growing up fast!

i had the biggest scare of my life yesterday afternoon. i had put gabe down for his afternoon nap, and i usually don't check on him at all, but this day something about his chattering must've said "something's not right" to me. i cracked the door open, and sure enough, there was gabe...sitting up (YES, SITTING UP!) in the corner of his crib, grabbing the railings trying to pull himself up!!!

i had thought about lowering his crib a couple weeks ago, but since he didn't really have the strength (or know-how) to lift himself up into any position, i brushed it aside...until now! since i needed chris to lower the crib, i had to keep an eye on gabe while he was trying to go down for his nap. i was actually pretty amused watching him sit up and lie down repeatedly before he finally fell asleep.

here he is this morning when went to get him up. and yes, he's managed to rip down his airflow crib bumpers, too!

happy father's day!

we've had a busy weekend...rachel's bday, brianna & bethany's bdays & father's day dinner w/my family, father's day brunch w/my family, and father's day bbq w/chris' family. phew!

the 5 major food groups: lamb chops, maui ribs, chicken, steaks and boewors!

happy father's day, chris!

pucker up!

OMG, gabe and alyssa shared their first lip-to-lip kiss yesterday! here's how it started: gabe was sitting on the floormat and aly planted herself right in front of him so they could play together. they kind of stared at each other and played with their respective toys. then before i knew what was happening, the two of them leaned in towards each other and their lips connected! it wasn't just a quick little peck, it was quite a substantial kiss...like 3 seconds long!! definitely long enough for us to get a huge laugh out of it, but unfortunately not long enough for anyone to grab a camera :P then after it was over, aly got up and walked away :-)


ah, the babies are growing up so fast!

boys will be boys!

i'm not sure what the deal was tonight, but gabe was content to just amuse himself on the potty. and by amuse, i mean scratch and pull his penis. i couldn't help but laugh my ass off when gabe was scratching! i wanted to post a picture, but chris poo-poo'd the idea...he doesn't want gabe scarred for life by mom's antics :P so here's a pic from earlier today...

on a happier note, gabe was asleep by 9 p.m. after crying it out for only 15 minutes! hmmm, perhaps all that scratching was tiresome :-)

booby battle

we've hit an awkward stage with breastfeeding. before gabe had teeth he used to clamp down with his gums, and i'd yelp and flick his cheek to get him to stop. that worked out well. but now that he has 4 teeth, my yelping only makes him cry and the cheek flicking just stuns him. i tried to tough it out for a few days, but the pain was just getting so bad...i mean, he never broke skin (thank god!) but it's a pain like i've never experienced before (having never gone through the entire birthing process). and when we're having a feed "on the road" he's just a nightmare, between finding a comfortable position, trying to keep the hooter-hider in place, and being able to flick his cheek...MOTHER SUCKER!

so now gabe is cut off from one booby, and i've had to revert to pumping throughout the day. the unfortunate thing is that pumping truly isn't as effective as breastfeeding so i have to pump more frequently. but i have to be careful that i don't pump too much...there's no need to increase my milk supply! have you ever pumped in the car to/from a destination? i almost flashed a bus full of people driving beside us :P awkward!

i did consider cutting gabe off completely, but i do want him to benefit from breastmilk until he's at least 12 months old. plus i'd prefer to wean more naturally over the next 4 months as opposed to the pain of drying up on my own in a shorter period. breastfeeding has always been a "job" to me, and not a special bonding time with gabe, so i don't feel any emotional disappointment about this latest development. it`s just frustrating now that i have to travel with my breastpump and bottles :P

what else do you do at 11:30 p.m.?

man alive, we've had 2 rough nights. gabe has been an absolute angel during the days, but refuses to go to bed at night. he's usually in bed by 9:30 and asleep by 10:00, but last night at 12:30 a.m. we finally gave up (after 2 rounds of baby einstein and another feeding) and strapped him into his rocking chair in front of baby einstein and he eventually fell asleep around 1:30 a.m. he woke up at 3:30 and i successfully transferred him to his crib with minimal protests.

tonight i took a different angle and tried to let him cry it out, but after an hour i caved in and we watched baby einstein again. unfortunately it doesn't seem to do the trick anymore and gabe's refusing to go to bed. i think at some point we'll just leave him alone and cry it out. seriously, eventually he'll fall asleep, right?!

so now chris is taking a turn at comforting gabe and i'm baking peanut butter cookies.

8 months old!

holy crap, where has the time gone?! have i said that before? seriously, where has it gone?! gabe is growing like a weed...quite literally. while we haven't weighed him in a while, i did a rough estimate a couple weeks ago, and he was approx. 21 pounds. yikes!

so what's new this month? gabe's FINALLY figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back in his crib. it takes a lot of maneuvering, spinning and kicking, but at least we don't have to rescue him as often. phew! we've given up on crying it out...we just don't have the patience to stick with it...especially since baby einsteen works like a charm every time! we'll deal with his tv addiction later on :-)

we're seeing the early attempts at movement. during playtime, gabe will twist his body around and start rocking back and forth...he's definitely able to move towards his toys doing a little bum scooch and leg-twisting, and he'll even flip himself onto his belly and flop around. it seems as though no matter how many pillows or blankets i place around him, he always manages to fall on the one spot that has no extra padding and he hits his head on the floor. he's done it so many times now that he doesn't cry and just lies there waiting to be rescued.

on the food front, we've finally had success with turkey and peas...they just have to be mashed with his favourite yams or sweet potatoes :-) we've introduced papaya, tofu, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, zucchini, butternut squash, and oatmeal. up next...green beans, brown rice and more fruit!

gabe now has 4 teeth, and it`s made breastfeeding a real challenge. i was almost ready to cut him off completely after a painful day yesterday, but we worked through it today and are still trying to find a solution to it...the yelling and cheek poking is helping :-)

speaking of milk, i finally went through the blood tests and got approved to become a milk donor! over the past 6 months i`m not sure how many milk bags i`ve filled (7 shopping bags worth), nor the exact measurement, but i estimate the bank is getting about 1,000 ounces! yippee! i wish i had a picture of all the milk, but it`s been at my parents in their deep-freeze for long-term storage. just think...i still have at least 4 more months of breastfeeding to go...we`ll have to see how much more i can donate later on!

my little starfish

onto more pleasant topics :-)

gabe had his 2nd swim lesson yesterday and i'm so pleased it went better than his 1st lesson. while he shivered in the shallow end during the wheels on the bus, once we got into deeper water he sort of chillaxed and went with the flow. we even attempted to blow bubbles, but i think gabe just got a mouthful of water instead. at least this time he didn't choke himself and cry for the rest of the class :-) at the end of class he jumped off the "pirate ship" and i managed to dunk him twice and was so proud of him for not crying and freaking out!


and i'm thrilled that my parents are back from japan! i`ve got my matcha tea and whisk, and my nori will arrive in a month! yum yum :-) and i've already lined up my parents for babysitting 3 times over the next 3 weeks, and now i can finally get curtains hung for gabe's bedroom. while the morning sun has been waking him up earlier than in the winter, the bigger problem is at bedtime...he knows it`s still light out and won`t always go to sleep until it`s completely dark, even though he`s completely knackered.

i think it`s safe to say that the 3 of us are finally over our flu and we can finally really enjoy this beautiful vancouver weather!

pissed

finally, the craziness from tuesday night has gone away. all day yesterday our driveway was crawling with media reporters and photographers...grace ke had live updates from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m., rumina daya was gathering comments mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and cbc had their live coverage at 12 p.m., and the rcmp e-division set up their trailer in our parking lot while they conducted their investigation. today i went into the visitors parkade for the first time and was disgusted to see dried blood splatter still on the ground. 2 shootings in our visitors parkade in 3 years...i'm so pissed. for the most part i've always felt safe in the neighbourhood - taking skytrain home at night, walking the pups around the block at 11 p.m., during a rough night i've walked gabe in his stroller at 2 a.m. in our parkade! - but now when i even take the elevator, i just hope that no one else gets in with me, and if someone does then i hope to hell they aren't a "target" of some gang. i'm so pissed because the rcmp say on the news it was a "targeted hit" and the public has nothing to fear. are you fucking kidding me? on tuesday night there were easily 5 ppl within 70 feet of the parkade entrance and the suspect car who could've been shot in the crossfire! safe, my ass!

well, considering all the shootings in 2009, i guess nowhere is safe anymore.

gunshots...WAY too close to home!

ok, i really don't need excitement at 10 p.m. i now know what multiple gunshots sounds like and i don't like that knowledge. just after 10 tonight a whole round of gunfire erupted in our visitors parking lot. i saw a man running out of the parking lot (who could've just been an innocent bystander...i don't know) and shortly followed by a black minivan/suv type car. left behind was an injured man in a black luxury suv (possibly a bmw or porsche). fortunately there was a man out at street level when it happened and he managed to call 911 immediately...and within 2-3 minutes 10 police cars had swarmed our neighbourhood and blocked off all 3 towers.

being the curious neighbour i am, i scurried down to the driveway to get a closer look...and waited until the ambulances arrived to take the victim away. it's funny...the paramedics are always at starbucks during the day, parked illegally on our street, but tonight when someone actually needs them, they take almost 10 minutes to arrive. one of the news crews arrived faster than the ambulance. go figure! this picture was taken a few minutes ago after most of the commotion had died down...



it's been an interesting week along dawson street...on wednesday afternoon our street was completely shut down after a man died when he ran through a stop sign, hit a flatbed truck, and then spun into 3 parked cars. it took over 7 hours for the street to be re-opened, the cars towed away, and the mess to be cleaned up. the uprooted steel post the driver hit is a permanent reminder of what happened. and now tonight, more commotion on our street :P

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