The last of 2005

Here is Gabriel enjoying Abuela Camena's Christmas present. As you can see he is very happy on his horse, the only problem is that he is not strong enough yet to make it move on his own, so mom or dad have to do that for him...

Here he is playing with his first Lego set. He is still more into destroying than building though.

Taking a bath in the big tub :)

Eating pan de jamón. He loves it! Especially the raisins!

And finally, here he is in winter clothes, in one of the few days of the year when it is cold enough here for that...

Here is a video:

Walking, eating, bathing

Now Gabriel can walk without any help. Here you can see him:



As you know he enjoys eating very much, here he is having his very first arepa:



Another activity that Gabriel enjoys very much is his bath:

Some more videos

Here are a couple more videos of Gabriel that I took yesterday:

Classes are over!

Finally. Now we can spend more time together as a family. As Alfredo told you, we are pregnant again. And extremely happy about it!!! We estimate the delivery date to be around the end of July. My first appointment with the doctor is January 9th. I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

Well, there are many things to tell about Gabriel lately. First of all he can now say Mama and something that resembles Pa. He uses it mostly to get things, but we believe he means well... ;)

Another new development is that Gabriel has taken his first steps already. He can get a couple of steps before falling, but we have no movies or pictures of this, you'll just have to believe us.

He is also eating table foods now. Today he had vegetable risotto, and hash browns. He enjoyed both a lot.

I have a movie of Gabriel for you to see, just click on the following link:

WE ARE PREGNANT

Barbara will fill in the details as soon as we go to the doctor. Yay !!!!

Mami is going again...

Tomorrow I am leaving for a conference in the Atlanta area, but Meli is coming to help Alfredo with Gabriel, since next week is finals week. Thank you Meli! I will be back home on Sunday.

Here are a couple of pictures from our Austin visit that I never uploaded. Look how concentrated and happy he looks. He is watching one of his Baby Einstein movies.

Thanksgiving

Here we are celebrating Thanksgiving!

Can made pork roast, lamb kofte, and cilantro rice. I made pumpkin cheesecake. Everything was delicious.

Can's friend Selim spent it with us.

At the park

Yesterday we drove from Lafayette to Austin to spend Thanksgiving with Meli and Can. Gabriel behaved OK during the trip, but he was obviously bored and did his share of complaining. Otherwise the trip was good. We didn't get into too much traffic.

Today we went to Zilker Park. Gabriel had a lot of fun.

He was happiest on the swings, but for some reason the pictures Alfredo took didn't come out at all... :(

He also enjoyed the slide and, as you can see, the sand!

Here is a video of Gabriel having fun at the swing:

Back after a while

I know I have abandoned the blog for a while, but on my defense I have been very busy applying for jobs. Alfredo is graduating in May and we have to find a city that will take us both...

Gabriel is doing wonderfully. He is 10 months old now, and we think he is going to walk any minute now, we'll keep you posted. He can now clap, but he does it whenever he wants to, we haven't been able to make him clap with us...

We finally sold our old car (the first car I ever bought)... Here is the goodbye picture...

You can also see us visiting daddy at work.

Here is Gabriel with his friend the neighbor's cat... :)

And finally, the most updated pictures... Our visit to the chinese restaurant yesterday.

Gumbo

Yesterday our friend Travis came to our house and made Gumbo. We were cooking all day and had a lot of fun. I made chocolate mousse for dessert. Our friend Ross also came to dinner and later we played Settlers (after Gabriel had gone to bed). Gabriel enjoyed the company and everybody enjoyed being with him. He is such a big boy now!

Picasso

The other day Gabriel grabbed a pen (without us noticing) and "drew" on the furniture. We decided it was time to buy him some of those magic markers that only work on special paper, so that he can express himself without damaging other things. Here are Gabriel's first masterpieces.

Halloween

Here is Gabriel in the bee outfit that his grandma Camena bought for him in Stockholm before he was born!


As you can see, he is not into hats very much... :)

Haircut

Today Gabriel had his first haircut at home. His daddy cut his hair today. As you can see he looks very handsome.

Look, no hands!

Today I could finally capture Gabriel letting go of the table and standing all by himself for a second, just to fall to the floor the next. But here he is for all of you to enjoy.

First, holding the table...

And then... Wow! He is not holding anything, and he is still standing!

Little accident

Today Gabriel had his first accident. He was standing up next to the living room window and he fell. He has done this many times without consequence, but this time he hit himself on the window sill and this caused him to "bit" himself on the lower lip. There was blood and everything! And mommy wasn't home... :(

Daddy calmed him down, and mommy bought him a grape popsicle to numb the pain a little bit. Here you can see him enjoying it.

Some pictures

I have to admit that lately I have been lazy and I haven't been putting up any new pictures of Gabriel. But as they say, better late than never... As you can see, Gabriel loves restaurants!

Look how cool he looks in jeans!

Humm...mmus

Today Gabriel ate at a restaurant for the first time. Well, technically he had eaten at a restaurant before, but today he ate restaurant food!!! We went to eat at a Lebanese place. He ate hummus, falafel and fried goat cheese. He loved it! And so did we. He stole half of his dad's hummus, and his hands, mouth and outfit were covered in the stuff. :)

Since we didn't have a camera at the restaurant, here is the afterwards picture...

He was on a roll, so we decided to let him eat all by himself. Here you can see Gabriel eating baby toast for the very first time. A little mushy, but he seemed to enjoy it. Next, steak and french fries.

Dr. Baumbouree

Today Gabriel had his scheduled doctor's appointment. As you can see he was very happy to go. Today he didn't have to get any vaccines, but he had to get a little blood drawn. First, they pricked his thumb, but almost no blood came out (he didn't even complain), so they did it again, and nothing (still no complaint...). This meant they had to draw his blood like an adult, with a band around his arm and everything. Here the complaints started. He was very unhappy about being held still. He didn't mind the needle though. And as soon as we let him go, he was very happy again.

Gabriel is now 28 inches high (50-th percentile), and he weights 18 pounds 2.5 ounces (20-th percentile). So, as you can see, he is very thin and tall (una vara 'e pulla' loco...) .

The doctor says that now he can start eating smashed table foods. Good news to his six tiny teeth! He can also start eating yogurt, cheese, and egg yolk. We will start those things tomorrow and see how it goes. We'll keep you posted.