Last Day of Swim Lessons

Quote of the Day

Today, I picked Gaby up from school as is usual on a Tuesday afternoon. We were driving back home, listening to music, as we normally do, when out of the blue Gaby says.....

"Gaby go to school. Mommy go shopping."

That my friends, is the funniest, if not, one of the more true statements my daughter has ever uttered. I laughed so hard, I cried!!

Hey kiddo- let's keep that between you and me.
Don't tell Daddy :)

Memorial Day fun w/ Tripp!

Congrats, Grad!!

As unbelievable at it may sound, my once "baby niece" has officially graduated from high school!! Not to sound too cliche, but I totally remember the day of her birth and how much fun it was to have a little baby around when I was a teenager (Now, before ya'll start wondering if my sister was a teenage mother- she is actually eight yrs older than me. I know it's hard to believe cause she looks so great!) . What's ironic is that I was sixteen when Lulu was born. Which is exactly how old she was when Gaby was born. Isn't that cool?

Ms. Alejandra (I never, never call her that. It always has been and always will be Lulu for me- heehee!) graduated from high school this weekend with an awesome 3.75 GPA and will be headed to Houston Baptist University this fall w/heaps and heaps of scholarships. So. Very. Proud. And now to the pics....

Walking down the aisle. (I thought this picture turned out neat!)

Go, Lulu!!!

The graduate!

Gaby snuck up for a quick kiss...

The usually photo-elusive, Tio Billy...

That's one proud and happy Mom!!

Me & my kiddos!!

Lulu's cutie boyfriend, Steven Gaby getting some Carlos lovin' :)

Class of 2009- Way to go, Lulu!! We are all so very proud of you and know you will be such a success in college.

A whole new world...

So I haven't talked much about potty training on this blog. Well, actually, I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it. And there's a very simple reason for that. Gaby has shown so little interest in it that I took the attitude that she'll decide when she's ready and I'm not going to push her. Selfishly, I simply did not want to deal w/ it for months and months and months.

Now, we talk about it a good bit. We've bought different potties. We've bought panties. We've bought books. We discuss how big girls go to the potty and babies wear diapers. Baby Holt and Elmo go to the potty. Often. We've covered all the bases but have never forced anything on Gaby, hoping that one day she would just decide that she was ready for it.

Well, folks.....it looks like that day has arrived!!! Yesterday, after her nap Gaby simply said "No diaper mommy. Gaby wear panties." So I said "Sure why not?" We were headed to the park as usual on Wed afternoon and I just took some extra clothes expecting that at some point we would have an accident. Well, what do you know? She lasted the whole time out there w/no problem. And then we came home and she lasted until bathtime w/out any accidents.

But wait a minute. Let's do the math...she went from about 2pm to 7pm w/out peeing. I asked her probably every half hour if she needed to go and she said no. At one point at the park she said she needed to go and we went but produced nothing. Hmmm.

So this morning, again, she didn't want to wear a diaper and was so happy that "Big girls wear panties." Of course, today is Thursday and a school day. But, I figured that they are totally used to potty training. So w/out hesitation I sent her on w/out a diaper. What do you know? They said she had a great day with no major issues. She even tinkled for them, but only once. And had one accident but they said it was b/c they didn't get her to the potty on time. Great, right?

Well , I get home from work and we're just hanging out and Gaby asks me to take her to the potty no less than six times, but never really does anything. You can tell she wants to, but is a little scared/tense about it. No pressure from me. I even ask her if she wants to put a diaper back on but she refuses. But I'm starting to get a little worried. At this point, I've never actually witnessed her pee in the potty. Her belly is so darn full AND she hasn't gone #2 all day. Oh-oh.

So she gets her bath and is now in bed w/ a diaper but I'm a little worried that she'll now start holding it in all day and make herself really uncomfortable. Or worse give herself a bladder infection. Or will she just eventually get it? I guess we'll soon find out. So I'm not going to call this a total victory just yet. But I am very optimistic that our little cutie might be potty trained very soon :)

Par-tay Weekend !

Our social calendar was very busy this weekend thanks to our sweetie. We had two birthday parties to go to and they were both so much fun! Saturday we had Zane's 1st birthday which was supposed to be a pool party but it was raining. No problem though, there was lots of fun to be had inside. Here's Gaby w/ the birthday boy and her pal, Isabel (poor thing had a black eye from a playground accident!)... Gaby was following Isabel around all day. She's like a big sister to her. Sooo sweet! I love how a 1yr old utterly devours their cake!!! We ended the night w/some glowstick dancing. Yipee!! Did you notice who else was at the party? Baby Holt, of course!! I told you Gaby was starting to become really attached to her :)

Sunday we were invited to Caden's 3rd birthday party at My Gym. That place is really neat! Lots of acrobatic stuff to do and Miss Gaby had a blast! She's our little daredevil! The ball pit with Addy & Aiden produced lots and lots of giggles... Gaby & the birthday boy... Bounce, bounce, bounce... Wahooooooo!!!! The zip-line was awesome!!! Gaby was in rare form at this party. She was hamming it up during circle time and following directions like a champ. Byron and I were very proud of our big girl :)

Language Awareness

Gaby has recently realized that she speaks two different languages. You can ask her to say something like, a color, a number, or an object and then ask her to say it in spanish and she does!!

Now, I don't know if that is different than any other child her age who speaks two languages, but the actual awareness of it is really neat to me.

Of course, I believe my child is a genius ;)

Her two babies...

Gaby is starting to play w/ Elmo & a certain babydoll all the time. (I ask her what her baby's name is and she says "Baby Holt"- soo cute!!) She always wants them around and if they are upstairs or downstairs she will go and find them.

She talks to them, feeds them, helps them color, pushes them in the stroller or shopping cart, puts them down for night-night (always face down for some reason?) and the funniest thing of all, puts them in time-out. It's just so precious! And they are not allowed out of time-out until they say they are sorry. She wags her little finger in their face and makes sure they apologize. I wonder where she get's that?? :)

It's so cute when she tries to carry
both of them at the same time.
All in all, though, she's a very good mommy and very much a girl.

Getting down w/ Elmo!!

Mother's Day 2009

We spent the weekend in Houston, so we could celebrate Mother's day w/my mom. My parents live in a neighborhood built around a country club so on Saturday we spent the day at the pool. Gaby had such a blast swimming!! We swam, got some sun and had lunch out there. I could get used to the country club life :)

Tia Chela & Lulu joined us...

On Sunday, we had a lovely brunch w/ the whole family...

My mom, her girls, and our girls...

I had a great mother's day. Getting to spend it with my mom and the rest of my family always makes it so special. I am proud to be a mom and feel so lucky to be the mom of such an amazing little girl! Hope ya'll had a great Mother's day too!!