For Gabriel, everyone is a potential friend

One thing that fascinates me with children is how they are born with their own personality. Of course, we have a huge role to play as parents in terms of education and character building. But each child is born with their own personality already very apparent, their own likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. At 9 months, Gabriel can already be labeled as an "observer". I can already tell that he inherited his dad's charming and friendly disposition. Not only is he interested in seeing and studying everything and most importantly everyone around him, his very intense gaze and expressive face really make you feel like you are being scrutinized. Every person he sees is a potential friend and so he does his best to get their positive attention. The result is that, at nap time, all the noise made by the vacuum cleaner or the blender have never woken him up. He stays sound asleep. But one ring from the phone (turned to the lowest volume possible), and he's wide awake, anxious to participate in the conversation.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in the entrance hall of a shopping center and I decided to try and breastfeed before leaving, a task that ended up being impossible. Every time he heard the door open, Gabriel would lift up his head, stretch his neck as much as he could, and stare at the new person coming in with pleading eyes. If that person made the mistake of looking at him, his intrigued face turned to the biggest most charming smiley face you have ever seen. Of course a lot of people couldn't help but tell him how cute he is and he already has a fan club in several of our regular hangout spots.

Another example that really describes him well is his behavior at his weekly swimming class with Dad. Whereas every other kid is actively playing in the water, concentrating their attention on the little rubber ducky or whatever other toy they are supposed to try and grab, Gabriel's focus is far from the toys or floating board surrounding him. He grabs on to his dad with his two arms, not because he's afraid of the water, but because that way he can focus his attention on the people walking by the pool and observe their every move. There are lots of people passing by and lots of noises, so it keeps him busy. Unfortunately, that means that he didn't put so much effort in the task at hand, and we recently learned that he would have to repeat the same course next semester... :( Now granted, he was still very young to move on to the next level, but still. Alejo and I couldn't help but feel a bit sad when we learned that he failed "Splash 01". Oh well, at least he enjoys it, so he sure won't mind doing it again!

Here are the pics from June, don't miss the last ones of Gabriel discovering flowers. And the last album from May, with Grand-Papa's birthday and the Tulip festival.
Lys xx