Szymon's Baptism

On the weekend of September 4th, Kevin, Gabriella, and I headed down to the Peoria for Szymon Dynda's baptism. We stayed at Morge's for the weekend and enjoyed our time with them especially Gabriella playing with Annabelle. Before the baptism, we visited Dynda family especially Watts family who came all the way down from Canada for the baptism. It was wonderful seeing my sister, Marta, and her family, who we all hadn't seen for a long time since her son's baptism. Gabriella had a wonderful time playing with her cousins Aniela & Tomasz.

During Szymon's baptism on Saturday, we were blessed to be there since I had morning sickness. After the baptism, we went back to Dynda's for the party and ate delicious foods. We all had a wonderful time but were sad that we had to leave back home. It was such a short weekend for us since we didn't see Marta and her family very much. They were leaving back home a few days after us. Other than that, it was worth it to see them on the weekend. We know we will see them again someday soon.

Szymon in cute Baptism outfit.

Gabriella played with cousins Tomasz & Aniela.

Nephew Charles stared at his cousin Alex.

Dad & Mom with grandkids.

Dad Morge's B-day Celebration

On the weekend of August 7th, Kevin, Gabriella, and I headed down to Peoria to visit Dynda and Morge families. The reason we went there was to celebrate Dad Morge's birthday party. We had a wonderful time seeing everybody including having fun celebrating Dad Morge's birthday.

Kevin, Gabriella, & Nephew/Cousin Szymon

Aunt Danuta, Tomasz, & Gabriella

Uncle Mike & Gabriella

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Meghan fixed Ryan's funny hair.

Nice hair, Ryan!

Luke & Nephew Patrick

Gabriella's 15 months old

On Thursday, August 6th, Gabriella turned 15 months old. Obviously, you can see the pictures of her that she didn't have a good day. Other than her mood, she had grown so fast and learned new things on her own independently. Here is the list of what she had accomplished by that age:

• Able to walk down and up the stairs by holding the railing on her own.
  
  
• Had full teeth grown except three that were still waiting to come out soon.
  
  
• Were able to use fork to poke on food to eat.


• Jumping on couch and bed.


• Talked more and said new words. Her sign languages were still the same..no news to sign yet.


• Loved to draw/color books.


• Taking a nap once a day in the afternoon.

Shedd Aquarium

On Tuesday, August 4th, Kevin, Gabriella, and I went to the Shedd Aquarium to meet with our friend, Richard, and his wife and daughter. We enjoyed touring around and showed Gabriella all different kind of mammals (dolphins, whales, seals, etc) and fishes. She loved fishes and pointed at them on window. How cute! We all had a great time.

After left Shedd Aquarium, we headed back home for lunch. We decided to give Gabriella a try to use fork to poke at cheeseburger to eat at 15 months old. At first, she was playing with fork and wasn't sure what it was for. We showed her how to do it. She did try it on her own and did good job for the first time. Yay! By the way, she sometimes uses her fork or hand to pick up foods to eat...depends on what food she is eating.

In the late afternoon after Gabriella's nap, we decided to go out for a walk to the pond lose to our house, right across from Wipfler Park where ducks and geese were at. It is less than 1.5 miles walking from our house to the pond. We brought breads so we could feed the ducks/geese. Gabriella loved to feed them. We attended there often since we all enjoyed and watched them eating our breads we threw out. It was fun!

Lunch With Friends....

Before we moved on to discuss about this, Kevin and I found out that I was pregnant in August. We were going to have an ultrasound appointment on September 21. Will post with the ultrasound news and picture even though most of you already know. I need to catch up with blog until now.

Regarding to having lunch with friends, Kevin's old friend, Tammi, from high school came down to Aurora to visit old friends from high school. It had been a long time since everybody had seen her. She lives in Minnesota. However, my sister-in-law, Mia, and her two kids came to stay at our place for the weekend. Mia and Tammi are good friends from high school. We all were having lunch in Aurora, meeting with a few friends and their kids. We had a good time and caught up like old times. Gabriella and other kids were having fun playing with each other.

Kids drove Uncle Kevin/Daddy crazy!

Smile, Mia!

Cousin Madison & Gabriella

Kevin with his good friend, Rich.

Group of friends and kids.

Richard, Hayden, & Stephanie

Excellent Massager

At the end of July, we were chilling out at our house and enjoying our time playing with Gabby. All the sudden, Gabriella loved to climb on my back. She started standing on my back with excellent balance for her age at 14 1/2 months old!! She loved it. Also, she gave me a great massage using her feet on my back. Aahhhh more more.. my girl..excellent massager!

Met New Nephew Szymon...

On Wednesday, July 22nd, Kevin, Gabriella, and I drove down for the night to Springfield to visit my older sister, Danuta, who had a newborn son named Szymon L. Dynda. Szymon was born on Friday July 17th. Once we arrived we met our Nephew/Cousin Szymon for the first time. He was so cute and so small and is still handsome but grew big already! I forgot how small a baby was when I held Gabriella. We spent time with them. Gabby loved to play with her cousin Tomasz. We helped Danuta with whatever she needed us to do, and we especially loved to hold Szymon and spend time with him.

The next day, we visited them again after staying at a hotel for the night. We helped them around a little and checked whatever Danuta needed from us before we headed up to Peoria for the weekend. The reason we headed up to see my parents was to celebrate my mom's birthday on July 24th.

We had a great time in Springfield, especially seeing Szymon, and visiting family in Peoria before heading back home to Bolingbrook.

Lapsit Storytelling

On Tuesday, July 21, Kevin and I went with Gabby to the library for lapsit storytelling. It was the right group for Gabby to participate with other kids her age. We met new mothers with kids. We had a good time for the first time. We continued to attend lapsit storytelling every Tuesday in the morning. Sometimes, the lapsit storytelling closed for about one month before school started, holidays, etc. Once it resumed, we went back. Sometimes, new mothers with kids showed up and some we already met and made friends. Right now, it is closed until the middle of January due to the holidays. Gabby enjoys it a lot and plays with other kids and even listens to the teacher's story.

Brookfield Zoo

On Sunday, July 19th, Kevin, Gabriella, and I went to the Brookfield Zoo. It was nice and cool outside and not very crowded when we got there. We walked all over and saw many different kind of animals that Gabriella enjoyed looking at. At the end of our zoo touring, we took Gabriella to the carousel for riding. At first, we thought Gabriella liked it. Once she sat on it and started riding circle, she HATED it! Unbelievable! She must love it but guess we were wrong. Poor Daddy that he as a big man had to ride on small whale with Gabby. Luckily, Daddy didn't break that whale. Enjoy the video below:

Wipfler Park

On Friday, July 17th, it was so beautiful and sunny outside. Kevin and I decided to take Gabriella to the playground at the Wipfler Park (close to our house) for the first time. It was the perfect day to go. At first, Gabriella wasn't sure all of these playground things, but she walked around and figured out what they were for. One thing she loved was swinging. It was great experience for Gabby to try all different kind of playground things that she would enjoy and got used to it often when we attended there more.

Hate this kind of Swing!

Loved this kind of Swing!

What a long fun day....

On Saturday, July 11, Kevin's mother invited us to go with her and Elizabeth, Annabelle, and Luke to the Ravinia Festival for kids to participate in fun activities including a mini petting zoo. That Ravinia Festival was about Methodist Hospital Employees' Day where Kevin's mother works. Gabriella and her cousin Annabelle were getting their fake tattoos. It was Gabby's first time getting a fake tattoo. At first, she was like huh...what was that? Afterwards, she enjoyed looking at her cute spotted dog tattoo on her right arm. After in awhile, we walked around to see what they had and went into the cafe to eat lunch and ice cream. Afterwards, Annabelle & Gabriella enjoyed going into the bouncing cage with Gabby's father. At first, Gabby hated it but got used to it and laughed!

After these activities, we went to the pets area. We saw the colt, pigs, chickens, sheep, llama, goats, etc. Gabriella enjoyed petting them and feeding them the foods. There were a few sheep around Gabby with foods. Gabriella was crying because she couldn't get out of the way. She yelled and had dad helping her getting out of the sheep herd. Sheep must love her for foods. By the way, we all had a great time.

After a long day, Kevin, Gabriella, and I went home and took naps. After we got up from our naps, we headed to the swimming pool with the Dynda Family (Dzia Dzia, Nephew Tomasz, and Danuta). We had so much fun in the swimming pool! It was so relaxing and we enjoyed our time in the swimming pool.