Happy Birthday, Gabriela

These past two years have been incredibly transforming for Gabriela.

From two to three Gabriela stopped drinking from a bottle, was potty trained, started talking like you wouldn't believe, learned how to swing all by herself, started sleeping in a big girl bed, and made lots of new friends.  It was like she changed from a baby into a little girl.

Well this last year, Gabriela learned to ride her Skuut bike, and then a real pedal bike, she learned how to write her name, got her own library card, started preschool, had her first sleep over with a friend, and rode her first roller coaster.  She even had her first real haircut this year.  Such a big girl.

When she woke up on her birthday, she looked at me and asked several times if she was really 4 years old. "But Mom, really?  Am I really 4 years old now????"    

She is, and is so big!  A few nights ago, I had a mini melt down where I may or may not have cried my eyes out in disbelief at how my baby had grown so much into such a big kid, right before my eyes. I don't know how it happened.

 Gabriela chose sushi for her birthday lunch. After lunch we walked to Alameda Bicycle to pick up her birthday bike.  They have an awesome trade-in program where they give you a full credit for the purchase price of your bike when you are ready to get a bigger one. How can you say no to that?!? Gabriela proudly rode her new pink and purple bike home. 

 We arrived home just in time to meet her cousins Claire and Natalie for some birthday fun.  These cousins came all the way from Santa Barbara to celebrate with Gabriela.  We walked back up to Park Street for Tucker's Ice Cream.

 Gabriela insisted on ordering Bubble Gum ice cream. She was surprised to find some white gumballs in her cone and explained that she never had that color and maybe they were there today because it was her birthday.

 She also wanted to chew all her bubble gum at once.  Look at all that gum!  Don't worry, I made her spit it out before we left Tuckers.

 And then it was off to our next adventure - pedicures for 5 girls! Gabriela picked out pink and purple and had them alternate colors on her little toesies, thanks to a suggestion from big girl cousin, Natalie.

After that, we went home to find that Daddy had gotten Gabriela some special tassles and put them on her bike for her.  We all drove over to Oakland for pizza dinner and hours of cousin playtime with Chaney, Beau, Claire and Natalie.

Gabriela was exhausted when it was time to go.  We laid her down in the bed and told her how at that time 4 years ago, we were just holding her, looking at her, and thinking about how perfect she was.  Gabriela then asked in her sleepy angelic voice, "Mommy, did you always wish I would be like this??"  Of course we did, sweetheart. Of course we did.

It was so precious.  Even more precious, was that she just drifted off to sleep right after that. 

Happy birthday, Baby.