Gabriela is Reading

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Claire, eight years ago today Uncle Lane and I were at the hospital holding you. You were a brand new and beautiful baby. We can't believe how much you've grown.

You sure know how to enjoy yourself at the holidays.


We always have lots of fun when we're together. Especially you and Uncle Lane. You are such a sweet cousin to Chaney and Beau, and most recently to Gabriela. By the way, she says thanks for reading her stories when you were here visiting in April.

We hope your day is fantastic. We really enjoyed our visits with you in DC and also when we went back to California. We hope you can come visit soon!!

Happy, Happy Birthday Claire!!

Love, Auntie Elena, Uncle Lane & Gabriela

Gabriela's Halloween Wardrobe, Continued...

For a little girl whose Mommy was totally going to Scrooge out on Halloween, Gabriela sure has a lot of festive clothing! I first thought, she's only 3 months old, she wouldn't know the difference. But then I started feeling bad, after all, it will be her *first* Halloween. And what would I say when she asks how she dressed up for her first Halloween, a baby?!? So I decided to buy her a Halloween shirt. But then she needed matching pants, um... and of course, socks that matched too. I also decided Gabriela didn't *need* a costume, that was until I saw a super cutie pie one for 50% off. And then she got an assortment of sweet little Halloween outfits from Grandma and Grandpa, including this little number. So fear not, Gabriela and know that you celebrated your first Halloween all October long!

Seriously, Who Sleeps Like This???

October 25, 2008

Happy Birthday, Papa!

We love you so much and hope your birthday was a blast!

Outings

Earlier this week, a band was playing right outside our apartment. We heard the music through the open window, so we went downstairs and danced and sang and listened to the music. I must be a mommy now cos I got all teary eyed when the band busted out with "My Girl".

Yesterday we decided to go enjoy DC. Gabriela and I took the metro to the National Mall, checked out the Washington Monument and then went to the Natural History Museum. She was so sweet to sleep while I walked through the Africa exhibit. Then we went to the Live Butterfly exhibit and saw tons and tons and TONS of butterflies flying around on beautiful plants. Gabriela was really wide eyed and loved every moment of it. Of course, I forgot my camera. That means we have to go back. We also visited the live insect exhibit. We'll bring some photo footage your way soon.

Isn't that the truth!!!

Grandma, how did you know I cast that spell on Mommy?? Thank you for my outfit :)

Wink, Wink!

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa fot the cute Jack-o-Lantern bib and other Halloween goodies you sent me! I love them. More pics coming soon!

For Malia

Malia is such a sweetheart. She gave Gabriela these fun outfits and we just had to take some pictures.

Malia LOVES wiener dogs, so it was only appropriate that she share this love with Gabriela by giving her this:

What little girl's wardrobe isn't complete without a hula outfit!?!? It's still a little big, but that just means she'll get more use out of it.

Boo!

Gabriela is 3 months old!

Time is seriously going by so quickly. I feel like summer slipped away when I wasn't looking. I was considering taking Gabriela for a walk this morning, when I checked the weather to find it was 42 degrees! brr.

Gabriela is growing so much. We didn't have a doctor appointment this month and we don't have a baby scale, but Lane weighed Gabriela (by weighing himself with and without holding her). She is approximately 13.5 pounds. It's time to pack away her newborn sized clothes and move on to the next size.

Gabriela is much more deliberate with her hand movements these days. She is becoming a pro at finding her thumb and putting it in her mouth. It's a two handed operation. She uses one hand to prop up her other hand while she sucks her thumb...genius, I tell you. Unfortunately, for me, this new found purpose in Gabriela's hand movements includes pushing things away from her face like medicine droppers with vitamins and bottles.

Gabriela really loves to look at her reflection in the mirror. She doesn't know it's her yet. She probably is just happy to have an adorable little friend follow her around everywhere she goes. Gabriela also loves her mobile that Auntie Meliss gave her. When she gets her diaper changed, she coos and squeals and bounces around in excitement at watching the little umbrellas move around.

Every night at dinner time, we put Gabriela in her bouncer between us and she sits with us while we eat. Lately, she's become very talkative at dinner time. She oohs and aahs and makes all sorts of silly noises trying to tell us all about her day.

Gabriela is just full of smiles. We can't stand how fun it is to talk to her, sing to her, and play little games with her. She is the best!!

Our Little Giggle Bug

Gabriela is learning she can giggle and it is the most delightful sound ever!! She is not consistent about giggling yet. She did it once last week and now about once a day. I think she's still figuring it out. Pretty soon, she'll be melting our hearts with her constant giggles, and we'll be able to catch some video to post for you.

Drool, Baby, Drool!

Here we are at the airport on our way home. I'm not crying in the picture, I just had a total sneezing fit. Gabriela has been drooling like nobody's business on this whole trip, just look at her moby!

I had to put this pic up because everywhere we went in the airport - security, airline and customs staff, and other passengers just went crazy over Gabriela. I can't tell you how many times we heard "Que Linda!" "Que Preciosa" People wanted to take pictures of her and can you blame them?! She's kind of darling ... in my personal opinion.

One little girl, about four or five, who was traveling on our flight fell in love with Gabriela. She came up to us and told us, "Dejame cargar a este bebita" Let me hold this little baby. She put her arms around Gabriela and tried to pick her up. She couldn't stop touching her little face. And then, this little girl held up the line of passengers trying to board the plane by stopping to talk to Gabriela again. Too cute.

And that was our trip to Peru. We spoke lots and lots and lots of Spanish. We got to see the whole family, have a dance party at the wedding... we really enjoyed our visit.

The Zoo

The day after the wedding, most of us went to the zoo with all the kiddos. On the way there, Christianne, Gabriela, Mina, and Andrew all fell asleep. Thank goodness they woke up to check out all the exhibits. The zoo was huge, we were only able to check out part of it, but we had a great time all together. We saw condors with 10 foot wing spans, tons of parrots, both in and outside of exhibits, and a pregnant lion, even!


Poor Christianne had to use the restroom at the zoo. I tried to prep her for what she was going to experience. Theresa said she walked out with a look of utter disgust. The worst part for Christianne though, was that she had to pay to use the potty, and they didn't even have toilet paper. She also "treated" Auntie Theresa and Andrew since Theresa didn't bring her wallet with her. Good thing Uncle Tim paid Christianne the night before for giving him a back massage! We told her it's all part of the international experience. I'm not sure how much of a consolation that was to her.

What a big girl!

Christianne is our eleven year old niece. I just have to say what a beautiful young lady she has grown up to be. She has the biggest heart, is so sweet with everyone, especially the little kiddos, and is so generous.

Christianne spent the afternoon at the market buying gifts for her brothers and sister, her mom and step-dad, and all her aunts and uncles and cousins in Arizona. WOW.

I couldn't believe how grown up she was when I saw her all dressed for the wedding, so I cried.

I'm so glad we got to visit with her. I can't believe she's already as tall as me and I'm a little sad we can't switch shoes anymore since she wears a bigger shoe size than me (especially since I LOVED her shoes for the wedding).

Uncle Lane and I are so proud of the big girl she has become, that she's in the gifted writing class at school, and just at what a wonderful person she is. After about fifteen goodbye hugs and more tears than that, we said goodbye and promised to call and email more often.

We love you Christianne.


p.s. we're also jealous that you get to go to Machu Picchu and we don't. We can't wait to hear all about it.

Don't worry, it's a virgin strawberry daiquiri

La Hora Loca

La Hora Loca is a little Peruvian tradition we learned about at the wedding. Several hours after the reception begins, they bring out all sorts of stops to get the crowd going again. This includes clowns on stilts, masks and hats and balloons and confetti and all sorts of craziness. Hence the name, La Hora Loca.

Don't worry, the first thing I thought when I saw the madness unfolding was how totally blogtastic it all was, and I started taking pictures.









Christianne wanted to trade with Uncle Lane

Gabriela wanted in on all the fun too - BEFORE:
AFTER: