My Buddy is Three

Gabe turned three years old on September 8. He is a sweetheart boy, full of energy and life. He loves playing with his cars, trucks, and tractors, or swinging make-shift sticks to hit balls in a varied form of golf or baseball, or versions of basketball and football. He loves "football" for the physicality of it, and loves to dramatically throw himself around, employing lots of energetic "oofs".

He is quite a talker, and has little monologues where he talks with his hands and looks all around. You can usually understand about half of what he is saying when he is going full-bore like that.

He loves "baby Is'wel" and loves to give him hugs and "hold him", loves to climb in the crib with him and tussle and giggle. He also gets pretty irritated with him when Israel gets interested in something that Gabe has and tries to grab it away.

He isn't drumming quite as much as he used to.

Gabriel plays pretty well on his own, and likes to zoom around outside, playing in his sandbox or in the backyard.

He loves to have books read to him, and sits very quietly to listen.

He likes to sleep with the closet light on. He still likes to sleep on the floor - if he starts out in the bed, he ends up on the floor with his blankets 99.9% of the time.

He is friendly and not afraid of people, but is sometimes a bit shy for the first few moments. He often tends to divert emotion into talking about what he sees around him.

He loves to snack - and it is often hard to get him to eat well at meals. He starts rooting around in the kitchen when he is hungry. He loves chocolate and chewing gum. He also loves milk.

Some of the things he often gets in trouble for now are telling Mommy and Daddy "No I will not do _____", throwing toys, and being too aggressive physically with Israel. He responds very well to the "1-2-or else" system. :)

He is very good at saying "Cank you, Mommy!!", but is still working on the "Peas"(please) part, saying it readily when prompted. He loves to "help" in the kitchen or with whatever else is happening.

His bedtime ritual includes a bath, a snack, books, brushing teeth, praying with Mommy/Daddy, a story ("Once upon a time there was a little boy named Gabe. One day...")and a song from Mommy (usually a made up song about Baby Israel) and a story (usually about Charlie the Butterfly) and a song (often a made up song about Chloe) from Daddy. He usually goes to bed around 10 PM and wakes up about 9:15 AM or so. He is definitely much more of a "night owl" than an "early bird".

He takes a nap about half the time, and usually naps about 2 hours if we let him go the full time.

He has the cutest little high-pitched voice with an equally cute little lisp.

His hair is still very blond.

He loves to have Mommy and Daddy pretend that he is a baby.

We have discovered that he is allergic to malt, like his Daddy, and that it makes him very itchy.

He loves Elmo and Cars and Caillou.

He sings on pitch.

He can go pee-pee in the potty, but usually doesn't unless he is not wearing a diaper. He is not at all interested in "big-boy underwear" or in the fact that everyone he knows goes pee-pee in the potty, but is somewhat drawn by the allure of "potty candy" and "potty stickers" - but not always.

He plays well with other children, and does not seem easily offended.

He is sometimes frustrating and often adorable and we love him sooooo much.