The Birthday Report

One week late, here are the birthday details. First, the day before my birthday my nice friends Stephanie and Janette surprised me with an incredibly rich and delicious chocolate cake. So fun. Then on Wednesday I woke up to Mario "Feliz Cumple! Do you want breakfast in bed? I don't know how to make anything, how about chocolate milk??" So I had a very tasty glass of chocolate milk to start my day. For lunch Mario and his parents took me to a fun little cafe on the river that had beautiful views of the green islands across the water, and I had a delicious sandwich with roasted vegetables and sun-dried tomatoes, uncommon delicacies here.

Then, Mario had planned a bowling party for me. They wouldn't let him make reservations, and said we had to buy food there, but we could bring any sweets we wanted with us. However, when we arrived, Mario went to the bar to order a bunch of pizzas, and they told him the cook was tired so she was just going home and we couldn't eat... because does it really matter if you're supposed to be open and you have a huge group of customers waiting? If you're tired, you should get to go home.
So we all bowled.... and then we went across to the food court (the bowling alley is in the mall) to eat. Kind of hilarious, but I supposed spending my birthday in the mall isn't entirely unfitting.

I have been drooling over Emy's birthday cake for a month now, so I decided to approximate something tall and chocolate and beautiful, and then got overwhelmed before I even started to decorate it. But it was an amazing chocolate cake, with chocolate butter cream frosting the the middle and chocolate ganache on the outside, with a strawberry cream sauce poured over each slice. Any doubt about how addicted I am to chocolate?? And I had to make my own cake, but then at least I got exactly what I wanted!

Low-key, but nice birthday from my very nice husband. I love you Mario!

Colton Joshua Smart

This is my nephew Colton (on the right - I don't know who that other kid is, but Colton must have punched his teeth out). Colton was the first grandchild in the Smart family, born eight years ago today.

The whole family was THRILLED to have baby Colton around. He was a sweet, mild-mannered child, and I loved him enormously. I loved him so much, that when his mom got pregnant with Kallie, I was worried that I couldn't love another kid as much as I loved Colton.But then came Kallie, and eventually Cade, and I do love them just as much as I love Colton, which is a LOT!Eight is a very special birthday, because now Colton gets to be baptized. I am very excited for him, because being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost are really important and exciting things in life, and I know Colton will always try to do what is right.

Now we have another baby in the family, baby Gabe, who is excited to meet his eldest Smart cousin Colton.



Happy Birthday Colton, we love you very very much and are very very sad we can't come to your baptism. Love, Adrianne, Mario & Gabe

Identity Crisis

Gabe was experiencing premature baby-male-pattern balding, as evidenced by these photos.

So in a rash decision, I decided to allow my sister-in-law to get out the clippers and "even things out".

His hair was very fine, and didn't provide enough resistance to the blades.
Gabe hated it, wiggled and cried the whole time, and it was very difficult.
We needed Aunt Allie to help us, but she is far far away.

Now I have a baby with almost no hair (except for the random long lock that got missed), and he looks so different from my baby who was born with lots of brown hair that curled when it got wet that I feel very disoriented.

But now we can appreciate his big blue eyes better!

Happy Birthday to Me

This is my sister Lindsay and her husband Matt. They have started a blog, Brown Sugar. You should visit it and see their birthday message to me, and then you will understand why returning often to make your life more enjoyable.

4 months

Tomorrow Gabe is 4 months old, and here is a reporting of his 4 months check-up yesterday. He now weighs 15 lbs 13 oz and is almost 25 inches long. That seems an extraordinary amount to grow to me, but apparently he is average.
He is more adorable and more smiley every day, and only slightly nerdy when his dad dresses him and insists on tucking everything in. Just like Mario wears it!! ha ha.
He is, however, getting some serious bald spots that make me wonder if I should buzz it all off??? He has the normal sleep spots, but it seems that more of the newborn hair is falling out and the new growth is blond so you can't see it. Very bad.
The doctor also said that he can start "playing" with food. That I can make him carrots, squash, potatoes, bananas and apples and put them in front of him and see if he grabs at them and then puts his hand in his mouth. He said it's more to develop motor skills than for nutrition at this point. But aren't all those great toys supposedly for motor skills and much less messy???

At any rate, I dutifully went home and boiled some carrots, being sure to boil them so long they would no longer have any nutritional value. :) I then mashed them and put them in this handy net pacifier thing.
Here is Gabe sucking at his first carrots. He seemed slightly confused, but kept sucking!
He was less interested in the apples I gave him the next day. Perhaps because they were harder and thus more difficult to get juice out of.

A mini vacation

I had to send my computer to the technical hospital, so for 5 days I couldn't work, read email, read blogs, comment on blogs, shop online, check recipes, check the news...basically live and breath. So here is what I did...Practiced having "tummy time" with Gabe, which he does NOT like.

Took pictures of my cute baby to prepare for blogging when the computer returned.
Went to a BBQ and played in the beautiful grass. We also walked to the park but I forgot the camera...
Walked to the river.
Took more pictures of Gabe.
Tickled Gabe until he laughed - which is really a squeak and is hilarious.
Did NOT change out of my pijamas before painting shelves for Gabe's room.
Made a built-in desk area in the closet to gain space by getting rid of the other desk. It's not cute right now, only practical, but it was inconvenient for blog purposes to wait until it was cute to take the picture. Nice leg Mario.
Had lunch at my in-laws where we showed everyone how much the baby wants to stand.



Recorded Gabe making lots of grunting noises while trying to push himself into standing.

You really can get a lot done when you don't have a computer to distract you.