The Grinch

I feel like I should say something that I should've said a few months ago. I haven't because I wasn't ready to. As some of you may know, from Facebook, or hearing from me in person, Alejandro and I are separated and going through a divorce right now. Sorry if you have searched my blog or Facebook to find out what happened and have found nothing. I haven't really told the "public" because it's been really hard for me to do that. The divorce will actually be final here in a few weeks; we started the process in September, and its just taken a long time to get through some issues. With that said, I want you to know that I know without a doubt that I made the right choice to leave. I have had that confirmed numerous times in the last few months.

This is sad news and I'm sorry if this is the only way you've found out, but let me tell you that I am really happy. There were a lot of things in our marriage the last year that lead up to this point. I did move to California to be around my family and I am very lucky to be here with them. The first few months I lived with my sister Tiffany and her family, then when my little sister Jill moved back to Rexburg, I moved into my parents house. I don't know how I could do this whole single mother thing without them helping. I am working right now and looking to further my education in some form (not sure what yet).

  Gabe truly is one of the brightest joys in my life, along with the gospel of Jesus Christ. His big eyes and round, chubby cheeks make me so happy. I am so grateful to have him in my life. I know Heavenly Father sent him to me for a purpose, and I feel very lucky and blessed to have the privilege and honor of teaching him the gospel. I take that role very seriously.

I am, by nature, an optimistic person, so I do try and reflect that on my blog and on Facebook. So, after giving you the big "news," I would like to cheer you up with some yummy baby candy (in form of pictures) :

Silly boy in action .... his special "dance"

As soon as Great Grandpa shows up, Gabe rushes over to sit on his lap.

That's one suspicious look he's got goin' on

Grandma O and myself chillin'

Mid-afternoon snack: APPLE!

My heart just skipped a beat; he's so freakin' handsome!



And prepare yourself for this last picture ......




It's the title of this post ..........

The Grinch






HAHAHAHA!!!

Hope

We found out last night that Alejandro's mom was tragically injured and was in the intensive care unit down in Montevideo. We spoke with his dad and didn't know if she would make it through the night. She went into surgery this morning and her heart failed and she passed away. I know many of you did not know her, but she was one special lady. We love her and will miss her very much. We are very grateful she was able to come visit us when Gabe was first born and stay with us for a few months. That was the last time Alejandro saw her and I'm thankful he could see her one last time. Alejandro leaves tomorrow night for Uruguay and will be there for 2 weeks. Gabe and I will miss him a lot, but I know that he needs to be with his dad and family right now. Please send your prayers and thoughts this way so Alejandro can feel peace and love from all our friends and family.

This & That

This post is dedicated to this and that -- just a bunch of different things going on around our house. First off, Gabe is getting his 7th tooth, which means he's been super cranky until we give him his Orajel, then he settles down. Thank goodness! Next, he's been sick on top of his teething, with a running nose, congestion, coughing, a fever, and wheezing. I was really worried about his cough Tuesday, so I took him into the doctor. We found out he has asthma, due to alleries (most likely from the environment). I am almost positive he is either allergic to grass or dust. So now he is on a breathing treatment through a nebulizer. He hates that. I would too! Poor little muffin.

You can guess what my life consists of right now -->  Giving medicine, comforting my little guy, feeding, changing diapers, entertaining, cleaning, and cooking. It's been busy. But I like it, of course. I also have been reading a lot of good books. I just finished Jane Eyre, which is now one of my favorite new books ... SO GOOD!! I am going to start LOTR Two Towers pretty soon. Other than that, we just hang out around here, go to therapy, the park, or sit out front on the grass blanket!

Love his profile

My attempt at getting him to show his top teeth

There they are! All six of 'em

(not the most flattering picture of him, but oh well, it shows his teeth!!)

Happily splashin' away in the bath tub. He loves the water!

Who needs cleaning supplies when you have a child to lick it clean for you?

First time sucking on a popsicle! He liked it, despite the look on his face :)

Helmet Free & Loving Peas!

Except for wearing the helmet at night for three weeks, G is officially DONE with his helmet!!! Wa-HOO!! He is pretty happy about it too :).

Other than that, we had a very good Memorial Day weekend hanging out as a family. We tried to have a nice picnic/BBQ outside on Monday, but it was way windy and then it rained later that day. So we were outside for a little bit while the sun was shining. Here is G from the "picnic":

We went to the park on Monday afternoon, but we were only there for 20 minutes because it started raining. The picture above is of Ale and G -- he loves to be swung around when he's in his carseat. He just laughs and laughs.

We went down the slide together for the first time (he wasn't too sure about it). And you can see the stormy sky in the background :(

He's been starting to eat more solid finger foods and today we ate avocado (no pic, but he loved it) and PEAS. He loves peas. He couldn't really pick them up by himself, but when I popped one in his mouth, he happily chewed away. What a love muffin!

The two bottom pics are just some cute ones of him while he was eating tonight.

Fuzzy Head's Many Costumes

G's had a busy week (as well as his parents)! He got a new, old walker to play in and he absolutely loves it -- as you can tell in the first picture below.

Still lovin' bath time!

Chico and I went to the Rexburg temple on Saturday, so G went over to Auntie J's apartment for a couple hours. According to rumors, he had the time of his life being dressed up and tossed around in his blanket. Here are some pictures from J's camera:

Mother Teresa? Yeah, I guess I can see the resemblance.

Bob Marley

(I guess J's roommate K gave G this Skittles bag and he would cry every time they took it away from him)

My personal favorite: some character from India

This is G eating his new found love: CHEESE!

And this is why we call G fuzzy head. Crazy hair after eating his bottle.

I also realize that we mostly have pictures of G on this blog -- and I never thought I would be that kind of a person. But really, he is my life and who I spend all my time with, so actually, I don't feel bad or sorry for this blog being about him. My life isn't nearly as exciting as documenting his ups and downs, and of course, everything he learns every day. If nothing else, it makes me happy, and I know my family loves to see him as well!

My Little Pirate

G's been sick -- stuffiness, runny nose, ear infection, and sore throat. Poor little guy. Today I busted out chocolate pudding for relief from the sicky blues:

He got right in there and started playing with it

Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about.

I love the look on his face!

I put a little bit of chocolate in his mouth -- after that there was no going back!

Such a mess! But I don't care!

And .... this is who I like to call ...

Mr. Beardsey

My new pirate buddy!

Two New Little Friends

G turned 8 months today -- and with that came two new, little friends: His two bottom teeth. We like to call them his "teefies." And boy are they cute! As you can see below:

We also took G swimming yesterday. It was his second time in the pool, and he LOVED it. He's developed this new high-pitched screetch, and he did that almost the whole time.

Sportin' his new shark swim trunks

It was way too sunny, so we put my sunglasses on him :)

This picture was taken today, so this is his 8 month picture. He loves his new high chair too!

You can kinda see his two teeth in this picture {too darn cute}

I wanted to write down some of the things he's doing (or things he likes) now, just for record keeping purposes:

• He has been consistently sitting up on his own.
• He has started to eat little finger snacks (from Gerber).
• He started drinking juice (with lots of water in it ... doesn't really like it that much yet).
• He likes his voice; screams and talks a lot.
• Smiles and laughs all the time (especially to strangers or if mom does her funny voice)
• Does so well with his helmet and has progressed significantly with therapy.
• Loves mom's cell phone, jewelry, clothes, and hair.
• Has started eating in his high chair and really loves picking up his finger food off the tray.
• Loves when we clap and has been attempting to do this himself.
• He still takes two naps a day and sleeps through the night.
• He loves music and any fun little tune from any of his toys.
• He's very expressive -- if he's sad, mad, happy, etc. ... you can see it in his face.
• He loves eating peas, banana apple yogurt, sweet potatoes/corn, squash, oatmeal, bananas and strawberries, and apples/chicken (he really doesn't like carrots).
• Talks himself to sleep almost every night.

Feet & Sitting Up

Many people have been asking me why Gabe has to wear a helmet. So I will give a quick run-down of the basics. Gabriel was born with torticollis. Which, basically, is stiffness in your muscles or joints. He had this all along the right side of his body. Due to this problem, he couldn't move his head like other babies, so he ended up sleeping with his head in the same position night after night (even with many attempts from his parents to get him to change his position). He has been going to physical therapy for five months and that has helped with his movements, but his head was getting flat in the back and his forehead was getting bigger.

Well, we didn't want our baby being a mini-freak, so we decided to get him a helmet to remedy his head's uneven-ness. He also goes to massage therapy, as well as physical therapy, to help with his movements and motor skills. He hasn't been able to consistently flip over, grap his toys, or sit up on his own. However, in the past few weeks since starting massage therapy and getting his helmet, he has improved significantly. It's amazing all the things that have happened to help our little boy grow and progress. Heavenly Father has truly answered all of our prayers and then some. He is the light and joy of our lives and I love taking him to his appointments and being with him all day. Alejandro and I were talking the other day and saying how we are always excited to see him every morning and just how much he has added to our family. We love him tons.

Sorry this is so long. I usually don't like writing a lot, but I felt that I needed to explain some things. The pictures below are the explanation for this post's title. Gabe is obsessed with his legs and feet. Just today I took all of these pictures and in many of them he was touching his feet or crossing his legs. He also sat up by himself for about 7 or 8 minutes (which is huge for us). We are so proud of him! Anyways, here are the pictures and notice how he is crossing his legs in them (too cute).

P.S. In some of the pictures he doesn't have his helmet on because he gets a break for about an hour each day. He's letting his head breathe!

He's trying to suck on his feet here, but he has yet to discover how to get them to his mouth while sitting in his Bumbo.

Sitting up on his own -- for more than 30 seconds!!


All he wanted to do was suck on this toy


Oh my goodness gracious -- crossing his legs -- this cracks me up.


Helmet pic

Crossing his legs & holding his own bottle (YAY!)

Being a baby is so chill :)

Family Glue

What keeps a family together?

Letting our children pick our noses?

Taking squished family photos?

No ....


It's the families that SMILE together that stay together!

We had fun bowling. Won't you come with us next time?

The Music of Opportunity

Today at church we learned about creation -- God's creations. The teacher was telling us that when we look in the mirror, we need to look deeper, just not on the surface. She also showed us a video of this young man, Patrick Henry Hughes, who was born without eyes and has never been able to walk. However, he was born with tremendous musical abilities. He is in the marching band at the University of Louisville, and he dad marches him around the field and goes to all of his practices.

This made me think of how lucky I am to have sight and the ability to walk {two things I definitely take for granted every day}. But more than that. I am truly grateful for the talents and abilities I've been given. Sometimes I do spend too much time thinking about what I look like in the mirror, when in reality I need to be looking much deeper. At the end of the video our teacher showed us, the commentator said, "Patrick Henry Hughes was given the music of opportunity," which I took to mean that we have so many opportunities to be what God wants us to be. We just need to grab those golden moments! I know my body is not perfect, and it never will be, but my life should be more about my inner beauty than my physical appearance.

Of course I always have to show pictures of our little man. Ale's parents check the blog out daily in hopes of new pictures. So here they are:

Making him smile one day as we hang out on mom & dad's bed.

Aunt Jilly has been so kind to come hang out with us a couple times a week. And he loves hanging on her. I thought his legs looked funny in this picture. What a lover muffin. :o)

In other news relating to Gabriel, he was supposed to be getting his helmet this past Tuesday, but the prosthetic people called that morning to say they didn't like the way the helmet turned out. So they are having the manufacturer re-make it. That means it will be another week to week in a half before he gets his helmet now. Since the last post, he has also acquired massage therapy appointments, to help with his hyper-toned muscles and other problems with his little body. We are still very blessed to have such a happy, smiley little boy. Amidst all his physical problems, he continues to remind both Alejandro and I that we need OPTIMISM and JOY every day. Thank you Gabe! We love you tons.