14 Months

How's that for a Blogging Break?!?!

24 hours counts right???

Little Gabey put his 14th month under his belt while we were on vacation.

That marks 10 months in the Pope House.

He's at that weird age where he wants so badly to be independent but just can't manage the skills it takes quite yet.

He is still a crawler.  He's made huge progress with walking while holding our hands or pushing something heavy but no steps on his own yet.  He did just start cruising this past week so I'm sure he will be running me ragged in no time!

Little Man popped in 4 more teeth this past month too.  I've always loved his smile, but that gap toothed grin makes me melt even more!

He's also putting those teeth to work gnawing away on our arms and legs and doing the dreaded teeth grinding to get a rise out of me.  It's brutal!

He seems to be on a pretty great schedule.  He gets up around 8:30, eats, plays for about an hour, then goes down for a short nap.  After some more play time and lunch he goes down at the same time as Josie for an afternoon nap then hangs out until dinner.  Bedtime is around 7:30 and he sleeps through the night no problems.

Those scrumptious neck and leg rolls are still hanging around, but his little face is slimming out.

His eyes are the deepest brown I've ever seen.

He's sporting 12-18 month clothes with lots of room to grow into them and a size 3 diaper.

While he can be kinda ornery when he's out longer then he wants to be, he's usually a very laid back kid.

His favorite toys?

Spoons (Darlene bought him these from IKEA and he seriously has one in his hands at ALL times!)

balls, and anything Josie is playing with.  Which makes for some sibling rivalry a little earlier then I was expecting it.  She's learned to play up on the couch where he can't reach if she wants any privacy!

He continues to be completely oblivious to the uncertainties in his life.  

Which is exactly how it should be.

And while I wanted to share all of that with you, my real reason for taking a break from my Blogging Break was to give you a quick update on his case.

I've been trying to hunt down this child's social security number for over a month now.  

Yesterday I made my daily call to try to track it down and ended up with some great news.

Gabe's birth mom tested positive for alcohol.  Which is a HUGE violation of her case plan.  

I feel awful being excited about that, but it means big things for us.

She is also living with a woman who just recently had her children taken by the state and the judge told her that Gabe would not be returned if she didn't find different housing arrangements.  

Apparently when the case worker asked if she had started looking for a new place to live she replied that this was her trailer and the other lady will have to move.  

But the other lady claims it's her trailer and she will not move.

AND she hasn't turned in any proof of income or verification that she is even on the lease of the trailer that she is claiming is hers.

PLUS she is still smoking.  The Judge had made it clear that, due to Gabe's heart condition, she would never return him if she is still smoking.

Because of all this, the case worker has reduced visitation to only once a week!!!

I am SO excited about this.

Not only does that free up a day that we used to have to be glued to the house for, it is also a great indicator of where they think this case is going.

The case worker told me that the case just isn't making any progress and it doesn't look good for birth mom getting rights back.

We were told at court that Gabe would be getting a CASA worker (an advocate that would speak in court solely on what is in Gabe's best interest) but the case worker feels that isn't going to be necessary after these new developments.

For the first time since Gabe came home to us, I feel like we are on the upswing.

We go to court the 1st or 2nd week of May for the year end review and hopefully we can wrap this thing up!