We found an article that had some good ideas. We honestly think we've tried everything, but we'll see if we can get any of these ideas to work. He refused to sleep all day and was an absolute pill until Mommy took him out for a long walk, fed him a good sized supper, and put him to bed around 6pm for a nap. Finally, success after a long day of trying to get him to take a rest!
The day wasn't without its funny moments, though. Patty walked in on Gabriel in the kitchen trying to kiss his reflection in the dishwasher. He sure is doing a lot of kissing lately - he tried to kiss a girl in the park yesterday (an older woman named Sasha - one year old! Germophobic Mommy intervened in that one...), and he actually did kiss Zoe at play group last week. And after she'd just kissed Jake! Oh well, as long as Daddy and Mommy get the most kisses...
Later, while Matt was giving the Chipster a bath, the little guy took charge of the shower head and had a good old time. Needless to say, that was a long bath. It was a fun one, though!
Today is Ciara's (Nancy's daughter's) 3rd birthday! It seems like just yesterday we were carrying around the cell phone in case she went into labor... as if we could do anything from down here! The plan was that Patty would jump on a plane to go help with the older two, but we didn't even get a call until a few days after she was born [ahem]. We suppose with a 4-hour labor (and it was that long only because the doctors slowed it down), that's how it goes. We hope that Ciara has had a fantastic day!
AR7 Watch
Warning: spoilers ahead!
Didn't we just have one of these yesterday?!
This would have been our favorite leg so far. They got to sleep in the middle of the world's largest salt flat, and they got to see elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, and crocodiles in the span of one drive. As for the detour, based on our rules (never work with animals and always choose the more physical task because they're never that hard), we would have chosen the carry task over the milk task. Besides, we've had enough of milking in the past 8 1/2 months, thank you very much. One thing our physics classes have taught us is that you need to walk quickly and at a constant rate to keep things balanced on your head. Here's the team breakdown:
Brian and Greg: Those brothers just couldn't catch a break. The Philiminator obviously was sad to see them go, too. It was funny to see how the punishment of Meredith and Gretchen from last week affected the way some of the teams came dressed (or undressed) to the finish line.
Meredith and Gretchen: They are proving that carefulness in the tasks is probably the most important thing. Again, they got in by the skin of their teeth. If the brothers hadn't stopped to disrobe, the elders might have gotten passed.
Ron and Kelly: We're having fun watching them start to hate each other. He's an all right guy even though he's a little rude to her, but we can see how she might be getting under his skin. Isn't it her special skill as a pageant queen to walk with things balanced on her head?
Uchenna and Joyce: How do they think that South Africa is their homeland? He's of Nigerian descent, and we checked on a map - that's nowhere near where they are! It's like us calling Greece our homeland because we're Dutch/Irish/Ukrainian.
Lynn and Alex: Why are they still there??! They went through 3 cars today and they still made it in front of two other teams. And did anyone else notice that they said that Uchenna and Joyce were born to carry water on their heads? Yikes.
Rob and Amber: They didn't do anything rude this week, and they were so excited to be there. They really seem to appreciate the experience. We think that they're the most like we would be, so of course we're rooting for them.
