We've had a visitor

And a not so welcome visitor at that. Because you see, she is the reason for Baby Gabe's (and mommy's) sleepless nights. But alas, she has finally graced our home with her presence...

She is the Tooth Fairy

Yesterday when I picked Gabe up from daycare, his teacher excitedly proclaimed to me that Gabe has a tooth coming in. I'm not sure how "exciting" it really is. I mean yes, it's neat to be able to say "my baby has a tooth". Especially when other babies his age have already started the tooth adventure; but this new appendage has reeked way too much havoc on our household in the last few days! We finally get Gabe over that yucky URI and he has some great nights, and then this fair lass decides to make a visit. Well, I guess that explains the 2am playtime from three nights ago! Last night he woke up and cried out plenty, but thankfully he was able to soothe himself back to dream land each time. But don't think it didn't wake me up too! And Daddy says he woke up too but I don't know. He sure does snore a lot when he is "awake"?!? The new little pearl isn't quite visible yet - it hasn't "erupted". But you can feel it trying to poke through his gum. Wish us luck for the next few days? Weeks? However long this madness lasts...

Things you can do at 2am

• Cry
• Wake mommy up
• Cry some more
• Make mommy pick me up and cuddle me
• Cry harder
• Poot
• Take gas drops
• Cry very loud
• Make Daddy get out of bed to see what the problem is
• Make mommy turn on the lights so I can see (Daddy has gone back to bed)
• Get on the big bed with mommy and play with the boppy toy thingy
• Stop Crying
• Start smiling
• Discover the big stuffed moose on the bed with us
• Grin a big toothless grin at the moose
• "Get" the moose
• Pet the moose
• Give the moose my paci
• Wipe the moose's nose with my silkie
• Discover the Taggie toy (Tags are cool!)
• Bring the Taggie toy back to the glider with me and mommy
• Turn out the light and rock with mommy
• Listen to mommy hum songs in my ear
• Fall asleep
• Wake up when mommy tries to lay me down
• Get back in the glider for more rocking
• Repeat three more times
• Finally let mommy lay me down in the bed (3:15am)
• Sleep...
• Cry some more (5:30am)

"The Moose"...

Not really sure what was going on at our house last night. I think I waited a little too late to feed Baby Gabe his supper and considering he ate the WHOLE JAR of some concoction that contained sweet potatoe, well, you do the math...

It wasn't all bad thoough. As tired as I was, I thought it was so absolutely adorable when I told Gabe to give his paci to the moose and he did. He had this huge grin on his face and he kept petting the moose and giving him love. I do believe that Gabe has gotten a love for all things fuzzy from me! He will certainly pet the kitties whenever they get close enough. He squeels in delight when they come around and get within his reach.

Thankfully the sickies are all gone for Gabe (I hope so. I assume last night was just gas issues). But now Daddy has the sickies. He has a sinus infection and PINK EYE! That all really stinks too because he isn't supposed to be messing with Gabe cause we don't want to pass it to him. So that means mama is in charge and solely responsible for any sleepless nights that may occur in the next few days!! Fun times!!

The fun we had before he got sick!

We really did have a good time last weekend in the mountains! Here are some pictures from our trip:

Gabe decided to get in a quick nap before we started out for the day...

This is him getting ready or the "hike" up to the waterfall...

And some shots of the falls and the trip up to them. This is Anna Ruby Falls - part of the USFS outside of Helen, GA.

And the view from our window from our room at the lodge...

And then there's this one (Daddy is going to kill me for posting this but I think it's important to capture EVERYTHING in his little life). This look...

...means get me to a changing table! And quickly please!!!!
:-p

Sickness update:
Gabe is still a sick little feller. He's having a real hard breathing through his nose still so he is having a hard time eating and sleeping. Luckily the fever did finally go away earlier in the week but he has a severe upper respiratory infection. I did just get a report from his Grammy - she is keeping him this week - that he ate his whole bottle!! That is a huge improvement from what he has been doing the past couple of days! It's been so hard on him to suck that he actually will start crying when he sees his bottle! So I am very happy and relieved that he ate that. Maybe he is starting to get better. I sure hope so!! He (and Daddy and I too) appreciate the prayers and well wishes.

And once again... the Land of Sick Baby!

Poor little Gabe is sick again. Yesterday (Sunday) we noticed that he was running a little low grade fever. This was while we were still on our mountains trip. I gave him Tylenol and it helped some, but the fever would just keep going back up when it would wear off. When we got home around lunchtime, it had gone up to 101.7 so I tried Motirn instead. The motirn brought it down into the 99's but when the motrin wore off it would go back up again and it went all the way up to 104.1 yesterday evening. I took him to see the dr this morning and he couldn't find anything definite wrong with him. He said it was probably some kind of virus, maybe the flu, and that we should watch him closely and that the office would check on us in the morning. It's so scary having a sick little one - especially with such a high fever. Please send up some prayers that his fever will break soon and that he will be back to his jolly little self again.

On a brighter note, with the exception of the fever that started yesterday, we had a great time in the mountains this weekend. The weather was nice on Saturday; although it was a bit cool. We bundled baby Gabe up good and took a little .4 mile hike up to Anna Ruby Falls. It was really pretty and Gabe seemed to enjoy himself. It was a good opportunity for him to "people watch" which is one of his favorite things to do. Then we went into Helen for lunch and to stroll around on the streets. Helen is a little bavarian like village with lots of little shops and resturants. It's a neat little town and I think Gabe really enjoyed his first trip there. I do have some pictures but will have to post them later since my morning was a little disrupted by a sick baby. Stay tuned...

He'll be comin 'round the mountian

We're going to the mountains!! We are leaving this afternoon to take Baby Gabe on his first little family get a way. He has been to the mountains already once - he went camping with us and Grammy and Pop and Nana and Pa back in October, but this is his first trip just Gabe, Mama and Daddy. We are staying at the Lodge at Unicoi in Helen, Ga. We don't really have any plans; we're just going to relax and get away and hopefully eat some boiled peanuts! I think Daddy has plans to wet a hook in the Chatahoochee - we'll see...

Check back next week for an update and pictures! Have a great weekend!!

Sittin Tall

Ok, I think it is "Walkin Tall" but we're not there yet. But check this out...

Gabe is all of a sudden sitting up great by himself! You can park him on the floor and give him a toy (those that light up and make noise are his favorites) and he will sit and play forever! I love it that I can set him on the floor when we get to the daycare in the mornings. We've come along way from the days where I had to strap him in a swing or a bouncy seat so that the "big kids" wouldn't get him. Now he is a big kid!! He will sometimes topple over, but his balance is getting better and better everyday. I guess next he will figure out how to go from laying down into this fun new sitting position. Then we will have to lower his crib mattress I guess! I'm not looking forward to that (i.e. short mommy here!). Oh well; I do believe that it is inevitable and probably coming very soon!

And here are some cute tubby time pictures that Daddy took of our little "Dr Seuss" baby last night...

Gabe loves his bath; even when he is dog tired like he was last night! He likes to play with the cup that I use to rinse his hair and he likes to "chase" his little rubber ducky around the tub. The ring kind of limits his reach but he will still try and get it if it is within sight!

Weekend Hyjinks

Saturday morning was interesting at our house. Daddy and I got up and bummed around for a little while then decided to hurry up and fix and eat breakfast before Gabe woke up. We were beginning to wonder if he was going to sleep all day and just as we were getting up from the table, the little fellow let out a yell and commenced to crying. I went in all nonchalant to get him up and just cracked up when I saw what had happened. See, Gabe has always had this little bear that lives on the headboard of his crib.

He has always lived there - he is kind of wedged between the crib and the wall so that he doesn't fall into the crib. Well, apparently on Saturday morning, he DID fall into the crib and proceeded to attack Baby Gabe!! Gabe was wedged in the crib sideways and the bear was on top of him. He had a grip on his neck though, and he wrestling him for all he was worth, but he was still crying for a little help from the grown folks. I did save Gabe from that monster bear, but not before I called Daddy in to take a look. Then I made sure the bear was tightly wedged back in his spot. He gets one more chance - if he jumps down on my baby again, he will be banished to the toy box!

On Sunday, we all went to Toys R Us because they had Baby Einstein DVDs on sale! I don't know about Gabe, but I was tired of watching the same three movies over and over so I picked out three new ones for him. I was browsing the clothes and Daddy was getting antsy so I told him I saw some shades up near the front of the store and to go pick Gabe out a pair since he would need some for the beach (and for those bright afternoons on the way home from daycare!). Gabe picked out a very special pair - he said he liked them because they matched Pa Jerry's SSR. They have silver flames on the side that are the same color as the SSR! Here he is styling in his new shades...

I couldn't help but crack up everything I looked at him with them on!

And here are his very first school pictures taken a few weeks ago (6 months old). (I made them kind of grainy - didn't mean to but you can probably get the picture (no pun intended))!

Music Lessons

As I've said before, we are hoping that one day Gabe will be a musically inclined little fellow. We need a mandolin or fiddle player in our house. Actually, it would be great if he was one of those kids that could play ANY instrument, then he could just play whichever one we happened to be lacking at the time. This weekend, he got lessons in both guitar and piano...

I thought it may also be a good time to list some of things that Gabe is doing now. The list is growing so fast!

• Laughing - ALOT!! Seems like everything and everyone just cracks him up these days. He has also added sqealing to his talents! He is quite good at it!
• Eating several new foods. His list consists of pears, peaches, applesauce, carrots, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, and green beans. I must say though, he was not too fond of the green beans! Sweet potatoes are his favorite vegetable and pears are still his favorite fruit.
• He is THIS CLOSE to being able to sit unassisted. He can do it for a second or two, but then he topples either to one side or backward. He can sit pretty well in the Boppy pillow by himself, but you have to watch the front of him because he will tend to fall forward.
• He is still sleeping great every night. He usually sleeps 11-12 hours every night and very seldom wakes up.
• He sits in his highchair for meals and is very content to play with some toys and watch us eat if it isn't exactly time for him to eat. Here is a picture of him in his highchair...

Yesterday when I picked him up from the daycare, the director was telling me how much she has enjoyed watching him grow over the past couple of months and what a great baby he is, with such a wonderful personality. It really makes a mommy proud when someone else points out something that she already knows about her baby! He DOES have a sweet personality; he grins at everybody and is very attentive. He craves attention, but he doesn't beg for it. He is laid back and cool. He is so much fun!