First birthday. Gabe's first birthday was really something. We had a party with just family on his actual birthday. My mom and sister came in from Houston and my Dad and Tricia came from Georgetown. Brad's mom was sick so, unfortunately, his folks missed the fun. Poor Brad had food poisoning that day as well, but he powered through and dragged himself out of bed to sing "Happy Birthday". We opened gifts and had pizza. Gabe wasn't too interested in his smash cake, but I think he enjoyed seeing everyone. Photos to follow soon.
The day after his birthday we celebrated again with two daycare classmates, Jazmin and Emma, who have birthdays just days apart from Gabe. We had a joint, 3-ring circus themed birthday party at Jazmin's house and invited all of the daycare crew. The Parker ring of the circus got off to a pretty rocky start. Just as we pulled in the driveway and started to unbuckle Gabe from his carseat to bring him into the party he threw up. Twice. A lot. It was awful. He had just been fully transitioned to cow's milk and had too much. We were just going to borrow a towel from Jazmin's mom, Sydnia, and head home, but Sydnia swooped in to save the day. She helped me get Gabe cleaned up and into a gender-neutral outfit of Jazmin's. She also threw Gabe's clothes, our car seat cover, and Brad's shirt into the wash for us. Poor Brad didn't escape the mess and ended up having to borrow a shirt from Rajeev. Man, it was a full blow out. Thank you to Sydnia and Rajeev for being so incredibly gracious. There aren't many people that would so willingly handle your puke covered toddler and happily do your laundry at their house. The party was fun, but I have to admit that I never fully recovered from the disasterous start. All I could think about was being able to get the car seat back together so that we would actually be able to leave the party. I think Brad was equally rattled. The poor guy was still kind of queezy from food poisoning the day before and got dragged back down by Gabe. Funny, Gabe seemed unfazed. He played and ate like nothing happened. That's the best part about being that young...not too many inhibitions. The party really was great though. Here are a few pics. Oh, it was a bad health day for everyone because the hostess, Jazmin, was sick also and was upstairs napping through most of her own birthday party! That is why she isn't in the photos. Boo.
Walking! Gabe started to walk shortly after his first birthday. Here is the video of Gabe taking a few steps! (Ok, video coming soon!I can't seem to load it??) Jocelyn and Eli came over for a bit one night in March. Jocelyn was able to get him to come to her.
New babies. My sister called one night to let me know that she and her husband, Trip, were expecting their first baby. She and Trip married the previous October and I knew she wanted kids right away. I was so thrilled. Especially because four days before that phone call I found out that I was pregnant with our second. It was fun to be pregnant at the same time as my sister. Ours families were so excited. Drew and Gillian are about one month apart in age. Drew was born on Thanksgiving day and Gillian was born five days before Christmas.
While it was fun being pregnant at the same time, it also meant we were restricted from travelling at the same time so we weren't able to visit each other when the births actually happened. One day, while on maternity leave, Stef couldn't take it anymore and drove up from Houston so we could meet each other's babies. Gabe was at school, but here is a picture of the baby cousins together. (Sneak preview of Gillian)
Goodbyes. While we are all thrilled to have these new additions to the family this year, we also experienced a great loss. My mom was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer early in the summer and passed away six weeks later on July 17th. She never got to see her new grandchildren. Little Gillian has her ears and her feet. I hope she has her kindness too.
It's a girl! Gillian was born on December 20, 2011 at 1:21am. She was 8 lbs, 1 oz and 20 inches long.
Here are pictures of her at eight weeks. 
Gillian was scheduled to be induced on December 20th. I was pretty ready to have this baby. I found the second pregnancy to be kind of uncomfortable toward the end. Gillian felt so heavy! I ended up staying home from work on December 19th. I just couldn't bring myself to sit at my desk. I asked Brad to stay home with me just in case. I had been having contractions all day, but they would come and go and were hard to time. I didn't think much of it since I had been having contractions for weeks. However, toward the evening they were getting kind of intense, but still hard to time. By 10pm I snapped out of my denial and decided that I must really be in labor and likely wouldn't make it to morning for the scheduled induction. We arrived at the hospital around 11:15pm and Gillian was born at 1:21am. It was pretty quick! Like with Gabe, we decided to keep her gender a surprise. Brad made the call when she was born. I was really surprised. I kind of thought she would be a boy! My first thought was of my mom. Her friends told me that she had also thought the baby would be a boy. I bet she was tickled when a baby girl was born instead. My next thought was that I don't know anything about ballet or other forms of dance and that I am going to have to learn to braid hair. Baby Gillian is a beautiful, sweet little girl. We are so blessed to have her. I can't believe I got one of each. How perfect!
Where was Gabe during all of the action, you ask? Our plan for Gabe was to take him to school the morning of the induction and then head off to the hospital. We made arrangements to have him come home from school with his buddy, Jack, who lives in our neighborhood, if need be. We have become friends with his wonderful parents and they so graciously offered to care for Gabe while we were at the hospital. Jack's sweet mom, Heather, had been sleeping with her cell phone by the bed for weeks just in case Baby Parker #2 made a debut in the middle of the night. Well, once I decided that I must really be in labor and there was no way I was going to make it to morning, Brad went ahead and called them before they went to bed. Brad got Gabe scooped up and drove him over to Jack's house. Heather and Durel went into Gabe mode and got him comfortable and back to sleep. They even sent us pictures they took of the boys the next morning at breakfast. These photos are borrowed from their blog.
Thank you Heather and Durel! Gabe really enjoyed his sleepover at your house. It meant the world to us to have someone we could count on! You really came through. We look forward to returning the favor.
Gabe and Gigi. I am so proud of my sweet boy. He is the best big brother! From the moment they met he has been nothing but sweet with her. No signs of jealousy or possessiveness with belongings, or any other aggression. This could all change at any moment, but what is noteworthy is that Gabe has an inherent nature to love Gillian. He tries to sooth her when she cries by stoking her head and giving her hugs and kisses. When that doesn't work he brings her toys. At the end of one particularly stressful diaper change she was surrounded by his toy cars and dinosaurs and even clothes from the dresser drawers. He loves to push her in the swing and does it surprisingly gently. The only minor glitch is that he is very protective of her. When anyone comes over to look at her he yells out, "No GiGi!" He can't say Gillian so he calls her "GiGi". It has kind of stuck. Brad and I have started calling her GiGi as well. Here are some pictures of some big brother love.
Quick story, mainly so years from now I can be reminded of the hilarity...we were in the toy section of Target (dangerous place) and Brad was chasing Gabe around with one of those claw arms you can use to reach stuff off of a high shelf with, acting like he was going to pinch Gabe with it. Then Brad acted like he was going to get Gillian. Gabe stopped in his tracks, gasped, and yelled out "Run, Gigi!" Oh, too funny! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
So a sweet post... I hope many more are to come!!
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