Gabriel's Prayer

Gabriel has gotten very good at saying prayers with the family, both in our daily prayers and before meals. In fact, the other day, Jeff and I were feeling very tense just after someone nearly hit us while we were driving. I was handling it okay at first, but then this driver waves her finger at us like WE were naughty children who did something wrong. So that got me worked up. Anyway, Jeff and I were upset and talking somewhat heatedly about it when Gabriel said, "Let's say a prayer!" and proceeded to pray. Boy, did that help me calm down!
This post is meant to be about what an example my 3 year old is to me, but not because of that specific incident. When Gabriel prays, he does it in such a special way. Many young kids get shy or don't know what to say, so they get some guidance from an adult. Not Gabriel. Gabriel simply starts listing things that he is thankful for. The list can get quite long, as he sometimes prays with his eyes open and lists everything he sees. But that's all he does before he ends the prayer. Every prayer he says is a prayer of nothing but gratitude.
I've noticed that, in my own prayers, I really try to express gratitude, but it seems to turn into a plea for the things I want nearly every time. I know that Gabriel probably isn't thinking as deeply about this as I am, but maybe that's just another lesson he's teaching me. We're supposed to become as little children, right? I think that the simplicity of his gratitude, even just listing everything he can think of, is so refreshing. He isn't thinking long and hard about the things he thinks he needs to make him happy. He's acknowledging how wonderful it is that he has what he has.
I'm a worrier. Worrying is pretty much all I do. I guess that's why my prayers are always pleas for what I think I need that will help me worry less. But when I listen to my son pray, I'm reminded that there's no room for worry when you fill your heart with gratitude.
I love both my kids and the one on the way. I love watching them grow into beautiful people. And, right now, I'm just grateful to be their mom.

School and Stuff

A few weeks ago, Gabriel started begging to go to school. He's only 3, and we hadn't planned on sending him to preschool or anything. After talking it over, we decided that it would be good to help with his social skills and to encourage his love of learning, so I started exploring some options. Then a friend posted on Facebook that she wanted to start a joy school, where the parents basically take turns doing everything. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to contribute much because I'm super pregnant, will need time to recover from a c-section, and then will have a brand new baby. Just in case I could make it work, I went to the meeting where a bunch of moms got together to discuss it. They were not only understanding, but encouraged me to do less than I offered so that I could take care of myself and baby!
So, in a couple of weeks, Gabriel will have his first "school" experience. He's super excited and doesn't want to have to wait for it to start. I can't wait for him to have the opportunity to do new things and make new friends, but I'm a little sad that my baby is growing up.

Anyway, here's some cute pictures of stuff that has happened since the last time I posted.

This is how they play hide and seek. They tell me to count and then...if they can't see me, I can't see them, right?

Gabriel walked across the beam at tumble without ANY help!

This is how Lily greets Gabriel after nap time every day. He's usually still half asleep.

Gabriel VERY recently started drawing by himself instead of crying until somebody draws for him. This is a self portrait!

Okay, it's not cute that she got hurt, but Lily fell off Mommy and Daddy's bed and now she's Sailor Moon!

Not as Planned

Today started out really fun. We went to my friend's event for her Usborne books business. Then we were supposed to go home where Daddy would finally be after his long shift, then we would go to lunch with grandparents. That's not quite what happened though.
Like I said, the event was really fun. It was at a park, and there was chalk and bubbles and snacks and, of course, books! Gabriel spent the first half of his time there trying to get people to draw with the chalk for him because he's never satisfied with his own art. Then he noticed the playground. He really wanted to go on the slide and he told me it was so big even I could go on it! My back was really acting up today, so I tried to stall going over to watch him on the playground, but his mind was set.
We made our way over. Lily and a few other kids immediately saw us and followed. Gabriel loved it, so Lily had to play, too. She tried going up a difficult way, so I showed her where the steps were. She was so excited to be up playing with the big kids! She would look over the edge sometimes, but she's really good about staying away from things that look too dangerous, so I wasn't too worried. Until she proved me wrong.
There's a curved ladder thing that all the bigger kids were using to go up and down, so Lily figured she could handle it. I yelled to get her attention and told her not to get on it. She hesitated, but then continued. I tried to jump up to stop her, but, like I said, my back was hurting pretty bad. It took a while for me to get up successfully, and just before I could get to her, Lily took a bad step, hit her mouth on a bar, and fell to the ground below.
I scooped her up and ran back to the event. Some other moms were very sweet and helped me soothe her and clean the blood. Mouth injuries bleed SO much! Then I decided it was time to go and have my firefighter check her out, just in case.
I knew she had hit her gums and bit her lip, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I got her home. I can usually handle gross things if I have to, but I think things change when it's your own kid. I nearly went into shock looking at the gash inside her mouth.
Well, to make a long story a little bit shorter, we ended up taking her to the ER. She just barely managed to not bite all the way through, so they didn't do anything because it's rare that they put sutures in the mouth. They gave us some stuff for pain and that was about it.
She's hungry and having trouble eating, but she's doing fine now, and I just have to say how proud I am of her. Not only did she handle the injury really well, but she was fun in the waiting room, well-behaved through the whole experience, and didn't even make it too hard for the hospital workers to do their job. She's such a tough little princess!

Update! I published too soon, because Daddy and Gabriel just went to dinner with the grandparents and Gabriel won movie tickets! Woohoo! (Lily and I are chilling, watching Mickey, and eating yogurt)

On Tuesdays, We Tumble

Gabriel doesn't understand much about the days of the week yet, but if there's one thing he does know, it's that, on Tuesday, we go to tumble class. He just loves tumble class. When we got there, he struck up a very cute conversation with another boy waiting for their class to start. The other boy just started a few weeks ago and was very excited to see Gabriel. I haven't seen a whole lot of voluntary social interaction between Gabriel and the other kids in tumble, so it was exciting to see that he seems to be making a friend. He even talked about his friend a couple more times during the day.

Lily has been having a harder time with tumble lately. Her class is a "mommy and me" type thing because she's younger, and I stopped doing it with her ever since my back pain got really bad. Usually, my sister-in-law Stephanie does it for me. At first, Lily seemed pretty unaffected by the switch, but more recently, she has decided that it's not cool. Even though she was the only kid in her class today and got more attention, she just kept reaching for mama and acting like a rag doll so she couldn't be forced to do the activities.

She cheered up later when the kids got to go swimming with their Manny. Gabriel swam for almost two hours straight. Lily kept saying she was done. We would dry her off and put a dry diaper on her and she would very quickly ruin it by getting back in the pool.

Then, before bed, Gabriel decided it was time to play hide and seek. Lily thought it was a lot of fun, too. But I really hope there is never anything dangerous looking for them, because they are really not very good at it...

                             

Cruisin'

This first picture is from a couple of days ago, but I just had to provide proof that Lily finds Minnie Mouse every single time we go shopping. (And notice Gabriel in the background holding Tinker bell.) Also, don't judge me for the bow not matching very well. She insisted on that one.

Yesterday was pretty fun. It started out with a trip to get donuts where the kids got to ride in their Papa's hot rod, which they always love. Then we got to visit BOTH sets of grandparents and have dinner at Chick-fil-a. Gabriel doesn't eat much there, but he had still been asking to go for a while because he likes the play area.

Today we went to church, where I've been asked to work on family history. So I learned a little bit about that, and I may or may not actually be able to contribute to what's already been done. So that's cool.
My favorite part, though, was when I went to pick up Gabriel from his nursery class. His teacher told me that they were learning to say "I'm sorry" and talking about hypothetical times when it would be appropriate. The situation they gave Gabriel was that his mommy asked him to clean up his toys and he said no. Instead of explaining that he would say sorry, Gabriel said, "I would NEVER say no to my mommy!" (Not true...at all.)
They told him it was just pretend, and he just repeated, "I would NEVER say no to my mommy!"
He sure is funny. And, to be fair, he actually is usually pretty good about picking up his toys when he's asked.

Charming Boy

I didn't post last night because I actually got to go out and have a girl's night! I got back kind of late, so I just went to bed, but I just had to write about what a little charmer Gabriel is.
We went to Costco yesterday and outside of the store are some trees with flowers on them. Gabriel saw them from inside the car and said, "Mom! There's flowers! Can I give you one?"
With a little difficulty, Jeff was able to help him reach up to one of the trees and get me a flower, which Gabriel was very excited to watch me put in my hair.
Later, it started raining despite the heat and Gabriel just HAD to put on his rain boots and play outside (with Lily close behind, of course). He came back in to show me the "roses" he had found. I'm pretty sure they were weeds, but they did look a little pretty. He put them in my hands and then took them back so he could put them on the dresser to save and give to Tinker bell next time we go to Disneyland.
He also decided that he wanted to give Tinker bell AND Rosetta hearts. So he "made" hearts by having me draw them and either he or Lily colored them at some point.
Later, when it was time for my girl's night, Gabriel didn't get upset about me leaving like he has in the past. He promised to help Daddy take care of Lily, but he made me wait before I could leave. Then he brought me the hearts that he had made for his girlfriends. That boy must love me. Or he wanted me to be his delivery person...

Singing and Cookies

Steve and his mom came by today. They had just come back from a big European cruise and had a few hours before she needed to get on a plane back to Washington. 

My kids usually get very excited and love to show off when people come over, and Gabriel did not disappoint. He sang a few songs and did a lot of talking and question asking. Lily, on the other hand, turned into some shy kid I don't know. It worked out though because it was still cute and I got lots of cuddles.

Later, we went to McDonald's so the kids could play. (And eat. I needed to go grocery shopping really badly. Don't worry, we did that after McDonald's.) Gabriel sa2 the sun shining from behind the clouds and said, "I think Heavenly Father is coming down!"
I thought it was really cute. He loves to talk about things he's learned at church and he's constantly asking questions like, "How did Heavenly Father give us pools?"

While we were shopping, I picked up some cookies. At home, Gabriel wanted to show Daddy (who is at work) and both the kids absolutely got a kick out of the picture Daddy sent back. The message said, "Whoa that looks like a good cookie"
He manages to bring them a lot of fun, even when he's not home.