Gymnastics

When we moved to Edmond we quickly found out that Gabriel did not enjoy Kindermusik here at all.  A friend suggested we try him in a local gymnastics tot class that her daughter is in.  Oh my gosh...she hit the nail on the head.  Every week when I tell him we have gymnastics he yells, "LET'S GO!!!" and runs to the door to go out to the car.  He loves it so much.  And while a little timid the first couple of weeks, only wanting to do the slides he now will try all of it...slides, rope walls, rock walls, trampolines, zip lines, practicing rolls, walking on balance beams and crawling on bars, tunnels, and the trapeze!  I'm so impressed by him.  :)

I'm sorry the video is sideways.  I wasn't thinking when I was taking it.  I was just trying to keep him in the picture.  I'll have to do another one sometime.




He is also getting more interactive while we sing which is great!

4ht of July Fun in the Sun

And in the sun is right!  Brian's dad came into town with his girlfriend, Kathy, for a visit.  It was our first time to meet Kathy and she is such a lovely lady.  Wonderful with the kids.  They were interested in doing something with the little ones, and had heard that our zoo is one of the top 5 zoos in the country (yes, it is!) and so the decision was made to head there on Sunday.  I'm not sure we all had our heads on straight in making that decision.  Sure...lets go see some animals in the 103 degree heat!

And while it was quite toasty out, overall I think everyone had a good time, and was thanking God for air conditioning when we got home.

Pictured:  Granddad (Jeff), Gabriel, Paisley...oh wait...that's a goat.  Honest mistake.  And Brian.

Pictured: Kathy, Lorelai, and Paisley.  Darn it...I keep doing that.  I mean a goat.

Gabriel is like a little animal whisperer.  They all love him.  Oh, and thanks for our awesome hat, Grandma Wood!  It really came in handy!!!!  (And doesn't he look like he should work at the zoo with it on?)


Pictured:  Lorelai and Kathy.

We got to see the little elephant baby that was born not too long ago.

But, by that point Mr. Gabriel was VERY tired.  He fell asleep shortly after this.  And Lorelai had already fallen asleep previously.  It was much too hot.

Lorelai was a fan of the food though.  She got to try her first hot dog.  Here she is showing you a yummy piece of hot dog bun.  Yummy!  ;)

Lorelai - 10 Months (A few days late.)

 My little busy bee is 10 months old now!  I say it every month, but it never ceases to be true...I can't believe it!  What a fun loving girl she is.  She could put a smile on anyone's face in seconds, is my little chatterbox, and loves food.  My kinda girl.  She's a little drama queen...she can bring out those tears in seconds flat over the littlest things if she doesn't get her way.  Especially where Gabriel is involved.

She's working on clapping (she does it with objects but not with her hands yet).  We randomly wave so we're working on giving that some purpose.  She's been working on standing and getting her balance in the middle of the room for a couple of weeks now.   But, yesterday she took her first steps!!!

I'm just so proud of her.  She's a little firecracker bursting with energy and she brings such joy to my each and every day.

And now for my apology.  Sorry for the crummy photo, but when you're dealing with this:
You just take what you can get.  :)

Lorelai - 1st Pool Experience

One of Gabriel's little friends turned 2 and had a little party at the pool.  The whole family got to go so Lorelai got to play with her little baby friend as well.  This was Lorelai's first time in the pool, and despite being tired she didn't freak out.  She did well, splashed, let us lay her on her back in the water, and just generally enjoyed floating around with Mommy.  Daddy took Gabriel on the big water slide.  Sorry...no pictures of that, but that was a HUGE hit with him.  lol  He was not a happy camper when we told him it was time to head home.  He could have done that all day.  Too bad lugging a 30 lb. toddler up the many steps is so exhausting.

First we got to partake in birthday cake and ice cream.  Gabriel wouldn't touch either.
Lorelai shoveled hers into her mouth faster than I could put it on her plate.

My little water baby.  (She stole my sunglasses.)

 This isn't at the pool, but rather at our house on a Monday morning.  You can find us sitting on the front porch watching the garbage truck and many other trucks that are traversing up and down our road since they're building houses in our neighborhood.  Not much longer though...there's only one remaining empty lot on our street.
I love how in most pictures of them you can see how opposite they are of each other.  Gabriel is all relaxed and just sitting back watching.  Lorelai is perked up and ready to go anywhere at a moments notice.
I know I owe you a Lorelai 10 month shot.  Please forgive the delay.  It's been a busy few days here.

All Kinds of New Things Going On


This week Gabriel begins potty training.  We'll see how it goes.  No major pressure, but he is showing signs that he's ready so why not try?

Lorelai has become quite the mischief maker lately.  Getting into everything.  You know those little rubber ends that fit onto something and fall off, but you can never figure out what they belong to?  So you hang onto them, and then you throw them out because for the life you you can't stare at them any longer and you can't figure it out so it must not be from anything important?  Well, I found out what they belong to. The door stoppers that Lorelai has so "innocently" been playing with.  I watched her pull one off today.  The other days I was sitting nearby playing with Gabriel so I didn't notice her yank the ends off.  And I just threw them away, and trash pick up was this morning!  Ugh!!!  

This is what Lorelai looks like after she hears a firm but nice "No-no." I didn't even have to remove her from it.  Just stopped instantly.  So at least she listens, but unfortunately we're going to be seeing a lot more of this face in the near future.



And here is my new Nissan Quest minivan.  I don't miss the Murano as much as I thought I would.  This one is still a CVT and drives like a dream.  Seriously awesome.  And now I don't have to worry about dinging anyone elses car with my doors when they catch in this crazy Oklahoma wind!  Today the stroller got blown over backwards with Lorelai in it while I was loading Gabriel in the car.  Luckily she didn't seem to notice but I freaked out (and Gabriel approrpriately pointed and said, "Oh no! DADY!!!")

A Couple More Videos

Gabriel is having a ball with his new "tash" truck.  And his favorite way to play is with his "tash" movie on at the same time.  Yes, we actually have a video with a 30 min. segment on the Garbage Dump.  :)  And woohoo for Gabriel!  He is staying in bed until his Toddler clock lights up.  And a little after.  Which means he's now waking up at about 6:20 everyday.  A vast improvement of the last 3 months of 5 a.m.



Lorelai is really coming along with her walking (push toy assisted of course).  Here she says "dog" and waves "hi" a few times.

Vintage Amanda

My mom sent me this photo the other day.  Many people have mentioned that my mom and I look alike. We never see it.  But, in this picture, other than the hair color my mom pointed out to me that we sort of look alike.  And if that's the case I'm happy about that.  Isn't my mom beautiful?  (She'll say she isn't, but she's wrong.)  Oh, and I notice my cherished blankie is in this picture.  That thing didn't look so pretty by the time my parents decided I was done with it.  More like strings.  lol

Oh, and check out my brother's paci holder.  No way would they sell anything like that these days! (Which makes me think...I wonder if Gabriel's thumb sucking is genetic.  If so...I apologize for your future orthodontist visits Buddy.)

I think I need to get a picture of me as a baby, from my mom, so we can compare all three of us to see if we resemble each other.

Video Catch Up

Gabriel let me know that our blog was seriously lacking in videos.  So I figured I better fix that for him.  :)

So we'll start with a video from yesterday.  The kids were both playing in the play room side by side.  Lorelai was having fun with the ball popper, and Gabriel was enjoying loading and dumping Stinky the Garbage Truck.  I'm constantly amazed by how quickly Lorelai is picking things up.  She is waving pretty well now.  She knows how to put the balls back in the popper (something Gabriel didn't really figure out until about 10-11 months old).  And at about 19 or 20 seconds you'll hear her say "a ball."  I kid you not.  Gabriel is a little quieter while playing, but isn't afraid to let his sister know when she has encroached on his space.  He's upset at one point because he had a hard time getting a block to fit in the garbage truck.  My mom will enjoy hearing him say, "Oh no!"  lol



Then we move to this video from a few weeks ago in which Lorelai is attempting to climb over Paisley.  It started happily enough, but after getting stuck half way across a few times she got frustrated.   You'll hear her calling for me to help her with "Momma's" at about 40 sec. in.



This video is also from yesterday on our pretty much completed swing set.  We have 2 more things to attach and I need to get sand for the sandbox.  (Once I can figure out how to make a cover for it so the wind doesn't blow sand everywhere.)



And our final video for today is from???  lol  Not that long ago though.  Anyway...Gabriel and Brian were outside and this was right before Lorelai's bedtime so she was in her pj's and not allowed to go out. So she watched them through the door instead.  And this is why my glass doors are always dirty.  lol



I'll come back soon with pictures of our brand new Nissan Quest minivan!!!!!!!!  :)  SO EXCITED!!!!!  But, for now I figure this is good.

In other random news...Lorelai is pretty much getting fed up with formula.  (Like my little pun?)  I hope the ped. will give us the okay to switch to cows milk like our one in Houston did at Gabriel's 9 month appointment.  We have Lorelai's wellness check up next Monday.  Gabriel is steadily adding to his vocabulary and stringing more and more words together.  He even says, "I want more please."  (It sounds more like "Iwamo, deez."  lol  But, it melts my heart.  Such a sweetie pie.

Memorial Day

Brian and I decided to take the kids out on a little excursion for Memorial Day.  Mostly because the three of us (mom and kids) were getting restless from being at home 2 days in a row.  We considered several places...the zoo (I predicted it would be too crowded)...the Orr Family Farm (only open on Saturday)...the Oklahoma Railroad Museum (only open Friday - Sunday, what odd days)...and then we settled on the Science Museum.

We had a good time.  I was less than impressed by the museum and really don't have a huge desire to go back there.  Especially for the price of an adult ticket.  But, Gabriel still seemed to enjoy himself.  Sadly for little Lorelai there wasn't much to partake in except mommy getting to do some face paint on her.  :)

Pardon the dazed expression.  She was sleepy.
 Although the children's area was a big fat bomb Gabriel did enjoy the giant tree house.  With a ridiculously tall slide, and all kinds of fun things up there.  (I would describe more but I was on Lorelai duty down below.)

Learning about pulleys.  Gabriel.  Not Brian.  Pretty sure Brian knows how a pulley works.  At least I hope he does.

 And the hit of the day for Mr. Gabriel.  The fish.  He loves fish.  Have I mentioned that he is now the proud owner of a Beta fish that he gets to feed after he cooperates while brushing his teeth?  Well, he is and he LOVES it.

Lorelai - 9 Months Old


I think it was just yesterday I was cuddling this little newborn in my arms, wasn't it???  And in the blink of an eye 9 months has flown by!  She got her first 2 teeth (finally!) and began standing and cruising the furniture.   We've tried her with the little push car we have to practice walking but she isn't quite ready for that yet.

She is weighing in at 20 lbs.  We're on completely big girl foods at breakfast and are slowly working our way in that direction for lunch and dinner.  This girl has a sweet tooth on her and really enjoys her carb-y breakfasts.  lol

Getting this picture was no easy task.  Gabriel was always happy to sit in one spot although attacking his sign.  Lorelai is all over the place.  Crawling off of the couch, attacking pillows, chewing on her little "month" number.  Just getting her to look at the camera for a second took about 5 minutes.  Such a busy little bee!

Hugging Them a Little Tighter Today

It has been quite a few days at our house.  The other day I had to perform the heimlich on Lorelai as she choked on her breakfast, we lost the contract on our house, and yesterday we had a close call with a possible EF4 or EF5 tornado.  And while yes...all of these things will (or already have) turned out okay for us the stories that are emerging after these tornadoes make me so sad, and scared.

We sheltered in our laundry room for the tornado.  It's supposed to be the safest room in our house.  In the interior and no windows.  But, after seeing and hearing of the devastation of people who were in their homes during this giant twister I know we need to get a shelter, like yesterday.

One particular story just makes me want to break out into tears, because if the tornado had moved just a few short miles closer it could have easily been us.  A pregnant mom in Piedmont, Oklahoma, was home, sheltering in her tub with her 15 month old son, 3 year old son, and 5 year old daughter.  The tornado came right through their home blowing them all in different directions.  (The father was out of town on business.)  The mom, 15 month old, and 5 year old were found and taken to the hospital in critical condition.  Since yesterday the 15 month old has passed away.  The 3 year old boy has not yet been found.  They have divers in the lake and rescue crews and dogs searching, but no sign of him yet.

And that is why today I'm hugging on these two a little bit tighter, because I don't know how I could go on if I lost both of them:




Cookies

Gabriel brought me a bag of peanut butter chips for cookies the other day and wanted to help me make them.  He had a great time on his little step stool helping me pour ingredients into bowls, mixing, and even cracking eggs.

Here he is explaining that Paisley would like to taste the dough for quality control reasons.  Lorelai just wants to climb the step stool.
 
 My little big boy helper...

 And just cause she's a sweetie pie in her little dress from Hawaii her Granddad sent her.

Touch a Truck

I found a little flyer at an indoor play place in Edmond about a Touch a Truck event at the local college supporting the food bank.  I thought it might be fun for Gabriel to be able to touch a real dump truck (that was what was pictured) and they were asking for a small donation of $2.  Well, we showed up today and there was an entire parking lot full of trucks, buses, and a helicopter!  Needless to say our truck loving son was in heaven.  There were sirens going, kids got to honk the horns, so much fun!  Best idea ever.


First stop...fire truck.


School bus.  He liked it from the outside but screamed, cried, and tried to climb over Brian to get off when Brian tried to take him inside.



Lookin' cool in his Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger shades.

THE GARBAGE TRUCK!!!  Or as Gabriel says it "TASH!!!!"

This was the hit of the outing for sure of course.  His favorite for a long time now.  He wanted to go inside, but the garbage man kept talking to him and that made him nervous.


The inconspicuous Narcotics Hummer.  lol


Cement mixers are cool too.

The bomb squad robot.

Daddy and Gabriel both enjoyed seeing the helicopter.  :)  Gabriel kept making his helicopter sound and pointing at the sky.

Another visit to the Garbage Truck.

More cement mixers. And he also noticed the ladders...another Gabriel favorite.

A giant flat bed.  He loved climbing on this thing.  It finally got so crowded that I had to take him off because I was afraid the big kids were going to knock him off of the top of it, and that would have been quite a fall.

At the top!  King of the flat bed!  Woo!!!

Lorelai would like to remind you that she was also present, accounted for, and as cute as ever.  And being so patient since it was her lunch time and we thought there would only be one truck there and we'd be gone for 15 minutes or so.  Such a little angel and sweet to her older brother.

My Beautiful Children...

Every once in a while we have wonderful moments like these when the kids are playing together, on their own.  So cute!  Gabriel was showing Lorelai his flash cards.  They were both giggling up a storm, and apparently Momma was not allowed as Gabriel kept shooing me out the door saying, "No.  Die-die!"  (Which is Gabriel speak for Bye-bye.)  There is a video, but YouTube is being finicky so I'll have to upload that later.  Anyway, Gabriel would close the door and run back to Lorelai and she'd laugh while he told her how he told me to leave.


 Gabriel loves his dog.  And I think she loves him just as much!
 Lorelai is standing, and somehow always manages to have food on her face.  She does love her food...cupcakes, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, bananas, you name it...this kid eats it.  Look how sweet she is staring out the window...or so I thought.  She was actually licking the window. Go figure.  lol  Tonight she also literally licked her plate of macaroni and cheese clean.  I wish the Flip camera had been handy to capture that priceless moment.

 Rainbow tonight!  This is after I was able to take both kids and the horse dog on a walk in a light rain on my own!  I amaze myself sometimes.  (If you've ever walked Paisley...or met her really...you will understand why this is such an amazing feat.)
 The horse goat dog.
 My sweet Gabriel and his crazy sweaty hair.
 Love him!
 All of the girls love him and those baby blues of his.

Twins!

No, I'm not having twins.  Lets just put that to rest right now!  lol

You may remember my mentioning Lorelai's resemblance to her Grandma Wood (my mom) in this post.


But, you don't really realize how much a person looks like someone else until you compare baby photos.  My Pop-pop isn't doing so well these days, and my mom and her brothers were at his house doing some sorting, cleaning, and organizing of belongings and she came across some old family photos.  She scanned a couple of her for me as I have often told her how much Lorelai resembles her to me, and she agrees with me.  They could be twins!  I wish I had taken a picture of Lorelai sitting in the same pose today, but I'm so excited to share this that I can't wait for tomorrow.  lol


Click on the picture to view it larger.  :)


It's even more wonderful that she looks like her Grandma because that is where she gets her middle name from.  How perfect is that?!  Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I couldn't ask for a better lady for my daughter to resemble in looks and personality!  :)  I'm so lucky to have you as my Mom and Grandma to my kiddos!!!!!!!!

Recent Happenings

This dog is not on my good side.  I finally convinced Brian to let her on the furniture because between the kids and trying to keep her from eating everything I was growing VERY tired of telling her to also stay off of the furniture.  As a mom I have learned to pick my battles.  This isn't one worth fighting to me right now.  She is also extremely lucky that this little boy loves her so much.
 We got some fun kid gardening kits.  Gabriel planted his tomato seeds and Lorelai's pumpkin seeds.  Lorelai played with her gardening tools and watched.  We set them outside.  They lasted one day, and then Paisley destroyed them all.
 I got Gabriel this little cardboard play house at Hobby Lobby for $8.  He is enjoying coloring the pictures in.  Paisley has enjoyed chewing on the roof when we're in another room.
 Here is cutie Lorelai in her new sun hat.  Paisley chewed off the strap on her old one in a spot where I can't repair it on my sewing machine.
 Being shy of her paparazzi.
Notice a pattern with Paisley.  She is very lucky I won't return a dog to the shelter for being a puppy, and that Gabriel is a big Paisley advocate.  As I say...I love her, but I don't always like her very much.

Lorelai - 8 Months Old!

I am hopelessly in love with this beautiful little girl:
 all 8 months old of her:
 I was not in love with trying to get these pictures though.  lol  Both kids are sick (we have dr. visits tomorrow), and when Lorelai wasn't trying to eat the number 8, she was eating my watch, or crawling off of the couch.  Luckily I don't have a hard time deciding between dropping my expensive camera v. saving my daughter from a fall on the head.  lol

So, yep...she is crawling!  Not quite as efficient as her brother, but she's getting around.  :)  She sits up with ease, and is now working on standing!  She practiced in the tub yesterday.  That left me a little freaked out.  Luckily I was there holding her arm as she practiced, but oh man!  There were quite a few splashes in the water, but she didn't seem to mind.  She is weighing in at 19.6 lbs.  And she is even beginning to associate the sounds ma-ma-ma with me, and da-da-da with Brian.  When she is looking for me (i.e. I'm in the kitchen and she is playing a safe distance away in the living room) she crawls towards me crying ma-ma-ma-ma!  And when she sees Brian she rambles off a bunch of da's.  Smart cookie this girl!
 I put her here in a standing position.  She was trying so hard to do it herself.
 The sweetest little angel face:
 And I love these little rolls.  She's 8 months old...they'll be gone soon.  And I will miss them so so so much!
However, I have my own tummy rolls...that I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of after 2 pregnancies.  I am now at 125 (3 lbs. below my pre-Lorelai pregnancy weight, and about 5 below my pre-Gabriel pregnancy weight I believe), but the rolls remain when I sit as Gabriel so nicely reminded me today as he was pinching them.