21 months old!

i've finally decided that it's time to put away some of gabe's "baby" toys and upgrade to new and better toys. so we hit toys r us today and came out with $100 worth of goodies. sadly, we only got 3 items...a shopping cart (he LOVES pushing things around), wooden alphabet / number / word blocks, and a thomas the train mega bloks set. up next...the get out and grill bbq! but first we need to rearrange some furniture in the condo to make some room. and lastly, i found a great activity table today, but again...we need more space :P my mom's also been shopping up a storm for gabe...new shape sorters, stacking cups, swimming pool (which we can FINALLY use this week!), books, and a few more "little" things for him.

we're really trying to emphasize gabe's speech development. i was an average child and starting talking at 12 months old. my brother didn't talk until he was 3, and ended up in a specialized program to help with his development. hopefully we'll avoid this path :P there's a limit to how far we can push gabe to "talk" without frustrating any of us. we thought "please", or a version of it, would be the next word in his vocabulary, but all we've managed to get is serious arm-flapping...sometimes he looks like he might take flight from the flapping. it's pretty funny :)


my parents and i are definitely seeing the 2 sides of gabriel. my parents don't let him get away with murder (as grandparents might do), in fact, my mom is very strict and gabe knows the rules at her house. at our home, we're definitely more "rule-free" and anything goes. gabe also realizes i'm the one leaving him to go to work, so when i get home, he just wants to spend time with me. as much as i would love to sit and play or entertain gabe, my next priority is to get dinner on the table for us. and some days that's the worst time of day...i end up with a tantrumy toddler standing on my feet, pushing me aside, screaming at me while i'm cooking. the other day at my parents house, they were flabbergasted by the tantrum he threw with me since they almost never get this behaviour from him. which is a good thing...i don't have to worry about poor behaviour with the "babysitters", and they get to spoil him rotten. i love it!

it's not only the tantrums that are different, but the eating routine. there have been a few skipped meals at home because gabe won't eat what i've prepared. he's never missed a meal with my parents and eats all of the food presented to him, including vegetables that he's passed on w/me. it's incredibly frustrating to see this deviousness from a toddler, but i'm trying to let it go...at least i know 4 days a week he's getting well-balanced meals from the 4 food groups.

when gabe was a baby, i had the best intentions in the world. i never imagined he'd be a tv-junkie at this age, but with the summer finally arriving, i've gotten a few more headaches than normal so i've got a rotation of ni-hao kai-lan, backyardigans, and go diego go. we've also noticed it's harder for gabe to behave in public, so we've been playing our ipods to keep him entertained and quiet (more on this in my next post).

for now, i think we're seeing a preview of what the (terrible) 2's are going to bring us. parenthood...what a journey :P