Gabriela's new love!

Well, Mommy and Daddy have not been replaced, however, Gabriela LOVES Monteray Jack cheese! Yes, that's right, cheese. All of the sudden, she has developed an adversity to butternut squash, which she loved for so long, and now loves cheese. She gets so excited when she sees me take out the cheese from the refrigerator and start cutting it up. No matter if she's had a full meal or not, she'll still eat all the cheese that is given to her. It is so funny!

Mommy, Daddy and Gabriela went to Ethan's 1st birthday party last Sunday. It was the first kiddie birthday party she attended. She seemed to have fun. Ethan's parents and I went to high school together. Also, this past Monday we got 12 inches of snow, only for it to get into the 70's 4 days later! Crazy weather, but I'm not complaining since I love the good weather/heat. (These pictures are already on webshots).

This past week seems to have been the time for her to develop her speed racer crawl. She can get moving (forward now) in a flash now. Of course she's into everything and tried to grab for everthing. Her Daddy calls her "tank" since she bulldozes everything. It's a little challenging to have her on the changing table because she is constantly moving and grabbing things. She's also getting very good at standing up using someone's body or the couch to pull herself up.

Yesterday we went to the Baltimore aquarium with Aunt Carrie and Uncle Sam. It was a beautiful day (75 degrees!!) and we had a great time. Gabriela, despite her 30 minute nap in the car and not eating much lunch, was very well behaved. She seemed to enjoy herself as well. I'll post pictures on webshots this week! Love to all and we'll be in touch!

We're still here!

I guess I should be ashamed of myself for not posting anything in forever. Honestly, it's just something else I have to keep up with and unfortunately it gets pushed aside. I have been keeping a word document with Gabriela's milestones so I don't forget to add them to her scrapbook (which I'm still on her birth!)

Here's a brief overview. Gabriela weighed in at 19 lbs. 1 oz. at her nine month check up (1/29) and measures 26.5 in. long. Her top 2 teeth have come through so that makes 4 total. She can crawl backwards and somewhat forward, but only as a novice. She has put herself in the sitting position a few times and she loves to stand up (though she needs assistance getting in that position). She says "mama, dada" more distinctly now and can also say "nana, baba". She can also give "besitos/kisses" and give high fives.

As for her eating, she still loves butternut squash and sweet potato as well as her cereal. She still doesn't like any fruit, but is tolerating it with her cereal. This week I hope to start her on egg yolks and some chicken. Hopefully I'll post something next week.

As for me, I've been busy with online teaching and getting back to the gym (losing weight). My supervisor has tasked me with a few other tasks which have kept me busy. It takes away from my relaxing time in the evening, but I figure it's good to stay active in the profession just in case I go back to teaching. If I don't go back to the classroom, maybe I can stay home indefinitely and teach from home full-time or do something administratively from home. We'll see.

I joined weight watcherson 1/5 to help me with weight loss since they have a nursing mom program. I didn't want to do anything drastic to mess up my milk. I absolutely love the results!! I've lost about 17 lbs and have 6 lbs. more to lose to be at my prepregnancy weight (not sure if I'll be back at my prepregnancy size or not though). Like before, I have to eat more to lose weight so that's pretty easy to do now that I have a little more time to eat.

As for Jeff, he's studying for his promotional test. He will test for Sargent this April and every week he has been getting together with a study group to review their self-made quizzes. We've had his mom and boyfriend and his sister and husband visit in the last few weeks. Check out websites for updated photos!
Take care,
love to all!!

I've been bad....

...about blogging that is!

I'm so sorry it has taken me a month to post this blog! I feel like in my spare time I'm working online and trying to catch up around the house.

Where to start???? Well, we celebrated Jeff's birthday on the 15th of November and Gabriela and I made him a shirt. It didn't turn out quite as good as I was hoping for, but he loves it. We went to Granddaddy Linger's house and had a nice dinner with him and Brenda as well as Carrie and Sam (oh and Ella too!).

The weekend of the 21st of November we went to NJ to celebrate Thanksgiving early. We visited with Great Mom-Mom, Grandmom, Steele, Carrie, Sam and Ella. We had a nice time like always. We also celebrated Thanksgiving with Abuela and Grandpa on Thanksgiving. Of course we have more to be thankful for this year!!

On the 5th of December we celebrated my birthday. Jeff and I went to dinner and Abuela and Grandpa came over to watch Gabriela. It was a very nice dinner and of course Abuela and Grandpa had a great time with Gabriela.

On the 7th we celebrated Abuela's birthday (a day early). I made some soup and carrot cake (tasted great but looked god awful!). Good time as well. I feel like I've been baking for forever!

As for Gabriela, she's still sitting up and happy as can be. She is rocking back and forth on all 4's so we think she'll be crawling soon. She already crawls backwards and of course rolls all over the place. She says "ma, ma, ma" and "da, da, da" and seems to know that she is calling/talking to her mommy and daddy. Gabriela is also starting to wave bye-bye. She likes to wave to herself so she can see her hand and fingers moving back and forth. Too cute!

Thanks to everyone for our birthday cards/presents, you are too much!! Visit webshots for more updated pictures! Love to all!!

Great news!!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some good news with you all. For the past 2 nights, Gabriela has been sleeping through the entire night. With a little whimper here and there, she goes right back out. We've been working hard the past week trying to get her to fall asleep on her own. It's been painful for us since we don't like to hear her cry. We didn't do the "cry it out" cold turkey method because we could only handle letting her cry for 10 minutes at a time, but we didn't pick her up. For about 4 nights, Jeff and I would rub her back and sing to her whenever she woke up crying and couldn't get back to sleep. Let me tell you, it usually took 30 minutes of rubbing her back and singing nursery rhymes. Jeff sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" about a million times. We can't complain though because it works!! I can't tell you how nice it is to sleep a whole stretch of time.

Two days ago I noticed her two bottom, front teeth were popping through. The left one is completely through the gum line but the right one is still just below the gum line; though you can see it. She's still gnawing on everything, but it'll be cute to see her with her two bottom teeth soon! She's liking her rice cereal more and more and her favorite foods are sweet potatoes and butternut squash. She doesn't mind carrots, but absolutely does not like green beans, apples and pears.

Gabriela also has a new trick. She's sitting up and she loves grabbing her toes. We think she can finally reach her toes because she's gotten a little (not much) leaner. She loves to "talk" more and more and we wouldn't be surprised if she's an every talker! We gave her her first hair cut this past week as well. She's also rolling like crazy. To put it simple, she's ALWAYS moving, even when I feed her, she's still moving her legs. We're going to have our hands full when she gets moving.

Kisses to you all!

November get together

Yesterday we got together with 2 couples that were in our birthing class. We've keep in touch and once a month (we try at least once a month) we get together. Yesterday we got together at our house. The girls dressed up in their Halloween outfits for a quick picture and the adults got to compare stories. Naturally Oliva and Charli have been sleeping through the night for months now and Gabriela is the oldest. In the picture, you have Eeyore (Olivia), and chicken (Charli). Olivia was born May 13th and Charli was born May 9th.

Earlier in October we got together at Nicole's (Olivia's mommy) house. The girls don't do a lot of playing with each other yet, but it will be nice to see them grow together.

Check out webshots for more pictures!

It's been a long time!!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. It's been a hectic, yet funfilled month! First of all, I started working Oct. 1st. My new job is teaching online. I'm still teaching Spanish, although it's more grading than teaching. The only time I work is when Gabriela is sleeping or napping; which cuts down on my free time to blog and scrapbook!

The month of October was packed full of visits. We had our Sister-in-law, nephews, Grandma, my Brother, Cousin Mike, Jeff's Mom and Boyfriend visit this month. We also went to a pumpkin patch with the Grimes', Brenda and Thomas. We also visited with Jeff's day, Granddaddy, Grandmommy, Aunt Aletta, and Uncle Bob. I'm sure we did more too, but I can't remember!!

Gabriela had her 6 month appointment this past Wed. She now weighs 18 lbs. 5 oz. and is 25 1/2 inches long. She is louder than ever and seems to want to talk really bad. She can roll from back to front and front to back; though she rarely rolls front to back. Gabriela also sits up pretty well but she's not at the point where she can position herself in that position. We have to put her in the sitting position.

We just started her on some solids and she's a little slow at getting the hang of it. I'm making all the baby food and I'm really enjoying it, not to mention it's really easy. She's tried rice cereal, apple sauce, green beans, bananas, and butternut squash. Her favorite is butternut squash which gives her gas apparently so I have to not give it to her as often.

As for her sleeping....well, she's still waking up about 3 times a night. The Pediatrician says that there is no reason for her to do so and to let her cry it out, but Jeff and I can't stand hearing her cry very long. I figure she'll sleep with due time! We'll see.

Halloween was fun! We went to Krystle and Andrew's, Joe and Esperanza's, Frenchie and Jerry's and my parent's house. We would have loved to go to Jeff's dad's house and many other houses, but we were short on time. At the end of our journey, Gabriela got really cranky which is to be expected since she was in and out of her carseat a lot in only a couple of hours.

Gabriela is 5 months old today!

Wow, it's been a little while since my last post. This past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we went to NJ to celebrate Jeff's Mom-mom's 82nd birthday. Happy birthday Mom-Mom!! Gabriela rolled to her left for the first time; still only from back to front. Wednesday night she had a slight fever and was whimpering most of the night. All I could do was rock her and hold her. She finally slept for about a 3 hour stretch. I thought/think that she is teething, but no pearly whites yet. She still wakes up twice or three times between 9 pm and 8:30 am, but I'm used to that now. It'll be nice to sleep through the night whenever that happens!

This past Saturday we went to a cookout from one of the ladies that was in our birthing class. Her daughter Olivia was born on May 13th. Another couple also came that was in our birthing class as well. They have a daughter named Charli that was born May 9th. The three of them rolled around on the floor and us adults laughed and compared stories. It was funny, every time Olivia got near Gabriela, Olivia would start crying. At the end of the evening, all three of them were crying, it was amusing.

This past Sunday, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Sam, Grandpa and Abuela came over for dinner. As usual we all had a good visit. It's sad that we live far from family, but we have to make the best of it when we see each other. Speaking of family, next week, Aunt Robin, Uncle Juan Miguel, and cousins Brandon and Colin will be visiting for a few days. We're really excited about that and we can't wait to meet our new nephew Colin.

Lastly, some of you know that I applied for an online teaching job and was waiting a while to find out if I got the position. After thinking I didn't get the job, they finally called me to offer me a position this past week. So far I've filled out and read a lot of paperwork. The job will require me to work approximately 10-15 hours a week from home. I have to be online for 1 hour a week at the same time/day and the other hours I can work whenever I have time. Sounds good to me, but we'll see what it ends up being. I will be teaching Spanish, but they have not told me what level or how many students I will have either. Apparently I will be spending the next week training. There are some different software programs that I will have to use and become familiar with before I start the actual instruction.

Well, please check out webshots for more new pictures. Until the next blog!