Nhamo in paradise

In's and Out's

Gabriel 2009 list of what's out and what's in for the year.

OUT: "Steve"  IN: Monster Truck videos 

OUT: stacking things  IN: Throwing and kicking things down!

OUT: only mama rocking to sleep, IN: more often prefers baba to put him to sleep

OUT: guitar;  IN: violin

OUT: only blankie IN: blankie *and* Rutherford

OUT: nursing IN: holding his warm cup of milk at night while we read books. 

OUT: his bus IN: his firetruck and motorcycle

OUT: asking us to sing him songs, IN: singing his own!

OUT: quiet little boy, IN Mr. Chatterbox

More IN's:

- airplane with baba

- laundry basket rides

- towel rodeos (thanks to nana!)

Books that are out:

His train book

Moo, Baa, LaLaLa

Goodnight Moon (although this one was very recently *the* book, so I'm guessing it will go back on the IN list soon.)

Books that are now in:

Tango makes three

Tumble Bumble

Where is Spot?

Merry Christmas!

Gabriel saw me wrapping presents this morning and said "Happy Hanukkah!"  That's our boy.  :-)  After a nasty stomach bug yesterday, Gabriel was lucky he was healthy enough to head out to nana and isaac's this morning.  We picked papa up along the way and headed across town.  A few hours of pumpkin pie, cookies, coffee and of course, presents, made for a great morning.  Considering he has only experienced Christmas once before, he certainly had the "give presents" aspect' figured out. While nana was taking off his jacket I had put his presents for nana and papa under the tree (two plates he had made at daycare.)  As soon as he saw them there he rushed over, picked nana's up and ran to give it to her.  Then he did the same for papa.  He was very specific about who's plate was who!  Then he wanted to pass out all the rest of the presents.  Papa made him a stepping stool, nana made him an adorable floor-cloth, nana and Isaac got him a cool racetrack, and Mama and Baba surprised him with butterfly wings.  (A story on the butterfly wings, every time we were at Holiday Market he'd see these wings and squeal 'butterfly!"  Sure enough, as soon as he saw them he put them on and ran around the room saying 'fly, fly!")  Some Christmas pics....

"All Animals"

Gabriel has suddenly become attached to several stuffed animals at one time:  Rutherford (his giraffe), Ruff-Ruff (a doggie he snitched from nana's car) and Ty's wolf (named fluffy.)  He's been telling us that he needs to have 'all the animals' and carrying them around the house.  Until last night he has also insisted on nursing to sleep with "all the animals." That was a very full rocking chair!  And of course, blankie is in the mix as well. 

Rutherford is by far his main lovie though (except for night-time, when blankie is just as important.)  Until now he just hasn't been a kid who wanted to carrying anything around with him. Then suddenly a week or so ago Rutherford had to go everywhere with him.  We're not used to this at all - now I'm terrified of losing Rutherford somewhere.  (Ty saved the day last week when he remembered Rutherford at the last minute as we were leaving daycare.  They are closing down for TWO WEEKS.  It would of been disastrous!)

Gabriel discovers sugar

Gabriel was helping me make sugar cookies tonight.  At one point he was sitting on the floor surrounded by sugar (he had 'helped' me put a cup of sugar into the bowl.)  I was stirring when I heard a 'mmm' sound.  I looked down to see him with both hands in him mouth.  He looks at me with this look of discovery and says in this matter of fact tone of voice "I like sugar."

The difference one year makes...

 

Violin!

A few weeks ago Ty pointed out all the instruments some musicians were playing at the holiday market (that's  cello, that's a violin, etc.)  Other than this moment, we can't think of any other exposure he had to violins.  Nevertheless, a week later he toddles into the kitchen first thing in the morning and tell me "violin, mama.violin."  Surprised, I found some kids playing violin on you-tube and let him watch.  The boy proceeded to watch 45 MINUTES of violin.  He wanted all of it - the adults, the kids, fiddle, classical - it didn't matter, he was transfixed.  Then he asked about the difference between a guitar and a violin, so we watched a bunch of guitar-violin duets. After explaining the difference between a cello and a violin (he saw a cello in one of the videos), he was finally done.  Or so I thought.  We played for a while and then Baba woke up.  "Baba, violin!" he says.  And then we have to watch more videos.

The next morning - same thing!  And for the next TWO WEEKS this is all we have heard.  Violin this, violin that.  Ty bought him a Yoyo Ma CD that he loved.  A few days later I put the CD in and he told  me "no cello, mama, violin." Crazy!  He spent the whole week walking around with his guitar pretending it was a violin.  Ty gave him a long paintbrush to use as his 'bow.'  He promptly lost it, and then didn't want another pretend one.  He wanted the real thing.  "No guitar, baba, violin."

So, of course,Ty and I went in search for a violin for our wee prodigy's Hanukkah present.  (I say prodigy in jest, as we received several raised eyebrows when people learned we were buying a violin for a two year old.)  So I'm thinking, no big deal, right?  We'll go to a couple of music stores, price out violins, and pick a small basic one that he can play around with.  We had no idea that we were entering...violin world.

First store:  located in the back of an odd consortment of buildings...up a narrow staircase, and down a small hallway.  Only to be faced with a closet of a 'store' with a sign on the closed door posting hours as 1:30 - 4:00 monday through thursday. 

Second store:  this one's more store-like - we walk in an instantly see a large range beautiful violins and cellos.  The owner barely looks up and then goes into the back of the store.  an elderly lady walks out a bit later and says the owner will be with us 'in a minute.'  She is hesitant to answer any questions about the violins themselves, except to look admiringly at a few on a table and say "one of these is mine."  Finally the owner comes out to talk to us.  As soon as we mention we are looking for a used violin for our 2 year old he whole body language changes - as if the word's we just uttered were sacrilege.  "Toddler - violin? - No music for you! - get out of my store!"  He told us point blank that we we should not let Gabe near a violin until he was 5 years old, and that if he was interested in music we should get him a recorder. (Later on that day Missy, one of our favorite barista's from the bookstore, said "no! don't get him a recorder - those things teach people to hate music!"

Many phone calls later I found shop that had exactly what we needed - a used rental violin that was previously used for lessons - for an excellent price.  It came with it's own case and everything.  The people there were fabulous - and thrilled to hear about Gabriel intense interest in the violin.

As soon as Gabriel saw the case, he knew what it was.

 

 

So Funny!!!

Gabriel has this new thing he does when he thinks something is hilarious.  He starts to laugh and then brushes his hands all over his face (it almost looks like he's slapping himself), wiggles his body and finally throws himself face down on the floor in hysterics. 

big boy bedtimes

Some new changes slowly happening around here.  Our little boy is growing up and leading his parents along the way.  The last few weeks he has been wanting to read a story to baba after bedtime stories (we all cuddle up in bed together and baba reads three books, plus the 'going to bed' book.)  Last night Rutherford listened to the story as well.  And then tonight, after rocking and nursing with me for a while, he sat up and announced that he wanted milk.  "No more nursing?" I asked.  "Want milk" he said. "want milk, baba."  "Do you want to rock with baba and drink milk?"  "yah." So that's what we did.  Ty said she rocked and sang with him for a while and then asked him if he wanted to go sleep in his crib.  He said "yah" and Ty laid him down (along with Rutherford, ruff-ruff and his blanket.)  He turned on his little fish swimmy thing (lights up and plays soft music) and laid back down.  Ty asked him if he wanted her to cover him up with the blanket and he said "no, I have blankie" and cuddled up with it.  Then she told him she was going out of the room and that mama and baba would be right outside.  He said "night, night" and that was that.  We heard him talking to himself for a few minutes and then all was quiet.  Our little boy just put himself to sleep!

Guitar

Good day

- We all slept in!  Gabriel crawled in bed with us at around 7:00 and we all slept on and off until 8:00.

- Violins!  The first thing Gabriel told me when we came out in the living room was that he wanted to play a violin.  I have no idea where he got this from, but he was insistent.  We spent the next while watching violin videos on y**tube and discussing the difference between a violin and a guitar.  Of course then he wanted to turn his guitar into a violin.  Luckily baba found a paintbrush that we could use as a 'bow' and after he lost that one, a ruler sufficed.

- Morning coffee (milk for the boy) and Cinnamon rolls and the morning paper.  Gabriel played "violin" for quite a while.  It was only after he started trying to play' the cat and on top my my head that I put on one of his favorite dancing videos.

- Then we headed out into the cold rain to see papa (with the boy still holding his violin.)  And guess what was at the holiday market?  Lots of violins!!  We also arrived in time to hear the local lesbian choir, so Gabriel was able to hear lots of "babas and mamas" singing.  The best part of the day was watching a whole group of young children with violins - Gabriel was mesmerized for the entire performance.  He went down for his naps talking to me about violins.

- Well, let me revise that last statement.  He almost went down for his nap.  We stayed so long that he fell asleep for 10 minutes on the ride home.  BAD bad idea.  We had to wake him up to get his coat up, so now he's awake and doesn't want to go back to sleep.  After I gave up Ty tried for a while.  He eventually told her he wanted to lay in his crib, but no sleeping was in the cards.  We listened to him talk to himself for about 30 minutes before we gave up.  He actually did pretty good the rest of the day without a nap, though.

- Lots of random playing with mama and baba after naptime.  We colored, made rubbings with crayons, did a lot of cutting (he's really into the scissors,) and reading books. 

- Then it was time to light the menorah for day two of Hanukkah!  The boy loves candles (lucky he's jewish) so Hanukkah is an extra fun holiday.  After we lit the candles and danced (yes, all three of us held hands and did a circle dance in the kitchen together), we opened presents.  Ty surprised me with a beautiful handmade mug (both strong and delicate.) After I opened my present Gabriel said "I want *my* present."  Goodness!  His present was this fabulous spinning disk - but as typical, he spent the majority of the time playing with the paper bag it came in (putting it on his hand and then smacking it with the other hand, making it go flying up in the air.)  He still liked his toy though.  I tried to play with it and he quickly stopped what he was doing, took it from me and said "mine, mama. don't do that!" 

- We ended the day playing 'bowling' in the kitchen.  This is where he puts paper cups on the floor and kicks his ball into it.  He keeps going until he's knocked them all down.  He gets a kick out of me saying "two down!"  or "one to go!"

- Bedtime routine started at 7:00 - he ran under the table when I said it was time for pj's.  After playing 'hide' for a while, I finally dragged him out (literally).  He screamed until I pretended to have a hard time getting his shirt off and then he dissolved into giggles.  The boy never stays mad for long.  speaking of a quick recovering...he jumped on the bed and slammed his forehead into the wall right before bedtime books.  Poor guy.  Baba held him for a while and he calmed down after just a few minutes.  Then I looked at the wall and noticed a crack (no, it wasn't from his head!), but that's what I told him.  I said :Gabriel, look, you cracked the wall with your head!"  He laughed so hard I thought he was going to crash into the wall again.  (and later that night as he was nursing to sleep he cracked up about it again.  (nurse..giggle, giggle, "crack wall" giggle, nurse, giggle, giggle.)

Happy Hanukkah!

 

Here comes trouble

Watching football with baba

Beautiful boy

 

More car conversations...

Gabriel: "ree ooo..ree oo" (sound of firetruck) "firetruck, ambulance"

me: "who drive the firetruck?"

G: "Big people"

me: What do the big people do?"

G: "Start engine."

me: and then what?

G: "climb ladder"

me: what next?

G: "spray water"  

I swear we didn't practice this ahead time!  He sings a song in daycare about firemen climbing ladders and spraying water, but the 'start engine' piece was completely new.  He added that from our conversation a few days ago when I told him I had to start the engine of the car. 

Let him eat cake!

Gabriel had a great day yesterday!  A sum up:

- said goodbye to mama early in the morning as she went to work

- picked out his clothes and went on a stroller ride to the bookstore with baba.  Stopped to look at herons (*big* birds!) and ducks along the way.  Ty said he was very quiet on the walk, deep in observation.  They would break the silence occasionally to comment on what they saw, but for the most part they both simply enjoyed each others company.

It was very cold on the walk, so by the time they got to the bookstore it was time for...

- sitting down IN A BIG KID CHAIR with baba to enjoy a warm steamer and carrot cake.  (Ty said he was so proud of himself.  He sat right down in the chair across from her, his little head just barely reaching over the top of the table.  He and baba ate cake together and discussed cream cheese icing.)

- Then they played in the kid section and read lots of books together.  He really enjoyed sitting next to baba and exploring a lock puzzle together (it has all kinds of different latches and locks to figure out.)  

- All that playing and reading makes a wee boy hungry, so they went back up to the coffeeshop and split a sandwich together, again sitting across from each other, each in their own chair, chatting and enjoying each others company.  Gabriel reached a new milestone this day.  As Ty said "today, I had lunch with my son."

THEN.....

We all went and celebrated Nana's birthday at Sweet Life and said MORE cake.  :-)  Happy boy.

Sleeping and seperation trouble

Poor little guy.  Poor mama and baba.  This last week Gabriel has been having a hard time going to sleep - a combination of us pushing him a little and his own separation anxiety.  Up until now I've been nursing him to sleep each night.  I am slowing trying to change this so that he will begin to learn how to fall asleep without the nursing.  He can do it - he does it with baba and papa and at daycare.  And so far, not letting him fall asleep nursing hasn't been too big of a deal.  The problems start when I put him in his crib and is is not asleep.  He wants me to sit right by the crib so he can touch me as he goes to sleep.  I've been letting him do this for the past week or so, as a transition from nursing to sleep, but last night I moved a few more feet away from the crib.  He was soooo very mad.  For about an hour he yelled "mama sit right here" and cried.  I assured him a few times that I was just a few feet away, and then stayed quiet for most of the hour.  His crying was a mad cry and I knew he was just going to have to work this out on his own.  After an hour, though, he got quieter and start crying softly and talking to himself, saying "mama, baba stay home.  mama no go work, mama stay home...."  Broke my heart.  I whispered to him "mama's right here.  Mama stay. I'm right here."  He repeated this to himself "mama here, mama stay," let out a big sigh and then let himself fall asleep.

In retrospect I shouldn't of started this transition on a sunday night.  He knows the next day is monday (just like he 'knows' when it is shabbos - he has an amazing ability to track time) and always gets more clingy the night before.

Cute monday moments...

- Gabriel saw me through the daycare door window today.  He quickly grabbed a chair, sat down at the table and started reading.  Then turned to look at me as if to say "look what I'm doing!"

- Heading out to the car at daycare I tell him we can run on the sidewalk. He says "ruuuuun" as he's running, then stops suddenly at a crack in the sidewalk and says "ready, set, JUMP"  We do ready-set-jumping the rest of the way.

- Later he runs out of the living room, but before he turns the corner he stops, puts his little hand in front of his face, waves and says "bye, bye" before he runs into the kitchen. Minutes later he screeches back in, runs up to me and says "Hi mama!"

- Crazy boy during our 'books in bed' time.  Jumping, flipping, and 'snarling' like a leopard. 

"I did it!"

This is one of Gabriel's favorite sayings as of late. He's so proud of himself.  His little voice is crazy cute when he says it.  (Except once when I heard him say it from the backseat - and I was right to be concerned - minutes later his shoe came flying in to the front seat!)

 

 

At the park with grandpa