Nacho Libre

These are my recreational robes.

Get that corn outta my face!

Don't you want a little taste of the glory?  See what it tastes like?

Do you remember when everybody was shouting my name, and I used my strength to rip my blouse?

Beneath the clothes, we find a man. .  . and beneath the man, we find his. . . nucleus.

Did you not tell them that they were the Lord's chips?

My life is good.  Real good.

Hug hug, kiss kiss, hug hug, big kiss, little hug, kiss kiss, little kiss.

Halloween Party

Gabe and I were invited to a Halloween party today at the home of my friend, Kari.  There were lots of moms with kids.  Most of the kids dressed up.  Some notables: Aurora, Piglet, scarecrow and a devil (with a red/black tutu).  Gabe wore his Nacho cape, but the clothes underneath were not nearly as cool as Nacho Libre's bare chest and blue stretchy pants.  And, Gabe hated the mask.

P.S. If you are interested to know: Gabe's heart is fine.  We had the tests done in Columbia on Monday.  Also, he woke up yesterday morning with two new teeth (which would explain why the Columbia drive and doctor's visit on Monday were so awful).  One more on the bottom and the first one on top. :)

Owl Earflap Hats

So, recently, most nights after Gabe goes to bed, I leave Phil to his studies out in the main room, and I retire to the bedroom, where I pop in a movie, and make owl earflap hats.  The first one came out kind of wonky.  Gabe was asleep, and since I couldn't measure his head, I made it too wide and too short.  I changed some things on the second trial, and decided I like it much better.

Hat #1: Made while watching X-Men: 1st Class.  (Phil is always surprised that I like this movie so much.  He says it's not the kind that I would normally go for, but hey, I like it and I don't know why. P.S: If you're familiar with the movie, this hat kind of reminds me of Magneto's helmet.)

Hat #2: Watched old episodes of House while making this one.

Gabe was a good sport and modeled it with and without a shirt (the tassels are more easily seen next to his bare chest).

Mama and the Skull Garland

Gabe's lexicon currently consists of three words:
1. ba-ba-ba:   ball
2. ba-ba-ba:   bottle
3. ma-ma-ma: mama
He started saying "mama" yesterday when he was trying to get me to pick him up, and I was lucky enough to catch it on camera today. What makes the video even more endearing is that he is trying to climb over me and then just decides to cuddle my knees.

Since it's Friday, and it's cold here, and since Phil is tied to the library for the weekend studying for tests, I decided that today would be Pajama Day.  And, what do you do on Pajama Day? Well, for starters, you wear pajamas.  Normally, you wouldn't take a shower either; just go from wake up to bedtime in the same attire.  But, seeing as how my spinning class this morning got me smelling a little less than rose-like, I exempted myself from this rule.  And, seeing as how Gabe got soggy goldfish crackers stuck to his face and hands, he will be exempted later tonight. 

That brings me to the second thing you do on Pajama Day: eat goldfish crackers. Lots and lots of them. Scatter them across the floor, put a ton in your mouth at once, mush them up and then lick them off your fingers. . . however you like them best.

And finally, the last necessity to make Pajama Day really great: make a skull garland.  Yes, people, a skull garland.  Laugh all you want, but Gabe and I thought it was of the utmost importance to string a nice line of happy skulls across our bookshelf in honor of Halloween, and what better day to create it and string it than on Pajama Day?

It was a pretty successful Pajama Day.

Nauvoo

We drove to Nauvoo today for stake conference. The drive wasn't bad - on the way there it seemed a lot shorter than I expected.  On the way back, we (Gabe included) were all dying to get home.

Nauvoo is awesome!  It's beautiful, and I wish that we had had more time there to see the town.  We were very impressed with the flowers at the temple, which were still in full bloom and smelled great!

We drove for just a bit through the historic Nauvoo area, and stopped at the Smith Family Cemetery.

Destination: Columbia

The three of us spent the day today in Columbia.  It's an hour and a half south of Kirksville and about 7 times as big.  So, that means more things to look at, eat and do.  We had a lot of fun!  Here are some of the highlights:
1. Gabe snoring in the car.
2. Having lunch at Applebees.
3. Walking around at the mall.
4. Getting a gumball from the gumball machine.
5. Convincing Phil to get a new pair of much-needed pants.
6. Finding a 3-pack of Old Spice deodorant for $3.40.
7. Going to the yarn store.
8. Gabe's new pajamas.

Oдеяло Закончен!

It's all done!  I actually finished it a week and a half ago, but I never got around to taking pictures of it until tonight.  I had a lot of fun making this blanket, and now that I know I can do it. . . who knows? Maybe there will be another in the works sometime soon.

Gabe gave it the snuggle test, and I think it approved.  Here he is trying to get into his crib just so he can snuggle with his new blankie.

My Chick-a-buns

People in Missouri, particularly the older crowd, have some funny pet names for babies. Examples are "pun-kin" or "sweet-ums", and I discovered a new personal favorite at the library this morning when I took Gabe with me to return a movie.  The librarian called him "chick-a-buns." It just kind of grew on me.  Chick-a-buns.  It sounds like it could be a cutesy, colorful children's book.  Maybe I should just copyright the name right now in case I get ambitious in the future.  Anyway. . . from here on out, just because I like the name, we can refer to Gabe as Chick-a-buns.

 Here are some pictures of the chick-a-buns at the park on Friday.  It was Wellness day, which meant that there were no classes.  A lot of people left town for the long weekend, but a few of those who stayed (including Phil) went to the park to play ultimate frisbee.  Chick-a-buns and I went too.

Saturday, while I was lying in bed, sick, Phil and Chick-a-buns had a great time watching ESPN together.  I got up to get a drink of water and saw this: a perfectly content Chick-a-buns just sitting there, actually watching the TV.  He stayed like that for at least half-an-hour!

Today, I decided to finally try some gel in the Chick-a-buns' hair.  He certainly has enough of it.  Turns out, he has too much curl in it to hold any shape for any conceivable amount of time.

After the gel-party, I started to fill up some bottles of water for our budding food storage, and gave Chick-a-buns a pear to keep him busy.  And, boy it did. . .

Below is the Chick-a-buns playing catch with the pear.

Putting the pear in the dishwasher.

Trying it out on his foot.

And trying it without pants.

The pear kept him entertained for awhile, but eventually he got tired of it.  And then, just plain tired.  So Chick-a-buns and I went down for a little nap. (Watch out - no make-up, or shower :))

I hope you don't mind all the pictures of Chick-a-buns.  I sure don't.

Toys Just Aren't Enough

Here is Gabe with his toys.  Everyday (almost), while Phil is at school (because he would probably moan seeing the huge mess we make), Gabe and I dump out his toy box in the middle of the room.  Yes, this pink diaper box is his toy box, and it works beautifully.

Despite the fun-ness of the toys, however, unless it's a ball of some sort, Gabe resorts to playing with other things that tickle his fancy.  Kitchen items are always a big hit.

And today, Gabe discovered something else that he likes to play with/eat: laptop keys.  Yes, you heard/read me right. Laptop keys.  Phil and I looked over at him standing up to the couch.  And he was just a-chewing away.  I couldn't remember giving him anything to eat, so I stuck my finger into his mouth, rather carefully mind you, to avoid the fangs, and drew out this:

Quickly, Phil and I looked down at his laptop, and sure enough, the 0 was missing! Oh boy, nothing is out of his reach!

Immortality

You may all be thinking that you are about to read a post about the immortality and the eternal life of man, and while a discussion on 2 Nephi or Alma or even Moses would produce some great ponderments, the immortality I'm about to write about is of a different kind: cell reproduction.

I just finished a book, at the suggestion of my friend Nicole, who recently graduated in English Teaching, which means she really knows her stuff when she recommends a book. This book is called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Very interesting biography of the woman whose cells were the first to be reproduced indefinitely. These cells were used in laboratories all over the world to find the cure for polio, to test the effects of space travel on humans, and to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy on cancer patients.  This book explores the woman whose cells were stolen from her and the effects that this knowledge had on her descendents.  Makes for an interesting discussion on the rights of patients vs. the rights of doctors/researchers.

Solitaire

Who says you can't play ball by yourself? Gabe does it almost everyday in the kitchen :)

Bubble Buddies

Gabe started his Bubble Buddies swim class at the Aquatic Center today.  I signed us up with his two friends, Levi and Austin, and their moms.  Other than the water being a lot cooler than the pool at Grandma and Grandpa Ross', he really had a lot of fun. 

 The three of them are the only ones in the class, so we have the entire pool to ourselves.  We float them around on these large, flat, square floaties and let them kick and get used to the buoyancy.  The whole time, Gabe just lay there drinking the water that had pooled in the middle of the floatie.  He also tried to crawl around on top of it.

We floated them on their backs and had them play with rings and balls, and we even dunked them, which, remarkably, they didn't hate.  Here's Gabe pictured with Levi.