A Molar, Finally!

A few days ago I was feeling Gabe's gums (oh so carefully as to avoid being chomped by his other 8 teeth) and I felt something sharp on the upper right side! I think he finally has a molar coming through (imagine the front four, and then skip one, and it's that one). Maybe that was the reason for his rough nights a few weeks ago. I have to imaging that it must really hurt to have that pressure of a new tooth pushing through. I wonder if it's anything like the pain of having your braces tightened. Hopefully it's not that bad, but I'm sure it's irritating at the very least! He's actually done pretty well with teething, but he started getting them so early, it's hard to know what he is/was like when he was not teeting! :-)

We are giving him more "chunks" of food, but I still need to be better about cooking better food for us for dinner so he can just have what we are eating. We give him bites usually of what we're having, but still are mostly feeding him jar dinners and jar "chunks" (Gerber graduates). One thing he is starting to do more of is kindof playing and blowing raspberries after he has a mouthful of food. It's funny sometimes, but I try not to laugh because I don't want to encourage it!

Play Date

On Friday we went to visit my college friends and their little ones for a playdate. It was a lot of fun. His little friends are Samuel (left) who just turned two in January, and Kaitlyn (right) who is 18 months. Samuel also has a little sister, Christine, who was there also - she's almost 6 months. They really didn't all interact that much, which I guess is normal for kids this little. They would occasionally take note of each other, but mostly played on their own. As you can see from the picture, Gabe almost chased Kaitlyn away by trying to reach out and touch (or maybe pull) her hair! I think as they grow a little older they will interact a little more. It was nice to see my friends. They get together monthly on a Friday, so now that I am not working on Fridays, I'll be able to join them. I think it will be good for Gabe, especially as he gets older, to learn to interact with other kids. Then maybe he can learn that it's not nice to steal other baby's (Henry's) toys! :-)

Gabe's First Bulls Game

Tonight we went to the Bulls game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks and took Gabe along. It was actually a lot of fun, and he did fairly well sitting through the game, considering it started at his bedtime. He kept looking at a couple behind us and smiling and making this funny face and clapping. We left at the end of the third quarter because he was so tired and couldn't stop rubbing his eyes. He wasn't as fascinated by the light show at the beginning, but he definitely noticed Benny the Bull floating around the arena like a big balloon.

Enchiladas

Here's the link to our favorite enchilada recipe (the ones we made tonight). We found it a couple of years ago when we were looking for something to make for Cinco de Mayo. They are very yummy.

Nice Naps

Gabe has been taking nice naps again lately. He used to be pretty good about taking 1.5 - 2 hour naps in the morning and afternoon, but then we went through a spell after we moved where they just weren't as long and it was definitely harder to get him down. Lately, he's been going down much easer and sleeping for around 1.5 hours again, which is nice. I do agree with the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" philosophy that getting them down before they're overtired is key. I've been trying to get him down earlier and it seems to be helping.

It's so wierd how much of an impact him sleeping or not sleeping has on me. I feel so much less stressed when he is sleeping well, and so anxious, etc. when he's not.

We skipped church today after getting home late last night. Today we ran some errands and went grocery shopping, and tonight we had friends over for dinner and made chicken enchiladas - yum. Back to work tomorrow. :-(

Cafe Le Coq

Tonight was our belated Valentine's Day. Dan surprised me on Tuesday by arranging for his cousin Meredith to come babysit for us tonight so we could go out - something we haven't done alone for a long time!

We went to a French place in Oak Park called Cafe Le Coq (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/barsandclubs/43913,0,2008091.venue). It's a place I've been wanting to go to ever since I saw it on "Check Please" (a show on PBS about Chicago restaurants). It was delicious! Even Dan liked it, which is unusual when we go to more "quaint" type places. I had gnocchi filled with a pumpkin filling with a sage cream sauce, and Dan had steak with blue cheese crumbles and a blue cheese sauce. And before dinner they brought us pumpkin and brie soup, which was also delicious!

It was nice to spend an evening together. I think Gabe had fun with Meredith, too. So much fun that he didn't want to go to bed! He went right to sleep when we got home, though.

Dan's Blog

This blog thing is very catchy. You can read Dan's blog at www.dsghogan.blogspot.com.

Google Video Rocks!

This is Dan again. Google video now has a way to embed video into your own site....Get ready to see lots of Gabe!

(This is Sara.) Gabe does lots of tricks in this video. He sometimes goes on little tangents where he does everything he knows how to do in a row. You will see him say "Da Da," play peek-a-boo, wave bye-bye, play telephone (hand to ear and say "haaa", which we think is "hello") and point. What a performance!

See Gabe Walk.

(This is Dan...) Have you seen Google Video? It's a great way to post video clips on-line to link to from a blog like this one. Even if you just use the video feature of a digital camera (which is what we did to get this short clip of Gabe taking some steps). Check it out! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6661093068264620033

Busy Weekend

We have had a very busy weekend! Friday, I took Gabe in to my office for a little while (picture at left). We had an office clean-up day, so even though it is normally my day off, we went in for a bit so I could do some cleaning, and so my co-workers could see him. I think he enjoyed all of the attention! Once it warms up, I'd really like to take him downtown more often to walk around by the lake or to the aquarium, especially now that we're even closer.

Also, yesterday we went to see my sister's team play in Valpo (for more on my sister, see http://www.wiuathletics.com/staff/index.php?show=bio&id=88 ). We had a lot of fun, but the game was a 2 p.m., so the afternoon nap didn't happen. Then we went to dinner afterwards and he was so tired, but he did well considering he hadn't slept since 10:30! It was nice to see Beck, though. I'm very proud of her and I don't get to make it to many games. It's not the same as watching her play, which I really miss, but it's fun to see her in action as an assitant coach.

Today Dan and Gabe are going to a Chicago Fire game in Rosemont at the Allstate Arena. Dan's mentoring program received some tickets, so some of the mentors and mentees are going as a group. I am going to take the chance to go in to work to do some more catching up (yuck,but I always feel better when I do it).

Meet Patrick

Veggie Puffs

Gabe loves to feed himself those Gerber fruit and veggie puffs. When I went to put in him his jammies the other night, I unsnapped his onesie and there, squarely set in his belly button, was a veggie puff! We were cracking up. It must have fallen down the front of his onesie and stopped when it reached his belly button.

Maybe he was saving it for later....

Mentoring

Last night was the first ever Mentor Appreciation Night for Dan's mentoring program. There was a great turnout - almost 120 people, including students, their parents, mentors and their families. It was nice to see how the program has grown over the last year, and to hear from the students how their lives are being affected by their mentors. Dan will never take credit for the work he's done, but I'm very proud of him. You can read more about the program(s) at www.crpsmentoring.blogspot.com.

On another note, Gabe's been doing much better sleeping at night and for naps (not fighting it quite as much). He's also starting to try to walk more on his own. He likes to stand up and raise his arms and laugh, like "Look, Mom, no hands!" He also is really good at giving kisses, even to his stuffed animals. :-) He's fun.

Yay, Baby!

It looks like maybe the rough nights this week were maybe just a fluke. Gabe went to sleep last night around 8 and slept until 6:30 this morning. After a bottle, he went back to bed until 8:30! However, the sleeping late did mess up his schedule for the morning nap, which he just didn't want to take. I'm not complaining, though.

I am really enjoying having every Friday off to spend together with him. Even though I am with him three other full days a week, it's nice to just have some time for the two of us.

Ok, I am experimenting with posting pics on here, so I thought I'd post a cute one of Gabe and his cousin Henry from Christmas.