Another Video... Our Little Furniture Mover

Work, Work, Work

My parents are here. So I am taking advantage of the ability to complete some projects. I painted Gabi's dresser again and painted a mirror frame and bookshelf. The mirror and bookshelf were mine and my sister's. To be fair, they were Paige's first since she was first. I digress. The point is-- I've been painting like a lunatic. Furniture and our living room. The living room is orange. It's one of the most glorious colors I've ever had on a wall. Nope-- the MOST glorious.

Today, Mom, Gabi and I ran several errands. The biggest accomplishment was getting about 8 big picture frames to frame some of the watercolors that we've collected in Europe, Africa and Mexico. We've been carrying these prints around for years and we finally have permanent walls to put them on. Unfortunately, most of them are from street vendors from places that use the metric system. It is not easy to find frames that will work on our English measurement systems. So we decided on floating frames that eliminated the need for custom matting and framing. That would have been way too costly. I'm quite pleased with the results.

The video below is of Gabi at the restaurant tonight. The purpose is to show how she says "down" and "up." "Down" requires the puckering of lips and comes out as "nooowwwwn". "Up" has no sound. It looks like a guppie. It's very funny.

Happy 4th of July to all the new citizens of this great country...

Not-Great Video

Painting, Playing and a New Job

That's what we've been up to. We finished painting Gabi's room. I think it turned out very cute, but now I have to paint the furniture... again. I'll do that while my mom and dad are here this next week.

Ed started his job at ExxonMobil on Monday. He's really enjoying it, which is a huge relief. That left Gabi and me at home to fiend for ourselves. We've done just fine. We've actually gotten a lot accomplished. I even made Ed a special first-week-of-work-dinner last night and it was heavenly, if I do say so myself.

Gabi is putting aside her desire to walk with flailing arms. She is now walking with her arms to her side. However, she doesn't move them at all, so she ends up looking really defeated. It's actually hysterical. She goes from one extreme to the next.

Flailing and Such

Gabi has developed her own personal flair while walking. Her arms flail. It looks voluntary but it might not be. Hmmm...

Some Pics

It's not jacked up. We just didn't have the cushion fixed yet.

We got new furniture delivered today. The truth is that it looks like old lady furniture in the pictures, but it's actually beautiful. This sofa and two chairs are in our downstairs living room that is a little more formal than the one upstairs. We're pretty excited. We also got a new kitchen table since ours was too small and will be used elsewhere. We did not buy chairs yet though. So that's next on the list. In the meantime, we are super-ghetto with our lawn chairs in the kitchen with our new table. And the chairs are far too low. So we are like oompah-loompah ghetto boys. Very, very funny.

Poor Izzy. Gabi LOVES her. Izzy doesn't dislike Gabi. She just doesn't have the same passion for Gabi as Gabi has for her. Notice how quickly she runs off when Gabi comes her way. And then Gabi looks perplexed as to why.

Photo Contest

I was on the Parents Magazine website and they're having a photo contest. So I uploaded some pics of Gabi in the Cover Photo Contest section. You can see her, leave a comment, recommend her or whatever.

Go to the Parents Magazine site and search "Gabi Sol" in the search section on the left side of the page. It will bring up her gallery. Enjoy!!

Will it Ever End?

I feel like we have been unpacking, organizing, reorganizing for a month. Really, it's only been 5 days. But the whole process is so obnoxious. It never ends. And the best part is that much of what we're doing is not permanent. Ed will not let me paint Gabi's bedroom yet. He won't let me paint the living room yet. He won't let me do anything. So nothing is going on the walls. It all leaves me very unmotivated because there is only so much I can do. Enough whining.

Gabi is a mess. Today, Ed was playing with her upstairs and she started laughing hysterically. Why? Because Izzy walked by her. That's it. For some reason, the same things that Izzy does every day set Gabi off. She belly laughed for several minutes. How funny is she?

Gabi's personality changes when you put her in the pool. She LOVES the pool so much that she could be fussing and instantly change when she touches the water. It's such a riot. That's how I always was about the water. I LOVED IT! Paige and I spent most of our waking hours in a pool in the summertime. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Gabi loves it too.

And she's far too brave for our comfort. We have a sitting ledge around part of the pool that is the perfect depth for her to walk around while holding the edge. She'll just turn around and walk to you even though she knows that the ledge falls off in only a couple of steps. She's more than a little crazy. But it is so much fun swimming with her that we've taken to swimming for a while every night after dinner.

Yesterday was... 2 months home!!!

Yesterday, June 22, marked 2 months since Gabi came home. Well, 'home' is used loosely in this particular situation considering the chaos we've been dealing with since then. Nevertheless, this child is curious, sassy, loving, funny and smart, smart, smart!!! She has learned about 15-18 signs that she uses regularly. She has a great receptive vocabulary. She is so interested in how things work. She won't take no for an answer and she shows great boldness in everything she does.

Gabriella Lilisol is the joy of our lives and we can't imagine anything without her. Edward says to me every day, "Could you just watch her forever? I can't stop looking at her." He no longer feels as if she isn't ours. Neither do I. She is an A. for sure. We are blessed beyond measure. After all the heartache, our cup runneth over.