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.

Allright Already!

You people are sooooo demanding...

I finally gave up. Our camera was stolen by the movers and we had to replace it.

Here's a brief catch-up:

• We are Houstonians!



• We love our house, despite it's disaster status.



• Fear not! The Welcome Wagon is alive and well. Literally.... Two neighbors introduced themselves, asked about a church home, brought cookies and wished us well within 48 hours of arrival. Also, the official welcome people came with about $476 of free stuff. Delightful.



• Kurt, Sandy, and JM brought dinner on Friday night and went for a dip in the pool.



• Gabi loves her new house.



• Izzy loves her new house. She's most delighted that she has more room to hide from Gabi.



• Gabi loves her pool.








• Izzy hates her pool. She has great anxiety and will probably wither away to nothing from circling it obsessively.

• Gabi sweats a lot in Houston. I fear she will never be that cute kid with the dry hair ever again. Every time we take her out of the car seat, the back of her head is saturated. Lovely.





• Gabi fell into her high chair while she was walking around it and gave herself 3 head injuries-- fat, purple lip, scratched, swollen eyelid and bruise on her forehead. This occurred after returning from Linens n Things and declaring publicly that if she didn't stop yelling, I was going to beat her. I shant be returning to that store anytime soon for fear of having DCFS come after me.



• Gabi was delirious to discover her ladybug letters in her new room. She's at home finally.



• We sat next to the two nicest men EVER on the two puddlejumper flights from St. Louis. Both were very gracious and didn't mind Gabi's animal crackered hands waving about. I couldn't have lucked out more with my seatmates.



• It took the cable guy 3 days of working many, many hours to get our cable going. Guess what?!? Our wireless internet does not work. We are defeated.
• Gabi is off the bottle. We did not push this particular issue because it seemed as though she was enduring plenty by waking up somewhere different practically every day. We thought we'd try to make a clean break with the move. When we got here, all the bottles disappeared. I seriously don't think she even noticed. Either she is very, very easy, or very, very oblivious. Whatever.

Finally, our house and pool are glorious!!! We are so thrilled to be here with our daughter. Ed does not start work for another week and we should be ship-shape by the time he starts. Well, at least until I start painting. Did I mention that I love my house?

P.S. Don't get concerned about the nekkid picture of Gabi in the pool. Although, she was skinny dipping, her Daddy had his britches on.

On the Road Again...

Today was our last day in MTV. We had breakfast with some of the Sisters, lunch with Auntie Li and the afternoon with Aunt Vivian. I got to have dinner with Liza tonight. I wasn't able to leave the house for most of the day because I am without automobile. One car was shipped and the other was driven to Houston by the husband.

Tomorrow morning, Gabi and I embark on the last big travel for a few months. We are headed to Houston out of St. Louis via Memphis. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get her to sleep on that first flight so let's hope that I get a gracious person next to me who doesn't flip out over my wiggle worm.

I just talked to Ed in Houston and the movers have been there all day. He says that the house is an absolute disaster. He sounds exhausted. Tomorrow the unpackers come and hopefully the cable guy will return. He says that Izzy spent most of the day in the panic room while all the chaos was going on and wasn't too thrilled about it. Poor girl.

Ole Murph-- you'll be glad to know that we've just about survived this crazy 8 weeks. Check in with me later this week, just to be sure.

Some pics from the last couple of days...