Our little baby is a year old now. Time has flown by way too fast and at the same time I feel like I have known Gabriel my entire life. I love this child so much, he is such a special kid. He melts my heart every single day and my life would be so boring without him.
To celebrate Gabriel I thought I would share some things about him. Gabriel is so perfect in my eyes. He has a warm, and tender personality. He constantly wants to make others laugh and smile. He has this super cheesy smile and I have a feeling he got it from imitating me. He makes me smile so much and so I think he just started copying my smile back and has now just generalized it to the whole public. Initially he only made that cheesy smile back at me, and only when I was around. He wouldn't cheese around his dad if I wasn't around. But now, he just cheeses at everyone, and everyone cheese's right back. His friendliness is contagious. He talks away and it's hilarious. Most of the time, we have no idea what he is saying, but we still acknowledge whatever he says and talk right back to him. He loves those conversations. He also has a go-getter personality. He has been really early on all of his motor and cognitive development, and I think it's because he just wants to hurry and be this big kid already! He just wants to get things done and impress everyone. He is a major show off and knows that our world's revolve around him. Whenever we have visitors in our home, he does anything to show off, he will do tricks and then clap for himself and he will walk away and turn around really fast to make sure your eyes are still on him. If you have looked away he will shout and clap so that you look right back at him. It is the cutest thing in this world.
I get scared sometimes because I don't want him to get used to being the center of attention, because really, that is not what life is about. But at the same time, he is a baby, and it's up to us as parents to parent him and help him realize how big this world is and that he needs to care for all of those around him. Which, I know he will, he really cares about people and that they are happy, I can already see that. At the same time, he knows what he wants and he will in no way be distracted from his object of affection. This is why I think he is the perfect child, because he is tender, loving, interested in making others happy, but at the same time, he is not a push over, he will tell you know what he wants, and will fight for it. He is very strong willed. He's got some spice to him! It makes it hard on us sometimes, because he will figure out lots of different ways to get his way. Sometimes David and I are in awe at how smart and manipulative he can be, at such a young age, and it just makes us laugh. However, David is better at laying down the law, i'm a lot more easy going with Gabriel. But don't be fooled, I'm getting better at laying down the law.
Gabriel loves to explore everything. He tries to figure out how things work. He is generally patient, but if he has a hard time trying to figure something out, he will throw a pity party fit and throw himself on the floor and get angry for a second, and then he goes right back to figuring it out. It's funny. He has perseverance. He is also getting pretty tough when he hurts himself. Most of the time, he doesn't cry when he falls face first or bangs his head. Of course, if he is sick or tired, he is very symptomatic. He has been sick a lot this first year of life, which means we have all been sick a lot. He is getting better at handling being sick better, which is so nice for us. It really feels like we get sick every two or three weeks, it knocks all of us down! But at least he is building his immune system. The doctor told me it's better he get sicks a lot now because it will make his transition into Elementary school easier. Most of the reason he get's sick so often is because I have been a stay at home mom with him. So he is not exposed to germs like kids in daycare are. One thing is for sure, I can't wait til teething and getting sick a lot is over! He has gone in and out of being a good sleeper and it all depends on whether he is teething or sick. Poor kid, it breaks my heart and sleep, haha!
We enjoy our time with Gabriel every day. I am such a proud parent. I love talking about him, and sharing this part of my life with friends and family. I am so lucky to have such a unique, healthy, and happy child, and to also have David be his father. He is such a good father to Gabriel. Gabriel adores his dad. He is generally a momma's boy. He is always sweet to both of us, but he has what we call "mom" and "dad" days, where he will be especially sweet to one of us. It makes our day when he treats one of us in a special way. And he's pretty fair about it too! How can we not be in love with such an awesome child? He truly has been heaven sent. He loves us with such a pureness and we love him right back. Happy birthday sweet Gabriel!!
This is on the actual day of his birthday. Since we are not fans of giving Gabriel sweets, I made him a corn muffin with icing on top. He loved it so much!! I gave him the rest of the muffins I made without icing. He loved this special birthday treat.
Opening the card and present from his Grandparents Durrant.
We also threw him a little party with our closest friends and those that have especially been there for us this year. It was great to be surrounded by such good friends that love Gabriel. Since Gabriel is half white and half Salvadorean. We decided to make the food appropriate of his cultural background. So we did hot dogs and potato chips to represent his white culture, haha, and we did a couple different kinds of pupusas and meat pies called "pastelitos" with a few sides to represent his latin Salvadorean heritage. It all turned out great. We had the whitest food around and the most Salvadorean food around.
Yes, we did have a pinata to reinforce his latin roots!!!
This is our homemade birthday cake! With the help of my sister, david and my cousin, we put this great duck cake together! We decided to do a duck cake because Gabriel LOVES Ducks, and that was his first word! You can also see the little football cake on the side, which David made solely for Gabriel.
It was cute. He ate all of it except the fondant!
His birthday was a blast!
Gabriel's First Words (Before his 1st birthday):
Duck
Cracker
Dog
Horsey
Hi
Bye
Ok
All Done
What's That
a few more I cant remember right now
To celebrate Gabriel I thought I would share some things about him. Gabriel is so perfect in my eyes. He has a warm, and tender personality. He constantly wants to make others laugh and smile. He has this super cheesy smile and I have a feeling he got it from imitating me. He makes me smile so much and so I think he just started copying my smile back and has now just generalized it to the whole public. Initially he only made that cheesy smile back at me, and only when I was around. He wouldn't cheese around his dad if I wasn't around. But now, he just cheeses at everyone, and everyone cheese's right back. His friendliness is contagious. He talks away and it's hilarious. Most of the time, we have no idea what he is saying, but we still acknowledge whatever he says and talk right back to him. He loves those conversations. He also has a go-getter personality. He has been really early on all of his motor and cognitive development, and I think it's because he just wants to hurry and be this big kid already! He just wants to get things done and impress everyone. He is a major show off and knows that our world's revolve around him. Whenever we have visitors in our home, he does anything to show off, he will do tricks and then clap for himself and he will walk away and turn around really fast to make sure your eyes are still on him. If you have looked away he will shout and clap so that you look right back at him. It is the cutest thing in this world.
I get scared sometimes because I don't want him to get used to being the center of attention, because really, that is not what life is about. But at the same time, he is a baby, and it's up to us as parents to parent him and help him realize how big this world is and that he needs to care for all of those around him. Which, I know he will, he really cares about people and that they are happy, I can already see that. At the same time, he knows what he wants and he will in no way be distracted from his object of affection. This is why I think he is the perfect child, because he is tender, loving, interested in making others happy, but at the same time, he is not a push over, he will tell you know what he wants, and will fight for it. He is very strong willed. He's got some spice to him! It makes it hard on us sometimes, because he will figure out lots of different ways to get his way. Sometimes David and I are in awe at how smart and manipulative he can be, at such a young age, and it just makes us laugh. However, David is better at laying down the law, i'm a lot more easy going with Gabriel. But don't be fooled, I'm getting better at laying down the law.
Gabriel loves to explore everything. He tries to figure out how things work. He is generally patient, but if he has a hard time trying to figure something out, he will throw a pity party fit and throw himself on the floor and get angry for a second, and then he goes right back to figuring it out. It's funny. He has perseverance. He is also getting pretty tough when he hurts himself. Most of the time, he doesn't cry when he falls face first or bangs his head. Of course, if he is sick or tired, he is very symptomatic. He has been sick a lot this first year of life, which means we have all been sick a lot. He is getting better at handling being sick better, which is so nice for us. It really feels like we get sick every two or three weeks, it knocks all of us down! But at least he is building his immune system. The doctor told me it's better he get sicks a lot now because it will make his transition into Elementary school easier. Most of the reason he get's sick so often is because I have been a stay at home mom with him. So he is not exposed to germs like kids in daycare are. One thing is for sure, I can't wait til teething and getting sick a lot is over! He has gone in and out of being a good sleeper and it all depends on whether he is teething or sick. Poor kid, it breaks my heart and sleep, haha!
We enjoy our time with Gabriel every day. I am such a proud parent. I love talking about him, and sharing this part of my life with friends and family. I am so lucky to have such a unique, healthy, and happy child, and to also have David be his father. He is such a good father to Gabriel. Gabriel adores his dad. He is generally a momma's boy. He is always sweet to both of us, but he has what we call "mom" and "dad" days, where he will be especially sweet to one of us. It makes our day when he treats one of us in a special way. And he's pretty fair about it too! How can we not be in love with such an awesome child? He truly has been heaven sent. He loves us with such a pureness and we love him right back. Happy birthday sweet Gabriel!!
This is on the actual day of his birthday. Since we are not fans of giving Gabriel sweets, I made him a corn muffin with icing on top. He loved it so much!! I gave him the rest of the muffins I made without icing. He loved this special birthday treat.
Opening the card and present from his Grandparents Durrant.
We also threw him a little party with our closest friends and those that have especially been there for us this year. It was great to be surrounded by such good friends that love Gabriel. Since Gabriel is half white and half Salvadorean. We decided to make the food appropriate of his cultural background. So we did hot dogs and potato chips to represent his white culture, haha, and we did a couple different kinds of pupusas and meat pies called "pastelitos" with a few sides to represent his latin Salvadorean heritage. It all turned out great. We had the whitest food around and the most Salvadorean food around.
Yes, we did have a pinata to reinforce his latin roots!!!
This is our homemade birthday cake! With the help of my sister, david and my cousin, we put this great duck cake together! We decided to do a duck cake because Gabriel LOVES Ducks, and that was his first word! You can also see the little football cake on the side, which David made solely for Gabriel.
It was cute. He ate all of it except the fondant!
His birthday was a blast!
Gabriel's First Words (Before his 1st birthday):
Duck
Cracker
Dog
Horsey
Hi
Bye
Ok
All Done
What's That
a few more I cant remember right now
