The Paladinos

Last weekend we took Gabby to the zoo in Tulsa with some friends.  She loved seeing the animals that were actually out or awake and always loves being outside.   We didn't get any pictures with animals but we did get some cute family shots with the beautiful fall foliage. 

Also below are Gabby's diva pictures.  Gabby's friend Hannah brought over some dress up shoes, necklace and earrings.  Gabby thought she was very special and big with all of her new accessories on. 

Today we went "hiking" at Devil's Den.  Gabby had a good time playing in the leaves and looking at the water.  She wasn't wild about wearing her coat and hat but we worked through that eventually.  Enjoy all the pictures!

Holding hands with Grayson AGAIN (should we be worried?) 

Gabby with her walking stick

 
She loved throwing the leaves in the air

 
Gabby saw some other hikers at this point and this is her shy face

I think just about everyone knows by now but just in case not, we'll be adding a new member to our family next year.  I will be 11 weeks pregnant on Monday and our due date is June 1st.  So far I definitely feel and look pregnant.  I've been nauseous off and on and feel pretty tired and hungry most of the time.  But hopefully that will pass soon.  Gabby looks pretty confused when we try to tell her there's a baby in mommy's tummy so I guess we'll have to keep working on that. 

We had our first doctor's appointment and ultrasound last week.  The baby has a good heartbeat and was sleeping soundly (maybe this will be a relaxed baby).  The ultrasound photo is below.  The baby's head is on the right and you can kind of make out little arms and legs on the left.  We're very excited and can't wait to find out what we're having and to meet our little baby.

Baby's First Ultrasound

This year Gabby was a skunk.  Yes, she'll probably hate us for it someday but we decided to have fun with it while we can.  There will be plenty of princess costumes in our future.  She went trick-or-treating for the first time with some of our friends and their two girls.  She loved it and I'm afraid could have gone all night if we had let her.   

The costume didn't keep her from her yard work duties. 

Or playing on the swing.

Look out...there are dangerous forest creatures out there.
Gabby with friends Grayson (monkey) and Logan (bear).

Yesterday was a very eventful day for the family.  Papa Dino was in for a visit so we went fishing at the Nature Center/Wells Lake.  Gabby had her own little pink Barbie pole but Papa was the only one who caught a fish.  Yesterday afternoon we met our friends at the Wild Things Farm where we saw goats, pigs, chickens, horses, and sheep.  Gabby wasn't too impressed with the goats or pig but she liked petting the horse.  We took a hay ride and played with pumpkins.  It was quite a big day for everyone and we were all pretty tired.

Nice catch, Papa Dino!

Gabby with her friends Grayson and Logan

Gabby holding hands with Grayson

Gabby getting to pet a horse

Gabby has been a lot of fun the past few weeks.  She's saying more and more words and is really starting to try to copy things that we say or do.  I'm not going to include a list of her new words because there are just too many.  She can pretty much say anything that we can (even though you might not be able to understand it).  She has been such a good girl lately and really seems to be getting happier now that she can do more things and communicate better.  Not that she hasn't always been a happy girl, but she's definitely been a little more on the negative side in the past.  She's very cuddly and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She loves to investigate things and hears a lot of "no no Gabby."  But we have found that time outs in the crib are pretty effective if we really need to get a point across.  She still loves to get up in her crib and play by herself.  She can go for 15-30 minutes of just playing with her stuffed pony (thank you Aunt Patty) in her crib by herself.  She likes to cover her stuffed animals up and give them bottles, etc.  She also lays down with them and pats them like she's a little mommy.  She loves to be tickled under the chin and arms and on her sides.  At the moment she loves to eat turkey hot dogs and any kind of fruit.  She's down to one nap a day which usually goes for about 2 hours.  She's still going to Mother's Day Out 2 days a week and loves it.  I don't even get a bye when I drop her off.  She just goes right in.   

We've included a few pictures from a "Touch-A-Truck" event at Chick-Fil-A a couple of weeks ago where they had different trucks that kids could see and ride on/in.  Also a few more cute pics and a funny video in the bath.  I know we probably shouldn't do nudey shots in the bath anymore but this was just too cute.  Be sure to turn up your sound and listen to the words.  

Well, it's time for the latest update on our big girl.  Miss Gabby is really starting to earn her name.  She was very talkative this weekend and is really trying to enunciate words which sounds so funny.  She can say a lot of words now including, yum yum, fish, done, dog, please, amen (when singing if you're happy and you know it), duck, me, me, me, and me.  We hear that one a lot now.  When we tell her animal names she repeats the names back with her version of how to say it.  She can understand a lot of things that we tell her and understands to go and get things when asked or throw something away.  She helps mommy in the kitchen sometimes with pouring or carrying things back and forth.  We've been practicing sharing and being nice to Mr. Teddy Bear because she might have had a few problems with that at Mothers Day Out.  Let's just say there was a hair pulling and face scratching incident.  But I guess that's normal at this age.

She had a very big Labor Day weekend and the pictures are included below as well as some pictures from a recent Papa Mike and Mimi visit.  Thank you for the toys!  She's been very occupied with her kitcen and car.  She just keeps getting more and more fun and is such a sweet little girl.  Also included below are some random pictures playing with the new camera.      

Playing in her friend Hudson's pool at his 2nd birthday party

Playing with Dexter dog


Yes, she's going in a doggie door


And coming back out


Visit with Papa Mike, Mimi, and cousin Arleigh


Swinging with cousin Arleigh


Peek a boo


Playing with her new car











This girl isn't scared of anything






This is when she decided she wanted to be a skunk for halloween






Walking in mommy's shoes and socks

As always we have a lot to update you on.  I think we'll just let the pictures speak for themselves though.

Wearing Papa Dino's cool sunglasses


Playing in pool at Andy, Michelle & Cecelia's going away party

Swinging with daddy and cousins Clara Rose and Cecilia

At Nature Center with Daddy while Mommy did a girls day out


At Nature Center

Today we visited Lake Ft. Smith and got some cute shots.  She had such a good time.

Just to give you an idea of how big she's gotten

This is how Gabby dances right now.  Probably not the healthiest thing but she seems to like it.  She has been very vocal the last couple of days and yesterday said blueberry for the first time.  It came out "blahb" the first time but by the second or third time she had it down to "booberry".  She got upset at one point and wanted mommy to pick her up so she started just throwing out words she knew and came up with "booberry, meme, mama" said in this cute little crying voice.  She'll be calling you all on the phone to talk in no time.   

Look at this, two blog entries in one week!  GranDeb will be so excited.  We just wanted to share the fun summer day that Gabby had today.  It rained for a few minutes so she played outside in the rain (which we don't have a picture of, but you do get to see the curls that showed up even more after the rain).  We ran back and forth on the sidewalk and she loved just standing there getting wet.  She had watermelon for dinner which you can see she also loved.    

 

Gabby has been a very busy girl lately.  The week before last she was in Mother's Day out two days instead of one and Wednesday she and Mommy drove to Northwest Arkansas to visit friends.  Apparently we're going to have to keep the girl on the move because she was in the best mood all week long and didn't want to stop going.  As you can see from some of the below pictures, she went swimming with her friend Hudson, then visited her friend Noah and then went swimming again with her friends Logan and Grayson all in the same day.  Wow!  She'll have a lot of boyfriends to pick from when we allow her to date at age 35.  This last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Gramma and Grampa came down to stay with her while Mommy and Daddy got away for a few days to Tulsa.  It was a very needed break from reality and we enjoyed stuffing ourselves silly, shopping and going to movies.  Gabby had such a good time with her grandparents and I think got a little spoiled with ice cream and not hearing the word no.  But that's what grandparents are for.  This week the days we have spent at home have been very boring for Gabby so I guess we'll have to get creative this summer while it's too hot to go outside and find her other activities. 

Her new favorite game is playing in our shower (while it's off of course) and she begs to go to the garage to play with her stroller and "drive" the car.  No new words yet but she's been getting really good at saying please or "plah".  She's been having fun on her tummy and started laying down in the bath a couple of days ago.  She just lays down on her tummy and kicks in the water.  It's pretty cute.  Today we went to story time at the library.  She was more in to pushing her stroller than listening but we'll keep trying it.  She did enjoy the snack time and playing in the kids section after story time.

We got a new "professional" camera so some of the shots below are just trying that out.  I'm sure we'll have people begging us to take their picture in no time.  :)

Swimming in her friend Hudson's pool
 

Hudson pushing Gabby

 Playing with her friend Noah

 Swimming with her friends Logan and Grayson