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.

Gaby's new words

Gaby's vocabulary is building by the day. The enunciation could still use some work. It's really amazing though how many words you can build off of the same one or two syllables. For example:

The sound:" Jue" is the way she says he word "Shoe", the word "Juice" and the word "Tutu", which is "JueJue".

"Fwoof Fwoof" is "woof woof", her word for dog, and "Foo-Fiye" is "butterfly".

Although the verbal communication is still light, she combined it quite effectively with body language to communicate her needs and positions incredibly clearly. It's obvious after interacting with her for only a few minutes that she completely understands everything.

Tonight for example she came walking into the room where Annabel and I were watching TV. She was carrying a roll that she apparently swiped from the dinner table. She climbed up on the couch, then laid on her back, unzipped her pajama top and ate the roll while lying down. This of course got crumbs all over her neck and chest which she completely ignored as she chewed and watched TV. After about five minutes of lying there, she turns her head toward me and says "Doe-Doe", which is her word for bottle.

I got up to get her one, and she turned her head back to the TV.
"You are lazy" I said.
She responds by gleefully giggling back at me.

Diapers & Then Some

Diapers & Then Some
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

Gaby's M.O. when it comes to new things is to take her cues from Annabel, then kick it up a notch or two.

Take underpants, for example. Gaby is still in diapers, so underparts don't really make sense for her yet. The problem is that she sees Annabel putting them on, so she wants to wear them too.

We generally put a pair on over her diaper and everyone is happy. That is until recently, when one pair just won't do. For the last few weeks, she's been demanding another pair on over her pants or pajamas as it were.

Last week Kristin told me that Gaby had on FOUR pairs before she was satisfied.

Gaby's Scared Face

gaby's scared face
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

In the run-up to Halloween, there have been a lot of Scary Stories told in the house. Annabel wears her fear on her face in the most dramatic way. She will often put on an exaggerated "fear" face and say:

"I scared Daddy, I scared."

Last week, I noticed that Gaby was making the same face at all the scary parts. I asked her if that was her "Scared" face and she said "Ya."

She will make the Scared face on demand. For this shot, I said simply held up the camera and said "Okay Gaby, make your Scared face."

She immediately launched into the scared face, and started walking toward the camera in her characteristic way.

Too funny.

Vocab at 17 Months

At 17 months Gabby is talking but communicates much more effectively non-verbally. She will take you by the hand to the pantry when she is hungry or point at a toy that we wants. She is incredibly easy to read and she uses her limited vocabulary to great effect.

Here are the top 10:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. no no no no no no no
4. Shoe
5. Hi
6. Bye
7. Uh-Oh Spaghettios!
8. Tickle Tickle
9. Thank you
10. Try this

Cupcake!

 
Shirtless and wearing a necklace is a very luxurious way to eat a cupcake. 

Tahoe 4th of July

Gabby At The Stream

We spent the long weekend in lake Tahoe. It was our first time there. It was a very relaxing family weekend. We spent time swimming at the pool and fishing in the lake. We ate at home most nights. There was a grill there and I was excited to use it. We also went on a nature walk that actually accomodates strollers, which was key. It had a even had a cool feature which was to take you down below a stream outfitted with a glass panel so that you can see all the fish and plantlife. Gabby loved it.


We also went treasure hunting. There are websites where you can get the GPS coordinates of treasure stashes hidden in your neighborhood. It's a sport custom-designed for families with young kids. You bring a small toy with you and then swap it for one in the treasure chest. The kids really love it, and it's nice for the adults to get out into nature every now and then too. Here are a few pictures of us unearthing a treasure chest...

Treasure Chest!

Electric Toothbrush

 
In the morning, Gabby likes to do whatever Kristin does including brushing her teeth. Kristin goes to the bathroom. Gabby follows. Kristin picks up her toothbrush. Gabby points to her toothbrush. Kristin puts on toothpaste and Gabby puts on toothpaste.

Kristin's toothbrush is electric and makes a high pitch sound while Kristin brushes, so Gabby humms loudly while brushing with her regular old analog toothbrush. 

Monteray Aquarium

Dad and Gaby at the Aquarium
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

We went to Moneteray for the weekend. We swam at the hotel pool and went to the aquarium. One night away from home is the perfect amount of time when you have two children under 3.

Everyone had a great time.

Can not sit down to save her life

Charging the Camera
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

Gabs can not sit down to save her life.

We saw a huge metal boat mooring out on fisherman's wharf in Monetray and thought it might make for a nice photo. We tried to set Gabs up on it for a shot. Everytime we tried to sit her down she would leap up and run at the camera, shrieking with delight as she toddled towards it.

We spent about 5 minutes trying before we gave up. This is the best shot we could get.

Click on the picture to see some other attempts.

Gabby's mischief face

Gabby's mischief face
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Gabby has a bit of a naughty streak in her. I think this photo captures the essence of it.

She has recently begun to take special note of the objects on which her older sister is focussed and she manages to find a way to get them. Yesterday, she held out a book that Annabel wanted and then when Annabel reaches out to take it, she pulled it back!

She took great delight in doing it too. This is roughly how her face looked (although without the jello).

Gaby turns one!

Gabrielle turned one year old today.

We had a party for her and her friends this last weekend at the Marin Children's Discovery museum. I'll post some pictures as soon as we download them off the camera. We had about 10 kids and 20 grown-ups running around the second floor party room.



Gaby was a great hostess. She spent most of the party walking around the room from table to table, grabbing things and putting them in her mouth or throwing them on the ground. She was very mobile, cruising all over the room.

Annabel had several of her friends there as well, and she spent most of her time painting with her Grandma. She was very happy to be at the party and she has been talking ever since about all the fun things she will do when its time for her party.

Kristin did a great job with the party planning. There wasn't a long face in the crowd.

At age one, Gaby is happy, cheerful and exuberant. She cackles and shrieks in the best way.

First Word: Dada

Gabby At The Beach
Originally uploaded by Rgold.

I think it is now official. Gabrielle's first word was Dada. For a while it could be argued that she was saying "danda" or "Datdat", but I think things have started to coalesce around "dada".

She will say it while she is supposed to be sleeping beside me on the bed and will then dig her fingernails into my nose so that its clear who she is talking about.

She sometimes makes a sound like a gentle lilting "eeehh" before so it almost likes like "Hi Dada"

Faking it?

 

Gabrielle, when removed from Kristin's arms will begin whining immediately and then after a minute or two will burst into tears. She seems legitimately upset, but if you return her to Kristin's arms, she'll stop crying immediately. Sometimes she even smiles and coos just a second or two after being reunited.

I think she's already learning how to run the show :) 

Gaby's First Christmas

Gaby is deep in the troughs of a profound mommy addiction at the moment. She can't be away from her for more than a minute or two at the most before bursting into tears which absolutely will not stop until Kristin returns.

That has been the key theme of the holiday season for Gaby this year, and it's tough on both Gaby and Kristin. It started about a week ago and seems to be getting worse by the day. I'm hoping it fades before Kristin and I take our 3 day vacation around New Years.

Flying in late on Christmas eve didn't help either. Gaby had a hard time adjusting to the strange bed, and kept Kristin up most of the night. Heading into Christmas morning, both Kristin and Gaby were completely sleepless.

The good news is that when she is with mommy, she is cheerful and bubbly. She had a really good time on Christmas day. She got a stuffed bird, an Angelina Ballerina doll, a bracelet from Sue and of course JoJo the Giraffe. As would any self-respecting 8 month old, she ritualistically inserted each gift into her mouth. I think that she found that very satisfying.

We are looking forward to Hanukkah with her in Florida next weekend.

They are so different

It's 11:30 and Gaby just woke up. We usually let her cry for a few minutes and she often falls back aleep. She is a little sick now though (slight cold) and so I picked her up pretty much right away. I fed her a bottle and was stuck by how different she is from Annabel.

Gabs is so quiet when whe wakes up. She hardly cries, its sort of more like a whine, and then when you go in, she stops right away. She is slow and gentle when you pick her up. Annabel would often kick and be cranky. Gaby wants to be soothed and seems happy to go back to sleep I put her back down half-awake and then said night night and left. As I was walking out, I saw her roll over on her side and cuddle her blanket up to her. It was so cute!

Kristin and the girls

Waiting to eat lunch in San Bruno.