happy halloween!

we had a very busy day today! running errands in the morning, potluck halloween party @ the brown-john's, trick-or-treating in yaletown, and dinner @ mama & papa's!


halloween with gabe was so fun this year! technically he was dressed up as "tigger", but we put our own spin on it and called it "rintoo" (from ni-hao kai-lan - his favourite show). gabe's still terrible with new/different clothes, so i was trying to minimize the trauma for all of us. despite an initial fight at home, he eventually did let me dress him up at the party, and he was fine!


he didn't understand the concept of trick or treating, but he would thrust his arms out and wait for treats to be dropped into his bag. we had a lot of fun, and gabe managed to walk 3 blocks before he had enough.

this was the first time EVER we've let gabe skip his afternoon nap. since he started 1 nap/day at 15 months, i turned into the nap-nazi and do everything in my power to get him home for his 2 hour nap. i hate the consequences of short-nap days...even a 2 minute snooze in the car will hijack any possibility of a good nap, leading to dinnertime meltdowns. ugly! so on halloween, i didn't notice he was falling asleep in the stroller, so we took him out and chris carried him around. we hoped he would sleep en route to my parents, but that was out of the question. lucky for us, gabe was still in good spirits for the rest of the evening. phew!

we hope everyone else enjoyed their halloween 2010!

a working vacation!

i had the fortune of a work trip to toronto this past week. it's been in the planning since the beginning of summer and happened to come at a great time...i was desperate for a break from gabriel! even though it was only a 4 day trip, i called gabriel every day and talked to him. since his vocabulary is limited, he could only say "mama", "mom", and "hmmm". but my mom was giving me the play-by-play of his actions "he's waving", "he's smiling", and "he's sucking his thumb". i was pleased to hear how well he was behaving for my parents. chris had a challenging morning on thursday, but they came out onscathed in the end.

i admit that i did miss gabe, but i wasn't completely child-less. i stayed at casa lowe, and got to spend time with trevor, who kept referring to me as "gabe's mama". sunny and i even managed to have a mom's night out! we dined at origin, on a variety of tapas plates. delicious! it was nice for us to catch up, and just chill out...no boys to worry about :-)

i returned on friday night just in time to put gabe to bed. my mom thought 3 nights away from gabe was long enough for him...he seemed a little sad at dinner apparently. and believe me, the greeting i got from him melted my heart.

the break was definitely good for my soul, even though it was work-related :-) i came back feeling refreshed and ready to face the terrible 2's! (and i'm actually looking forward to being in the office on monday...my parenting book arrived this past week!)

parenting 101?

chris was in vegas for a stag over the thanksgiving weekend, so i was at home with gabe. thank goodness for my parents...we had dinner at their place every night, which allowed me a break from having to deal with gabe.

our mornings would start out fine, i'd greet him at his crib, open the curtains while he turned on the light, and then i'd get my morning hug & kiss. well, the happy times ended there. as soon as it was time to take off his pj's and change his diaper, he turned into a devil child...the body contortioning, the yelling, the crying, it went on and on. he would eventually settle down enough to get through breakfast, and he was actually happy...he loves his food :-) after potty time, we would get ready for a morning activity, and the "no's" and heel-digging would start all over again. and everytime he had a fit, he'd start signing "potty", so i would offer to take him to the bathroom, and he would change his mind...every time!

i was having car issues literally as soon as chris left, so i ended up borrowing my parents car for the weekend. well, that confused gabe, so every time we got in the car, he would ask for my parents and yell mama and papa all the live long day. because of the 3rd car, i ended up parking in the visitors lot. well, i never imagined gabe getting so upset by it. he freaked out at the fans in the parkade (it's been a constant battle we face at my parents parkade), he was scared as heck of the garage doors opening/closing, and he would get really stubborn and not walk at all. grrrr!!!
once we finally made it to our morning destination, everything would be fine. in fact, everything was fine for the rest of the afternoon. dinners at my parents were good for the most part...my mom had to get stern with gabe when he threw a fit at me (reason unknown). my parents condo was having elevator issues for 2 days, so we happened to get stuck there one night when all 3 broke down. so lucky us, we had to walk down 32 flights of stairs. i was really surprised at how well gabe did...he even insisted on walking part of the way down. he got huge praise for being such a big boy!

and then every night at home, the tantrums would start all over...potty or no potty, wasn't happy with his pjs, wanted dad, didn't like the facecloth he had. every night i would just walk away from him once he was in his crib. i didn't have the patience to deal with anymore of his nonsense. and that's all it was...nonsense. but by monday night, i reached the end of my leash. i was emotionally drained, i was mentally exhausted, i just about burst into tears. instead, i locked myself in my bathroom and took a long hot bubble bath. it wasn't relaxing nor an escape since i could still hear gabe screaming and crying :P

he's been 2 years old for 9 days, and i can tell it's going to be a long year. so, i am doing everything i can now to figure out how to get us through it. a friend of mine actually did the ECE program many moons ago, and she referred me to a series of books they used as a reference guide. so, i'm gonna raise gabe by the book from now on.

i've been trying to think of this as an "off" weekend since chris wasn't home, but the rough nights started 2 weeks ago and haven't let up (he now plays with the light switch...on and off, on and off). i've been checking for any new teeth cutting through, but i haven't felt anything, so i'm pretty sure that's not the problem. obviously gabe's lack of verbal skills is part of the problem...he's frustrated that we don't understand him, and we're frustrated he can't verbalize the problem.

like the dog whisperer says, it's not the dog it's the human. gabe almost never acts up with my parents. and when chris gets stern with gabe, he actually listens...i've seen it with my own two eyes. so it's definitely me. hopefully the book will provide some insight as to how i should be approaching each situation.

in the meantime, chris had his weekend away and i have a toronto work trip next week. i'm thrilled to get some mommy-free time! my hat is off to all the single parents out there!

2 years old!

gabe is 2 years old!

2 days before his birthday, we celebrated my father-in-law, sister-in-law and gabriel's birthdays at the boathouse in new westminster. it was crabfest, my favourite! an unfortunate incident when we were there...the fire alarms in the hotel were set off and we had a table right under the alarm bell. poor gabe was a wreck! he hated the noise, wouldn't settle down, and had to be comforted by me until well after the alarm went off. during dinner he kept obsessing over the bell and pointing at it. i was amused :-)

the next day we celebrated gabe's 2nd birthday at the burnaby central railway with friends and family in attendance. the birthday boy was a bit apprehensive about the train ride (he's been on it before!), but after a few minutes he settled down, much to the relief of the "conductor"! my parents decked him out with a conductor's hat and whistle and took him for a 2nd train ride.

in keeping with the train venue, gabe's bday cake was decked out with thomas the train, and all the party favours were train-themed. ironically, gabe doesn't even know who thomas is, but he loves playing with his melissa & doug train tracks, and always pumps his arms and waves at the skytrain (sometimes we'll sit on the couch for 20 minutes just waiting to see the trains going by - every 3 minutes). yah, it's great :P

in the pre-preparation for his bday party, i told myself there would be no 3rd birthday party :P it was so much easier to plan for his 1st bday since i wasn't back at work yet and had nothing but time to plan. this year felt like chaos...working OT for month-end deadlines, year-end deadlines, aon hewitt merger activities, ugh...i was just exhausted. but after all was said and done, it really is great to see gabe and all of his little friends together, especially since playdates are fewer and far between these days...darn work gets in the way of everything!

i'm not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but gabe's actual birthday was not his best. he had a tantrum in the morning at home as we got ready to go to my office, he had a tantrum at granville island, and then he was uber-fussy when we went for dinner at cactus club with my family (not even the ipod could entertain him). over the weekend his bedtime got all messed up so he was never in bed until 10 p.m. and then he would yell in bed for another hour, so that definitely didn't help matters. i fear 2 is going to be a difficult year with gabe...but hopefully once he starts talking things will get better.