Bloody Nose

The last few weeks have been...different.

Today, Gabriel has his first bloody nose, despite the fact that we have exactly two pieces of furniture in the house (literally). He took a nose dive (literally) off of the rocker/glider. Let's just say that it's REALLY hard to try and squeeze the nose of a toddler who's screaming and squirming... But, it's all good. Despite my inability to hold his nose, the bleeding stopped within a few minutes.

That said, Gabriel's also been really snotty lately. I'm not 100% sure what it is. He's not sick. We're going through a lot of changes. And I know my allergies have been bad lately too... But poor little guy. He's had a clear runny nose for almost a week. He's been UBER worn out by the end of each day. When I go to pick him up from daycare, he's already ready for bed (I get off of work at 4). A week'ish ago, Gabe had gotten quiet all of the sudden. So, naturally, I go to check on him. He was sitting nicely in his bedroom reading books. It was SO cute that I decided it would be great for us to read together (either the same book or quietly reading our own). He, apparently, HATED that idea. Once he saw me come into the room, he started screaming (hard core screaming), literally pushed me out of the room, and slammed the door in my face. Once I was gone, he was quiet and happy in his little introverted hobbit hole again. I guess I now definitely know he's not an extrovert. He LOVES being around people, but is like me and needs a good chunk of time to "recover" too. Poor guy. It's hard when there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I've been trying to get all of my "stuff" done before I pick him up so that we don't have to be out of the house more than necessary, but he still starts screaming as soon as we're alone (usually on the car ride home) because he's so tired/stimulated. What can I say?

Words

At 18.5 months, Gabriel can now say these words:
Mama
Dada
Cat Cat
Quieta
Bye Bye
No
Thank You
Beep Beep? (Cat's name) or Pee Pee (not sure as they sound exactly the same, but he uses the terms correctly...)
Bonka Bonk (his rolling toy)
Uh Oh
Hello/Hi
Ha Ha
And he sorta sings "Ooh Baby Baby, Ba-Baby Baby"

Nicknames of the first year

Booger Butt (Chris hated this one)
Boog-Schmoog
Mr Kickster
Yoda Monster
Gabriel Monster
[the normal, boring] Gabe
Mr Schneibly
Nana
Gaby Baby [this is something others called him and I didn't prefer]
Big Baby Boy

Hm...Maybe that's all, or at least the main ones.

Life is hard sometimes

I used to be very much a feel it, deal it, and get over it type of person. And, to be honest, I still prefer it that way for the most part. If you're gonna be happy, be all out happy and enjoy it while you can. If you're gonna be mad, get yourself good and angry so that you can process it and then it's done. I love, love, LOVE the feeling of of excitement and overly researching something when you've finally gotten to the point of seriously considering it. The excitement of all of the possibilities and the anticipation of all of the amazing outcomes (and also being nervous about the worst possible outcomes)... And then when you find out it almost positively won't work out...it hurts. It sort of crushes your entire being in a garbage disposal. And you come out one raw piece of meat. It takes a while to get less tender about the situation and you can't help but remember what could've been...and continue wondering if it still could be...

Mucho sleepo

Different people have different opinions on what it means to sleep through the night. I'm one of those who thinks it's a 5-6 hour chunk at a time. However, last night was GABE'S FIRST NIGHT to surpass his previous feat! Yes, you heard me right. He finally went down at about 9:15 last night and didn't wake up until I cracked his door at 5:15 this morning. Then, after eating, went right back to sleep. What what!!!

Pull to stand

This last weekend, Babriel pulled himself up to a standing position at the couch. I was amazed because I wasn't really focusing and then all of the sudden, BAM, he was up. It's weird because he generally hasn't liked to stand holding onto something besides me or Chris' hands (aka I've tried to get him to stand up while holding onto the chest, etc but he has none of that). Wow. He's getting so big. I feel old...

Oops! I SHOULD feel guilty...I think...

So Baby has been waking up a LOT more lately. We're talking the last two weeks, not the last two days...and we're talking he's been waking up every two hours...It's been, um, difficult to say the least. I think it was the worst when yesterday I found myself falling over while standing doing nothing because I was so tired... That's problematic.
Point being: I go to bed at 11:00 last night (waited up for Hubby to get home and then took my shower, talked to him for a few minutes and crashed). I woke up right before 5:00 freaking out. Baby had been asleep since 10:00 (went down right after 7:00, but woke up about 9:00 and went back to sleep at about 10:00)...That's the longest stretch I ever remember (I remember being gladly terrified when 5-6 hour stretches started happening rarely)...so I start freaking out and wake Hubby thinking Baby is dead...And what does Hubby do? He reaches over and shows me that the monitor ISN'T EVEN PLUGGED IN!!! Granted, I wake up at the slightest noise LO makes (although I can apparently sleep right through the tornado sirens...), but he could've been screaming for 2 hours whilst I was drifting through cloudless dreams!
I wonder honestly if that happened, though, because the monitor has been turned off once before and I still heard LO through the walls...but it just seems so odd that he'd randomly choose tonight to sleep that long after going through a stretch of sleeping so little stretches at night, right? I'll admit that I'm somewhat upset that the monitor was off. It shouldn't be off ever. I want to make sure LO knows I'll be there if/when he needs me... But then again, I'm somewhat uber-grateful to get that many hours of sleep at once. Should I feel guilty? I do a little, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering if I can "try" that again tonight.