Little Houdini

Our little princess scared the bejesus (is that how it's spelled?) out of me today! Background: Our laundry room, actually it's really just a closet, is upstairs right off of the playroom. So I was putting clothes in the dryer and reloading the washer and Gaby was playing with her toys in the playroom. Now really how long does that take? Two, maybe three minutes? Once everything was started and I turned back into the playroom Gaby was GONE! Now I thought- Oh she must of gone into her room. So I go into her room and NOTHING! I'm not panicked at this point. She's probably in my bedroom (which is upstairs, too). She likes to go in there and play in our bathroom. So I go in there and NOTHING. At this point I'm running- in the bathroom, the toilet room, the closet, behind my bed. There really isn't that many places to hide! Then I walk out of my room and stand at the top of the stairs. With doubt, I think- there is no way is there? But I say to myself, there really is no other place to look. So I start going down the stairs and round the corner and low and behold there she is!! Three steps from being on the first floor!! She went all the way down BY HERSELF and was just tickled with her accomplishment. She gave me the biggest smile ever! As if to say- Look what I did! There's no stopping me now! So there you go the princess is fearless and able to go where she wants now. What I am most proud of, though, is that she scooted all the way down on her belly, feet first. My child is a genius :) !!

Back in the Inner Circle :)

This past weekend our dear friends, the Morrisons, had their annual Christmas/White Elephant Party in Houston. We have, of course, missed the three prior years because we were geographically impaired- but not this year! It was so much fun to see all of our friends, basically my old A&M crowd. The gifts were too funny and Byron ended up with a doozy- priceless Tony Montana/Scarface sneakers!


Even though they were a size 10 (and Byron wears a size 13) he wore them the rest of the night.


Might tell you a little about how the spirits were flowing that night. Gaby, I'll explain this later when you're a wee bit older :)

On a more wholesome note, on our way into town we stopped to have lunch with Mia, Candie & Steven.

For my loyal bloggers, I just wanted you to know that little Mia is perfectly healthy and doing super. She looks so great and is weighing just about the same as Gaby. Seeing those two together is the most wonderful thing. They are so lucky to have each other. I am really looking forward to watching them grow up to be the best buds ever!


Here are a couple of shots of Gaby lovin on her cousin :)

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

I've been good Santa, I promise :)!

Gaby and I went to visit Santa Claus today. I dressed her up in her fancy Christmas dress and stylish red patent leather shoes and we headed to the mall. I wasn't sure how she'd react to Old St. Nick, but she did pretty good. She didn't cry, but she definitely was unsure about what the heck was going on. She just kept looking up at him wondering who on Earth he was. We managed to get half a smile, though, and in my unbiased opinion- it is the prettiest Christmas picture ever :)

Another Proud Dental Moment...

A couple of months ago, I decided to introduce Gaby to Mr. Toothbrush. I assumed she would not like it considering she would always give me the tight lipped, head shaking, squirming, "leave me alone" yell kind of reaction whenever I tried to look inside her mouth. Now I know from the experience I have with my kid patients that sometimes things are better left alone (Can you say, Pediatric Dentist?) . But every time she would be sitting on the bathroom floor watching me brush my teeth she would seem very interested. So one day, I showed her her own toothbrush (hot pink, of course!) and attempted to brush her super cute bottom teeth. What do you know! Not only did she let me, she seemed to enjoy and want me to brush them. So now, every time Byron or I brush our teeth we give Gaby her own brush and let her join us :)

PS- And speaking of teeth, Gaby's two top front teeth have been working themselves out for the past couple of weeks. They aren't fully out but they are definitely there! Ouch!

Say, Cheese!!

Let the holiday season begin....

Mimi and Papa came to Austin for an early holiday visit this weekend. We showed off our Christmas tree and had a nice dinner on our Christmas dinnerware. (Don't laugh, things like that make me happy!) They also helped sweet Gaby get over her little cold. She was in a great mood all weekend even though she was sicky and had fun with her grandparents showing them all of her new skills.




Papa and Gaby by the Christmas tree.

Mimi and Gaby reading the classic "Just Like Mommy"

Unfortunately, I must of gotten Gaby's nasty bug and was feeling pretty bad on Sunday. Luckily, with Mimi around I had backup:)

Cold Virus-2 , Gaby-0

Here we go again! Gaby's got another cold. Runny nose and slight fever. Definitely not as bad as last time. Way to build up your defenses little one :) She probably got it from being around so many people for Thanksgiving. Living in a bubble doesn't sound so bad right about now ;)

Gaby's 1st Thanksgiving

We were going to have the Salazar gang over for Thanksgiving this year but Pita came down with viral meningitis last week! She was in the hospital for a few days but is recovering very well. So we packed up Gaby and the boys and headed to Houston (that is the beauty of living back home!).


It finally got chilly here in Texas. Here are Gaby and Pito going for a brisk morning walk.







Here are the two girls in leopard. Pita is feeling much better with the princess around!



Gaby and cousin Lulu.



We had a great time and ate some good food.




Billy fried up a delectable turkey, Marcie and Lulu made delicious pies and Byron made his grandmother's famous dressing!

Gaby napped through the actual meal but that made it easier for Mommy and Daddy to be able to enjoy their yummy food all the way through with no interruptions. It may sound funny but that is actually a small luxury:)

On Saturday we drove to Orange to spend some time with Mimi and Papa and on Sunday we hung out with cousin Mia (and her parents) for some playtime. The girls are beginning to learn the concept of sharing. Mia is not too hip on that lesson:)

I'm A-Cruisin' !!

Yesterday, I actually witnessed a new milestone! Gaby is cruising! For those of you that don't have kids- b/c until the princess I also assumed cruising involved a big ship, sunset over the ocean and a frozen concoction of some sort:). Cruising is when a baby actually "walks" along the furniture holding on. It was pretty amazing to see it for the first time and realize that Gaby had never done that before. Most of the milestones come along slowly so you don't actually realize what's happened. But yesterday morning, I was sitting on the floor on one end of the couch with Rosko behind me on the couch. Gaby stood up on the other end and worked her way to us. So precious!! It's little things like that that make a stay at home mom's day :)

Gaby Fun Facts

Crawling Update
Gaby has turned into a world champion speed crawler. One minute she's right next to you, the next minute she in another room! Most times she laughing as she's crawling because she's excited about something. It is just too cute! She's also mastered going up stairs already. She's been doing this pretty much since she began to crawl. Now this is a little scary because she is so fearless. I don't want her to ever fall down them, so I have to be on my toes all the time. Her favorite pastime is to start crawling up the stairs, we tell her "No!", she stops, looks at us, gives us a little smile and wave and then turns around to continue going up. Naughty girl! She is also standing any chance she can get. She loves to pull herself up on my pant leg and try to crawl all the way up.


Eating Update
Gaby is also a world champion eater. I've talked to so many people who complain that their kids won't eat veggies or certain fruits or whatever. We have never had that problem. Gaby has and, I hope, always will eat anything and everything you put in front of her. She's got a great appetite! Recently we've started giving her table food. She seems to love it! She's really gotten the hang of feeding herself and is very skilled at gumming her food. Once she's gets some more teeth there will be no stopping her. Speaking of teeth....

Tooth Update
Since her first two teeth at six months I've been waiting for the next to arrive. We are now at nine months and still nothing new. I think I'm starting to see some white caps on her top gums so maybe we'll soon have some action. Truth of the matter, though, she sure can bite ya pretty hard with just those two little teeth!

Skills Update
In the last couple of days, Gaby's learned to "high five". Extremely adorable! We are diligently working on waving "bye-bye". Sometimes she does it, sometimes she doesn't. But the best part is that it's definitely the perfect paegent wave. Would you expect any less from our princess??

Vegas, baby!! (Minus the baby)

This weekend Byron and I met up with some friends (The Morrisons, The Ogburns, The Hulshofs, and The Hawkins) in Sin City! It was our first "official" vacation since Gaby joined our little family. We were gone for four days and three nights. We had fun running around Vegas partaking in a little debauchery :)



Here are
Jill and I
with Big Elvis!!




After the first couple of days, though, we began to miss Gaby terribly and we kept looking at her pictures on my cell phone. Considering I loooove to travel it's hard for me to say this but- I don't think we are ready to leave her for a full week yet. The princess enjoyed a long weekend with Pito and Pita where she was spoiled and pampered non-stop, I'm sure.

Gaby's First Halloween

Gaby's 1st Halloween was alot of fun! Our neighborhood had a block party so we went to partake in the festivities. There was a dj, moonbounce, costume contest and pizza. It was a little warm, so Gaby only wore part of her costume with her Halloween t-shirt. We met up with some of our friends, enjoyed all the great costumes and ate some pizza. We went trick or treating with the older kids but Gaby and I watched from the sidelines. Overall it was a great first Halloween:)

We stayed out late until the witching hour, so the only thing we missed out on was passing out candy to the trick or treaters from our house. Maybe next year?

Happy Halloween!

Perfectly Proportional

Gaby had her nine month (9 months already, can you believe it???) doctor's appointment the other day. It just happened to coincide with her illness which was good. Anyway, Gaby weighed in at 20 lbs exactly and 28 1/4 inches. That along with her head circumference (which I can't remember) put her in the 75th percentile all around. She is perfectly proportioned:)!! Luckily at this visit she didn't have to have vaccinations except for the flu shot. That's a good thing since she wasn't feeling so well. Today she seems to be getting over her cold. Thank God!

Bodily Fluids Are Nasty!

As the illness continues, new symptoms emerge. Since Gaby can't really breathe through her nose, when she drinks her bottle she ends up swallowing a bunch of mucus. As a result, she's been throwing up right after she drinks. Yipee. Also the antibiotics have given her the stinkiest, most disgusting diarrhea. Yuck. So I'm dealing with snot, slobber, vomit and diarrhea- Oh my!! Gaby, when you can finally read all of this, go find your mommy and tell her how much you love her:)

There's a First Time for Everything

Our poor little baby officially has her first cold! Now, we have been so blessed thus far. Gaby has been the picture of health for the first nine months of her life. I guess everyone has to get sick at some point but it certainly is no fun. Our little sweetie has been running fevers and a very constant runny nose (ick!). Yesterday, she really wasn't feeling well at all. Instead of her usual independent, exploring self she would just crawl over to me and lay her sweet head down on my chest whimpering and having trouble breathing. It is just heart breaking watching your little one be so miserable and not really be able to do anything for her. She also really hates having her nose wiped! So mommy ended up with a t-shirt covered in snot (double ick!). Last night, Byron took out his doctor tools and was able to look in her ears and see the beginnings of an ear infection. So we got Gaby on her very first round of antibiotics. Thank God they make the medicine taste good! We were travelling again this past week so I blame the illness on being around so many people. But again, we have been very lucky and Gaby has never been sick before, so there has to be a first time for everything. It's your turn little girl:)!

Happy Fall Everyone!

A very special pumpkin delivery!

Pumpkins and Flamingos- only in Austin!!

Daddy & Me Time

For the past couple of months, Byron and Gaby have discovered the perfect Daddy & Me Time. Byron decided that bathtime and bedtime were going to be his domain. That made me very happy because it allowed for a little break for me in the evenings. And more importantly since Byron is at work all day long, it gives him his own private Gaby time.

Gaby so enjoys bathtime. As we all know, she loves the water and has a blast splashing around and playing in her tub. Sometimes, Byron ends up almost as wet as she is!

Bedtime is such a sweet experience! Gaby is all relaxed and sleepy after her warm bath. She's soft and snuggly in her sleeper and she smells like baby-heaven! She slowly drinks her bottle and dozes off to sleep only after caressing your face for few minutes. Occasionally, Byron has a late meeting or is on call so I still get to do it once in a while. I was making myself a little jealous for a minute there!

I know Byron loves and will always cherish his Daddy & Me Time and I just wanted to include it on the blog so Gaby will know how special we both think it is.