2.02.2016

Gabriel is Four!

Gabriel has gone and turned four.





How can this be possible, given that just yesterday Jas and I held him for the first time in the hospital?









And now, our big little guy has had his first official "Slumber Party"!  





The Friday before G's actually big day, the kiddos came to us with the proposal for a slumber party. (Which equates to our oldest five kiddos sleeping on the floor in the family room...oh, and staying up way later than normal. )

But we're super cool parents, so sure!




They even brought Gabriel's little toddler bed mattress out for him to sleep on, since he has never slept on the floor before, unlike my seasoned Slumber partiers.


Gabriel had a great time at his party.  



He stayed up later than I thought he would (11p.m.-ish), but slept in until about 10:30 a.m.  the next morning and was good to go after that...no other ill-effects.  (When we all got up, we moved him to his room, where he slept until 10:30)



Then on the actual big day, Gabriel got to celebrate from morning until night.

We had some festivities before Daddy left for work...


Think he was excited?

The kiddos always get to pick the menu on their special days.



Gabriel picked pancakes, our venison smoked sausage, and Apple Celery salad.



And then G got to open a present from us.








It was a....TRASH TRUCK:




Complete with its own little blue trash can:




Because G?  Is obsessed with trash cans right now.  Like, he has to go out with the older boys every week when they wheel the trash cans to the end of our driveway.  He follows along beside them and stares (bent over the whole time) at the wheels the whole way to the street.  And he talks about them quite a bit.  In fact, when asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said "trash cans."  Turns out he meant big, real ones.  Aunt Susu did get him these (little) trash cans for Christmas...and he loves them.  So, an actual (albeit little) trash truck was the logical next step.  


Other items he is currently obsessed with:

- Basketball

- Drumming

- Alligators

- Might Machines ("Mighty Sheens")




Knowing Gabriel's obsession with basketball (Papa started it by buying G a basketball goal), Papa was thrilled to find a great basketball book for them to look through together: 









Gabriel also received from LaoLao and Papa some....

Money!






It was so funny because it was the first time he really was aware what money was...and was excited about getting some!



When we asked him what he wanted to buy with his money, G was so thrilled to reply, "Groceries!"  Specifically, bananas.

I promise I feed him.  



Then G got to open (homemade) cards from each of his siblings.  



I love that they do this for one another.





So sweet!










G was not - however - quite so thrilled with the two books that daddy and I gave him.



He was not rude...just very....clear about his lack of enthusiasm.


(We had a little talk about how you should act when receiving gifts, whether you are excited about them...or not.)


But the last gift we gave him, I intentionally saved it for last - I knew he'd be excited about:



It is "Peter" from Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Gabriel loves this book, and knows it by heart.  (But he insists that we say "Gabriel" instead of "Peter" whenever we say the little boys' name as we are reading through!)





Gabriel has slept with Peter snugged up against him every night since he got him.


Another new snuggy he received is an alligator of Daniel's that G loves!




It was so kind of Daniel to share this stuffed animal that he loves.





Gabriel said he wanted "cake and ice cream" that night...so got a pan of Elisabeth's brownies (that looked a whole lot like cake....and they are far yummier than any cake I've ever tasted, grain free or not)...and some homemade ice cream.  



It was a wonderful day celebrating this precious boy we all love so very much.






It is hard to imagine/remember that there was ever a time that Gabriel wasn't here with us.




We are thankful for this little guy.


No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...