What we've been up to

Gabriel's first day of school (taken after he got home that afternoon since I forgot beforehand.

Path - Phase I.  Redone and now done.  My sweet autumn clematis is finally blooming at the upper right corner of the picture.

Gabriel started his Day School last Wednesday.  It wasn't so bad leaving him that morning.  He ran to the toys and never looked back.  But they said he had a pretty rough day after that.  The next day he didn't cry until I handed him off and told him a quick goodbye before practically running back down the hall so I couldn't hear him.  

Then, of course, he had a cold by Sunday night.  Damn germs!  

It wasn't so bad at first, and I even took him to school yesterday thinking he was a little better.  But after having a very short nap he was obviously going downhill yesterday afternoon.  So I kept him home today.  We've had a really fun day.  We've watched way too much public TV, read lots of library books (his favorites multiple times), worked some puzzles, and he had a really good nap.  This seemed to help because he was running around like a whirlwind, babbling his little baby words, chasing the cats, and generally acting like his old self again.  

I've already noticed that he seems more interested in the alphabet and counting, which could just be due to "getting" Sesame Street all of a sudden.  I really miss him during the day, but I'm trying to keep myself busy with Fall Cleaning.  I like to clean this time of year instead of Spring to get ready for the biggest party we throw all year - Gabriel's birthday.  I've cleaned all the eaves under the roof, washed off all the outside of the house (including all the windows), and cleaned off the front and back porch really well.  

We had Jav's family over for his Mom's birthday Sunday morning.  I've never done a breakfast/brunch before, and we had a really good time.  Then we went to noon Mass with her, which is the Spanish Mass and can be a little crazy.  Gabriel slept through most of it, making me almost pass out between his overheated little body and the fact that the chapel wasn't air conditioned.  

We've also finally finished Phase I of our path.  Phase I, II, and III actually turned into Phase I.  I hated the first one we had done.  I finally got my nerve up to tell Jav, and he was very patient with me and even helped me pull it up and redo the whole thing.  Next Spring we'll continue it to the back of the yard, probably only one side a year (of course, these interlocking pavestones were more expensive than the gravel and stepping stones we originally tried).  But I am so much happier with the way it's looking now.  

And finally, we're really gearing up for his party on the 21st.  We're going to pray it doesn't rain because we're setting up both a ping pong table and a badminton net in the backyard (if we can figure the thing out this weekend).  I originally wanted to do a Teletubbies party, but it's getting hard to find stuff for Teletubbies.  They are sort of on the way out.  So I switched to Curious George, a show that both Gabriel and his Mama are finding more and more appealing the more we watch it.  I'll be on total birthday mode for the next week.