Happiness

Pleasure is spread through the earth

In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.

~William Wordsworth, 1806

 

William Wordsworth is one of my favorite poets of all time. I love what he says about life. I just came across the above quote this morning and it re-affirms why he is such an awesome poet.

 

I have been thinking lately about optimism and happiness. Most of the time I am an optimist. But of course, there are always those times when I think, 'Why does this have to happen to me?' or 'Does this ever happen to anybody else besides me?'  I have been working really hard to be happy no matter what and look for those 'stray gifts' that are all around for me to enjoy.

 

Having a little guy around really helps remind me that anything and everything can make you happy. He laughs when I blow my nose or if I put a pillow on his head. I just want to challenge everyone to try extra hard to see the optimism, joy, and happiness in every situation/experience you come across. It has really helped me.

Here he is watching Baby Eintein and eating his Cheerios one morning.

When's the last time a laundry basket made you this happy?

Dad was making him smile

He was putting the pillow on his face and then lifting it up to see where Mom was.

cutiepie

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.

Rockin' Out with G

Turned 9 months this past Tuesday -- This was his traditional monthly picture. What a snookum pants!

I guess eating really does wear you out!

He loved looking at himself in that little "mirror"

He usually never sits like this, that's why this picture makes me laugh so hard ... what is he doing??

A cute little face amongst all the bathroom hygiene products

"How you doin'?"

Thursdays Aunt J comes over and hangs out, and thats usually when we do stupid things, like music videos and dressing G up ... we're still polishing up our video, so you're just gonna have to wait to see it.

9 month stats:

Weight: 16.2 lbs. -- 2%

Height: 27 in. -- 12%

Head circum.: 17.5 in. -- 26%

Still small and short. Not much different from mom and dad {well, except the small part, cause that's not really the case with mom :)}

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.

Easter

Easter weekend was full of activity. I was able to get some shopping done and Alejandro has been studying for his finals coming up this week {and he graduates this Friday ... WHOOP-EE!!}. We also watched General Conference together as a family and even had a yummy Easter feast with Aunt Jilly. It was a great weekend, except for this:

The snow had all melted in the last few weeks, and then we got a huge storm :(

Gabe watching conference w/ Mom and Dad

One of his cute little faces

Gabe's first Easter -- looking at the goods

He got some bath toys, a Baby Einstein DVD, a book, and some toy bunny rabbits. Great Grandma even sent him a toy! You can tell he loves his stuff.



Helping mom open his toy from Great Grandma Ommen
{he liked the wrapping better}


Playing with some of his new bath toys. Some of them were used for more than one purpose :)






As a family, we did not forget what Easter is really all about. Although we did get Gabe an Easter basket, we try to remember that it's about our Savior and His sacrifice for us. It was wonderful having conference on Easter so we could hear talk after talk about Jesus Christ. We hope you had an enjoyable Easter with your family!

A New Kind of Super Hero

Let me introduce you to .... Helmet Boy.

He fights crime every where. The crime of pessimism and gloom.

No self-respecting super hero can fight crime without stretching first ....

... or staring crime dead in the face


And at the end of a day of fighting crime, he can eat his pears & peas knowing he did all he could to make the world a better place by being optimistic and joyful!

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.

Mr. Chicken Legs

I realized the other day that my son has chicken legs. Yes, chicken legs. You may ask what chicken legs might look like on a little boy; well, here you go:

See?

I whisper to him every day that I am going to cook his little chicken legs and eat them for dinner {just kidding}. But I do take a little nibble from time to time. ;)