Gato!

I just thought I'd post an update to let everyone know we are alive and well! Gabby continues to amaze us and fill our lives with joy. She is growing like a little weed, eating us out of house and home, and motoring around the house like she's been crawling all her life. She is also, for the most part (fingers crossed), sleeping very well.

So, the word of the week is GATO!

Many of you probably know that "gato" is "cat" in spanish. Gabby is apparently obsessed with cats, as she has begun pointing at everything and exclaiming "gato!" She does occasionally say other things, such as "dedo" (finger), "dog," "good," "caballo" (horse), and a few things we can't quite make out, but her standby is definitely "gato."

We have a very cool cat named Oscar, who could only be more mellow if he were dead. He is absolutely unflappable. One day shortly before we left for Colombia, I came upon one of our dogs dragging Oscar around the living room by his head. I shouted "No!" in horror, to which the dog responded by letting go, looking very startled by my outburst. However, Oscar simply looked at me and blinked, rolled over on his back, and swatted the dog playfully.

So, as you can imagine, Oscar is good with kids and has become Gabby's favorite playmate. She crawls around behind him, and upon catching him, usually performs a full-body tackle. Sometimes she pulls out chunks of his hair or painfully (at least it looks painful to us) yanks on his ears. When he is really "annoyed," he'll move about three inches out of her reach and flick his tail.

One day I was reflecting on what a nice 2-hour nap Gabby was taking when I heard some chattering coming from her room. I opened the door to find Gabby and Oscar playing in her crib. I don't know if she took a 1 hour and 50 minute nap and played with Oscar for 10 minutes or if she took a 10 minute nap and played with Oscar for 1 hour and 50 minutes. I suspect it won't be long before Gabby is outfitting Oscar in dresses and matching bonnets and pushing him around in a stroller.

I will post pictures soon of Oscar and Gabby at play. Every day I think "I should get a picture of that!" and then remember that the camera battery is dead. Why don't we simply charge it, you ask? Because we have a 10-month old! Some days I feel lucky if I simply make it out of the house with matching shoes on!

For now, I will post a picture of our first Christmas as a family of three. Since Gabby couldn't be with us on Christmas, my family decided to leave the Christmas tree up and leave Gabby's presents wrapped until we got home. So, we celebrated Christmas in March!