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Near Drowning

Well not really, but here's the story. We had gone camping for the week with friends and every one was at the pool. In line waiting with 60 other people to get in, I started to slather the sun block on Gabe's fair skin. He whined and didn't want it. I told him, "a few minutes of discomfort will save you days of pain."
Once we were in the pool Gabe was ready to leave. He was done after 10 minutes. "We are staying for quite a while," I told him. Angel and I both want to swim. Do you want to play the dunking game that we played before? You can dunk me first." Gabe didn't want to play.
Baby Maree enjoyed 'walking' in the pool for a short time. Then she got fussy. It was her nap time. I got her dressed and spent a few minutes walking with the stroller. Soon she was asleep. A friend who was reading a book allowed me to park the stroller next to her. Angel and I also took turns keeping watch over Maree.
Gabe hung out in the 1 foot section of the pool for quite a while. I did not push him to swim or work on building swimming skills. He really doesn't swim and doesn't like going under. After a while he decided to try the slide in the kiddie section. You land sitting in water that just covers your legs. After 1 time with Angel and I watching and guiding (at his request) he then did the slide several more times on his own.
A while later I became aware that Angel had somehow talked him into doing the BIG water slides. The first one had a tube that you sit on to ride down. Gabe's light weight made him glide down and float about half way across the landing pool. However, when he got off of the tube he slipped and went under for a second. He popped up fast. "Oh I'm going to drown!" he said.
"You're not drowning," Angel said. "Your feet are on the bottom and your head is up." The water was chest deep.
A short while later Angel talked Gabe into trying the other slide. I was surprised that he even tried. This slide was steeper at the end. There was no tube. Everyone who went down it plunged into the water. I stood on the other side of the rope that surrounded the slide landing pool. I wanted to get to Gabe quickly, but could not wait right at the bottom. As Gabe shot down the last part of the slide, I dove under the rope to get to him. He came up sputtering and coughing a bit. "Help me I'm drowning!" he called out. His feet were already on the bottom and his head up. He had come in just a few seconds. As I touched him, he was not sure whether he wanted to grab me or continue to wipe the water out of his face. "I drownded," he said.
"You didn't drown, you just went under the water for a few seconds. People do that all of the time. You did a good job," I told him.
"I did?" he asked. "I drownded and I did a good job."
"You did not drown and that's what makes it a good job." I said.
"I drownded and that's a good job!" Gabe said.
"You did NOT drown - good job!" I said.
"Good job," Gabe said.

Pajama Beans

Poor Gabe. We try not to have too much fun at his expense. It's just sometimes he makes it so easy.
Gabe had a baggie full of jelly beans that he was carrying around with him and picking at. He had laid that bag of beans on the living room floor near where he had been playing. Fred sat down on the floor right in front of the bag of jelly beans.
"Move," Gabe began to shout at Fred.
"No" Fred said. "I'm working on a project here." (He had his computer).
"Move!" Gabe shouted again. "You're sitting on my pajama beans!"
So hard not to laugh right out loud.

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Just sold another newsboy hat!

Just having Fun

Gabe and Fred

Keep right on a Rollin'

I am going to have to check out the ingredients for another fast food restaurant. Earlier this week the guys stopped to get something to eat. They believed that they carefully ordered for Gabe. Yet later that day Gabe was very silly and argumentative. It was almost impossible for anyone in the house to have a conversation without Gabe showing up to argue about whatever was being said. His arguments were totally ridiculous. He would say things like, "Hey Mom, don't call Fred..." and then he would use a word or two that he just heard us saying. These words would be totally random words from our conversation. He would also but in saying things like, "No it's not" or "leave her alone, she doesn't want to do that" or some other crazy comment that had nothing to do with the current conversation.
It was impossible to say things like, "please add that to the grocery list. I'm going to stop at the store tomorrow." This comment was made to Angel, but Gabe butted in saying, "just leave her alone Susan, she's not hurting you."
After a good nights sleep the arguing stopped but Gabe reverted to old patterns of just repeating movie lines over and over.  While this has never totally gone away, there is usually significantly less than we've had the past few days. Gabe has been stuck in repeat mode for a few days now.
To top it off, Gabe has heard Fred's alarm going off twice this week. It plays the theme from Rawhide over and over until it is shut off. The first time Fred had gotten up a few minutes before it went off. His bedroom is just off of the kitchen where Gabe was eating breakfast. Fred had run outside to quickly move his car out of my way so Gabe and I could leave for school in a few minutes. The theme kept playing on some electronic device that I am not going to touch.  "Shut that off!" Gabe demanded.
"It's not that loud. Just eat and we will leave." I said.
"But it's hurting my ears!" he said. Since he wasn't making a motion to cover his ears as he sometimes does I decided that he was just complaining so he would have something to say. I think that more than half of his complaining is just to have something to say. His body language shows when something is really bad. Yes the repeating song was a bit annoying - just live with it. It's only a few minutes. Learn to cope.
A few mornings later Fred was in bed. He had left his bag in the kitchen, under Gabe's chair of all places. Soon the alarm began to play. I knocked on Fred's door to let him know it was going off. Within a minute he came out to get it.
"Turn that thing off!" Gabe demanded. "It just keeps repeating."
"You're a fine one to complain about things repeating," Fred answered as he turned off the alarm.

Don't touch the monkeys

It is time for family worship. Gave has showered and is wearing green fleece PJ's with monkeys all over them. Angel has decided that she will read from the Bible tonight. She sets Maree on the couch beside Gabe. Maree's latest goals have been trying to move her body from position A to position B. She is making progress. As she sits on the couch a little more than her arm's length from Gabe he is watching her intently. As she reaches for one of the monkeys on his shirt she falls toward him. It is really just a little slide on the couch. "Get her off! She grabbing me," Gabe says with urgency in his voice.
"She's just touching you a little," Angel says as she lifts Maree off of Gabe and sets her back up. Angel resumes reading but soon Maree is reaching for Gabe's PJ's.
"She's touching me!," Gabe says again.
"You will be Okay," I say to him.
"Angel, Maree is touching me, she's gonna get my arm. She just hit me. Just get her now," Gabe sounds a bit more pushy.
"She didn't hit you," Angel says to Gabe. "Those were just love pats. They are really soft.."
Gabe still has trouble telling the difference between little pats, taps, bumps and big bad hits. He tattles on it all.