"Christmas"

Santa came to our house early this year, hence the quotations around Christmas. Good ol St. Nick knew we were going to be out of town for the big day and was nice enough to visit Gaby a little early so she could get all her loot. Gaby got one big gift from Santa and one big gift from us (an indoor trike) and then a bunch of smaller gifts. Santa did an awesome job this year- his gift....a dollhouse!!! How fun!! Sooo much stuff!!! Trying out her new drums... Santa didn't forget a Dora doll...

That's one happy little girl! Opening all her presents was a little overwhelming, so I'm glad we'll be stretching out all the gift giving for the rest of the week.

We are off to do our yearly Houston/Orange/Sieper trekk.

So it'll be a while until my next post.
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We'll see ya in 2010 :)

Coloring in the Lines

Gaby is starting to do a really good job at staying in the lines when she colors, don't you think? Also notice the top right hand corner..... That's her attempt at writing her name! Not too shabby! She's got the "G" and "A" down, but we are still working on the others.

Pretty darn cool :)

Awwww, Phooey!

Gaby's been saying this for the last few weeks and it is really the most adorable thing ever!

I had no idea where she had picked it up b/c that's definitely not our word of choice when we're disappointed ;)

This morning we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and what do you know but there's Donald saying it over and over. So mystery solved! Just goes to show how much is actually picked up from TV.

Little. Pink. Tree.

Guess who got her own little Christmas tree for her room this year?? Check out the look of total concentration as she hangs the ornaments... Naughty or nice??

A New Look

If you haven't noticed by now,

I changed the background of the blog.

And "why??" you might ask.

Because I realized that pictures look so much better

against a black background.

So, voila, a new look.

I like it. Don't you?

Santa Photo

We went to visit Santa today. Gaby was super excited to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

For the past couple of weeks, when you asked her what Santa was going to bring her for Christmas the answer was very simple- "Dora." This past weekend the answer changed to- "Dora and a Mermaid."

So cute!

Anyway, walking up the parking lot she was all smiles and ready to see the big man. But once we walked in and got up close she wasn't too sure about the whole sitting on his lap thing. Our first attempt ended in a huge crying fit! So we went to have lunch and had a long discussion about how nice Santa is and tried again. This time she would talk to him but was not really interested in sitting on his lap. Which actually, I should be proud of the fact that she doesn't want to sit on some random old guy's lap. (This silly tradition really does go against the whole "Stranger Danger" concept.) Finally, the only way she would get near him was sitting on my lap.

Soooo, here's what we got...

Still pretty cute, huh??

Want to see Santa pictures from the past two years??
2008 2007

School Photo

Isn't she a doll??

Addendum...

For the record, Byron wanted me to inform the world that he also attended the Little Mermaid show.

He sat through the whole thing with us although there is not photographic proof of it.

Way to go, Byron :)

The Austin Zoo

Saturday after Thanksgiving Mimi and Papa came in for a quick 30hr visit with the princess. They arrived before my parents flew out and we all had a really lovely lunch together. It is such a nice thing when the In Laws and the Parents get along. I love it!

On Sunday, we were looking for something to entertain us. It turns out that Austin has this little rescue zoo which most people had told me really wasn't that good and not very exciting. But I thought we should check it out for ourselves. So after a super yummy breakfast at Kerbey Lane (can you say peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes??) we headed to the zoo. We were so pleasantly surprised! This zoo was really sweet and actually alot of fun! It had so many more animals than I expected and to know that they were all rescued from unfortunate circumstances made it so much more special.

There were peacocks everywhere but none of them wanted to flaunt their feathers :(

For the Dora fans, we were extremely excited to meet Swiper the Fox in person!

Trying to kiss the llama...

A face only a mother could love...

Trying to whistle like the parrot...

Gaby made Papa help her "walk sideways" on all the railings....

Trying to see how tall she was compared to the bears....

A giant Galapagos turtle eating a salad...

Quack!!

We had a great time at the Austin Zoo and look forward to going back again to see what new animals they have rescued from bad circumstances.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Byron was on call requiring us to stay put. So the Salazar gang came to us! Our beautiful princess needed alot of help getting ready for the big day.

Her hairstylist, Pita.... And her makeup artist, Tia Chela were more than happy to help her... Isn't she a beauty?? Byron & Billy were in charge of the guest of honor... Isn't SHE a beauty?? We all sat down to a lovely lunch and were stuffed after eating a huge Thanksgiving Day feast! The girls all got together for an arts and crafts session after lunch... With her older cousins around Gaby actually had the attention span to complete this art project! Gaby has sooo much fun w/her cousins and family around. She was practically giddy the whole time they were here. Makes me so happy to see that! This year I am thankful for so many things. The most important being my family and my amazing daughter. Gaby is literally the light of my life and makes me proud to be her mama every day. Noone can make me smile like she does and I can't imagine my life without her sweet spirit in it. Even though, she is such a big girl now, running around and talking like crazy, she will always be my sweet baby girl :)

The Little Mermaid

We just discovered a little theater here in Austin called The Scottish Rites Children's Theater. They put on these cute little plays for kids. This weekend we went to our first play- The Little Mermaid! The show is just about an hour- long enough to hold their attention and not get bored. The very front of the stage is reserved for kids only so they can be close and can interact with the actors. Before the show most kids was coloring their program. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show but it was super cute and Gaby had a great time! We look forward to seeing many more shows there :)

Gaby's Newest Obsession

"Dora, Dora, Dora, the Explor-er"

Here's the evolution of morning TV in our house.....
First there was Elmo, then Mickey Mouse,

and now Dora the Explorer.

Gaby gets the biggest smile on her face when it comes on and gets so excited, it's hard not to let her watch it. And considering that's really the only time cartoons are on in our house, how can we say no??

At first, I was completely against the bobble-headed latina but,
I can't believe I'm going to admit this....

Dora's, actually, not so bad.

I feel like Gaby learns something new every time and there's always a little spanish thrown in there which is great.

So there....I said it.....we like Dora :)

The Newest Tramonte

Gaby's baby cousin arrived this morning!!

Welcome to the world
Tanner Giaquin Tramonte!!!

He weighed in at 7lbs, 15oz and 19.5 inches long.
Candie and Tanner are doing great.
And big sister Mia is super excited :)

We can't wait to meet him on Friday!

Goodbye, old friend.

Something pretty surprising happened last week....

Gaby quit her habit. Her pacifier habit! Around here we call it "chupo".

Let me start by saying that for the past three or four months I've been contemplating how I was going to get the kid off the chupo. She liked it sooo much at night, in the car and occasionally just hanging around the house. As a dentist, I knew I had to get her off of it, but as a mom I really liked the comfort it gave her and was afraid of what would happen without it. So really I was dragging my heels about doing something about it. I gave myself the "when she turns 3" deadline and pretended that wasn't right around the corner. My idea was not to just take it away from her but to make it so she wouldn't want it anymore. My plan? To punch a hole in it.

Well what do you know, but the other day Gaby came to me and said "Mommy, chupo is broke." And sure enough there was a tear in it and she couldn't get the right suction anymore.

Halleluia!!! Since we only had the one chupo left (plus the one in the car that mysteriously disappeared!) I told Gaby we had to throw it away and there would be no more chupo. And with that, she very maturely threw it in the trash! End of story.

She's asked for it a couple times since then but really has had NO problem going to bed without it and moving on.

We couldn't be prouder of our big girl!

Funny Observation

Let me set the stage.....

Byron and Gaby are in her room rough housing.

Byron is pretending he's a bull or tiger or bear or something, on his hands and knees, head down, knocking Gaby over.

She grabs on to his head and they both fall down in a giant explosion of giggles and then Gaby says......

"Daddy, you no got lotta hair!"

The writing is on the wall when your two year old notices that!

Luckily, Byron is extremely comfortable with the inevitable and we love him no matter what :)