Thanksgiving

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Gabby is a sucker baby.  We flew to St. Louis to visit with my family and friends for Thanksgiving, and she was an absolute angel on the planes (all 4 of them).  She was a bit wild in the airport--trying to get down while we were in line and then running away through crowds of people once we let her down--but on the plane she was perfect.  She didn't get too loud, she didn't cry; it was amazing.

She also had a great time in St. Louis.  We went to visit Grandpa Stoehr's gravesite (not very fun, especially in the below freezing temperatures), then Brian got sick and put a damper on many other plans we had for the trip.  We had hoped to leave Gabby with her grandparents and see Catching Fire and go out to dinner, but that sadly didn't happen.

Gabby and I did get to have an outing to an indoor bounce place called Monkey Joe's.  I'd never taken her anywhere like that before, and at first she was really intimidated by all of the things to do.  We sat for a bit and ate a pretzel while she acclimated a bit.  Once she was done with the pretzel, she felt comfortable enough to run around.  She didn't want to get in any of the bouncy structures, mind you, but she had a great time bouncing on the mats outside of the structures.

She also loved sitting in the train and jeep, and it blew her mind when I put money in the jeep (the train was broken).

After I dragged her out of there (really--it was the first time she'd thrown a tantrum because she didn't want to leave a place) and got us some lunch at Chipotle (which make those tears disappear), we were off to Stephanie's house to visit with her and with Lisa and Lia.  Gabby and Lia had a great time!

Lia, Lisa, Gabby, me, and Stephanie

On Thanksgiving day, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Pechenino's house, where we hung out with them, my parents, Amy and Ryan, and 4 dogs.  Gabby did not like Amy and Ryan's pit bull one bit--she would cry and cling whenever Sigmund came anywhere near her!  But she really liked the chihuahua Jenny, and was friends with my parents' dog Josie already.  She had no idea what to make of Khali, the corgi/chihuahua mix.  We all had a great time eating and visiting together, and Gabby was clearly the star of the show!

Playing with her train from Stephanie, with the coloring books from Lisa and the ladybug from her great grandparents right behind.

With Great Grandma Pechenino

With Grandma Pechenino

Auntie Amy and Great Grandma Pechenino

More jumping!

Great Grandma Pechenino, Grandpa Pechenino and Great Grandpa Pechenino.  She wanted the lens cap.

And with Josie in the mix!

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed to Grandma Stoehr's house.  As expected, the mood was a bit more subdued there, and Grandpa was sorely missed, but we had a great time hanging out with that side of the family and eating fantastic food.  Amy and Ryan left Sigmund at home, so Gabby was a lot more relaxed.  Plus, she had her second cousin Jacob to play with!

With Great Grandma Stoehr

Second cousins with their great grandma

Why am I like this?  To stay out of the picture, of course!  It's just as uncomfortable as you think it is.

Snacking

Piggyback ride with Grandpa making bunny ears

All in all, it was a very successful Thanksgiving trip.  Despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing the entire time, and we had to buy Gabby warmer pjs and a heavier jacket, we really enjoyed ourselves.  It was one of those trips that made me really wish we all lived closer to each other!  So how about it, family, want to move to CA?

Since I'm posting this later than I intended to, I'll include Gabby's 22 month info too, as well as our visit to Santa at Intel.

Gabby has become quite the talker.  She's moved on to 2 and even 3 word sentences, and her memory has really developed.  She remembers all of the people we saw at Thanksgiving, all the kids at daycare, and she will point to pictures of Audrey and Olivia (her first cousins) when asked.  She loves Phoebe, Charlotte and Ellie, and bounces and grins when they are mentioned.  She has her routines, and gets upset when they are broken.  We can mess with naptime some, but eventually she just crashes no matter what.  Her tantrums are starting to get worse and more frequent, which makes sense, since they are called the terrible twos!  Other than that, she is still so cuddly and loving and just an all-around great little girl!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our visit to Santa.  There are a ton, since I wasn't letting Brian relax like he did over the holidays!  Plus, we're dealing with 4 little girls and Santa--who wouldn't take a ton of pictures?

Gabby loved the reindeer--she kept insisting on going outside to see them.

And she loved her cookie too!

She was super excited to get to see Santa, right up until I tried to put her on his lap.  No dice.

So I stayed.

I made Brian get in there too--Gabby is pointing at me because she wants me to come back.

Brian finally just trapped her hand.

Her favorite part--the candy cane.  She sucked on that thing for as long as she could.

They also had a sleigh for picture taking.

We got a pretty good family shot.

I love this picture because she looks drunk on candy cane.

"No, see; I can quit any time!"

We also got the girls in the sleigh for pictures.

This is definitely the best on of Charlotte, Phoebe and Gabby!

Charlotte got to hold Ellie for pictures too.  Gabby was more interested in her candy cane.

Phoebe was more interested in climbing out of the sleigh.

This is probably the best shot Brian got of the 4 girls!

We tried some mommy/daughter shots too.  Toddlers are not very cooperative.

Ellie was a much better model.  Gabby was fine as long as she had her candy cane.

This is the best shot of the 6 of us!

As you can see, it's been a big month!  We're headed to LA for Christmas this year, and I know we'll have a ton of fun.