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.