Gabriel turns one!!

Dear Gabriel,

Happy birthday, my sweet little one-year-old!!  I can't believe you've been here for a whole year.  In some ways, your birth day feels like yesterday.  And in other ways, it feels like you've been a part of our family forever.

You are quite the little character.  You are super sweet.  You are a little flirt and have all kinds of funny faces in your repertoire.  You are generally very smiley and friendly even to strangers.  Recently one such stranger commented that you talk with your eyes.  
 

You are very expressive, and you have always been a good communicator.  But you definitely prefer to interact from the safety of your mama's arms.

You started crawling when you were about 10 months old.  

 You aren't walking independently quite yet, but love to walk around holding any available hands (or objects). 

You learned to wave about a month ago and in the early stages you had a cute little wave that just involved you opening and closing your little hand.  Now you have switched to waving your whole arm.  Just this weekend, you started clapping.  You also just started smiling for pictures.  As soon as you see the camera pointed at you, you break out into a cute squinty-eye grin.  

 The other thing you've recently started to do is dance.  When you hear music you'll bop your body up and down and/or bop your head.  It's pretty cute!

You started shaking your head no a few weeks ago or so.  You learned it in the context of me telling you not to do things like sticking your fingers in sockets.  So then you would start to do things that you knew you shouldn't and looking at me and smiling while shaking your head.  More recently you started nodding, which is also super cute.  You wouldn't think it was possible for something as simple as nodding to be so completely adorable.  But the way you've been slowly and deliberately nodding to show off your new skill is precious.  Aside from nonverbal yeses and no's, you have begun to add a few words to your repertoire.  You don't use many of them very consistently, but I would venture to say that you've said the following words: more, mama, dada, lilah (yi-ya), no, yeah, and yay.

You've been really into handing people things lately.  You just hold them out and grunt until the person takes them. 

 You have six teeth that are mostly in, one partway in, and at least one more close behind.  You've been popping those teeth out in quick succession!  

 Meat is still your favorite food of all.  Eggs are up there too.  Outside of those things, you're still sticking mostly to pureed food.  We haven't found a fruit yet that you'll eat just as it comes.

You have sweet relationships with your big brother and sister.  They adore you, and you them.  They do have a habit of being a little more than you can handle sometimes.  But that doesn't seem to change your admiration of them.

You love swings.

 
  You do not love grass.  Every time I have tried to sit you down in the grass, you have not been happy about it.  You will even go so far as to do yoga poses to avoid touching the grass by balancing on your bum with both legs in the air.

That's one of many pictures of you and your tia.  She traveled all the way from Bolivia for your birthday!!  It took a little while for you to warm up to her.  

  But she was determined to win your affections.

We had a small party the weekend before you turned one.  It was fun to celebrate you.

  You were not a fan of your cake.  You took one taste of the frosting and that was it.  You got upset when I tried to get you to try more of it.  The longer we made you sit in front of your cake the more unhappy you got.  I think your dada was inwardly rejoicing at your disdain of sweets.

  I joked that I should have made you a meat cake instead.  A few days later, on your actual birthday, I decided to just stick your candle in a piece of chicken. 

 
You were so desperate to eat it that you made this face when your grandma took it to cut it up for you.

 Of course, she did let you have it once it was cut.  And all was well in your little world again.

You are such a treasure, my little man.  I just adore you.  Part of me wishes I could slow down time and keep you this little longer.  But another part is excited for the countless precious moments still to come.  Happy 1st birthday, sweet Gabriel Jacob!

Love always,

Mama