Long time no update

Well...it's been a while since Gabby's Daddy has posted anything, so I'll give you a quick update.

Last weekend, Joe and I went to NYC for Alicia and Dave's wedding. The whole family packed up for the weekend and went to Babci and Papa and Auntie Marta's house on Thursday night. Gabby was a good girl and slept the whole way in the car, and transitioned nicely into her pack-n-play there without waking up at all.

While Mommy and Daddy were off on their first weekend ever together without Gabby (since Gabby's birth, of course), Gabby was having a blast. She played with her toys, went for walks, took a bath with the help of Auntie Marta and Auntie Meagan, and played dress up with a babushka, a dress and tights, and a cute winter hat for her upcoming January ski-trip. From what we hear, however, her favorite pasttime of all was watching and reaching for Thursday, the cat. (Apparently, she got her penchant for kitties from Wee Z).

Playing with her toys

In her stroller with a babushka

Dressing up

Trying on the ski-hat from Auntie Marta

When we met back up with G on Sunday afternoon, she had a bit of a cold. No sooner had she recovered from the croup, than she came down with her next illness. Bummer. Poor G. So...this week has been a tough one for all of us. Gabby's been spending her nights inclined in her crib with the humidifier blasting, and although she's been sleeping through her coughing fits, we, her parents, are not, so we're quite sleep deprived by now. We keep thinking she's better each day, but the nights are still tough. Hopefully she'll be back to her healthy self soon. (The good news is that she's been fine during the day... it's only at night that the coughing seems to bother her).

Monday night, the three of us enjoyed Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner with family, (although Gabby slept through it all). Gabby also enjoyed extra time with her parents on Tuesday and Wednesday since we were home from work for Rosh Hashanah.

In developmental updates, this week Gabby has continued to master the art of cruising. She's still a long way from perfecting it, but she can now walk from one side of her Leap Frog Learning Table to another side of it. This is currently her very favorite pasttime. She'll also walk from the Learning Table to the ottoman, or even better, to Mommy or Daddy's welcoming hands, when available.

She's still not crawling (who needs to crawl when you can cruise, she says), but she's spending more time on her belly and she's managing to scooch backwards pretty well...which is funny to us, but very frustrating to her when she's trying to reach for a toy and just ends up farther and farther away from it, the harder she tries!

Trying to crawl after the cat... PART I

Trying to crawl after the cat... PART II

Tonight, she gave Joe a thrill by echoing his "Da Da" with a "dadada." It was adorable, and she did it on command a number of times. What happens when one of us says, "Ma Ma," you might ask? Well, we tried it, and she responded with a firm "dadadada." Hmmm...I'm beginning to wonder if Joe's already her favorite! She is quite the daddy's girl, after all.

Today, Auntie Rae arrived at our place (she's visiting from DC this weekend), and Gabby had a wonderful morning showing her all of her newest tricks, since they hadn't played together since early July. Then we all headed out to lunch where we met up with Gabby's Saba and Gigi. Gabby refused to nap this morning, and she of course waited until we were less than 10 minutes away from the restaurant before she fell asleep in the car, so she was a bit sleep deprived, but she was still a pleasure at lunch. Oh...I forgot to mention...Gabby got her first finger foods this week. She really enjoyed the Gerber "Puffs," both sweet potato and banana, and today at lunch she was thrilled to dissect a teething biscuit. (Luckily we packed a change of clothes since we forgot to pack a bib, and that teething biscuit was one messy snack)!

I think those are all the updates for this week. Joe will be sure to post some pictures to accompany this narrative shortly, so check back soon!