Talking Up a Storm Here...

Gigi's vocabulary and syntax is booming these days. I swear she's learning new words and phrases every day. Her newest phrases are actually her first sentences: "I'll get it!" "I fixed it!" and "Throw it [the ball]!" are just a few. I still think she doesn't understand all the personal pronouns like I, me and you, but it's so cute to hear her saying them.

I guess it's about time to start recording her funny Gigi-isms as she develops and learns more and more. So here are a couple to start things off.

The other day we went for a walk on a nearby trail. A runner came up behind us and passed by us, wearing just running shorts, and no shirt (it was guy, BTW). Gigi points and says matter-of-factly, "Naked!"

Let me preface this next story by the fact that lately Gigi has learned to stack blocks and knock them over saying, "Timber!" and also we play "Timber" when she's up on my bed and she falls over. So today we were driving home from breakfast with some friends and there was a truck in front of us, packed and stacked like the Beverly Hillbillies. It took me a second to figure out what she was saying, but sure enough, Gigi was looking at the truck and saying "Timber!" I said, "No, baby, that furniture is going to stay stacked, we don't want it to go timber."

Pretty clever, this girl.

Happy Halloween! {+ Oct. Photos!}

Tonight Gigi went trick-or-treating with her best neighbor friend, Keira! They were adorable!
Here they are this afternoon in their matching pumpkin shirts, and then later this evening dressed up as a Chargers cheerleader and a 50s girl {note: it's virtually impossible to get these two to smile at the camera the same time!}.

Gigi finally got the hang of it after a few houses. She liked carrying her little bag of treats around, and had fun examining "her" loot. :)

One of our neighbors was nice enough to give the little girls Teddy Grahams, so we let Gigi have a "treat" when we got home! {p.s. This picture shows the first time she said "cheese" when posing for a photo!}

October was a fun month in Colorado, and included two of Gigi's other best friends, Wyatt & Brooke's birthday parties!
Here are the rest of the month's pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157608547716184/

15 Months Old

Our little girl is getting big! In addition to her relatively large vocabulary (those listed above are just a sample), she also continues to sign (please, all done, more, yes, music... and now, "home run!" She's working on "safe!" too). A new trick is pointing out the things she knows and saying it, like a hat on a person in a book, water on the TV (olympic diving), etc. It's really cool to see her continue to develop into such a smart little girl!
Side note: this scrapblog is the first one I made from scratch! You can use their pre-made layouts or you can start with a blank slate and use all their cool backgrounds, "stickers," etc. It was a little more work, but more artistically satisfying and fun! :)

Premature Potty-ing!!

After we get Gigi undressed for her baths, we let her walk naked to the bathroom (partly because how cute are little naked buns walking down the hall?). A couple of times when the bath wasn't ready yet, she has accidentally done a little tinkling on the bath mat. So when we were visiting our friends the Millers a couple of weeks ago, they loaned us their potty that's currently not in use. We set it up in the bathroom and sort of just for fun started sitting Gigi on it before the bath, enthusiastically telling her, "Go potty, Gigi!" and "Do you have to go peepee?" We weren't really expecting her to do it.
But sure enough (probably unbeknownst to her!) she peed in the potty! Here's the proof...

We were so excited we gave her all her toys in the bath.Don't worry we're not holding our breath that she'll be potty trained at a super early age... but we'll keep sitting her on it for fun!

What age did you start potty training?

July, Part 1

Tomorrow we are off to camp at Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, so beforehand I wanted to post this month's pictures to date.
But first... moms of girls will appreciate this... you know your baby is now a little girl when she can sport

a) a ponytail

b) pigtails!!
She looked so cute today in pigtails! But of course refused to smile for the camera. I'm sure we'll get one in the near future...

Here are all the pictures: (enable captions if you watch the slideshow!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157606100662527/

Calling all moms, dads, grandmas, etc!

I posted a poll on the right side of the blog! Please "vote" and then if you have any comments on the topic put them on this post. I think it's interesting to see how other kids are napping... especially since I'm trying to figure out what's best for Gigi at this age... she's sort of in a transitionary period I think. Not quite sure if she can do the 1 nap everyday, but some days it works good (days with church, etc). I'm sort of leaning towards one long afternoon nap and then a shorter morning nap that will eventually phase itself out.
Please share what works/has worked for you!

Birthday Fun

We had a fun time with some friends celebrating Gigi's birthday. Here are a few photos:
the moms & kids: Meredith, Baby Anna, Kelley, Baby Jude, Me, Gigi, Brooke, Melody, & Baby Wyatt (missing: Britton)!

the fam

Gigi's "all done" with her cupcake!

Here's the album where you can see the rest: http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157604968196252/

Due to some technical difficulties, I unfortunately don't have a video of the cake-eating! :( But don't worry, i have another chance since she's having 2 parties (I do have a DVD of it, but my conversion software is not working to get it on the compy... time for a different type of video camera for easier editing!!)

P.S. Subscribers and/or those of you who read this in a feed reader, come visit the actual blog and see another cute photo from her b'day that is our new header!

Happy 1st Birthday Gigi!

Our little Gianna Brianne is 1 year old today!

I made her a birthday crown!

Here's her latest stats:

Height: 27 7/8'' (20th%ile)
Weight: 16 lbs, 11 oz (3%ile)
Throws: right
Bats: switch
Favorite food: cheese
Favorite activities: dancing & "reading" books

Here's an unedited video of her talking. Pictures to come later of her celebrating!

Big Girl Menu

It's been a while since I posted something, and since I'm going to be 1 in 4 days I thought I should tell you what a big girl I am.

"So big!!"

Today for lunch I had yogurt, a quesadilla, and some plum applesauce. Other big girl foods I like are toast, ice cream, beans, rice, macaroni & cheese, and pickles. I'm probably going to love my birthday cake too, so stay tuned for that.

Love,
Gigi

P.S. If you didn't know, click on those blue words-- they are links!

Walk on, Gigi!

That's right, she's walking! Gigi took her first steps on the day we returned from Santa Fe (must be because she was in the car for so long prior :>). She has since gotten a little more brave each day and has even taken one walking marathon from the coffee table to the kitchen gate (probably over 10 feet for those of you that haven't been here).
She still resorts to crawling most of the time, especially since she needs something to use to stand up with, but if she starts out at a piece of furniture she usually will walk until she loses her balance. As proof of this milestone, here is the video showing those unsure & tentative very first steps.

Princess of the Pacifier

As most of you know, our little Gianna loves her pacifier! From the time the nurse gave her one in the hospital she has used one almost all the time.
My good friend Emily will be glad to know that in her old age (10 months!), Gigi is using it much less. She still uses it for naps (although not to go to bed at night usually), and during times when she's exceptionally fussy or tired, but other than that you won't find her plugged up and playing happily anymore.
She's expanding her verbal repertoire all the time (more video on that to come later) and is also a lot more aware of her surroundings and thus less dependent on her pacifier!
Our goal is to gradually wean her off it by the time she is walking and talking comfortably! We'll see how it goes as we approach those milestones!
In the meantime, here's a tribute to Gigi's beloved "nay-nay" (she makes those sounds when she is upset and wanting her pacifier). Enjoy!

9 months old!

Our little Gigi Bri is now 9 months old! Just a little update on her... she weighed in at 15 lbs 9 oz (~20th %ile) is 26 5/8'' long (50th %ile) at the doc's last week. So she's still pretty tiny but to us she seems to be getting big! Must just be because she is doing so much these days (or because her crazy hair is getting so long!).
She's officially cruising the furniture, although she is a speedy little crawler so she usually resorts to that as her choice mode of transportation. She is still very vocal, and has added to her repertoire an energetic "yeee-eah!" that elicits many smiles, and cute little deeoo- like sounds. She's still a bit of a challenge in the nap area-- taking as long as an hour and a half to finally give in to sleep, although usually once she's out she'll sleep for a good while.
She has several teeth now-- 2 on bottom, and 3+ that are poking out on top. She still likes to play in her corral although we have opened it now to give her a bigger play area. Her favorite game these days is "Peek-a-boo" which she even initiates by herself (video forthcoming on that!).

So to say the least, we are thoroughly enjoying parenting this little sweetie and are enjoying the fun stage that she is at right now!The goofy girl playing around.

Side note: I was about to get mad if I heard one more time about the 80-degree weather in California... but then today our high hit 64!!!!! I'm currently wearing shorts in my house! Yippee! Now if only it wasn't supposed to snow 8 inches tomorrow... oh well, only a little over 2 weeks before we go to Florida!

Help!

Our latest dilemna: Gigi has realized her mad skills of pulling herself up to standing! It's great and real cute when she does it on the couch or the coffee table during playtime, but not so great when we try to get her to take a nap and now all she wants to do is stand up in her crib! She thinks it's really funny at first (as we continually go in, and lay her back down), and then she gets overtired, keeps doing it, but now is simply crying each time she stands up. Yesterday she slept a total of 1 hour during the day! I think she might also be a little stuffy, maybe getting a cold (her first!) too so that could have something to do with it. But I'm pretty much at a loss as to what to do about the standing up. Any ideas from you experienced moms? Please help!!

The Culprit in Action

Por Fin-- Video Fun!

Here are the videos I promised a while ago! These are little compilations of clips from October, November & December, highlighting Gigi's favorite things to do!

Good Eats with Gigi


Talkin' it up


and the finale goes out to Gigi's cousin Peter, who's always wanting to see more videos...
On the Move!



Yay, Gigi! She crawled for the first time on Friday, December 14th, at our friends the Stopniks' house! Boy are we going to have our hands full now, huh?

Shopping!

I haven't done my own post in quite a while, and since I arrived at a milestone today, I thought I'd share about it with you. Today I rode in the cart like a big girl for the first time! Thanks to my Auntie Em for the sweet cart liner! Mommy and I bought some yummy goodies at Whole Foods and I had a great time sucking on all my toys. Here's a picture of me in the produce department (it's not the best quality because Mommy took it with her phone).P.S. If you'd like to, you can read my updated profile here. I'm very technologically-savvy for a 6-month old, you know.