The forgotten birthday

My sweet one-year-old boy.

Little Joel turned one amidst the post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas hoopla, as he will every year seeing that his birthday is December 1st. And it kind of got lost in the shuffle, as it probably will every year. We are going to try to fight that, though.

We resisted putting up Christmas decorations inside until after his birthday. We wanted him to be the star, at least this year. He, however, in typical Joel fashion, was very nonchalant about the whole thing.

All he really wanted to do was pull out all the videos and DVDs. We say he's taking inventory. He started out just pulling them out. Then he started trying to put them back. Now he looks and them and decides if it's one he likes or not.

We decided to just have family, and we just had a small afternoon party instead of a big meal like we always tried to do with Gabriel. This is his cake. I don't mean THE cake, I mean HIS cake. The corner of ours is in the background of the picture. The bakery his Tia found will make a smaller version for the kid to tear into.

Only it's not so small, and he didn't quite know what to do with it.

It took a lot of time and a lot of coaxing to get him to dig in.

But then he got a little better at it, and before long he was stuffing big hunks of icing into his mouth like an old pro. All I could do was sit back and wait for the tummy ache, which woke him up from his post-party nap causing big giant screams. Sigh.

But he enjoyed himself, as did all of us, so it was a success. He got some cool new toys, and some new PJ's, the really warm footie kind that he really needed. And some other clothes and a bath toy. All he wanted to do was crawl around after his brother and stare up at Cade and Macy, who he loves having at our house.

Tonight Jav and I noticed that he is getting better at punching buttons and purposefully playing with toys instead of randomly like before. He's also much more thoughtful these last few days. I'll catch him just staring into space thinking about something. But then he'll see me and flash that Joel smile and start moving his happy legs.

I have a bad cough again and couldn't sing to him tonight, so I decided to try whistling O Holy Night. It's not easy to do! But it got him really soundly to sleep.

Love him so, so much.

Old holiday memories and making new ones

Gabriel has been infatuated with Christmas lights this year. He gets so excited driving through the neighborhood after dark. We've driven the neighborhood twice, and then we went with Cade and Macy to Diamond Loch. I thought Gabriel's head was going to explode he was so excited.

It made me remember sitting in the back seat when we would drive back and forth from my grandparents or wherever during the Christmas season, and my goal was to look down every street, in both directions, and make sure I saw every single house that had lights. Once we had done this a couple of times, I would rate the decorating jobs based on color choice and how neatly the job was done. My absolute favorite was all blue lights. Not the weird part-blue, part-white fluorescent looking lights they make now. But a deep blue that would make me feel peaceful and calm.

Of course, back then no one had anything inflatable in their yards. I don't like the blow-up things, but Gabriel loves them. I vowed we would never have them in our yard, but who knows how much those big brown eyes will sway me one day. I think our yard looks really pretty this year. All we added was some sparkly things and lights to our little tree. They shine in the sun during the day and look really pretty with the lights at night. One day we WILL win or place in the neighborhood decorating contest. I already have some ideas for next year.

Another tradition from the past that we are now continuing is an advent calendar. I absolutely loved my advent calendar growing up. It was made out of white felt, and the tree that you hung the ornaments on was pink felt. There were 25 little pockets with different baubles attached to straight pins (!). You pinned a new ornament to the tree every day up until the 25th. I guess they weren't as concerned about safety issues as we are today. I think my brother and I may have stuck ourselves (or each other) with those pins a couple of times, but nothing serious.

My mom bought Gabriel an advent calendar this year. It's Fisher Price, and really cute. Every day he pulls out another character for the nativity scene and velcros it wherever he wants to put it. The only one I made him put in a certain place was the baby Jesus, in the center yesterday. He's really been excited every day to move his little footstool under it and see what's in that day's pocket. I'm all for anything that reminds him that this holiday is about much more than Santa and getting stuff, stuff, and more stuff.

Next post, pictures of the stuff, stuff and more stuff.

All kinds of stuff

We have a possum that's eating birdseed spillage from the feeder late nights. We've never seen another possum with his coloring before. His fur is a dark gray, but it's kind of silvery in the lights of the backyard. Jav has taken to this little guy for some reason. Any time I mentioned anything about feeding one before now he would scowl and protest. But he doesn't say a word when I say maybe I should throw a handful of trail mix out there every evening. The problem is he doesn't grace us with his presence every night. So if I throw food out there and he doesn't come, Molly gets an unintentional snack. One night he was out there grazing for quite awhile, and I needed to let Molly out for the last time before bedtime. So I went out on the porch and started making noise, and he slowly sauntered to the back corner of the yard and crawled up on top of the fence. I came in to get Jav to try to scare him on over, because Molly will charge a fence and possibly could have knocked him off of there. But even though Jav was only about 3 feet away, the possum just sat and stared at him when he tried to shoo him away. Before last night we hadn't seen him for about 5 days and were starting to think something happened to him. But I noticed Zoe with her nose pressed against the French doors and there he was. I went to tell Jav, who was about to take a shower. He came almost running out of the bathroom to get to the window so he could see for himself. He's named him Pepe, even though I told him that was silly. Everyone knows that's a skunk name.

Joel is doing so many wonderful things right now, and has started playing while on his knees, which I think is so cute. He's also sitting still much more to play with things, and he has the best posture. I guess babies haven't been beaten down by life stress yet. I used to stand pretty straight, but for the last 3-4 years my posture has really slipped. Joel is inspiring me to try and stand straighter. He's still not walking yet, but I'm in no hurry. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and hide toys in them. I could watch him play all day. He still has crazy happy legs when something delights him, but now he's added a fake laugh for effect. It's hilarious.

And then there's Gabriel. We have a new "Elf on the Shelf", a gift from our neighbor. It is a little elf that supposed to sit high up in different rooms to watch what's happening all day, then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa each night. According to the book, he will land in different places around the house when he comes back, and it's supposed to be a game to try and find him. At least that's how it's supposed to work. Our son does not like Dipsy (Gabriel got to name him.) We're not sure if it's because he's not supposed to touch him (according to the book, it could take away the elf's magic), or if it's because Gabriel's planning to be bad and doesn't want anyone to report that to Santa, or if he's genuinely afraid of the little guy. Even I have to admit that he looks a tiny bit creepy, kind of like pinocchio with a red suit on. The last few days Gabriel seems to be accepting him a little more, but maybe he's just a little young for the concept.

We're watching Scrooged. I love Buster Poindexter as the ghost of Christmas past. "It's a bone!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

New traditions

We have decided that if we don't go to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving (which we won't be able to afford for many years, probably), then we're going to the zoo on Thanksgiving. From now on. We have tried hitting my family one year, then Jav's the next, and we invariably end up feeling like we're hurting someone's feelings no matter what. So when I found out the zoo was open from 12 - 5 on Thanksgiving Day, this idea popped into my head. We will go to the zoo no matter what the weather. If it's nice we'll stay outside. If it's cold we'll go to the awesome new snake/fish/lizard, etc.. building (I think they call it the Living Museum or something like that). And then we'll eat a huge meal at Grandy's. No cooking or dishes. No fuss. Just fun.

We couldn't go on Thanksgiving day this year since Jav and I were under the weather, but we ended up going on Sunday once we were all feeling better. It was a beautiful day. There was a cold wind blowing walking in from the parking lot, but once we got inside zoo grounds it was nice. We didn't go until 2, which is the latest in the day I've ever been there. We had a blast! There were lots of active animals (maybe looking for their dinners?), and there were hardly any people. The highlight this trip were the cats. The white tigers actually started wrestling while we were watching. The cheetah was playful and pouncing in and out of the bushes. And the lions just seemed to be staring back at the crowd staring at them. They were so majestic and breathtaking! I think our membership purchase was one the the best buys we've ever made when I realize that it paid for itself in two trips to the zoo, and when I think about how much happiness it has given to all of us!

It never really stops

I have been anticipating the first birthday of Joel with much trepidation. Thinking of this child leaving babyhood has been tough for me, for there are no more to follow now. No joy mixed with fear at the finding of a new pregnancy. No wonder over the feel of a new life growing inside of me. No excitement mixed with anxiety over labor and delivery. No marvel at a new baby's face, as they morph from resembling one side of the family to the other each morning. It literally makes me ache with sadness.

But then something happened last week that has made the coming event a little easier. I got sick. With a 24-hour bug that packed a punch. Friday afternoon I was supposed to take the boys to pick up Molly at the vet. That was all we had on our plate. By 3:30 or so I was so chilled and my energy level so low that I started to wonder if I could even get them both in the car. My temperature dropped to 96.2, and even with layers of clothes and blankets I could not get warm. Luckily I managed to get both boys asleep, which is almost impossible to do at the same time these days. I consider that happening Divine Intervention. I started trying to call Jav, but he was having serious goings-on at work and couldn't get away. I then called my Dad to see if he would pick up Molly on his way home from work. He said he could and would. One issue taken care of. After he dropped her off, the virus really kicked in and I will spare you the details.

I knew I could maybe handle taking care of Gabriel, but not Joel. It's too physical, and I had nothing. Zip. Nada. No energy to even lift my head off the pillow. Tia Sandie came to get Gabriel to go see a basketball game. I'm glad because I know he was worried when he saw my crumpled body on the couch, even though he is too much of a big boy to admit it. So what do you do when you are that sick? You call your Mama. That's what I did. She came, gatorade and Sprite bottles in hand, and took over Joel for me. By then my fever had risen to 102.5. I don't really remember the two hours she was here, other than hearing Joel laugh, and her face in my bedroom doorway to ask a question now and then. She was here until Jav finally made it home sometime around 8 pm.

It made me think of almost a year ago, when my father not only drove me to the hospital the night before I was induced to have Joel, but then stayed with me when Jav couldn't get away from work that night either. I was having strong contractions, timed far enough apart that I didn't think anything would happen. But my dear Dad insisted on staying with me just in case. He seemed nervous while we waited, though, and I now realize it was because he is old school. I think the thought of being present when I had the baby really terrified him! Or maybe it was more about having to see me be in that much pain and be helpless to really do anything. But the thing is, just by being there, even in the same hospital, he was helping.

When you decide to become a parent, at least a GOOD parent, you do so for life. No matter if your child is 3 months, 3 years, 23 years, or 43 years. If they need you, you respond in the same way. You get there. It made me realize that my job truly is just beginning. I will hopefully have many more years of being there for them when they need me. The only difference is that there will be periods where they don't appreciate it as much as Joel does now. Gabriel has entered one of those periods, unless he needs me in the middle of the night. But Joel seems so thankful all day long just because I'm here. Just as I was thankful to have my Mom Friday night. And just as my parents have passed on their parenting skills and dedication to me, I will try to pass on that thankfulness to my boys.

Ah-tya

...which is Joel's favorite "word" right now. We're not sure what it means, but he says it while crawling and playing, mostly when he's busy. Gabriel claims he's trying to say "hat". He also loves to squeal really high and end up lower. He'll do it back to me if I start it. We have entire conversations making this noise. Other than those two noises, he says "mama, mama, mama," and "dada, dada, dada" pretty evenly now. He's speed crawling now, and crawling over things that aren't really meant to be crawled over. He loves to crawl on top of our footstools and get his belly over them, hang his head off one side and let his feet dangle off the floor on the other. I am sure he will end up falling on his head when he does this, but the one time he let that big 'ole head hang too far he got his arms out lightning fast to catch himself. He chases Zoe, which has made her even more nervous if one of the kids starts petting her. She gave Gabriel a mean scratch just under his eye the other day to prove her point.

Joel has the funniest habit of taking different things, like blocks or little pieces of food, and holding them way up in the air, then slowly moving them down across his hair and then face. All the while he stares at you as if he is just daring you to make him stop, or maybe he's just very proud of whatever it is he's showcasing. This gets really funny when it's food, because it invariably ends up stuck to his hair and face.

He's such a big boy, but not chubby like Gabriel. He has some mean thighs, but he's just solid up and down. He's VERY strong too, and likes to pound Mommy while I'm holding him with one fist in the chest and one fist on the back when he gets excited about something. He's always shown his excitement in those legs, though, and now wiggles them like crazy while in a sitting position when he's happy. It cracks me up.

He is the absolute best hugger in the entire world. He puts his whole body into hugs. He loves to fake laugh just to get me to laugh. I finally have succeeded in getting him on somewhat of a schedule, and he will take a long nap in the morning and a short one in the afternoon. My neighbor, Helen, kept him last week while I went to the dentist and she got him take a nap without being fed first. She is SO wonderful and Joel loves her.

I'm trying to get him interested in books. He has a tendency to get impatient halfway through even the shortest ones and knock them aside. The other day I was reading a book to him about colors, and I could swear that he was saying the words for some of the colors. He made an "re" noise for red, a "bu" noise for blue, and "pu-pu" for purple. I kept thinking to myself at the time that it must just be a weird coincidence, but my gut is telling me that he is already starting to talk. I dried him off after bath time with a shark towel, and showed him what he looked like in the mirror while singing the Jaws music. He started making the same noise and would laugh when I lunged towards the mirror. I'm beginning to think that he is scary smart like his brother. I'm not sure if we can handle two of them in the house, trying to confound and confuse us 24/7. At our age we're pretty easily confused.

He's just at that age where it seems like he's constantly doing something cute or amazing, or both.

Only a boy would think this way

I took both boys to the doctor yesterday with horrible hacking coughs. Their pediatrician always says that he's going to check their ears for bunny rabbits, which Gabriel loves. Yesterday the doctor said, "You know what we should look for instead of bunny rabbits this time of year, Gabriel? Turkeys. They are hiding from us because you know what happens to turkeys on Thanksgiving? We eat them!"

Gabriel kind of giggled, but then looked really thoughtful and I thought, "Oh boy. Now I'm going to have to explain to him about eating animals. What am I going to say?"

But it didn't come up all the way home.

Later, after I got Joel down for a nap, I was trying to figure out what to make for lunch since Gabriel has had little or no appetite lately. He had already turned down several suggestions, then asked if he could watch the rest of "Finding Nemo", a movie I've still not seen from start to finish, until it was time for lunch. I sat down with him to watch the last 45 minutes or so, and teared up a little at the end when Nemo swims back from school to hug his Dad.

At that moment, my son said to me, "Mommy, I want to eat that for lunch" while pointing at the television. I wrinkled my brow and said, "What?" He said, while still pointing, "That". I said, a little kiddingly, "You want to eat Nemo for lunch?" And he unflinchingly said, "Yes, but without the eyes and fins and tail."

So, instead of trying to explain where our food comes from and why we eat animals, I found myself (in a slightly horrified voice) telling him that I couldn't believe he would want to eat such a cute little guy as Nemo, and told him we were out of fish in the house at the moment, thank God.

Love, love, love this.

Not just that he memorized a pretty long poem, but that he seems to "get" it. I've loved Billy Collins for a while now, and his words give me goose bumps. The good kind.

Halloween!

On one of our many trips to the scary guy store during October.

BOO!

The very scary and laughing big bat and the pudgy cute little bat.

First trick or treat stop: Uncle Dave's.

And then off to Mamaw and Poppy's.

And finally to Tita and Tito's

Next we ate dinner and then headed out to the neighbors'. Then Jav took Gabriel to the neighborhood haunted house. Which last year paid attention to whether or not the kid walking through was smallish. But not this year. Jav said it was loud and screamy and not just scary but a little violent. Not good. We will not be taking him back there next year.

Eating

Since I've been nursing Joel for the last year, I have never eaten so healthy. Originally it was just to make sure he wasn't getting junk food from me, and was getting all the nutrients I could eat. I've been eating more fruits and veggies than ever before. I have not been eating too many sweets, especially chocolate. If I wanted to eat something that wasn't too healthy, I made sure to only eat a little of it (like the Rotel we always consume tons of on our Girls' Weekends!) But Joel ended up being very sensitive to everything I eat, so a big list started growing of things I flat out have to stay away from as long as I am nursing. I'm not sure how much longer we will go. I'm hoping for at least six more months, but he is really slowing down now.

Whenever the day comes that he is completely weaned. I have compiled a list of foods that I have denied myself all this time. This doesn't include things that I couldn't eat because of possible food dangers, like goat cheese or sushi, even though I will enjoy those as well. These are things that I really wanted to eat, but couldn't because I would have been up all night with Joel. I will start tackling my list, and probably only get to one every two months or so since every thing on the list except one is NOT very good for you. And I will savor every single bite. Then I need to get back to trying to eat healthy. And start trying to consume much less than I have been for the last five years. Yikes, that's a long time to develop some bad habits!!

10. My homemade cole slaw, the only healthy thing you will find on this list.

9. Movie popcorn, slathered in butter

8. Pepperoni pizza

7. Jason's Deli muffaletta sandwich

6. Chopped BBQ sandwich, piled high with tons of pickles

5. Mexican Inn chips and salsa

4. Sonic coney and tots

3. Chicken fried steak

2. Fried catfish and hush puppies

And the number one thing?

Kincaid's onion rings. The biggest size they come in, with a Shiner Boch on the side.

Oh God how my mouth is watering right now.

Finishing up September

Every year we try to visit Haydee, an old friend of Jav's family and godmother of Jav's sister. She has been a cloistered nun for 25 years now, and her "nun" name is Sister Maria Rosario. She is Cuban and quite a character. Her home for the past five years or so is the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas. Even though she is Tia Sandie's godmother, she is a little closer to Jav. She was thrilled when she found out we were going to be parents and made us promise to raise them right and be sure and visit her often. This trip is old hat now to Gabriel, who was a bit freaked out by the nuns the first couple of times we visited. I was concerned about how Joel would react, but in typical laid-back Joel style, he just accepted everyone with a big toothless grin. We complain about the trip every year, because it takes all day to go there an back, sometimes into evening, and it's just tough to do car trips with little ones. But we invariably end up having a really nice time. The drive there is very pretty, and the convent itself is absolutely beautiful, surrounded by huge East Texas pine trees. It's so quiet all you hear is birds singing. And the nuns are ever so sweet. They love it when kids visit and several always drop by to say hello. Most of them have great senses of humor, which for some reason surprised me at first. They have to stay behind the railing seen above, but can hug over it. They also let the kids be behind it some too. I still need to find out exactly what "cloistered" means one day.

Here is the third walking stick we saw this year. I think they are so cool.

Joel talking to me from inside. Notice Zoe looking at me too.

Really pretty almost full harvest moon. It was supposed to be one of the brightest moons we've had in a long time, and it was beautiful. My picture doesn't do it justice.

My sweeties having a blast in the backyard. Our grass always gets really thick and pretty this time of year, but this year it's even better. It's like walking on a really cushy wall-to-wall carpet. In a vibrant shade of green!

Gabriel in his Beatles cartoon tee he got for his birthday, which has caught the attention of lots of people every time he wears it!

The almost-perfect (Joel looks sad, but he's just not liking the bright sun in his face) end of summer picture, with my lantana in full bloom. We had tons of butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds eating and pollinating it all summer.

My cultured son

Yesterday Gabriel was playing with his cars on the floor and humming Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I'm not making this up.

He knows it because of A) His little brother's Baby Einstein DVD and 2) the Beatles movie Help, because there's a huge tiger that's got Ringo trapped and the only way to calm him down is to sing that song ("He was raised on the classics.") That movie cracks me up.

Who says you can't learn culture from TV?

RANGERS

This pic taken at Game 3 against Tampa, Saturday October 9th.

Our little Rangers are going to the World Series!!!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

The bottom three pictures are from the last regular season game we went to in September, and brought my Mom along. She LOVES going to Ranger games and I wish we could take her more often.

Jav and I went to the third game of the 1st playoff series between Tampa Bay and Texas (which happened to coincide with Jav's birthday). Texas had already won both games in Tampa Bay, then was coming home and everyone assumed they would finish Tampa off. We had traffic and parking hell before the game because we didn't leave early enough. But once we made it in (we missed the 1st inning), the atmosphere at the ballpark was so cool. There were no cell phone conversations going on about trivial matters, no one chatting about what they did that weekend. Everyone was into the game, and standing when our pitcher was up two strikes, or if a hitting rally got started. It was great when Darren O'Day got called into to relief pitch, because the whole entire stadium did the chant: "O'Day, Oday Oday Oday, Oday, Oday" which is what alot of fans chant at soccer games except it's "ole".

Sadly, we ended up losing the game because of our relief pitching. It was a long, long walk back to our $30 (OUCH) parking place, and then took another hour and a half to get home. But I'm glad I got to experience some post-season baseball. The Rangers lost the next game at home, too, which Jav got to go to also with his dad and sister because someone at work handed him the tickets thinking we wouldn't need that fourth game. Things were looking sort of bleak. But they went back to Tampa and our new star pitcher, Cliff Lee, got the job done and we moved onto the ALCS - against the hated and dreaded Yankees!

Watching these games, I don't think I've been as nervous since I was in the hospital to have Joel. I couldn't watch on TV if they started to fall behind (which they rarely did), but would switch over to radio and keep doing chores while listening. We lost the first game at home, then won the second one. Then we did the unthinkable in NY - won two out of three. And didn't just win games, we slapped them silly in their own house. The team traveled back home and had a game Friday night, which my husband was lucky enough to get lottery tickets for. I decided that it was too much to ask someone to keep the kids for that long around bedtime, so Jav's dad went with him.

THEY WON!!!!!! And so goes history. I was listening to the best baseball broadcaster EVER in the history of radio, Eric Nadel, so I could hear him say, "The Rangers have won the pennant!" But then I was a little depressed about not being there right after the game, mostly because I was by myself and had no one to share my excitement with. But then I called my parents (my dad actually stayed up, which is just unheard of!), and then my brother texted me, and then I got on Facebook. Facebook actually helped me more than anything, because everyone was so excited and responding to statuses in real time, so it felt like we were in the same room. I dug down deep and realized that my sainted husband really deserved to be there (he's been a fan much longer than I have), and then I realized how many times I've heard him say, "Once when my Dad and I were at the old stadium..." . So how fitting is it that they could be there together for the Rangers' finest hour (at least up to this point?)

It's still very surreal. When I see promos I think, "Oh yeah, the World Series is about to start". Because we watch it every year. And then I realize, "Oh my God the Rangers are in the World Series" and I get goose bumps all over, then my goose bumps get goose bumps and I get so excited I want to jump up and down and scream like a little kid. Which is SO appropriate, because I think this team is constructed of guys who are little kids at heart. They've all been playing their hearts out, and looking like they're having fun doing it. I credit Ron Washington, the manager, for that. It's just a great group of guys that you can't help but root for. AND THEY BEAT THE STINKIN' YANKEES FOR GOSH SAKE!!!!!!! I hope they can now take on the SF Giants with as much gusto and prevail, but to quote long-time Star Telegram sports writer Jim Reeeves, "Does anyone really give a rat's patootie at this point?"

I just want to savor this happy feeling.

Annual birthday party!

The Burfday Boy

The very poorly constructed cake that fell apart after I started cutting it. And Woody kept falling off.

Swingset fun. Gabriel was so happy his best buddy Lenah came to the party.

My Dad and Joel, who tolerated all the excitement really well. Joel did pretty well too! (Hah)

Gabriel and Luke (a.k.a. Lukey-Luke), his best friend from preschool. He had stitches in his chin that popped open during the party when he landed really hard after sliding down our slide. He had to leave and go to the emergency room to get stitched back up, which we felt horrible about. I gave him a big piece of cake to try to ease his pain!
Mom and Joel. who looks disgusted with the lack of attention he was getting.

I tried something new this year. I made Gabriel pose for a picture with every group as they left the party. I'm not sure if I'll do that again because it was kind of a bummer for him to have to stop having fun. Aunt April, Uncle Philip, Cade and Macy.

Just after he blew out the candles, he looked around the entire room full of people and had the most joyful smile on his face. That moment right there was worth all of the work and then some.

Mamaw and Poppy and Uncle Dave.

Tia Sandie and boyfriend Michael with daughter Lizzie. His older daughter Grace couldn't come.
Andrew with Molly. He's so sweet with animals.

Godparents Aunt Christine and Uncle Keith, with kids Andrew, Allison and Matthew.

I just love, love, love this picture.

And to prove that we made it through another party. Joel is either giving his brother a love pat or smacking him in the back of the head. We have no way of knowing which!

Birds

I am intervening from trying to catch up with family events to tell about two really cool bird sightings.

The first is that we have a really big red-headed woodpecker that occasionally graces us with its presence and eats from our hanging feeder in the backyard. It is one of the prettiest birds I've ever seen, and I believe that it visits us every time around this year. I'm not sure if they migrate or not, but I'm thinking they do. I can't quite get the camera out quick enough to catch it for a picture, but I will keep trying.

The other thing happened last night. The kids and I finished eating and since it was almost dark decided to go out to turn on our Halloween lights for the evening. (Jav was working late so he missed this). We always turn on Gus, our scariest of scary guys, for Gabriel to enjoy a few times before heading back inside. I was trying to convince him to come in when we heard this strange sound from the trees in our neighbors yard across the street. I was convinced it was a kitten yowling, and we walked over to try to see exactly where the noise was coming from. But it was really hard to tell because the sound was so high. I was saying, "Kitty kitty kitty" and making my cat call noise, but it just kept making the sound. We noticed that our neighbor Helen had walked out and strolled over to talk to her. She said that whatever it is, it's not a cat, because she hears it many evenings and from different trees all around her house. I realized it was just dusk, and it hit me that it was a screech owl. I had heard them from farther away when I lived in the country, and I knew there were some around here. But this was the first time I had heard one up close and personal, and was amazed that it didn't fly away even though we were standing right under it. The reason the sound was so hard to pin down was because it had been changing trees. Gabriel wanted to go in and get a flashlight, but I explained that these owls liked to be really high up and weren't very big, so there was little chance we could see them. I think we will try to go out again at the same time when Jav is home and try to hear it again.

The Joelster

I haven't posted about Joel in awhile, so I thought I'd take a break and catch up with our little guy. That is, if we can catch him!

He has no fear. His crawl finally kicked in high gear and there's been no stopping him since. Gabriel was pretty content to stay in one room and play for awhile. Not Joel. He is constantly circling the house and I have to watch him non-stop! He crawls with purpose, lifting his hands way up and smacking them down on the floor as he goes. Up until a couple of weeks ago he was pulling up to his knees anywhere he could reach. But then that changed to feet. He's already had some bad falls and has learned to be cautious when he pulls up on new things. And then, Thursday afternoon I looked up from cooking dinner to see him walk across the living room pushing the footstool my grandfather made, which was shocking, funny and sentimental all at the same time. It's the perfect height for him to lean on.

He can communicate already without talking. Gabriel had this cute move in his highchair, where he would lean his head over, always to his right side, and we'd say, "Aawwwww look at the baby!" Joel started doing it, but to the left, and I always touch his face when I say the Awwwwww! Yesterday I didn't and he took his own hand and touched the side of his face while making sure I was watching him. I caught him holding the toy phone up to his ear one day. At the zoo last week, he had been fussing about something for awhile, and I finally noticed him trying to unfasten the strap around him in the stroller.

He loves to follow Gabriel around and do exactly what he's doing. Same toys, instruments, it doesn't matter what it is. They play a crawling form of chase all over the house. For some reason, he wants to put his mouth on everything all of a sudden. The dishwasher, his quilt, the door to his room, the crib, the rocking chair all get special Joel kisses all day long. He was staying at Jav's parents one day and they had him sitting in the big plastic car in the backyard, and couldn't believe he was already turning the steering wheel from side to side and turning the key in the ignition. Then he'd stop and throw the football back at his Tito. He's already so far ahead of where Gabriel was at his age, I guess because he's got a big brother to catch up with.

He is trying all kinds of new foods daily and my nursing is starting to slow down. We are down to three times a day with one overnight feeding. But then he'll have a tough night where he wakes up three or four times. My hormones are not amused. I think he may finally be working us and just wanting Mommy to be in the room with him until he falls back asleep. During the day it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to nurse. He kicks his feet and squirms around, and wants to see everything going on around us.

Of course, all of this growing up is breaking my heart a little. I'm not ready to say goodbye to his babyhood and hello to toddlerville just yet. I breathe him in every chance I get to smell that sweet baby smell, the one that I wish I could bottle up because I know it's going to go away. And he's such a sweet, sweet guy. He gives HUGE hugs that you can tell he really means. He's starting to lay his head on my shoulder when he's tired. I love it when he wakes up at night and talks to me ( in his own baby language) about what is wrong until I start to feed him.

I think I have magical thinking when it comes to Joel, even now. You would think by now I wouldn't still be in awe that we actually get to have two of these wonders running around. (Well, at least one is close to running!) It's hard to explain, but we expected to have Gabriel. When we found out about Joel, all hope of having another one on our own had been gone for awhile, and we had moved on to other plans. Sometimes I look at him and feel in my heart that he is actual proof that God exists and answers your prayers. That's alot of weight to carry on such small shoulders, and I need to get over it. But watching my two boys playing on the floor, both laughing, I can't help but be humbled by the powers in the universe that have brought my life to this point in such an amazing way.

Addendum: When I read this back it sounded to me like I think Gabriel is just ordinary and not special in any way. So this is just for him, so that later when he reads all of this he will understand a little better what I was trying to say.

Gabriel, when you came into our lives it was like opening the big giant present under the Christmas tree that you'd been looking at for weeks, the one that you hoped was the thing you wanted most in the world, and thought it probably was but you were still just so, so happy to find out that it was. And Joel coming into our lives was like someone pulled out one last package from behind the couch, one that you didn't know about at all, so it was really exciting to open. I hope that clears things up.

Pizza night

Yesterday Gabriel had been in trouble after school because he wouldn't mind me AT ALL about rest time when we got home from school. First I threatened no visit to Mamaw and Poppy's that afternoon. Then I threatened to take away TV and computer. Then cars and trucks, and finally no music or instrument playing. None of them worked. So he was pretty much stuck with reading books or playing pretend games the rest of the day.

And as these things go, it ended up being such a fun afternoon. Gabriel had received a robot from our neighbors, George and Billie, for his birthday, and he and Joel crawled around on the floor after it. We played with the dinosaurs. Gabriel was funny because at first he was having the big dinosaurs eating some of the smaller ones, and when I said something about how sad that was, he started having the big ones spit them back out.

It got to be dinner time, and Joel gets to watch a half hour of either Tellytubbies or Baby Einstein. Gabriel decided to hang out with me in the kitchen, and started out reading some books. But then I asked if he wanted to help me make dinner, and he said yes! Thursday is pizza night at our house, and last night I was making turkey sausage, mushroom and black olive with Alfredo sauce and mozzarella cheese. I chopped and grated and he help me put things on the pizza. I've read somewhere that if kids help with dinner they are much more likely to try new foods and eat them.

And it was true! He ate an entire piece, mushrooms and all. Maybe it had to do with him going through a growth spurt, because he gets really hungry and will try just about anything! But it really warmed my heart. I will not push him to help again, but I will definitely ask every once in awhile because we both had a great time. I can't say that I hope he will get in trouble again soon, but maybe he'll keep wanting to help on pizza night. IF I can tear him away from the computer games.

Oh, and notice the President placemat sitting underneath his food in the picture above? Tia Sandie and Michael brought it back from DC for him. He has now learned half (22) of our Presidents by sight. First and last names. We play the President game every night at dinner. The way he remembers them varies. There's the one with crazy hair. And one with wet hair. There's the three in the "long beard" group. There's two named Franklin and two with the last name Johnson. But the reason the game got started was because of the really bald ones, which he calls "baby head Presidents". (John Quincy Adams, Eisenhower, and Ford). This seemed totally innocent until we were on vacation eating dinner one night and Gabriel pointed to man walking by and said (loudly, of course), "Look, that man has a baby head!" Oops. We're working on reversing that mistake.