Bella, Gabe and Josiah

We went fishing today. We didn't get any fish, but it was nice to be out on the water. Plus, Gabe really liked his life jacket... Clearly he liked fishing. Look how upset he was that we had to go home!

Gabe is determined to roll from his back to his front. For a few days now he's been practicing every chance he gets. He swings his hips as fast as he can, but then gets stuck on his side, not able to get over his arm. Then he rolls back to his back, takes a break and swings his hips again. He's determined! Today he finally did it. He made it all the way over twice while I was watching. Then I put him down on his back for a nap and when I went in to check on him, he was on his belly. Seeing as he's too big for his bassinet, I'm not sure how he managed to get rolled over. It's a good thing that the sheet for his crib showed up today because it's about time to get him moved into a big boy bed! Unfortunately, his poor mama isn't quite ready for that...

Poor Gabe got his shots today so he was, well, rather cranky and whiny. It was pretty understandable, but it meant a lot of wimpering and snuggling. Poor kid! As such, today seemed like a good day to introduce Bella to some classics. We found some Shirley Temple shorts and some Three Stooges. Then we found I Love Lucy. I'd forgotten how funny that show was. It made Bella laugh hysterically and the neighbor girl came to play and instead she sat down to watch with us. After a couple of episodes I put Gabe on the floor to do some tummy time while I worked on dinner. A moment later, I heard Gabe laughing. I figured that Bella or Sara had picked him up and was making funny faces at him. Nope! He had rolled over so that he could see the tv better and was laughing at I Love Lucy. The kid has good taste!

We've had a pretty quiet week over here. Last week a friend of Bella's flew over and stayed with us. I had all sorts of fun stuff planned, but the girls were perfectly happy to play in Bella's room. I did get them out for some adventures, just not nearly as many as I'd originally planned. This week they headed out to camp, leaving Gabe and I at home by ourselves. We had a pretty quiet week. Today Gabe decided that he only wanted to nap on my chest, so that's what we did forthe  afternoon. It was lovely. :) This afternoon we picked up the girls and spent the evening listening to tales of how wonderful camp was, watchingthe  camp video and packing up the friend so she can fly home tomorrow. All in all, it was a lovely evening!

This is too much work. I'm done.

When Mom doesn't feed you in time, you have to take matters into your own hands!

Gabe is now 7 months old! He's now smiling at everyone, cooing and rolling from front-to-back. He's watching the world around him and really wants to participate, he just can't figure out how to get his hands to grab all of the things that he's pretty sure he should touch. He also can't figure out why he isn't allowed to eat normal food... As always, his photo shoot was rather dramatic... Gabe and the moose started out getting along great. Then the moose tried to steal the spotlight. So Gabe has to steal it back. Then things got better. There was even some laughing and joking! Then the moose tried to get fresh. It was not well received! The sage will continue next month...

Gabe had a followup eye appointment this morning. Since he and I had to fly up north anyway, Pat came along and we decided to make it a weekend away, since he and I have had significantly less time together since Gabe came along. It was a really nice weekend. It was good to good to have some time just the two us (well, Gabe too, but he's just along for the ride and as long as we feed him, he's pretty good). We got to see Pat's parents and Gabe made sure to show off his new smiling and cooing talents for them. Gabe and I got to hang out with Uncle Tim for a long time last night. And we even got to spend some time wandering Cabela's, where Gabe nearly got attacked by the wildlife. So all in all, it was a really nice weekend. What I didn't expect was how emotional it would be. When we flew in on Friday night, I was looking out the window and thinking about how nice it was to be coming back now that I'm familiar with the area. Then we got into the rental car and sta

Today we had a parenting milestone: Gabe exploded his first diaper. We've had a couple that leaked a bit, but this was the first to go all of the way up his back. This wouldn't have been a huge deal except that we were at a coffee shop. A coffee shop that did not have a changing table in the bathroom. As such, we were forced to strip him naked in the middle of the coffee shop to wipe down his entire back (luckily there was no one sitting near us), while one of us stood in line to get the key to the bathroom so that we could scrub out his clothes. We'd dressed Gabe in a cute outfit that he'd gotten from Grammie and Grandpa Jim since he was going to see them today. Unfortunately, they didn't get to actually see him in it...  Apparently the while incident was rather exhausting, because then Gabe did this:

Today I put Gabe down for some tummy time while I was helping Bella. He wasn't happy about it, so he squawked a bit. When I came back in the room he was laying on his back. The only other times he's rolled over, he's had Gram there encouraging him. This time he was by himself. And so it begins...

Happy 4th of July! We had a lovely couple of days celebrating. Last night we went to Aunt Jan's house for the fireworks. Bella got to play with her cousins for a couple of hours and the rest of us got to chat for a couple of hours while we waited for the fireworks to start. Gabe made it until about 11:30 before he was out and he slept through 3/4 of the fireworks, not even flinching at the noise. Then he woke up for the last 5 minutes and got to see his first fireworks. This morning we went to the parade and once more, Gabe slept through the first 3/4 of it... :) Then one of the floats came through that had some very loud drumming and he woke up. Luckily he was perfectly happy, although a bit confused about what was going on.

Hmmm. Is it planning to follow in his daddy's footsteps as a phone guy? Or his mommy's footsteps as a computer guy?