Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Yesterday morning we discovered that the boys had matching pjs. Being the good moms that we are, Katilyn and I decided that we clearly needed to organize a photo shoot. :) The boys were a bit confused about the whole thing at first. Gabe still isn't quite sure what to do with Bryson. He's not used to being around people that are smaller than him... There was some eye poking involved in our photo shoot. Luckily it was mutual and not just Gabe poking Bryson. That said, I'm pretty sure that Bryson wasn't trying to poke Gabe. The same cannot be said for Gabe... ............ The last few days have been pretty relaxed. Bryson got his newborn pictures done. Gabe tried to help by squawking to keep Bryson awake, which was actually not helpful... Yesterday we did a bunch of shopping. And of course there has been lots of time for snuggling and splashing in the pool. Now Gabe and I are on our way up to Portland for Auntie Laurie's wedding. We actually just flew over the Grand C

Gabe and I are in Arizona. My sister had a baby last week, so we had to come down and visit. :) We flew down on Friday and Gabe did so much better on the plane. He laughed and played and flirted with the ladies next to us on the plane. He actually glared every time the one lady turned to talk to her boyfriend... We were met in Phoenix by my parents. They haven't been around for a month but Gabe grinned when he saw them. I think that made their day. Or week... :) We've spent the last two days hanging out with my new nephew, who is pretty adorable. Gabe wasn't quite sure what to do with him though. He's used to being the littlest one in the room, so seeing someone smaller is a bit confusing... We went on a walk through the wash and Gabe got to go in the pool.  Today we spent the afternoon with a couple of my cousins and their kids. Gabe and Bryson were very popular! Remy didn't want us to leave! And to top it all of, Gabe was so exhausted by the last couple of days th

I've been back at work now for 5 weeks and so far it's been going pretty well. Luckily I have a really flexible job and a great boss, which makes this much easier. Officially, I'm back to work full time, however that's not really how things are playing out quite yet... Between taking four sick days (1 for Bella and 3 for Gabe), being out of town for two days, leaving work early once a week to take Bella to piano lessons, doctors appointments, dentist appointments, therapy appointments, mortgage appointments, showing the condo to potential renters, feeding Gabe every two hours and the fact that I can't seem to get out of the house earlier than about 9:30, I'm doing good to get in half of my hours. Luckily, my boss is very understanding as I ease back into work. Gabe is doing well in day care. He loves all the new toys to play with, as well as watching all of the big kids running around. He's not the youngest one there age-wise, but he is developmentally, and

Pat was gone this evening, so Bella and I made cookies. Well, really, one of us held Gabe while the other one made the cookies... Bella even tried out the tula for the first time. I don't normally sift my flour, but I have lots of memories of sifting the flour with my Mom while making cookies. So tonight I pulled out the sifter and taught Bella to sift her flour. While I watched her I realized that she was using the sifter that I got from my Grandma. I remember making cookies and sifting flour with her when I was a girl. Now I'm using that sifter to make cookies with my daughter. I wish that my Grandma was still here to make cookies with my kids too.

Gabe is now 9 months old (5 months adjusted). Here is his official picture; And the outtakes: Hey Mr Moose! I have a fun idea! Let's play with our feet! It's easy. I'll show you. Then I'll eat your foot! What do you mean it wasn't a fun game???

We brought this little guy home from the hospital 6 months ago yesterday. Where did the time go???

This sweet boy was laying on my chest today sleeping when he suddenly picked his head up and looked at me. Then he put his hand on my cheek, bent down and kissed me. It was a big open-mouthed slobbery baby kiss and it was adorable!

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I were at my parents watching tv (I think it was the Olympics actually). I was nursing Gabe when he suddenly started shaking. It wasn't violent like a seizure and he never stopped nursing, but his body was shaking. I wasn't sure what to do, but he stopped and kept eating and seemed fine. A few minutes later he did it again. This time I yelled to my mom to come and watch, but by the time that she got over he'd stopped. He did it a couple more times over the next few days, but we were all sick, so I thought that perhaps it was just part of the cold. I did call the pediatrition, but she wasn't concerned enough to tell us to take him to the er on a Saturday. A few days later, when we were all healthy again and he was still doing it, I took him in for an appt. Everything looked fine, but given the fact that he's a micropreemie we get to be paranoid about absolutely everything, so she wanted to get an EEG, just to make  sure. An EEG is

Here are a few fun pictures from the last few days: Apparently Dad's face tastes good? He's trying to make a run for it! Enjoying the "coolest nephew ever" status before my sister's baby shows up and he has to share the title. Jumping is pretty much his favorite thing to do. He jumps and grins and laughs and can entertain himself for nearly an hour! Post-Bath snuggles And a new hairdo from Bella.

I managed to get a good picture of Gabe's new lip thing. It's pretty adorable when you pick him up and he looks at you like that! He's also discovered his tongue and how to stick it out on purpose. In other news, he's figured out how to pick up his pacifier and put it back in his mouth. He usually gets it in sideways or backwards, but he gets it to his mouth! After spending so much time picking it up and holding it in for him, it's really nice that he can do that on his own now! I have a very distinct memory from when I was about 7. We were all sitting at the dinner table and my dad was holding my baby sister and she discovered  her feet. She grabbed them and shoved them in her mouth. Since that is such a concrete memory for me, I've been waiting for Gabe to "discover" his feet. Well, either I missed it or it was not an actual thing, because he now reaches down and grabs them and tries to eat his toes and I have no idea when or how that happened. Oh we

We set up Gabe's crib a long time ago, but he's still been sleeping in the bassinet in our room. He needs to sleep in his own bed. He sleeps really well through the night, so it's not like he really needs to be in there, plus he's too big for it. He grabs the bars on both sides and when he's playing in there he turns himself sideways and nearly gets stuck. But we haven't moved him because his room doesn't have blinds and I don't want the light waking him up at 5am... As you can see, he's clearly too big for this bed. Anyway, the blinds have been   ordered, they're just not here yet. Plus,with this whole daycare transition, I didn't want to mess with everything he knows. There's also been a my-baby's-growing-up factor that I didn't want to deal with... Anyway, last night I went to put Gabe to bed only to realize that I'd washed his sheet. Rather than putting a sleeping baby on my bed so that I could get the clean sheet and rema

This week is Bjorn's first birthday. I've never actually met Bjorn, but he and Gabe will forever be linked and since Bjorn's birthday is this week, we start the countdown to Gabe's first birthday. When Gabe was a few days old, the nurse asked if we wanted to meet the family of another 23 weeker who was about to go home. Bjorn's mom came in and we talked and cried and she helped me see that someday we would get to take our little boy home. We were even in the same room that they'd started in. Ultimately, Bjorn and Gabe would be discharged from the same room as well. A few days later, Bjorn was discharged and they went back home and we haven't seen them since. But somehow Bjorn's birthday is linked with Gabe in my head. A year ago, Bjorn was a tiny little baby in the hospital and he didn't go home until my own tiny baby was there. That means that my baby's birthday is coming up and I'm definitely not ready for that...  Happy Birthday Bjorn! Som