It All Started with a Little Skittle...

Michael and I decided to take a little time to celebrate Gabby before she started school.  We had a lot of fun spoiling her and taking her to do special things Gabby had science experiments and had a lot of fun mixing ingredients and watching the water change colors and viscosity.  Grandma and Grandpa drove her to the lake house while so she could squeeze out every minute of fun possible that weekend.  Mommy waited for Daddy to get off of work and then we went and got wood for the tree house and arrived very late that night. Daddy finished putting up the hand rails all the way around the tree house with a little help from Gabby. Gabby took at least four rides on the boat and even swam in the lake.  She loved every moment of the time at the lake house! Driving and letting the wind flow through her hair The final product of the rails on the treehouse! The day after we arrived home from the lake house was a fun day as well. ...

I thought we would give you a glimpse of some of the silly things Mr. Elfis (our Elf) did Christmas Eve before returning to Santa Claus.  We went to Dallas on Monday and luckily our elf (who Gabby named Snowball, then Snowball Snow Flake, but whose name is really Mr. Elfis) hopped in a car seat so he could make the journey safely to Grandma and Grandpa's and meet Ralphie, Emma and Brody's Elf. Here are the shenanigans they got into while waiting for Santa to arrive and while we were all asleep: Proof that the elves took these photos all by themselves.  If you look closely between the first two photos you can see Mr. Elfis' hand move pushing the button.   Snacking on the kid's gingerbread houses. Drinking Gabby's milk hanging upside down. What were they thinking?! Soaring with the eagles (Gabby's favorite bird). Ralphie riding a horse. Ralphie sneaking in a stocking. Mr. Elfis sliding down the banister ...

 Today Gabby officially learned how to ride a tricycle independently. Her two friends, Aiden and Addison were riding their bikes and she wanted to be like them so she hopped on their extra tricycle and began peddling with a little help from Daddy at first. We've been trying to get Gabby to ride her tricycle for months, (knowing that she's fully capable of doing it) but she was never interested until her friends were doing it and she wanted to join in the fun. Who said peer pressure has to be a bad thing?   Even when she fell she got right back up without a tear Gabby ate better than usual because she was with her friends and accomplished another milestones because she wanted to be like her friends. Sometimes allowing children to naturally interact is the best way for them to learn new skills. That is why I love play dates (not to mention all of the smiles, giggles, and extra squeals that fill the air).

Sunday the light bulb in Gabby's head was shining brighter than usual I suppose.  She started drawing circles for the first time, she can identify 4 letters (when she is paying attention and interested), she finally can count to 5 independently, and she learned how to put  three piece puzzles together.  I am one proud momma in awe of what she learned in a day!

Everyone has an opinion about potty training: when to do it, how old they should be, discipline for accidents, etc.  I have decided on pretty much all aspects of parenting to enjoy the baby stage.  It is so precious and for such a short amount of time; why rush any of the milestones (but I don't plan on her being a late developer either)? Almost everyone I know with a child Gabby's age (she is 2 years, 5 months) have begun the process of potty training or have successfully completed potty training.  Gabby was interested when she turned 2 and actually went potty 2 or 3 times in her potty chair.  We praised her and were extremely proud, but she quickly lost interest to the point where she didn't want anything to do with her potty chair any longer so I decided to wait until she was interested because we are in no hurry at this point.  Then I saw this article, thanks to my cousin Michelle, and I realized that there are benefits to waiting to potty train.  I d...

Gabby's favorite alphabet song by Tilly and the Wall from Sesame Street. For a few months Gabby and I have been working on her letter recognition. She already knows "o" thanks to a shirt I wear to bed. I haven't decided whether she should learn them in alphabetical order, or the letters in her name first. Until the last week she has shown no interest in looking at her name written or singing songs about her name (songs include spelling her name to the tune of "Bingo," a song one of her toys sings spelling her name, cheering, the typical alphabet song, the one from Sesame Street, and random tunes I've made up), but I am proud to say we are finally starting to enjoy singing songs about the alphabet!! When at Grandma's she was playing with a baby Leapster toy that plays only a small portion of the letters at a time Gabby will sing along and get the letters correct, which makes me very proud of her!  It's so cute to see how excited she ge...

All of Gabby's cousins (she was napping) cuddling with G.G. (Photo by Danielle McIlroy) It seems that the topics I am most excited about are the ones that leave me with writers block...I know what you're thinking, Amber who never stops talking can't think of what to say? Well the truth is I have plenty to say it's just does not do justice to the wonderful time we had, but I'll at least give you a glimpse at our fun.  Hopefully the pictures (mainly my sister-in-law's pictures) will depict the amazing time we all had visiting with each other, because a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Gabby met her cousins Molly, Reagan, and Cate for the first time when she was about 2 1/2 months old and she hasn't seem them since (besides in the thousands of pictures I've shown her to make sure she knows who they are), until about a month ago that is!  Gabby and Molly have a special connection because they were born 6 days apart and the last time they sa...

One of Gabby’s favorite places to visit is Chick-Fil-A, but she calls it “nuggets” or “slide with friends.”    Since we are frequent visitors of the establishment we decided to celebrate Cow Appreciation Day for the first time.   For those of you who have never celebrated (or God forbid never heard of) Cow Appreciation Day, it’s a “holiday” created by Chick-Fil-A cows in which you dress up like a cow and receive an entire meal free.   You could go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you like.    Michael and I opted to eat dinner at home because he was working hard building a Murphy Bed (a post for another day) and I wasn’t sure if Gabby would be in a good mood by the time he completed the project.   Lucky for Gabby, Daddy finished the bed in time to make it to Cow Appreciation Day.   Being a procrastinator I hadn’t picked out an outfit for Gabby and I had to make her into a cow fast! While Daddy took a bath I rummaged through her closet and...

Apparently Gabby officially lied for the first time last week.  I don't mean she said "yes" when she meant to say "no", or "no" when she should have said "yes," I mean she came up with a story to get her way! I am in trouble if my barely 2 year old has figured out that there are ways around the truth, especially because she found it quite amusing that her fib achieved the goal she desired.  Every time my Aunt Ellen comes to see Gabby she brings fruit snacks because Gabby warms up to her instantly and it's entertaining to see her all sugared up (normally I don't allow her to have sugary snacks like that but special occasions are fine). This time when Gabby was grubbing down on her sugary treat Aunt Ellen asked if she could have one.  Gabby looked at her with her sweet chubby cheeks and said, "No, Gabby medicine."  Aunt Ellen could not contain herself and laughed hysterically.  Really can you blame her?  Have you ever heard ...

Since Gabby was very small we've had difficulty getting her to go to sleep without a lot of tears from her and heartache for us.  We've tried Super Nanny tactics, my doctor's recommendations, a thousand ways we've read about on the internet and still it's the same fight every night even though Gabby has had the exact same routine for a year and a half (which is 75% of her lifetime) and the result is always the same, a crying baby.  (There is one way to get her to soundly go to sleep and that is allowing her to go to bed with milk, but I would rather her cry a little each night than to have teeth with cavities.) A few nights ago something finally clicked in my head. I try not to be too much of a speech pathologist to Gabby because I am her mommy and she is developing normally so I try to think in mommy mode rather than SLP mode.  Desperate I thought what would I recommend to another Mom at work and it clicked.  Any time a parent is having a serious difficulty wi...

My sister, Lacey, has been telling me for months, maybe even a year that I need to start writing about all aspects of my life, not just Gabby.  It’s difficult to expose all parts of your life on the internet for the world to see so I have resisted this suggestion.  Finally I think I have convinced myself that I am going to attempt to talk about various aspects of my crazy, beautiful life.  Hopefully I can do this in a way that you can relate to and is still entertaining.  I know Gabby is fun and interesting ALL of the time, but me…not so much.     I figure I will start with a simple background, because the point of blogging is for you to feel like you are here to experience my life and relate to my “adventures.”  Obviously my world revolves around Michael and Gabby.  They are my world and are always in my thoughts no matter where I am or what I am doing (which I believe sometimes drives my friends crazy).  Apparently once y...

Easter Eve Easter weekend was a spectacular time for Gabby.  Saturday we went to a crawfish boil at my parents house.  Michael set up the bouncy house in the back yard and Katie and Carley (Gabby's second cousins) jumped with Gabby all afternoon.  After a while, Aiden and Addison also came over to visit and play.  While I was eating crawfish Gabby came over to inspect them.  She was appalled and scared of the cooked crawfish, but very curious about them.  I was wearing gloves (that way I could get to Gabby if there was an emergency), so finally I convinced Gabby to touch a crawfish by putting gloves on her hands.  Catie, Carley and Gabby were the only kids who was brave enough to touch the crawfish (I guess it was the Cajun in them!). Aiden and Addison were highly concerned about the "monsters".  Gabby picked one up and said "bite you."  She is a little comedian. Easter Day Okay so Easter was more like Christmas in the Monties' house....

Good morning from Gabby and her buddy Kit. She got baby Kit a pillow because he needed one if she had one.

I woke up at 4:10 this morning thanks to a small bladder and I have been awake ever since.  My mind was wondering thinking about all of my “big plans” in life and I was annoyed with myself that I could not fall back to sleep knowing that I had to be up and at ‘em by 6:30 on my day off.  Then I faintly heard Gabby scream, not cry….faintly?  I have a baby monitor in my room so I should have heard her screeches clearly, but apparently managed to turn it off somehow for the one time Gabby woke up shrieking in the middle of the night.  When I entered her room I was guessing her diaper leaked and that was why she was upset.  I picked her up and consoled her for a moment and realized her diaper was contained so that wasn’t the reason for the shrieking.  So while looking around her room (and changing her diaper) she started whining “get get” which is what she calls her blanket.  I saw the blanket I covered her with laying outside the crib.  She is very ...

 My favorite picture. She's really enjoying that cone! So nothing really exciting to report.  Gabby and I are watching a tiny baby named Kit on my days off for a month and so I am trying to take advantage of every moment Gabby and I are alone so she has fun and doesn't feel neglected.  Today we had to run a few errands before the baby came over and Gabby some how decided she needed ice cream and for some reason I caved.  I guess because it's rainy and I didn't have any other great fun ideas.  We sat on the porch and watched the rain and ate ice cream.  Apparently this made for an awesome morning for Gabrielle. A mini ice cream cone was the best investment I've made in a long time! I will never forget watching the rain and giggling with Gabby for an hour on the front porch.  I love this sweet girl!  Praise the ice cream!  It's not good unless the proof is on your face.  Gabby thinks the self timer on our came...