Our Little Peanut at One Year Old

Swinging in his new swing outside in the front of the house... gotta love those baby blues.

The two pictures above are Gabriel on his first birthday. So sweet. May 10th, 2010.

This is the most common picture you will get of our son...
pushing a toy around with rosaries wrapped around him. He seriously has a devotion to Mary.
He screams at me if I take them off of him.

I was folding laundry to walk out of the room and find him in the drawer... I am not sure how it got so closed, but he wanted to stay in there. I couldn't get him to come out.
He spends most of his time trying to climb into drawers and cabinets. I thought it was weird at first, but realized that this is just the boy in him... climbing and finding hiding spots.

Alright, this is our totally sanguine, social butterfly...
I mean it's late at night, we had company over so he was entertaining,
refused to go to bed and when all was said and done,
he kept telling us he wanted to eat again,
so in an effort to not starve him (although he had already eaten plenty) we tried again.
He started to close his eyes on about the second bite and by the third bite it was all over.
He was sleeping on his tray.
We took him out and carried him up to bed without a peep from him.
Ohh, the joys of our little social guy.
He just totally wore himself out! It's tough being the entertainer!

It's been a while...

As we get through this crazy summer, I have to remember to record the events of this humid, busy, and joy filled time.

Patrick and I have been constantly tag teaming this summer. Patrick is working two jobs now, so when he is home I am gone working for Vandy Catholic. He has been up many early mornings and home late at night. I am trying to keep the house together while making sure my back stays in place. My back pain has surely been the biggest struggle and cross of this pregnancy. I have to constantly remind myself how pain and suffering can be used for good. I am pretty often only getting through the pain by offering if up for some very special intentions that I always have on my heart... I know God is using it for what He needs it for. All in all, despite some of the tough things, Patrick and I are enjoying the moments we do have together and are loving our hilarious Gabriel grow... he is becoming quite a maniac these days.

Gabriel is taking his first steps!! It will not be long before he is taking off all by himself... but for now it tends to be about 6 steps and then to his knees when he realizes crawling will get him there faster. He is opening and emptying EVERY cabinet, drawer, and closet we own. This is the maniac coming out. I am having to basically clean out every single one of sharp objects, things that can be swallowed, etc. Unfortunately, Gabriel decided to eat a small metal washer two days ago. I about had a heart attack. I called Patrick at work to tell him and his response was, "Don't let him play with metal, Kristi." OH YEAH, I put the little tiny pieces of metal in front of him and told him to play with them... seriously. Anyway, after speaking with my doctor friend, we realized that only if the metal was sharp or larger than a quarter did we have to worry... so the days have been filled with checking poop for a washer... good job, Kristi.

The pregnancy is going well... almost 25 weeks and getting big. I need to take some pictures of this huge belly, but time seems less these days. When I went to the doctor a few days ago they were actually worried I was going to go into pre-term labor, but after a little stress and some tests, everything turned out fine. Oh, craziness. Never a dull moment. So, Anthony is growing just fine and I have now finally gained some lbs. Since my last visit I gained a 6 whole pounds. This is good. I can not wait to meet him. As painful as labor is, for some reason it is just about the biggest high in the world! Whoop!

So... we truck along in this summer of 2010, while we watch our one year old crack us up, await our second sweet baby boy, and fight to spend some quality time together amidst the work schedules we are balancing. Thank you Jesus for the joy you give us in our marriage and through our children.

I promise to post pictures later today!