 weeks

Can you see her? She is laying on her side and the top of her head is to the right. The little black spot in the middle is her right eye and you can see her nose and her lips more in the center of the photo. It is the best one of her so far since she has gotten bigger and being more cramped inside of me. You can see that she is putting on some weight and the beloved "baby fat".

Active baby girl on board.

This is the monitor I am hooked up to 2X/week from now on until she is born. I did it with Gabriel too and let me say, it is time consuming, but worth it. They want to make sure she is moving and doing well in the last month or so of the pregnancy. Afterwards, I get an ultrasound to see her and to make sure there is enough fluid for her to float around in. The regular "at rest" heartbeat for baby is 120-160, Here you can see she is active and her heartbeat is moving up intothe 180's and then it goes back down again. She has to do this at least 2X in the 20mins. Today she was a good baby.

Cleaning up...Man-Style

Gabriel really wanted to take a shower, but I told him he had to finish eating his dinner. THEN we would go "wash wash" and "get clean". Well, here is his answer...Yes, that is his dinner plate in the trash can. He threw the whole thing away (fork is on the bottom) and came running back to tell me that he was "all done". You would think that he had a clean shot into the large opening, but noooo. That's Gabriel for you.

Early Birthday and 1st Movie Theater Experience!

Gabriel got to celebrate his 3rd birthday a week early with his Gramma, Aunt Christine and cousin "D" (aka Christiana) with the puppy ears. Gramma treated all of us to lunch after the movie and Gabriel made out like a spoiled bandit on birthday gifts. The 2 hugging are saying goodbye after lunch. So cute.

Here is Gabriel's first experience at a movie theater. I wasn't sure how he would take it, but he did really well. He was all about the large bag of popcorn we got. In the main lobby Alvin and the Chipmunks were waiting to greet him and he thought they were "kittys". The photo of him staring out to the side is him zoning out to the large theater screen as they were running the previews. That was pretty much the look he had through most of the movie. (that's the other scratch on the other side of his face he got from tormenting poor Mingming). He sat in his own seat the entire time and never put up a fuss. The last 20 minutes the 2 got antsy and decided it was time to stand up and do what they wanted. That included yelling and jumping up and down. It was like we were at a sports arena or something. It was a great day.

Scarface

Gabriel will NOT leave Mingming alone. He picks fights with the dog by pulling on his tail and then lays on his back while Ming hovers over him and eventually scratches his beautiful face. Gabriel waves his hand frantically at Mingming and Mingming tries to bite Gabriel and waves his paw at Gabriel's face. Gabriel has a healing scratch on the other side of his face you can't see. This not to say that Mingming doesn't love the attention and seems to look forward to the "fights". His BooBoo(Grandma) wants me to get rid of the dogs due to this...I think not. When asked, all Gabriel has to say is, "Mingming bad". Go figure.

Thomas the Train Puzzle

Here is one of Gabriel's Christmas gifts from his Godparents. He just loved it. Marika helped, but he thought it was the best thing to ever happen in the house. He was touching the pictures of each train and saying their names

It's Official! Gabriel's a BIG Boy Preschooler!!!

Our little boy is now riding the school bus to and from preschool!!! He made it the entire 3 days this week without much incident. I had been prepping him all Sunday that he was going to ride the bus to school in the morning. Not sure how much of it he understood. On the first day he was happy and thought he was going outside to play in his sandbox. When the bus pulled up, he got upset and panicked. I had to carry him onto the bus where the 2 grandmotherly looking ladies were waiting for him. He threw his Toby train out the door and started to cry. I got to see his face looking out the window as they drove away. His teacher said he ended up doing very well on the bus and he was happy as usual when he came home.
Morning #2 things were a little easier. He walked up onto the bus himself like a big boy. He did stand there and looked at me with a bit of panic in his face, but managed to not have a fit and waved bye to me from his seat on the bus. Can a mother get any happier?
Day #3 and it's official...Gabriel is a big preschooler! He got on the bus with out incident and waved at me once again from the window of his school bus. He even managed to do it all without a fuss or too much of a look of panic on his face. To think he started his first 6 weeks of preschool with tears, fears, anxiety, hand holding, sobbing and lots of vomiting.

Happy New Years!!!

Here are some photos of Gabriel the last hour of 2009. He spent most of it watching Yo Gabba Gabba and fighting with Ming. Of course, it seems that his nose picking photo is becoming an annual tradition so I wanted to include that too. He was full of energy and even now @ 0020 of 2010 he is still going and going and going. He just got done dancing to Thomas the trains winter wonderland song. That's my baby! Here's to a new year, a new decade and a new baby.