Our Baby is TWO!

Gabe turned two today! I can hardly believe it. He's such a little man! To celebrate his special day, we had pizza for dinner and invited our neighbors over for brownies. Jessica, Hannah, and Maddie are three of Gabe's very favorite people, so it was great fun for him!

Here are a few photos of our birthday fun... (You have to click on this first one and look at what he's doing.)

We (Chet, Ladan, and I) got him a doctor kit. The boys are pretty freaked out by the doctor, and since they have to go again in two days, we're hoping this type of toy will help ease their anxiety about things that happen at the doctor. I'm also going to make Gabe an ABC photo book, but there are still a few photos that I need to get before I can make the book. Basically, it's a 6x6 scrapbook, each page displaying a photo of Gabe doing something starting with each letter of the alphabet.

He also received two sets of trucks (thanks to Gigi and Grandma) and some money from several folks that will go into his account. It was a good day for our little guy!

Here are some fun things about Gabe:

• He's starting to learn his letters and probably knows about 5 or 6 of them.
• He LOVES to read books and is unbelievably cute when he sits on the floor with his little legs straight out with a book spread from his hips all the way to his feet.
• One of his favorite things to do is take out all of the kid movies one by one, looking at the front first, then the back, then lay them on the floor. (I'm thankful that he doesn't seem to enjoy this as much as he has for the last several weeks, because it's a pain to put them all back in their proper places.)
• He's using more and more sentences all the time, but you still have to know him pretty well to be able to pick out what he's saying.
• He's a magnet for pre-teen and teenage girls! Probably because he freely distributes lots of kisses to them and says their names with a super-cute voice.
• He can jump really high with both feet off the ground. They say this is a helpful sign that he has the muscle tone necessary for successful potty training. However, since he doesn't like to sit still for longer than 2.9 seconds, I haven't had a whole lot of success getting him to even pretend he's going potty. Good thing I'm not all worried about getting him potty trained and won't be for quite some time.
• He still seems to prefer his left hand while eating, throwing, drinking, or doing just about anything. We'll see if he turns out to be a lefty or if it's just a random thing for now.
• He is getting better and better at throwing, kicking, catching, and hitting any type of ball. He's had some recent success with his tennis racquet. It's a pretty funny sight since his racquet seems like it's almost as tall as he is!
• He sleeps with his ball blanket, his little bear blanket, his binky, his football, and sometimes a Mega Bloc Lightning McQueen and a London double-decker bus.
• He can never get enough milk.
• Every morning, I get his cup of milk for him, and then he promptly goes to the cabinet to get his little glass bowl out for his "pancakes"... which is really oatmeal. He loves both pancakes and oatmeal and would be happy with either. So, when he hands me the bowl, I ask him if he's ready for some oatmeal, and he shouts, "YEAH!" Then he happily announces that he's going to shut the cabinet and waits for me to confirm that I heard him before he actually closes it.
• He is still a great sleeper most of the time. He sleeps about 12 hours at night and 3 hours in the afternoon.
• I can still tell when he's got a dirty diaper... not because he smells, because many times he doesn't. It's because he's getting into trouble. Whenever Gabe is disobeying, when I hear screaming, or if there's some kind of scuffle between Ladan and Gabe, the first thing I generally check is Gabe's diaper... and it's almost always dirty. Crazy.
• He's starting to get a little bit more shy the older he gets.
• I've had to trim his curls a couple of times, but they seem to keep coming back. We'll see if that lasts forever, or if it's just a little boy stage like it was for my brother.
• He has such fun expressions, both facial and verbal!

We love this little boy and are so thankful to the Lord that He's given us two whole years with him. We are praying for many more. More importantly, we're praying that he is captivated by God's Word and that he develops an intense love for the Lord that brings him to his knees in repentance, obedience, and JOY!

This afternoon Ladan was asking Gabe if he wanted to pretend like he was Baby Jesus, and Ladan could be Joseph. Ladan told him they could pretend they were in Bethlehem, and it would be fun because he (Gabe... aka Baby Jesus) could rescue everyone! Wouldn't it be amazing if the Word came to life in Ladan's heart and he ended up teaching his brother in such fun and understandable ways that Gabe can't help but fall in love with the Lord?!?