Thursday, October 23, 2008

Our little angel Gabriel









My mom sent the little valentine's outfit to us last spring sometime after Valentine's Day. We knew at that point that we were having a boy, but didn't know what we were going to name him. He can wear the outfit now (barely) but I think it's so cute with the little angel wings on the back.
Gabriel is quite a smiley boy and it only takes a little movement or singing anything to make him smile or laugh. He can even squeal loudly and I think he surprises himself sometimes.
He's about to outgrow some of the 3-6 month clothes we have. He has a big appetite and so we're soon going to be getting him started on some rice cereal in addition to his milk.


Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Lessons in patience

Isn't he cute?!
He's proud of that water on his shirt.


I have hesitated to post about Micah lately because of that old saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Not that I’m not going to be nice, but it has been hard to deal with Micah lately. Yes, he still doesn’t like to be around Gabriel. But that’s not the only thing. He’s just in an annoying phase right now, at least I hope it’s a phase! He’s enjoying spitting his water out everywhere, either on the floor, on his shirt or wherever it lands. We have beige-ish tile in our kitchen, so it makes it hard to see where he has spit water if we don’t happen to see it. I find myself walking around tilting my head to try and spot droplets of spit on the floor. Or, I step in it and then I know.

He’s also into throwing things. Sometimes it’s because he’s mad (about who knows what), sometimes it’s just for fun. It’s okay if it’s a soft toy or ball(soft one), but it’s very frustrating when it’s a hard plastic toy or a glass picture frame. He also enjoys taking his hand and raking it across the counter to knock stuff off (papers, phonebooks, what have you). We tell him “No!” or “Stop!” and sometimes he will and sometimes he will just do it over and over. Then the only solution we have is to take him to his room which I don’t like to do because he already spends multiple hours in his room every day as it is (he goes in there when Gabriel is out in the living room). AHH! How do you discipline a child who doesn’t seem to understand it? Any suggestions?

So, now what can I say that’s positive? Well, he seems happy to get on the bus and go to school and he seems to be doing well at church. And although his behavior can be quite frustrating…he’s such a sweet kid in general.

Please pray that we’ll have patience with Micah and the grace to know how to deal with him in the frustrating moments.