Saturday, December 29, 2007

Christmas III: Uncle Brian's visit

Uncle Brian came to visit us the week before Christmas. We had a great time with him!

Uncle Brian and Bella baby


Gabi wins the matching game!

Gabi's class had a Christmas party at school on Wednesday. The teachers gave the kids a ton of presents, and the parents brought food.


Bella and Uncle Brian watch the classroom festivities


Ms. Tomeka handing out the yummy turkey rolls


Gabi hugging her new doll, which she later named Christine


Yum! Gingerbread cookies!


Gabi wearing all her new princess jewelry,
including rings and earrings

Gabi's playgroup had a Christmas gift exchange party, and she got a beautiful and challenging Noah's Ark puzzle. She loves it, and it's just the perfect level for her -- all her old puzzles are too easy now.


Uncle Brian helps Gabi put together her new puzzle

We took Uncle Brian to play at "Michael's Playstation" because Mommy likes bouncy inflatables. (Gabi calls it "Daddy's Playstation.") Brave is not one of the adjectives I would use to describe our Gabi girl. She takes awhile to gain confidence. -- At first, Daddy and Uncle Brian were wondering why I even suggested we take her to this place she was terrified of. I insisted that they just had to wait...


Gabi is scared of the slide, even with both parents holding her hands


Daddy and Brian sit while Gabi freaks out and runs away


Daddy takes Bella on the slide since Gabi refuses to go

Eventually (after about an hour, just when everyone else is almost ready to go home) Gabi's attitude does turn around and she loves it. So, we stay for another couple hours. This is fairly typical of our weekly experiences at playgroup, too. She is very shy when we arrive, but she enjoys herself by the end.


Gabi jumping and (purposefully) falling


Boom! That was fun!


Mom holding Bella


Gabi bouncing


Jumping is fun!


Whee! Uncle Brian helps Gabi slide

Of course we had to take Uncle Brian to the Georgia Aquarium, too!


Daddy and Bella watching the tropical fish


Bella likes to watch the colorful fish swim


Gabi watching the tropical fish


Gabi and Uncle Brian at the Ocean Voyager


Gabi identifies the giant grouper on her "diver card"


Bella is interested in her reflection


Gabi conversing with a penguin


Gabi surprised us and sat perfectly still for face painting!


Daddy and Bella get a close-up view of the hammerhead shark


Bella and Daddy see a whale shark and a zebra shark from the Oceans Ballroom


Gabi peeking through a tree in the river exhibit


Uncle Brian pets a shark before we go home

Gabi called up Santa to ask him to stop by early and fill our stockings while Uncle Brian was still here, so we had presents in our stocking on Saturday morning. Then Mommy had to take little Bella to the doctor because she wasn't feeling well.


Gabi finding candy and toys (and fruit) in her stocking


Mommy found chocolate and Harry Potter in her stocking!
Gabi told Mommy, "I got more [candy] than you did," but Mommy still thinks she got the better deal.

We took a tour of CNN, which we had never done before. It was interesting, but we weren't allowed to take pictures on the actual tour. They told us all about how the weathermen can stand in front of a green screen to film their section of the news, and after the demonstration, they told us that they don't actually do it that way any more. We got to see the newsroom with people gathering stories on wolf attacks and 40+ car accidents in the snow.


Posing with a hummer in the CNN Center

On the last day of Uncle Brian's visit, he and Gabi played with the stuff she got in her stocking before he had to leave.

Gabi putting chap stick on Uncle Brian


Gabi wearing her new stickers

Thanks for coming, Uncle Brian! And thanks for our date night -- he babysat for us so Michael and I could get out. What a brave uncle! He also babysat Gabi while I took Bella to the doctor and Michael had Christmas choir rehearsal. Not only did he play wonderfully with the girls, but he was generally very helpful, even doing dishes after meals, so we appreciated that.

1 comment:

Uncle Brian said...

Thank YOU! I had tons of fun; I was so excited to see my nieces (and you two as well, I guess :P )!z