Tissue, please...

OK, so I've mentioned that Gabe is not the most sensitive of children. He's also not exactly snuggly or overly affectionate although he has become a bit more so as he has grown. However, this morning while watching Toy Story, after the scene where Andy's mom is trying to console him about losing Buzz and Woody, Gabe says, "She's a good mommy like you, isn't she?" Melt!

Which reminds me, last Sunday morning, Van got a chance to do his own share of melting. He had been putting in long hours the previous week, including working until 8:00 Friday evening and all day Saturday after which he and I went out to dinner, sans children, with my family to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Needless to say, Gabe, the consummate "daddy's boy", was desperately in need of some daddy-time. When he came into our room Sunday morning to discover that Van was actually there and not already gone to work, he exclaimed, "You get to stay home today, Dad! I love you so very much!"

And let the record show, Sam is saying "mama". Whether or not he knows what it means is beside the point! He's saying "mama" -- not "dada"!

Snippets

OK, just some little moments of interest from recent days:

While driving to the mall, Gabe noticed one corner of an intersection that had been cleared for development. It looks like a huge mountain of dirt and rock and felled trees. He said, "Mom, I wish I could play in that dirt." This was funny for a few reasons. First, I was struck by the irony of this very all-boy comment coupled with the fact that he was holding his beloved mermaid toy at the time he made it. Also, his tone was one of resigned longing; he knew there was no chance he was actually going to get to play in the dirt, but he just had to express the desire anyway.

Just out of the blue in the kitchen the other day, Gabe started singing, "But you gotta have friends...", which he immediately followed by yelling, "Stop singing!" Up to this point, most of his movie quotations have been Star Wars-related. This particular gem was from Shrek. Yesterday, he said, "It's not about you, Bob." The Incredibles. He's also gotten pretty good at singing a lot of the words to his favorite songs, among them: "You've Got a Friend in Me", "I'm a Believer", "All-Star", "Magic Bus", "What is my Life?", "Where are we Running?", and of course, "Rosanna". Oh, and the dancing that accompanies the singing is quite amusing in itself.

Sam and Gabe have a new form of communication these days -- squealing. It's quite shockingly loud, startling, and hilarious at the same time. They just squeal back and forth at each other, and it gets louder and louder as they each get more and more excited.

Sam has started putting his hands together, almost like he's clapping. Today I started doing "Pat-a-Cake" with him, and he was putting his hands together and sort of singing along with me. He's got two bottom teeth now and is sitting up really well. Still no signs of crawling, but that kid can do some serious locomoting just by rolling and pivoting.

Yarn Update

At bedtime tonight I gleaned more information about the Yarn, who has apparently been making recent appearances in Gabe's dreams. According to Gabe, he is "a bad guy", which is defined this way in Gabe's world -- "he hurts people". This puts him in the same category with Darth Vader, General Grievous, Emperor Palpatine, Zurg, orcs, wicked witches, Randall the monster, sharks, and any number of other movie characters. (Conversely, "good guys"-- such as Luke, Obi-Wan, Buzz Lightyear, Frodo, Dorothy, Sully, and Nemo -- "help people". Don't you wish life was really that simple?) He lives behind the trees in our yard, but in his own yard. I pointed out to Gabe that it means he is on the other side of the fence, which seemed to bring some comfort momentarily. When I asked what the Yarn did, Gabe answered, "I was trying to put on my Georgia Bulldog, and he bited my head." Again with the biting thing. We have repeatedly told Gabe that the Yarn is not real. Not sure if this is sinking in or not. I hope he remembers this thing long enough to be able to tell us what it is someday.

And in the next bedroom, little Sam has been sleeping ever so much better lately. In fact, dare I say that it is becoming the norm for him to sleep through the night? Every last little superstitious fiber of my being is trembling with the utter certainty that I have completely ruined any chance of decent sleep tonight. He is also finally doing some rolling over. He did it for the first time at about 4 months, but he has only recently begun doing it on a regular basis. Half of me wants to urge him on, and the other half is dreading the progression of ever-increasing mobility this signals. This child is going to be into EVERYTHING! With Gabe, we could have probably saved our money and left the electrical outlet covers and cabinet locks at Babies R Us. The kid just didn't get into anything. The worst thing he ever put in the toilet was an enormous wad of toilet paper, and that only happened in the last few months after he started doing #2 there (by the way, we have been experiencing a bit of regression in that arena lately -- not fun). But I don't suppose there's any point in borrowing trouble. Maybe our predictions will prove to be erroneous, but I'm not placing any bets. Back to the rolling thing, though, last night he rolled over on his tummy while crying himself to sleep. When I went in to check on him and give him a paci, he was on his belly with his face turned to the side and holding his small teddy bear under his head like a pillow. He fell asleep that way -- too cute.

Super-Gabe Hits the Beach

I'm way overdue in writing this post. Our annual family vacation to St. George Island, Florida, ended a month ago this weekend, and I am just now taking the opportunity to put down some of the more memorable moments. Over all, it was probably the most enjoyable trip we've had even though there were certain concessions that had to be made considering we were travelling with a 6-month old.

Sam had his first water experiences, aside from the bathtub that is. He loved the pool and even seemed pretty interested in the ocean. He's a splasher. Unfortunately, he must have been nursing an ear infection all week based on the fact that his eardrum ruptured by the following Monday. The only signs we had on vacation were a runny nose and constantly goopy eyes -- well, and the fact that he never once slept through the night.

Gabe was really fun this year. We broke down and bought a portable DVD player for the trip to keep him occupied. Little did we know that he would be so mesmerized he wouldn't even sleep for the entire ride. Nana bought him "Toy Story" right before we left, and he must have watched it 20 times or more over the course of the week. Hence his new fascination with Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy, which we take as a welcome break from all things Darth Vader. Gabe also got to sleep in a bunk bed for the first time -- he did great, not one mishap. He was fearful of getting in and out of the ocean, but once he was in, he twirled around in his Spiderman ring like an indiginous creature. This leads me to the funniest moment of the whole trip. Combining his newfound admiration for space rangers and his desire to get in the water, one day after playing in the sand, he wanted to wash off his hands, which meant he needed one of us to take him in the water. We told him he could do it by himself. Well, to compound the issue of his fear of the waves at the shoreline, the sand itself had been eroded into a cliff-like formation by the tide that was probably 18 inches to 2 feet in height. Determined to wash his hands and unable to convince one of the adults to aid him in his mission, Gabe resolutely turned toward the water and contemplated the feat ahead of him. Now, at this point, I have to stop to give you a clearer visual picture. Gabe was wearing his navy blue Body Glove swimsuit, which resembles a diver's suit, his Nemo boating cap, his Power Ranger arm floats, his Spiderman ring float, and his beach shoes. He put his swimmie-clad arms in the air, squatted down, and released his battle cry, "To infinity and beyond!", upon which he leapt off the sand cliff and landed at the water's edge. Then, as though he had landed on a trampoline, he immediately sprang back up, doing a 180 degree turn in mid-air to face the beach and landed safely away from the waves, to his own amazement and our amusement.

Crying baby beckons...