Today, Gabriel and Mommy met Daddy at Piedmont Park, since it was such a nice warm day. We were going to go running, but when we were walking by the Atlanta Botanical Garden rear gate, it looked like there were tons of families there having a great time. We could hear music and see some model trains, and we figured out that tonight was the members' preview of the Locomotion in the Garden exhibit. It looked really, really neat, and Gabriel loves trains, so we decided to go around the front of the garden and find out what was going on. Patty had some birthday money burning a hole in her pocket, and it seemed like the perfect way to spend some of it would be to get a membership to the garden. That way, for the next year we will always have somewhere to go. Besides, we've talked about doing that for a long time. It's a beautiful place, and on our frequent mommy/son trips to the park, we can go there as well, or instead. The gardens are beautiful, and they have a phenomenal orchid house and a conservatory where poison dart frogs roam free. We are incredibly excited about our membership.
We decided to walk around a bit while we were there, and the Locomotion exhibit was really cool. When we were on our way out, Gabriel was laughing at his mommy's "Choo Choo" noises, and we heard a woman say to her companions, "Did you see that precious boy?" He also had a laughing fit when we were waiting for Matt to change into his running clothes. Almost everyone walking by started laughing too. It was so nice to see how this little boy has the power to bring a good mood to complete strangers who have seen him for only a brief moment. One woman thought it was pretty funny that Patty was teasing Chidip with his water bottle, acting like she was going to give it to him and taking it away at the last second saying, "Just kidding!" We play that game all the time.
Programming note: Everything from here to the end of this post was erased somehow, and we couldn't figure out how to get it back. It was probably about an hour and a half of #$*%#@ work, during which half a shot of tequila was consumed. We'll try our best to get it as it was before, which was perfect by the way, and we'll see if a half a shot of Dutch chocolate vodka can help the old memory... at least it will help the anger!
Anyway... another woman walking by said, "Hey, I recognize you!" We recognized her, too, but we couldn't remember where we'd met her. We think it might have been either church or playgroup at church, but we're not sure. We'll just have to see where we see her next. Since she didn't stop, we figured that she couldn't remember, either.
After we left the ABG, we went back to the park, where we went for a run. It was a shortish run but a good one. We headed back to the apartment for some beef stir fry and some dinner for Gabriel. When we got on the computer, we saw that some of our photos from film, mostly from our trip to Virginia, had been put online by Snapfish. They can be found here.
Gabriel has been getting better at waving, and we're working on teaching him "nose" and "mouth." We'd also like to get "gentle" into his repertoire, as he is fond of touching people in the eye, and most people don't like that. We decided to give his water bottle another try today, since it's been a while since we decided that he wasn't ready for it yet and his doc says that he needs to start drinking water. He really got it this time. He even went over to get it off of his bookshelf and started drinking out of it. He probably drank over an ounce today, which is pretty good for a little guy who's just learning to feed himself! Of course, that isn't including the water he either spit out onto himself or squirted out of the bottle onto himself.
A quick aside: we are proud of Gabriel's friend, Nook Logan, for hitting the game-winning triple for the Tigers in the eleventh inning against the White Sox. Go Nook!!!
Now let's rewind to yesterday. We didn't do too much that was interesting, but Gabriel continues to get quicker and quicker. It's getting harder and harder to keep up with him. He spends a lot of time going from his bookshelf in the living room to his drawer in the bathroom, over and over, leaving behind a trail of books, blocks, and the occasional hanger or bottle of mouthwash. He's so funny.
We two grownups were in the kitchen working on bread (white, sandwich, buttery) and dishes with Gabriel in there with us, when we heard a little bit of a whine. We turned around, and he was lying face down on the concrete floor. He had been reaching for a bag and climbed right out of his walker in the process! He wasn't hurt at all, and we thought it was pretty funny.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Chipster, one reaching for a book on his bookshelf and one climbing out of his walker to get our mail out of the stroller (if only he'd pay the bills). Here is also a picture of the bread that we made together yesterday.
