First Face

This is a photo of Gaby holding her first drawing of a face. I've been meaning to post this for a while now. The actual date on the photo is 10/28/2007.

I just looked back and noticed that Annabel's first face happened at around the same age.

I think the drawing speaks for itself. She says that the circles on top of the head are ears and the lines on either side of the nose are arms :)

Bugglebee!

Gaby has a special sort of rhythm. It's very catchy and very funny. She will find words or phrases that she likes to say, and then through relentless repetition and giggling, she will get everyone around her saying them as well.

It's amazing to see, and I can confirm that through sheer force of personality, she can create a situation where everyone is following her lead even at age two and half. Here is a recent example:

She is sitting in her carseat in the backseat and happily babbling gibberish.

"Biggle, Baggle, Shiggle, Shaggle, Bugglebee. Bugglebee." She stumbles onto a word that she likes.
"Bugglebee, thats a good one" she says (I'm not kidding, she actually said "thats a good one")
"Hey Annabel, Bugglebee!"
"Bugglebee." Annabel says with a bit of a question mark.
Gaby Giggles
"Bugglebee, Annabel. Bugglebee! hahahaha"
"Bugglebee!" says Annabel, now getting the joke.
"Hey Daddy, Bugglebee!"
"Yeah, Bugglebee!" I say
"hahaha" She says. "Mommy, Bugglebee!"
"Bugglebee Gabs" says Kristin.
"hahaha" says Gabs.

Now Kristin and I are looking at each other and everyone is laughing.

Unfortunately, it then continues for about 10 minutes, driving us grownups crazy.

Of course the kids never stop loving it.

Family Fun Day 2007

Last weekend was "family fun day" at the girls pre-school. It is a frenzied affair wherein 100 or so pre-schoolers along with parents, older siblings and assorted relatives run amok in a carnival-like environment featuring activities, shows, food and games.

Kristin co-chaired the event and worked almost around the clock in the final few days to pull it off. Its a huge undertaking by any standard and despite the obvious challenges of putting so many toddlers together in one place, I must say that it came off like clockwork. Crazy, screaming, chaotic clockwork.

The theme this year was "The Great Outdoors". There was a fishing pond set up in the fountain, tents pitched in the courtyard, campfire sing-a-longs In the theater and a "starry night" room where volunteers read stories by flashlight.

The girls both really loved it. Annabel decorated a hat, listened to some stories and then competed in some hippity-hop races and then ran around with her friends.

Gabs spent a good amount of time jumping in the inflatable jumpy castle and then fished in the fishing pond and ate a s'more.

There were also animals there for the kids to see including a large turtle and a corn snake which both girls were excited to hold. The handler said that Gaby was the youngest girl to hold the snake that day. As you can see, she did not seem at all frightened.

Pumpkin Day

Sunday was pumpkin day for the Goldman Girls. The plan was to drive out to the "countryside" (Half Moon bay) to go to a legitimate pumpkin patch, but traffic leaving the city was so bad that we stopped at the first place we saw, which was on the south side of San Francisco.

The girls picked their pumpkins and then of course wanted to go home and carve them right away, which we did.

Gaby mostly scribbled on hers so I embellished on her design a bit when at carving time. Annabel drew a pretty good Jack-o-lantern face though, which I carved out as faithfully as I could. Both girls were a little skittish about the de-gooping process, but once their hands were wet they seemed to loosen up a bit.

The pumpkins have made Halloween very real for the girls. So much so that neither one can understand how it is still so many days away. For each of the last three days I've had them ask "Daddy, is today Halloween?"

I roasted the seeds and we now have a good sized bowl-full. I suspect there are more than enough to last all the way to Halloween.

Recent Developments

I know its been many months since I've last written. Thanks to you loyal readers who are still checking this space. I will try to keep it more up to date in the future.

We've been quite busy lately and the biggest news for the family is that we now finally have a house! I've included one picture of it below.



We close next Thursday and should move in by mid-November. It was a very long time coming.

It's also been a very big few months for Gaby. For one thing, she has started school. She and her sister now both attend the same pre-school. Gaby is with the 2-3 year olds in the Pink Room and Annabel is with the four-five year olds in the Yellow Room. The first day was a bit tearful for Gabs, but she came around quickly. Unlike Annabel, Gaby already knew many of the children in the school from tagging along on the birthday and playdate circuit with her sister.

Apparently she plays hard and is exhausted after recess (which is now call "free choice time"). She spends a good deal of time and energy trying to peddle a tricycle that they have on the playground. When we pick her up from school and ask how her day went, she will invariably tell us whether she could "put the tricycle away" or not.

She likes all the children in the class, but no favorites seem to have emerged yet. When she does talk about the other kids, it's usually the boys names that she mentions.

She seems to be maintaining her impishness. Here is something she said yesterday about her teacher Katie to Kristin and I:

"Katie say no painting on balls, just paper."

This is a picture of her on her first day of class.



She is also now just about 85% potty trained. She still wears a diaper to bed, but we've now gone almost a week with no accidents.

She is also growing more and more verbal and is making suprising connections between things she has seen. Yesterday, for example she saw me shaving and came over and pointed to my face saying "Daddy, you have creamcheese on your face!"

Last weekend the girls were flowegirls at their aunt Heather's wedding. They had a fantastic time and haven't stopped talking about it since it happened. Here's a picture of Gaby at the reception in her flower-girl finery.

Boyfriend's Head

Gaby has recently discovered the joy of the Polly Pocket toy franchise. If you've never seen them before, they are little plastic dolls that come with a vast wardrobe of rubber clothes that you can put on and take off. I'd say the average doll comes with at least 30 items of tiny rubber clothing. We first discovered them with Annabel and they have the same captivating effect on Gaby. She can spend hours playing with them in relative silence.

Now these are girly toys mind you. They have girlish alliterative names like "Polly Fab Flower" or "Groovy Glam Pony". So you can imagine my surprise when Gaby came to me last week holding a headless doll in her hand saying "Boyfriend's head popped off!". Now I have never seen a male Polly Pocket doll and I didn't think such a thing existed. Apparently it does. I'm not sure where the name boyfriend came from, but I thought the whole thing was hilarious. I replaced the head and gave it back. Several minutes later, she returned with the torso and the same story about the head having "popped off". Now it took some force to get the head back on so, the "popping" story didn't seem likely but I let it go and replaced the head a second time.

Then later that night, I saw the headless body of boyfriend lying on the living room floor with no head in sight.

"Gaby, where is boyfriend's head?" I asked
"Oh, it gone." She said.

I found it under the couch later that night. Tonight is the first time she's played with it since then, and incredibly, the head "popped" off again. This time I got a picture.

Horsies, I Back!

 

We spent a few days earlier this Month at my uncle's farm in Northern Michigan. The girls loved the farm animals, especially the horses and the donkeys. When Gaby first saw the horses in a fenced in horse area, she ran over and reached her hand through the fence to pet the horses on the nose. Eric, the animal's caretaker was surprised that she wasn't more scared of them, as apparently most kids are. (Although Annabel warmed right up to them also, particularly the white one.)

But Gaby was particularly fond of them, and ran over like they were old friends. I've noticed her do this in social situations with children too. She will walk right up to a child, even one several years older, and engage them in conversation with the assumption that they will get along just fine.

We had to take her away from the horses after a few minutes of petting to change her diaper and she did NOT want to leave. As soon as she could see the horses post-change, she called out at the top of her voice "Horsies, I back!" as though they would be happy to see her. :)

The finale to the experience was the donkey ride into the barn. Picture above.

And here are a few other shots:

Chocolate in my mouth!

Gaby is always hungry. It's getting ridiculous. It is now 11:55pm here and as I checked my email Gaby woke up crying for Kristin. I went in and asked what was the matter and she said "I Hungry!".

Maybe this is a growth spurt coming on or something, because "I hungry" is a regular refrain from her. I've found that sitting in the backseet of the car tends to really bring on the hunger. She will call it out from the backseat.

"I hungy daddy, I hungry mommy".

It actually sounds more like:

"I uuhhnngry mommy, I uuhhnngry daddy."

also we often get the more imperative:

"Me juice!"

And once last week, we got:

"I want chocolate in my mouth!"

Gaby remains asssertive and crystal clear about what she wants from the world. If she could, she would drink a gallon of juice a day. We are trying to limit her to 8 ounces. It's a struggle.

I just told her to go back to sleep and that we can eat in the morning.

I Pirate!

It's hard to say whether it was Shrek The Third or our recent purchase of Peter Pan on DVD, but somehow Gaby has become enamored of Pirates. Tonight after dinner she ran around the living room with her legs stiff at the knees hopping from one leg to the other with her hands in the air saying "I pirate!, I pirate!". I think this was maybe her imitation of Captain Hook's peg-legged running style?

Annabel relates much more with Tinkerbell...

one arm cranking around in a giant circle

 

Today was Gaby's birthday party. There were about 20 children and 30 to 40 grownups. We had it at Rochambeau Playground here in the city. Roughly half of the kids were Annabel's friends or classmates and the other half were Gaby's age.

Gaby spent the first 20 minutes playing by herself on the playground, apparently a warm up period of some sort. She is getting to be a good climber. She is way more aggressive and confident than Annabel was at her age. She's developing balance very quickly and she has come a long way even in the last few weeks. She practically walked up one of those infamous curved jungle gym ladders that I remember as being particularly tricky.



Then she started socializing. She moved between the younger kids and the older kids with ease and probably spent more time with the older kids who seemed to accept her as a peer despite her much less developed verbal skills.

She does find the most amazing ways of communicating non-verbally. She would walk, or sometimes skip from person to person out on the playground saying hello and encouraging them to come join her out on the playground. At one point she hopped past me with one arm cranking around in a giant circle and loudly saying "Yay! Yay! Yay!"

Kristin and I got her a Fisher Price Digital Camera for kids. It's a great product. Both kids were snapping pictures in no time. I downloaded the results just now. They shot 78 pictures. Mixed in with about 60 blurry shots of tables, chairs, car interiors, shoes, and other unidentifiable objects were about 18 pretty good pictures. Here's a link to the good ones:

GabyCam

Here are the ones that I took They aren't much better. :)

Happy Birthday Gaby!

 

Gaby turned two years old today. Her official party is on Sunday, but we had a big cake and small party for her tonight with the family.

She loved every minute of it.

An Experiment In Mainlining Sugar

 

Gaby has really turned a corner recently in her ability to communicate and interact with other kids. Now she plays with Annabel and Annabel's 3-4 year old friends whenever they are around. Although she is younger and smaller, she makes up in enthusiasm everything that she lacks in maturity.

She woke up on Sunday morning in s grumpy mood. When Kristin suggested an egg hunt, she had no interest in the idea. She needed to be carried unwillingly into the hunting grounds before she started to get the thrilling gist of it. Within seconds, she was racing around the living room giggling and trying to get to the eggs before her sister.

As much fun as the hunt turned out to be, it was nothing compared to the discovery a few minutes later that the eggs contained chocolate!

I would put Gaby's candy consumption over the next few hours somewhere between impressive and astonishing. In fact at times it seemed like the holiday was an experiment in the effects of mainlining sugar. Legend would have it that a terrible stomach ache should ensue. I actually hoped that there would be some consequences for that kind of candy intake that could be used as a teachable moment. But no. All that happened is that both girls fell in a sugar coma half-asleep in a daze on the couch at about 6:00pm.

The Abstract Brushwork of Gaby Goldman

Gaby Goldman	Cy Twombly
(Our Refrigerator)	(Musée National d´Art Moderne)

Gaby has started to enjoy painting and she sometimes demands it with a hearty "Paint!" command issued to Kristin or I.

The above is a good example of her recent work. I'm sure this will later be referred to as her scribble period, but even at this early stage, the art critic in me has to commend her on her bold color choice, confident brushwork and excellent use of white space.

Just to prove my point, how different is her work from this Cy Twombly painting which is hanging in the National Gallery in Paris? I think you see what I'm saying.

Here are a few other recent works.

 

Gaby saw the dentist today for the first time. Our dentist has a dog, Coconut, to keep the kids happy while they are getting their teeth cleaned. She also has Peter Pan playing on the tv screen right above the dental chair, as well as a large supply of stickers, dental-related coloring books, toys, etc. available for prizes for good behavior such as quitting the pacifier or bottle. She gives them blinking tooth brushes with timers to help them know how long to brush. She paints their teeth purple (which they love) to show where they need to brush more. She also gives them a choice of flavors for the toothpaste and flouride treatment; they chose chocolate and bubblegum, respectively.

All in all, both girls did great. Annabel was SUPER easy at the dentist (she's easy at the doctor too, for that matter). I think Annabel enjoys the attention. Gaby has a harder time with it all, but she managed to make it through, although she sobbed through most of her teeth cleaning and exam.

1932 Ford Roadster In Pink

 

My dad visited last week and brought with him the one of the more remarkable gifts that the girls have received to date. It's a pedal car version of a 1932 Ford Roadster compelete with authentic hood louvers, real rubber tires, a working steering wheel and all the bells and whistles. It's pretty true to the original too (see photo below).

We unpacked it and put it together while the girls were at the park with Kristin. That gave us the opportunity to stage things for maximum impact. When they came into the room, we had a Price Is Right moment, like when they lift the curtain on... "A NEW CAR!"

Both girls really enjoyed it, although it is further evidence (as if any was needed) that our current apartment is way too small for our family.

Gaby can say her name

Here is a recent interview with the kids. Gaby has been referring to herself lately. It sounds like "Babby", but we know what she means. You can hear it right at the start of this interview video. In addition to having Gabs say her name on video, we also cover such important topics as favorite colors, favorite movies and the importance of sharing beads with your sister.

The Sporting Challenge Of Maintaining Order

We spent a few minutes in a bookstore in Mendocino this weekend. They have a lot of kid stuff on display down at toddler eye-level which makes the normally sporting challenge of maintaining order almost impossible.

Case in point: As we left the store a few minutes later, we noticed that Gaby had re-worked her Jacket, considerably improving its kid-appeal through the liberal addition of colored heart stickers, which she apparently found on a sticker rack in the store. I believe that she applied the stickers in a clandestine manor behind the rack but there were no eye-witnesses so it's hard to say for sure.

We had to go back in and pay for them.

Recovering from a toy overdose

Gabs is a little sick from the holiday break. As I type this entry, I can hear her coughing away in the next room. She is stoic about it. When it comes to her health, Gaby is just not a complainer. She regularly shakes off the sorts of bumps, knocks and scratches that regularly undo her sister completely.

She is also recovering from a Christmas toy overdose. Although I don't think she fully understands the idea of Santa Claus yet, she certainly understands presents, and she loved opening and playing with hers.

She was particularly fond of her crib and baby dolls, which she took care of dutifully. She was regularly putting them night night and feeding them pretend juice from the accessory juice bottles. She also liked her Mei and Totoro dolls (from her favorite movie).

It was fun to see Gabs in action in front of her extended family over the break. I was glad that they got a chance to see several of Gaby's signature moves including her sprawled out on the couch, beer-belly style of watching movies to her assertive "No, Fwoof Fwoof!" when the dog would bark.

She missed her uncle Rick and asked about him regularly. Apparently before I arrived the girls along with their cousins, aunts and grandmothers all went for a ride to look at the Christmas lights and they ran across a motorcycle light display. My mom pointed out to Gaby that uncle rick rides a motorcycle from that moment on, every time we drove past Christmas lights, Gaby would point to them and say "Gick Bye-Bye, Gick Bye-Bye".

On the way back to San Francisco, we stopped off at the gift shop in the Des Moines airport for the obligatory corn head photo, which we have taken of both Kristin and Annabel in years past.