D is for Daddy

We went to a pool party with Daddy's co-workers to say farewell to some of his collegues who are moving elsewhere this month. Gabi loved swimming with Daddy!

Gabi riding piggy-back in the pool with Daddy.


Daddy is very tired today, having just finished an overnight shift at work.


Gabi and Daddy dancing in the water.


Gabi's friend Madeline was at the party, too.
On Daddy's day off, we went to the Georgia Aquarium, one of our favorite places.

Daddy helping Gabi pet a cownose stingray.


Mommy helping Gabi touch a horseshoe crab.


Mommy and Gabi admiring the fish.


Gabi and the seaturtle check each other out.


Gabi was quite scared of the whale slide -- it is too fast.


Gabi watches a diver clean the Beluga whale tank.
These days, Gabi's favorite activity at home is dancing. (Well, one of her favorites. She is also fond of reading books and having tea parties.) Many times a day, she will announce, "I'm ready to dance! May I listen to a CD please?" (We have been working on the "May I ___ please" phrase, and she's really gotten it down.) Her favorite CDs are from her Kindermusik classes.

Another source of music is a rocking horse given to us for baby Anna. The little stuffed rocking horse sings Brahms' Lullaby. Gabi will say, "I sing for baby Anna!" and then turn it on and dance to the music. Gabi knows that the toy is Anna's, but she is quite attached to it, so it'll be interesting to see how sharing works once baby Anna actually arrives.

Gabi dancing on the guestbed to the rocking horse lullaby.
Having identified all the capital letters and mastered the phonics for each, Gabi is now beginning to learn the lowercase letters. She still loves to determine what letter a given word starts with, and she can also play that game the other way around -- when prompted with a letter, she can think of a word that begins with that letter. Gabi enjoys spelling her name (using the bathtub letters or dictating to us which letter we should draw), and she likes to read the wooden letters I painted and hung on her wall (although sometimes she reads them backwards). I suppose I will soon need to get letters for Anna's name, too.

Gabi decided that her flower would make a nice belt,
so she wrapped it around her waist and declared it to be pretty.