Summer Videos

Gabriella loves to sing and dance. One of her favorite games these days is to play the "Colors" song (aka the "Flowers" song) on Annabelle's door and then walk around pretending to gather flowers from the playroom (and door, when the song specifically mentions the door). Then she gives me the bouquet, tells me what color flowers she picked, and starts over. Gabi girl also loves olives, and when Lolo and Lola bought her a couple cans of olives, she used them as props to sing "Five Little Monkeys."

Annabelle is a very expressive baby. She smiles and laughs often, but she also cries and fusses more. We do enjoy her happy times, though. Bella is almost standing on her own; she can for a few seconds, and she can balance to go slowly from standing to sitting. Not only is she cruising, but she is starting to walk with support. Bella has started signing, too. She claps whenever we say "Yay!" and she loves waving "bye-bye." At dinner, she can ask for "more" or say "finished." She is so proud of herself whenever she communicates! Here are some videos of her during the month of July (at 10.5 months and at 11 months).

Videos from the Georgia Home
We also wanted to share some videos from earlier this summer, before we moved. Here Gabi is showing off her counting skills. She can reliably count to 12 or 13 before she skips a number or two. Gabi is much more cautious than our new baby, so her big gross-motor development is currently learning to jump with both feet. This is much easier when standing on the bottom step than when at the edge of the swimming pool.

With all of Annabelle's ear infections and the constant fluid in her ears, we were concerned that she wasn't able to hear very clearly. When she finally started babbling, we were very excited. You can hear her two first words: "Bella" and "Dada." Now Bella chatters regularly, which is fun to hear. Also in this video clip, she bravely chases Roomba the robot around the living room.

This final video is from back in May. Gabi earned a new game called Cariboo for her potty training, and she quickly mastered the beginner level. As you can see, when we flip the cards over to the advanced level, she tends to be distracted when she doesn't find the right door immediately. I love her facial expression when she points to a door that she knows is wrong and shakes her head "no."