Gabriel's Favorite Toy

His stacking cups is becoming Gabriel's favorite toy. Since we can't find a good site to host video, here is the next best thing: a "talking" picture. Enjoy!

Bath Day

The little guy isn't getting enough sleep. At least, that's what we suspect. We also think that maybe he is ready for more food. The latter problem is easy to solve; we started giving him a solid breakfast (in addition to nursing) yesterday. The former problem, however, continues to be a struggle.

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.

Fun in the Park

Today was a beautiful day - 70s and sunny. It was also a nice day in Detroit, where the Tigers trounced the Royals. Dmitri Young set a new record for home runs in an opening day game with 3. He had 5 RBIs and went 4 for 4. Looks like Jeremy Bonderman is developing nicely. Gabriel's new friend Nook Logan got to play in the later innings of the game but didn't have good luck today. MLB.tv is free today and tomorrow, so Gabriel and Patty got to watch the game on the computer. Yes, Gabriel really did watch it and loved it!

The Chipster celebrated by wearing his Tigers cap to Piedmont Park, where he and his Mommy hung out on a blanket with some food and some books for a couple of hours until Daddy got there. In the photo above, you can see Mommy's shadow as she was trying to block the sun from Chip's eyes while she took the picture. As a result, the lighting in the photo is not what it could be, but we have to protect sensitive eyes! Anyhow, we stayed for a while longer before we headed to Whole Foods to stock up on organic veggies for baby food.

We had lots to do when we got back to the apartment at 8:30 pm, including kitchen cleanup, making and freezing apples for Gabriel, putting away laundry, and making and eating tacos for dinner. We watched Nanny 911 (if they aren't going to cooperate, why do they apply for the show??), some of our tape of "The Office" (American version), and the NCAA game. Even though North Carolina won, and we were two of only three people in our bracket group to pick them, we still came in 8th and 9th out of 12 people. Oh well, we'll do better next year.

Our Weekend

Saturday, we of course watched a lot of TV about the Pope, but we also did a lot of cleaning of the apartment, which has gotten out of control. We went to the Saturday vigil mass, and our marriage prep sponsors happened to sit next to us. Their baby girl, Morgan Ansley, was born 2 1/2 weeks ago. They were out for their first date post-baby - dinner and church. After church, we went to Steve and Kelly's house to celebrate Steve's birthday. Matt the Grillmaster grilled some burgers, and Kelly made salad and pasta salad. We had some Carvel ice cream cake for dessert, because it's a tradition for Steve. It was really good. Gabriel got to wear some of the new clothes that his gramma sent him for Easter and looked super cute.

Sunday, we did a bunch more cleaning and made bread for the week. We took a little time to watch Amazing Race while the laundry, er, laundered and Chipdip slept. Finally, we got out of the apartment around 5:30 pm to go hiking. Good thing we are in daylight savings time! We hiked some of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area, starting at Cochran Shoals and heading toward Sope Creek. The sun set before we got there, so we didn't get to our destination, but it was a great hike anyway. We learned a lot about the topography of the area and found out that if we'd gone just a little farther, we would have come upon a 19th century cemetary. As it was, we saw a small waterfall, a big chunk of quartz and a lot of shale, and heard owls hooting just after sunset. On the return leg, we saw some huge houses across the river that we'd never noticed before. Gabriel fell asleep on the way back, and somewhere on the trail today, someone found a travel pack of tissues that he'd been holding. This is a nice time of the year to hike in Georgia; there aren't any mosquitos yet, it's not too hot, and the trees are starting to bloom. The dogwoods are currently blooming. We have highlighted our trail here.

Both our starting point and our destination are special places for us. Cochran Shoals is where we used to run, sometimes every day, all summer, and where we trained for our first Peachtree Road Race. It's where Patty used to spend her days (after watching the whole TLC lineup in the morning) before she got a job in Atlanta. Sope Creek is where Matt used to go often to sit on a certain rock in the water and read near the ruins of a paper mill before Patty moved to Georgia. It's the first hike we did together.

AR7 Watch

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Yes, we know it's late - we just got the tape, give us a break!

You know the drill...

Ray and Deana: So glad they're gone! The thing we disliked about Ray is that he's the sort of person who believes that since he wants to win, it's unfair if he doesn't. Deana was a non-presence the whole time they were on. They just made us angry, and not in a fun way like Mirna and "Shmirna".

Gretchen and Meredith: They are such troopers. Even though they're hanging on by a thread, they sure are trying hard.

Brian and Greg: They are showing themselves to be good people, even if they aren't the best players. They prayed for their cameraman when they flipped their car and he was hurt. We were surprised that they were able to beat Ray and Deana to the finish even after that long delay! The fact that they chose the water task saved them.

Lynn and Alex: Oh, why can't they leave the show?! They're raving idiots and snotty, besides.

Uchenna and Joyce: We are willing to bet that they return to South Africa to adopt a child. It looks like this race is doing good things for their marriage and their personal life.

Ron and Kelly: If Kelly, Lynn, and Alex were in a stupid contest, we're not sure she'd lose. CBS slyly put a split second clip in the show that showed Kelly leaning in for a kiss and Ron said, "Why are you leaning towards me?" He doesn't seem to impressed with her as a person, much less as a girlfriend.

Rob and "Amba": The fact that they drove right by the brothers' accident scene brought them down a notch in our estimation, but they are really funny and continue to play the game well. The more Lynn and Alex hate them without reason, the more we root for them. It was a nice touch this week when Phil became the morality police for the Survivors at the pit stop.

Requiescat In Pace

Pope John Paul II
18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005