What a difference a year makes...

Gabby reached her 14 month "birthday" this week. It occurred to me that she's no longer our baby. Well she's still ours. But she is no longer a baby...she's a little kid.

Gabby @ 2 Months


...and that's just fine with me. For some time, I was afraid of her growing up. I didn't want to miss anything and I was concerned that I'd forget how precious she was when she did ______, or how I felt when she ________. The fact of the matter is she's going to grow up. All the time. And that's great. It's not about me. It's about lil' G, y'see. So with that read, I'll go on.


Gabby @ 1yr & 2 months


Gabby is learning and expressing herself more and more everyday. Just this week, I noticed that she signed to me that she wanted her diaper changed. She's even begun to create her own signs...like holding the right arm out, and rubbing it with her left hand. I have no idea what she's trying to communicate, but it's clear that she feels entitled to teach us signs, the way we teach her. Crazy cool, I write you.

G has also been speaking to us conversationally. Of course we do not know what she's speaking of, but she clearly makes good points and great observations. I'm so proud.

Am many of our faithful readers know, I occasionally put Gabby on my shoulders. It gives my arms a break, and changes things up for Miss G. Well, she's learned to combine the actiivty of riding Dada's shoulders with playing "Where's Gabby?" "Where's Gabby" is a great activity. I usually cover her face or head or body with a blanket and then remark..."Where's Gabby?" She breaks free and smiles. Much fun. Anyway, lately I put her on my shoulders and she lunges forward to see me. Where's Gabby indeed!

One more tidbit, B noticed that while the gabster was reading in her room, she would sign to herself about the different animals in the book. Pretty cool...and a little weird.

That's all I got for now. She's grown a lot in a year. So have I.

Gabby's 14 month update

Well, it's hard to believe it, but Gabby will be 14 months this Thursday! Wow, how time flies! Since Gabby is blessing me with an out-of-the-ordinary second nap today, I thought I'd take this opportunity to update her fans on what she's been up to lately. (See also three other posts I added today...sorry they all came at once...we've been a little delinquent with the updates lately).

So...since her first birthday, we've realized just how much of what we say, Gabby understands. It started with, "can you bring Mommy/Daddy the ball/book/doll, etc." And she would do exactly what we ask...we were completely taken aback at first, but now we're getting used to it. This weekend, I said "it's time to go" and Gabby started to wave bye-bye, and we hadn't even put on coats or got keys yet.

Gabby has become quite a pro at running (or maybe more like speed walking) all over the place. She's always on the move, and loves it. She also loves climbing things. We have to watch what we leave out, because I've found Gabby in laundry boxes and storage bins and on top of diaper boxes, upside-down storage bins, etc. She's quite a pro at crawling up the stairs, and this weekend, started holding onto the ballisters and walking up the stairs. (We really need to teach her how to get down safely, but she prefers going up)! She love to show off her strength by picking up and/or pushing/pulling big things. Yesterday, she kept moving all the furniture we were using to baby-proof at Babci & Papa's house...(we're now going to need to come up with a new Gabby-proofed method) and today she decided to pick up and carry both her Little People train set and her Weeble tree-house (both are about as big as she is)!

She feeding herself more and more, but with only 6 teeth, she's still gumming most things. Ironically she prefers hard foods (apples, barely tender veggies) and refuses to eat any finger food that will squish in her pincer grasp! I can't wait until she gets more teeth so she can actually chew that stuff.

The most fun development has been all her Baby Signs. She now consistently uses the following signs: Milk (drink), eat, sleep, cereal, all done, no, hi/bye-bye, dog, cat, frog, bunny, flower, light, and her new favorite sign, telephone, (and Joe saw her do "diaper change" this weekend). Joe and I consistently do another 20 or so, and she seems to understand many of them, too.

We are constantly amazed with how much she can communicate. In the morning she can tell us when she's ready to eat, or if she wants a drink. This morning, I was doing something in the kitchen, and when I turned around, she was lying on the floor with her pacifer and lovey (both of which she got out of her crib on her own). I laughed when I saw her, but she did her "sleep" sign, and I put her right down for a nap, even though it was two hours before her normal nap time! (Which is why she's taking a second nap right now)!

I'm sure will have more to add once he reads this, but those are some updates for you all!

And here, are three pictures from yesterday afternoon in the park. Unfortunately, it's back in the 30's, but at least it was sunny!

Bundled for adventure!


This is awesome!!!


Dada...I wanna go on the slide!

Gabby's Newest Trick

Gabby's newest trick is posing for a picture. Somehow, her Daddy managed to get her to stop walking, look at the camera and smile. It doesn't always work, but it does sometimes, and makes picture-taking much less frustrating. Hopefully we'll have lots more Gabby smiles pics in the coming months. Here, she poses w/her Daddy:

Thank you Auntie Rae

Thanks for my first denim jacket, Auntie Rae. It's too cold again to wear it this week, but it got a couple of wears last week, and I thought you might enjoy my fashion show!

Playing on the Boston Common

A week ago (Saturday 3/11) it hit almost 60 degrees in Boston. The entire city seemed to celebrate. Alas, it was only one mild day, but we took Gabby to the Boston Common to run around, people watch, and puppy watch. She loved it all!