2.20.2010

My baby can read...

...well, sort of. Gabe will be 2 years old in about 2 months, but for now I can say that my 1 year old knows the alphabet (for the most part). When I ask him each letter he has gotten them all correct at least a couple of times, but he continues to insist that "W" doesn't exist and that it is just an "M" upside down. He also often confuses V for Y and F for E, I'm assuming because they look so similar. And he has trouble saying the letters S and X, but he can identify them if I ask him to point to each letter. Also he pronounces Z as "zen," which I feel is a very fitting description for his aptitude for letters as he is so very enlightened in my humble opinion.

What's funny to me, is that Gabe just seems to enjoy letters. I did not make any attempt to teach him his letters - get this - he learned them from watching TV! So to all those out there who believe TV rots children's brains, I say fooey to that claim! Sure, Gabe may be the exception, and by that I mean probably not every kid will just naturally pick up learning the alphabet just by watching TV, but he did and I'm proud of him. And I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that the only shows he watches are PBS shows such as Word Girl, Word World, Super Why!, Martha Speaks and Sesame Street, with the exception of Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is also educational. He doesn't seem as interested in learning numbers, but I bet that would change if there were fun TV shows about numbers, but let's face it, numbers are boring!



2.14.2010

Uncle Ryan comes to visit...



We had a family dinner at Grandpa Perkins house tonight to celebrate Ryan being in town.



Here's Hannah looking like she could be posing for the cover of a baby fashion magazine.






I had Katelyn hold Gabe still so I could get a shot of his cool new shoes.


And here's pretty Amy and Hannah.




And a couple of shots I took of Daddy looking handsome in his new work clothes.


2.06.2010

Saturday morning...

Gabe was way into his Mickey Mouse Club, so I let him have a living room picnic so he could eat his breakfast while watching his show. Nothing fancy, just bagels and yogurt. I let him eat non-messy food by himself, so he was munching on a bagel while I was feeding Hannah her bottle. She kept eyeing his breakfast though, so I gave her a little bit. But apparently that little bit didn't satisfy her. I went to the kitchen to get Gabe his yogurt, and when I came back this is what I found:




2.03.2010

A comparison of my sweet little darlings...

I checked the doctor's print outs for Gabe's growth and development and compared his stats to her stats.




Here is Gabe about two weeks away from 8 months:





And here is Hannah, now, about two weeks from 8 months. The p.j.'s are quite a bit baggier (real word?) on her, but the length is about the same on both of them. Also, Hannah has long skinny feet, whereas Gabe has always and still has wide, fat and long feet.






A shot of them on their bellies:




So far their personalities seem to differ quite a bit. Gabe has always been very expressive and vocal, and he commands the center of attention at all times. Hannah is very quiet for the most part except for an occasional outburst of screeches and trilly girly noises. Only when she becomes very bored and is stuck in her jumperoo or walker (which she can't walk in yet) does she start yelling her consonants (bababa, dadada, mamama, etc.) in an attempt to communicate to me that I need to let her free. She likes to roam about and go from toy to toy putting each new thing in her mouth for a while until she becomes bored with it and moves on to the next toy. Gabe liked to play with toys too at that age, but was more interested in interacting with me. He wanted to be in my lap cuddling or reading a book, or if he was on the floor he wanted me right next to him playing with him and his toys and didn't show very much interest in going anywhere. He was almost always making some sort of noise whether it was his consonants, rambling gibberish, or mimicking my singing in his little baby way. That hasn't changed about him. And he's learning new words all the time. What's funny to me is that when he has a lot to say but doesn't know all the words yet, he just talks in gibberish mimicking the pauses and tones and even facial expressions and hand motions of regular speaking. He makes me laugh a lot. Their differences make them unique, and most importantly, they are both uniquely mine. I love my babies!

More with Gabe and Hannah

Here's a clip of Hannah's new trick. She just started doing this.




Here's Gabe saying his letters and being a little stinker.



Here's my sweet, sweet Hannah girl. Man oh man, I sure do love this little doll baby.