Baby LaTour: February 2015

Saturday, February 21, 2015

16 Candles

Yes, I am a fan of that song by Johnny Maestro & The Crests! An "Oldie but Goodie" as they would say. I thought it would be a cute title for Gabriel being 16 weeks old this week.

We had a wonderful weeknight dinner over at the Kozaczka's this week. Wyatt is in the process of potty training, which is going pretty well. Gabriel finally got a new picture with his Godmother, but his Godfather was busy playing Chef for dinner (and did a great job!) so we'll have to get some shots of them together next time. Gabe is always enamored with other kids, so he only had eyes for Wyatt most of the time!

Gabriel is starting to want a 4th bottle during the day, so I had to order another set of bottles to have a few more to rotate every two days. I'm glad he's eating well; his face is starting to fill out more, and he has rolls on his cute chubby thighs now. Craig says that Gabe is actually putting his hands around his bottles and tipping them up and down on his own!
Nonno bought Gabriel an Infantino seat/chair this week to practice sitting on his own. He likes it most of the time, especially when I tried having it on the couch between Mommy & Daddy while we were watching TV and he was getting fussy. I really like how it gives him a lot of support far up his back. It also has a small snack tray stored in the bottom that clips on, which is neat. The gray foamy insert comes out as he gets bigger, and the seat can eventually be used as a booster seat.

Gabe's Godparents gave him his Easter basket early (Thank you!), since they are expecting baby #2 at the end of March (Yay!!). It had some beautiful clothes, a fun flap book, and a monkey that plays the ABC song.

We tried on Gabe's black dress shoes that Auntie Rene gave him with an awesome purple suit (Thank you!). The suit is almost ready to fit; I'm hoping it will be perfect for Easter (which might actually happen since he is a slow grower).

Babcia started Skype-ing with us this week (talk about someone being technologically challenged, haha!). Gabriel was dressed in a flannel shirt & slacks today, and she said, "Put him back in baby clothes! He's getting too big too quickly!"

This snow stuff is getting tiring around here. I can't wait till spring! I am finding it quite humorous (or maybe not...) that spring break at work is in 2 weeks and we still have several feet of snow outside. This also means that the semester is almost half over, and I will soon be back home full-time with Gabe. Can't wait for the summer and teaching him to swim!

Other pictures from this week:

Not too thrilled to be woken up for a picture in this cute bear winter suit!

Baby feet! Mommy can't get enough!

Staring contest with the parrot

Aww, Mom! You're interrupting my reading!

Yay! We're at the Kozaczka's house!

A bribe onesie for a long day at Daddy Day Care

Sunday, February 15, 2015

While Worcester has been inundated with 97+ inches of snow in the past 3 weeks, Gabriel is growing by leaps and bounds. Well, maybe not in terms of weight gain, but he is definitely longer and stronger and smarter than before. At 15 weeks, we are discovering that Gabe has "moods" that aren't always accommodating to what Mommy & Daddy need or want to do.

Gabriel celebrated his first Valentine's Day this week. I dressed him up in his 1st V-day onesie from Auntie Kristen (Thanks!) and had just enough time to snap a picture before he spit up all over it. So, we moved on to our back-up onesie that says "I love Mom" on the pocket (this ended up being the outfit for his 15 week picture above).

By the "Polish baby scale," Gabriel hit 9 lbs 15 oz on Monday the 9th, which was pretty close to my guess of 10 lbs. By the end of the week he probably was already past 10. He's been gaining about a half pound every 2 weeks (a little slower than "normal" gain of a 1/2 lb every week, but that's ok since he is still gaining steadily). I know he's growing longer at least in terms of arms & legs since the newborn sizes look like shorts & 3/4-length sleeves on him!
Gabriel has been stingy with his smiles lately. Craig can usually elicit one pretty easily, but I have to work hard, making goofy smiley faces to get one from him for the camera. I think Gabe is getting wise to the "Parent Paparazzi!"
Daddy & Mommy spent 2 hours of a snow day putting together Gabe's exersaucer (Thanks Gina & Emma!). It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but it took up some boredom time stuck in the house. Gabriel is a little too small for it, but I was able to put a thick blanket under his feet and another around him to prop him up in the chair portion. He liked all the music it makes!

I typically rotate out Gabe's toys weekly, since he has so many of them from gifts. This week we played with a new monkey (Thanks Grammy!) & foot rattles (Thanks Auntie Deb!), Mr Bear (Thanks Mrs Blauth!), a tiger/blanket (Thanks to my students from last semester!), and Dumbo (Thanks Evan!). He is really liking things that are soft and fuzzy especially.

Daddy was playing around and gave Gabriel a tiger "hat." I had to capture the moment; it was so cute!

Haha, caught you!

Mommy put away the majority of Gabe's newborn things and readied the 0-3 month size stuff. It was really sad for me (and made me wish for another baby already!), but these clothes are equally super cute. And through the generosity of all the gifts he has received and some hand-me-downs from Janet (Thanks!), he has at least 40 full outfits to wear before he has to wear the same thing again. Better wardrobe selection than his parents!

First full 0-3mo size outfit!

Other pictures from this week:

Daddy said to Gabe, "Your socks match Chippy!"

Happy baby waking up in the mornings!

The look of surprise! (And the look I get when I use the camera flash!)

Love this boy in orange - picture doesn't do him justice

Already an avid reader!

Visit with Grammy

Lela's tail must taste good

Had to get a picture with this bib!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Rockin' 14 Weeks

Well, another week goes by! Our little man is 14 weeks old. I couldn't decide which picture was the best (and someone wasn't being too cooperative when it came to smiling), so here are a few of our 14 week photo shoot:

I took quite a few entertaining videos this week:

What Gabriel did when he was supposed to be going down for a nap - click here

Giggling after bathtime - click here

Practicing for the World Cup - click here

It's been a crazy last 2 weeks. I think Gabriel is going through a growth spurt, plus he has a stuffy nose and slight cough. Poor guy! He has been eating like crazy, sleeping strangely during the day (sometimes not at all, sometimes cat naps, and sometimes long naps), and VERY cranky. Just ask his Grammy & Aunties who came to visit over the weekend! He was so "rude" to them - only wanted to be held by his parents! We captured one almost-in-tears moment with Auntie Debbie.

Auntie Deb also brought Gabriel a few gifts. Well, one, a Dumbo stuffed animal that plays "You are my sunshine," was from Evan. Here's a picture of Gabe in his new sneakers:

We've been trying to get Gabe accustomed to two daily naps (since he has only been doing 30 min here and there). This was the grin I got the first day I tried to get him to sleep at 4pm. He did eventually fall asleep for over an hour, and it worked out for several days straight, so it will be his new PM naptime for now.

Bathtime has been interesting. We had to stop the sling in the kitchen sink since Gabriel was getting too long for it. We tried out the Safety 1st brand bathtub that my mom's friend Barbara got us off our baby registry, but it turned out that the tub was just way too slippery for what I felt was safe (ironic given the brand name!), so I exchanged it for another brand tub that is MUCH better. It has a sling that fits his longer length and then has stoppers for the seats on each side so that he won't slide down once he's out of the sling. Oops for my original choice in tubs! Live & learn, I guess!