Happy 6 months to Gabe today

Even though I am constantly planning blogs in my head, they rarely come to fruition. And if you don't blog for 2 weeks, instead of writing funny, witty, or snarky commentaries, you can get away with general summaries of what you've been up to. I am a lazy blogger, I admit it. So here is what I've been doing instead of blogging:

We had our Relief Society (church women's organization) Christmas activity. I got a little over ambitious with my new cutting machine and decided we should make each woman a ribbon with 24 Christmas shapes attached, on the back of each shape a different scripture for the 24 days before Christmas. 24 scriptures x 40 women + some shapes had "shadows" so were double = WAAAY TOO MUCH CUTTING. Here they are all hanging ready to give away, they loved them, and they'll never be getting them again!
We also made Gingerbread houses, which I was kind of worried about because when I told Mario he said "what? why are you doing that? what is the purpose of that?" So I thought maybe gingerbread houses were so cultural they wouldn't translate, but I should know not to trust him. I constructed the basic houses and they had a really fun time decorating them and they were even eating that nasty frosting... and the best part is I had planned to make the gingerbread cookies, which would have been a lot of annoying baking and broken cookies, but then I found these sheets of something that resembles in taste and texture thin cardboard, but is actually edible, that they use to make little castles on top of communion cakes apparently??? but could be cut with an exacto knife, doesn't break, and is super light-weight so dries and sticks together easily. Might be better than actual gingerbread...
Gabe's doctor said he could start "playing" with food 2 months ago, but after one ambitious cooking of carrots, it mostly seemed like a pain so I was content to stick with nursing/bottles until he reached the more commonly accepted age of 6 months to actually begin with food. As 6 months approached, and I have to go back to the dr. and tell him how it's going, I decided I better actually start. After spending hours on the internet looking up recipes and regulations for making baby food, we finally got to one ice cube tray of individual portions of squash, frozen and ready to be pulled out as desired. He really likes it and eats it right up. I've kind of avoided the cereal thing because here the second ingredient on the box is sugar. But I discovered I can grind oatmeal, rice and barley with by food processor until it's powder and make my own cereal. Did all the grinding, it's waiting in ziplocks in my fridge, haven't gotten around to actually cooking it yet.

Now please let me explain myself by saying that I am not an overly-ambitious, no preservatives, organic food only, granola mom. Other than baby cereal that is mostly sugar, baby food is NOT AVAILABLE in Argentina. Yes, you read that correctly. They have no aisle in the grocery store with lots of nice little jars of carrots, peas, squash, etc. So if my child will ever pass the milk only stage, I will have to make the food. If anyone out there has any tips, I'm all ears.

Santa Claus has officially arrived to the malls of Rosario. Mario told me he would be getting home from work early last Friday so I excitedly/mistakenly invited him on my planned outing with a girldfriend to take our kids to the mall to take a picture with Santa. When we got there, Mario declared that the line of approximately 15 people was WAY too long to wait. He clearly is not acquainted with the normal Santa/mall chaos. However, there was an empty spot in this creche so he ducked under the cords blocking it from the public and this is the Christmas picture we have of Gabe instead. 20 minutes of waiting averted, $10 saved.

I am not excited about this, but Gabe appears to be getting ready to crawl. There is an assortment of rolling/scooting that is getting him closer to the term "mobile".

He is also growing so much that when Ashley brought this fun new toy a month ago, his feet barely touched. Now he is almost completely flat-footed on the ground, and practically runs in circles on it.

Gabe has been invited to two birthday parties in the last two weeks, and I am allowed to go as chaperone. Here is the birthday princess Sofia on her throne.

Gabe didn't really get most of the party, but he loved it when I put him in the balls. Yes Ashley, I know they are a cest-pool of bacteria and germs, but Gabe thought they were pretty cool. Especially when the other kids almost jumped on him.
Our electricity went out the other night as Mario was preparing to take a shower. I saw a sudden light in the bedroom and when I went to discover it's source, found Mario totally naked with a head lamp on. Hilarious.

I think there are videos to share, but I have to get them off Mario's palm, which I will do after I have all the young women over tonight to spend time with the bishop, and make sugar cookies for the widows in the ward, and do all the decorations for the ward Christmas party, and any other pre-trip planning required.