Gabrielle-isms

First and foremost, Gabrielle's attitude has improved a million percent.  I don't know if her allergy meds that she went back on for a few days effected her mood or if it's just because she is two, but she went though a TOUGH couple of weeks.  She had many consequences implemented which she's never really needed before.  TV, markers, park trips, treats, etc all got taken away several days in a row.  We seemed to finally "break" our little diva and she got control of her attitude again. 

She is getting used to the idea that she will have quiet time every day whether she screams or not.  She can open her door any time she pleases, so no Fresh Beat Band if she doesn't complete quiet time well.... FBB if she does.  That took two days for her to learn.  Genius.  FYI - half of the time Gabs falls asleep on her floor during quiet time and all is grand.  Overall she is doing much better and we are thankful!

Also, potty training is making progress.  I'm still in the place of just letting her do it herself.  Still 100% #2 trained and will ask 1-2 times per day to go #1 in the potty.  Progress.  The other day I heard her pushing her stool around the bathroom floor and thought....oh no she's getting into her shampoo or something.  I walk up to the bathroom and she had moved her stool to her potty, put her potty ring on, took her pants and diaper off, and was peeing in the potty all by herself.  Yay!

Gabrielle came up with a name for her brother all on her own.  Bouncy.  And she has referred to him as "Bouncy brother" the past couple of days.  She also came up with the idea of giving him her reject yellow B.  I asked my mom to make another yellow B just so we had a spare, and Gabs can't stand it.  Totally rejects it.....so she grabbed it the other day and said "brother have this one".  Haha.  She's having fun picking out things for her brother in the store.  Most of the things are even gender appropriate, but one once in a while she'll hold up a purple dress to herself and say "brother might like this...." 

Gabrielle sings to songs on the radio in the car.  She knows the tune and can sing some of the words especially in the chorus.  Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Maroon 5, and Gotye are some her favs :)

Gabi met a girl named Olivia and she looks at me and says "Mommy, she not a pig" and shakes her head.  Haha, she likes her Olivia pig books!
G grabs my face.... "Mell [smell] me mommy!  I mell like cookies!!!"  As she laughs with a mouthful of chewed up cookie.

Puts a sticker on her knee "There, good as new!"

Gabi deciding which pajamas to wear
"I wear yellow pajamas.....or I could wear beautiful princesses.....or..."
Nick "I don't care what the heck you wear but you need to move it along and get some clothes on!!"
Gabi "Hahaha daddy, you so funny!"

"Oh my GOSH!"

I tell Gabs to not forget her yellow B
"I just told you mommy, you carry it please!"

"Don't get hit by a car Daddy!!!!" Gabs screams when we go on our family walks/bike rides and there is a car anywhere on the road.

"I can't believe it!"

"My room so beaui-ful!  Thank you for painting my room, mom!"

"Aww mommy you're so cute!"

"I no want to nuggle [snuggle] with you, I just want to sit with you."

Gabi went back to the doctor to make sure the fluid drained from her ears (which it has) and the doctor asked her "What do birds say?  They go *whistle whistle*" 
Gabrielle:  "Mmm....not really.  They say tweet tweet."


Nicks says to Gabi "Wow, you look so pretty tonight!"
Gabi "No, I look stylish."
Her favorite new word is stylish and she always wants to wear dresses and "look stylish".

Gabs won't wear ponytail or pigtails or anything of the kind lately because she wants "her hair like Kiki!".  And Kiki's hair is down.  She is growing up much faster than I thought she would.

She likes to color with markers, but there main function in our house is being "dum ticks" [drum sticks].  She plays drums on the table, etc all over the house and instructs me to say "Hit it, Marina!" then she says "I play the Fresh Beat way!" or "1, 2, 3 rock and roll!" etc, etc.....

Is very into pretend play.  One of her favorite "toys" lately is a really long piece of string or ribbon.  That turns into her "lasso" or into "balloons" which she gives to me and the dogs, or into a car.....she holds one end and I hold the other and she "drives" me to Pruess Pets.  She decided it was Zebra's birthday the other day and had to throw him a party.  We had to get out her left over birthday napkins and she decorated with stickers and we sang Happy Birthday.  Then she told me we needed birthday cake for Zebra....haha no.

She is also into drawing little "shapes" "letters" and "animals" lately.  And trying to color inside the lines.  Up until now she mostly just scribbled when she colored but now she is being a lot more delicate and trying to actually draw things.  She is switching a lot between right and left hands when she is writing/coloring....I thought she was definitely right handed but I guess we will see. 

Gabrielle 2nd hair cut before.....
And after!

She looks to be about 10 years old in this picture. Tear. Us at the Dance Recital we went to the other weekend. She loved it and danced the isles for two hours! Father's Day! She loves her tutu and wand..... And our new bedroom furniture! We love it!

Tutu headband! Chocolate malt before bed....we are such good parents

Going through some baby stuff for brother and she thought she'd regress a bit...

Meeting cousin Isaiah for the first time! Hanging with Uncle Jason during Isaiah's pictures :)

20 Weeks! It's a......BOY!

I'm 20.5 weeks now and we found out little Taylor #2 is a BOY!!!!!  I had my ultrasound on June 18th and everything appeared to look good!  All of the measurements looked to be right on track and it didn't take too long to see that he was definitely a boy at various times during the scan.  We saw him open and close his mouth a few times and his heartbeat was 156 bpm.  We had a doctor check up afterwards and she measured my belly for the first time this pregnancy and it came in right at 20 cm like it should (Gabs always measured right on in the belly too). 

How far along?: 20 weeks 3 days
Total weight gain: 8 lbs
How big is baby?: According to the ultrasound Baby Boy is estimated at 12 ounces and measured exactly to date....just the same as Gabs did.
Maternity clothes?: All pants, a lot of regular shirts but I am starting to add in some maternity too
Stretch marks?: No
Sleep?: The past week hasn't been very good...a difficult, non-napping toddler, lots of photography work, and thinking/worrying about the ultrasound may all be to blame.  Laying on my back is starting to get a little uncomfortable too since my belly is getting heavier.
Best moment this week?: Of course, finding out our baby looks healthy and that it's a boy!!
Movement?:  Yep!  I have started feeling multiple kicks/punches at once and even feel it rolling (or something...)
Food cravings?: Bananas and chocolate covered peanuts.  Salty snacks in the evening.
Labor signs?: Don't think so.  I thought I might have started to feel some braxton hicks, but doc said probably not...just ligaments stretching. 
Belly button in or out?: In
What I miss: A cold *drink*
What I'm looking forward to: Shopping for our son and starting to plan more for him!

His little profile and foot sticking up top

Both little feet right together!

His head and back

The front view of his face

It's a BOY!

20 weeks!  Half way there!

Ultrasound!

And shopping!

He has a little start now :)  Nick and I tried to do some shopping after the ultrasound, but neither one of us were big fans of what we saw.  In Nick's words "boys clothes suck".  He's been brainwashed by a little girl too long.  It's true....I guess I'm pickier about boys clothes too.  I'm not a big fan of the cars, dinosaurs, or frogs with sunglasses.......but my mom and I went shopping today and I found some cute stuff.  Nick wants to start a business making cool vintage Ts for little boys since he couldn't find anything "not dorky" in the stores haha. 

Terrible 2 .5's

We've been having a rough time with Gabs lately.  About two weeks ago she stopped napping so I've at least been trying to work with her on having "quiet time" in her room instead.  I work while she's napping so there needs to be some time in the day that she is out of my hair if I'm home.  She has a tough time understanding why she needs to be in her room for an hour and half  with the door shut and play by herself but we're working on it. 

A couple of days ago, by the end of the day, she had accumulated no TV, no markers, no sweets, and was in bed by 7:00pm. Ugh. The next day she did a bit better with quiet time...not perfect by any means, but was able to complete her time. 

She is currently sleeping on her bedroom floor.  After waking up at 6am this morning [for no reason] she was throwing the biggest fit of her life during "quiet time".  So quiet time ended and it was nap time.  She screamed from inside her door until she fell asleep on the floor.  Heaven. 
Not wanting to do what she's told, having attitude, being [annoyingly] clingy, whining, and more extreme attitude are what she fluctuates though each day.  With no sleep.  I don't know if it's her age, her not napping, or baby issues already....or a combo of all three.  It's been tough.  Something happens that sets her off and she turns into an uncontrollable psycho toddler.  She can be very sweet and then instantly it's meltdown time. 

On a better note -
Gabi went to the dentist last week, though, and did very well.  They put fluoride treatments on, used the water and sucker, and even scraped and polished a few of her teeth.  She has ALL of her baby teeth except for one molar to come in still.  Crazy. 

But then....

And then our house is falling apart.....a couple of months ago our garbage disposal broke but Nick replaced it pretty effortlessly (go him), then our our water heater broke and we had to replace, we had birds living and making nests in our attic and vents so over $200 to get those idiots out and clean up after them, and now our fridge is continuously leaking brown water out the bottom.  Awesome!  Oh well, nothing too major I guess.  On the bright side Nick and I are getting our new bedroom furniture this Friday!  I think that it is hilarious that we either agree easily completely agree on big decisions or we are complete opposites. 
We walked in the furniture store and saw the set and were done.  That's what we were getting.  It was perfect.  Loved the way it looked; loved the storage and functionality of it.  Done!

Gabrielle working on her extension


Riding bikes with dad!

She decorated herself....bows and all

She plays her yellow B like a guitar....just like Kiki. She "plucks it" and "strums it"

She wore her bracelet that I got her for her first birthday [for the first time] out to dinner last week

Gabrielle's Big Girl Room!

One of the last nights in her crib before her room started getting redone! Before pictures! DURING - Nick having fun with the paint job

First night in her big girl bed!! She did amazing. She jumped right in her bed and as usual, Nick and I had no idea what we were doing. Do we lay with her for a while?? So we tried to lay in bed and talk with her a little bit and she looked at us like we were nuts. All she said was "Daddy and mommy get out. I go night night." She proceeded to kick us out of her room and shut the door behind us. Slept through the night and the next morning I was in the hallway and heard the lightest little knock come from inside her room. I opened her door and she stood there smiling and said "good morning!". And the rest is history. Easy peasy.

She even spent the first few days in her bed completely independent.  We couldn't put her to bed - her light had to be out and she had to go up to her room by herself, shut the door, and go to sleep.  And she also had to wake up herself.  One morning I peeked in on her and she was awake in her bed.  She screamed "No!  I wake up myself!!!!" so I shut the door.  30 seconds later she opened her door and said "Good morrrrrrrning!"  She got over her weird independent phase so that is helpful.

Lately, however, she hasn't been napping which is difficult.  She'll come out of her room and say "something's wrong" then five minutes later and say "I sick, I need medicine" (while wearing a tutu this time, mind you", then five minutes later and say something else.....then eventually she is just up.  The other day she was standing in her doorway and I told her she needed to go back in her room, shut her door, and lay down.  She immediately said "Stop it mommy, stop it!"  Stop what?  "Stop being annoying".  Haha.....I couldn't help but laugh a little bit inside but really??  Ugh!!

The first night in her new bed!

  Nick and I got a new bedroom set and we don't need box springs with our new frame. Since we have a king bed we had two twin box springs underneath....perfect. One for Gabrielle and one is all ready for kid #2 in 2-3 years.

 I made this wall art for her room. Bought a plain, unfinished wood frame - painted it purple - put hot glue all over and dumped sequins on it - put a piece of scrap book paper in the middle - and glued her G that I painted pink in the middle.

And don't be fooled. This is what her bed usually looks like. I had to lock her out of her room so I could make her bed and take pictures of her room.