11 months: Baby Steps

Dear Gabriel,
Whoa! I can hardly believe we have almost had you for a year! You are getting ever more fun as you grow and of course, more of a pest! But still, we adore you.

In the past week, you have been taking baby steps. Seeing that, we decided to "help" you walk, by holding your hands and such. You would have none of it. You would protest loudly and squirm away from our grasp, dropping down to the floor. We tried it several times over, always with the same response. I was pretty surprised, since the other children really seemed to enjoy "walking" with the support of our hands. But not you. I guess you wanted the credit all for yourself, since a few days later, you were taking up to ten steps all by yourself. You had a darling grin. You knew exactly what you were doing and it gave you a thrill. It is such a thrill for me, as well, to see you develop and progress and reach milestones. You are still not what I consider "walking" yet, but I think you will be there in a few more weeks.

Some of the pesty things you do include; speed crawling over to the computer, every time you see the keyboard sticking out and then you pound away on the keys and protest loudly when I take you away. This is a fun little thing that happens multiple times a day. We often are surprised at the things you are able to reach, but when I witness it myself, I realize why. You stand up on your tippiest of toes and reach with your longest reach- it is pretty cute to see, and I hope I can get a picture of it. Noah gets pretty frustrated when you take apart his Lego structures and Amalie gets frustrated when you mess up her furniture arrangements in the doll house. I would reprimand them when they would get frustrated with you, reminding them you are only a baby. And fortunately, they are quick to forgive.

And then of course, I got my challenge when you broke the paper holder for the printer. I was quick to recognize that it is my own fault for keeping it at your reach, but having Ami as my last baby, I was thinking you wouldn't be into everything. I was dead wrong. You are so, so, CURIOUS. Which is a good thing, most of the time.

Now that the children are sleeping in your room, you seem to have an earlier wake up time in the vicinity of 6 am. Noah brings you crying in to my room, lays next to you on my bed while I run downstairs and get you a bottle. (No more breastfeeding, hooray!) You grab hungrily for it as soon as I return and when you are done eating, Noah takes you downstairs to play while I catch a few more z's. I am so grateful you have such a wonderful, older brother. It is such a blessing!!

You are still wearing size 2 diapers during the day, and 3's at night. You are just a skinny little thing, and pretty light too. So surprising, since you can eat as much as your siblings. Where do you put it?

I love you more and more each day, you make it especially easy because you have a lovely routine of about 4-5 hours of naps throughout the day. You are good natured, patient and adorable.
I sure love you and am ever grateful to be,
Your Momma


P.S. Your mouth really is always open as these pictures indicate. You cutie!