Saturday, August 26, 2006

Chocolate and Flowers

Hooray! More pictures of our daughter, with...

Chocolate
Featuring some of Gabi's new favorite foods


Gabi learned the word "cupcake" while at the reunion a few weeks ago. Daddy suggested that we make some more cupcakes at home... you know... to improve her vocabulary (which is now well over 100 words, if you're counting). So mommy lovingly baked some yellow-cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting, and we've heard "cuh-ceek! cuh-ceek!" on numerous occasions since. In fact, as we were riding to church today, Gabi spontaneously decided to ask for cupcakes. She must dream about them.


Daddy also decided to save Gabi some pudding last week. You can't tell from this picture, but Gabi is actually quite adept at using her spoon. She just tends to scoop up bites that are bigger than her little mouth can handle.


Here we see Gabi eating blueberries. Not chocolate, but believe me, a definite favorite for the little one. She can identify blueberries so well that we had to hide the box of Frosted Flakes (with pictures of blueberries on the front) to head off the excited chorus of "boo-burr-ee!" whenever we entered the kitchen.

Flowers
A visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden


Gabi loves flowers. Mommy has taught her daughter how to smell flowers the mommy-way... by sticking your nose into it. Okay, you've seen Gabi sniffing flowers before... probably more than once, but she just really likes the "smell the flowers" game. (Okay, just a few more examples, for you neophyte Gabi fans.)


This is one of Mommy's favorite pictures. Gabi discovered a tree growing across the path and delighted in walking under it. Peek-a-boo!


This is one of Daddy's favorite pictures. Not much in the way of flora and fauna here, but Mommy is helping Gabi learn to walk down the stairs. Gabi is so smart. She knows that walking down stairs is dangerous--even without ever having fallen down any.


In the Children's Garden, we found a few play areas with Gabi's favorite piece of playground equipment--the slide. Whee!


Also in the Children's Garden, there was a neat little gnome-themed cove with this fun bridge to cross.


Gabi, what do frogs say? "(in a low voice) Arrrubuh." Can you find the frog in this picture? (Hint: Mommy is pointing at it.)


Daddy and Gabi (a bit waterlogged--more on this below) in front of the Japanese Bonsai garden. This was one of the few gardens we weren't allowed to explore. It looked pretty though.

The Waggle Dance


As part of the Children's Garden, we learned about honeybees and their "waggle dance". Bees do a special figure-eight dance with tail waggling to tell each other where to find pollen.


This exhibit had stepping stones with instructions on how to do a waggle dance. Mommy showed Gabi how to flap her wings and waggle like a honeybee...


...and then Gabi did a waggle dance with Daddy! Waggle-waggle-waggle!

The Water Fountains


Perhaps the highlight of our visit to the botanical garden on this hot Georgia day was a romp through the water fountains, also featured in this playgroup post.


Daddy helped Gabi swoop through the side fountains, spouting out of the ground. We went forwards...


...and backwards! Gabi really likes being held upside-down, as long as it isn't for too long.


We also ventured into the sunflower-shaped showers in the middle, both forwards...


...and backwards! Both Daddy and Gabi were quite soaked by the end of this adventure, but neither of us really seemed to mind. Water is fun!

...and Shoes
Daddy's shoes, actually


Shoes are Gabi's favorite piece of clothing. She likes to put on her own shoes, but she even more enjoys putting on other shoes, which usually fit over her shoes quite easily. One morning, Mommy was finishing her breakfast and watched Gabi climb into Daddy's shoes!


She figured out how to put them on all by herself this time. What a smart little girl!

That's it for now! Until next time, Gabi fans...

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