It All Started with a Little Skittle...

Today is Michael and my 6th wedding anniversary.  We've had a great day!  Michael and I are officially Texan's season ticket holders and Gabby is in a wonderful mood (even though she woke up at 5:00 a.m.). We went out to eat for dinner and Gabby was a little ham.  She waved at the people in the other booths and adopted a few new grandparents.  Gabby had an entire table of elderly people talking to her as she blew kisses to them.  Then she played peek-a-boo with the man at the booth behind her and had the attention of the young guys at the table next to us.  Michael and I don't think we could have had a better day.  Gabby gave us the best gift ever, being an angel.  We had the best day ever! We don't plan on doing anything too exciting today, but having a day to relax and celebrate the family we've created sounds good to me! Happy Anniversary Husband! I love you! P.S. Thank you for being patient and agreeing to take pictures with the self timer.  I love the

The nickname "Stinkerbell" has been one of Gabby's top 5 and slowly continues to rise on her chart of nicknames the older she gets.  Stinkerbell is the perfect depiction of Gabby lately.  She recently turned 16 months, but I think she believes she is 2 years old...because the terrible two's have begun! Look out Mommy and Daddy, defiance and behavior issues galore are now our new usual.  Gabby is constantly testing her boundaries. Here is a snapshot of her recent behavior: she flips her bowl of food on the ground 2 to 3 times a day, throws herself on the ground crying when she doesn't get her way or pinches, scratches, and slaps you, when you tell her to stop doing something she will definitely continue to do it (and likely more often). When you try to discipline her saying no sternly, popping her hand, or putting her in the corner for timeout she simply laughs hysterically. This may sound terrible, but it's actually quite hilarious and difficult to stay s

Gabby never seized to surprise me.  While her Grandma and Grandpa were here I was getting her to show off her tricks: the motions to "Wheels On the Bus" (her favorites, "shh, shh, shh" and "round and round"), the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Pat-a-Cake" and showing off her body parts.  I asked her where her eyes were and she touched them and said eyes, then I asked her where her nose was and she grabbed it.  Then Bonnie joined in and asked where her ears were.  I informed Bonnie that she didn't know that one yet, but to my surprise and great pleasure she touched her ear and wiggled it! So that night Michael and I probed her apparently she knows her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, feet and tummy!  She also learned how to make the motion for the baby on the bus go wah, wah, wah, in like 5 minutes, and she wanted to practice so she would take my hands and make the motions to make me sing that part of the song again. It's the little things tha

Today is Gabby's Grandma's birthday! We were very lucky that we saw Grandma close to her birthday so we could celebrate together.  We all really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa, especially Gabby.  It took her about 5 minutes to warm up to them, but then it was hugs, kisses, and showing off for the two and a half days they stayed with us.  We celebrated Grandma's birthday with a quiet dinner and a birthday cake; although it was Grandma's birthday cake, I think Gabby thoroughly enjoyed it more than even the birthday girl! Grandma graciously gave Gabby the large white chocolate square with her birthday greeting written on it.  Gabby took large bites into it and LOVED it! The day they were leaving Gabby and I took Grandma to Chik-Fil-A (to see Gabby in her element) for lunch.  While we all ate our chicken nuggets Gabby grabbed Mommy's drink and took big gulps, because she is too big for a juice box.  Then, once she was bored with her lunch she began wav

So here is my third attempt to write this blog, which continues to be erased one time or another...so I am going to give you the abridged version! I was showing my mom pictures taken of Gabby over the 4th of July weekend and she made a comment that the 4th of July must be my favorite holiday. This comment resulted in making me reflect on our fun Independence Day celebration. I can positively say that Independence Day isn't my favorite holiday, but we did make it the most fun for Gabby possible because it is possible her favorite holiday. For about the last three months Gabby has been carrying around a miniature American flag waving it proudly as she walks from room to room. Since Gabby has this infatuation with the American flag her Nanny gave her for the previous 4th of July. Because of her adorable patriotism I vowed we would have a bash for the 4th and I followed through with that promise!! The Sunday before Independence Day we had a barbeque with Gabby’s friends and

Gabby started cutting TWO teeth at one time; however, on this particular day I was not aware that her reason for being a pain was because she was in pain. She was an extremely unhappy baby all day long. She required me to hold her or listen to her whine every moment she was awake, but since the world doesn't stop when you have a cranky baby, I decided to attempt a few quick errands, in which we would be home in an hour or less. I simply wanted to exchange an outfit she was given that wasn't the correct size and pick up Daddy's Father's Day gift (because we were at Lacey's wedding the weekend of Father's Day). We went to the store to exchange the outfit, but of course they didn't have her size. They did however have a 70% off sale so Gabby was allowed to choose one toy which only cost $2 and put her in a magnificient mood. Then she began getting fussy in the car so I gave her a Goldfish cracker, but she kept yelling for the entire bag so I opened the ba