Subtlety Thy Name Is Gabe

There are many words that people who've met Gabe only once might use to describe him. "Spitfire," might work. "Firecracker" is another. An old timey grandparent might call him a "whippersnapper" or a "rapscallion." And a polite person might refer to him as "energetic." "Subtle" is not a word that often comes up in conversations discussing Gabe's personality traits. If he's going to do something, he's going to do it up properly and everyone is going to know what he's about.

This past week, we've had a few such instances and I thought I would share.

Early this week--Sunday night through Monday night--we got about seven inches of snow. After Libby got home from work Monday night, she took Gabe out to play in it for a little while. Along with the snow, a serious cold front moved in. We had a couple days where our high was about 15 farenholtz (or about -10 centipedes or 263 Kevins for those of you in foreign climes), and it was down around that temperature by Monday night.

Note: the "farenholtz" joke is one that only about three people will get--Dr. Farenholtz was our pediatrician growing up. I loves me some inside jokes that only my brothers are going to get!

Libby bundled him up like they were chasing emperor penguins in Antarctica and took him out. Now, as you look through these pictures, keep in mind that they were outside for LESS THAN TEN MINUTES. And Libby only took pictures of the highlights. The kid covered our entire yard in that time and played with everything he could find.

The first thing he did was run into the driveway--where he tripped over his little sand pile and face planted almost immediately. He ended up giving himself some rug burn on his chin, which is only now starting to disappear.

He experimented with every piece of hardware in his sandbox before moving on.

I can't tell if he's dropping a snowball or not in this picture. It would have been better if he'd thrown it right at Libby as she clicked the picture instead of just dropping it, though.

Then he used his body to clean off the slide.

In the end, they came inside not only because it was cold and he was covered in snow but because he'd managed to lose one of his shoes. Instead of waiting to put it back on, he just kept running with only a sock on. That sock and most of his leg were covered in snow, so Libby had to come in to remove everything before he got too cold.

Tuesday, though, I think he learned a valuable lesson about keeping covered and warm while playing in the snow. He had preschool. Normally, I pick him up in a parking lot behind the school a little ways. The kids all come out and play at the nearby playground while they wait for parents to show up. Tuesday, though, they hadn't yet had a chance to clean off the sidewalk that led to the parking lot, and I hadn't thought to check that fact out when I dropped him off in the morning. In other words, to get to me, Gabe had to walk through about eight to twelve inches of drifted snow at some points. While carrying his backpack and his show and tell item (Molly Moose because it was "M" week), he tried to awkwardly push his way through the snow. I was pushing through too from the other side (of course I was wearing nothing like snow shoes or pants, so my shoes ended up filled with snow also), but before I could get to him, he face planted, again. As he writhed around trying to stand back up, he managed to pretty much coat his entire body in snow.

But there was really nothing to be done about it. I loaded him into the car and he moaned and cried about how cold he was the entire way home, but I'm pretty sure he learned a valuable lesson about snow, cold, and the effects they have on exposed body parts. I'm also relatively sure he's already forgotten that lesson, but some day it will sink in.

Then, yesterday afternoon, this happened.

Let me explain what's going on in this picture. For Christmas, the kids got a couple eye masks (the ones I mentioned in the Christmas post), but they also go these hats with animal faces on them (the lion is one of them). In addition to this, Gabe is wearing the two cloth cloth "crowns" that they got for Christmas last year, the jingle bell bracelets they got this year, and his Fidel Castro style military hat. I'm not sure where the hat came from.

Anyway, yesterday, Gabe decided that he wanted to play dress-up with the masks and stuff. However, being Gabe, he wasn't satisfied with putting just one of them on. To do it right, he had to wear ALL of them. And that is what you see there.

And here's a little video of it, too. Just for kicks.