Gaber Update

Just a few fun facts about the Gabers right now...

•He's doing a great job going potty on the potty chair. We're still working on #2, but, he'll get it!
•Gabe starts preschool in 2010! I can hardly believe that's coming up in January. AND, he gets to have Mrs. Hoobler!
•Gabe's vocabulary has sky-rocketed. He talks in complete sentences, but still has problems with l's, r's, and y's - totally normal for his age.
•Gabe is still a pretty picky eater. He's expanded his horizons a little bit, but not much!
•Rewards and punishments have been working out pretty well - when Gabe misbehaves we do one of three things... Option #1 is timeout. Option #2 is putting a toy in time out. And, Option #3 is taking a sticker off of his chore chart.

We've started a "chore chart" for Gabe with the following "chores":

Check to make sure Jinxi has food & water (we just have him go look and then we fill it up if she's out)
Go to the bathroom to get his brush in the mornings
Take his dirty clothes to the hamper
Pick up toys before bedtime
Listening (this is one that's had a few stars taken away!:)
Being good in the store
Pooping on the potty

Once he fills up his chore chart, he gets a special prize - like a movie or a new M.A.S.K. guy.

Saturday, we leave for Disney!! Gabe is super excited about it. (so are Mommy & Daddy!) I can't wait to see my little guy's face when he sees Disney. Greg's parents and my mom are going as well. My dad's had a late harvest this year, so he has to miss it. We are all getting really excited. There will be a TON of pictures when we get back!

Happy Halloween!

Wasn't he the cutest Toodah ever? I wanted to make sure I got this down... This is how Gabe sang trick or treat:

"Twicked or Tweet, smell my feet, give me somefing good to eat. If you not, I don't care, I'll pull my underwear down!"

He learned this from his buddy Will last year, and this year he started singing it again. It was so funny! We had a great Halloween. Gabe and his friend, McCarthy (my BFF's grandson), went trick or treating together. We drove them around in the suburban, or as I like to call the "super ban". We had a really great time. It was another one of those moments where I just stopped for a minute and remembered a time when I wondered if I'd ever be doing this. If I'd ever hear a child say, "C'mon, Mom! Let's go to diss house!" My heart was warmed so much by this excited little guy tonight.

After trick or treating, we headed over to Poke's house for the 6th Annual Hurloween. Gabe and I stayed for supper and visited for a bit, and Daddy stayed to hang out with the guys. Gabe had a busy day today, so he pretty much crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow. Hurloween was fun... I had a really nice compliment from Poke about my photography. We love Poke and Cari. They are great friends and it's nice to know we've got an ongoing get together each year with such great people.

Well, I have to say, shocked... two posts in two days?! Wowza!

Oh, and.......... we're leaving for Disney in 7 days!!!!!!!!

Yes, We're Still Here!

Ok, so I've been like the worst blogger ever. I haven't updated in so long. Life has been so busy for us lately. Fall has been CRAZY busy. My photography business has really been picking up - I already have 2 weddings for the beginning of next year. And, when I say next year, I mean I have one on January 1st and the other on January 2nd! One of them is rather small, so it shouldn't be too much work, but the other one will be a full day. Am I nuts? Yes, I think so. The good news is, I'm learning more and more with each session that I take and I'm liking each session better than the one before.

Ok, now onto the Gabers! He's really growing and changing so much. He's saying things like "I have an idea!" or "I pet Jinxi so she more comfortable!". He is doing great potty training. We still put a diaper on him at night, but daytime, he never has accidents. Right now, he's REALLY into his M.A.S.K. guys. M.A.S.K. is a cartoon Greg used to watch when he was little. Honestly, the animation is pretty crappy, but Gabe (and Greg!) love it. I love watching Gabe play with Greg's old toys. Greg's mom had saved some of them and gave them to Gabe. He just loves them.

This year for Halloween, Gabe is going to be Woody from Toy Story. He looks SO adorable in his costume! We took him out to my mom and dad's tonight since my mom has to work tomorrow. He even sang, "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat... if you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear!" But Gabe says, "if you not, I don't care, I'll pull my underwear down!" Too funny.

Well, I did just want to get an update out there because it's been almost 2 months exactly since I've posted. I'll try harder. I'll make it a priority, I promise!! :)

Life is good.

He says he wants to be a "copper". (aka cop) and he won't give Mommy and Daddy any tickets! It's so cute, he'll say "When Gabe grows up, Gabe be a copper and no tickets Mommy and Daddy."

Recently, things have been getting busier for Gabe's Mom. I had 2 sessions this week, then I've got 2 senior sessions next week and already 2 lined up for the beginning of September. I know it doesn't seem like much, but to me, it's a lot! AND, senior sessions are my FAVORITE. Seniors are so much fun to work with. They'll do anything for you. You don't have to constantly fight to get their attention, bribe them with candy, threaten bedtime, etc... (gee, guess who was a difficult photo subject today!?)

Life is good right now. Busy, but good. I'm enjoying my new business a lot, my Gabers has been having many less tantrums, and Greg's been home quite a bit lately. Life is good.

Learning

I've written a lot of posts about watching Gabe learn a lot of new things. But, I don't know if I've really written much about the things I've learned since becoming a parent. So, I thought I'd share some of those things. I wanted to get them down for Gabe since (hopefully!!!) someday, he'll want to have children too.

• I've learned that I am capable of loving someone more than I ever thought I would. I had no idea that a smile on your child's face, can make your day 100% better. I had no idea the amount of joy your child could bring just by talking to you on the phone, or giving you a hug, or just saying "Thank you, Mommy" (Gabespeak: "Tank you, Mommy")
• I knew I would love watching our parents with Gabe. But I've learned that just seeing Gabe can make their day better. If my mom's had a bad week at work, seeing "her Gabers" she says is just what she needs. Or, when PawPaw H was in the hospital, his face lit up when he saw Gabe. Grandparents love their grandkids so very much!
• I've also learned that Grandparents give your child WAY too much sugar. They love seeing Gabe enjoying candy. Gabe knows Abba Piff (now Abba Piff instead of Abba Piss) will give him "tweets" and he knows where PawPaw H's treat drawer is. It's too cute.
• I've learned that God has really blessed us with sleep and renewal time. Meaning, you could've had a really rough day with your kiddo, but then when you wake up the next morning, the first person you want to see is him! When Gabe was a baby, I used to miss him when he slept. I still do now, but now, he and I sleep the same hours. And, I have to admit, naptime for him is downtime for me!
• I've also learned that each age comes with it's own challenges AND blessings. (Another God thing). When Gabe was a baby, the fussiness was hard, but the cuddling was my favorite. I loved giving him baths, I loved watching all of his firsts, and I loved feeding him. As a toddler, the tantrums have been tough, the "sassy talking" has been tough to control, and the timeouts haven't been fun. But, the hugs, the conversations, the "La U Mom"'s, and the joy of seeing him try new things have been so wonderful.
• I've also learned that you need to make time with your spouse. It's so important not to focus your entire world only on your child... I've learned you need to remember your relationship as a couple as well.
  

I could write and write about the different things I've learned. I am learning everyday. How to be patient, how to put my own stuff aside and read a book to my boy, how to play on a playground again, how to enjoy swimming again, etc...

No matter the challenges, no matter the hard lessons, I am loving this life - being Gabe's Mom. I was meant to be his mommy and he was meant to be my boy. That's not something I've learned, that's just something I know.

Love him.

Just love this kid. That's all I gotta say.

Smith-Nandez Weekend!

So, it's a big weekend! My little sister, Jenny and her fiance, Rene are getting married! I am so looking forward to seeing my little sister marry the man of her dreams. Rene has been a real joy to get to know and I'm very happy to have him as a brother in law. When we ask Gabe who's getting married, he says, "Jenny and Uncle Ney". It's pretty cute.

I'm a little worried about a few things... Um, I have a solo, Gabe's a ringbearer.... and I have no idea how he'll behave, and I don't know what to do about my camera! I certainly want to take it with me to take some pictures, but I don't like a couple of things about that - It's not a camera you can just throw in your purse. I'll need to take my flash. I don't want to be one of those people that's in the photographer's way. Although I love my "big camera" (as most people call it!) It's not always convenient when going on vacation with a kiddo, or going to a wedding. I'm still going to take it, and just deal. :o)

So, it should be a pretty fun weekend. Congratulations, Jenny & Rene! I hope this day is full of wonderful memories!

About Mother's Day

It was a great Mother's Day this year... We went to Gabe's Dad's parents' house and spent the afternoon there. We celebrated Mother's Day with my mom a couple of days before. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mom and mother in law. They have been so supportive of us and our family. I hope that someday Gabe will feel the same about me. I am very fortunate to have my mom, Greg's mom and my sisters in law, Missy and Jen in my life because they are wonderful examples of what Moms should be. They have all taught me so much about being a mom - loving my child, teaching my child, disciplining my child, etc... I love each of these women so much.

Here are my awesome "in laws". We had a great Mother's Day with them.

My sisters in law and my mother in law.

Laughing at PawPaw. I love this picture even though I look like a major dork.

Gabe learning how to play baseball with "Uncle Jesse" (he calls Uncle Jeffy "Uncle Jesse"!)

Picking Momma a flower.

Gabe with his cousins. I LOVE this picture because this facial expression is SO Gabe.

And, it was a Happy Mother's Day for this Momma Bird too! These baby birds hatched that morning!

I know I should be used to the fact by now, but sometimes I have to stop and and tell myself again that I'm a mom! I just still can't believe that I am so blessed. I never knew that it would be this wonderful. I am really, truly enjoying this age. Tonight, Gabe and I played "Spiderman" up in the playhouse while Daddy mowed below. I never thought that the highlight of my day would be throwing fake punches and pretending to be "got by the bad guy", but it really was. We had an absolute blast. He laughed so hard, and so did I! He kept saying, "More Mommy!" and he'd just laugh and laugh and laugh. Just sitting here now, I could cry thinking about how much I love my little boy.

I thought of all of you waiting moms out there too, like I do every Mother's Day. I know how hard it is to hold out hope for your child. That you will conceive, or that your child's birth mom will stay healthy carrying your child, or that your overseas trip will be a safe one, etc... All I can tell you is don't give up - hold out hope. God knows the desires of your heart. Pray. Wait. Hope. Endure... I promise you...

God will fulfill the desires of your heart. He knows what is best for you. I prayed that God would fulfill my heart's desire and He did. Bigger and better than I ever could have imagined. He will do that for you too. I really believe that. And, if having a child isn't a part of His plan for you, I believe He will fill that missing piece in another way. I believe He will make you complete, as long as He is the center of it all.

So, waiting moms, I am thinking of you as I know this time of year is a tough one. But, know that those of us who walked in your steps still have you on our minds. I know I haven't forgotten how it felt to be a Mom without a child. So, until that moment...

Pray. Wait. Hope. Endure.

I believe God will provide for you too.

What you can't see...

What you can't see in this picture is Gabe's birth mom holding him and laughing right along with him. What you can't see is the huge grin on Greg's face and my face as I'm taking these pictures of them together.

What you can see, however, is a very happy little boy. A very loved little boy. As I sat and watched my son with his birth family tonight, I couldn't help but feel a ton of love welling up for them. I laughed as we quoted the same movies. I laughed even harder as his birth mom and I said the same exact random thing.

I can't believe this is my life. I have an amazing son. I have a wonderful husband. I have an awesome family. And, I have the privilege of knowing my son's birth family. I have the joy of laughing with them. I have the comfort of knowing that she's alright. I don't think I could handle not knowing how she was. I am so blessed. I am so fortunate. And, I am so glad that Gabe is the reason we all got together.

Reasons Why I Love My Abba Herrman

1. She loves me Way Up to the Sky!
2. She plays "guys" with me.
3. She makes me bacon
4. She introduced me to Lion King and Nemo
5. She loves spending time with her Gabers
6. She let me decorate sugar cookies and get frosting all over her.
7. She's married to my PawPaw - and he's pretty awesome too.
8. She has an AWESOME tweet (treat) drawer!
9. She knows how important "guy time" is, so she calls my cousin Braden to come play with me.
10. She's my Abba...maybe if Abba Smith says "no" Abba Herrman will say "yes". Or vice versa!
    

Random Thoughts on Being Two - to catch everyone up!

• Temper tantrums are becoming more frequent... and lasting longer...
• Bedtime is becoming a little more difficult - Gabe watches a movie in his room, but decides that would be the best time for a #2 diaper.
• We still can't shake that baba... even though it is mostly filled with water, he still wants it, scratch that - needs it.
• Hugs and kisses are becoming more frequent. Especially in the last week. He's been very affectionate! It's been so nice.
• He's started saying new things: "No Way!" when he doesn't want to do something. "Um, cuz..." when you ask him a question. "Why?" when he doesn't like the answer to a question (I thought this was supposed to happen later??)
• His pretend play is SO much fun to watch. I love watching him when he doesn't know I'm watching. It is so neat to watch him play with his toys and to actually hear him say what he is thinking.
• Potty training is going great - especially at daycare. He went 3 days in a row with no accidents AND waking up from his naps dry. At home on the other hand, he doesn't want to use the potty. We haven't been pushing it... we've heard when he's ready, he's ready.
• Gabe's appetite is pretty narrow. Lately, all he wants is hotdogs and "putchet" (ketchup). He loves Special K cereal too.
• He's recently taken an interest in drawing with markers and crayons.
• He knows the shapes hearts, circles, triangles and sometimes squares.
• Sometimes if he's in a bad mood, he tells me to "go away" and sticks his foot out and kicks. This was really, REALLY hard for me the first few times he did it. I found that if I let him see a hurt reaction, he knows he's found a weak spot. So, I just stand my ground and tease him and say, "No, you go away!" and then I tickle him and we laugh about it instead.

All in all, terrible 2's haven't been terrible, they've just brought on a whole new set of challenges. Even though it's a tough stage, I still love it. I love hearing my son talk. I love hearing him say "La Yu too, Mommy" when he goes to bed. I love watching him pray, and peek his eyes open every now and then. It was so cute the first time we saw him bow his head and then lift it up to see if everyone else was. Greg and I both asked each other after the prayer, "Did you see that? Were you watching him too?"

Even though this is tough, even though every day brings its challenges, I still find myself tearing up when I stop and think about how much I love this little boy. How when I stop and try and remember a moment without him, I can't. He's changed our lives so much. He's changed our hearts and our thought processes. He's made us a family.

Now that he's much more talkative, we've talked a little bit more about his birth mom. Every night before bed, I ask him:

"Who's tummy did you grow in?"
Gabe says his birthmom's name.
"Where did you grow with Mommy?"
Gabe says, "Mommy's heart."

In preparing for the adoption, we went through a lot of classes. We were taught to teach our children age-appropriate information about their birth parents. So, this is one way I've tried to approach keeping the adoption an open topic of conversation in our house.

One more thing about being two... With the introduction to underpants, Greg thought it would be a good idea to show Gabe how to put them on his head.

Just Thinkin'

Gabe,
Tonight, I had dinner with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. I sure talked about you a lot. You know why? Because I am so very proud of you. I love you so much, big boy. I had a great day with you today. It's been so much fun watching you enjoy new things, watching you grow, watching you learn, etc...

Being your Mommy has made my life one full of joy and happiness. You and Dad are my world. I love you both so, so much.

I was just thinkin' about that and wanted to tell you.

All my love,
Mommy

2 Years Old

Happy Birthday, my big boy. I love you so much.

Thought I'd share some fun facts about Gabers at 2 years old:

• Gabe is a snacker. He doesn't like a lot of veggies and he doesn't like pasta meals. He does, however, love fruit snacks, pizza, crackers, chips, pretzels, fruit, etc... He could snack all day long! We do provide him with mostly healthy snacks. If he sees Daddy with a pretzel, forget it... he's gotta have one.
• He loves Disney/Pixar movies. Some of his favorites are The Lion King, Cars, Ratatouille, and Toy Story.
• He also loves anything his buddy Will loves. Spiderman is big right now!
• He loves playing with Playdoh. I have to say, it is a special treat... I hate getting that stuff out. Ugh. It just makes a mess!
• When he wants something, he wants it right now. There's no "hang on a sec", or "just a minute", it's right NOW.
• He loves lining his treats up and saying "look Mommy!"
• He can pretty much repeat anything you say. And, most of the time it sounds pretty close to what you said! So, no more bad words!
• He's been going potty on the potty chair quite a bit... and on the floor.
• We're getting into the "No! Daddy do it!" or "No! Mommy do it!"
• He likes to talk on the phone - but he has to hold it.
• Frequency of meltdowns are increasing! He's getting a little temper!

We're having supper at Abba & PawPaw's tonight and then headed to Bible Study. I'm sure Gabe will have a great time hanging out with Abba & PawPaw and his buddy Caleb. I made cupcakes to take to small group. Party time on Saturday. More pictures to follow for sure.

2 Part Post - Jinx & Kicking

Jinx & Gabe. They are quite the pair. This is a very rare photo opportunity here. Normally, if Jinxi is laying down on the couch or chair, Gabe is right up in her face either trying to kiss her, tease her with a pretzel or cookie, or trying to get her to kiss him. He loves to antagonize this dog. Most of the time, Jinxi is pretty cool about it and just gets up from her comfy spot on the couch and flops down somewhere else. This morning though, Gabe and Jinxi were actually watching The Lion King together.

I love the look on Jinxi's face here - it's almost like, "If I can't beat him, I might as well join him". Either that or, "Not Lion King... Again...".

Poor dog. I know I've mentioned this before, but she used to be the baby. She used to get all the snuggle time in the world. Now, it just seems like she lays low until 8:00, and as soon as Gabe's in bed, she's up on my lap. I love this ol' dog. She's been a great member of the family.

Tomorrow night, Gabe's birth family is coming over for our Christmas/Gabe's Birthday visit. I'm very excited to see them. Gabe is too! Tonight before bed, we looked at the photo of all of us in his room and pointed everyone out. I didn't even have to remind him of their names... he did a great job. I also asked him who was coming over tomorrow and he gave their names! It was so cute... He said, "No kick M. & J.". He's on this kick lately (pun intended!) of telling us who he's not going to kick. Today, he told me "No kick church". A lot of times, when I'm on the way home from work, I'll call to talk to him and Greg. Here's how the conversation goes:

Gabe: Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi Buddy, how was your day?
Gabe: Baby no kick Will.
Me: No, we don't kick our friends.
Gabe: Baby no kick Patrick.

And on and on... I swear we go through Abbas and Papas, the babysitter, just about everybody he knows. I guess it's good that he knows he shouldn't kick... Sometimes he'll say, "Baby kick Will" or whoever. We just remind him not to kick anybody... and then we do it all over again multiple times a day!

Gabe Fix

Last night, my mom called me because she and Dad needed some "Gabe Time". It had been a week and she was starting to go into "Gabe Withdrawals".

"I need to see my Gabers."

I'm very thankful that all 4 of Gabe's grandparents love spending time with him (what's not to love?? :) ) It really warms my heart any time I see him with his grandparents. I love watching them laugh at him. I love when Greg's dad teaches him to say things. I love when he goes to Abba Herrman's and he has a favorite toy. I love that he associates tractors and machinery with my dad. And, I love that he knows he can talk my mom into anything. ("More tweets, Abba")

This is one loved little guy. And, we are very thankful, blessed parents.

Guys Weekend

Gabers, I'm getting ready to head to Chicago for the night to see Wicked with Abba & Aunt Keeker. We're going to meet Aunt Ne and Uncle Rene up there for dinner. You and Daddy have already started your weekend together working in the basement. I'm upstairs getting ready and I can't help but chuckle listening to your conversations. You are such a good boy. Mommy's going to miss you while I'm gone, but I'm excited for you to spend time with Daddy.

Love you guys!

Toddler Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas with our family. Since I've been such a bad blogger, I thought maybe I'd better give a Christmas recap! We spent Christmas Eve with Greg's parents, his brothers and their families. It was such a nice day. It's tradition to spend Christmas Eve with the Herrmans and Christmas day with my family. On Christmas Eve, we always have fondue with the Herrman family. Before Greg and I got together, I'd never had fondue! It's such a fun tradition, and I like that it's reserved for one time a year. It's always something to look forward to (as well as Mome's meatballs!)

Gabe got a lot of really great presents (our house suddenly got a lot smaller). It's always a joy to see him excited about something. He was very good with his cousins, even though he had a bit of a cold. We ended the evening with a reading of the Christmas story - the birth of our Savior. I love that Greg's parents have included that in Christmas Eve... I love to watch the kids watch Mary read it. All of the kids really listened... except for Gabe! He was playing with the Fisher Price Manger set (he was still in the same story!) and at just the right time, he pressed the angel to make the music play. It was cool.

We spent Christmas morning together opening gifts and stockings. Gabe's mom didn't have anything to open this year though... WHY? Was I on the naughty list?? No, quite the opposite! Santa surprised me a couple of days before Christmas with a Canon 40D! SO, I was taken care of for presents this year for sure! We got Gabe an easel as his big gift, the movie The Incredibles, a Toy Story magnet book, a couple of shirts, and a few other things. We read the letter that Santa wrote back to Gabe and checked out the cookie plate (sure enough, Santa had eaten the cookies!)

We also got Gabe this adorable train set from Ikea. He loved it. After opening gifts at home, we went up to my folks' house for the traditional breakfast casserole. It is so yummy! This year, my sister's fiance's parents were able to join us as well! They are such nice people. My other sister, Lindsey's, boyfriend Matt was there as well. We had a great time playing cards and joking around. Then, we spent some time opening gifts, and again, we all got a lot of really nice things. Mom spent a lot of time this year making our Christmas a sentimental one. She made us each a Christmas recipe book, a quilt, and she wrote out a mother's journal for us to share. The sentimental stuff is right up my alley... I love all of the thought that goes into making gifts like that.

Then, around 4:00, my mom's side of the family and Greg's parents came over so the cousins could see each other. We had a pretty good time with them as well. We played the traditional White Elephant game to Christmas trivia questions. Then, Gabe and I stayed the night and Greg came back to take care of Jinxi.

It was such a nice holiday. I am reminded so often of how very blessed Greg and I are. It is so uncommon that 2 families can share Christmas together so peacefully. I hear stories all of the time about terrible in laws or families in turmoil. I am so fortunate to have amazing in laws and a great family. It's exciting to see Jenny's fiance's family fitting in so well too. They are such kind people and it makes me happy that Jenny will have a great family life too. They just adore her, and as her big sister, well, I have to say that's all I can hope for!

I hope all of you readers (maybe like one or two of you?? :) ) are sticking with me! I promise to be more faithful in blogging in 2009! My friend Grant and I are going to attempt the Flickr 365 project of taking 1 photo every day for a year. Hopefully we can keep up with it! I think that will inspire me to blog more!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Gabers is starting to get ready for Christmas. It's been a little difficult keeping him out of the other kids' presents! He saw a Nemo gift I got for my cousin's daughter, Hailey, and he about flipped out! I actually may give it to him instead since I got her some AWESOME kitchen stuff from Ikea and Pottery Barn. She'll probably enjoy that more than Nemo.

It's been really hard not to buy Gabe everything under the sun! You just see all this stuff and you want to buy it all! I went a Pottery Barn store this week and it was like torture! :)

I'm so excited to spend this Christmas with my little family.

Here's one attempt at a Christmas Card picture for my Mom & Dad. Gabe didn't want to get his picture taken!

Super Nanny

Ok, so we're having some troubles ... Gabers is not wanting to go to bed at night. Last night, he stayed up until 11:00. Thankfully, I was home today, so he didn't have to get up early, but we can't let that continue to go on... Yeah, we definitely need to put a stop to that!

I do find it really awesome that he wants to stay up with us. I think that's so great that he wants to spend time with Mommy & Daddy. However, once 9:00 hits, I'm ready for some downtime. I think as parents and as a couple you definitely need that time. Time to just chill out, time to talk, or time to watch a tv show that isn't Handy Manny or one of the three Disney/Pixar movies a certain little guy is obsessed with. Any other parents out there, do you agree??

It's not that I'm not 100% devoted to my child... I am. I love spending time with him. However, I think to be a better mom, I need some downtime as well. Time to recharge my batteries.

So, this brings me to the title of the post - Super Nanny. Tonight I watched an episode of Super Nanny that suggested a method of getting your child to go to sleep and stay in their bed. This boy on the show got out of bed nearly 100x before going to sleep! And each time, his mom had to pick him up and put him back in bed. She was allowed to say something the first two times she went in the room, but after that, she just put him back in bed. I've heard from a friend that this works too. So, tonight, that's what we did. Gabe was not happy at all. I went back up to his room every 5 minutes or so and silently placed him back in his bed. This went on for a little over an hour. The entire time he was yelling, "No! Mommy bed!" or "Mommmmmmmy!!!!". He was NOT happy. But, every five minutes, I'd go back up (he'd be standing at the gate to his room crying) and I'd silently put him back into his bed.

This was hard... really hard. Greg couldn't do it. He went up one time and was up there for several minutes. When I went up to see what was going on, Greg was holding Gabe, talking to him, a book was out... Um, HELLO!!! Super Nanny said not to do that once you decided it was bed time! I was crying because I felt like my efforts were shot. I felt like the bad guy.

So, finally after that hour, I went up AGAIN, and this time, Gabe was laying in his bed drinking his bottle. Ahhh.... finally! Now, we just gotta get rid of that baba.... (I'm making Greg do that one!)

I need some advice from you other Mommas out there... Have you had this issue with your kids? If so, how did you handle it? The Super Nanny way? Or, is that too mean? I know it was really, really hard for us. But, the end result was him going to sleep up in his big boy bed, by himself. Will he eventually get the hang of it? I feel like I'm always guessing/hoping that I'm doing the right thing for Gabe. Time outs have been going really well for discipline. I've been trying to get him to eat better. This parenting thing is tough!

But, it really, truly is worth every minute.

Dress Shopping

We got to go dress shopping with my younger sister Jenny yesterday. It was so much fun watching her try on the beautiful dresses. We couldn't believe it, but she ended up purchasing the first one she tried on! She looked absolutely stunning in it. We also picked out the bridesmaid dresses yesterday too. They are chocolate brown with a hint of champagne color. Sorry, but no peeking!

Because the bridal store was AWESOME, I was able to practice taking some wedding pictures there. So, I just took some random shots and thought I'd post them. NONE of the dresses you see here are Jenny's dress OR our bridesmaid dresses. Sorry! No peeking!

How in the world do people choose a flower girl dress? There are so many to choose from and they are all so adorable! When we got married 7 years ago, we had a friend of the family make the dresses, so we didn't even look at them in the store. I would've been overwhelmed.

I just loved the detail on this dress... just gorgeous!

Same with this one... When I got married, SO many of the dresses had a big bow on the butt! Thank goodness the dress makers are realizing that the last things that brides want on their wedding day is a big ol' behind!

We just had a great time with Jenny and her fiance's family. They are terrific people who love Jenny very much. It makes me so happy to see her so happy. I love that even though she lives farther away, she still has a great support system nearby. I am looking forward to getting to know Rene's family even more as we plan for this special day!

PS: Did I mention that Gabers is the ring bearer??