We sometimes long for the days when Baby Gabe would just open his mouth and happily ingest anything we put in front of him. Feeding him now is a much more interactive adventure, particularly early in the dining process. He makes his preferences known, as you can see, and eats up his favorites first. The “favorites” change depending on the day. He loved the tomato basil tart the day before.
This is just after his dinner. He’s actually pretty subdued here. There are other times when he runs from room to room to the front door and back.
We’re discovering there is no adequate means of babyproofing for Baby Gabe. We have lever handles that he can now reach. He has a little scooter, but instead of sitting on it and scooting around with his legs, he finds it more enjoyable to stand on it like a skateboard. He tries to climb onto anything chest high or lower. And if there’s nothing to climb, he’s been known to stack his books and climb those. He literally walks on his tiptoes so he can scan what’s on tables, nightstands, and in drawers. He once wanted something shiny on our dresser, but it was way out of his reach. So he opened the bottom drawer, climbed in, and stood up on a pile of clothes. Now his eyes were above the dresser. He pulled open the middle drawer. Before he could climb into that one, we grabbed him.
Dog owners know that different breeds require different levels of exercise. Sporting dogs like retrievers need to have a lot of time to run around to get rid of all their energy. Toy dogs, like the kinds everyone in LA seems to tote around while running errands, are just fine being carried. Baby Gabe is a sporting dog. He can calm down enough to sit quietly flipping through books for about 5 minutes. Then he’s off running to do something else. He’s a bundle of energy, and we sometimes struggle to keep up with him. It’s no wonder we haven’t been to the gym since he was born, and we’re maintaining our weight. He gives us all the exercise we need.
These come courtesy of cousin Jon, who snapped a bunch of photos at the wedding. Thx, Jon!
Lest you think this was a fluke, he got 3 prior attempts right before we recorded this one.
Baby Gabe was the perfect baby during our trip out to Boulder for Christine’s wedding. He slept the whole way out and most of the way back. While there, he ate everything — jellyfish, peking duck, roast pork, fish stew, italian sausage, etc. He also slept well. He carried this through for a few days after we returned. Then he got a mysterious fever for a couple of days. We assume it was teething related. For a few days, he had great difficulty eating and sleeping and was generally very clingy, which is totally not what Baby Gabe is normally like. It’s been a week, and now he’s getting back to a normal eating/sleeping schedule. If it’s not a virus, it’s teething. We just have to go with the flow just like he does.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take any pictures of Baby Gabe in his seersucker. His mom was in the wedding party and needed the camera to take pictures up in the bridal suite before the ceremony. These photos were taken by his Uncle Jeff. We’re still hoping someone can get us a full photo of him in the suit.
We attended the annual Festival of Books on the UCLA campus last weekend, and we thought it would be a good place to have Gabriel run around. It was for a while. He met many new friends and a big, friendly Labrador Retriever. Then he found some steps. He spent the next 10 minutes walking up and down. We guided him, of course. Then we moved to flat ground. He was fine on the steps so we figured we didn’t need to hold his hands anymore. Wrong. He leaned forward to look at something and then tumbled forward for a full faceplant on the concrete. We heard a sickening thud and rushed over. The picture shows the result — abrasions on his forehead and nose. The amazing thing is that he cried for only about 30 seconds before calming down. He cried again when we used a wet tissue to clear out the bits of gravel and blood, but in a few minutes, he was struggling to be let down so he could walk around more. He’s tough and resilient.