The Colón Family Circus: “Hey, will you update your blog please!”

Wow, I am sitting here looking at the date of my last entry, wondering where the time has gone? Has it really been that long? I am going to partially blame the neglect on my relatively new found Facebook addiction. Whenever I have spare time while on the computer, that’s where I seem to gravitate to. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. I often find myself wondering what great things I might accomplish if I could have back every minute that I’ve spent on Facebook. I guess we’ll never know, will we?

So here I sit, trying to come up with a clever way to summarize the past month or so of our lives. March came and went in a blur. I am still in denial regarding the fact that it’s now April. Two more months and Gabriel will be two. Where or where does the time go?? Someone, please tell me. Is there any way stop it for the time being? Please?

March started with an unplanned visit from Julian over his Spring Break. It was ‘unplanned’ because he was hoping to be competing at the NCAA National Wrestling Tournament. Unfortunately, only the first place finisher in each region was eligible to advance, and Julian placed second. Next year Jules, next year. Anyway, Gabriel was overjoyed to have his big brother and Samson (Julian’s dog) around for a week. They have big plans for lots of fun this summer.

Gabe and I took a Sunday afternoon and visited Aunt Marian, Aunt Ellen and Uncle Arthur (a.k.a. ‘Uncle Awful’ – I apparently had a hard time pronouncing ‘Arthur’ when I was little) just outside of York. While they only live about 40 minutes away, and have lived there for nearly 4 years, this is the first time we’ve been able to connect. We had a lovely visit. Gabe especially enjoyed sweeping Aunt Marian’s patio and watching the turtles sun themselves along the edge of Aunt Ellen's pool.

Last weekend was especially fun for Gabe (and me for that matter). We traveled down to the southern end of the county to celebrate not one, but four birthdays. My adopted childhood family, the Youngs, has grown exponentially over the years. My dear friend Joy, and three of her siblings, all have children with March birthdays, hence the group festivity. It was a ‘Birthday Roundup’, complete with cowboy hats, stick horses and bull riding. Gabriel had an absolute blast playing with all the kids while mommy caught up with old friends.

Gabe has become quite the little athlete, even at such a young age. We aren’t sure what sport he’s going to take up, but he's bound to excel at it. He has and incredible arm. I’m not sure which he throws farther, the ball or his food, it’s a toss up (no pun intended). The child is a natural as far as swinging a golf club is concerned. He is always playing with the Little Tykes golf set Julian got him for Christmas. He swings left-handed by the way. Since he loves to whack things with sticks, Eser went out and bought a croquet set for the back yard so we can all get in on the fun. (I used to love croquet because I wasn’t half bad. Let me tell ya, playing with a golfer takes a lot of the fun out of it for me – talking about Eser here, not Gabe, though it’s probably only a matter of time before he’s better than me too). Just in the past day or so, Gabriel has developed some amazing foot-eye coordination. He throws his beach ball up in the air, and then proceeds to kick it as it makes its way back to the ground, launching it clear across the room. Am I raising the future place kicker for the Washington Redskins? Won't Grandpa be proud!

Well, I think I have spent enough time rambling on for now. I will end this post with a few recent, and rather amusing, ‘Gabe-isms’:

When Gabriel wants something, he points at the object of his desire and says,
“Have it, have it”. Trying to instill proper manners in him at this early age, I
look at him and ask him, “What do you say, Gabe?” His reply, “Thank you, thank you." He's putting the cart before the horse, but at least he's being polite, right?
Hide and seek is a favorite game in the Colon household. When Gabriel is hiding,
we will call out, “Gabriel, where are you?” Then, from behind the closet door we
hear, “Hiding! Find me!” He takes all of the thrill out of the chase, but it’s really cute none the less.
While tapping mommy in the butt the other day, Gabriel proclaims, "Big one". Nice.
After spilling daddy’s beer on the couch while daddy was upstairs, Gabriel yells at the top of his lungs, “Eser!!!!” (in an angry tone, mind you), “Mess!!’

Some recent pics for your viewing pleasure: