He Speaks!

So Gabriel has suddenly become easier to understand. "Dog" is still his favorite word, but now he sits with every book he owns around him and carefully turns every page, scanning relentlessly for a dog. When he finds one he points and says "dog, bow wow". He knows about nine or ten animal sounds and a whole slew of words. (editors note: My favorite animal sound is when he throws his hand above his head and says, "Wooo!". That's an elephant. Can you picture it? Try it.) Now before you think I'm writing this to show how smart my son is, his cousin Corbin was talking earlier than this, as was I. So no, Gabe is not a genius...ok so it's too early to tell, but he'll probably be gifted at best. Why? Well last night he did something for the first time. He spoke his first sentence. A feat alone not remarkable, see Corbin comment. However, he did so in proper English.

My first sentence was "Her likes it". While the genius there was that my first sentence was a lie to get out of trouble for petting the cat "too hard" and pulling her tail, pronouns and tenses tend to escape toddlers. (editors note: yeah, so it really should have been my parents first warning sign that this was my first sentence. Like they couldn't see a career in politics, law, or PR in my future. Plus you have to pet your animals hard enough that they feel it...ya know, so they KNOW you love them.) So my son walks to my wife and says,

"Daddy did it."

She repeats it, he says, "Yes."

I repeat it. He replies, "Yes. Daddy did it."

Subject. Predicate. Receiver.

A declarative sentence in proper tense.

Fricking Genius.

Ok, not really, but we are super excited none the less. The kid makes the most expressive faces I've ever seen...I can't wait to find out what he's been thinking.

Oh, and if you're wondering...We have no idea what it is that I did.

This is What Pete and Julie Get for Going to Mexico

We're pregnant!

People sometimes have all of their children 9 months after their anniversary or a birthday. Our anniversary is April 24, Sarah's Bday is January 26, my Bday is May 22. We're due around the 10th of October (Gabe was born on the 18th). We move into a new home and 9 months later we have a child. We're never moving again.

More to follow.

Is This What My Mother Meant When She Said She Hoped I Had a Child Just Like Me?

It has come to my attention that my son is something of a ladies man, that the girls at school all vie for his attention and jockey for position to get to sit next to him. Ok, it’s one girl. Out of 5 children in my son’s class there is one girl, but still. I witnessed this today as I dropped him off at daycare. They were either starting breakfast early or I was running late, you decide. Anyway I took off his coat and he made his way over to the table and sat down to eat. After the pure and utter shock wore off from this eerily adult thing to do, something happened that I would not have believed had I not been there. The girl, we’ll call her Emily because that’s her name, got up from her chair and walked around the table and sat next to Gabe.

Apparently the look on my face asked the question for me because Gabe’s new teacher replied, “She always has to be next to Gabe”. There was a seat open next to Emily, but Gabe just went to the first seat he came upon and sat. Again, my expression was doing the talking for me; “he doesn’t seem to notice” was the answer. My first thought was: Hussy! My second thought was, well he is pretty cute…looks a lot like his dad after all. Then I was back to: Hussy! And as I walked out to my car it hit me: Gabriel is his father’s son.

All of my life my closest friends have been girls. It wasn’t until 7^th grade when I met Ryan and then Kurt that I had close guy friends and even then my BFF was still a girl. I have no idea if all or none of these girls ever liked me as more than a friend, but that’s the point: I had no idea. It wasn’t until college when someone actually pointed out to me that one of my “friends” really really liked me. Of course it was 3 months after she had decided not to return to that school, in part, because I had not reciprocated those feelings. Yes, she partied a bit and her grades weren’t great because of it, but her parents gave her a choice and she chose to transfer because she felt there was no reason so stay at WMU. To me she was someone to go to the Rec and football games with and she got me into fraternity parties I wasn’t invited to. (Which brings us to Uncle Jeffrey’s tip of the month: Wanna get into any house or fraternity party? Bring a cute girl and five of her friends. No one asks questions.) I thanked my friend for being so timely with her advice...yup, another girl, go figure.

The point is not how handsome and charming I am. As true as it may be, it’s still not the point. The point is I have a perfect opportunity to “life coach” (that’s what the hippies call it) my son when the time comes. Hopefully his old man’s advice will help him avoid losing his best friend after 6 years because she decided to stop talking to him one day and he had no idea why until years later (different girl than the one above…I was so innocent). As much as I love the age that he is, I get a little choked up when I think about him having success in something he loves (even if it’s not sports), learning to ride a bike, learning to drive, graduating from more than nursery 3 to toddler 1, going off to college and getting married. They are milestones I can’t wait to be a part of. For now though, I’m more than happy to sing "If You’re Happy and You Know It" and have him clap and stomp, because that too was a pretty great milestone today.