Dreams

I had a strange night, last night, with a whole bunch of dreams, including one where Dad confessed to hoping that things wouldn't work out with our househunting, so we would move home to England (I know that's not a true dream, because for the last few months, dad has been assuring us of his prayers that things DO work out); and then another part of the dream where Tasha was planning a trip to visit England without me, and without telling me that she was spending hundreds of dollars to do it. And then a really long part of the dream involving me watching two cars racing on the wrong side of the road, just outside our apartment then and crashing and running over two people who I presumed dead until later in the day when they woke up on my sofa.

...something tells me I need to switch to decaf.

I guess the overactive imagination could have been caused by an eventful week. Gabriel now has two new teeth and consequently we are back to having less sleep than usual (which wasn't much to start with).
Also this week, Tasha and I have had a couple of opportunities to take stock of things here in Canada and debate the length of our stay in the country. And tied in to that discussion has been the whole househunting procedure. We passed through stage one, which was looking at lots and lots (and lots) of houses...then stage two was the offer stage, where we found the house we wanted and negotiated the right price.....and then stage three, where we had to find a mortgage, an insurance company, a lawyer and a house inspector (none of which were free or easy!). So now we reach "Stage Four" where we have completed all the requirements and signed the paperwork and just have to wait for the lawyers to do their thing and contact us to sign the legal stuff.
If this stage goes well, we will be moving into out cute little bungalow at the end of May. It's an answer to our prayers and the result of lots of hard work and patience, but we're very excited and I'm sure Gabriel is just as excited as we are at the thought of having his own bedroom, where he can squeak and squark at 4am, as much as he likes!
Anyway, this is a longer blog than usual, but I thought it was time I wrote something!
Until next time......

Gabriel Update

You may be interested to hear that Gabriel is doing well, we were at the Dr's on Friday for some more shots. Saturday was a very grumpy day all round but we're chalking that up to the shots not teething. Although there is a second tooth coming through today, hopefully the last for a little while. His eye infection has cleared up at long last, I personally think it was some kind of blockage because he had a cold that made his eyes water a whole bunch and now miraculously this 5 month "infection" is gone. It doesn't really matter why it cleared up or even what it was, the important thing is that our prayers were answered and he now gets to see the world with clear eyes all the time. Gabriel weighed in at 15lb 4oz so he went from the top weight for his age (during his first three months) to just under average which really means nothing in the world of babies because they are a law unto themselves. He's quite long at 27" though so strangers still comment on him being big for his age...it's all small talk though because there is no such thing as an average baby.
New tricks include sitting up...bit wobbly yet so we have to put padding all around him and keep picking him up but he can sit for maybe 15 seconds if he's entertained. He still hasn't rolled from his back to his front but he keeps contorting himself in the effort so it'll happen soon I'm sure. In fact he went 95% of the way this morning but he didn't get completely over because he got the toy he wanted and stopped trying. He's discovered his tongue too he keeps sticking it out - maybe he's trying to feel his new teeth?

Little Lizard Tongue!

Rolly Polly

Goodmorning!

Facebook

Ryan and I just joined "facebook" and we're now hooked, it's great touching base with old friends and it seems everyone is on there if you only know where to look. I wouldn't normally join a site like this but I got so many invites I started asking people about it and no one had a bad word to say. Since I signed up I got so many messages I feel popular...not a feeling I'm used to! I haven't figured out all the gizmos and I don't see the point in some of it but overall I am impressed and I may have found a new hobby.
I do find one thing a little weird, there are some people in the groups that I don't remember at all. I wonder if they're just signed up to the wrong group or if I have forgotten them completely...for some reason I want to think I remember everyone and I'm ignorant or rude if I don't. I always thought I was good with names too so when I see a name I am told I should know yet it doesn't ring any bells I wonder is my memory going already or do I need to start doing brain exercise to retain everything!

The tooth and nothing but the tooth

So Gabe and I were at the pool this morning like normal and he was getting pretty grumpy for no apparent reason, so I put my knuckle in his mouth to try soothe him (dummy doesn't go in the pool). I thought I must have a paper cut on my finger or something because his gums felt sharp. Later on the instructor was playing with him and she asked if he was teething because he kept trying to bite the toys she gave him. Gabriel has been chewing on anything within reach since he realised his hands reach his mouth, so I said it's a bit early but it's always a possibility. A few minutes later he decided he wanted to scream so I took a wee peek. Lo and behold his gum line had changed, there on the bottom row in the middle was a tooth! It's only just peeping through but it's definetly there. It's funny we had a couple of rough nights with him over the weekend and we thought it was just his cough bothering him. I even read about teething and everything I read said it should happen around 7 months, so I ruled it out! Ah well life is full of little surprises.

Five months in

Hanging with Jeremiah

Standing?!

Parenthood is an exciting journey and every milestone along the way is fascinating. I'm so proud of Gabriel when he does something new and I just want to brag about him all the time. Speaking of which he rolled from his front to his back the other day, I thought it was a fluke so I flipped him over and he did it again. I'm pretty sure he'll figure out how to turn the other way soon because he keeps trying.
Does anyone else think the time is flying by too fast? In a way it seems like longer than 5 months he's been around but in another way I don't think he should be that old yet. All I can say for sure is that we wouldn't send him back, he's a real delight and I thoroughly enjoy listening to him rant at the TV or jabber away at his dummy. I love the way he always wakes up in a good mood and gives us both smiles. He seems to find us fun to hang out with too, he loves seeing daddy after a long day at work and he enjoys playing all his silly games (daddy's that is!). He'll smile at anybody and he's pretty happy to be held by anyone willing...and there seem to be a lot of willing people.

Rice Cereal

We progressed to eating rice cereal at the high chair on Monday, so we took loads of camera footage. There are no digital pics though so we'll have to get daddy to take some stills from the video. Gabriel ate the whole portion (about a tablespoon)...we were a little surprised at his appetite but very impressed. He made lots of funny faces while eating it all but his mouth kept opening for more so he must have liked it!
The only downside is that the last two nights he's eaten the rice cereal, he hasn't slept as well, but we don't really know if its connected or not. It seems Gabriel just likes to tease me with his sleeping pattern he'll improve for a few nights and I'll praise him for it, then he'll have a couple of horrible ones to just to prove me wrong. The joys of motherhood!

High Chair

Gabriel is old enough to try solid food now, and he is definitely interested in what we're eating, so we brought out the high chair yesterday. He sat in it quite well considering he can't sit upright on his own yet (see picture below). We're just introducing him to the concept slowly so he doesn't have too many new experiences in one go and get put off or scared by it (I read that this is a good idea). We'll try the chair again today and give him his spoon to play with. I just thought you might be interested to see his latest trick.

This chair is so high I can see the whole world from here!

Look this food is plastic, I can't eat this!

Gabe stopped sleeping in his Moses basket a month or two ago because he was big enough to touch the edges and he didn't like that much. So his teddies and toys have been enjoying it's comfy interior instead. Until yesterday when we discovered a new function for the basket...

Hi mum, I'm a teddy can you tell?

Look I can slouch too

How many bibs!

Gabriel is a little puker, it seems his intent each day is to see how many bibs he can dirty in 24 hours! It's quite funny really some days he'll be okay with one all day, yet other days we'll go through 4 or 5 of them! He's actually doing very well because he wants feeding every 4 hours now and gets very upset if I try to feed him earlier than that. Unfortunately that still means at least two wake ups during the night but I think we're coping.
For those of you who have been following our house hunting lately you might be interested to hear that we're not looking any more. Our real estate agent advised us to wait until we're permanent residents...we've been waiting for something like this to happen. While we were in Collingwood on the ski retreat we started to wonder if we really should be looking to move into a house. We've realised that we're not quite ready to move away from this community yet either, so we've put the search on hold. We're just going to wait for God's leading before we look again.

Look Gabe found his toes this week!

Aww cuddles with Daddy

Who has the cutest chubby legs then?