1-year old photo shoot...kind of

Hello everyone! I know it was been a while since our last post. It feels like the days have become shorter recently...thus is parenthood I suppose. We are hoping to keep the blog updated more regularly, thank you for bearing with us :)

Here is a shot from Gabriel's most recent photo shoot. We would have liked to schedule the photo shoot for his 1st birthday, but unfortunately our friend and photographer is moving out of state :-( at the end of the month.

He is now a little bit over 10 1/2 months old.

Real food

When Gabriel had is 6 month check up, his pediatrician said that he can start eating real food. Jenelle decided, while she was pregnant, that she wanted to make all his food in the beginning. We started with pureed sweet potatoes. He really enjoyed his first taste of food.

Jenelle makes a batch of veggies or fruit every week and freezes it in ice cube trays. We defrost a few cubes for each of his meals.

So far, he has had homemade sweet potatoes, pears, zucchini, apples, butternut squash and green beans. The only one out of those where he gave us a "yuck" face was when he tried zucchini for the first time, but it has grown on him.

When Gabriel sees the bowl and spoon he knows what's coming. As he sits in his highchair, his legs start to kick and he bounces up and down with his mouth wide open.

Pickwick Park

Steven's parent's have a great, new park in their neighborhood. It has 2 large jungle gyms, swings, small rock "walls", gazebos to barbeque, and a large walking path. It's a great place to bring Gabriel when the weather is right. We have been bringing Gabriel to the park well before he entered the world. Steven and I (and sometimes his parents) would make our walking route through the park to the walking path while I was pregnant.

When Gabriel was about 5 months old, we decided to let him try out the baby swing. He sat in it and was stiff as a board. We would swing him and he would just look straight ahead and not move a muscle, the only things moving were his eyes...and they were staring at us. It was as if he was thinking, "what is this thing?".

Nana & Feve (Steven's parents) take him to the park on most of the days they watch him during the week. he seems to enjoy the swing now.

It's funny to watch babies experience things for the first time. Everyday is a learning process for Gabriel.

Baptism at St. Joseph's

Gabriel's Baptism was planned pretty quickly. Baptizing him was always something we planned on doing but adjusting to parenting life took over and the time just flew by. Before we knew it, Gabriel was 6 months old when he was finally baptized on February 21st.

Sheila and Jeff traveled from Atlanta to be a part of Gabriel's life in becoming his Godparents.

We had an "intimate" (small get-together compared to Filipino tradition) celebration afterwards at the Montesinos house. It was such a beautiful day and couldn't have asked for the weather to be any more perfect.

Whew...long time

It's been about 2 months since we have posted on the blog. As many of you know, we have had a lot going on over the past couple of months. We finally got approval on our home and moved in about a month ago. We are settling in and had such great help with the transition from our family. Gabriel didn't seemed fazed with the move and slept perfectly fine his first night in our new home, although he had to sleep in his pack n' play for the first week due to the paint fumes in his new room.

We'll post pictures of Gabriel's room soon.

Another comparison

Here I am at 7 months and Gabriel at 6 months.

Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Gabriel got a taste of his first kid birthday party this past weekend. In fact there were 2 in one day. I can only imagine what it will be like to host many of these one day. His cousin Lydia was in town from Atlanta and had her birthday party in the morning and then it was Mallory & Ava's party in the afternoon. We took him out on the dock at cousin Angie's house for some fresh air during Mallory & Ava's party.

Play time

Thank you to Aunt Cristina and Cousin Lydia for the fun activity chair! Gabriel is interacting with it more and more everyday. He is able to sit in it without falling forward, like he did a few weeks ago.

Chick magnet

Jenelle bought this hat and luckily Gabriel doesn't seem to mind wearing hats. He attracts many women - mostly the "mature" ladies.

5 months

Wow...5 months already? It's amazing how fast times flies. Gabriel doesn't go for a check up until he's 6 months...but he's been developing so quickly over the past month.

He rolls over from his back to his stomach about every time we lay him down on his back. He gets a little upset once he rolls over because he hates being on his stomach. I'm sure he will not mind it as much once he learns to roll from his stomach to his back. It's so funny to watch him kick his leg across his body to roll over and then pull his arm from underneath him. Most mornings we'll find that he has rolled over during the night but doesn't make a fuss about it until he wakes up to realize it.

He grabs at objects now and tries to make a conscious effort to do so - whether it be a toy, your face or your fingers.We can put a toy in front of his face and he will reach out and grab it. I never thought such an insignificant thing to you can be so amazing to watch your child learn.

We started to put him down for the night a little earlier. He goes to bed between 9:00 & 9:30 and wakes up anywhere between 7am & 8am. He is usually really good about falling asleep on his own at night. It makes our nights a lot easier having him able to do that, as we have more time to get things ready for the next day- washing & preparing bottles, packing lunches, etc.

Gabriel is such a vocal baby. He squeals when he gets excited and laughs when you tickle or make silly faces. His face recognition is beginning to develop. He definitely knows his mommy & daddy. Steven will smile really big at him and Gabriel will show the cutest smile and turn his head away as if he were shy.

I think if Gabriel could crawl now he would. He likes to "stand" a lot and when you give him the opportunity to move forward, he lunges forward like he's got somewhere to be.

4 Months

Gabriel recently had his 4 month check up. His pediatrician told us that he is a healthy baby boy and is developing very well.

He is now 26" tall (90th percentile) and weighs in at 15lbs. and change (55% percentile). He received a series of shots during this checkup, and to our shock did not cry! He whined briefly following each injection and quickly went back to sucking his thumb...hope this is a new trend.

Gabe rolled over onto his stomach for the first time ever this past Sunday, Jan. 10th.

This past month he started grasping toys and brings most objects to his mouth for examination, which has caused us to increase our vigilance regarding items within his reach. He is laughing regularly and responds during conversations by cooing and babbling .

His next examination is at 6 months.

Fun with solid food!

Gabriel has been given the "green light" to try solid foods, e.g., single grain cereals, such as rice cereal and oatmeal.

However, these new solids will not yet replace bottle feeding; rather, they are being introduced to help him practice and become accustomed to eating solid foods.

He doesn't care much for the rice cereal...I can't blame him, it looks like dry wall flakes...but he loves the oatmeal. After 4 days of practice with solids he now recognizes the bowl when we bring it to him and opens his mouth wide when he sees the spoon headed his way.

Oh yeah, he also started eating out of his new high chair.

New Bouncer

Thanks to Auntie Sheila and Uncle Jeff's generous x-mas gift, Gabriel can now bounce at Lola and Grandpa's house (Jenelle's parent's house).

We have started him out in it at 15 mins. a day for now. Once he grows taller and gains more control over his body we will increase his exercise time.

I would recommend this particular bouncer, as it has about 5 height settings, which is more than most of the bouncers we researched. The model is Baby Einstein.

Cousins

Aunt Cristina, Uncle Paul and cousin Lydia visited us over the Christmas break. This was not Lydia and Gabriel's first meeting, but it was their longest and most productive in terms of relationship building.

Lydia was very maternal with Gabriel, calling him "bebe", which is "baby" in toddlerese. She would help feed Gabe, gave him his pacifier when he was crying, rocked him in his swing, and would generally express concern regarding his wellbeing when they were together.

Here is a great shot of the two cousins spending time together. I hope they look back on this one day and smile.

Tummy Time

Here is a shot of Gabriel enjoying tummy time...

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year quietly this year. We had our champagne toast with Nana & Abuelo and burnt the ano viejo (Gabriel's first ever). The burning of the ano viejo is a tradition in Ecuador in which you set fire to dummy filled with straw, or in our case balloons, the night of New Years to celebrate the birth of the new year and the dying of the old year.

I'm sure Gabe can't wait play a more active role in the tradition, including poking the ano viejo with sparklers...a favorite past time of mine when I was young.