First Haircut!

Today, we took Gabriel for his first haircut. We went to a fun place, called Doodle Doo's. The place was awesome and we would highly recommend it. First of all, there are so many fun distractions to keep each child calm and relaxed, including TVs/DVD players at every station, dozens of kids shows to choose from, bubbles galore, lollipops and more. Each 1st timer receives a certificate and a baggy with a few of their hair clippings.

Gabriel sat in a train seat, with his stuffed friend "Pete" in the back. His stylist was very friendly and the owner of the store came around several times, blowing bubbles and cheering him up. There was really only one moment when we thought he was going to "lose it", but a few bubbles later he was fine.

Here are some pictures from his experience going from "Tom Brady" hair to clean-cut.

The Before Shot, a.k.a. Tom Brady hair

Choo Choo!

All Smiles!

The After Shot, a.k.a Clean-Cut Dude

The New Bed

Here are some fun pictures of Gabriel in his new bed. A comforter/pillow set and bed rail later, he is sleeping through the entire night (knock on wood).

Reading w/ Abuelos

Gabriel loves his Nana and Abuelo (baba). Here are some cools pictures of them spending some quality time together.

the "Big Boy" transition

As Jenelle and I prepare for Gabe's 2nd birthday...whoa, it's hard to even say that, can't believe it is already here...we are regularly reminded of Gabriel's developing sense of autonomy. In an effort to be as supportive to him as possible, throughout this delicate period, we have attempted to give him many options regarding his growing world. One of which is whether or not he would like to transition to a "Big Boy" bed.

The night that the mattress was finally delivered, I asked Gabriel where he wanted to sleep, of course he said the big boy bed. By the next evening, Gabriel and I worked together to dismantle his crib. Since then, Jenelle has purchased a very cool pillow and comforter set. We figured we would start with the twin mattress and move to an actual bed frame, once he develops some familiarity and confidence with his new sleeping environment.

Jenelle also purchased a small, plastic, portable stool, which he drags around the house. He often uses it to turn on/off light switches and/or his cd player. He even uses it to get up on our bed.

Oh, I forgot to mention, he also likes to play on our bathroom counter, haha. I've said it before and I say it again...they grow up so fast.

What's your name?

Gabriel has finally begun to say his name, or at least a close approximation of his name. Since our last post he has gone from calling himself "Babo" to "Gabiel"! This evening his mother heard him talking as he was playing with a laundry basket, so she asked him what he was saying and he responded, "Gabiel HIDING". Jenelle and I looked at each other and ran for the camera, the video below is his response to his mother asking him, "What's your name?".

Looking back, it is amazing that only a year ago he starting standing up! To those of who have kindly shared words of wisdom with us regarding parenting, you were so right...they do grow up quick.

Hello, my name is: Babo

...or Bob.

I'm sure that Gabriel is not the easiest word for a not quite two year old to say. When we ask him, "Gabriel what is your name"? His reply has always been, "baby". However, recently he has been able to mimic a lot of words that we say, so his pronunciation has become stronger with many words. Now when we ask him what his name is, his reply is "Babo" for Gabriel and "Bob" for Gabe. He also likes to talk in third person. One our favorites is, "Babo fast!". That is what he says when he runs around the house ;). Or "Babo did it!", when he is able to do something on his own like wind up a toy.

Gabriel's vocabulary is expanding everyday. He has been putting words together to make somewhat of a phrase but today takes the cake. He made a complete sentence! Well, minus some words to make it flow. His sentence was, "Babo may mess woom". Which translate to, "Gabriel made a mess in the room". I was so excited to hear him say 4 words in row like that! Not so excited, though, about all of the books he threw off his bookshelf and on to the floor.

Our little baby is definitely not a baby anymore. He's a talking toddler!

Sing, side, choo choo, san

It's been about a month now that Gabriel's swing set was "created". It took Steven many nights of assembling the frame in the garage and entire Saturday of putting it all together in the backyard, with the help of Jenelle's dad and Steven's parents. The minute Gabriel wakes up in the morning he runs to the sliding glass door that leads to backyard and repeats, "sing (swing), side (slide), choo choo (the glider) and san (sand). He loves to swing, but is still a little cautious of the slide (only because it's pretty steep for his age).

Great trip to Atlanta

We took our first real road trip in February to visit with Steven's family. His sister, Cristina, was celebrating a milestone birthday and had a great celebration! Gabriel did so well on the trip up there and back down. We stopped at a few rest stops along the way to let Gabriel get out and round around a little bit. Steven came across a water pump at one of the rest stops and Gabriel enjoyed playing with the walloo (Gabriel's interpretation of water). It was a nice long weekend with all of Steven's family and we cannot wait to do it again.

Cristina, the birthday girl, and Steven's mom

Sylvia, Steven's sister

Ma...let me watch tv in style

Is he learning fashion early? Or does he just like to play with the zipper? We seem to find Gabriel exposing his burly chest a little too often when he wears pajamas with a zipper. He does enjoy walking around while airing out his chest. I guess it's just a matter of time to find him without any clothes on.

Handy Gabriel

Gabriel seems to take a liking to Handy Manny. For those who are unfamiliar with the Spanish-speaking handy man from Sheetrock Hills, his tools even talk, sing and dance. Gabriel loves to dance when the characters sing the chorus during every show. We got Gabriel a set of his very own (Ikea) tools for Christmas and he loves playing with his mau-mau (hammer). Steven & I recently updated our guest bathroom and Gabriel was a huge "help" every step of the way. He had his mau-mau in tow and tapped on anything he came in contact with.

Here are the before and after pictures of the vanity. Not bad for our first time :).

Greetings in the New Year

As part of our New Year's resolution, Jenelle and I hope to keep the blog updated on a more regular basis. We really appreciate your patience thus far :-)

So it's been about 6 months since our last post...so much has changed. Little Gabriel is now walking, no running regularly. He can say many words, including "mama" , "dadda", "bye bye", "ai esta" (means "there it is" is Spanish), "mas" (means "more" in Spanish), "nigh nigh" = nighttime or bedtime and "beh beh" = baby or any child he sees. He can also identify people by name: Lola= "lala", Nana= "nana", Abuelito= "feve", and Grandpa= "papa".

Gabriel is a great little communicator. Jenelle spent time teaching him sign language at a younger age and he now uses a few signs regularly, such as pointing at his palm when he wants more of something and shaking his hands from side to side when he is finished with something.

Other developmental milestones include his ability to now climb throughout his environment. He climbs on the couch, chairs, up a small stool to reach the sink and wash his hands. Just this evening he climbed on top of a footrest so that he could reach the light switches for the fan and overhead lamps...oh boy, haha.

Another first for us was Gabriel received his first stitches ever, unfortunately. Having a boy, I imagined the day would come, but not at 15 months. He was playing with cousins and hit his forehead on his bookcase. He handled the entire ordeal much better than his mother or I and fortunately the scar is barely visible and is healing well.

I'll leave you with a few shots from his 2nd holiday experience. He had a blast learning to open presents and learning Christmas tree etiquette.

Wishing you and yours a Happy and Blessed New Year.

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.