Sunday, December 31, 2006

Friends and the Aquarium

Gabi enjoys playing with her new toys (whether Christmas presents or hand-me-downs from cousin Steven).

Gabi riding her giant rocking Tigger.


Look, Daddy -- I can rock all by myself!


Gabi also enjoys her new train set.
Choo-choo!


Gabi helps Mickey and Minnie ride their train.


Of all her toys, sometimes fingers are the best.


Giddy-up, Tigger!

Friends

Martin and Gabi like to ride Tigger together.
It's much friendlier with two!


Gabi, Martin, and Ava all hide in the tent together.


We're so funny!


Mommy reads Ava and Gabi a book.


Martin wants in on storytime, too.

Aquarium

Why should I look at the camera when there are all these cool fish?


Gabi makes a face while Daddy smiles for the picture.


Mommy and Gabi with some colorful river fish.


Mommy and Gabi in a tunnel through the river tank.


Gabi found a tree inside the aquarium!


Gabi dancing with a new friend in front of the Amazon river fish.


Gabi gives her new friend a hug.


Gabi touching the interactive kiosk to catch the fish.


Gabi climbing on the "rock climbing wall" at Centential Olympic Park.


Gabi sliding down so she can climb the wall again.

Toddler Bed

Gabi and her new doll, Asha, hanging out in Gabi's new toddler bed.


Gabi feeding Asha a bottle.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Merry Christmas!

At first, Gabi was very excited to open presents. Once she opened one, however, she preferred to play with her new toy rather than open another. In this first picture, she decided to read her new book before pulling the next book out of the same present!

Gabi shows Lola all the animals in her new book.


Lolo gives Gabi a big hug with her new bug and blanket.


Gabi very clearly exclaimed, "Shoes! Neat!"
Now she always asks to put on her "new shoes" (which often get called "new news" even though she can say "shoes" perfectly well without the adjective). She has a similar problem saying "Blue's Clues." She identifies and pronounces the color blue well, but when she puts that word into a phrase, she gets "Cooz-Cooz." To complete the pattern of doubling sounds, Gabi also calls her favorite breakfast cereal (cream of wheat) "wheat-wheat."


Gabi gave Lolo and Lola a picture of the three of them together.


Gabi got a Mommy duck and three baby ducks for Christmas.
She loves to make the Mommy duck drive the babies around
and go "Zoom! Zoom!"


"Penguins!"
Gabi loves many animals, and penguins are one of her favorites,
so these Christmas ornaments were very exciting.




Gabi was most excited about her new American Girl Bitty Baby doll.
We named her Asha, and she gets lots of attention from Gabi daily.


Daddy got a special present with a picture of him and Gabi
and a poem about "My Daddy."


Lola and Lolo read some of Gabi's new books with her.


Gabi loves to ride on her new rocking Tigger.
However, she gets a bit overzealous and can make it tip over forward,
so we need to do some engineering to extend the rocking rails in front.


No hands!

Gabi has so many fun presents! We didn't take pictures of all of them. She got a couple different phonics toys, which is a new concept for this age. Gabi loves to sing and dance along with the ABCs. She enjoys learning her letters and repeating the words that start with each letter. She thinks she can recognize G, A, B, and I, but she's not completely accurate. She also thinks she can draw a G, but it looks suspiciously like a scribble. She does, however, correctly state that both goose and Gabi begin with G (the latter we taught her, and the former she learned from her phonics toys).

The winner of the Most Random Present prize is our dear college friend Katie, who gave Gabi a Shakespeare CelebriDuck. Gabi recognizes it as "Shake-per." So, to Gabi's uncle who mailed our Christmas presents to himself instead of to us: If you got her a Shakespeare duck, you can return it; we already have one. But if you got her a Chaucer duck, send it our way. We have started a collection. ;-)


Did Lolo fall asleep again?

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Advent


Gabi likes English muffins with jelly, especially the jelly.
Our silly girl tends to eat the middle first!

Zoo Atlanta

Gabi found a giraffe statue.


"Horsey!"
Gabi wants to ride the giraffe like a horse.


Gabi investigating the life-size statue of Willie B,
the Atlanta gorilla successfully released into the wild.


Gabi with the lemurs.


Look! Lemurs!


Gabi and Martin holding hands in the zoo parking lot.

Friends

Martin giving Gabi a ride on the airplane.
This airplane has a foot pedal to make it go,
but it's more fun to have friends push you around.


Sienna stacks cups while Gabi stacks blocks.


Gabi and Martin love to play with trains.


Gabi shows us how to push the engineer to make the train go.

Terrific Thursday
The city of Decatur hosts Terrific Thursdays in December leading up to Christmas. All the shops stay open late, and there are fun activities on the square, including a bonfire marshmallow roast, a visit from Santa, and a clown marching band. We went to the Little Shop of Stories for pajama story time and a harpist concert.

Gabi listening to the pan pipes.


Gabi loves this music!


Because she was dancing to their songs,
the musicians invited Gabi to play percussion along with them.


Gabi accompanying the harp and flute with egg shakers.


"Holes!"
Gabi told the woodwind player that his recorder has holes in it.

Christmas Eve

Gabi by the poinsettias and Christmas lights at church.


Gabi sitting in front of the manger.


"Sheep! Baa!"


Our family portrait with Jesus on the cross.


Gabi, Mommy, and Daddy at church on Christmas Eve


Our family portrait with the manger and baby Christ Jesus.