It All Started with a Little Skittle...

So this is what 4 looks like.  At 4 Gabby has the following skills: Writing and identifying some letters Telling jokes Understanding when others are joking with her Using her imagination Memorizing entire movies and quoting them Having a huge vocabulary including the words: hilarious, ridiculous, and compensate Ride her bicycle with training wheels Play hopscotch Balance on one foot Hop on one foot Knows some letters Draw monsters, people, sun, sky, grass, circles, squares, a cat, and a lot more Play with her older friends She can hop, run, jump, and hold herself up on monkey bars for a few seconds She can jump from the monkey bars She can swing independently Identify her numbers 1-9 (when interested) These are only a few of her immense number of skills. Now for the fun part: Gabby found this "4" all by herself and insisted we take photos near it since she just turned 4. This is her genuine happiness playing in nature.  She was picking f...

Let’s be clear, Gabby’s birthday celebration wasn't a day event like the typical person, oh no! It was a birthday month and we made the most of it all.  Her birthday month celebration began at Vic and Anthony’s (a place where only princesses celebrate) and then Papasito’s celebrated her birthday early when she informed the waitress that her birthday was March 17 th .  We also celebrated on her actual birthday, the day before her party, her birthday party, at dinner after her party.  When we went to Texas Roadhouse with Grandma and Grandpa. Gabby informed them that it was almost her birthday party.  Naturally, they sang to Gabby (she grinned from ear to ear) and they also sat her on a saddle and did a good southern ‘yee haw’ in celebration.  She got a huge kick out of this.  Sitting on the saddle while they sang "Happy Birthday" Finally, our last celebration was the night of her birthday party when they gave her ice cream and sang Happy Birthday...

Valentine's was a fun two day event in our house.  Michael surprised me by sending flowers to work, which I loved.  When I arrived at work my boss asked if I had talked to Amy (a close friend and co-worker) about my flowers, when I told her no and asked what happened, my boss said she would let Amy tell me the story.  Moments later Amy arrived in my room and told me to open my flowers, which I did.  I read the card to her, "I love and cherish you" and then she dragged me into her room.  Excitedly she pointed to her own roses and told me to read the card, "To Second Wife" (Michael's nickname for her because he helps her fix things like a husband would do).  We both were dying laughing.  Michael made my Valentine's by thinking about others on this day, which reminded me why I married him, he has such a big heart! Gabby's pink chocolate chip waffles for breakfast before school The next day was Gabby's Valentine's Day (real Valentine...

When a package arrived on our doorstep today and it was addressed to Gabby she was elated and had to open it at that very moment.  Luckily my phone was in hand so I could video tape her reaction.  She laboriously opened the package to find a beautifully detailed carefully mimicking textures and binding of the infamous "get get" that Grandma made very quickly when she found out Gabby needed a blanket that was large enough to cover her entire body.  Gabby's reactions to the new blanket (which she now calls Hello Kitty blankie) was an array of emotions in about a two minute period. First, she started to cry because she was afraid it was intended to replace her "Regular Pink Get Get", but once I explained that we were not going to take her "Get Get" away she started to inspect the blankie and admire it. She loved the fact that the satin was light pink like her other blanket and the more she inspected it the more excited she became.  She discovered Grandma ...

Gabby attempted to do chores to earn money to get her face painted at the parade Gabby was happy to have her best friend Addison there to celebrate the festivities She endured smooches from Uncle Mark while waiting for the parade to begin Throw me some beads! Dancing with her beads Happy Mardi Gras Y'all!

Michael decided that he wanted to take Uncle Mark to a dinner at Vic and Anthony's while he was in town.  We were planning to ask Grandma and Papa to watch Gabby while we went out to eat; however, Grandma and Papa were in Las Vegas during the majority of his visit so we decided to allow Gabby to come with us (but we were admittedly a little concerned of her behavior).  We talked up the dinner for a week, discussing how princesses went to this place to eat and how they were expected to behave.  I carefully made early dinner reservations to help with her mood and we decided that the dinner would be considered an early birthday celebrations for Gabby, which was literally the icing on the cake solidifying her behaving throughout the entire night. So the night of the dinner arrived and we all got dressed up and headed to the restaurant.  Gabby was so excited! When we arrived she admired that large live lobsters with Daddy and then they lead us all to our table.  ...

On Monday while I was cleaning up the chaotic mess we had from a weekend of hard work (almost exclusively from Michael) in Gabby's play room (which is so close to completion), Gabby colored in my room.  All of the sudden I heard shrill excited screeching, "Mom! Mom! Mom!"  Gabby ran in the play room and said look what I did! I drew a ball! I looked closely at her picture, and that this exactly what she had done.  She looked at a green whiffle ball and drew it independently and very close to scale.  Gabby learned how to do a still life with no instruction.  I was truly impressed! I think she has some the artistic ability of her Nanny, Daddy, Grandpa, and Great Grandma Lorraine. She never fails at surprising me!