Playing in her farmhouse

Gabriella got the farmhouse for Christmas and hubbs just put it together this morning. She loves the music and toys. 

Gabriella loves her jumperoo!

These pictures were taken on Valentine's Day (Gabriella's 5 month birthday). It had taken me this long to post them:)

Has it really been 10 years?

Yesterday I got a message on facebok about organizing our ten-year high school reunion and it hit me. Wow, has it really been 10 years, holy sh_t! I can remember my senior year in high school like it was yesterday and honestly I don't feel that old. That could be a good thing or it could be that I'm in denial, ha. But really, it doesn't feel like we were at prom 10 years ago. It doesn't feel like 10 years ago I was 18 and now 28 but that is the reality of it.
I'm excited to attend our high school reunion to see what people are up to, see who they married, how they look, how many children they have..etc. First of all I would never in a million years imagine that I would marry my husband. We were friends since our sophmore year, he flirted and asked if I had broken up with my high school sweatheart boyfriend every.single.time he saw me and even asked me to prom (joking/flirting) but that is it. He was never my type, (or so I thought cause we'll make 5 years of marriage in June), funny for sure.
So I'm excited. I get a second chance to go to another "prom" but this time with my husband and I'll be able to stay out all night without a curfew:) We'll see old friends and reminisce-its going to be so much fun! But has it really been 10 years already?

Someone is cutting two teeth

Yesterday we discovered that Gabriella is cutting two teeth (her bottom center) after she grabbed her daddy's nose and bit it! Once hubbs had moaned and groaned about how much it hurt (what a wuss, lol), I decided to check and sure enough there were two little teeth trying to cut into her gums. We of course made a huge deal about it, called Nana and all! Its funny how the smallest of things are such huge deals now. I started reading more about it this morning and it said it could be weeks before they actually come in so we'll see. She hasn't been extremely cranky or anything so hopefully that will not change. Wish us luck with this new adventure of teething!

Edit- I can see two little white specks and feel them too! Oh and we had a terrible night last night. Let the fun begin!

99 Things

One rule: Bold the items that you have done in your life.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightening storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Received flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Got a tattoo

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee


There are quite a few items on this list that I haven't accomplished yet, but would love to. Like going to Paris, start a business, and sleeping on an overnight train. There are also a few that I never intend to complete, like killing and preparing an animal to eat or be fired from a job :)

Vacation Planning

I'm in the initial stage of planning our summer vacation, I'm just waiting on hubbs to give me his summer school schedule and its a go. I love researching stuff and planning-especially planning vacations. I enjoy finding and narrowing our destination, looking for reviews, and setting up an itinerary for each day. This time though its different because we have little Miss Gabriella that plays a big part of our vacation "planning". We just can't go somewhere exotic per se or go on a long flight as it will be her first time flying.

Our requirements for this trip is definitely a beach. I literally cannot wait to put Gabriella in the water and have her wiggle her toes in the sand. Second, we would like to keep it within the US for two reasons. Its our first time flying with a child and  we want a nonstop flight (the shorter the flight the better). And third, we want  plenty of kid/family activities to choose from. Wow, as I typed this I just realized how much our requirements have changed. Before I would say somewhere romantic, plenty of excersions, and great places to eat/drink, ha! This is yet another realization that I am in fact "a mom".

So with all our requests, some of the places that came up were of course Florida (no offense) but its so cliche to go to Florida on a family vacation, we always did anyway. The Bahamas at the fabulous Atlantis Resort, and although it would be awesome to go there and would definitely consider it in the future, Gabriella is just too young to enjoy it. And another that seems to really suit us is San Diego. Hmm, at first it really didn't appeal to me since we've both been there. In fact I spent an entire summer during college with my sister in San Diego and hubby has also briefly been there while in the Marines. We try to vacation at a different destination every time, but I think San Diego would be a great place to go with Gabriella. Here are the pros:

• plenty of family oriented things to do like Sea World and the San Diego Zoo
• gorgeous city and great weather
• great beaches
• its domestic so we can easily catch a nonstop flight 
• we're able to drive to LA
• pretty budget-friendly
• best of all we can visit Aunt Karen, my Sis (now I'm jealous she lives there) and have a free sitter for an evening out  

Even though its not set in stone and I'm still researching we're really leaning towards San Diego. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Damn you Girl Scout cookies

Just when I started my week off good after a very bad weekend of consuming tons of sweets, wine, chocolate and more chocolate, and not so healthy food, did I mention I had chocolate? The darn Girl Scout cookies I had ordered a couple of months ago arrived today. Great! I ordered a box of  the classic Caramel Delights-everyone loves, a box of Thin Mints, and a box of Lemonades. So now I am faced with the decison of giving them away, taking them home to hubby and have him eat them all (won't take much to convince since he too has a major sweeth tooth), or leave them at my desk? What to do, what to do?

Valentine's Day Weekend

Valentine's Day weekend was great! We missed Gabriella so much and kept talking about her, but it felt so good to spend some alone time together. We headed out early Saturday morning. After dropping Gabriella off at my mom's we picked up some breakfast and took it to eat on the road. Our friends Jamie and Rene joined us and we caught up with them in Katy. At first the morning was cloudy so the drive wasn't as nice through the Hill Country, but as soon as the sun came up it was much better. Along the way there were lots of homemade fudge and candy stores so we stopped to get some chocolate covered strawberries, yum! Our second stop was at Pedernales Cellars. It was pretty early when we arrived , maybe 10ish and there was already lots of people ready for some wine, us included-damn winos! We had a tasting of about 12 different wines and ended up buying a bottle of red wine to enjoy oustide on the porch at the cellar with some fabulous homemade chocolate we also purchased there (and some more bottles to take home).

After hanging out at the cellar for a while we headed out to Fredicksburg and arrived at our Bed and Breakfast. Let me just say that although we had a great time and props to hubbs for planning this, Bed and Breakfasts are just not my cup of tea and my hubby agrees. It was a very nice two story B&B with jacuzzi tubs in each room. We had the upstairs and Rene and Jamie had the downstairs. We ended up renting the whole house so we didn't have to share with any strangers like at most B&B's. We kind of knew that we weren't really "into" these types of places and therefore had never stayed at one. It just felt like we were at my great-grandmothers house or some place alike. For the money I would  much rather stay at a nice hotel with fluffy pillows and room service, you agree? Don't get me wrong we made the best out of it, and put the jacuzzi to use but we know we will not be returning to a Bed and Breakfast again. The experience was nice, but once will suffice.

So we arrived at the freakish B&B (I say freakish because there were old black and white pictures of the owner's family members) all over the house-I mean all over. The bathroom and all! Thank god I was pretty drunk tipsy by the time we arrived so they didn't seem to bother me too much until later on that evening. We jumped in the jacuzzi and then got ready to go to dinner where we had reservations at August E's. I highly recommend this restaurant for anyone visiting this little town-its fine dining at its best, delicious to say the least. Afterwards we headed out to a local bar and enjoyed  live music.

Early the next morning we had breakfast at a cute little German resturant/bakery. They had German pancakes and various pastry delicacies. We did a little shopping and stopped at another bakery to share a slice of carrot cake. I admit I was very bad this weekend and the scale showed it this morning when I didn't loose a pound, that however is another story. I was not going to restrain myself from all this yummy food, I'll just have to work out a little harder this week.

 

We headed back to Houston at about 2pm since I didn't have the day off for President's Day. Even though we had a great time, I couldn't wait to get back to my girl-I missed her so much. It was an awesome weekend with hubbs, props to ya Babe (minus the Bed and Breakfast)...I kid, I kid!

Gabriella is 5 Months!

I was unable to post yesterday (her real 5 month birthday) since we were returing from our little weekend getaway, I'll post about that later. So anyway, Gabriella is now 5 months. Wow, almost half a year old! She's adorable, of course I am biased but in all seriousness she has quite a little personality. During her 4 months she reached quite a few milestones. She can now turn from tummy to back and back to tummy, she loves playing with her feet and putting them in her mouth. She also started reaching out for her bottle and although she  would aim at her eye and get milk all over her face, she is now holding her bottle all by herself like a big girl. She can sit unassisted for a little while, but still needs to work on her balance. We practice every day.

I'm not sure how much she weighs, but we'll find out next month at her 6 month appointment. She is now wearing 6 months clothes. I did however put on a 9 month outfit the other day and although it was just a little big she'll be in that in no time. Funny thing is that she still fits into her 3 month onesies? It must be her length. She is wearing Huggies Little Snugglers in size 2. We tried on the size 3 but they're still too big for her. She started drinking 6 oz. of milk about a week ago (4 mo 3 wks) and has not yet been introduced to solids until she turns 6 months. I'm actually pretty excited about that! I've gathered recipes and bought the little trays to store her food since I will be making her food myself. Can't wait!
Here are the current milestones of a 5 and 6 month old gathered from Parents magazine.

Months 5 & 6

Senses: Infants are born with a sweet tooth, but by this stage, they've also developed an appreciation for salty tastes, just in time for introducing solids.  Hmm, Gabriella will be introduced to solids at 6 months but she does like the salty taste of her little toes, if that counts?

Body: Big news! Your baby rolls front to back and probably vice versa, and can sit like a tripod, propped up with one arm. Gabriella started turning from back to tummy first at 4 months, 1 week old. She later turned from tummy to back. Now she's all over the place.

Brain: She begins to understand the concepts of putting in and taking out. I need to bring out some of her toys/blocks she got for Christmas so she can start to practice on this concept.

Communication Skills: By 6 months, babbling begins to imitate speech in tone and pattern. It also becomes language-specific, so a French baby (oui-oui) and an American baby (wah-wah) will start to sound different when they jabber. I hope Gabriella will be bilingual. At this point she smiles at anyone who talks to her.

Aww Factor: She can see you from across the room now and will probably react with a big smile. This is absolutely true-especially when I pick her up from daycare. Once she sees me, she gives me the biggest smile.

Fave Toy: Still Sophie and Maddie (her doll). She's starting to learn how to transfer objects from hand to hand.

Playtime: "Tell me a story." She can focus her eyes and attention better, so make reading a part of your daily routine. She loves when you read to her unless she's absolutely tired. For the most part she's hitting the book and looking at the pictures.

Mealtime: Add cereal, bananas, and other appropriate, easy-to-mush food to your shopping list. The tongue-thrust reflex subsides; your child is now ready to gum and chew soft solids. Notice that these milesones are for 5 and 6 months. I think this is more appropriate for 6 month old babies. We shall see next month, but I have a feeling she is going to be a great eater.

Great Bargain!

Albee Baby has the Britax carseats on sale for up to 45% off. We just purchased a Britax Marathon Convertible carseat for Gabriella and best of all got a great deal for it. It originally retails for $279.99, we bought it for $209.00 and got free shipping (any purhcase over $100). This was the grand total including shipping and handling-awesomeness!! As with all our baby gear we bought it gender neutral to be able to use with future kids.  I'm glad we got it because its getting harder to haul her around in the travel system carseat to and from daycare. Can't believe she's ready for her big girl carseat!

Putting it into action

Remember how I committed to simplifying my life? Well along with other things that I've done, one that stands out for me is taking back my Valentine's gift hubbs bought for me. And yes he's aware of it, as matter of fact I made him take it back. Let me first say that hubbs is a great gift giver. Since the days we were dating he would go into Victoria's Secret and pick out nice lingerie for me. He has always been pretty creative and generous with his gifts, like my pearl and diamond Mikimoto earings he bought one year. Even when he was deployed he would order stuff online and always  sent me gifts for the ocassions. Over the years I've collected quite a few little blue boxes-Tiffany boxes, that is.

Well since Valentine's Day is approaching, I told him that this year would be different. I told him that I would like to simplify my life and well that I didn't feel like I needed anything. I am perfectly content and happy with my life and a gift would not make a difference (of course I won't deny a box of chocolates or  a bottle of wine). However he had already bought yet another Tiffany gift online and it was on its way. I also told him his creative gift giving skills were diminishing, ha! So after a million "are you sures" we sent it back once the gift arrived. I truly appreciate the thought he put into it, especially because it was something  with the "G" on it for Gabriella's name. We do still have a nice weekend planned, I'm really looking forward to that!

Bath Time

Bath time is quite different for Gabriella these days. Actually this post is long overdue because she's been doing this for quite a while now. Bath time used to be quiet and relaxing, a part of her bedtime routine to get her a little tired and ready for bed. Don't get me wrong Gabriella has never been a quiet baby, but rather playful especially during baths but now its just out of control! She kicks so hard water splashes everywhere, I mean everywhere and makes a huge mess! She is so wiggly and squirmy in the bath tub as though she can't get enough.  Hubbs happily says Gabriellla will love the boat and being out in the water, and I think he may be right. She also likes to sit up and look at herself in the mirror smiling and giggling. She either thinks its pretty funny or agrees with mommy that she's too cute:) Here's my chunky butt.

Happy February...

First of all let me say that I did not type all of these posts today. I had them as drafts, and published them today but for some reason they no longer show the date from when I started them.Anyone know why? I guess it must be this updated version of blogger-who knows.

Now that I got that out of the way-Happy February! You know what that means, right? Valentine's day (yes we celebrate Hallmark holidays) how can I not being a teacher? I must admit, we would celebrate V-day even if teaching wasn't my profession. Delicious desserts, tons of chocolate, romantic movies, mushy cards-we do it all! This year though Hubbs is planning a little getaway for Valentine's weekend.Yup he's doing it all by himself. I'm pretty proud of him because I'm always in charge of planning our trips. Although this won't be a huge trip because we're only driving north a couple of hours to a cute little town called Fredricksburg, its still huge for him. That's all I know-we're going to Fredricksburg and staying at a bed and breakfast. I'm excited! We've never stayed at a B&B, we're more of the 4-5 star nice hotel type of people, but I'm willing to try anything once. Before I tell you I'm completely proud of him for putting this trip together, let me first see how it all turns out then I'll brag about him some more, wink I know he'll do a good job. I'll be happy nevertheless.Yay 12 days to go! Oh and Miss G will be staying at grandma's.

Simplifying My Life

Since we're in the process of preparing our house to be put on the market we have been doing some major cleaning. I absolutely hate clutter and we've always been pretty good about not having any (not to brag, but anyone who knows me irl knows my house is always pretty tidy), but once we started cleaning I ran into a lot of things that I don't  use, wear, or need. Things like my high school pom-poms, old Marine t-shirts that hubby would send me, house decor that I no longer have room for, and just old clothes that I don't wear anymore like my size 0 American Eagle jeans I wore in college. Let's face it, I will never find room for any of these things in my house or body for that matter, so why keep them? Mostly because there is some type of sentimental value to each of these thinsg that kept me from getingt rid of them.
We've been in the process for about 2 weeks now and boy I thought we had cleaned up really good before Gabriella's arrival, (when I say clean, I mean getting rid of unnecessary "stuff"). We've been going through every closet, every cabinet, every drawer, every.single. piece of wardrobe we both own, every old bill, and junk drawer. I cleaned the cupboards, the refrigerator, and every single corner of the bottom wood panel of our entire house. Hubbs scrubbed bathrooms, touched up the walls with paint, and took things up to the attic.We both did our fair share and it felt great!
So in the midst of this huge "Spring cleaning" in January I have realized that it makes me feel so  good to donate these things and have my home looking even more simple and clean and at the same time allowing someone else to put some good use to them.While going through all these things, there were items that I had only used a handful of times. I've realized that many times we buy things just to buy them and soon they join the collection of unwanted/uneeded "stuff". One thing I hope to incorporate in my life from now on and in our new home is to live a simpler more fulfilled life without so much stuff. 

First night in her crib

So we decided last night (Friday night) would be the night. The night Gabriella would sleep in her "big girl" bed (crib) for the first time. We had planned to start this as soon as she hit 4 months, but I kept coming up with every excuse. So after I made hubbs check all the fire detectors, windows, monitor, and the lightning (crazy I know), I figured it was time. So we did our usual routine-bath, bottle, book, rock to sleep; and she was out. Instead of taking her to the bassinet (pnp) in our room I took her to her crib, and once I layed her down she stayed sleeping. Wow! I imagined that once I laid her down she was going to holler and scream. Not that my baby is known to do this, but I had just imagined that's the way the night would play out-I was wrong. Complete opposiste-she laid there peacefully while she slept. My girl is sleeping in her big girl crib-awesome!
So the dogs were asleep and Gabriella was in her own room. Since we moved into our house we've always shared our room with the dogs, and once Gabriella came she took over their spot. Now we didn't have to whisper, or ahem be quiet while doing our deeds or better yet go into another room. We could jump up and down on our bed if we wanted to. Ok kidding:) .Hubbs and I didn't know what to do!  We of course kept trying to listen into the monitor, and hubbs was getting a kick out of it. He kept going into Gabriella's room (to check on her) and would whisper dumb stuff into the monitor-so like him by the way, such a kid), lol! So we stayed up watching Kings of Queens, like we used to in our pre-baby days, ate popcorn, and laughed out loud. All until midnight when Miss G decided  she would wake up, bummer! So yeah she woke up at midnight, and again at 2am, and again 4am. Yup she woke up every 2 hours-worst than when she was a newborn. The way I see it is, I would feel a little awkward sleeping in a big lonely room for the first time all by myself. And yes, I am totally giving her the benefit of the doubt. We will try again tomorrow and hopefully she will get acustomed to it soon, very very soon..