"If the standard route for creating a family had worked for me, I wouldn't have met this child. I needed to know her. I needed to be her mother. She is, in every way, my daughter." ~Nia Vardalos
"I didn't give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you!" ~unknownHappy National Adoption Month and Happy 10 Months Old, Gabriella Daphna! (No, she is not yet crawling. No, she is not really much closer than we were a month ago. But this girl WANTS to crawl and gets increasingly more frustrated with things out of her reach, so we're hoping that will be motivation.) Gabi is talking and interacting more than ever. Her collection of consonant sounds now include /b/, /d/, /m/, and /n/.
In this amazing 10th month, Gabi's biggest achievement and change has most certainly been in her eating skills! She is starting to refuse silly baby food from a spoon and much prefers feeding herself big people food.
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Late one night while Daddy was working, Gabi woke herself up and got herself spooked about something and was just about inconsolable...until we calmed down and needed a whole bunch of snuggles until she was ready to calmly return to sleep.
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 My kind of morning at the Cohen house! |  Cold weather in Texas means Operation Baby Sock Hands! |
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Gabi's favorite football team, the Florida Gators, hasn't had such a fantastic season, so she decided to cheer them on a bit with some festive clothing. Thanks to Kim Haynes for the outfit and Uncle Harris/Aunt Gail for the socks! Gabi did indeed help the Gators score some touchdowns and ALMOST win, but they lost at the very end. They didn't get slaughtered horribly, thanks to Gabi.
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Later that day, we went to the "local zoo" to buy food for our kities when we were lucky enough to see a litter of kittens being organized for adoption. No matter how many cute pictures we sent to Daddy, though, he couldn't be convinced to let us take any home. :(
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Too young for a drinking competition?
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We may not be crawling, walking, OR pulling up yet, but look what we can do with just a little bit of assistance:
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Here are some more great videos from the month to enjoy this beautiful baby's beautiful personality!
Happy 10 Months, Gabi! I am sad to report that we got one of least successful photo shoots to date, but she's still pretty cute and learning to perform only when SHE wants to perform...No idea where she gets this independent spirit from...
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 "Fine, I won't mess with the sign, but I'm NOT smiling." | 
Cousin Jacob picked out a special birthday balloon just for Gabi, and she LOVED it! (even though she may have loved it in 2 separate pieces) |  Trying to see what this ice cream hype is all about... |
And of course, the ever popular ice cream party, this time with some special guests:
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At our ranch, I suppose these kittens of ours are pretty comfy the way they are and don't want too many other intrusions...
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