Gabe the Stunt Man?

I have to admit, at times I fancy myself a good Mother. Yes, I pat myself on the back for having such wonderful children while also, at times, "judging" others for not having children as perfect as mine (Honestly what Mother doesn't think her children are the best?!). I suppose this is a good trait. I do work hard to raise good, athletic, handsome, musical, thoughtful, compassionate, sweet (the list goes on...) God fearing and God loving little boys but at times the Lord reminds me that pride does really go before a fall (literally!!).

This week Gabe has tested the limits of our parenting patience. Well first let me start with what happened a few weeks ago....I was upstairs doing something on the computer when I heard Gabe call my name. I yelled down to let him know that I was upstairs, to which I heard him say "okay, I'm coming" followed by the front door opening and closing. Hmmmm....I thought to myself.....NOT a good thing, surely my two year old did not just exit our residence, all by himself?! First thought, yell down to my very responsible six year old, "Sam, did your brother just go outside?" no response...."Sam....Sam"....well darn where is he, I thought as I bounded down the stairs as quickly as I could. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I realized that not only was Sam gone, so was Ethan. I threw open the door only to see all three of my sons RUNNING bare foot down the sidewalk towards the street!!!!!!!! WHAT IN THE HECK?!! HAVE MY CHILDREN LOST THEIR MINDS?!

After screaming my head off like a CRAZY woman, I managed to get all of the boys back in the house and sat them down to see why in the world they were barrelling down the sidewalk at break neck speed. I never found out why Gabe went out (I guess he thought I was outside) but Sam had just learned about initiative in Sunday school and decide this was a good time to practice his newly learned "skill" by saving his brother from near death....Ethan had just followed everyone, because well, everyone else was running, why shouldn't he?!

More recently Gabe has given new meaning to the term terrible twos. On Wednesday I had to take Sam to Walter Reed. Thankfully Greg was able to come home from work early to watch Gabe and Ethan. Well you would have thought I was leaving Gabe with the Wicked Witch of the West. He threw a ROYAL fit as I was leaving, complete with sobbing, feet stomping and just general freaking out, I was frankly quite surprised that his head didn't spin around! On the drive home from DC I called to see how Gabe and Greg were fairing. Poor Greg, during quiet time Greg heard Gabe crying and when he went in to find out what the problem was he found Gabe with his dresser on top of him! YIKES!!!

When I got home from Sam's appointment we ate dinner and then it was time for soccer practice. This time Gabe was pretty happy with staying with Dad. Halfway through practice I received another call from Greg, it's never good when the conversation starts with "YOUR SON....". Well this time, Gabe had emptied an entire brand new bottle of shampoo into the tub while Greg wasn't watching, there were bubbles everywhere! Greg wasn't happy, but Gabe had a great time!

Last night when I got the boys out of the shower Gabe's toe was bleeding. After cleaning it off I realized that the cut had the tale tell marks of a safety razor. We are still not sure exactly what happened. Sam says he knocked off the razor when he was trying to get his shampoo. I think the razor hit Gabe's toe and that is how it was cut, Greg's pretty sure Gabe had a wild idea to try to shave off his toe hairs, either way, the child never even shed a tear!

This last story sums up Gabe's personality. The boys have a "tornado in a bottle" that I brought them home when I was in Kansas. It is a lot of fun to play with, but can be broken. In order to keep us from having a "tornado on our carpet" I had placed the toy high up on a shelf in Gabe's room. This afternoon Gabe was carrying the tornado around. My first thought was to ask Sam and Ethan if they had gotten it down, they both were very sincere and certain that they had not touched the shelf. My second thought was no way could my sweet little two year old have....my thoughts were broken by Gabe yelling "Mommy, I step on this and then".....that little turkey showed me exactly how he uses his bed to climb up on his dresser and then STAND up to get anything he likes off of what I thought was a safe shelf. UGH that kid keeps me on my toes! The best is what he had to say about himself. "Mommy, I can't get hurt....I SO brave". Oh my are we in trouble, or what?!

Below is a picture of Gabe "performing". (I know, I know, we should never have taken a picture, now he thinks he's cute, but really, frankly, he is!!)


Finally, a video of Joel smiling. (I'm really into this new video thing, so bare with me!)





Hope everyone has a FAB week!