Best Year Ever!

This little chunk of awesome turned 1 today!

Allow me to introduce you to one-year-old Gabe:

Gabe is really fast and loves to eat.  He likes to figure things out and is really smart.  He loves giving hugs, but only kisses on occasion.  He likes to listen to music, good music, and he does a little bum dance once in awhile.  He likes reading...if  the book is really colorful, makes noise, or has a picture of a piano in it.  Speaking of pianos, Gabe likes to tickle the ivories and climb on the ivories (he uses our bed as a stepping stool). He loves being chased, tickled, and thrown on the couch or bed.  He talks all day long, and laughs at his own jokes.  Gabe still likes going for walks, if the weather's nice, and he enjoys a car ride here and there, especially if he's tired. Every night after his bath, he tears all of the books off our bottom shelves and runs from one end of the room to the other, and back, no less than 20 times.  Gabe melts our hearts every morning with his huge smile. Here is a short list of some of his favorite things:

blueberries

Andrea Bocelli

balls

yogurt

throwing things

pineapple

the spice drawer

meatballs

Sissel

oranges

running around outside

lasagna

anything electronic 

string cheese

batteries from the remote control

Now for a photo journal of his day today. WARNING: I took sooooo many pictures today, and even though I weedled them down to the bare minimum, you may want to save this post for later, if you don't have the time now.

Apparently Gabe's skin doesn't respond well to frosting.

Neither does our tub.

Here's to another great year, Gabe!

Quarantined

That's kind of how we feel right now.

We've all been sick for the last few days and aside from some very pressing obligations, we've been confined to our home. Nothing deathly serious.  But, enough nose running to chafe the upper lip; enough coughing to burn, dry and permanently damage the throat; enough headaches to make you confused; enough fevers to boil water; and enough body aches to...well, I don't know.  I (and Phil, when he's home) nap when Gabe naps, so our home's messiness scale is mounting.  We've eaten a LOT of oranges, mostly Gabe.  And, I haven't made any sweets (what the?!).

What have we been doing?

Admiring the flowers Phil and Gabe brought home for me after they went grocery shopping on Saturday (this was before they starting feeling the ickies).

Studying like cRaZy for block tests Monday (p.s. Phil rocked them!).

A little chasing.  Gabe always had to be holding at least 3 items during the chase.

Piano-ing.

We're all ready for things to be back to normal.  Here's hoping tomorrow is that day!

Na-Na-Na-Na

I've been delaying posting something new on the old bloggio for sometime because I've been dreading the recap from Christmas (Not that we didn't enjoy it!  In fact, we had a blast in Utah!  But, I don't want to write a long, detailed description of our whole break.). So, I'm not going to.  Instead, I'll tell you all about what's new here.
One thing: bottle-weaning.  Gabe calls his bottle "na-na-na-na." Don't ask me why, but it went from "ba-ba-ba" to "na-na-na." And I've been hearing "na-na-na-na" a lot recently.  We're trying to get him more used to a sippy cup, but he isn't having it.  Here's what he thinks of the sippy cup:

Secretly sneaks it from the room.

And, dumps it in his favorite I-don't-need-this-anymore place:

Other than that, we've been getting back into the regular grind here in Kirksville.  And by 'we', I mean me and Gabe.  Phil came home a week early because he was just so eager to break the old books out again :)