Beware of Greeks

Hello, readers. As you can tell by the English-language post title, this is Ryan again. Io, who is busy with baby duties, asked me to put up a post with some recent photos of Gabe that she sent me. I guess keeping you all safe from murderers is not that important. At least in Ioana's mind. So, without further ado: PICTURES!

I sent a care package over there recently. Here is King Gabriel the Fulldiaper eating the carseat strap pads I bought for him.

And here he is eating his new bedtime story, Goodnight Moon

And here he is eating new toy Mr. Monkey.

As you can see, Gabe's life mostly revolves around seeing what he can eat, which so far has been "Nothing." But that is all changing, as we start the Food Diversification Program or, as the United Nations calls it, the Food Diversification Programme.

Here we see Grandma Negru implementing Food Diversification Programme, Phase I: Carrot Juice. Don't let them feed you that poison, son!

Back to the care package stuff, here's our new baby sling (baby not included). Io's been having joint and muscle pain from picking up Gabe a lot, and obviously it's easier to deal with him if you can have one or both hands free. Lacking a kangaroo-style pouch, we use this.

Here we are with Mr. Frog, who split at the seams shortly after

Gabe started trying to eat him. Alas.

And lastly, here we are with the Furious Donut-shaped pillow which is helping Gabe sit up. I actually got this pillow for Io, because it can be made into lots of shapes and I thought it would help with breastfeeding, but apparently its best use is as a throne for his majesty.

Io also wanted me to put up a picture of the Healthy Sleeping for Babies book I sent to her Kindle, but I don't want to give people flashbacks to the days of Ryan's Book Corner.

Overall Gabe seems to be doing quite well. Teething is probably going to start soon, but for now he's healthy weight, active, interactive, and mostly happy. Our biggest issue is that he still doesn't sleep for long periods, usually waking up every 1-2 hours for a little feeding and then back to bed. The doctor says that's just because he's thirsty because it's so hot in Bucharest right now (Romanians deal with hot weather by trying to stay in the shade, as if human civilization has not advanced since the discovery of the cave). But hopefully it'll get better as the weather cools down. Or maybe that Healthy Sleep book will have a magic solution.

We are down to 11 months and counting until they get to come back.

And now, here it is, your Moment of Zen: