Milk Boycott

A letter from the desk of Gabriella Rose Holt...

To Whom It May Concern:
That includes you too, Pita & Mimi. This has been brewing for a while, but today I am officially declaring an all out milk boycott. Please do not attempt to serve me milk in any vessel or combination as that makes me very angry. No bottle, no sippy cup, no water bottle, no glass cup, not with a straw, not strawberry milk, not chocolate milk- nada!! Also, don't try to lie to me and tell me it's water when I can perfectly well see from the opacity of the cup that it most certainly is milk. As you've noticed, I have no problem calling you out when you lie to me.

I will, however, continue to accept my weekly McDonald's milkshake after swim lessons. Love those! Also, there will be times when I will drink milk when I am with my friends and peers to "fit in" and consequently, make you look bad. That is just part of my charm:)

I am not concerned about my calcium consumption, as I still very much like my yogurt and cheese products. I am sure I will be fine. But if you'd like to give me vitamins, I prefer the gummy bear variety.

Please allow me time to get over my disgust of milk and I am sure one day I will come around and drink it again. I am bored of fighting the same battle with you over and over and over again. Get a life, people.

Sincerely,
Gaby Holt

Milestone Marker

I like to write these things down not so much to brag on my little girl (although, you just can't help that sometimes!) but for the future. To remind myself what happened when....

Gaby's been putting together 2-3 word sentences. I think that's pretty impressive at her age. And if it's not impressive in general, it certainly impressive to me. Her favorite sentence is a question- "where are you?" She says that all the time and it is just so funny. Everything is "Mommy, where are you?" or "Daddy, where are you?" Come to think of it. That's actually a four word sentence! They say that at this age they pick up a few words a day and I'm finding out, amazingly, that she does!! She loves to talk! And will sometimes just rattle off these completely uncomprehensible, yet totally adorable stories with facial expressions and hand gestures. You just wonder what the heck she was trying to tell you.

She can practically count to ten in Spanish and English with some help. And she's trying really hard to sing the alphabet but still needs someone or one of her toys to sing it with her. She can already recognize certain letters- I think that's pretty cool. Another really fun thing she's been doing is naming people in pictures (she looves looking at this blog). The girl can pick out her whole family and most of her friends from pictures. That's one of her favorite activities! Then there's the colors- she's pretty much got them down already!

There are times when you just sit back in awe at how completely incredible the human brain is and how quickly it can learn things. And so this post isn't totally boring for you, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure :)

Gaby's Serious Face...


















And Gaby's Happy Face...

Nalgas !

Translation: Cheeks :)

We've created a monster...

It's Halloween's fault. Maybe it's the month of October's fault. Or maybe, it's swim class' fault. I don't know, but we've got a major dilemma on our hands.

Our little sweetie is becoming OBSESSED with candy! Any time she's around it- it's like crack! Except in Skittle form. She wants, needs some candy.

Now, I can hear what your thinking......Maybe, possibly, it's your fault Angie?? I mean if you have it around and you give it to her? Could you be to blame? And for shame. You. Are. A. Dentist!!

But in my defense, when you are dealing with an almost two year old, there is much power in negotiating with candy. Do you want some candy? Ok, then let's change your diaper. Or let's put on your shoes. Or take your medicine. Or come inside already! There are countless examples....

But for real, people, once we run out of it there will be no more in the house. I promise. We'll have to find something else to bribe her with. For some reason, I just don't think raisans are going to cut it :)

Taking Care of Baby

Oh, the cutest thing is starting to happen. Gaby has begun to pretend play with her dolls and stuffed animals. It's so darn funny! She sits them down at her table and and explains things to them and gives them drinks out of her sippy cup. Then she'll take them all and sit them in her comfy chair and point her finger at them like she's reprimanding them and then she sings songs to them. I know I'm a little biased but my child is the cutest little girl EVER!! Of course, everytime I get the video camera out she gets distracted and stops playing. But I will get video of it soon. I'm on a mission:)

Finally, a Pumpkin Patch...

So we finally made it to a pumpkin patch this weekend. With all the travelling we've been doing, October just got away from us. And by the way, can you believe it's already November?!?! Seriously, Christmas is just around the corner! The shopping, the baking, the wrapping, the planning, the parties.....Oh, my!!

But I digress...

So we headed to Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls, about an hour out of town, to go to what's considered the best pumpkin patch in the area. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint :) Gaby is way into pumpkins this year or as she calls them "punkins".

We picked out a few...

Look at all the baby pumpkins... There were friendly goats to pet...

A tractor to climb up on (Papa will be so proud!!)...

A corn maze...

This is fun- yipee!!!
The weather was beautiful and we had such a nice, relaxing day out there.

We will definitely be making this an annual family tradition!

Halloween Portraits

Isn't she the sweetest little Dorothy ever??

Happy Halloween!

Our little Gaby was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this year. The red sparkle shoes got me! Isn't she sweet?






Gaby's good friend Brayden "The Pirate" Bratcher came to town from Dallas to trick or treat with her.





We went to our neighborhood's annual Halloween party with our friends and then hit the trick or treating scene. Here are Gaby and Carter "The Rocker" Singleton getting the goods.

Gaby was way more interested in sitting down and eating her candy than going from door to door.

Gaby & Mommy

Gaby & Daddy

Checking out her stash...

Besides a very unfortunate run-in with an ant pile (Ouch!!) we had a great Halloween. Hope ya'll had a good one too :)

Toddler's Halloween Manifesto

I had to post this link.

It's just too funny.

One of my favorite bloggers, The Yummy Mummy, wrote this article.

Check it out...

We're getting.....

.......excited about Halloween! Can't wait to show ya'll Gaby's costume :)

Ya-Yu

When Wuwu and Calos were here about a month ago, they taught Gaby how to say "love you" or as she says it "ya-yu".

Those might just be the sweetest words any parent can ever hear!!!

She's been saying "amo" for a while. But I think, now, she's actually starting to realize what they mean and that we just loooove hearing those words. So every night before bed we get a "t'amo" and "ya-yu" and both Byron and I just want to eat her up in little pieces.

There is nothing sweeter. Life is good :)

Roadtrips

Thursday night, I drove to San Antonio for the American Dental Association Meeting to meet up with my former partners and good friends from St. Louis, Suzanne Watson & Michelle Rega. My good friend Tracie Davis was there also. It was so great to catch up again and enjoy a couple nights wining and dining in my old stomping grounds. Saturday, we came back to Austin so I could show off my new town,- it was Suzanne's first time here. It was a beautiful day to walk around and we took a little trip to the capital. They are both loyal blog readers and were hoping to make it on the blog :) So check us out.

Michelle, Brian (Suzanne's husband), Suzanne, and Me

Byron decided since I would be gone that he would take his first solo father/daughter road trip. They headed to Orange to visit with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Candie & Mia. Byron did mainly night driving but said that Gabs was the perfect passenger. When she wasn't sleeping she just sat back reading books or looking out the window. That's my cutie! It sounded like the girls had fun together and played well together. Although, Gaby still needs some improving in the sharing department- there was alot of "It's Gaby's" and "Mine":)

The weekends adventures included...

Pumpkin fun...

Storytime...

Picking berries...

A little "cousin love"...

Going for walks...

It's been such a whirlwind the last couple of weeks with the Tahoe trip and then going to San Antonio. It's been so weird to be away from my sweet baby for so many days. I look forward to getting back into our normal routine.

My Little Astrologer

Gaby's has recently discovered the moon, the stars and the sun and it is all that she can talk about. She loves going out on the deck in the afternoons and since it's fall and the moon likes to show itself pretty early, we get to have it pointed out to us over and over and over....and over. No, really it is the cutest thing ever!! And what she actually says is more like "da-moo, da-moo, da-moo"! So when Byron and I were away from her in Tahoe, and we were walking around at night we'd say "Look, da-moo!" and just crack up at how adorable our sweet baby is. You've got to love the pure excitement they get out of discovering basic, everyday things.

South Lake Tahoe

We're baaaack!! And we had an awesome time. South Lake Tahoe is simply gorgeous! It is nature in all it's glory.

The air is as crisp as can be and the water was the most beautiful shade of blue. The night before we got there it had snowed so it was pretty darn chilly. I'm talking low 20s when we arrived- brrrr!! But it got progressively warmer each day so we just peeled off the layers. Truth is though, it was a nice break from the heat and made us feel nostalgic for St. Louis. Byron and I did alot of hiking. Yes, people, I actually participated in some physical activity and really enjoyed myself. My calves are sooo sore today!! Check me out- I'm the little speck in the middle of the picture...



The salmon are spawning right now and seeing all those fish hanging out in one small area was so incredible!!!
We got to see a bear running in the forest and we trekked up to some waterfalls. They weren't very big though since there hasn't been much snowmelt yet. But the overall views were just amazing!!

Check out this huge tree with it's trunk hollowed out...



After hiking, the rest of the afternoons involved eating at great restaurants and just relaxing. One night we ventured over to a casino and after six hours at the blackjack table Byron and I both walked out winners with a grand total of $600! I get why people have gambling addictions. It is soooo fun to win :) Byron and I definitely enjoyed our little vacation but we really missed our little sweetie and talked about her non-stop!
It sounded like Gaby and Mimi had a lovely time together. They played and played and played! Poor Mimi was so exhausted by the time we got home. They did have a little drama though because Gaby had a fever for a couple of days and then Mimi had her work cut out for her with a cranky toddler. But they both survived and seemed to be best friends after four days of non-stop togetherness. Thank you so much, Mimi for hanging out with the princess and indulging her every whim and fancy!! We love you!

See ya!

Byron and I are going on an adult vaca tomorrow. Lake Tahoe. Yipee! Mimi will be hanging out with the princess. Won't be blogging for a few days....

My Little Fish

Bad Mommy. Super Daddy.

The other day, I hurt my own child. I didn't mean to, of course. But I still did and I feel awful. Terrible. Sick about it. So here's what happened...We were in the garage and Gaby started running towards the street. Now, we live in the hills in Austin so it's kinda steep in our neighborhood and people like to drive their cars faster than they should on our street, so I ran out to stop her and quickly grabbed her by her arm. My little cutie likes to do this thing when she doesn't want to come with you- she lifts both feet off the ground and basically ends up dangling from one arm. That's it. That's all that happened, but then of course Gaby was throwing a fit b/c she didn't want to come into the house. So I tried to distract her with other things but she wouldn't stop crying. And then it seemed like she didn't want to move her arm. Oh-oh. That's when I realized that maybe something was wrong with her arm. I noticed she wouldn't lift it up and really didn't want me touching it. So the first thing to do of course is call Byron. And wouldn't you know it, it just happened to be an evening that he had plans with his friends. He seemed a little aggravated to have me "bothering" him but when he understood that I really wasn't exaggerating and there quite possibly was something wrong with his precious princess, he came right home. Turns out I had pulled Gaby's little elbow's ligament out of whack. It's called "nursemaid's elbow" and Byron says it's very common. But still, to know that I was the one that caused such pain to my poor sweetie just made me want to puke! So he did a magic doctor twist, pull and push maneuver and just like that Gaby was waving at cars, pointing at the birds in the sky and laughing again. Back to normal. Byron saved the day! And he probably saved us a few hours in an ER. I can't ever express how lucky and grateful I am to have a pediatrician for a husband. It gives me such peace of mind. You're the best, honey!

Guess who...

...napped at school yesterday and had no problem?? My brave little sweetie, that's who!! Way to go, kiddo!