Joy in June

When looking back at these pictures taken throughout June, I realize that it was a good month with some great motor achievements! Gabi started the month figuring out how to open every single door in our house, big RUH ROH for us! She could first open the lever and push out, but it quickly became easy to turn the levers and pull doors open.  Since there really is no outstanding product to babyproof these types of handles, Nana asks, "Did you figure out what you're going to do about the doors?" My obvious answer was "Let her go into anywhere she wants to in the whole house...?" Seemed responsible at the time...right?

BUT, the HUGE news of the month of June was that at 16.5 months, this girl - who takes her time doing things as she wants to - decided it was time to START WALKING! She had been "so close" for "soooo long," and one day woke up and decided she was ready to let go. In less than 2 weeks after that, Gabi mastered the skills of getting up on her own (without pulling up on something) and squatting. With all those skills put together, she was a master walker by the end of the month, walking on grass, sand, rocks, etc, and you'd never know there was any delay.

With the skill of walking checked off her list, Gabi's language took a huge growth spurt this month, and we predict it's only going to explode from here. Her level of understanding amazes us, but her expressive language is so impressive as well!

...and we have a WALKER!!!

She didn't need the help of toy walkers anymore, so now she decides to push 2 at once.

Mommy is certainly proud of this word being introduced in Gabi's early vocabulary.

She loves music. She loves dancing. She has some pretty unique moves too. Only a few are displayed below. (She loved that we were installing the radio shelf and had to have the radio down where she could reach it.)
Gabi knows how to have fun at the park:

Pretty special Mommy-Gabi selfies:

and just for fun - double tickle attack

:/ MMMMM, She didn't do it???

Yup, she sure can. And she lets other babies in too.

waiting for Daddy to come home to open his card and present

We visited our Splash Pad again, this time with our awesome Houston hat from Aunt Sandi!

too cute to smile

One of Gabi's new favorite pastimes is to play with her cousins' pictures from the fridge. They often make it into her stroller to be pushed around the house.

She currently LOVES singing "Noah" over and over and over, but these 2 were the highlight one day.

A Sunday morning review in pictures:


Some preferred eating styles: 

in a princess chair

double fisting

from the ginormous serving spoon

This is how you teach tough babies to eat a banana. Open it yourself or deal with the peel. That's how we roll.

Some preferred relaxing styles:

in baby brother's car seat

topless on a pillow

with Daddy!

This month, we were introduced to Gabi's first ponytail! The Pebbles look was pretty darn cute. Pigtails and more followed. :)

ponytail twins with friend Kemper