Still busy

We have been crazy busy this month, and I haven't had any time to blog about it.  We went to Zoo Lights at the Oakland Zoo, Fairyland's Winter Wonderland, and then we headed down to Gilroy where I've been doing crafts non-stop, baking cookies, checking out Christmas lights in town, making tamales, and wrapping presents.  Now that the preparation is complete, I'm hoping for a chance to relax and document some of this magical fun.

Christmas Carols according to a 2 year old

"Feliz Navi-Mommy, Feliz Navi-Gabriela." (this didn't happen until Lane used his worst Spanish accent ever and said feliz naviDAD) Gracias, Lane.

"Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, Old MacDonald had a farm, E I E I O"  Although, since Gabriela has spent the last month singing Jingle Bells to herself every waking moment, she's pretty much got it down now.  She's even started singing Batman smells every once in a while, thanks to Chaney and Papa for teaching her the cool kids version.

You remember Jollie, Gabriela's imaginary friend?   Well she gets very upset when you sing, "have a holly JOLLY Christmas" She sternly tells you, 'It's not Holly Jollie!!!' like you're saying her friend's name incorrectly. 

She also doesn't like it when Santa Claus comes right down Santa Claus Lane.  Cos she knows her daddy's name is Lane Grover and not Santa Claus Lane.  And I'm the one who taught it to her so I should know better or something.

Whenever we hear music in the car, Gabriela asks if we're hearing a Christmas song. Her eyes light up and her jaw drops open whenever she hears a song that she recognizes. The songs she gets most excited about are:

Jingle Bells
Jingle Bell Rock
Frosty the Snowman
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Silver Bells
We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Some Christmas Cheer

Gabriela and her cousin Mina singing Jingle Bells on Christmas Eve. Nice dance moves, Mina! 

Busy Christmas

It's barely one week into December and we've been so busy!

   

We got out our Christmas aprons and baked cranberry bread.  Gabriela is such a fun helper. She MUST have her step stool and apron for any kitchen activities. She is an excellent pourer, stirrer, and taster, but has some trouble resisting the urge to play with the flour.

 Chaney is so sweet with his cousin.  Here they are, watching the daddies bring in the giant Christmas tree. Gabriela is wearing her elf hat and Christmas apron made by Nana, and I'm proud to say that I made those holiday jammies for my little girl.  Glad I ventured into the holiday boxes and found these snazzy socks for Gabriela.

 Auntie Meliss is so sweet and thoughtful, she also brought home a tiny tree for Gabriela. Can you see her smelling it? She was thrilled!

 I had to pick and choose which ornaments would be light enough and special enough to fit on this Gabriela sized tree.  Gabriela helped decorate both trees. She placed a ton of ornaments right in a row next to each other. 

 

A few days after this big beautiful tree was decorated, we came home to find it had fallen on the floor, ornaments had crashed on the ground, and the lights were all wonky. Chaney was devastated. I read the kids Christmas books in our bed while the other adults cleaned up.  Gabriela was so worried she asked him, "Chaney?  You wanna hold my mom's hair??"  Cos that's what always makes her feel better.
We stayed up late cleaning and redecorating. I am happy to report that the tree is just as sparkly and festive as before.

 

Gabriela has been making ornaments.  She painted this one, and crafted two other ones with Auntie Liss.

 We went to Tilden Park for their Christmas lights extravaganza.

 Gabriela learned about candy canes.  She concentrated so hard until she'd chomped up the whole thing and then exclaimed, "THAT WAS YUMMY!" She's pointing them out in books and even requested another one yesterday.

This is the Santa from Tilden Park. The boys weren't convinced this was Santa. Gabriela was just happy he gave her a tiny candy cane, just her size.  She gave Santa a high five and said she wants a present for Christmas. I'm pretty sure Santa can make that happen.

We read Christmas books every night before bedtime. Gabriela's favorites are The Polar Express, Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas, and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

She loves to sing Christmas carols.  Her favorite one goes like this, "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Oh MacDonald had a farm, E I E I O." I need some video footage.

Gabriela definitely got the Christmas Queen gene from me.  Anytime we show her anything Christmas related, she freaks out with excitement. She asks for Christmas songs whenever we are in the car.  She yells, "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! I SEE DECORATIONS!!!!" when we're driving. She plays with the Christmas Little People every day, and my favorite part is that, without any prompting, she decorated her baby stroller with a christmas ornament on each side. Photo coming soon.

Last night we watched The Polar Express and it was so magical. Gabriela recognized when they were narrating from the book, she cheered out loud multiple times, and watched the whole thing in awe  and amazement.

The holidays are so much more fun with a little one to share the magic with.

Christmas Countdown

I made 24 of these little Christmas tree cones for Gabriela.  They are filled with fun things like candy, cuties, hot cocoa, dried fruit and nuts, christmas stickers, etc.  She's so excited to open one first thing in the morning every day.

The other day, Gabriela was opening her tree saying, "I wonder what's inside!!!! It's an or.. (shutting the lid as quickly as she could) can we open a different one??!?!"  I guess she wasn't that excited about her clementine.

Gabriela Says...

"That's Crazy, Daddy!"

"Shall I calm down?"

"Mommy, can I have dinner?"  The interesting (and embarrassing) part of this story is that I got Gabriela all ready for bed. We brushed her teeth, got on her jammies, said goodnights, and were reading stories when she sweetly asked for dinner, reminding me that I had totally forgotten that minor detail.  Yeah, that was a good mom moment.  Then she said something a few days later and I asked what she said. Her response? "Mom, I'm just telling Papa a story!  Sooooo, I reading stories in the bed and I ask my mommy, 'can I have some dinner?!?!?!" She totally ratted me out!

We've been having a great run with potty training lately.  We started getting serious in Santa Barbara.  I think Gabriela just decided we weren't going to give up on the whole potty training stuff, so she's playing along now.  I've only changed one poopy diaper since Halloween.  And we've started going places with her in undies without incidents. Anyway, the other week we were driving when Gabriela announced she had to make a pee-pee and she was holding it. I winced and told her it was okay if she went in her diaper since we were driving. Gabriela had none of this and immediately yelled in desperation, "STOP THE CAR!!!! I HAVE TO GO PEE PEE". We had the pleasure of using a gas station potty. 

"My Daddy is Uncle Lane's brother"

"I'm just going to lay up" You know, instead of laying down.

"Oh my sakes!" is one of my favorites.

Gabriela's favorite words right now are "just" and "already" as in, "Mom! I just already did that"

The Wedding

Greg and Eugenia had a gorgeous beach wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  It was a little foggy that morning, but the sky cleared up just in time for the ceremony.

Greg and his dudes.

the beautiful bride

Husband and Wife

a different husband and wife

And then we danced our little booties off the whole night

Mexico

So I'm a little (okay, a lot) behind on blogging. Here's the short and sweet recap of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.  Here was the view from our hotel room

We didn't do much while we were there, aside from eat, hang out with friends, lay out at the beach and drink piña coladas and badaiquiries (banana daiquiries). It was rough.  We could have gone snorkeling or on some other excursions, but we would have been rushing around.  Maybe if we'd come for more time, but I couldn't stand booking our trip for any longer. In fact, even though Gabriela was going to stay in Santa Barbara, can you believe I brought her passport just in case I couldn't go through with it and decided to bring her along at the last minute?!?!?  Anyway, Lane went kayaking.

This is what my view looked like most of the week. 

We had a wonderful relaxing trip, attended a beautiful wedding, caught up with old friends and made some new ones, all at the beach in Mexico.  SOOOO glad we went, and so thankful for auntie and uncle and cousins who took such loving care of Gabriela.

Cousin Love

 Gabriela had a blast in Santa Barbara with her cousins. This was probably the only day in the nearly 3 weeks we were there that the weather wasn't gorgeous and summer like.  Seriously - while Lane and I were in Mexico, they had some 90 degree days! Warmer weather than us!

Natalie is so sweet.  She got a new journal and this is one of the first things she wrote in it.

My Little Gabby " I had to write Gabby because I didn't know how to spell Gabriela"

My little Gabby is so so cute. She says my name Nany, like just rite now when I wrote like that's what she said, Nany. She's the cuteist of all time I can't stand her. She runs so cute. She talks so cute. She eats so cute. She swims so cute. She sleep so cute and that's the end of this story.

First Time Away

Lane and I took a trip to Mexico to attend a wedding at the beginning of the month. We had a great trip, but it was also our first time away from Gabriela. I've only ever been away from Gabriela for one night, and there's never been a time when both Lane and I were away.

Ian and Adie and Claire and Natalie took great care of Gabriela while we were gone.  A few days before we left I broke down in tears afraid that Gabriela might just need her mommy, and I wouldn't be here. Lane said, "oh, this is going to be a fun vacation."

But I got it out of my system. For a while before we left for Santa Barbara, we were telling Gabriela about all the fun she'd have during her special time with Auntie Adie.  It was also helpful that we arrived in Santa Barbara and were there with her for a while before we left. 

I made Gabriela a chart with the days of the week when we'd be gone, and drew some happy faces and hearts on the day we were coming home.  I also made Gabriela a list of the fun things she could do while we were gone. I drew lots of pictures on this list so she could read it too.  We reviewed our lists when we'd talk about it. I was feeling good. 

Then, when we were getting ready to leave at 5 in the morning, Gabriela said, "no, Mommy. Lay in the bed with me!" oh no.  I told her that her special time with Auntie Adie was starting and she started getting out of bed. When I asked where she was going, she matter of factly told me she was going to go cuddle with Auntie Adie in her bed.  And then, when we said goodbye, she didn't even cry (and neither did I).  Huge sigh of relief.

We had regular video calls where she'd tell us all the fun things we were doing, and I got her a couple little presents to open while we were gone so she'd have new fun things to keep her busy.

It was such a relief to not have to worry about her the whole time we were gone.  When we got back, Gabriela came to the airport to meet us.  She thought it was the coolest thing ever that she got to watch our plane land and see us walk off the plane. After we got in the car, I asked her what she did during her special time. Her response? " Um, I just waited for you. I missed you. I love you THIIIIIIIIIIS much!"

Wow, this kid knows how to work it.

halloween

Okay, so this posting is a little belated, but what can I say? We left for Mexico just a few days after Halloween, and things have been busy since.

By the time Halloween actually rolled around, this girl was a professional trick or treater. She was ready to go and get some candy!

Just look at this cute little pirate. 

 Here's the gang of kids we went trick-or-treating with.  The boys were hilarious. They were running from house to house so much that they started asking for water at some of the houses. Yeah, their parents weren't at all embarrassed about that.

 I got really nervous about traumatizing Gabriela on her very first trick or treating house ever. Just look at the place!  It was super cool. There was a coffin in the garage, a mock car accident scene in the front of the house with goblin drivers, and you had to walk through this dark tunnel to get to the candy. But for a two year old?! Even some of the older boys were too nervous to go through.  Lane said we shouldn't skip it. He took Gabriela, she was so brave, and apparently the guy at the house was super sweet and not scary to Gabriela. AND she got a giant candy bar.  Not bad.  Lane took over the trick or treat duties after that.

 This is still that first house.  So many houses were decorated like this. Every one in this neighborhood went all out!

 Since she was with so many big kids, Gabriela didn't get many chances to actually ring a door bell all by herself.  She finally did it, and it must have made an impression on her because as she was walking away from the house, she exclaimed, "That was COOOOOL!!!" Gabriela was so polite, and thanked everyone who gave her candy.

On the way home, Gabriela started talking about her Roller Skates. We were confused -she doesn't have roller skates.  We thought maybe she was talking about her cousin Mina, who just got roller skates for her birthday. But that didn't really make sense.  When we looked through all her candy at home, Gabriela exclaimed, "ROLLER SKATES!!!"  and grabbed a bag of Skittles, and it all made sense.  I guess she was scanning her brain for words that had the "sk" sound or something.  She still calls Skittles Roller Skates. I don't really want to correct her, it's so cute.

Gabriela must have enjoyed herself, because the next day morning she asked if she could dress like a pirate again and go trick or treating again.

Pumpkin Carving

The weather here in Santa Barbara has been incredible.  It's like summer here! So we set up tables outside for pumpkin carving and everyone got to work.

Gabriela helped scoop the seeds out of her pumpkin, but she wasn't too keen on sticking her hands inside and getting them all slimy.  "Mommy, wipe my hand!!!"

Gabriela is so proud of the face she drew for her pumpkin!!

Adrienne carved a super cool Grover pumpkin

Here is the pumpkin family!

Halloween Extravaganza

On Friday afternoon we took our little pirate for some early trick-or-treating with Claire and Natalie to a nearby shopping center. Gabriela will tell you that pirates say, "ARRR, Matey!" and sing the pirate song for you if you ask "Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho a pirate's life for me!"

 

We visited the firefighters and their cool blue fire truck. 

Pirate Claire and Princess Natalie

Gabriela also went in a bounce house twice, but her favorite part was the pony ride!!!  Free pony rides, can you believe it?  We weren't sure if Gabriela would be too scared, so I showed her the kids riding the ponies beforehand.  She agreed, so we hopped in line.  While we were waiting, Gabriela exclaimed, "I'm so happy to ride a horsey!!" much to my relief. I was starting to freak out about whether or not she would freak out.  But no need.

I was lucky to get any photos of her looking at the camera, she was too mesmerized by the fact that she was on a pony!  She just stared very intently at her horsey the whole ride.

 Before she had even gotten off the pony at the end of the ride she asked if she could "please do that again"

What a lucky girl!

Friday mornings around here

There's almost nothing more exciting than a visit from the garbage man.  Gabriela was in the middle of brushing her teeth when she heard the beeping and screamed at the top of her voice (with toothpaste in her mouth), "HEY GUYS!!!!  THE GARBAGE TRUCK!!!!!!"  We watched, we waved, and are waiting til next week.

Return to the Pumpkin Patch

We went back to the pumpkin patch the same day because the corn maze didn't open until 3 pm, and Gabriela loves mazes.  The only problem was that it was a really tricky serious maze, and it was dark and we didn't bring a flashlight. whoops.  Gabriela wasn't excited to run around through the maze, so we found our way through and just decided to go back for a THIRD time the next day when we could enjoy the maze together in the daylight. 

 Thank goodness we had our camera with us. We used the flash as a light. We might never have gotten out without that!

 

Gabriela and Daddy

 Gabriela found the water pump.  She pumped tons of water. And then she made a couple new friends. She couldn't be convinced to try out the tractor ride because it was still too loud.

 We found a pumpkin that really needed to be pulled through the pumpkin patch in a giant wagon.

 Gabriela got to snack on some of her Boo at the Zoo loot while she rode around in the wagon.

 Then she got tired, so we left to go home.

But don't worry, we went back to the pumpkin patch a FOURTH time with cousin Natalie. She led us through that corn maze like it was nothing. She convinced Gabriela to finally hop on the hay ride, and Gabriela showed her where all the ladybugs were hiding.