Yay Spring....ish

Well, we finally had a few warm days this month!  I have been wanting to take Gabe on walks but it was so chilly outside.  So when we have warm days, in the early evenings we will take him either in the stroller or I will carry him in the infant carrier for neighborhood walks.  We had to get him sunglasses because Gabriel isn't a fan of bright lights, he squints and wiggles his head if he goes out without sunglasses.  It's funny, Jon is the same way.  I thought the sunglasses would keep him awake during these walks...no such luck, bout 5 minutes into our walk our little chunky monkey is sound asleep.  Still, it's nice, I love to walk up to the park and watch the little ones playing.  I am stuck between never wanting him to grow up and wanting him to be old enough to enjoy the park.  Those are my favorite evenings though, walking with our little family, we even bring the puppies.

Gabe LOVES the dogs!  He just stares at them, watching their every move.  When Lucy and Basher leave the room he will make a sound, I can only imagine he is saying, "hey, come back!".  He always wants to feel them, he gets a pretty good grip on their fur.  I am trying to start now with the "soft, soft" but the dogs just let him pull until I can get him to release his little pudgy clenched fist.  It's funny.

He has the most intense stare at everyone and everything.  People will always try to make him smile and laugh but he doesn't smile, he just stares at new things and people, like he is trying to figure them out.  I was shocked the the Easter bunny picture taker lady was able to get big grins.  She did have a noise-making stuffed animal and grabbed his belly though.  Gabriel is the Pillsbury dough boy, he giggles when you poke his belly.  Overall,he is fairly quiet.  In the early morning he talks a lot, and loud!  It is so nice to wake up to the babbling.  He doesn't cry when he wakes up ever, just talks.  I love to go into his room in the mornings and catch his chatting to himself.  He gives me the biggest smile when I go to pick him up.  It melts my heart.

Gabe has started rolling over tummy to back more, it is still very sporadic, the last time he did it, we got so excited we yelled "YAY!" and it scared him a bit.  He is enjoying tummy time more.  When he is on his back it almost looks like he is going to roll over back to tummy sometimes, but not quite.  He will do it when he is ready.  He is such a fantastic baby.

We had company for Easter weekend.  Our friends the Jimenez's.  They have 4 boys.  Gabe was in awe.  The boys were very attentive, Daniel (their 4 yr old) even helped give Gabe a bottle.  We all went to see the Easter bunny on Saturday, and Sunday we had an easter egg hunt at the house.  It will be fun to see Gabriel in a year toddling around looking for eggs.

Well, hope everyone had a happy Easter.  Until next month...

Take care,
The Eaton's

March Madness

This month started off with a visit from my best friend Brandi.  She has been very anxious to see our sweet boy, but she is a teacher, so she had to wait until there was a break and fortunately they have a break for Mardi Gras in Louisiana.  Now you know she must love little Gabriel a whole lot because Mardi Gras is pretty important in Louisiana and she missed all the festivities to meet him as soon as she could.  Anyway, we had a great time.  She had him laughing minutes after we got home and they both really enjoyed each other.

This month Gabe has gotten quite a bit stronger, and I have been giving him more chances to use those muscles.  Up until Brandi got here I "hovered" a bit, I was scared to pull him up to a sitting position because I was worried about his little neck and head, that was the first thing Brandi did and he controlled his head just fine.  So I guess I was a bit overprotective.  He is actually enjoying tummy time and has rolled over a bit, still not his strong suit, he prefers to be on his back or in the exersaucer.  He cracks me up in that exersaucer because he can put his feet down, and he does sometimes, but he also leans forward and puts his feet back like he is trying to fly.  His legs are so strong, once we can get him to use his arms to push up, standing and walking should come fairly easy.

Gabe had his 4 month appointment at the end of the month and got glowing reviews.  First, for weight he is 16.9 lbs (80% for his age group), his height is 25 in (60%), and doctor talked about how his head circumference made a huge jump (for the better) from his 2 month visit.  The doctor told us to keep doing what we are doing because he looks great.  I told him that we had started him on solid foods a few days ago because he is still hungry after his 8 oz bottles and the doctor agreed it was a good decision.  So, we are on to a little bit of solids after his bottle.  The doctor also told me to not worry about him not pushing up yet, it is still within the normal time frame, and he may be a bit slow because he is a big boy.  He said bigger babies tend to take longer to learn to maneuver because of the extra weight.  Haha!

Well that about sums up the month...I am looking forward to the warmer weather so we can take Gabe on nice long walks.  Hopefully April will give us plenty of opportunities to spend some time outside.

Take care,

The Eatons