Gabriela Says...

Tonight I was holding Gabriela outside at my parents' house, where you can see tons of stars.  All of a sudden, she threw her head back, stared at the sky, and in amazement asked me, "Mommy?  Can you see the Milky Way?"

OCD Baby

Gabriela is obsessive about several things - she constantly washes her hands, always wants to brush her teeth, and ensures that ALL doors and drawers are all the way closed and not even the teeniest bit open at all times.  

Today I left her to her own devices to eat a few orange slices and here's what I found - eaten orange slices all arranged in a very straight line beside a neat pile of seeds. 

  

Sweet little girl :)

Gabriela Says...

Mommy!  

(now raising her voice) MOMMY!!!! 

(enter angelic voice) Meese can I have a baby sister???


For reals.  All this talk about her friends and her cousin Mina having baby sisters is getting to her.  I'm a little worried, because the other day, this is how I found the baby doll that she lovingly calls "baby sister"

Gabriela's Baby Carrier

I used a sarong to make an impromptu baby carrier for Gabriela - she was thrilled! Lane took her for a stroll around the neighborhood that evening and he said she held his hand tightly and patted her baby with the other hand the whole walk.  awwww.

Gabriela says...

Gabriela: Daddy, Lane!

Mommy: That's right. Daddy's name is Lane Grover. Mommy's name is Elena Grover and YOUR name is..... (she knows the answer)....

Gabriela:  SUPER GROVER!!!!

Saturday in Santa Barbara

 We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to cheer this little lady on at her 8 am soccer game. 

 Gabriela enjoyed the team members' half-time snack. I tried to teach her how to cheer during the game, but she didn't even try. About 5 hours later she said, "we at baseball game and I say (she starts screaming) GO NAH-NEE!!!! GET DA BALL!!!!" Obviously, she was listening to my cheerleading lesson. 

Natalie's team, the Blue Dolphins won the game.  Go Blue Dolphins!

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool, except for when we left for a frozen yogurt run.  I helped Natalie clean her room, made fajitas for dinner, got the girls cleaned up for bed, and Gabriela passed out in my arms, that little sweetheart.

Gabriela and the Ocean Reunited at Last

 We made a last minute trip to Santa Barbara to help Ian out with the girls while Adie's out of town. As we drove by at night, Gabriela exclaimed, "Mommy!  The Ocean!!  I can't really see it. Maybe, when the sun comes out at daytime, I see it better!  I play sandcastles with my cousins!" And the next day, at morning and night she asked, "meese can I go to the beach???"  So we packed up and headed to the ocean soon after taking Claire and Natalie to school.

 Look how happy this princess is!!!

 We lounged in our beach chairs, had snack time, built sand castles, but spent most of our time getting our toes wet and running away from the waves.

Just look at the excitement!

I caught Gabriela yelling at her daddy in this one. "DADDY!!!! No go in ocean by yourself!!!!"

  Check out these bad boys.

It's a hard life in Santa Barbara.  Gabriela passed out in the cabana on the chaise lounge next to the pool after a day running on the beach.

We're doing work too, really.  We help pack lunches, get the girls ready for school, take them, get them to their activities, help with homework, and make yummy dinners.

Peek a Boo! Gabriela's first scare

One morning several weeks ago, Lane and I woke up to Gabriela explaining she was "scared da lady".  We assumed our poor baby girl had had her first bad dream.  Weeks later though, she's still talking about this weird lady, and the story has grown.

Gabriela is "scared da lady peeking in da window".  She really is scared. The other evening she walked downstairs and then wailed and said how scared she was because of the lady.

We don't know if someone is actually "peeking" in our window, or if someone walked by and she noticed them, or if this is all something Gabriela made up in her little head. But she is definitely bothered.

Now she says if she sees the lady again she will say, "NO PEEK IN MY WINDOW, LADY! Go back to your house! Get in your car and drive far away!!!!"  I'm a little nervous that this lady is actually just the neighbor who happens to be in eyesight sometimes when she walks to her car.  I don't want her to get scolded by our two year old. But it helps Gabriela feel better and a little more in control of the situation when she says this. And goodness knows, this two year old likes to be the boss.

 Last night Lane covered the window with a pillow. This was a good idea because a few minutes later,  Gabriela noticed and said, "that's better, Daddy!" Then she woke up this morning and announced in wonder, "the lady gone!!!"  I asked if she was scared still and she said, "I fine now, Mommy. The lady gone. Daddy put pillow on the window."
I guess I need to learn how to make a curtain to cover our window.

Shiver Me Timbers: Talk Like a Pirate Day Continued

 

Even pirates need to nap sometimes.

 

After dinner we had Family Pirate Tattoo time

 

Chaney, Beau and Auntie Emily with their tats

Ahoy Thar Scurvy Dogs, It be Talk Like A Pirate Day!

 

Shiver Me Timbers, just look at all this pirate booty!

 

Check out the pirate Meliss drew!!

Meliss gathered all the awesome pirate books and toys together in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day.  The kids got dressed up, played like pirates, read pirate books (which are in no shortage around here), made pirate stencil pics, and are going to get some pirate tattoos! 

Gabriela went to Farmers Market dressed like a pirate, apparently no one else knew it was Talk Like a Pirate Day.  Before naptime we read How I Became a Pirate, and Gabriela's favorite: Pirates Don't Change Diapers

Trampoline Fun

 

Here is our bouncy girl jumping her little heart out on the trampoline.  To keep things interesting for you, she multitasks and jumps while sucking her thumb, tells a story, and then watches the clouds.  In case you didn't understand, she sees Uncle Noal, Auntie Adrienne, Hoover, and KittyBuddyClio in the sky.  Those must have been some fancy clouds.

Some Keady Love

These two girls had so much fun together. Had to share some video.

Monkeying Around

I can't tell you how wonderful it has been to spend all this time with Gabriela. Last Wednesday Lane and I took her back to the Oakland Zoo.  We asked her what she wanted to do that day and gave her some ideas - Fairyland, the zoo, the park, etc.  Gabriela said, "Fairyland! um. wait! no. (holds her hand up) THE ZOO!!!!!" So I packed a picnic lunch and off we went.  I just love how we have been getting in for free with our FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) membership. 

First stop - petting and brushing the goats. Gabriela is a professional now. She went straight to the brush bin and got to work.

 

Next stop - watching the flying fox bats. These guys have a wingspan of six feet and are the biggest bats in the world!  They were fascinating with their translucent wings, their upside down climbing on the ropes, screeching and squabbles with each other.  Gabriela scolded the bats and told them, "BE NICE!"

 

We were sure to catch the river otters' feeding time.  Gabriela adored watching the otters swoop right in front of her to grab their little fish body lunches.  They also got sweet potatoes, but weren't too excited about those, and saved them for when all the fish were gone. 

 

Here's a cool stick insect from the Bug House.

 

My favorite part was checking out this chimpanzee.  These guys aren't usually very interactive. But this particular one just sat right at the edge of the glass and made eyes at us while Lane took a bazillion photos of him. He'd raise his eyebrows, and even nodded his head at us in response to a wave.  We overheard some other zoo-goers saying that there were two new chimps at the zoo, retired from the movies. Perhaps this was why he wasn't camera shy. We could have watched him for hours, but wanted to give other people a chance to check out the chimpanzees too. 

Before heading out, Gabriela and Daddy walked across the lily pads in the children's zoo area. Gabriela didn't really get it at first and tried to take a big step into the water. Whoops.

Pocket Surprise

Yesterday I pulled a pair of Gabriela's pants out of the dresser to put on her. She got all fussy and told me there was something in her pocket.  I checked and there was a tiny kid sized red TOMATO in her pocket.  She must have picked one in the garden a few days ago and shoved it in there. Lovely, a burst tomato had been sitting in the dresser drawer. I guess now I know to check her pockets for produce before putting her clothes away.

Just another Manic Monday

 

Last week we took Gabriela back to Tilden Park for some merry go round fun.

 

We walked around and looked for squirrels. And then stopped for a little snack picnic.  Then it was time for round two on the merry go round. 

 

Remember how Gabriela got free Fairyland ticket from the summer reading program at the library?!  Well, she also got this amazing free ice cream scoop from Fentons.  We picked Rainbow Sherbert for Gabriela, because we thought that was a good kid friendly flavor. Turns out she loved Daddy's green ice cream way better. She is her Daddy's little girl.

Andrew's Scooby-riffic Fifth Birthday!

 

This cutie pie of a nephew of mine celebrated his fifth birthday over Labor Day weekend.  Andrew is nuts for Scooby Doo, so it only made sense for him to have a Scooby party.

 

Theresa had Scooby everything - Scooby rings in the cupcakes, Scooby fabric on the tables, Scooby stickers on the walls, Scooby favors and balloons, Scooby wrapping paper for presents, even a MYSTERY MACHINE bounce house!!!!

 

This was the hit of the party!  The kids spent practically the whole party in the bounce house! 

We were so happy to see Auntie Cynthia and finally meet Dan.  I know she was thrilled to finally attend a kid birthday party.  Not an easy feat when you live in Boston. 

Theresa also made a super delicious Scooby cake, in addition to the cupcakes. Fresh strawberry filling with white cake and whipped cream frosting. mmm.

 

There was even a Scooby piñata. It was my job to fill it up. I got a little overzealous, I admit it. I stuffed so many goodies in that thing that it was impossible to fit one single more piece of candy inside.  This kind of backfired. The piñata was one of those magic string kind, and when the door popped open, the candy just stayed put because it was smooshed so tightly inside.  whoops, sorry kids. Uncle Tim came to the rescue and solved that problem.  Check it out, there wasn't just candy in this piñata.

 The whole party was a smashing success. But what do you expect with some creative mommies and a crew of TEN adults for set up and tear down?!? 

Gabriela Update

I don't know when this happened, but Gabriela is such a big girl now. She can recognize her name in writing, adores doing 12 piece puzzles all by herself, and sings the alphabet.  Some of her favorite things to do these days are jumping on the trampoline, pretending in her kitchen, and going places like to the library for story time, the zoo, and riding on the merry go round.  Gabriela also loves to "do letters on the computer". I bring up Word, increase the font size and color and she types away saying which letter she's working on.

Gabriela has also been playing a lot with a doll baby she refers to as My Baby Sister.  What the heck?!?!?!  She rocks her and puts her in the stroller, changes her poopy diaper, and wraps her up in a blankie.  We talked about Keady's baby sister growing in her mommy's belly and visited another friend with a 1 month old baby sister recently so this may be where all the Baby Sister talk is coming from.  As far as we know, Gabriela doesn't have a real baby sister coming anytime soon.

She also has been saying lots of funny things recently like...

calling me "Uncle Mommy"  that was special.

"Daddy!!! TWO HANDS!  Drive two hands!! ... Good boy"  I never tell Lane to drive with two hands, but Gabriela is always on his case about driving this way.  What a backseat driver she is!

"Daddy, I growing today!"

She saw me with a barrette of hers in my hair the other day and said, "um, actually it's mines.   That special."

Gabriela has progressed from referring to herself as "Lah-Lah" to "gabi-lah-lah" and now, "Gabi -ella"

Gabriela also started using the word "remember" recently. She asks all the time if I remember an auntie or uncle or cousin of hers, or our friend's dog, or the time we went to the store and tried on shoes. I love knowing more about what she's thinking about.

She also appears to have a little OCD or something.  Gabriela cannot STAND when any doors or drawers have been left open, not even the tiniest bit.  She yells, "mommy, the door open, door open" and she'll get up to close it. She detests messes of any kind and insists they be cleaned up right away. Gabriela wants to wash her hands ALL the time. In the middle of eating she will get up to wash her hands if there are even a few crumbs on her hands.

Return to Little Farm

We originally chose to skip Little Farm in favor of Habitot, but when Rhonda said that day how much Keady gets a kick out of feeding animals, I knew we couldn't pass it up.  So, we geared up for a big day - Little Farm, followed by Fairyland, then dinner, a stop back to the house to enjoy Eric's birthday cake, and squeezed in some trampoline time before saying our goodbyes.

Little Farm is a fabulous little place at Tilden Park where you can bring celery and lettuce to feed the animals.  The girls had so much fun running around chasing each other in the grass, and of course, passing out their produce to the animals.