GRRRRRRR!!!

Gabe made a GREAT Hulk! He had been telling me for weeks that he wanted to be a "green hook like is on my grabbing crane". I had NO clue how to dress him as a hook. Then the other night as he was flipping through the Toys R Us circular, he said "there it is Daddy, THAT's what I want to be, the GREEN HULK!". Now that one, I can handle! And I did!!

He also has these big giant "hulk hands" that make noises when you hit with them (yeah, I know, good lesson there). One of things they say is Hulk's classic line "you're making angry...you won't like me when I'm angry". Gabe's version... "you're making me ice cream... you won't like me when I'm ice cream". LOL!!!!

Happy birthday to me! I am THREE!!

Gabe had a wonderful birthday weekend! Thanks to all of you that came to the party and/or helped make it so wonderful. There were some snags and glitches but the actually party couldn't have been any better. No one got attacked by fire ants, some of the kids actually used the slip n slide, the well didn't run dry, and there was plenty of food to go around. I'd say I great day for sure!

The glitches...

The first glitch was discovered Thursday evening. The playground of course was Gabe's major present from us. Well, for birthday, and Christmas and Easter next year... you get the drift! The playground is a big deal!! But the little guy needed something to open from his mama and daddy, even if he didn't know he did, he did. So I ordered him some new DVD's. One of them is "I Love Big Trains". This is one I've been wanting to get for a long time. They advertise it on his "All About John Deere" DVD and he seems like he'd like it. Then I got him a two pack of "Mighty Machines". It was a DVD of real life dozers and garbage trucks and all kinds of fun "guy" things to keep him occupied for hours. Thursday night I got them out of the box and wrapped them up tight. After I wrapped them, I realized that something was rattling around so I opened them back up to take a peek. One of the DVD's in the two pack was broken clean in half and little shards of DVD were floating around in the holder. That was not cool. I ordered them through Amazon and was able to go online right away and get a replacement headed our way but I had to pack up BOTH DVD's in that set to send back. Obviously it didn't affect Gabe any - he was none the wiser, but it hurt his mommy to not have all of his gift there and ready for him to open at his party.

The big glitch...

The cake. The weekend before the party I decided to take Gabe into Publix with me so he could pick out his own cake this year. We flipped through the book and he settled on a sheet cake with construction equipment on it... Then he saw the pirate ship. He loves pirates as there are several Backyardigans pirate episodes and one on Curious George and various other shows. He wanted the pirate ship so of course, that's the one I ordered. I almost choked when the girl told me it was a $50 cake, but anything for our little boy, right? With the party being at 10am on a Saturday I scheduled to pick the cake up the day before. Who has time to run errands on a Sat morning before a 10am party right? So that was done and I went on about my (very busy) week.

On Friday I made the trip to pick up the cake. When they handed it to me it was in a HUGE box. I'm talking a really big thing here! I told the girl I wouldn't be able to fit that box in my fridge and would it be ok not refridgerated. She looked at it and said, "yep, since it's buttercream icing it should be fine. Just keep it in a fairly cool spot". So this is what I did.

Boy Gabe was proud of that ship! He kept asking for us to pick him up so he could peer down into the box. I was pretty proud of it too and was so excited about how neat it was going to be at his pirate theamed party in the morning when I brought that cake out with the sparkler candles on it! What a sight that would be. So I kept looking at it too. One time I walked by and peered down in the box and my breath caught. One half of the bow? The stern? Whatever the front part of the ship is called had fallen over and was laying on the little toy treasure chest. I quickly picked it back up and of course made a big mess of the icing. I didn't have any toothpicks so I cut the sticks off of some of the dum dum pops (I used the brown ones... Gabe won't eat the brown ones) and tried to stick the cake back together. Of course it looked awful but we joked about it hitting some rocks or running ashore. It was all a big fun joke...until I got up the next morning. You know, the morning of the 10am party...

and found the whole back end of the ship had slid off and was stuffed against the back of the box. It's 7:30am and I'm at a loss as to what I am going to do about a birthday cake for my baby boy. I called the bakery back and they had me bring in the cake. When I got there they looked at the cake and said yep, it was beyond help and offered me a nice $20 replacement sheet cake. In my sadness and stress, I took it as being the best deal I could get. I mean the boy just needed a cake right? Why I didn't insisit I take the cake back with me or why I didn't insist on my money back, I don't know, but if you are thinking hey, she really deserves that $50 back then yes, you are right and I will be going by there today and getting it. So no worries there. But it doesn't change the fact that I cried the whole way home because all I could think about was "what do I tell him when he asks 'where's my pirate ship'". And he did of course, but we played it up about how cool his bulldog cake was and he remembered I had popsicles so he asked for one of those and all was well with the world. Not my world, I was sad and distrought about having to serve the wrong cake, but all was well with his world and that's all that mattered. The irony is that it is now Tuesday and he still is yet to have eaten ANY of his cake. I guess he's just not a big fan of cake?

The success...

The birthday party itself was a huge success! I think I counted 14 kids, including Gabe and 22 adults all total. Everyone had a great time and like I said earlier, no one got eaten by fire ants which was a blessing. Some of the kids (not Gabe of course) actually participated in the slip n slide and everyone really enjoyed the playground. Gabe got a lot of nice new toys but not too many which is nice. You CAN have too many toys, believe me you can! But his loot was just perfect and we thank everyone that came and/or sent gifts or good wishes! A few small glitches aside, it really was a wonderful day.

This what the cake should have looked like. I didn't take pictures of the wreck. I wasn't thinking clearly enough but it would have made for some good pictures! Isnt' that a cool cake??!!

This is the cake we ended up with. It has a little bulldog on it...and some little pirate people standing around the sides.

The pirate birthday boy!

Happy birthday big boy! You'll always be our "baby boy" and we love you SO much!!

What IS a "deekel"?

When Gabe gets tired, or punchy, he brings up his "Silly word"...deekel. Like you can be driving down the road and say "Gabe, look at that dog". "That's NOT a dog, that's a DEEKEL". This weekend we went to Nana and Pa's. On the way down we passed some strange looking church on the side of the interstate. Daddy said, "what in the world is that" to no one in particular. From the backseat, Gabe chimes in with "that's a deekel museum". That one gave me and daddy quite a hardy laugh!!

Gabe has a birthday next month! Number THREE! We've picked him and Layla out a nice playground for his gift and daddy will be needing lots of help over the next several weekends to put it together! We need several strong men, at least two more drills, an impact wrench, and several adult beverages! It's all worth it in the end though! I can't wait to post pictures of Gabe playing on it. He is going to be over the moon with excitment!!

The Deer Whisperer

This weekend we had a little mini-vacation. We went to Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta, GA. We took the camper and stayed from Thursday til Sunday. There is so much to do there, Gabe really had a blast doing all of the fun and different things. On Friday we went to the Yellow River Game Ranch. There are all sorts of animals there. A lot of them are roaming free and will come up to you to be petted or fed. Gabe really enjoyed this as he is a real animal fan. Here are a few pictures:

Gabe's favorite part about the trip was the train ride. They have a "diesel train" (he's quick to point out that the train is indeed a diesel, not a coal or steam train) that takes you on a ride around the mountain. He rode it twice.

They also have a "laser show" where they project images on the side of the mountain and play music and have fireworks. He seemed to enjoy it but described it as "loud". He also pointed out that "it won't hurt you".

I was able to get a picture of him and Layla at the Antebellum Plantation and one of the three of us too.

I mean really, how cool am I??

These are a couple from the top of the mountain:

This picture is similar to one I took of Gabe and Daddy on top of Stone Mountain in 2006. There is an old post about it but of course it's one where the pictures aren't showing up!?!?! He's REALLY grown though! He was 8 months when we went last time.

He says and does the funniest things. We were laying in the bed the other night and out of the blue he said "Are you kidding me"? His voice tone was what made it so funny. He'll also say "I told you" and "Hellloooooo??? Are you listening to me/Is anybody in there?...". Where he comes up with this stuff, I don't know but he usually keeps me and Daddy laughing.

Happy Easter and other stuff

Well, we missed a Happy Easter post! Gabe and Layla's mommy is a very busy mommy who doesn't get to update as often as she wants! Easter was wonderful! Gabe wasn't really sure what to think about the Easter bunny coming by and dropping off gifts. The Easter bunny left his poop all over our living room and it looked vaguely like jelly beans which Gabe loves so I think maybe that confused him just a bit. Plus the Easter bunny doesn't get the "pre-holiday recognition" that Santa does so he just didn't realize that something big was supposed to happen at his house on Easter morning. But once he warmed up to the idea, he was pretty stoked about his loot. Especially about his "snowplow" aka "garbage truck".

He was also an old hat at the egg hunts. He had one at school and then the one at home with his cousins Jessie and Eli. He had no problem zipping around the yard and filling his basket with eggs! And he also had no problems eating the candy that was inside of them!

I took these of him in his "Easter get up" the weekend before:

This is really funny to me. For some reason after we had a wonderfully nutritious supper from McDonald's, he decided the happy meal box would make a great hat. I kind of think so too, don't you?

Tastes Like Chicken

Poor Gabe has been getting nosebleeds very often lately. I think it's a sinus infection gone awry. He gets it honest; I was plagued with them as an adolescent. Yesterday he got one and I had him lie down on the bed with his head tilted back. I could tell from the funny noises he was making in his throat that it was running down. Been there, done that - Yuck!!

Me: Is it running down your throat buddy?

G: Yeah.

Me: Does it taste pretty yucky?

G: It tastes like chicken.

Me: ??????????????

The Beaver

WARNING - Dead animal mentioned - Read at your own risk...

Yesterday evening Gabe came running inside asking for my camera. Um, yeah, like I'm just going to surrender it over to a two year old!! Daddy has been trying to rid our beloved pond of some resident beaver and otters. I know, why can't we all just get along?? We COULD if the beavers and otters wouldn't eat all of our fish (apparently they prefer the biggest ones) and if they wouldn't work so hard to damage the structural integrity of our pond and damn. So anyway, Daddy believes we need to be rid of the critters. So he put out some traps. Apparently, last night he caught one of the beavers! I guess it's pretty cool for Gabe to get to see an animal such as this up close like that. We all bundled up and went down for a beaver photo session. I'll provide links to the pictures and you can just click on them so as not to upset anyone who might not want to see the dead beaver! ;-)

One here

And here

And seriously, just how redneck are we? One here

The cool part was that I managed to talk Daddy into snapping a few of me with the kids. Sadly, there just aren't too many of these around!

Pearly Whites and the Backseat Driver

Pearly Whites
Yesterday was Gabe's first trip to the dentist! He did awesomely!! If you have a child, and have the option, I highly recommend a pediatric dentist over a regular one. First off, we went in a little "consult" room where I had to sign our lives away and give up my credit card info, all in the name of keeping my little one's teeth from one day rotting out! But in that room, there were tons of toys and cool stuff and there was even a "Mr Chris". Mr Chris was our "distraction". I guess that's his official title? He is basically there to play with Gabe, make him a happy little man, and distract him enough to make him think there is nothing but good times to be had when visiting the dentist office. He showed Gabe a movie about a little dog's first trip to the dentist. He played football with him, gave him a cool new matchbox car and let him take a ride in the chair! Gabe did great and as always and wowed everyone with his infectious laugh and his astute personality. Everyone got a kick out of his funny expressions and how sharp he was with the questions he asked and things he said. He really did impress me and everyone with how he didn't seem to be scared at all and he was so cooperative. He DID decide he was ready to go when "Mr Chris" tried to recline his chair. He didn't think that was too cool. But when the dentist came in, she showed me how to hold him in my lap, with her knees to mine and lay Gabe down between us with his head in her lap. She was able to "count" his teeth and scrape a little bit of plaque off each one.

He got a good report! No cavities! He does have a little spot on one of his back teeth that is where the enamel didn't form good and it could potentially turn into a cavity, but for now it looks fine. He also has an abnormal frenulum in his upper lip. The frenulum is the piece of muscle that attaches your lip to your gums (stick your tounge up there, you should feel it). His attaches abnormally close to the tops of his front teeth and that could potentially cause problems because that area is overly sensitive to trauma. That means he could have pains when he is brushing his teeth because of it. It could also be a problem should he ever have a bad fall that involves his mouth or gets hit there. There is a procedure they can do to clip it if needed but we'll cross that road if we need to. That, and the one under his tounge that is also a little longer than normal and that is probably what makes him say some of his words so cute-like. Like the way he says "duckling" with a heavy German-like accent (DUCK-kling)! Personally, I think it's adorable but if it's something that needs fixing one day, we'll certainly do it.

The wonderful way he acted and the way he strutted around the office like he'd been there a million times and then wrapped the entire staff quickly around his finger, makes me so proud to say that he's mine...

Backseat Driver
On the way home from the dentist, it was raining and nasty. A car stopped in front of us to turn left. I saw the car and slowed down for the car. I guess it felt like to Gabe that I wasn't slowing down enough because all of a sudden I hear "STOP" from the backseat! I was a lot suprised and somewhat unsure that I heard him right and that he was even talking to me and not the Wonder Pets movie he was enthralled in, so I said, "What did you say"? And in his normal, nonchalant manner, he said, "I said stop mama". Ah, my little backseat driver! Just wait til you're a teenager my son...

Funny times

First of, I need to announce, as promised, the arrival of sweet baby Layla Grayce on Decmember 2, 2007! For more about Gabe's baby sister, you can now read her blog, Layla Land complete with interesting tidbits and links to her pictures!

Now about Gabe. He is such a little stinker! He says the funniest things.

The other night, Layla was fussing. Daddy was holding her in the bed and Gabe was laying beside them. He turned to Layla and said "Layla, be patient, mommy is coming back".

He has this thing for trucks. He LOVES them. For some reason though, he is terrified of the garbage truck. It likes to come while he is on the playground at daycare and pick up garbage form the dumpster that is right beside the playground. I guess he hates the noises it makes because he gets all upset and even shakes when it shows up.

For some reason he gets the garbage truck and a snow plow confused. Not sure why, it's not like we have a ton of snowplows in Georgia! Anyway, the other day, Layla was once again fussing and he said "it's OK Layla, it's just a snowplow. Don't cry". So sweet...

He is very smart and very vocal for his age. He can say things that you never would think a two and half year would even think about. He tests us too. Quite often. The other evening he decided at 9pm that he would finally eat his supper - a shells and cheese dish that I made. He called it spaghetti. He really enjoyed his "spaghetti" and told his daddy so. So daddy told him the polite thing to do would be to come and tell mommy that he enjoyed his supper. He said his ever so famous "NO". He is bad about that... Anyway, it was bedtime and he and daddy were arguing because he wouldn't tell me he enjoyed his supper and daddy went to bed without Gabe (Gabe has been sleeping in Daddy's bed a lot lately and I have been sleeping in Layla's room...a whole nother story). Anyway, Gabe realized that he had been shut out of Dadddy's room so he grabbed his pillow off the couch, looked me square in the eye and said "enjoyed supper mama". He SOOOOO knew just what he was doing. He tests us, he really does.

But he is precious and it's hard to stay mad at him when he is upsetting us. He DOES say and do the funniest things. And when it all seems like it's hopeless, he'll wrap those little arms around my neck and say "I love you mama". Be still my beating heart...