Way too long...

I know, it's been WAY too long since we posted. Summers are always so busy - BBQs, birthday parties, baby showers, weddings - it seems like we're booked out every weekend until September.

Gabby is doing very well. She is walking like it's going out of style - it's her favorite thing to do these days! She still reminds us of a drunken sailor, but every day she gets more and more graceful and coordinated. Now she can stop in the middle of the room, lean over and pick something up, and keep going without missing a beat (that is, without doing a faceplant).

She is also talking A LOT - it's her second favorite thing to do these days. She is testing out not only her new vocabulary, but her vocal range as well. To date, we have not been able to locate a "volume" button and none of the dozen or so remote controls we own seem to work. Sometimes we simply give up on conversing in her presence because, well, we just can't compete. In addition to lots of chattering that we can't understand, she now clearly says dada, agua, water, uh-oh, qua-qua (quack-quack), guao-guao (kind of like "bow wow" but in spanish, and she yells it every time she sees a dog), gampa (grandpa), and mama. Mama is probably the word she says least often. I was feeling pretty wounded by that until I talked to another mom this weekend that told me her son said "mama" for the first time at around a year and a half and only after he started saying the word "elk."

During the last two weeks of June my boss was out of town and I worked full-time. I know that LOTS of moms work full-time, but I don't know how - it is REALLY hard. I felt like I hardly got to see Gabby, not to mention what the house looked like. I went to get a massage on Friday afternoon and when they told me there had been a "scheduling mix-up" and there was nobody there to give me my massage, I seriously had to excuse myself to the restroom so that I didn't CRY in front of the lady at the front desk. And that was after only two weeks of working full-time.

This past weekend my sister was here from Seattle for her baby shower. She and Gabby had not seen each other since March and had a good time reconnecting with each other. Gabby wishes Tia Traci didn't live so far away!

Well, that's it for now... We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and having as much fun as we are! I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Leslie, Daniel, & Gabby