Baby Gabe

Check out how he completely loses interest halfway through.

Gabriel turned three months old this weekend!  We celebrated with a nice lunch out with friends at a Japanese BBQ restaurant and cooked up a yummy meal at home for dinner.  It’s weird because on the one hand, it seems like only yesterday when we first brought him home from the hospital; but on the other, we can’t really remember our lives without him.  We never forget how lucky we are to have such a sweet, good-natured baby who allows us to continue indulging in dinners out, nature hikes, shopping, and movies.  Of course, the best parts of our day are all those moments we spend playing with him, nursing him, soothing him, or even just watching him sleep.  Unfortunately, our love for our little marvel still hasn’t expanded yet to kids in general.  There was an eight-year-old at a party we recently attended… Let’s just say we’re glad we didn’t meet her BEFORE we decided to have Baby Gabe.  She would’ve waterboarded that idea right out of our heads.

After Baby Gabe was born, one of the most frequent comments we heard from family and friends was how much the little guy looked like his papa.  He inherited his papa’s eyes, hairline, and smile — all the characteristics to make him uniquely lovable.  According to his a-ma, it was as if we took Gabriel’s dad and hit the “copy” button on the baby-making machine.

But Baby Gabe shares more with his pops than just some physical traits.  They have similar behaviors that also mark them as father and son.  They both seem to burp unexpectedly, sometimes in mid-sentence (or in Baby Gabe’s case, in mid-babble).  They both go wild with laughter when they witness something they think is extremely hilarious.  They both are adorably messy eaters who occasionally leave traces of their meal on their cheek or chin.  They both show their unselfish sides by handling all the middle-of-the-night diaper changes (that would be Baby Papa) or by not crying his head off when waking up from a nice nap (Baby Gabe, of course).  It’s comforting to see how Baby Gabe is turning out to be like his dad because the world needs a few more good men.  He’s certainly off to a good start given that his papa is the best role model to show him how to be sweet, kind, considerate, and loving.  As we celebrate this first Father’s Day, Gabriel and I want to acknowledge our good fortune to have such an incredible Baby Papa on board with us.  We wouldn’t want it any other way.

Baby Gabe’s dad was a very picky eater who didn’t eat fish, vegetables, chicken feet, or thousand year old eggs.  Baby Gabe’s mom ate anything and everything, including hand lotion, which required a quick trip to the hospital when she was 2.  We’re trying to raise Baby Gabe to be like his mom (except for the hand lotion part), figuring he’d get a taste for all the different foods we eat from mama’s milk.  So we’re throwing everything at him from Jamaican pork chops to Portuguese bean soup and, of course, all the requisite Asian foods.  The only limitations we’ve imposed is high-mercury fish and cabbage (it gives him gas even Mylicon can’t solve).  For his part, Baby Gabe just sits and waits for us to finish eating.  He doesn’t extend the same courtesy to the dishes.  Maybe he’s just trying to get us to use the dishwasher more often.  That’s what it’s for, after all.

Baby Gabe has become a pleasant spectator in the kitchen.  His attention span there is probably about 45 minutes so we haven’t had to change our cooking habits much.  The dishes that take longer like stews or soups or roasts we can pretty much leave alone to cook on their own while we entertain Gabe.

Michelle’s erstwhile owner has come forward and corroborated the dog bite incident.  She offers her sincere apologies to Baby Gabe’s mom and condolences to Baby Gabe for depriving him of the chance to know the love of a dog.  We want her to know that no apologies are necessary as this happened a long, long time ago, and we have all moved on.  She can find respite in the fact that prior to the dog bite story, Baby Gabe’s mom objected to dogs because she was allergic to them.  The dog bite story only came out after having several visits with relatives/friends with dogs with nary a sniffle from her.  The next objection on her list is that she read Cujo in grade school, and that really put her off dogs.  As you can tell from the photos, we have an animal theme going with Gabriel.  Hopefully, one day he’ll have a pet of his own, but these imaginary friends will have to do for now.

By all accounts, Baby Gabe seems like a happy baby.  He’s especially happy after a meal.  Sometimes, though, we wonder exactly what he’s thinking.  When Baby Gabe’s dad came home with a new haircut from the Japanese salon down the street, Baby Gabe just could not stop laughing.  What’s up with that?

Check out the right jab.  He might be a southpaw, but it’s too early to tell.