Happy Birthday, Gabriel!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting my entry for Gabriel's birthday. My cable modem is still not working, so I suppose I'll just suck it up and do the dialup thing here at work. Well, as you all know, Gabriel celebrated his first birthday February 2nd. Since Gabriel was around 6 months old, I'd been excited about planning his very first birthday party. But now that it's finally here, I find myself scratching my head and wondering where the time has gone to. It's hard to believe that a year ago, I brought home a tiny little 7 lb'er and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Now, my baby is a year old, and I'm much more confident with caring for him. Hell, it's actually enjoyable now. Lolo asked me months ago to promise him the privelege of making his birthday cake. Of course, I was more than happy for him to do so. I decided to go with a Curious George theme for his party. My plan is to change his room to a classic children's theme when his crib converts to a toddler bed, and it only seemed appropriate to choose good 'ol George to grace his birthday party.
Auntie Panty Rachel drove from Florida to make it to the party, and showed up early along with his Auntie Jen to help decorate and prepare food. While blowing up his balloons on the helium tank, Jen even suffered a minor casualty of bleeding cuticles from tying off the balloon. Ahhhh, the labor of love...
Gabriel got a lot of really nice presents. He's been playing with all of his toys, which are still scattered about the living room. One of my favorite gifts he recieved, though, is a star in the constellation of Orion named after him, from his Aunt T. The other night after work, I looked up at the sky, and pointed out Orion to Gabriel. Kind of a neat gift to have a star registered in his name for eternity. Gabriel Shawn. He'll learn to appreciate that someday when he's a little older.
I think that this one is one of Gabriel's favorites. I found this Radio Flyer rocket long before his birthday, and knew right away this was what I wanted to get him for his first birthday. He was actually kind of scared of it when I first gave it to him, but after watching the other kids play with it, he quickly warmed up to the idea of having his first ride-on toy. Now, he sits on it, and waits for me to push him around the house. Maybe soon he'll figure out that he doesn't need me for the rocket to go.

Well, so this concludes my first year with my baby, who is now no longer considered a baby. I now have a little toddler, and am waiting to approach his terrible two's. I'm sure each year from here on out will fly by just as this one. But no matter how old he gets, I'll always think of him as my baby.

Long Delay

Sorry, guys. I know you all have been waiting to hear about Gabriel's birthday. My modem is down, and I've yet to take it to the phone company to replace (if that's truly the problem). I can't seem to motivate myself to upload on a dialup computer at work. Right now, I'm working off of my wireless card, that I've finally just started using tonight. You see, my laptop has been acting crazy, and come to find out, I thought I had virus protection, which after a YEAR, found out I don't. So, I've finally gotten my computer cleaned up, and it's working a lot better now. On top of that, I'm sick as hell. I've been sick for 3 days now with body aches, fever, chills, and a freaking sore throat that's painful enough to make you cry.

Mom and Dad were gracious enough to stay Friday night to take care of Gabriel and get up with him in the morning so I could rest. They also spent Saturday here to play with him and care for him while I slept. I'm sure they'll be here later on Sunday too. Of course, he slept fine Friday night when I had help, but here I am now at 4:30 a.m. because he woke up calling me and wanting to converse all night. When I told him it was time for bed and insisted he go to bed on his own, he completely threw a tantrum. I tried to be a nice mommy and sit in the rocker while he threw he stomped his feet and yelled, but come on...I'm really not in the mood for this. So, I hugged him, bid him goodnight (and watched him freak out), and left the room. He threw a fit for a whole 5 minutes--TOPS. I should have left the room a long time ago; more like an hour ago.

It's actually kind of neat. I'm realizing that Gabriel is really understanding what you're saying now. The other day, he waved and said, "bye-bye!" It was only once, but I think my jaw dropped. And then not too long after that, he was playing with his sneakers, and I said, "shoes!" only to hear him repeat me. He will shake his head "no" if you ask him if he wants his milk, water, or food, or whatever. But, if you ask and he does want it, he'll hold his hands out. Tonight as he threw his tantrum, I told him to lay down and he would sit down and cry. I asked him to drink his water and go to bed, and he actually crawled over to his sippy cup and threw it out of his crib in protest. I know he was throwing a tantrum, but I was still impressed that he was comprehending me. Amazing.

Anyway, he's asleep and I need to be doing the same. I hope he'll sleep in tomorrow, but not likely. I hope my parents get here tomorrow after church--and fast.

I'll try to see if I can upload some pics on this wireless card; I just don't have the patience for a slow connection. But I promise...they'll be up soon.

Time to go to bed!