The good times and the...

Well actually, just the good times. I need to make note of when Gabby is especially good, as it gives me hope for the future. ;o)

Zoe went to Nanay's house today and Gabby and I stayed here. I worked on lunch for her daddy, and for two hours, Gabby quietly and happily entertained herself. She played with the duplo, made wonderful little structures, played with the kittens (and yelled at them when they insisted on knocking over her duplo creations LOL), and a couple of times put one or the other of the kittens IN the duplo box, which she thought was hilarious.

No whining. No fussing or "I can't do it, it's too hard". She'd come in the kitchen and tell me what she was doing, and then disappear back into the bedroom and get back to her playing.

She calls the duplo "doopwo" and is getting better and better at putting it together. (If anyone is at a loss for gift ideas, additions to her duplo set are always a hit.) Zoe calls it "po!" and will bring me two pieces at a time, asking me to put them together for her. She then runs off with that and comes back with one more piece at a time to add to the structure. Each time I do it for her, she says, "Kankum!" and hurries away for more. :o)

Zoe is in a naming phase. Everything needs a name or a label. She's adding three or four words to her vocabulary every day, and it is so much fun to watch her process and learn. Both kittens are "Hammie" (which is an improvement - all cats used to be Jakey). All dogs are Snorkel. Horses used to be "a hoas", but she's started calling them "hoasy" and if I find out who got her on that kick, they're in trouble. :-P

My dearest friend Andrea is coming to visit! YAY! I am so excited! I haven't seen her in about 3 years, and I can't wait until she gets here. Gabby met her briefly when we lived in Virginia, but that was when she was about 7 months old - not very likely she remembers. ;o) But she adored her then and I know she and Zoe will both glom on to her now like white on rice. She's really great with kids. Her coming is a real answer to prayer because it's getting harder and harder to do simple things (like bend over!) and part of the reason for her visit is to help me during the pregnancy and after the twins are born. I've been praying for help in that area for awhile because I feel like I'm burdening Mum with so much more than I should, and I'm so grateful to God for answering my prayers. :o)