Tita and Tito's Visit

Gabi and Kathryn at dance class
We were blessed with a visit in January by Tita Christine and Tito Jordan, who traveled all the way from Seattle (mostly for a wedding, but also to see us). While she was in Little Rock, Tita stopped by Gabi's dance class and took that picture.


Tita and Bella


Tita and Gabi










Playing peek-a-boo on our new bed


Laughing with Daddy on our new bedroom furniture


Michael especially likes Bella's hair like this.
She is pretty cute!


Gabi kissing Tito


Tito and Bella hugging
Before Tita and Tito headed back to Seattle, we took the opportunity for an extended family portrait session. Gabi wanted to wear her jacket, but as the sun was too bright for an outside photo shoot, Tita just took some informal shots of her outside before our official portraits inside.


Gabi and Tito all dressed up


Gabi's outdoor photo shoot


Bella wiggling in Daddy's arms


Michael with his sister, Christine


Still a happy couple after five and a half years of marriage
(and more than 10 years together overall!)


Bella playing Tinker Toys with Tito


Gabi with her favorite cousin, Julienne


Happy baby Bella


Bella cuddling with her parents


Lolo, Tita, and Bella snuggled on the couch

Valentine's Day

Last weekend, I got creative and made invitations for a bridal luncheon for my high school friend, Stephanie.


Bella with my invitations
This week, Gabi made Valentine cards for all her classmates. She made them all by herself; I was so proud of her!


Gabi making Valentines


Writing her friend's name


One of Gabi's cards


Stacks of Valentines


Sample inside -- they were all a little different


Girls got princess stickers on their Valentines
Yesterday was Gabi's class Valentine party at school. Parents were invited if we wished to join, and of course I went. Bella and I were 10 minutes late because we were at a playdate with some of Bella's friends beforehand. When we arrived, the kids were finished licking the frosting off their cupcakes and ready to head outside.


Ava and Samantha


Nathan blowing bubbles for Bella


Gabi on the tunnel


Boys will be boys


Twins, Sabrina and Samantha


Playhouse
Michael's parents watched the girls last night (even though Bella is miserably sick) so we could have a date night. Thank you!


Roses from my Valentine

Tennessee

Back in January, we stopped in Oak Ridge, TN (outside Knoxville), where Aunt Lisa had a temporary work assignment. Uncle Kevin and Cousin Cody drove in to see us, and we had a nice visit.


Bella, Uncle Brian, Gabi, Aunt Lisa, and Cousin Cody


Same group, minus Brian, plus Uncle Kevin and me


Lisa and Melissa
After being in the car all afternoon, Gabi loved the energetic activities that came along with playing with Cody.


Cody throwing Gabi on the couch


Gabi riding a Cody-airplane


Bella and Uncle Kevin


Happy Bella


Bella feeding Uncle Kevin breakfast
Before we got back on the road to head home, we went to the local Children's Museum with Cody and Uncle Kevin. (Aunt Lisa had to go to work.) Oak Ridge was the site of the Manhattan Project during World War II, where they researched the separation of the uranium atom to develop the atom bomb. The entire town was highly guarded, did not appear on any maps, and everything was such a big secret that the workers themselves didn't even know what they were doing until after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. There were interesting exhibits in the museum about this history of the city as well as this time-period in American life in general.


Cody and Bella growl with the polar bear


Gabi in Uncle Kevin's classroom


Bella drumming on the old school desks


Putting on a puppet show


Gabi calling on the guard tower phone


Bella checking out a typewriter (and a bunch of physics books)

Bella's Eyes and Vocab

Annabelle is a happy baby and she loves to play and explore. Her vocabulary is growing rapidly, although some of the words aren't very clear. Diaper, apple, and bubble all sound something like "bapuh." She says "li" for light, eye, and slide. And "dee" means something like chair or stair or "I want to sit there" -- it doesn't seem to sound like any of those, although her hand gestures get the point across. Bella calls the phone "hello," which is very cute. Oh, and she calls her milk "mii," which always reminds me of the Wii game (which we don't have).

Some of her signs are multi-functional as well. Annabelle seems to think that two words that sound the same ought to share the same sign, too. Thus, bird and brr (and sometimes book) all get the bird sign, so when we go outside I don't know if she hears a bird singing or if she feels cold. She uses the cat sign for cow and hat, no matter how hard I try to teach her the other signs. She has made up her own sign for dance, which is really cute and she loves. She's also started using a where is? sign to ask where her toys or sister or milk are -- sometimes in an earnest quest, and sometimes when she wants me to play a hide-and-seek game with her.


Bella crawling through her door


Bella chasing bubbles on our front porch


Bella playing peek-a-boo


Bella's favorite expression


Bella swinging at Hidden Valley Park


Bella's goopy eyes
I try to keep Bella's eyes clean, although she hates it when I wipe them. Before that last picture, it had been about an hour or so since the last time I'd wiped her eyes, and you can see why I usually wipe them every 10 minutes. The wonderful caregivers at the church nursery kindly expressed concern about her eyes, and I felt like I needed to explain her condition so they wouldn't be worried about it being contagious. I do get sick of random people at the grocery store commenting on her eyes, though. Her oculoplastic surgery consult is scheduled for the end of March, at which point we will then schedule her surgery. Until then, her pediatrician has her on eye drops because she's at high risk for infection.

Gummy Candy Experiment

Mommy and Daddy both took a psychology class in childhood development in college, so we've been known to occasionally say things like, "Oh Annabelle, you just made the 'A not B' error." When we were in Atlanta, Daddy would sometimes also bring home developmental tests from work just to see how Gabi would do. Here in his new job, there are fewer opportunities for developmental testing.

However, we recently came across this article detailing the Marshmallow Test. Walter Mischel at Stanford University tested a bunch of four year-olds by giving them a marshmallow and telling them they were allowed to eat it. They were also told that if they waited until the researcher came back into the room, they would get another marshmallow. It's an early test of delayed gratification. There was a follow-up study by the same group which showed that the kids who were able to delay gratification at 4 (about 1 in 3) had higher SAT scores when they were 18 than those with poorer impulse control at 4.

This has been replicated all over YouTube, but we wanted to see what our almost-four year-old would do. She had asked for gummy candy for dessert, so that's what we tested with. How do you think she did? I'm pretty sure she got a tiny piece under her fingernail at the 4:22 mark, and she had a couple of close calls when she tasted the candy without actually biting it. But... um... she's not quite four yet! And isn't she cute? That's my completely biased opinion. What's yours?