Getting Out the Door -- or -- Why We're Often Late

Greetings from Minnesota, where the snow is falling, the roads are icy, and the temperatures are frigid!  Unfortunately the internet has been broken in Minnesota for the last 10 months, so I haven't blogged for a while.

I was inspired to write a little something about our experiences yesterday when getting ready to leave the house.  Gabe and I have been sick with a cold, and the temperatures have not risen above freezing all week, we've stayed home in hopes of getting better.  BUT WE CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!  So we planned to get to the library this morning at 10:00 to play before the 10:30 storytime, with a possible trip for groceries before.

Here is a play-by-play.

8:45

*  "Let's get ready to go."  Quickly finish breakfast and take my vitamins.  Take some dishes to kitchen.

*  Upon my return, Gabe is on dining room table pouring rice milk from carton into a bowl.

*  Stop Gabe/get him off table.

*  Gabe follows me into kitchen, wants some of the rice milk he procured.

*  Wipe Gabe's nose.

*  Pour rice milk into cup, watch to make sure he doesn't spill it in dining room.

*  "What was I doing?"  Oh right, brushing my teeth.  Head into bathroom.

*  Gabe comes in and tries to get T.P. roll off top of toilet.  While doing so, bangs back of head on toilet paper holder on wall.

*  Gets upset, tries to bite toilet paper holder.

*  Gets more upset and grabs on to T.P. holder, hoisting himself up.

*  T.P. holder immediately comes off of wall, hitting Gabe in forehead and scattering pieces of grout on the floor.

*  Hold/comfort Gabe for several minutes.

*  Wipe Gabe's nose.

*  Clean up pieces of grout from floor.

Evidence behind him.  Gabe is now frustrated with dustpan.

*  "Where was I?"   Oh yeah, I was going to wash my face.

*  Gabe investigates wall where T.P. holder fell off.

*  Gabe gets white powdery stuff on hands and licks it.

*  Quickly wipe off Gabe's tongue and hands.  And wall.

*  Back to washing face.  Gabe throws cup in sink.

*  Remove cup and finish washing face.

Note to Self:  Cup has white stuff in it.  Put in dishwasher.
Note to Self:  Give up on grocery store trip.

*  "Ok!  Time to change your diaper!"

  A.  Chase after Gabe and apprehend him.
  B.  Put saline drops in Gabe's nose.
  C.  Put gel on the bonk on his forehead.
  D.  Change diaper.
  E.  Wipe gel off of Gabe's eye after he spreads it around.
  F.  Use snot sucker to clear out Gabe's nose.  Handle protests.
  G.  Put on pants and socks over Gabe's P.J.'s, cuz who cares at this point.
  H.  Place Gabe on floor.

  --Note:  This diaper change went much better than most. --

It is now...
9:30

*  Prepare diaper bag & purse.

*  Put on my coat, hat and gloves.

*  Remember I meant to do a sinus rinse.

*  Remove coat, hat and gloves.

*  Perform sinus rinse.  Blow nose 500 times.

*  Re-apply coat, etc.

*  Run out to car to turn it on.  (It's 15 degrees outside.)

*  Come back to get Gabe.

*  Put on Gabe's hat, coat, gloves and boots.

--Note:  This is much easier than usual.  Gabe doesn't fight it.--

*  Express surprise that Gabe doesn't poop right after I put his winter stuff on.

*  Carry Gabe to car and strap him in carseat.

*  Blow my nose.

*  Go back to house to get snack for Gabe, which I forgot.

*  Get in car, get ready to drive.

*  Remember one more library book that's due.

*  Go back to house and find book.

*  Back to car.

9:59

*  Pull out of garage.

10:07

*  Pull into library parking lot.  Success!!

Fun at the library....

First story time...what are these people doing?

For those of you who made it this far, congratulations!  We are expecting Gabe's little brother in early December, so stay posted.

A bonus video of Gabe dancing:

Christmas Trip

Oops!  I thought I already did a Christmas blog post.

I've been pretty remiss on the blogging for a few months.  I will now make up for it with an amazing, spellbinding blog post.  (Well...probably not.)  But I will share some pictures from our Christmas trip to Portland, OR and Seattle.  In no particular order...

And some other stuff.

Gabe loves his rocking chair from Cousin Lynn.

The classic toilet paper fiasco.

I did swimming lessons with Gabe when he was 6 - 7 months old.  He did pretty well, as you can see here.  Tim came with us for the last lesson, so I got to do camera work.

Whew, finished that blog post just in time.  Next up is Gabe's birthday!

Six Months Old!

On 9/1, Gabriel turned six months old.  He marked the occasion by getting two teeth!  (Actually, that happened a couple of weeks earlier.)

Grandma Christie was visiting.  We had a big day.  First, Gabey had his first solid food.  Guess what it was?   You'll never guess.   (I can't get the video to upload....)

It was poi, a Hawaiin food - taro root.  I told him he's probably the only baby in Minnesota to have this as his first food.  He seemed very appreciative.  (:  His godmother invited us over for Hawaiin food the night before.  The poi is the purple stuff.

Her father was visiting and had brought poi with him from Hawaii.  I don't think there's anywhere in Minnesota you can buy it.

Here's an avocado video instead.

Next, we went swimming at a local lake.  Our friends lent us their awesome infant floatation device.

First, swing photos.

Gabriel wasn't too sure at first, but eventually he became so content that he focused entirely on trying to chew on the blue plastic things.

He's so funny.

It's amazing to me that six months have already passed.

He's showing us just how active he can be - a few days after the six month day, he started army crawling much faster, and he keeps trying to do a real crawl.

I've been around about 20 babies his age recently, and he is definitely the most active!!!  We are going to have our hands full for sure.

A few other recent photos.

At the University of St. Thomas community garden.

At the Nativity Parish Fair last weekend.  Very dangerous.  But Tim seems to enjoy being eaten by a T-Rex.

The Difference Between Mommies and Daddies

Our bedtime routine includes Tim or I walking Gabriel through the house to say "Goodnight" to things.

When I do this, it sounds like this...

"Goodnight outside.  Goodnight birdies.  Goodnight bunny rabbits.  Goodnight squirrels.  See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight sun room."

"Goodnight living room."

"Goodnight bathroom."

Etc.

When Tim does the goodnight rounds, it sounds like this...

"Goodnight outside with all your mosquitoes."

"Goodnight annoying toy."

"Goodnight stuffed animals.  Have a good night in your inanimate way."

"Goodnight stinky room."

"Goodnight thing that I pooped on."

Etc.

Back in Seattle Again

We recently returned from a trip to Seattle, which included a car trip to Portland, Oregon.  My immediate family are in Seattle, and Tim's are in Portland and two other towns between Seattle and Portland.

This was Gabriel's first airplane trip!  I was nervous about it, but he did quite well.  Evidence:

Upon arrival, we were really struck by the beauty of the plant life in Seattle.  In comparison, it seems like St. Paul has about 5 varieties of plants, and that's not much of an exaggeration.  Grass.  Oak trees. Example:

Seattle, in contrast, looked gorgeous and bursting with life!  My parents have put a lot of work into their yard over the years, and it sure shows.  Here's a picture of one of their clematis:

Here, in contrast, is the one clematis we have seen in St. Paul.

We had a dinner gathering with some friends.

No bugs!  That was also amazing.

The car trip to Portland was harder than the plane ride, for some reason.  Gabriel just didn't sleep much in the car.

We stopped by to see Dziadziu (Polish Grandpa) in Olympia.

In Portland, Aunt Karolina and Uncle Eric also have a beautiful backyard.  It leads right into a big park.  It was really cool to think about how much fun Gabriel will have visiting them as he grows up.

That's the best picture I got of Thor and Alex...not sure what's going on there.  (:  Gabey really enjoyed his boy cousins!  They were very sweet with him.  They've had a lot of practice, thanks to their 2-year-old brother.

The boys...

The boys playing with Legos, Scout included.  (Gabey is in bed.)

"Tick Tock"

A progression of photos entitled, "Reading with Daddy."

Ahh...this is so...

relax...

Oops!

We lucked out and got lots of hand-me-downs from Karolina.  Here is Gabriel sporting one of these items.

Tim, Thor and Alex had a sleep-out one night and had a blast.  Alex went in his tent and fell asleep, while Tim and Thor looked at stars and told stories.  They could choose "Interesting," "Scientific" or "Scary."

Gabey getting in on the fun the next morning.  (It was very warm outside.)

On the way back to Seattle, we stopped at Babcia's (Polish Grandma's) house.  We unfortunately didn't get a picture of her and Gabey.  But here's a photo of the awesome fruit plate she made.  We had a delicious lamb dinner and my parents came.  Gabey and I napped after the meal, while Tim collapsed on the couch and napped through the other people talking.  Weird - are we tired or something?

Back to Seattle, and Tim had to return to Minnesota to get back to work.  I sure don't like being apart, but I gave the rest of the vacation a good effort.  Gabriel also seemed extra fussy during that time, and got happier once we were reunited with Daddy.

More pictures of Isabelle and Gabriel.

Yay!  Baby Cousin is here!

Hmm....

We're Cute!

We're Matching

Isabelle liked her cousin!  Although after a couple of days, she did start to feel like Uncle Tim and Aunt Jen were paying a whole lot of attention to this little guy....I tried to make a point of spending more time with her.  She also stole his giraffe and my parents still can't find it.

She took us to the park near my parents' house and showed us all the new playground features there.  A highlight was putting Gabey in a baby swing for the first time.  He loved it!

Isabelle did such a nice job of pushing Gabey ever-so-gently.

Going to our home church, Blessed Sacrament, was very emotional for me.

So many people there know us and knew we were trying for a long time to conceive, and have prayed for us.  It was amazing to show Gabriel to all of them, especially to our pastor, Fr. Daniel.

One last Seattle photo:  Gabey with Uncle Joe.

Home again - the flight home was hard - I was by myself.  Maybe it's because Gabriel was screaming as we waited to get on the airplane -- (anyone else notice how they hurry to get you through the gate, then you just stand and wait in the tube thing?) -- but the flight attendants were so helpful.  They offered to carry things for me, and got us a better seat!  I had an open seat next to me and more leg room.  The person next to us was a lovely young woman returning from a year of mission work in China.  We enjoyed talking.  Gabey fussed for one hour and slept for two - not bad.

Tim met us at the airport with flowers, which are evident in this picture.

Tim thinks this next photo looks like the classic painting of an old man praying before his meal.

I can't believe how much Gabriel changed during our trip, and even in the time we were away from Tim.  During those five days, he started rolling and scooting more easily and also started grabbing his feet for the first time.  Now he's rolling like a maniac!

--THE END--

P.S.  Some of the Seattle photos were taken by our dear friend Janelle, who has a lovely website displaying her photography, jewelry and medieval rosaries:  http://www.bighinatti.com/