Snow!!

Just in time for the holidays!  Maddy loved getting out and running around in the snow most of all!

Gabriella - stats

Gabriella is now 35 inches tall and 28.6 pounds.  When I looked it up on the percentile chart, she's 90th percentile for height and 50 percentile for weight.  She is talking up a storm, loves to do yoga, read and run around in circles!

Gabriella loves to pee in the potty...I think just so she can go dump it into the toilet and flush.  :-)  She also loves the praise.  This morning she said she had to go, so she sat down on her potty.  A minute later she said she had gone, so I looked and said oh, there isn't anything in there, so she asked for her water bottle.  A few seconds later I glance back at her and she's trying to drip the water from her bottle into the potty between her legs so there would be something in the potty for me to see!  She cracks me up.

walking at Wehle

Our walk on Sunday was beautiful and fun.  Gabriella LOVED the hot cocoa.  I think it was her second time ever having it and even adding more water than recommended it was still quite chocolate-y and sweet.  We stayed too long though and Brie got tired and cold.  (It's hard keeping gloves on little hands!)  So the walk back was quite noisy and stressful with her in the stroller but not wanting to be in it.  BUT she did fall asleep in the 5 minute drive back to the house and slept for the next 3 1/2 hours.  

Gabriella helping Maddy eat

Brie being the helpful little girl that she is decided she needed to hand feed Maddy.  I sure love her giggle!

Happy Hanukkah

Gabriella enjoyed her first meal of latkes with applesauce and sour cream.  Really, what's not to like?  It's a fried potato pancake.  I waited a bit too long to find a menorrah - Target was all ready sold out! - so we'll start that tradition next year.  And Brie will get to learn about Hanukkah (me too) and Christmas.  :-)

Mat's afternoon paddle around the harbor

Love the bright orange winter safety suit that Mat wore out to paddle around.  As Mat left the dock, Gabriella said "Daddy float away."  Which he did, it seemed, as the water was so calm today!  No ice yet in the Harbor so there might be some more days that Mat is able to take the canoe out for a solo paddle.

Gabby do it self

Gabriella is beginning to assert her indepence more and more.  She likes to dress herself about half the time now, which makes for a pretty long process as she doesn't quite have the front and back thing figured out.  She also still puts both legs through one hole and usually one arm ends up through the neck hole.  But it is fantastic to see her trying.  She also likes to put her own shoes on, shut the door, get books to read and to sit on the potty and flush the toilet.  She's been sitting and peeing on the potty more and more.  If I try to help she says "Gabby do it self" or "Gabriella do it". 

Last night was my first experience of reading a book with her on my lap and all of the sudden I felt warmth seeping into my legs.  I tried not to get too freaked out and got her to the potty for her to finish.  (The books say not to get mad or alarmed as it will harm your child psychologically!)  So we'll see if we will still be on the potty train the next few days.  Or if I've set her back some.  :-( 

Asheville Awesome-ness

As always, it's fantastic to go back to the southern city known as Asheville.  And it was a perfect trip.  No car troubles, beautiful weather and yummy food on Thanksgiving day with lovely people. 

Gratitude

I know Thanksgiving is still a week away, but one thing I'm thankful for is our ability to travel and because of that we'll be down in Asheville so I won't be around to list out things that I'm thankful for this year.  So I thought I'd do it in advance.

- I'm thankful for a beautiful, healthy daughter.  I am amazed every night that she loves the routine of going to bed.  Putting jammies on, bouncing on the bed, then kissing Maddy goodnight, snuggle reading stories and after the last one she says "turn light on"  (she's got the on/off mixed up), we turn the closet light off, kiss her goodnight and put her in the crib and cover her with blankets and leave.  Sometimes it's a little harder when we are in unfamiliar places but she is good to go 98% of the time.  Her naps are more like 50% of the time.  :-)  But she still gets them.

- I'm thankful for a fun and adventurous husband who is willing to get out hiking at a moment's notice.

- I'm thankful to live in a beautiful spot where we have met some fun and interesting people who also have children and that Mat enjoys his job.

- I'm thankful for an amazing family who is willing to travel to visit us or open up their homes for us to come stay in!

A sunny day walk in November

 

We couldn't stay inside last weekend.  It was sunny and in the 60s.  Sheesh!  If you didn't know, you wouldn't think it was November.  We went to Southwick Beach State Park and enjoyed walking along the wide, sandy beach for miles.  It was a perfect outing!  I'm probably going to take Brie and Maddy out there again tomorrow to try and wear Maddy out.  So that maybe, just maybe, she will be a wee bit worn out for our long trip to Asheville on Saturday.  It's supposed to be sunny and I think only in the 40s, but we'll still have fun!

I adore my little Brie!

I am not biased or anything, but I do believe that Gabriella is the most adorable 2 year old daughter of mine.  She is so mobile now and loves to get outside and hike.  In the top photo she and Maddy are waiting for Mat to arrive home for work so that we can take a walk at Wehle State Park.  The bottom photo is out at Wehle.  The leaves are on the ground around here and it is getting dark early!  It is winter.  We still haven't seen snow yet...but are hopeful that this will be the epic winter we've heard this area could have!  (Note that in the top photo, Brie has put a fleece on red hair Dolly to make sure she's warm on the walk.)

 

Brie's helping me make butternut squash filled ravioli.  It was a delicious dinner.  Thank you to pinterest for piquing my interest and helping me break out of my routine menus of nightly meals!

Gabriella's modeling the craft that she made at Story Time last week.  The theme was on voting and elections.  :-)  Thanks to the Henderson Free Library for having such a lovely story time each week!

Potty Training continued...

Brie is not potty trained yet.  But we are working on it.  Everything I read says not to pressure or make your child do it or it might delay them developmentally so we are going with Brie's pace.  When she wants to sit on her potty we do it and sometimes she even goes in it and she is so excited.  But most often she sits on it and I read to her.  I think she just likes the reading time, but hey, eventually we will get there.  I hope.

Getting brisk around here!

We went to our local state park to have Maddy run around this evening and it was COLD and windy.  Thankfully, we brought enough layers and Maddy and Brie had a fun time running around getting some energy out.

Mat and I are very lucky that Brie is so content and happy being with us doing pretty much what we want.  We are so very fortunate and try to appreciate this time because who knows how much longer it will last.  Here's some pictures from our weekend hike down in Ithaca which was lovely but it definitely is getting cooler around here.  I don't think it got above 35 degrees, but Brie was happy to hike most everything about 2 1/2 miles.  Which is impressive to us as her legs are so short!