Gabriel and Zeke turned 11 months old this past week. It is truly unbelievable to me that the next time we’re celebrating the twins’ birthday, it will be for the big one-year occasion of their birth. Can’t believe how time flies!

As our future heavy-metal singer, Gabriel practices his guitar chops.

Stephen and I will be heading kid-less to the mountains for a weekend in October. This will be our vacation for the year, unless you count hangin’ out with Zeke at Brenner Children’s Hospital for a week as a relaxing experience. I do indeed love my boys, but I am quite looking forward to having some Rebeeler time, minus the poopy diapers, puke, whining, early mornings, laundry, dirty dishes, etc.

We will be staying with our good friend, Adam, at his kick-butt casa in Boone and plan to eat yummy food, see live music, catch an Appalachian State University football game, and sleep in late for two glorious days in a row!

An advance thanks goes out to Gramsey and Papa, who will be heading to Clan Dillingham to take care of the boys for our adult retreat.

To Mommy’s surprise, Houston consumes great amounts of celery.

Other stuff:

• Gabriel and Zeke each have four teeth: two gapped-teeth on top and two on bottom. Their snaggle-tooth grins are too cute!
• Houston’s dermatologic meds are working great. His eczema is totally gone and his ringworm is barely visible. Thank goodness for modern medicine.
• The dudes’ super hero-themed Halloween costumes are as follows: Houston is Spider Man, of course: Gabriel is the Incredible Hulk; and Zeke is Super Man.
• Houston put Vaseline in Gabe’s hair, and on his face and arm. His reason? He was trying to “help bruv-uhr” just like I help Houston by spreading ointment and lotion on his dry skin.

Now that Zeke is standing most confidently, he loves to look out the nursery window. 

• Gabriel thoroughly enjoys spitting food during his solid feedings. Makes me almost pine for the days of just sticking a boob in his mouth and … voila … the meal was complete.
• On 9/17, both Gabriel and Zeke took two steps forward using Houston’s huge Caterpillar dump truck for balance. It wasn’t officially walking, but it was so much more advanced than simple cruising.

Click the very top photo of Gabriel to check out a few straggler photos at the end of the September – Part 1 gallery. Click the middle pic of Houston to view all the part 2 shots and the above photo of Zeke to see the most recent photos.

I took Houston to the dermatologist yesterday, and the doc confirmed that he does have eczema, as well as a spot of ringworm on his back. The prescriptions have already started working on the many dry, scaly, uncomfortable patches he has on his sensitive skin.

Gabriel (left) & Zeke almost always wake up happy!

The doc also said that the red stripes he so frequently has under his eyes are symptoms of eczema. We had thought these were results from Houston’s seasonal allergies and had been giving him doc-recommended antihistamine eye drops, which he absolutely hates!

It always takes two people get the meds into his eyes: one to restrain his freak-out and the other to tend to the eyes. So it’s definitely a good thing that we now only have to administer the occasional eye drop when need be, rather than drops once a day.

Standing up & pulling things down makes Gabriel giddy.

The twins are doing excellent, although they’re up to no good a lot of the time. Example: last week they were playing in the nursery, while I was tending to the kitchen. I heard a racket, so I went to investigate. They had pulled down a chair cushion; Gabriel was sitting upon the conquest, yelling triumphantly, while Zeke was mercilessly beating their defenseless prisoner.

Back in the kitchen, I heard some more hoopla. This time, my zany boys had pulled over their huge laundry basket and were basking in all the puke-covered clothing and excitedly throwing pieces into the air.

Attempting one more time to get something done in the kitchen, I heard more suspicious noise. I found Zeke playing innocently enough, but where was Gabriel? That wild child had managed to crawl under the crib all in an effort to chew the tire of one big brother’s Hot Wheel trucks. It was no matter that his head was crushed up against the mattress springs; he was happy as can be. Boys are so weird … and I live with four of ’em!

Houston & his main girl, Dixie, create beautiful sidewalk art.

Other tidbits:

• The boys love “singing” during Mommy’s power walks. The beautiful sounds often times have my neighbors peeking out of their windows to see what all the fuss is about.
• Daddy: “Houston, don’t you want to be like Daddy and use the potty?” Houston: “Nope.” Daddy: “So who do you want to be like?” Houston: “Hoo-tuhn!”
• Zeke’s cruising has greatly improved and he is giving Gabriel a run for his money. Better get my running shoes ready ’cause I will have three very mobile boys before you know it!
• Houston is finally peddling on his trike. He was virulently anti-pedal for a while, but still liked to “ride” kind of Fred Flintstone-style. Mommy and Houston’s shins are welcoming the advancement.
• Gabriel is currently our tempestuous child, making Taz look lethargic and lazy. He is wide open!
• And Zeke is our temperamental boy, crying and making funny angst-ridden faces whenever he wants to be held, which is pretty much all the time.

Zeke enjoys grubbing around on our dirty front porch.

We had a ceremony for Bean last weekend. We dug a shallow hole and put inside it some hair from her favorite sleeping pillow, some stuffing from the pillow, art drawn by Houston and Daddy, and a note from Mommy. I read the note aloud and then Stephen said a prayer. The occasion was sad, but I’m glad there’s some place we can visit with Bean whenever we’re missing our sweet girl.

Bob and Stanley are doing okay dealing with the loss of their sister, but you can tell they miss Bean, too. It’s strange to see animals mourning.

Click the above photo of Zeke to check out all the September photos and the photo of Houston and Dixie to see all the late August shots. Note: Some of the pics are a tad blurry because I thought I was experiencing camera problems. Turns out I just needed to buy new rechargeable batteries. Problem solved.

Not much out of the ordinary going on in the last lazy days of summer. Although life around the zoo is anything but lazy.

Gabriel is cruising like a champ and will probably be walking very soon. Zeke isn’t much into the cruising yet, but I’m sure will follow suit with the walking as soon as he sees how much fun his brother is having.

Zeke flashes his sweet, squinchy grin.

Houston had lots going on last weekend. He attended a birthday party at the Natural Science Center on Saturday and got to see live tigers, lemurs, monkeys, meerkats, snakes, sharks and other cool beasts, as well as pet some goats, bunnies, turtles, sheep and other friendly animals.

Then on Sunday, Daddy and Uncle Greg took Houston to his first baseball game, which featured corn dogs, Gatorade, spazzing out in the kids’ play area and, of course, learning about America’s favorite pastime from Daddy.

 

Houston waters our outdoor pal, Paul the praying mantis.

I will turn 38 years old on Sunday. Crazy, huh?! Sometimes my body certainly feels that old, but I feel like a spring chicken otherwise. Having three crazy hoodlums surely helps to keep me young and zany!

Click the photo of Gabriel below to see all the recent additions to the August – Part 1 gallery. And the above photo of Houston to view all the latest photos.

Gabriel loves bubbles & taking baths w/ his brothers.

On a sad note, our 13-year-old cat Bean has been missing for a few days. She used to go off for days at a time when she was young and spry, but she hasn’t done that in about a year or so.

Also over the past couple of years, she seems to have aged an eternity, acting and looking much older than her age had previously shown. Goopy eyes, skin allergies, bad hips, major weight loss … she wasn’t in top form as of late.

Bean snuggling w/ Beeler back in early 2007.

We hope she returns home, but I have a feeling we might not ever see our sweet Beanie girl again. For those of you who know her, please say a prayer that if she has gone to kitty heaven, she passed quickly and peacefully in her beloved outdoors.