Jean Cousins

These are the pictures of Gabriel before he had his hair cut 🙂 My little angel 🙂

Gabe’s 14 months and 8 days old today. Yesterday I decided to give him another haircut. I had to give him something to eat for him to sit still for me and there were only 3 pieces of cookies left and I had to be ‘super’ quick. Didn’t do a bad job after all, I think.

Gabe’s a very touchy person. He loves cuddling and kissing. He’s learning to feed himself and is learning to draw. It’s been a lot easier to communicate with him as he’s learned to say more words and able to express more emotions. One thing I find very interesting is that I thought he was always left handed, but recently we’ve seen him using both hands- often he’d draw with his left hand and eat with the right. He loves his music and sometimes I’m surprised to hear him humming a tune. It is amazing to watch a 14 month old child to be able to do so many things. Anyway, hope y’all enjoy his pictures and would appreciate it if you could pray for him. 🙂

One thing I learned from women’s church 2 weeks ago was that you never stop praying for the children. I’ve spent more time praying with Gabriel. I pray that God provides for him good friends, good teachers, good leaders. I pray that he’ll grow up knowing Jesus and understanding his love and forgiveness. I pray that he’ll be a loving person and that he’ll put others first. I also pray that God will give him wisdom and strength when he goes through trials and hardship. It is amazing just to see how God’s answering my prayers. Gabe loves it when I pray, he’ll just put his face on my shoulder and stays quiet until I finish praying, and often it’s about 10 minutes plus. I want to encourage everyone to pray for their children and other kids as well, not just once a day but as often as they can. Gabi loves the bible, even the adults’ one that has no pictures or anything. He would flip through it as if he’s reading it, it’s just too cute to watch him doing that.

I sat down in front of my computer last night and looked through all the pictures from last year since I first fell pregnant up until Gabriel’s 13 months and 10 days now. Time flies!! Gabe’s got his 7th teeth came out six days ago. (20th Oct.) We finally moved him into his own room on Sunday 14th Oct., which was extremely emotional for me but thankfully he’s been takin’ it quite well. On Monday 15th Gabe did somethin’ that completely surprised me, yeah, it was a ‘surprising’ face with his mouth wide open and eyebrows raised so high!! I have NO idea where he learned it from. I still have no answer where he learned squeezing his eyes(blinking) at girls from either. Guess it will continue to be a mystery. Anyway, it happened when we were playing with a pop up toy and when he pressed one of the buttons, a little puppy popped up and there he went, ‘surprised!!!’ He still does it every time he plays with that toy and it’s just too cute! Gabe’s also learned to throw away his dirty nappy in the bin after I change him, he’d get upset if I don’t let him.
The whether in Australia is so changeable. We had an extremely hot day on Monday, but Tuesday and Wednesday were quite cold. I put a scarf on yesterday and when Gabe woke up from a nap he kept asking me what it was. So, I told him that it’s called a scarf and put it around his neck and he loved it. Gabe’s into everything now. When I say ‘everything,’ I really MEAN it. He’s become quite handful and I find it quite difficult sometimes, but I really don’t mind it. Dave and I are embracing these special moments of watching him grow…

So often I look at David and Gabriel and I think to myself, ‘is this real? I am married and I have a child!!’ God says in the bible that children are blessings and I truly believe they are. I stay at home with Gabriel and watch him grow everyday, but still sometimes I think he grows so fast and I wish there’s a “pause” button I can press and put every single detail of the changes in his life into my memory, but it’s impossible. I love watching him learning new words, trying new things and acting silly. He is such a happy boy and he loves making us laugh. A couple of days ago he came to me pointing at my food and said, “Ahh…” with his mouth wide open, so I fed him a little bit of my rice with spicy Panang that I made thinking ‘you’ll regret this, little boy.’ Dave and I watched him chew and swallowed it, he looked perfectly fine and he asked for more! I was surprised. Lots of friends are amazed at how quick he picks up words and stuff. I can’t help but being proud and thankful. I think he knows that he’s clever, but I pray that he’ll learn to be humble and use this blessing to glorify God and not to manipulate other people. When we were at church last Sunday I noticed that Gabriel shares his toys with his friends. When other kids came to him and snatched they toys off him, he just let them and turned to play with other toys. I was very happy to see that. He’s also learning to be a bit naughty though. Sometimes I ask him, “how many times does Mommy need to say NO til you understand?” Then I think, God must have said the same thing to us. We are just as bad and as rebellious. That’s probably why God asks us to learn from these little ones!

Gabe turned one on 15th September and we held a small party for him with some close friends and family. We’d like to thank everyone for making his birthday very special and memorable. He loves all the gifts and this is one of them.

Gabe’s learning new words everyday. He’s still asking “what’s this?” a lot and he picks up new words a lot quicker as well. He loves his little bible and he calls it “Jesus.” We enjoy being his parents and watching him learning new things. We only hope he grows up knowing and loving Christ. Please continue to pray for his future and salvation! 🙂

What a wonderful Fathers’ day present for Daddy! We went up to the Central Coast on 2nd September to celebrate Fathers’ Day.(which actually was on the 3rd) When everyone got together, Grandpa reached out his hand and asked Gabriel to walk to him. Gabe, who’d learned to cruise around since he was about 6 months walked towards Grandpa’s hand as Grandpa slowly pulled his hand back and Gabriel finally realized that he was walking by himself and since then he’s gained the confidence to walk without hanging on to things!! Daddy was so thrilled of course 🙂 Another week to go, and he will turn 1. Gabe’s quite talkative now, he keeps pointing to things and asks ‘what’s this?’ or ‘what’s that?’ He enjoys watching the Cockatoos and Galas everyday when they fly to our neighbor’s backyard for dinner, and he’s crazy about them. Gabe loves playing Pick-a-boo, reading books and his favorite TV. shows are High-5 and New McDonald’s Farm. He also loves kissing Mommy and Daddy, especially when he knows he’s in trouble 🙂 Anyway, Nui and her family are coming down this weekend and we’re lookin’ forward to spending time with them. We’re also planing to have a small birthday party for our little boy, and I’m planing to make Italian and Mexican food for lunch since Pii Nuch and Pii Yutt made awesome Thai lunch at her twins’ birthday party. I will definitely visit their Thai restaurant when it’s open…until then…no more sticky rice 😀 By the way, Happy Birthday to little Emma Mosby, she looked gorgeous on her birthday!!

I got a recipe of this cake called “The best chocolate cake ever” and made it for David on his birthday, he was thrilled. It was extremely YUMMY! Dave just turns 31, and he’s enjoying being a dad. I also made him a pumpkin pie that he’s been asking for for ages and that was a big surprise for him. Big thanks to Fiona with her help, everything turned out well!

At Flemmington Market with uncle Alan & aunty Saranya 🙂
After church, ready to go home!
Yup, this is me!
Mommy and Daddy!
Don’t ask me who bought this bib…hehe

Question:What do you see when you throw a watch out the window? Answer: Time flies! Yup, Gabriel’s growing so fast. He’s got 4 teeth already and he’s saying a lot more words: Chinese, Thai, English and…Gabrish 🙂 He’d say “Hi, Dad” to every person Mom’s talking to on the phone. He loves music and even tries to sing along with Mommy when she plays guitar. I think he’s gonna make a good singer when he grows up. Gabriel becomes quite clingy at this stage. He loves going to church on Sundays though and would skip his morning nap, because there are lots of toys there that he can’t miss. Besides that, he’s the only boy among lots of baby girls! Aren’t you lucky, boy! Check the photo gallery to see more pictures 🙂