Gabriella's World

I love my names, but neither Doug nor I wanted our baby to have an unusual name that gets butchered on a daily bases. Gabriella was the perfect name for our little bumpkin, but a large majority of our community has never heard of Gabriella. They have heard of Gabriel, as that is more common around here, but Gabriella is often pronounced as Gabriel-a. It is very irritating. When we were at swimming last week a couple of "big girls" were chatting with us in the change room and asked me what her name was. When I told them Gabriella the youngest, who may have been 5, said "that's a weird name!". The older one elbowed her and said "Rude!" I could only laugh!

Gabriella and I went to see a friend who was visiting from BC and her little boy who was perhaps 8 months old at my baby shower. It was Gabriella's first time meeting him "on the outside". I was very excited to see her interact with him as much as she did. She usually doesn't care much for children her own age, although he is a little older. He has long blond hair and is a very gentle little man. He would walk over to her and flop his head forward or back in her face so that she could play with his hair! It was so sweet! Well the following week when we went to songs and story time at the library she was trying to pet the little boy next to us. He had blond hair too and was just a little bit older than her. She was also trying to sing along for the first time!It will be interesting to see how she does in swimming tomorrow. She is still very quiet there. She just watches all of the other babies reactions.

If Doug and I had waited till we were ready to have children to have her, we would never have had any! I never thought I would be able to give a child all of the things I felt were necessary to give them a well rounded childhood, but here we are. Gabriella is such a happy girl! She has everything she needs and then some.

I am so thankful to our friends and family who have drench her in love and beautiful things.

Gabriella is Mitsy Moo Moo's biggest fan! Mitsy has been scared of little people for years after being tortured by the many kids we entertained at our house. She had kept her distance from Gabby when she was born, but these days she will sit next

to her on the couch and let Gabriella pet her with slimy little finger,
pull her whiskers and claw her eyes. Of course I do my best to keep Gabriella gentle, but I can only do so much.

Gabriella has been standing since she was two months old. She doesn't have enough balance to keep herself upright, of course, so I have been holding her whenever she feels like standing. I am so glad that I finally got her an exersaucer! She LOVES her exersaucer and has been spending the last few days in it screeching and jumping and laughing.... and now she's sleeping!