Bella, Gabe and Josiah

This weekend Gabe and I flew south to say goodbye to Gramps. It was a really good weekend of family. We did a lot of talking and laughing, and remembering Gramps. There were a lot of tears too, but they were good tears, tears of honoring a life well lived.

I've been pretty quiet over here for the last few weeks. There's been a lot going on and life has been a little crazy... But I still have a pile of fun Gabe pictures. That kid is hilarious... We went to the library. Gabe saw these older kids reading in the little reading nooks and he stared at them for a long time. Then he crawled in one himself, looked at me and demanded a "book!" We got a foot of snow, so Gabe and Daddy went to play outside. Poor kid was almost too short! And then Gabe decided that he needed to comb Daddy's hair.      

This afternoon, I put a very tired baby down for a nap. I heard him kicking in his crib, which he does sometimes, and I didn't think much of it. I was busy painting the laundry room ceiling and knew that he's fall asleep eventually. Nearly an hour later, Pat came into the laundry room and said that Gabe still wasn't asleep, but he was talking and crying. Lovely. I went to the living room to listen to him and suddenly realized that the I could hear the doorstop behind the door. He wasn't in his bed. I went into his room and found him playing behind the door. Apparently he crawled out of his crib. I picked him up and we snuggled for a bit and then I put him back in his bed, hoping it was a fluke. A little bit later, as I was working my second coat of paint, he was crying, so I asked Pat if he was mad or hurt. He told me that he was just mad. A few minutes later, Pat came in holding Gabe and said that he found him on the outside of the crib hanging on for dear life. Clearl

Today is World Preemie Day. Before I had a preemie, I had no idea this day even existed. But now, I will make it a point to wear purple and honor all of the precious little preemies in my life. Today also marks the two year anniversary of the day that my world fell apart. In the blink of an eye, my pregnancy went from perfectly healthy to being told to go home and let my son die.  And yet, here he is, my amazing little miracle baby.  It's ironic that that terrible day happened to be World Preemie Day. And I will forever get to grief and celebrate November 17.  

Since I had the day off for Veteran's Day and Gabe's daycare was closed, he and I decided to do all of the things that we don't normally get to do because I'm not a stay-at-home mom. We started off at Toddler Time. This was Gabe's first time at Toddler Time and he loved it. There were so many balls to play with, how was he supposed to pick one??? Plus, there were cars, slides and a bouncy house. Does it get better than that??? There really were other kids there too, I just won't post pictures of them... After lunch with a friend and a nap, we went out to play in the snow. I made us a snowman... ...and then someone decided to eat it. Then the neighbor came out to snowblow his driveway. Gabe thought that was so exciting, he might now be more exciting than the garbage man, which is high praise in Gabe's eyes.

I was going to say Happy Veteran's Day to my favorite vet. Instead, I'll say Happy Homecoming. Gramps, we'll miss you terribly. "And then one day I'll cross the river. I'll fight life's final war with pain. And then as death gives way to Victory, I'll see the lights of Glory and I'll know He lives."  

We had an appointment up north ladt weekend, so the whole family flew up for the weekend. As we were driving around, I realized that this was the first time that we were all four together up there. Bella came up to visit Gabe twice while he was in the hospital, but Gabe couldn't leave, so it was just the three of us wandering town. This time, we were all together and it was really good. We drove out to Grammy and Grandpa Jim's house for the night. We don't see too much of them, so it was good to all have a bit of time together. Gabe was pretty sure all of the animals were "deer". Grammy and Grandpa have a dog named Betsy. Unfortunately, Betsy is very old, deaf and doesn't get around very well. Gabe loved her. He would chase her around the house laughing, pretty much convinced that having a dog around was the best thing ever. Poor Betsy was probably happy to see us go... On Sunday morning, we woke up to snow. Last year, Gabe was not into snow at all, but now th

Okay, so I'm a few days late on my Halloween post. Dealing with jet lag is not fun and both Pat and I have been in a fog for a few days. Luckily we're starting to get out of it. Halloween morning, Gabe's class went trick or treating where several of the parents worked. The babies, the toddler and the preschoolers all paraded through the halls and it was adorable! Unfortunately, I can't post pictures of all of the other kids. You'll just have to trust me that they were cute! Gabe figured out how to trick or treat rather quickly. He'd walk up and hold out his hand and they'd give him the bowl of candy. Then all of the kids would go and put the candy in one of the daycare ladies plastic bag, so that she could "hold" it all for them. Anyway, Gabe figured out this whole system so well that when one of the ladies walked by holding her banana bread, he couldn't figure out why she wouldn't share when he was holding his hand up and everything. After