Hello everybody! Gabriel is getting more handsome every day. Of course, this is his mother talking...
He is also developing new skills fast. As you can see in this sequence of pictures, he is learning to self-feed, both at home and at school. I am not sure how much actually makes it into his mouth, but he is certainly trying, and gets pretty upset if you try to help him too much. Of course, now he needs to get a bath almost always after each meal.
His teacher, Ms. Mona, says he is a wonderful soccer player. She was really impressed when Gabriel showed her how he kicks the ball while running, and uses both feet to kick it.
He is also dancing now. Well, what he thinks dancing is. He claps and spins around every time he hears music. And he wants you to clap and spin around with him too.
His speaking skills are not so impressive. He is still not speaking, although whenever the phone rings he takes his fist to his ear and says "hola", and then starts babbling a made-up conversation. It's very funny. He also knows how to ask for food: "mam, mam". And now we are pretty much convinced that he says "ma" and "baba" to refer to mom and dad. He is much better at understanding, though. He pretty much understands what you tell him, and acts accordingly. He is in general very obedient and well behaved (except when he is sick).
Yesterday he took a plastic Easter egg, managed to put a little bag of candy inside it, and could almost close it by himself.
Here is Gabriel with his teacher Ms. Mona. I think he will miss her dearly, and she told us today how she will miss him. She says all the kids should be a copy of Gabriel :)
Gabriel is a very good sleeper now (for his first three months of life we thought we would never say this, but here we are). He usually goes to bed around 7:45 pm and wakes up around 6:30 am. Last Thursday we had to wake him after 7:00 am to go to work. Here you can see how he sleeps. He always takes off one of his pajama's sleeves. This was Thursday trying to wake him up. First I opened his door. Nothing happened. Then I opened the curtains. Nothing. Then I opened his drawers and took out his clothes for the day. Nothing. Then I went to get the camera and took this picture (with flash). Still nothing. Finally daddy had to rub his back for him to wake up... Today it was 8:30 am and he hadn't woken up, so we were a little nervous. We went to check on him, but when we opened his door he woke up. I don't know how much longer he could have slept, but it is as if he knew it was Sunday :)
Yesterday, when it was almost time to go to bed, Gabriel took my hand and walked me all the way to the rocker. Then he signaled me to sit him there (he has his ways, but he is still not talking). After that, he signaled me to give him his book (which was on his bedside table). And then he started reading! It was sooo cute that I immediately called Alfredo and had him take these pictures. On the second one he is going after the camera. The book he is reading is called "Buenas noches, Lupe" and it is one of his favorites. His grandpa Ernesto gave it to him. It has different textures on each page. On the picture, he is touching a "bubble" that is soft and mushy. But his favorite page has a little "stuffed bear" that is made out soft fuzzy fabric.
