Gabe's Firsts and Faves... and One Funny Ladan Story

The last few weeks have marked many firsts for Gabe, which I'll list below:

• First trip to the beach (9/9/07)
• First time in a swimming pool (9/10/07)
• First STEPS! (9/18/07) -- He took a couple of steps a couple of times yesterday! Chet got to see it all, and I missed it, which means I also don't have video verification. Oh well. It seems entirely possible that we'll have another opportunity to get that in the near future.
• First shower (9/18/07). He loved the shower, water spraying all over his head and everything! He flipped around like a fish out of water in that tub, so I had to watch him, but he had a BLAST!
• First injury inflicted by his personal body guard. (9/19/07). After church tonight, I was chatting with a friend. Gabe was crawling on the sidewalk and was heading in the general direction of the street (he was a good 5 feet away from the curb). Ladan JUMPED up from where he was in the grass; ran over to Gabe; yelled, "No, Baby Gabe! That's dangerous!"; and promptly squashed his brother down to the ground so he couldn't endanger himself any further. As a result, Gabe had the shock of his life and has a nasty scraped up fat lip to prove it all. Though Ladan overreacted just a bit, I did not correct him for squishing his brother. I simply thanked him for protecting Baby Gabe and let him know that, should this happen again the future, he might simply hold his brother's hand until I can get there.

His favorite word is "Ladan".

He now waves bye-bye.

He LOVES fruit of all kinds and most vegetables. I can't seem to feed him enough of these things.

He gets excited to see me, but when Ladan or Chet walk into the room, oh my goodness!

He enjoys singing, playing peek-a-boo, and clapping his hands.

He loves to play with any type of ball or book.

I can't believe he'll be one year old in 9 days! What a blessing to be his mom!

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When Ladan has to use the restroom, he always comes running in to me and says, "Wait just a minute, Mommy! I have to go potty!" So, yesterday, I was getting Ladan ready to do just that. He stepped up on the stool and got his shorts down. I asked him to go ahead and pull his undies down, and he responded, "I can't do that right now, Mommy. I might crack my finger." Oh, well, my goodness. We can't have that, can we?!

A few minutes later, he told me that he couldn't lay in his bed for his nap because he might crack his head. I looked at him. And he promptly laid down on his pillow.

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(Don't miss the entry below recounting our vacation adventures!)