Musical Table

Gabriella received a wonderful Musical Table as an early Christmas gift from the Canada Watts Family. The reason Gabby received early is because Marta is going to have a baby anytime soon and will be busy with her newborn son and family at Christmas time. It will be easy for her to get it over with so that she can relax and have time to be with her son and family. Also, Gabriella and I will be in Peoria in a week for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That way, the Watts Family won't have to send it to us in Peoria and we will not need to bring it with us to Seattle, taking up space in suitcases for other gifts from family in Peoria.

At first, Gabriella was not sure what the Musical Table was and explored all of these musics from the piano, computer, telephone, and book. It has songs about ABC's, numbers, colors, and reading a book full of animals.

Kevin and I didn't put the four poles to attach the musical table because Gabriella is not able to hold and balance herself during standing just yet. For now, Gabby is able to play with it easily on the floor until whenever she is ready to stand and balance and hold herself. Furthermore, Kevin and I were playing with it while Gabriella watched. After in a while, Gabriella joined and played with it. Most of the time, she loves to play with the computer and telephone! One great thing about musical table on the floor is giving Gabby a great opportunity to climb up on musical table with knee on the floor. She didn't do that before. That is other great physical activity for Gabriella to do. THANK YOU TO AUNT MARTA, UNCLE CHARLIE, ANIELA, AND SOON BABY CHARLIE FOR THE WONDERFUL MUSICAL TABLE AS EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!

Yesterday, I took pictures of Gabriella for fun and realized how much she enjoys crawling around, playing with her musical table and other toys, climbing up on anything with knees on the floor. Oh man.. Gabriella now loves to climb up while kneeling on the floor and hand off from anything on her own. She smiles and does it frequently! In addition, Gabby recently started to climb up on knee and then stand while hold on to musical table and daddy/mommy's legs often.

Gabby, who are you calling?

Here is the video to show that Gabriella is able to kneel with hand off my legs:

Gabriella's 1st Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYBODY!! Today is Gabriella's first Halloween, and she is wearing a pumpkin costume. Gabriella's Cousin Aniela used to wear it when she was a baby, so Aniela gave it to Gabriella. Thank you, Aniela! Of course, Gabriella doesn't understand what Halloween is or even realizing that she is wearing a Halloween costume. However, she is having fun crawling around in that costume. Kevin and I are not doing anything for Halloween, and it is rainy and gloomy outside today. Of course, we are not going out for Trick-n-Treat to gather candies for Gabriella. As you know, Gabriella is not able to eat candy yet, and Kevin and I don't want to eat candy ourselves for Gabriella. We are staying home relaxing and enjoying our time with Gabriella on her first Halloween.

Crawling

As I mentioned, Gabriella struggled with how to move forward by using her arms. Last week, Gabriella figured it out and finally was able to crawl forward a few steps slowly. Unbelievable!! Here is the video:

Updated: Recently, Gabriella likes to chase and play with Daddy and Mommy's toe and bite them. Tsk tsk tsk..we stopped her from biting our toes. What a silly girl! In addition, Gabriella tried to climp up from crawling but couldn't do it. We assume her next project is to work on to climbing up to stand from crawl. That is another excitment to look forward to!!

Happy 90th Birthday, (Great)-Grandma Ruth!!

On the weekend of October 17t, our family flew to Chicago to celebrate Great-Grandma Ruth's 90th Birthday. We were looking forward to seeing everybody that we hadn't seen for a while, and especially meet family members who hadn't attended Gabriella's Baptism last August or family from afar. Once we arrived at the hotel with grandparents Morge who picked us up at the airport, we settled and got things ready for the weekend. Grandparents Morge were happy to see how much Gabriella has been grown since August. At first, Gabriella cried when Grandma held her. Gabby wanted Mommy or Daddy. Grandma walked around with Gabby without seeing Mommy or Daddy, and she was fine for awhile. Gabriella needed more time to get used to the new faces and got familiar with them. Afterward, she was okay for awhile. Before the night out with some of the family, we stopped by Great-Grandma's to see her and few other family. Aunt Kathy, Second Cousin Kimberly, and Daddy were playing with Gabriella with toys before some family and we went out for the night to the restaurant to enjoy and chat and catch up. Gabriella was such a good girl and loved to look around all that was new to her.

On Sunday, October 19th, we family went out to the nice restaurant, Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House, for (Great)-Grandma Ruth's 90th Birthday party. It was wonderful to see all uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, nieces, nephews, etc., and had a lot of chat to catch up. The food was delicious. After we ate, we celebrated and sang "Happy Birthday" to (Great)-Grandma Ruth who is 90 years old. She is such an amazing and strong lady! She stills go to work and is doing great! It was very special for us to be there for Grandma's 90th birthday. At the end of the party, the whole family (most of the Morges) got together to take picture before leaving for the day. Daddy, Mommy, and Gabriella had a wonderful time over the weekend even though it was very busy and short for us. Furthmore, we are looking forward to seeing them again for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Look....

Here is the video of Gabriella sitting on her own:

Gabriella has been pushing up with her tummy off the floor a lot lately as I mentioned before. She has strong arms to work on and get it easily. Right now, Gabriella is figuring out how to move her arms and legs to crawl. Kevin and I love to watch how cute she is when she is pushing up with her tummy off the floor. When she does that, she always smiles. Now, we are waiting for her next step: crawling. It looks like she is going to crawl anytime soon. How exciting!

Gabriella likes to eat rice cereal and does eat it well. Recently, Kevin and I introduced her to next new solid food, and it was apples. For the first time, she didn't like it. We have been feeding her apples for the last few days, she still doesn't really like it. She is able to eat about one tablespoon of apple, and that is it. It takes time for her to get use to that taste of apple.

5 Months Old

Gabriella just turned 5 months old. As you know, I mentioned in other blogs about what Gabriella had done in the last few weeks. Lately, we noticed that during Gabby's tummy time, she pushed up with tummy off the floor several times. Wow...how strong she is! Wonder what her next plan will be when she gets her tummy off the floor. Hmmmm ... could it be crawling? Oh boy... we parents will be in trouble for that since if that happens, we have to chase her around. About Gabriella's bath, she loves it, and absolutely loves to use her legs to splash the water. The water was all over on the floor, mirror, walls, and counter. What a wet mess!

Mommy & Gabriella

Last Friday, I was excited to put the booster seat on a chair to be ready for the next day for her first introduction to solid food. For the first time, I put Gabriella into it and she got used to it. The booster seat has a special toy that go with it on the tray for Gabby to play. At first, she was like what am I sitting on? She explored all around the new booster seat.

Last Saturday morning, Kevin and I were eager to introduce Gabriella to her first solid food. We started feeding her a rice cereal. At first, we fed her a little of rice cereal, and she ate it. I tried again for the next few feedings, and all the sudden she spitted it out. I tried again, and she refused eating another bite of it. We stopped and were going to try it again in the early evening. Finally, she ate half of them. YAY! Afterward, she ate it very well. Kevin and I are very proud of her! Next week, we are looking forward to introduce her to the new food which it will be either fruit or vegetable.

Here is the video belowing of Gabriella's first introduction to solid food:

BIG Girl!

Wherever Kevin and I go out with Gabriella in her stroller, we mostly put her in the infant carseat that latches onto the stroller. Lately, I decided to put Gabby in the stroller without the infant carseat while Kevin, Gabby, and I go out for walking. Kevin and I were watching her and wondered how she handled sitting in the stroller without using the carseat. Guess what.. she absolutely loves it and enjoys looking at the people and views in front of her! A few times, we noticed that Gabby liked to put her feet up on the stroller tray in front of her and relax. Of course, she then falls asleep.




Here is another great update from Gabby. Recently, I decided to put Gabriella on the couch to sit with back cushion to support her back. I was curious if she was able to balance herself to sit without my help. Surprisingly, she was able to sit on her own with back cushion support. How exciting to see her! Of course, she fell down on the couch on her belly a couple of times. She laughed. What a silly girl! However, it is good start! She sure did show Daddy what she did today after he came home from work. Daddy and I are excited and are looking forward to having her sit on her own to balance herself. What a big girl she is!! Here is the video (below):