Thanksgiving 2008

A few days before Thanksgiving Day, my parents flew back home from Canada. They were happy to see their granddaughter, Gabriella, who they haven't seen since her Baptism last August. Grandparents spent time with Gabriella for a while before we had to leave to stay at Morge's for about a couple of weeks. However, they had a great time in Canada and enjoyed seeing their newborn son, Charles, who was born on November 17th.

For awhile before we left for Morge's, Tomasz and Gabriella continue played, crawled, and talked to each other even though Gabriella was not clearly saying words to Tomasz. She vocalized a lot even though we didn't understand her.

The day before Thanksgiving Day, Gabby and I moved to stay at Morge's from my parents for about a couple of weeks. Also, Kevin flew into Peoria from Seattle for Thanksgiving. We were very thrilled to see him and be with him! We missed him dearly! On Thanksgiving Day, Kevin, Gabriella, and I had early afternoon dinner at Morge's. It was wonderful seeing all grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who came to Morge's for dinner. We all enjoyed being with family to play baseball outside on beautiful weather, talk to catch up, and prepare for dinner. After we had dinner at Morge's, we drove to my parents' for evening dinner. We also had a wonderful time to be with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin. Gabriella and Tomasz were crazy for each other to play with. Grandparents were enjoying being with Gabriella that they hadn't seen for a while when they were in Canada for visiting.

What a day for us to have two Thanksgiving dinner at two different families! It had been crazy for us with full of delicious foods to eat at each place. Thank God that day was over so we didn't have to look at other foods to eat! After a long Thanksgiving weekend, Kevin was supposed to fly back to Seattle on Sunday for work, but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Peoria with terrible snow/icy until the next day. On that weekend, I was sick with flu-like symptoms with bad body ache. Kevin was sick and vomited overnight, and he had flu-like symptoms. He was supposed to leave on Monday to Seattle, but he didn't feel well. His boss let him stay in Peoria and worked at home remotely. On the first week of December, he was going to come back to Peoria from Seattle for a whole month of December, but he stayed at the end of November until Jan 3rd. We were happy to have him staying with us on that week and be with us the whole month of December. Enough with our sickness on the Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is the pictures video about our Thanksgiving Day with families:

Leaving For Peoria, Illinois

On November 15th, Gabriella and I flew to Peoria, Illinois, to be with my sister, Danuta, and her son, Tomasz, for a week while our parents flew to Canada to stay with my other sister, Marta, who had a baby boy (Charles) on November 17th, for a week. Kevin had to stay in Seattle to work. Wish he could have come with us, but he was coming for Thanksgiving, anyway. However, Gabriella and Tomasz enjoyed playing together and crawled everywhere. Danuta's friend, Deidra, came to stay, too, for a week.

Home Sweet Home

Kevin, Gabriella, and I flew back home to Seattle, WA from Peoria, Illinois last Saturday night safely. We were busy with unpacking, cleaning apartment, and errands to do. It was wonderful to be in our own home.

Over our long visit in Peoria, IL, from November-December, we had a great holidays with our relatives and friends, but we were sick with flu-like symptoms, cold, cough, and sore throats most of the time. It was not fun. Other than our sickness, we had a good time over the holidays with everybody. We want to say a big "Thank You!" to our families: we will miss you but see you again soon!

As I mentioned, I was planning to use Kevin's laptop over Thanksgiving to update blog; unfortunately, his laptop had no access to it. We didn't want to download all pictures into his laptop that he needs to use for work.

Now, I am planning to update each post with what we did over our visit in IL. We have many pictures we had over the holidays and don't want to update one post with all pictures in it together. So, please, patience with us whenever we have time to update each post what we had done over the holidays.

6 Months Old

Gabriella just turned 6 months last week. She is awesome and did do something new every month. Kevin and I are looking forward to see what she will do for other 6 months until she is one year old.

Last Tuesday, Gabby had doctor appointment for her 6-month check-up. She is 16 lbs, 1 oz and 26.5 inches long, and they both are 75% percentile! That is excellent!! Before her doctor appointment, she had a little fever. Poor baby. Due to her fever, we thought it would be from her teeth, but nothing happening there yet. Gabby was supposed to take shots for 6 months old; unfortunately, the doctor couldn't give her a shot due to her fever. Her temperature needed to go down to normal before she gave her a shot. We had to go back to doctor appointment today to take a shot.

So today, we returned to the doctor's office: no more fever! Dr. Sheridan said she probably had a virus, especially since she has a little rash on her head and chest, but since the fever is gone, the virus is going away. Also, she was cleared for traveling to Peoria tomorrow!

Note: Elzbieta and Gabriella are going to Peoria on Saturday, November 15th for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I am not sure when I will be able to update our blog. Soon, Kevin will come for Thanksgiving, so I can use his laptop to make some updates. :)

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!!