When did I become "Mom"?

When Gabriella first started talking I was "Momma", then it gradually became "Mommy". I liked this, was happy with this. Now Miss Diva is changing it to "Mom". Not all the time mind you, just when she really wants something, or if I may not be answering her right when she expects me to. It starts out with an annoyed "Mom." Then turns into "Mom, Mooooom, MOM!!" I think soon it'll be that wonderful teenager voice with "MOTHER." Every time she goes into the whiny mom voice I tell her my name is Mommy. She doesn't appreciate that, but if she's still calling Ricky "daddy" I'm going to be Mommy darn it.

Speaking of Daddy, our Daddy doll is a hit! Everywhere we go someone mentions it. We were at the park yesterday and a mom and her friends were asking about it. Their husbands are all on the same submarine and they were talking about fundraising to get them for ALL the kids on the sub. I thought it was pretty cool! The funny Daddy doll moment of yesterday? The women in the Christmas Tree Shop who asked if it was REALLY Gabriella's Daddy on the doll. My response? "Uh yes, I don't carry a random mans picture around and say it's her father. Thanks though." Her husband quickly escorted her away.

Not much else going on. Gabriella's Nana and Gaga are coming for a visit today. She is SO excited. She wanted to call and wake them up this morning at around 7am. That's an improvement since we've been up since 5am. This should serve as a warning. If I have your phone number programmed into my cell you could get a phone call some morning from a sweet little girl. You could also get a prank call from us. That means I grabbed the phone a moment too late (oops!). Just remember it was all with the best of intentions.

Long time no update..

So we've been busy.. and life got the best of us. We've had Gabriella's first birthday, and her second birthday. We've done lots of teething (pretty sure there's a whole set in there now, if not we're missing just one), walking, running, talking (full sentences now), potty training and "terrible" twos. Gabriella can be a sweet baby girl, or very trying for lack of a better word. I say that as lovingly as possible, and also as she just climbed on the table to tell me she really is finished with dinner.

She's very inquisitive and "why" is one of her favorite words. Daddy is away right now so here's a picture of her with her stand in. It's called a daddy doll and came from http://www.daddydolls.com/ It's an amazing website that you can order a doll with a picture of a loved one that can be carried around everywhere. This way while Daddy's at work, he still can be with Gabriella. It's helping with transitions and making it a bit easier.

Hope all is well with everyone and I'll try to update more often!

Don't mess with a girl and her TP!

Gabriella is into standing and climbing. This includes anything and everything in sight. She's constantly standing up next to the couch and loveseat and trying to climb up. Thankfully she can't yet, but she did manage to climb onto this big pack of toilet paper. It's been sitting in the hallway (I have yet to put it away, oops!) and the other day I saw her standing next to it, then laying down on it. She gets the most determined look on her face when she does it. Well by the time I grabbed the camera and went to take a picture she had slid off. As you can see in the picture, clearly she wasn't impressed that Mommy had interrupted her climbing adventure just to take a silly picture. What was I thinking? I call this her "Daddy face." So remember, don't mess with a girl and her toilet paper!

The biter biscuit adventures

Gabby had her first biter biscuit the other day. They are like little cookies, but pretty hard to help ease the pain of teething. She has had a lot of other snacks such as cheerios, puffs, zwieback toast, and apple wagon wheels. We had forgotten about the wagon wheels and decided to give them a try. She currently has four teething coming in so it definitely seemed like an appropriate time. We rolled up her sleeves and gave it to her. Ricky tasted it as he does with all her solid food (but don't ask him to taste any of the jarred food!). He is our "official baby food tester." He said it wasn't bad, just pretty hard. We did not realize how messy this was going to be. About halfway through the biter biscuit I remembered that a friend of ours had said we probably wanted her just in a diaper and bib when she ate them. Oops! As you can see in the pictures, she enjoyed them! Add that to the list of the food that Gabriella loves. That list includes everything she's tried, except for peas.

First Storytime!

We took Gabriella to her first storytime at Borders today. She loves being around other children, but rarely has the opportunity for it lately. She tends to get very shy, and just watches everyone around her. Today she was the youngest child there, but still had a great time! She was watching all the other kids walk around and you could tell if we had let her go she'd have been trying to go after them. One little girl kept trying to come touch her face, another one came up and was talking to her. They read Harold and the Purple Crayon and Harry the Dirty Dog. She had never heard the first story but she loved listening and looking at the pictures. We left when they did craft time because it involved a purple crayon and we figured Gabby would eat the crayon more than color with it. Here's a picture of her all dressed up and ready to go, and yes those are glitter jeans (we had a picture at storytime but it didn't come out, we'll have to get one at the next one). We can't wait until next time. Hopefully Gabby will be signed up at the library storytime starting in February.

Happy New Year!

Gabriella is now 7 months old! We didn't do much for New Year's as Ricky had duty on New Year's Eve. Gabby and Sara stayed in pajamas all day while playing. When Ricky came home on New Year's day we celebrated the new year as well as Gabby's 7 month birthday. Her new trick is trying to stand and walk as you can see from the pictures. We hope you all had a Happy New Year and we get to see you soon!