Gabriel turns 4

So Gabriel is 4! It hardly seems like yesterday that I was cuddling the screaming little ball of fury that turned into Gabriel, and now here I am with a great big, grown-up, lump of a 4 year old (a very nice lump at that!).

He gets more grown-up every day it seems, a proper little boy now. His school application has been sent off ready for next September, and we (slightly) anxiously await news of his place, hoping that he will be in Discovery with Linus. Gabriel is rather looking forward to going to school... so he can "play with that farm".

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Summer 2011

Over the summer (well, I say summer...) Gabriel has mostly been:

in no particular order:

• Eating watermelon
• Giving up his dummy
• Mostly giving up his bottle
• Being a big boy
• Being a baby still
• Running around very fast
• Dressing up
• Learning to talk some more

Watermelon is the new love of his life. I can't take him to the supermarket without being persuaded to buy one. I blame Bob and his "if you can say it, you can have it" rule, and Gabriel does say watermelon quite nicely!

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Gabriel and camping

The pictures on this post are all from our recent camping trip to Suffolk. Ok, not that recent, but recent enough!

Life with 3 small boys is so chaotic and hectic that we seem to have lost those days of just photographing them, being able to sit and go through the pictures undisturbed, choosing ones that had a story behind them, thinking of what to write.

Whenever I sit down these days I am bombarded, quite literally, with small boys. They need something, they want something, they want what I have, someone else has what they want, they need to climb on me, they need to jump off me.... it's neverending.

But somewhere in the midst of all that we manage to grab a few moments of relative calm. Calm? no, that's the wrong word, it isn't calm, but it's somehow more manageable when you get away from real life and all you have to think about is 3 little boys and what will make them happy.

Camping makes Gabriel happy. He loves meeting new children on the campsite, and being allowed to run off and play with them. The freedom afforded him on our last trip was amazing for him and for us. It's pretty cool when you think that that tiny little being that needed to be attached to you all the time, that didn't want to be away from you, can grow into such a sociable, independent young boy. I guess Gabriel is what you would call a people person, and it's great because for a while back there we were concerned that his hearing problems and lack of speech would hold him back and it so totally has not and it's amazing.

Other things he loves about camping are (in no particular order)

• Sticks (these are his monsters, they eat and sleep in our tent)
• Fires
• Marshmallows, but not the outside bit. Fear not though, your new friend's mum will eat the outside bit for you.
• Sleeping in the tent
• Eating out on the picnic rug
• Going to lots of places where you can throw stones in the water (if this list was in any kind of order, that would be top!)

And now for the gratuitous shots of gorgeous boys (mostly Gabriel, with a little bit of brother snuck in here and there)

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Cheeky

Gabriel is being mostly quite lovely at the moment. It's amazing to watch him grow up into his own little self, seeing the (few) similarities he has to Linus, and marvelling at the many and huge differences between them. It's hard to imagine that 2 siblings could be so utterly different in so many ways. Gabriel rather likes Linus (although this is not always reciprocated!)- he wants to sit next to him at every meal, he wants to play whatever Linus is playing, he wants to eat whatever Linus is eating. It's a joy to watch them play together, now Gabriel is at an age where he can properly play games and it's fascinating to see the things he allows Linus to over-rule him on, and those which he vehemently stands up for.

The last few years have gone by ridiculously quickly, and we've seen Gabriel grow from a squidgy baby into a curious toddler into a lovely little boy. He is quick to share anything he has, be it toys or sweets or flowers he has picked on the verge on the way home from nursery. He is kind to anyone he sees upset, and he is incredibly sociable and gregarious. Gabriel likes nothing more than to find a new friend to play with at the park, or the beach, or even with Grandma's next door neighbour!

Gabriel's speech is coming on really well. Most people can understand him most of the time although he clearly still has issues with certain sounds. We're waiting on regular speech therapy sessions and more audiology appointments before deciding whether to go ahead with grommets. Regardless, his hearing problems don't seem to be holding him back!

Gabriel, I promise I'll leave the bit about your sulking and tantrums for next time...!

Brothers

Enjoying the sunshine atop the cozy coupe! if I had to describe how Gabriel typically looks, this would be it.

2011 Update

Gabriel is really growing up. He's very definitely a little boy now and a somewhat stubborn little boy at that, he knows his own mind!

His talking is coming on tremendously and it's rare that a day goes by without him coming out with a new word or phrase. He's realising that it's actually very helpful to be able to talk and say certain things and he tries ever so hard. He isn't silly either though, it didn't take him long to figure out that "John" is far easier to say than "Grandpa"! And today he has re-named Linus's friend Charlie as Dylan because he can say Dylan but he hasn't quite worked Charlie out yet. We have long explanations of what he has done at nursery and (just like his older brother) he is now starting to make up stories about what he has and hasn't done- all utterly untrue! I am sure this must be some important developmental stage that they go through, it's very funny though and he hasn't quite worked out that if you're lying about something that happened at nursery you can't say Linus did it!

At home he alternates between being a very cute little person who pretends to be a cat and miaows around our feet and lies on our laps letting us stroke his head; and a rather stroppy little 3 year old who wants what he wants NOW regardless of what it is he is asking for and whether or not you even have it. Today's example would be a milkshake in a glass bottle. All the glass bottles were in the dishwasher, but no other drinking vessel would do "me want mine milk-hake blass tell MUMMY". And so he did, patiently waiting for the dishwasher to finish and then having his milkshake. Some people may say that he takes after his mother- you should ignore them.

This is just so Gabriel