Friday, April 22

He's 15 months!

I continue to neglect this blog and it bugs me but sometimes I get confused as to why I even keep it. Is it to keep others posted? To keep records of what goes on? To brag? Well, I guess its a combo of all. Although some days I'm tempted to blog about not-so-good stuff, to vent about things that are bothering me, etc... so I might take that approach every now and then.  Who know, for now it's about GABE!

Yesterday Gabe officially turned 15 months old. I would post all his stats but I don't have them! We are choosing not to vaccinate (please don't judge) so I didn't even think to make a well-check appointment. But, he is a big boy that loves to eat! Some of his favorite foods are bananas, waffles, toast, cheese, fruits, most of the common veggies (carrots, green beans, broccoli) and chicken nuggets. We laugh because he really is "all boy", just so much different than Olivia in his mannerisms. Olivia is very careful, clean and dainty and Gabe is not. He will grab handfuls of food and stuff them in his mouth, swallow them down without even bothering to chew! We often see whole pieces of food later on, if you know what I mean! He'll rub his dirty hands through his hair and pick in his ear...Olivia asks for a napkin at each meal and actually uses it! Even when she was little she was always a neat eater.
He loves to play with Olivia's hat.  I bought him his own but he still prefers to put this one on! 


(I don't know why blogger won't let me rotate these)

Gabe is also a man of few words. He says da-da, ma-ma, NO and babbles quite a bit but that is about it for language.  He mastered walking at 14 months and I also weaned him about that same time.  He loves to drink milk and water, that's pretty much all he's ever had.  He absolutely adores Olivia, loves playing outside, bath time, and has learned to run away from us when he's playing with something he shouldn't have.  He is our snuggler and gives absolutely the B-E-S-T hugs ever.  They can turn a crummy day into gold in one second flat.  Love them!

As the months go by he is becoming more of a daddy's boy.  He squeals with excitement when Koby comes home from work, its adorable.


Happy Easter everbody!

Friday, January 28

Olivia's thoughts...

Olivia and I had some girl time yesterday afternoon and while driving home to see our boys this conversation went on:
Olivia- "Somebody colored my eyes brown."
Me- "Haha, yeah that's right.  I can tell you who did it too."
O- "Who?"
Me- "God did it.  He knew that was the perfect color for you."
O- "Oh, I wish he would have colored them PINK!"

This girl is in love with all things pink.

Tuesday, January 25

Our little man is growing up!

Gabriel's 1st birthday was last Friday, January 21st!  He is an amazing baby boy and it is crazy that a year has already gone by.  We started our celebration with a quick trip to Abilene to celebrate with both sets of grandparents.  Unfortunately, Gabe had a little stomach bug and wound up being sick so it wasn't all that much fun for him.

The next weekend I made a cake and we had another little celebration on his real birthday.  He was feeling much better and really got the hang of what to do with all that cake!  For the record, that is the messiest my little boy has gotten while eating.  I just don't do messy eating babies!

In case you were curious, I took him to his well visit this morning and he weighed in at 23lbs 9oz and measured 29 1/4" long.  Personally, I don't think the nurse stretched him out right cause he was squirming around...he may be just a bit longer! ;)

Gabe is such a charmer.  He has the sweetest eyes, the most voluptuous lips (I love them), chubby little thighs and he is the BEST hugger/snuggler ever.  He has always given the strongest, tightest hugs.  It melts my heart! Just so I don't forget I'm going to note some things he is up to:
- cruises around and has taken a few steps at a time
- loves the remote control
- will usually try most foods and like them
- nurses 3 times a day
- sleeps for about 10-ish hours a night and takes a nap at some point during the day (poor second-borns don't get the luxury of a set daytime schedule!)
- has 7 teeth
- babbles alot but has only said da-da and momma a few times...not sure if he really "knows" them. 
- wears mostly 18 month clothes and size 4 diapers
- has a little pillow in his crib that he adores
- drinks whole milk from his sippy cup everyday

Here's to another year of our sweet Gabriel Lee! 

Monday, January 3

Hello 2011!

I really want to begin posting more regularly, it is one of my new year "goals".  So, I'll begin with one that some of you may have already read.  I'm not even sure how many people still read this blog but it's worth a shot.

Our Dogs
Family and Friends,


When Koby and I were newly married about 10 years ago we decided that we missed our pets back home and we needed one of our own. We took the short trip to the Brazos Valley Animal Shelter and found Klowie in October of 2000. They approximated her age to be one year old and she had been at the shelter for a few weeks (read: her time was running out). She wasn't the cutest we saw that day, but there was something special about her. So we signed on the dotted line and welcomed our first "baby".


A couple of years later we decided that Klowie was lonely and she needed a friend. We were driving through a neighborhood in College Station and saw a sign that read "Puppies $5" so we stopped. There was a litter of the cutest little fur balls you've ever seen. The family said that their dogs had accidentally bred...the mom was a lab/rot mix and the dad was full collie. Being the softies we are, we quickly spotted the runt of the litter and brought her home. Isabella joined our family in 2002.

Fast-forward about 8 years. We are a busy family with two real babies that demand an incredible amount of our time and energy. We go for walks to the park and don't have enough hands to juggle kids, strollers, snacks AND leashes. Over the last few years the dogs have taken a permanent spot on the back burner. It is not something we are proud of, or something we expected to happen. It just has. The kicker is that we have learned that my dad is severely allergic to dogs, therefore my parents have rarely been able to come visit us and the kids. If they do, they have to stay at a hotel, which is costly. If they come over for a bit my dad has to sit outside. It has become an emotional burden/dilemma.

If you are still with me, I'm writing all this to say that Koby and I have decided to attempt to find a new home(s) for our dogs. The simple act of typing this e-mail creates a pull in my heart. We want nothing more than for the dogs to be loved and appreciated so we are sending this message out to people we know are capable of those things.

In short, would you or someone you know like a new friend?

Sunday, July 25

A date with my Girl

I decided to take Olivia to watch Toy Story 3 today while Koby stayed home with Gabe.  She is obsessed with TS2 so I just knew she would have a blast watching the new one, plus she's never been to the theater before so that would be fun too.  We get there, and I ask for two tickets...its over $13.00 just for the two of us. What?  I was confused.  Turns out they are only showing the movie in 3D so they charge more.  I pay the money anyway and get handed two pairs of HUGE 3D glasses.  Really?  How is my tiny girl supposed to wear and keep these on throughout the whole movie?  I decide to give it a shot since we are already there and Olivia is pulling me towards the concessions.  Long story short, we ended up leaving about 10 minutes later with our full drinks and popcorn in hand.  Luckily, I got a refund on our tickets but I had a disappointed little girl.  I really can't believe they don't have child size glasses if they are going to force you to watch a movie in 3D.
So, we had some time on our hands and Livi said she wanted to go to Target.  We enjoyed some girl time together, finished our movie popcorn and drinks and rolled out of the store with this!  Not a bad trip if you ask me!  It was really nice to spend time just the two of us.  That has not happened in a while...about 6 months to be exact! :)
we were "practicing" inside...
 

Wednesday, July 21

Six Months of GABE

Time has really flown by with this "little" guy. He is 6 months old today and is such a great baby. Sure, I get frustrated at times but all in all he is a good baby. He is not sleeping consistently at night or during the day but somehow God gives us all the strength to keep going!
I have no idea what his stats are, but he is a little over 20lbs, can sit up without a spot, has no teeth, LOVES to nurse, has the sweetest laugh, LOVES his big sister, doesn't crawl but has mastered the smear-face-on-the-ground-while-pushing-with-his-feet maneuver, does what looks like push-ups and last but not least makes our little family complete!!

Birth- January 21, 2010

Approx 1 month

Approx 2 months

Approx. 3 months
Approx 4 months
Approx. 5 months
6 months

Friday, May 21

Comparisons

Whew!  Life has been crazy around here.  Today Gabriel is 4 months old so we went in for his well-check.  No shots for this little one but we got the doctors seal of approval anyway.  Even though they are not the same gender (it might be like comparing apples to oranges) I wanted to post stat comparisons from when Livi was this age.
Olivia- 4 months
26" long
15lbs 4oz



Gabriel- 4 months
26 1/2" long
17lb 11oz



He is 95th percentile on both height and weight!  I love that he is so big and strong and feel extremely blessed to have two healthy little ones.  Hopefully I won't jinx myself by sharing this but lately he has been sleeping about 7-ish hours at night and then most mornings he'll go back to sleep when I feed him.  He hasn't developed a regular or predictable day schedule yet which kind of stinks, but if I'm getting semi-decent rest at night then I shouldn't complain.
Olivia has been doing really good lately too.  It took her a couple of months to swallow reality after Gabe was born and then it hit her like a ton of bricks.  She really lashed out and started throwing the worst fits and just was generally difficult.  None of her tantrums were directed at Gabe and I never felt that she was angry with him, she just had to get it out of her system I guess.  As of April, she is officially potty trained.  She had only been wearing diapers at night for quite a while and then she started waking up dry for about 2 weeks so I quit buying them!  She has only had a couple of small accidents.  I'm loving having just Gabe in diapers.
Until next time...

Wednesday, March 24

This and That

Yikes!  March has flown by and I didn't blog as often as I thought I would...

Today Olivia woke up and wanted me to carry her to the living room.  I already had the tv on and Handy Manny was on.  While I was walking she hugged my neck real tight and said, "Aw, you're the best!".  It was the sweetest thing!

Gabe is growing so quickly.  I guesstimated his weight at 15lbs.  He is two months old and has no problems that I can think of.  Thank you Jesus!  He doesn't sleep through the night at all but has settled into a nice afternoon nap routine lately which is super nice b/c I get quiet, alone time for a little while.  It helps me get through the day without going bonkers.

Speaking of weight, I'm having trouble getting motivated to really tackle the baby weight.  I've been walking here and there but nothing consistent.  I've leveled out at about 150lbs (yes, I just posted my weight on the blog) and that is not anywhere close to where I want to be.  I don't feel healthy or strong.  I don't feel sick, but I just don't feel "right".  Like I said, I'm just having problems with motivation.  I printed out a couch to 5K program that looks like something that I could manage but I haven't started it.  I keep trying to look for the perfect time to go but it never presents itself.  Imagine that!  There's always laundry and chores to be done, a child (or two) to be taken care of, duplex work to do, exhaustion bearing down on me, or the weather is unfavorable.  A friend of mine has blogged every monday about her post-baby weight loss plan and has shared how many pounds she lost (or gained) until she recently reached her goal. I'm thinking about doing that but I don't know if I can get over myself enough to be that honest!  I think it takes alot of guts to be that open and allow people to hold you accountable.  Maybe that's what I need, accountability.

This has been a random post so I'll wrap up with some pictures!

I love her smile in this one!

Monday, March 1

A Baby Story

I know I'm in "hot water" with a few people that didn't even know I had the baby yet (I tend to forget that not everybody has a Facebook account) so I thought I'd go ahead and share Gabe's story through pictures.  That's what we want to see on a blog post anyway, right? 
My last real post was a LONG time ago and lots of things have happened since then.  Not that any of those things weren't worth mentioning, like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years but I have to stop thinking that I need to "catch up" on the blog and just start from the present...otherwise I'll only continue to be overwhelmed and avoid blogging!
1 week before due date


Gabriel Lee Weatherford
8lbs 10oz
21 inches
January 21, 2010
11:08am