FINALLY - The Gatlinburg pictures!!

I finally finished editing my Gatlinbug post. I just gave up and put the pictures on that I could, and come see me to see the rest. :) You have to go back to June 4, "Gabriel's Adventures in Gatlinburg" to see the pictures.

Pizzum and Bye-Bye

Gabriel has really hit a new verbal peak recently. Lots of new words keep coming up, and he often remembers something to repeat after only hearing it a few times. We had frozen pizza the other night, and wowsers, did he like that pizza. He ate a whole slice, which is a lot for a little tummy like his, and then he turns to me with his bowl in hand, tomato sauce smeared all over his face, and asks for "Pizzum? Pizzum?" Yogurt is "go-gu". Fly and butterflies and ladybugs are "fie". Airplane is "Ennnnhhh" (that's an airplane flying through the sky). TV is "tee-gee". He also has just recently captured the whole "ot" (hot) and "ach-ee" (ouchie) scenario too. Ohhhh - and the beloved drumsticks are "dwum". Guitar is "gak-ee".

The other aDORable thing he does is tell everything bye-bye on his way to bed, or when he is leaving it. He takes his little hand and opens and shuts it to wave. I was taking him for his afternoon nap the other day after lunch and took him into the kitchen to kiss Tim nighty-night, and he goes "bye-bye chickie" (we had chicken for lunch). "Bye-bye tea" (we had tea, too). "Bye-bye tea." "Bye-bye, tea." "Bye-bye, cah" (We passed his push car in the living room). "Bye-bye tea". "Bye-bye tea." It is absolutely precious to hear him. It is a helpful routine, though. It helps him to go to bed, because he likes to say bye-bye.

Yesterday I had Gabriel in the bathtub and was standing in the bathroom door talking to Tim, and I look back and see Gabriel take this flying leap on his stomach over the side of the tub and slide to a stop on the bathroom floor. Not quite the landing he had imagined. He's a slippery little seal in the tub.

One other helpful routine we have found involves brushing his teeth. Gabriel used to HATE to brush his teeth, and I wasn't sure why. I thought it might have to do with the toothpaste, so I switched toothpaste, but no difference. I finally decided it was because he knew it signified that he was going to bed. But it was kind of a traumatic experience every single night - he would cry and scream and screech and hold his mouth shut. THEN, one fateful night Tim brought out his Oral-B spinny whirry toothbrush...and all has been peaches and cream, mixed with lots of anticipation since. He "brushes" with the whirry toothbrush, while I brush with his normal toothbrush. And everybody is happy. Phew. What a relief that is!

Wow, what a week! Last weekend, the weekend of the 9th-11th, Mom and Dad and Quentin came out from VA to visit and help ready our house to sell, and we had a wonderful time, as usual, and got SO MUCH done!!!! The exterior looks awesome; we mulched and got the front window painted, and Quentin edged the flower bed. Dad took up the nasty old carpets in our bedrooms, and we have nice hardwood in there now that was under the carpets. Mom helped me get the kitchen ready – it was just SO productive.

















Little Blue-Eyes with his Grandma


















Cuddle-books with Granddaddy














Buddy Boy and his Uncle Quentin

THEN, the same Sunday they left, I drove to Ohio to meet my ol’ pal Candice (Rhodes) Mast, and we drove together to Goshen, IN to see Carmen Rhodes-Showalter so we could spend some quality friend time together before Candice leaves for 3 years in Thailand in August, and Carmen for five years in Morocco in December(?). My friends are gittin' around. We had a GREAT time, staying up very very late to jabber long into the night.

I came back on Tuesday evening, and we left Wednesday morning at about 5:45 AM to go to Flushing, OH for a series of chiropractor appointments for Gabriel, and came back Saturday evening. Phew. We had a good time in Ohio, though. This was the week of our fifth anniversary. Happy anniversary, us! The last 3 days we were in New Philadelphia, OH, which was basically in Amish country – right near Holmes County.













Gabe and Daddy feeding the ducks and the nosy Canadian interlopers at Tuscawana Park in St. Clairesville, OH.

Wow. It has been “one of those days” at the Miller household today. My dear son child has been asking approximately CONSTANTLY to go “sauce”, which means to go outside, when we already went “sauce” earlier today and Mommy has things that she needs to get done inside, since Granddaddy and Grandma Beery and Quentin are coming to visit this weekend. So, while he’s not tearily asking to go “sauce” he is doing no-no things with his beloved drum-sticks, like hitting the already broken lampshade, giving the TV a good tap, and even an experimental tap to Mommy’s leg. All of these bad-boy ideas keep resulting in drumstick evacuation, which leads to lots of distressed screaming. Then there is the runs of “bann” said insistently and repeatedly, which neither Tim nor I have the vaguest idea of what in the world it means. When “bann” is not addressed, this is also quite distressing to the wee one, and leads to sad tears. When you ask him to “show Mommy”, he points vaguely at nothing and fusses. And Daddy has been gone all day for class, even over supper. MEANWHILE, I have been trying literally for hours, over the past several days, to upload the Gatlinburg pictures from our trip to Tennessee with Norm and Carol, and the computer takes at least 15 minutes a picture, and often times out, or says that it has loaded, and then the picture won’t appear, so you have to go through the whole process all over again…or the site won’t even load due to “technical problems”. It is absolutely maddening. And you would think I might just quit, or use just the pictures I have uploaded, but I have this obsessively perfectionistic streak when it comes to this blog, and ImustImustImust get all the pictures on there that I wanted on there. And then I’m trying to pick up Tim’s office, which has these random piles of old class papers that somehow he never manages to get sorted and I’m left trying to figure out what he wants to save, and what to do with them, not to mention 600 back issues of guitar magazines whose continued existence are somehow imperative to the survival of mankind (not that Dear Husband ever decides on a good place to put them other than random scatterings), and Gabriel keeps walking through and rescattering CD cases that I have repicked up about 4,000 times and I will just tell you that my eyes are taking on a permanently crossed position and my hair is standing on end and I am developing an agitated tremor. Ok, not really, but I’m close. If the next time you see me I have a nervous twitch in my shoulder, and an ongoing tic in my eye…you can just nod knowingly and pat me gently and direct me down the hall to my nice padded room. Twitch.

Praise the Lord, Tim just pulled into the drive. Sanity is mine. At least a while longer.

It's a Boy!!!

So we got our news today! It's a boy! I was not at all surprised - I've just felt exactly like I did with Gabriel pregnancy-wise. Everything looked very good on the echo. He weighs an estimated 14 oz, which is right on target. He was moving around, and currently has his head up and his butt down. Gabriel enjoyed the ultrasound too, and could see the baby form, as he talked about it.

















This is the 4-D image of his face and his hand in front of it. I think that the umbilical cord is what is framing his face.














Side view of Munchkin II.















Follow the arrow for all the crucial information.... :)

Gabriel's Adventures in Tennessee

From May 21-28, we went to Tennessee with Norm and Carol, basically to go to the Gaither Family Fest that last weekend, but also just to spend some family time together. We had a great time. Gabriel really enjoyed seeing Grandpa Norm and Grandma Carol again.













This is from when we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. Gabriel really enjoyed seeing all of the "shish".













Grandma, Grandpa, and Gabe enjoying some cuddle-time during supper.














Down-down-down with the grandparents.













"Horsing" around. (man, was that a good joke, or what?)













The Black Bear Jamboree we went to see. Gabriel enjoyed the entire 2 hour thing, which is REALLY something to say!!

This picture below is the cool hotel we stayed at on our last night. This was the view inside from the 10th floor.
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Tuckered out after some hard vacationing...What a sweetheart.