Our Little Communicator

Gabriela seems to say a new word every day. It's so exciting to see her communicating with us more and more.

This morning Gabriela woke up and then heard a bus drive by. She immediately said "bus". Then, she put her hand on her foot and said "toes". Right after that, an airplane flew by and she did the sign for airplane. And then, she decided she wanted to nurse, so she did the sign for milk. When she was done, Gabriela did the potty sign and went pee-pee on the potty.

We took a short little walk when I picked Gabriela up from daycare this afternoon. She wanted to walk more and I needed to get us home, so I picked her up to walk back to the car. The whole time Gabriela was saying the same thing over and over again. It sounded just like zoo, but that didn't make any sense. I put her in her car seat and noticed one of her shoes was missing. I looked every where in the car and finally realized it was on the sidewalk, right where I'd picked her up. And then it hit me - Gabriela was trying to tell me we left her SHOE behind.

At dinner time tonight, Gabriela suddenly put her food down and started shaking her hands back and forth and said "mamo". We are positive she was actually saying mano - the Spanish word for hand.

Oh, and she's learning how to "play" the harmonica. We will try to get some video of that soon.

Boo at the Zoo

We had a fabulous time at Boo at the Zoo on Sunday night. The zoo was wonderfully decorated with lots of spooky scenes. Gabriela was mesmerized by all the other kiddos her size in their fancy costumes. She would point and walk up to kids and say hi, inspecting their outfits.

So excited by all the decorations and other kids

Love bug

spooky spider web walkway

Check out the back of her cute costume!

My favorite skeleton scene

making friends with the scarecrow

More spider webs and spiders. ginormous spiders hanging from the ceiling!

skeletons catching a game of pool

All throughout the zoo there were stations for kids to get treats. Gabriela got bunches of great loot from a little cloth baby doll, to fresh fruit, chocolate (for mommy and daddy), krisy kreme donuts, organic dryer sheets, tattoos, jasmine rice, granola, and more regular candy that Mommy and Daddy will eat for her, ssh!

We watched the lions and tigers, visited our favorite cows, Tulip and Rose who showed off their mooing skills for Gabriela, snorted with the hogs, saw the gorillas, and even caught a sneak peek of some leopards we never even knew lived at the zoo. I swear, every time we go we discover a new exhibit.

It was a really fun night. The weather was just a tad crisp, much better than I thought it would be. Gabriela was sound asleep one whole hour before her normal bedtime. She was all tuckered out after such a fun day. Unfortunately, after sleeping for two hours, she awoke from what she thought was just a little nap and was ready to play. She was not so pleased that her mommy and daddy tried to make her go back to sleep when she’d just woken up to have more fun.

Boo at the Zoo was spooktacular! We will definitely go again!

Marine Corps Marathon Fun

The Marine Corps Marathon was Sunday. No, we don't run and we didn't know anyone who was running, but we still wanted to join in the fun, you know - just in case Auntie Cynthia or Andrew from Hawaii want to come one year, or any of our fancy exercising friends or family (hint, hint).

Here is the view from our apartment. Gabriela was getting so excited seeing all the runners and hearing the spectators cheering and yelling and bell ringing. She started clapping and saying, "bravo!" from the balcony.

After cheering a little more from downstairs we decided to cross over to the kids area. But in order to get there, we had to cross the street that was part of the course. Not being familiar with runs by any means made me wonder if there was some sort of street crossing etiquette I should be aware of? No one else was crossing the street. Oh, well.

We finally made our way across to bubble blowing, sidewalk chalk, bounce houses, arts and crafts, balloons, face painting, henna tattoos, hula hoops and kids bands. Gabriela danced to the band and had to be removed from trying to go on stage no fewer than three times. Hmmm, I wonder where she gets that from???

Here she is being removed (again) from the steps to get on stage. Just look at the expression on her face!

She took a super long nap after such a fun morning. And even though she napped longer than usual, it took her a long time to recover from sleepy time. We were glad she got all this rest because as soon as she woke up, went potty, ate, and changed into the cutest love-bug butterfly you ever laid eyes upon, we were on our way to attend Boo at the Zoo.

Halloween Fun Fest

We went to a little shopping center this afternoon with Gabriela dressed up in her costume. We did a little tiny bit of trick-or-treating, but her favorite part was at Sur La Table (I'm so proud). They opened up their huge kitchen for children to decorate cookies. Gabriela held on tightly to her cookie until it was all gone. Yep, she ate every last bite.

The cookie-coma is setting in already

It's practically as big as her head!

Pumpkin Decorating

15 Month Stats

Gabriela weighs 20.8 lbs - 19th percentile

She is 31.5 inches long - 82nd percentile

Tall and Skinny. What a shocker.

Dr. says she is doing extremely well developmentally. Gabriela was very friendly and climbing walking and crawling around and saying hi to Dr. Whelman. She was not so glad to get her vaccinations. She must have remembered from last time, since she started crying when the nurse walked in to do her dirty work. It could have also been that Gabriela was getting impatient after being at the doctor's office for THREE hours. Books and toys and stickers and snacks and lotion (Gabriela loves lotion) and peek-a-boo and dancing start losing their lure after a while, like after two and a half hours.


Gabriela got a regular flu vaccine, but they don't have the H1N1 yet. Dr. Whelman says she should really get this vaccine since she is prone to wheezing and inhaler use whenever she gets sick. I guess we need to start calling regularly to see when it comes in. Right now they are guessing two weeks from now.

15 Months Old

Just look at that darling curl!
Daddy dressed Gabriela this day, wristband and all.

Too cute for words

In her new apron that Nana made. Ready to help in the kitchen!

Gabriela is 15 months old today. She is advancing so quickly. I think about her at 12 months and can’t help but wonder how it is possible for a tiny person to grow so quickly and understand so much more in just three short months!

Gabriela has started doing the signs for train, fish, potty, lotion, banana, and sometimes even thank you. She is saying lots of words, although Lane and I are probably the only ones able to understand. Some new ones are cheese, walk (which she says as she bends over in half while I am holding her), and diaper. We knew she was saying SOMETHING to us when she wanted to eat and repeating the same thing over and over again. It sounds like, “ma-koMAH” . We finally realized she was saying “mas comida” because she wants more food.

We’ve known that Gabriela could identify her body parts in English for quite some time now. I started showing her nariz, ojos and orejas (nose, eyes, and ears), but on a whim I asked her in Spanish where her tongue was and was surprised when she immediately stuck it out at me. So I asked her where her foot was and her hand and her leg and she knew them all, that little bilingual baby! Gabriela only says the word agua for water.

She started stacking her mini-books like blocks, she fits shapes in the right containers, and just the other day helped to unload the dishwasher. She also LOVES to go outside. Whenever Daddy goes out on the balcony or out the front door, she stands by the door saying Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da over and over again so she can be with Daddy. She talks on her little play phones, reads lots of books, and plays in the kitchen – the real and play kitchen.

She tells us when she wants to hear a song, dances to music, brings us books and sits in our laps ready to listen, and when she’s tired she puts one thumb in her mouth and twirls her (or my) hair with the other hand. Just this weekend, Gabriela was clapping along with some AC/DC in the car with Daddy. She’s a little punk-rocker, I tell you.

We have pictures all around the house of family and point out the aunties and uncles and cousins and nana and papa and grandma and grandpa. Gabriela sometimes points to Uncle Noal (with short hair) and says Daddy and she is always pointing to Papa’s picture and saying his name.

She is so much fun and we are absolutely crazy about her. Her 15 month dr appointment is Thursday. I’ll report then on her height and weight then.

Wearing Mama's Sweater

My mom was so sweet to send Gabriela a sweater that she crocheted for me when I was a baby. I still have a hard time picturing myself so tiny. Here is Gabriela enjoying her extra special sweater. Thanks, Nana!!

Ghostess with the Mostest

Gabriela got a little tired the other afternoon. She came into the kitchen clutching her teddy bear and sucking her thumb. Then she plopped him down on the kitchen floor and used him as a pillow.

Here she is in one of her halloween outfits :)

Pumpkin Carving Madness

We had some friends over to decorate pumpkins on Saturday. These are ours. Lane did the witch and then helped me finish off my haunted house. We hadn't carved pumpkins in a few years. It was great fun.We snacked on carrot cake cupcakes and caramel corn and apple cider (and wine and beer) while we carved away. I tried decorating my cupcakes but wasn't that thrilled with the results since they weren't perfect. But here they are anyway. I think I know how to improve for next time, and would try it again.

Gabriela modeled her Halloween costume for our friends and decorated her own mini-pumpkin with some halloween stickers. We'll try to get a pic of her with her pumpkin masterpiece soon.

Helper of the Day

Gabriela is so big now that she has a chore! After dinner every night she picks up all the food on the floor and puts it in a tiny bowl for us. We are so proud of her.

We've noticed that there is less food on the floor after dinner now, but we think it's just because she is enjoying her meals, and not because she dislikes her chore :)

Pics

Here are the few pics I took at the zoo before running out of memory on the camera

Stay At Home Mama for the Day

I found out there's something good about Columbus Day after all. Even though we don't have the day off at my work, I had to take a vacation day to be with Gabriela since daycare was closed. I was so excited to spend the day with my baby.

We woke up bright and early, just like work days. I packed her diaper bag and after a messy breakfast, we got bundled up to go visit the zoo. Gabriela loves riding on the metro. She does her sign for "train" every time we see the metro, and she was just beside herself hearing the train noises and announcements.

As a result of my excitement, we arrived 30 minutes before the zoo officially opened. It was pretty empty so I let Gabriela walk all around. She was happy to see birds and squirrels. Oh boy, was she going to love what was in store for her!

We were only there a few hours, but in that time we managed to see the zebras snuggle, elephants drinking water, a bunch of gorillas, including the sweet little baby girl. The gorillas are usually my favorite, but the lion stole the show on Monday. He kept roaring and roaring and roaring and roaring. Seriously, it must have been feeding time. Gabriela knows the lions roar, so it was really exciting for her to actually hear it happen for real! She started roaring back, and giggling, and when the lion stopped, she did the sign for more. I had to explain that I didn't think the lion knew sign language.

We then trotted over to the farm animal section of the zoo where they have cows, pigs, alpaca, goats and donkeys. Gabriela mooed at the cows and snorted at the pigs. George the Donkey came right up to Gabriela to say hello, and my little baby said ALPACA when I told her we also saw Alpaca at the zoo in Peru when we were there last year. Genius, I tell you.

I took about 4 pictures before I got the error message on my camera that the memory was full. I can't believe I left for our day at the zoo together without the memory card for the camera. This is the second time I've done this! It has to stop!!!!

We hurried home for nap time. As soon as Gabriela was asleep I started some laundry, cleaned up a little, made a Bolognese pasta sauce that needs to cook for hours and hours and since I was already at it, I decided to make chicken stock so we could have soup for dinner the following night.

We stacked blocks and danced and read books and read more books and then we kicked a ball around in the hallway of our apartment floor, which is much more spacious than our actual apartment. We all ate dinner together as soon as Daddy came home. Gabriela went right to sleep, earlier than usual.

I really enjoyed spending that extra time with her. I wish every day could be like that.

New Words

Gabriela is saying new words left and right. Just this morning we heard her say "eyes" "toes" "gentle" and "thank you" for the first time.

My favorite new words are mañana as in, "hasta mañana", gorilla and Gabriela. I didn't think she'd be able to say her name for a long time. It's so sweet and sounds more like Gah-BEL-a. We have been trying to get some video footage, but without success.

Fall Festival

On Saturday we went to Cox Farms with Gabriela's friend Keady and her mommy and daddy. We all had a great time! Gabriela went down lots of slides, saw baby pigs, fed a goat, pet a cow, picked out a pumpkin, drank some apple cider and played in the kiddie area. And she also got kissed. We ran into Chase and his parents, another kiddo from daycare. He totally made the moves on Gabriela and planted a big ol' kiss on her. We soon found out he was a two-timer when he kissed Keady too! It was cute. I say kissing is better than hitting.

We have been reading about farm animals and practicing what they say. We found out Gabriela has been paying lots of attention. She said goat, said baa to the sheep, snorted like a pig and mooed like a cow.

I was really bummed that by the time we got to the end where all the giant pumpkins are and basically the perfect outdoor fall photo background, to find that our camera battery was completely dead. Oh, the horror. Now we need to go find another pumpkin place to take some fun pictures.

Zoo Pics

Everyone mistakenly thinks THESE guys are the cousins instead of Jen and me

Jen loves Gabriela sooooooo much!


It's hard to tell, but there's a GINORMOUS anaconda behind Jackson here.