update on a four year old

Here we are 2 years later.  Gabe just turned four. Since the last post, he has been potty trained, and so many more things. He had to have a wide brimmed hat to ride the tractor-mower with Dad so I bought him this cowboy hat. He loves to ride the tractor with me. He always asks if we can go mow. He's now wearing a 4T in clothes and a size 12 shoe.  He likes to trace letters in his dry erase book, loves to hear me read Bible stories off my cell phone - or loves to be read to from just about any book around.

I've been telling myself I need to write in my blog because he has several "Gabe-isms" that are uniquely his creations.

He loves his Mama's ganana (banana) bread. He also loves a nice "gaprise" (surprise)!

We started a little game a few weeks ago - I will say "I love you Gabriel" and he responds "I love you too Daddy", then I say "I love you more" and he used to say "I love you most" but I got to say it once and he said "I love you most-est" then he started saying "most-ester". Yes, he has quite an imagination. He has an imaginary brother named Ronny.

His Mama has posted plenty of pics on her Facebook account over the last two years.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABE 2 years!!

Two years ago today, Gabriel came into the world and forever changed our lives! He went to visit Dr. Newnam last Wednesday for his 2 year old check up. He measured 36 inches and 31 pounds. He's in the upper ninetieth percentile for his height and upper eighties percentile for his weight. He has grown soooooo fast and just keeps going.

Yesterday, we gave Gabe's high chair to Grandpa and Grandma Jean Swanson before they left our house to go visit Grandma Jean's granddaughter in Arkansas.  Gabe really hadn't climbed into the high chair for a couple of weeks or so. He's been using his "booster" chair on one of our dining room chairs. We call it his "big boy" chair. After they left, I realized that we just crossed another threshold and phase in Gabe's life. He's moving out of the baby stage and into "toddlerhood".  We've already talked about moving his diaper changing table out of his room and giving it to the church. He's getting so big, it's becoming a real challenge to lift him up to the top of the changing table.

I can't believe it has been two years already. Two years ago he would lay in the palm of my hand and his head reached by elbow. Now he is half as tall as me! Two years ago, it was tiny little bottles of formula every couple of hours. Now he devours green beans, broccoli, milk, pork sausage and a lot of Cheerios!

Enjoy the party!

his 1 year old pics

I love to swing at the park

nothing like a swim

I started out napping in my bed and wound up here

I can feed my self! Strawberry & Honey yogurt

I decided to take a quick power nap

can you do this?

enjoyin' my bath several months ago

they're not just for holdin' coffee ya know. 

All I need now is my favorite drink and a foot stool. Too bad this thing doesn't recline. Hey wait a minute..."Hey Daddy, can you buy me....."

Well we closed on our new home place back in late April 2012. Three acres with a creek fed pond, small barn, wonderful three bedroom house and fenced back yard. Here is Gabe at the entrance of our new place checking things out.

Shore is hot out here!

He'd been doin' some raking and hoeing around the place tryin' to keep this tidy. He's SO helpful.

Strollin' up the lane 

 

 

 

Gabe loves to stroll up the lane for his next big adventure. Of course you always have to carry a big stick along!











He's wearin' his waffle stomper boots, John Deere overalls that Grammie bought him, a jean jacket and his ball cap.









Here's a close up.

He is startin his treck by crossin the railroad tie bridge that crosses the creek.











He figured he'd better check the wheel bearings to make sure they have plenty of grease before stickin 'em onto the wagon.

check me out

It's been quite a day workin around the place. You may be askin if the front of his overalls is soaked with sweat? You'd think so; but no it's just sweet Gabey syrup. (baby slobber for y'all not in the know).  Gotta love this boy!









Man, don't ya hate it when the wind blows your hat off! You gotta reach all the way to the ground, all 26 inches to pick it up again.








 Grammie and Gabe takin in a movie at the house. They're real buddies these days.

 

 

Livin' large in my easy chair watching one of my favorite movies "Once Upon a Forest"

Grampie came to visit and is readin me a story.











Sometimes you just have to get in close to catch all the action.

Thomas the Train - Toot Toot!

6 month check up, jobs, a new home and cutting teeth

Okay, it's been another two months since the last post so I'll just skip the apology. It is what it is! So Grampie and me made the executive decision to go ahead and bring Mommy down here permanently the weekend of the Feb. 17th. It just so happened that Mommy and Daddy started their respective jobs on the exact same day,  March 19th. Mommy went to work as a housekeeper at Oklahoma Methodist Manor and Daddy went to work as a dispatcher for Coca-Cola Refreshments.  They also found a house to buy on 3 acres just north of Rogers State University in Claremore, OK.  It's really a beautiful place. We close on Friday April 27th and can't wait to move in.

We took Gabriel to his six month check up a couple weeks past his six month date because of the move and all; but both Mommy and Daddy were able to go. We went to Dr. Michael Newnam and he passed with flying colors. He measured 27" and 15lbs 14oz. which was a gain of 1/2 inch and 4 oz. I asked Doc about only a 4oz weight gain and he explained that Gabe is a lot more active now and burning more calories. I had to agree with that statement. He's in a constant state of motion it seems. Doc said he's in the 25th percentile for his weight yet still in the normal range.

He started eating solid foods at six months and has been steadily increasing. At six months 5.5 oz and now he's downing 7oz. He likes green beans, peas, carrots, squash, mac & cheese, and all the fruits. So he's NOT a picky eater. It's funny to watch him because he "lunges" at the spoon with food on it. If you're not feeding quite fast enough he lets you know about by hollering out loud.

Today, Easter Sunday, he's really made great progress in sitting up by himself. He can sit up and when he begins to teeter he can correct himself. He has also got to the point where he can turn himself over really easy when laying on his tummy onto his back and of course he can flip over from his back to his tummy. When you lay him in the crib just after you rock him to sleep he usually rolls over onto his right side.

Gabe started drooling pretty heavily when he turned four months. People told us that is a sign that the teething process is beginning.  The first tooth broke through on  March 24th and the second one was April 3rd; both on the bottom in the front.

So I know you're all ready for pics. Here you go-

I like wearing my Daddy's hat.

 

Grammy showing her Cinematic skills - http://youtu.be/6CqjcwLO0P8

My how time flies!

Dear Reader(s) - please accept my apology for not having posted in nearly two months! There has indeed a number of things that transpired and we need to get caught up.

Gabe took his first long multi-stop "road trip" Christmas weekend. We first stopped at Grammie and Grampie's house on Friday night the 23rd, then got up Saturday and proceeded to go on down to Uncle Jay & Auntie Tammy's house along with Madison, Leah, Jameson & Noah. Christmas was great and so good to spend time with family. I just discovered that all my pics must be back in KC because they're not on this laptop.

We came back from Christmas and our movers showed up two days later on Tuesday morning to move us from our Lenexa apartment to a 3 bedroom house in Kansas City, KS.  I told Tamala that I NEVER want to move during the holidays again! That move cost us $900 and some change!

Thursday, January 5th I took Gabe for his 4 month check up (which was late because the Dr.'s office had to re-schedule the original appmnt to a later date).  Gabe weighed in at 15lbs. and 10.5 onces and 26.5 inches long!! When the Kelly, the Physicans Assistant asked me what formula Gabe was on and I replied rahter matter-of-factly "Goats milk"; you should've seen the look on her face when she did a double take and asked me "did you say goat's milk?" "Yes, goat's milk" I replied. She wasn't exactly pleased but I assured her that Gabe had probably a 95% or better improvement on his spitting up issue, he was gaining weight and growing longer so I was pleased with that. She said they just don't know a lot about goat's milk so they don't have any frame of reference to go from when considering it but "I'll check with Dr. Kahler and see what he says and call you." Which she did and called me a couple days later and said again they don't really know a lot about goats milk and we need to be careful feeding Gabe non-homogenized and pasturized milk. She said that Dr. Kahler had mentioned that back when he was an intern, his chief of staff said something about "Formula is for babies and goats milk is for kids". I SO wanted to retort with "and cows milk is for calves" but I didn't feel that I would really accomplish anything by doing that so I didn't.  I took Gabe to day care and dropped him off after the appointment and went to work. Later that evening I got a call from Pat Orscheln, who hired me, and he said he had bad news. He told me that Bill Grojean, owner of the company was making cut-backs and "they were letting me go." I certainly didn't see that one coming.

Since I was out of a job, I contacted Gabriel's daycare provider  and asked what her policy is for stopping the day care service. She normally receives two weeks notice but was willing to let us get by on one week's notice. So Gabe was taken to daycare when Mommy went to work and I would look for employment during the day.

By Thursday, it finally hit me. Kansas City had cast it's ballot for the third time in eight months by terminating my employment so I was beginning to get the idea that I wasn't supposed to stay in KC any longer. I wondered how I would tell Tamala. Well Tamala took it just all in stride and was ready, willing and able to make a move to another place. We decided Tulsa, OK would be the place to go.  So I picked up the phone and called Grammie & Grampie and said "Well, you're finally going to get your way. We'ved decided to move to Tulsa."

"Praise God!!!" came the exclamation from Grammie and Grampy had a similar response.

Gabe and I stayed the remainder of the weekend to spend time with Mommie but Monday morning at 7am he and I had packed up the van and headed to Tulsa. Grammie had said she would be more than willing to keep watch over Gabe while I looked for work. We arrived just befor that Monday morning and unloaded what we had brought down.

Oh! What's this stuff?

Okay. This does NOT taste like my goats milk!

Mommy keeps shovin' this stuff in my mouth. Where's my bottle?

Do you REALLY think I'm supposed to eat this stuff?

This past Sunday morning Mommie fed Gabe his first spoonfuls of cereal while Grammie snapped a few pics.

Later that week, when Daddy wasn't up yet because Gabe woke up several times during the night. Grammie sneeks in the room and gets baby Gabe out of bed and takes him to eat breakfast with her and Grampie. This is what happens when there are grandparents around without an adult to supervise them:

Grammie & Gabe are new found companions

Grampie & Gabe enjoying breakfast & conversation

Grammie is trying to teach Gabe to "patty cake"

Don't hate me because I'm a HUNK!

I chew on everything now because I'm beginning the teething process

My Daddy, Mommie  & Grammie all say I'm so beautiful. What's your input?

Grammie just can't resist pinchin' my fat cheeks

Oh no, you caught me holding my own bottle. Now there is EVIDENCE!

Grampie & Grammie don't talk baby talk and I'm gettin bored

I think that was funny.....wasn't it?

Thumbs are great when my sucky isn't available

Okay that might be a bit too much thumb!

I smile a lot

Grampie.....are you pullin my leg?

Gabe's socks......Daddy's shoes

Do you have a Daddy that loves you this much?

Awhh come on Grammy, can't a guy take a nice warm bath in peace

that pretty much brings us up to speed.

Shalom!