It's been a busy week. Nothing out of the ordinary, just life as usual - which is usually busy. Gabe and I have been battling colds, so neither of us have gotten a lot of sleep the past several days. And since Josh is home at night now, neither is he. Mine might be allergies, which I have been denying I have for years. Gabe is also doing phenomonally well eating - still taking over 24 oz per day from his cup! The down side of this is that he wakes up to eat at night more like a two month old! At least once per night and sometimes twice. It's difficult to complain about the lack of sleep when he is doing so well orally, and really making tracks around the house. Justin promised to watch Gabe for me while I brushed Kendrick's teeth and when I got back - approximately two minutes later - Justin had coaxed Gabe all the way across the living room and into the entryway by dangling a ball Gabe wanted in front of him. It's the farthest we've seen him go at once, and Justin was giggling with glee and pride that he had something to do with it. It made me smile. Gabe probably would have kept going down the hall like Justin wanted him to, but he became fascinated with the rug in the entryway. All too soon it was time for bedtime stories. I say all too soon not because there wasn't part of me that was really ready for them to go to bed so I could finish up some things and head to bed myself - that would be untrue! I say it mainly because dinnertime was a yo-yo of Justin's up and down moods, which happens from time to time, and it was nice to see that the evening was going to end on a high. Both older boys were very tired and moody actually. It was just fun to watch all three of them smiling and laughing over Gabe's accomplishments.

Speaking of which, Friday was Gabe's weight check. He weighed-in at 19 lbs and 5 oz. So, he made a nice gain in weight, but I am not sure there was much of a gain in percentile. That's ok. I think there isn't really an issue with his current percentile ranking, just that it shouldn't drop anymore. Ginger (OT) continues to give us tips for "fattening him up", with the caution that too much weight gain will interfere with all of his newfound mobility. It is such a balancing act, isn't it? Well, we are no strangers to balancing acts! We all do it every day. I think we are in a good place and balancing as well as we can. There is still the shadow in the corner of the mind, the knowledge that things can change and the balance shift...but for now we are enjoying where we are. Sometimes I struggle to live in the present, so this has been an excellent excercise in doing just that. Each new moment brings new experiences. An exhausting round of tantrums can still yield a happy evening of giggling boys...