This and That

It's been a long time since I last posted and rather than provide a detailed post of all our happening (which aren't all that thrilling) I thought I'd give you a little taste of 'this and that'.

Last time we were in Lincoln Andy and I took Gabe to the Holmes Lake playground. He worked out a little circuit, climbing the stairs, going down the slide, running to the gravel swing area - repeat. At one point he laid his sweaty head in the gravel and came up with a forehead covered in rocks. Gabe also received a headlock from a playground bully. He was more surprised than frightened and I was able to resist the urge to punch a four year old...grrr.

Just a standard trip to the zoo. We like to stop at the Garden of Senses for lunch. Gabe can eat while exploring the fountain, flowers and birds.

A few weeks ago some pipe on the bottom of Andy's car dropped off. Gabe and I followed his loud car to the shop so we could give him a ride back to work. While we waited Gabe wanted to yell for his daddy to hurry up, but from a distance I could see that Andy was receiving unpleasant news about his car. I told Gabe it wasn't a good time to yell for Andy and he spent the rest of the waiting doing the above.

Gabe and Gracie Girl at the spray park. Gracie was more adventurous with the water features than Gabe and this picture pretty much captures the morning. Gracie's a go-get-er and Gabe sit's back to observe.

We celebrated Father's Day early with the Higgins and Holz Sr. I found some funny cards for Craig, Ryan and Andy and included fake mustaches for all the kids. E, Zeke and Blake had a great time and took the costumes pretty seriously.

Wednesday nights Blake and E have baseball and last week we cheered them on. Gabe loves watching his big cousins, yelling for both teams ('Go Go Go!') and we're all entertained by the general antics of 5 year olds playing organized sports. Andy seems most entertained by my lack of proper sports terms.

Memorial Day

Hi all! Hope you enjoyed a restful Memorial Day. The Holz Clan was pretty low-key. Gabe was particularly kind to us, sleeping in until 8:30! Wooohooo Gabe. Once we did collect ourselves and start the day we headed to the neighborhood spray park.

Looks like a deep conversation - plotting the best sand castle?

Usually this park is packed, but we managed to be just one of 7 or so families. Unlike last year, Gabe braved the water structures. He did get bum rushed and face planted the ground, but regrouped quickly and proudly sports a forehead bump and swollen lip.

For the walk home we removed all Gabe's wet clothes, put on a clean diaper and his hand-me-down hat (thanks Higgins!).

I couldn't help but laugh, in his new ensemble Gabe closely resembled our 60+ year old neighbor who likes to navigate his riding lawn mower in a hat, a few extra pounds around the middle and no shirt.

I'm not sure if Gabe realized the resemblance as well, but eventually he wrapped his beach towel around his tummy. Poor guy...he's mama just won't give him a break. To further celebrate our restful day, Gabe napped for four hours! I love this kid - he speaks my language *sleep*.

New Do

I'm still warming up to the new hair cut, but Gabe thinks it's pretty cool.

Notice his hand tucked into his pocket? It's his big boy pose.

To Keep You In the Loop

Tuesday Gabe had his 2 Year check-up. We talked about it beforehand and he was resistant but prepared to take all his clothes off and let Dr. Gary look in his mouth, ears, etc. He remained calm but when I would say, "...and she'll look in your nose" or the such he would respond "no no". Bummer dude, no choice. He did awesome, though gave her the same answer when she said she'd be looking in his ears. She was pleased with all his stats:

Height: 33.25" (19th %)

Weight: 25 lbs 2 oz (12th %)

and gave him a sticker for sitting through it all without a melt-down. Thankfully he didn't have any immunization shots, and won't until Kindergarten. While there we also discussed getting rid of his pacifier and putting potty training on the radar. Currently Gabe's potty is his reading chair and after a bathtub-poop SNAFU we're taking our approach to potty training nice and easy. All in all, Gabe's a healthy happy little guy who we love dearly and feel blessed to have, pacifier, poop phobia and all.

Easter

In spite of spending Easter on the road to Minneapolis, Gabe still managed to participate in TWO Easter Egg Hunts! After a neighborhood hunt was rained out Grandma and Grandpa Holz graciously hosted and supplied Gabe's first hunt.

Clearly it didn't take him long to get the hang of it. He wasn't necessarily efficient, and more or less did a zig-zag around the room, but in less than 5 minutes had collected 20+ eggs. The real fun was watching him discover that there were treats inside the eggs! Whoohooo, coins and jelly beans! Gabe ate his first jelly bean and invented a celebratory dance, it was pretty cute but sadly no video.

Next, Gabe and I hosted our play group hunt. Every one brought 20 eggs, which we attempted to 'hide' in our yard. It was a bit of a bottle neck scenario releasing kids from the basement door, but they were thrilled to get outside and search for their eggs.

We're excited for next year when we can celebrate Christ resurrection with family and friends, but this year we settled for a good report from doctors at Shriner's Hospital.

"Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up'". John 2:19