Related much?

More similar than we thought! Jessica is 4 weeks older than Gabriel in these videos (hence the actual leg movement) but at the rate he's growing we didn't think Gabriel would fit in the Pooh Bear sleeper if we waited any longer...

YouTube Doubler

Selfies...

Before you master the camera angle after having a second child.....

but by the time you get second child in the shot... first child has had enough...

G-Bear is 2 months

9 weeks later... Gabriel is 2 months old. How has it possibly been that long already? 

Stats
12lbs 14oz 64th percentile
22.25 inches 16th percentile (yup he's going to be a shorty too!)
41 cm head circumference 94th percentile (big heed!)

He had that same bewildered look in both photos, I couldn't resist. This continuity shot thing is harder than I expected.

He's such a lovely baby. So much simpler than my dear sweet Jessabear ever was. I don't think it's simply because I have a clue what I'm doing this time either. He's just more chill. Don't get me wrong, he still demands to be held just as much as J ever did, but I can put him down when he falls asleep and he'll actually stay that way! He'll even sit in a swing and coo at you! 

Self settling? *kablewy* mind blown. He can do it! This is not a skill J learned till close to 2! I'm still boggled every time it happens. 

He sleeps in incredible 4-5 hour stretches at night, wakes to nurse and then goes straight back to sleep. I don't think I even got this much uninterrupted sleep while I was pregnant!

Oh my gosh the baby spew. It never ends. In addition to dairy, his belly is not fond of caffeine or eggs. (Both learned the hard way.) Still trying to piece together what I can and can't eat. I have developed a new love of avocado though. Did not see that coming. Oh, but how much do I crave pizza, a cherry coke and a latte. Don't get me started on cereal...

Had his 2 month jags yesterday. Not fun. Some sort of shortage of the combined vaccine so he had to have 4 separate injections. He bright red rage-faced it through the entire ordeal, nursed and then went to sleep for a while. Mad again when he woke up, nursed, slept,.. repeat. Every time he woke up he whimpered or cried. Around 9pm we were finally treated to a few happy baby smiles, then he went back to sleep. He slept all night, but it was a restless sleep with lots of thrashing, snuffling and gurgling. 


Update on the previously reported dishwasher battle scores:

Dishwasher: 1
Me: 0 

Despite a thorough cleaning there's STILL sand everywhere and an unidentifiable rumbling noise. :(

Sand

There's a new rule in the Smith household. Toys that venture into the sand STAY in the sand.

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." ~Anakin Skywalker

Oh Anakin, you may not understand how to have a romantic conversation, but your discourse on sand is faultless.

For a while now I've been very lax. Jessabear and her friends have taken mega blocks, easter eggs, plastic animals, dishes, and all manner of things out to the sandbox. I haven't been strict. I figure, sand washes off. Right? Wrong. No matter how sleep deprived or frazzled one may be, do NOT let your babybrain tell you to put those sandy toys in the dishwasher. Just don't. 

Or you and your 8 week old infant will spend the evening taking apart your dishwasher, excavating sand from every crevice in an attempt to figure out what is making that new rumbling noise. The tough part? Getting it back together. 

Dishwasher: 0 

Me: 0.5 

spare washer : 0.5

8 weeks old today!

He's growing so very fast. So fast that I haven't even posted his birth story or his one month update. oops. 

I have a few minutes now. 

Jessica is watching a show about legos that fight. Legos are her new big thing - we're trying to hold off on buying any since the last thing we need right now are more tiny things to step on. She keeps talking about how Bo and Papa will have legos next time we visit them. Yes Jessica, they do indeed have legos at Papa and Bo's. My pretty pink and purple legos. 

and Gabriel, well he's still asleep! I'm hearing little baby squeaks every now and then though so it sounds like he may be up any minute.

At 8 weeks we thinks he's about 13lbs. (This is our rough estimation from holding him on our scale. We'll get an exact weight and height next week at his 2 month checkup.)

• He's holding toys! Yes HOLDING!! He can use both hands to move a toy around and get it to his mouth. At first I thought it was a fluke but then he repeated it multiple times over the course of a day and with different toys! His lion that was a gift from one of our neighbors and the cow which was a marketing present from Cow&Gate when we had Jessica. 
  
• He's smiling. His first smile was way back on August 2nd and we've had at least one good smile almost every day since, but two nights ago it was really amazing. We'd smile at him, he'd smile back, I'd giggle, he'd smile, Mark would stick out his tongue, Gabriel would attempt to copy him and then give us a big toothless grin. The smiling went on for a solid five minutes. He's really engaging with us. 
• He's still spitting up. Like ALL the time. When I'm strong (or not forgetful) and don't eat dairy he's much better. We were all sick this weekend though and it hit Gabriel differently. It upset his belly. There was more baby sick and less baby poop. He seems to have developed a little cough now but it hasn't kept him from getting a good night's sleep. Yesterday he threw up his entire feed directly afterwards at the park... I was worried but his next feed stayed down and he didn't seem upset. 
• He's generally a very chill baby - unless we're in the car. He hates the carseat just as much as his sister did. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have one of those babies who you actually put in the car to calm them down.... 
• He's getting a little eyebrow fluff now but it's not noticeable in photos yet.
• His eyes are still blue and getting lighter by the day. We've decided that while Jessica has my eye shape and almost my eye colour (hers are more hazel), it looks like Gabriel will have his father's eyes entirely. The shape and the colour are both Mark's.

Wow... he's not awake yet.. I've got about 30 minutes before we need to leave for J's gymnastics class so I'd better start pulling things together. If I don't make sure he's fed BEFORE we get in the car the poor boy will be hoarse from crying by the time we get there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We met Mark for lunch today. Gabriel was the perfect baby and allowed me to eat with both hands by kindly sleeping through lunch. Here's the happy baby before he realized he had to stay in the car seat...

Oh and have you seen Jessica in her gymnastics outfit...? Yes. ADORABLE!

and for your dose of all things Gabriel, I'm officially releasing to the viewing public:

 Gabriel One A Day