Update on Gabe

Mr. Gabe is moving right along with his preschool activities. He is not in preschool- I teach him at home. I am amazed at the amount of stuff he knows.

Here is a video of him telling time a few weeks ago.




He really likes working in his workbook. We usually do two or three pages at a time. I told him when he finishes the whole thing, he gets a special present. He told me he wanted dominoes, so dominoes it is! We've been working on it since April- it has about 300 pages, so I imagine it will be a while before we're done.

So far, he can count to thirty in English, about 16 in Spanish, and 10 in German and Chinese. He knows a lot of words in Chinese and Spanish. We haven't done much more with German other than counting, though. He is going with me to Spanish class this year and is my little helper! He has a computer game that he plays that uses Spanish a lot, too and he likes some cartoons in Spanish and Spongebob in Chinese. He can do basic adding and subtracting. I call it the "Takeaway Game" and we play it with items around the house. He thinks it's fun!

He is potty trained now, thank goodness! He wears underwear and does both #1 and #2 in the potty. He still wears a diaper at night, so hopefully that stage will come to an end, soon, but it's just so nice to do underwear during the day.

He can spell his name and Zoe's name. I bought him some learning puzzles that teach spelling basic 3 and 4 letter words, so we are working on that He likes cutting and making crafts and pasting. We do crafts several times a week and he does some with the babysitter, too. What else....?

He loves drawing and is good with the pencil.

His favorite sport right now is baseball. He likes hitting the ball with a bat. We put his basketball goal from Uncle Quincy outside and he enjoys trying to get the ball in it. We've been taking his swimming at the YMCA this summer and hope to continue that through the fall and winter, since the pools there are indoors. At the Y, they don't let them wear floaties- they have to wear this waist thing that's coast guard approved and teaches them to swim, so he has been making more effort on that end.



He takes excellent care of Zoe. He likes to feed her and watches her when she's on the floor. He will take anything away from her that he thinks is dangerous (whether it really is or not, like his planes). He will check on her while she's sleep and loves waking her up, too!

Overall, he's well behaved. He has an occasional temper tamtrum when he's sleepy, but they are few and far between. I like how we can reason with him now that he's older. It's nice. Sometimes talking to him almost feels like talking to a little adult. I need to do an entry on some of the funny things he's said. I should write them down because I forget when I'm actually typing.

One last thing- he can put his shoes on now! Sandals and sneakers! Socks are still a little trouble, but he's getting there. He can take off his clothes no problem and I've caught him putting on a shirt a few times, sometimes backwards. He also tries to do his underwear and pants and can do it most of the time. It is really nice to have him doing more things for himself.

OK- if you have made it through this entry, I congratulate you! I know it's long, but it's kind of my way of documenting these things for myself years from now because time has a way of making me forget. It will be fun to compare with Zoe.