Gabby Swims Solo

Gabby and I have been going to the pool alot in last week. She has always been comfortable in the water, never afraid to get her head or face wet. Earlier this week we began doing submarine rides where she holds onto my back as we go underwater for awhile. I have been swimming progressively further and further with her underwater with each day until we can make it about a half a length at a time. She likes to say what she wants to search for each time we go down. So far the list includes; dolphins, whales, octopus, sharks, fish, and crocodiles. She will point in which direction she thinks the animals are in and off we go.
Swimming on daddy's back is one thing but swimming solo was a pretty scary prospect for Gabby. Earlier in my work with her she had a couple experiences where she went underwater when trying to swim to me and it made her pretty afraid to let go of me or the wall. As we have been working this week I noticed that she seemed more and more comfortable, hanging onto the wall with one hand while she would go under water to have a look around. The past two days I left her "floaty" at home, taking off the training wheels in a way. Yesterday I was having her do an exercise where we go to the bottom and she kicks to pull me up and "rescue" me. She really liked it and I could feel that her kick was getting stronger. I decided to take a risk and let her go once we got underwater to see how she reacted. As I let go of her she looked surprised but not panicky, she kicked hard and came toward me. I picked her up out of the water and she smiled as she asked to do it again! We quickly went under again and once again she kicked her feet and came toward me. The next time she asked to swim toward the wall about two meters away and I gave her a push to help her out. She made it to the wall and to my surprise, without taking a breath, turned around and pushed off the wall and kicked back to me. I couldn't believe how big of a breakthrough she could have in one day. On the walk home she wouldn't stop talking about how she wanted to tell mommy about what she had done.
Today we swam again so I could capture all of this on video. A new addition today was her use of hands in a breast stroke kind of motion. The next stage will be for her to float on her back without help and swim on her back. I don't know who is having more fun, her or me. Life is funny, teaching swim lessons in my teens is what helped me find that I wanted to be a teacher. Now that I'm teaching my daughter I get the same feelings I did back then.

Halloween!

Gabriella as Snow White...

Strike a Pose

Fancy Shoes

Gabriella and Emily

Getting Ready to Trick-orTreat

VERY EXCITED!

Cinderella and Snow White

Best Buds...

Always Holding Hands

Happy about Getting Yummy Candy

Thank You Granny-Franny

for the Halloween Card

It was a perfect Halloween weekend... mid 60's in temperature, clear-blue skies, and a huge compound of houses devoted to handing out candy for the trick-or-treaters. We went with two families and walked around our neighborhood. It was awesome! Almost every house was decorated and there were kids dressed-up all over the place. Loved it. As you can see, Miss Gabriella was Snow White. We bought this costume at Disneyland this summer and we've made good use of it. I love this holiday... I'm a bit sad it's over. Oh well- until next year!

Halloween Party #2

Gabriella and Kellan.

Their teacher (Ms. Sara) says they act like an old, married couple

Gabriella found a ghost!

One of the games they played at the party...

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Tareq's house for a "Spooktacular" Halloween party. The kids had a blast... cupcake decorating, ghost hunt, candy, and tons of new toys Gabby has never played with...

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween Party #1

Cutting off the top

Daddy and Daughter

Gabriella, Kellan, and Emily

At the Gold's House for a Costume Party

At the end of the night... Very tired.

Travis is proud of his Jack-O-Lantern!

It was a busy Saturday! But we had a lot of fun... Shopping and a trip to Starbucks in the morning, cooking in the afternoon, NO nap time, pumpkin carving, and then a super-fun costume party at our friend's house. After the Halloween party, Travis played poker with the boys and I crashed.

29 Weeks Pregnant!

Things are going really well with the pregnancy... It's amazing how many people ask you how you feel when you're pregnant, so I thought I’d answer your burning question right away. I feel good! I really can't complain. In fact, this pregnancy has been easier than the first because I didn't have so much of that all day sickness I had with Gabby. People keep telling me it's a boy and for a variety of reasons: 1) I'm carrying "high," which is funny because I can't tell a difference; 2) I'm wider (thanks for that- admittedly I did get wider much faster with this pregnancy); 3) I wasn't very sick at the beginning- apparently with girls you get more sick; 4) I walk like I’m carrying a boy. A Chinese mom said this to me and was very serious about this… However, I pointed out that according to the Chinese birth calendar I’m having a girl.

I did have a slight drama last week (besides all the Red Vines being sold out at the grocery store)… At one of my ultrasounds they discovered that my placenta was low (no one told me), so I had a repeat ultrasound and got a peak at the baby and everything is okay now. A low placenta is bad because when you give birth the placenta blocks the birth canal so I would have had to get a C-section.

Gabriella just loves touching my belly and is so excited to be a big sister!

Travis's Month O' Pumpkin

Travis and his Baby Girl at our

Family Celebration for Trav's Birthday

Gabby and I made "Pumpkin Pudding"

for the Special Day. She was SO proud of herself!

Travis's Chef Song Birthday Dinner

Russell, Carolyn, Stephen, Velora, Trav, Josh, and Nikki

If you know Travis, you know how much he LOVES pumpkin. Now that I found out pumpkin is good for you (low fat, lots of fiber, and gluten free)- I am now a convert. Since we usually buy ourselves presents back in the States, I decided to do something different so that my man feels special. Every weekend, I've been baking him something pumpkin... pumpkin pie, pumpkin pudding, pumpkin struesal muffins (my favorite) and one last thing this weekend but I can't decide... so many good pumpkin recipes out there! We also made pumpkin pancakes for a brunch we had on Sunday. Nope, still not tired of pumpkin... :)

Gabby's First Parent-Teacher Conference

All in all, our little girl is growing up and is doing really well in school. The teacher, Ms. Sara, said her language skills are good and she's able to have conversations and does a great job using her imagination. She wears this pink, princess dress all the time but doesn't act like one- she just likes to wear the dress! She plays mostly with boys but perhaps because she's that type of girl or maybe it's because she's the only native English speaker that's a girl... She participates in class and is learning lots of cool stuff. I asked about the Celiac thing and if she feels different, etc. Ms. Sara said it's not even an issue with her... so far-so good.

Things to work on... she's still a bit bossy and controlling. I'm sure her future siblings will enjoy that. For instance, the day of the conference she pushed a girl out of the way in the bathroom. When asked why, she said "I had to go pee." Ms. Sara and I both agree that when you make her see through someone else's eyes (empathy) she gets it.

I'm just happy that she likes school and is hitting the appropriate developmental milestones. She is- so YAY!