Thanksgiving Thanks

We had such a fun thanksgiving that i've been trying to think how to blog about it. Normally, I like to focus on all the gratefulness my favorite holiday evokes. But this thanksgiving was not only a nice one because of all the gratitude I focused on but also because we did so many fun things.

I'm in the most stressful part of my semester. The part where I question whether I can make it til graduation. The part of the semester that has me having nightmares at night on paper's I forgot to write, or weird stuff like that. The part of the semester where I procrastinate til the last minute because I am so stressed out. It's not my favorite time. The last couple of weeks prior to thanksgiving were so busy and I felt like I was losing my mind. So, when we drove up to spend a few days at my parents house for thanksgiving, I was looking forward to disconnect as much as possible from school, and all my worries. That was going to be my thanksgiving.

My mom is an amazing cook. Neither one of us works off recipes. We just cook what comes to mind and our hands work intuitively to create yummy things. So I was looking forward to her delicious turkey. I'm not a big meat eater. I mostly unintentionally eat vegetarian type dishes for myself. But for some reason, that turkey she makes is so good. Dave also loves my mom's cooking, and looks forward to her turkey. So thanksgiving consisted of what we all do around the country. We sat down as a family and ate a scrumptious meal. Gabriel was actually quite the terror during this sit down dinner, so parts of it are a blur. After dinner, we kept up with some some traditions and played thanksgiving bingo! It was such a blast. I won twice! Everyone in my family was able to win at least a game, except for my brother, it was kind of funny.

My mom shared that she was grateful for all her children, and their better halves that love them and take good care of them. She was sure to include a little threat in her toasts, and said "You better love them, or else!" It was so cute. I love how much my mom loves all 3 of us (and treats our respective halves as her children too), and that she makes sure that all our significant others know we are her babies and they need to take care of us. I'm really grateful for both my parents this thanksgiving. Our family's journey has not always been easy at times, but that does not take anything away from how great of parents and grandparents they are. My appreciation for them has exponentially grown as I've had a child of my own. Sometimes, I'm in awe of how hard working my parents were and still are. How they always tried their hardest to provide the best for us. It's not easy to immigrate to another country, away from all your support system and essentially start over, with three little children. My parents are a true success story.

I'm so glad that we were able to drive up to their house, just an hour and a half away, and feel at home. Gabriel loves spending time there and it brings me so much comfort to see. This thanksgiving I'm especially grateful for my family. Honestly, they are a breath of fresh air for me, during this busy time in David and I's life. They are providing that support to us that we really need as we try to finish our respective careers. I think the best way to sum up my gratitude over this particular thanksgiving is this poem:

At Grandma's House

I like the taste of turkey
Any time throughout the year
But it never
seems to taste as good
As when Thanksgiving's here.

Could be it's all the trimmings
That are cooked with it to eat-
But I think it's
eating at Grandma's house
That makes it such a treat!

~Author Unknown

And here are some pictures depicting our fun times:

After the festivities were over, our only family pic!

The boys

The girls

Giving my mama some love.

This is my multi-cultural family. I love it!

Playing Thanksgiving bingo. Josselyn is the best bingo caller ever! It's hilarious.

David and I love making pies together on Thankgiving. It's our tradition.

We hope your thanksgiving was happy and full of gratitude.

Genius Gabriel

I've often talked about Gabriel being so smart. We are told by his teachers at preschool that he is so smart a lot. Every day that Gabriel goes to school we get a little note that is specific to what he did that day, and today this is what we got:

"I am convinced that Gabe is a baby-genius! He was playing with different shapes and sizes of blocks and figured out (on his own) that 3 little blue blocks (diamond shaped) can be put together to match the same size and shape of the big octogon! It's super impressive for his age". :)

Can I just say that I was not surprised to get a note like this...but I was so proud. To me, Gabriel is so special, from his intellect, to his kindness, to our mother and son bond, to the way he treats other people. I don't want him to grow up. I want him to be my baby forever. At the same time, I am so excited to see who this child will grow into. I have a suspicion that he is going to continue to be a bigger, more amazing version of what he is now.

Oh and today, he told David, "Mama is the best person in the world". How can your heart not melt over and over for him? I get teary eye'd just thinking about it.

Update time!

It's been a really long time since I've posted, I needed a break from blogging, but I don't want to miss sharing what life has been like since May. So I decided to share a photo to depict each month since May. This doesn't show e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. we've done, but it's some of our funnest memories!

May-A month for celebrations. We celebrated me turning 27. We celebrated the end of my first year of graduate school. We celebrated my mom's birthday. It was a fun month.

At my celebratory birthday/end of semester dinner with friends.

June-More celebrations! David turns 32! My old man really is getting old, hehe!

My family came down and we celebrated the birthdays by having habachi, and then engaging in capture the flag with water balloons! It was a blast, and it will become a family tradition! My dad took the picture, while my brother watched Gabriel inside our house.

July-The month of fun in the sun. We went on beach trips, and parks, and did fun barbecues.

We went to an awesome July 4th party and Gabriel enjoyed the slip and slide!

August-squeezing in as much fun before my last year of grad school begins, and Dave's first year of graduate school begins!

Family fishing, what a joy, another family tradition.

September-The start of our school semester's, while still enjoying beautiful weather.

My amazing cousin Kimie came to visit, and we took a trip to Charlottesville, the beach, and also did some urban white water rafting!

October-Such a fun month to look forward to, halloween! We love dressing up.

David is Fred, I'm his Daphne, and Gabriel is Scooby-doo! Gabriel inspired us, because he loves Scooby-doo.

We have had fun through all the seasons of the year. Life is great, and we are thankful. This doesn't mean we don't have struggles like everyone else. The last few months have been quite the roller coaster ride, and we are making the best of our life's adventure!

Tune in soon, for a post on my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving!!!!

Our baby is TWO!

I have finally gotten around to blogging about Gabriel's birthday. He turned two on February 16! Yes, I know...we are in May now, but there is no way that I can not blog about his special day.

Gabriel had such a blast on his birthday. For a few weeks before his birthday I kept telling him that he was going to be TWO soon, so that when people asked him how old he was on his birthday he would be able to say his real age. It was so cute, because he totally did! So the day started with us singing happy birthday to him when he first woke up. HE LOVED IT. He was not sure where all this attention was coming from, but he loved soaking it all up. Gabriel has always had a special love of songs and he just thought the birthday song was the coolest. We sang the happy birthday song all day long as a special treat to him. His formal celebrations included a trip to Chuck E Cheese with my family. He was in heaven. I was surprised at how perfect of a place it was for a two year old. He played and he played, and when it was time to go, he was really sad. He was sad to leave Aunt Josselyn and he was sad to leave Chuck E Cheese. He got some pretty nice gifts, and they were all related to his love for Thomas & Friends. He is a true fan of trains. But, more important than the gifts he got, we got to shower him with lots of love from lots of people. We are so grateful that we can celebrate Gabriel's second year of life. He is the light and love of our life. Our world revolves around him.

Gabriel as a two year old is talkative, happy, and mischievous. He definitely practices some "selective" hearing sometimes. I'm so happy he has a sneaky side, because it makes things fun. He is very loving and kind. He adores all things train, in every part of life. He has a really long attention span, and devotes a lot of concentration and time in his projects. It's amazing to see, and it definitely surpasses the attention span of an average two year old. He looks forward to playing with friends and going to their houses. He is usually upset to leave play dates, we have to negotiate pretty hard to leave! He also has a great memory. He remembers things from ages ago, and randomly brings them up sometimes....it always catches us off-guard. How can that be? He is just so in tune with every day life. He is also very sensitive, it melts my heart. He is in tune with every emotion in the room. If I'm having a rough day, he knows it, and trys to make me laugh. Whenever he thinks he is in trouble because he did something wrong (even though he is not in trouble, we are just letting him know not to do something) he takes it very personally, and like it is the saddest thing that ever happened to him....that is what I mean by sensitive. He also "pretends" to be sad sometimes, but then cracks a smile, when he notices that we are not being fooled. He is just such a joy at 2.

His transition to his toddler class was rough at first. I think he missed the special relationships he had formed with his previous teachers Erica and Dana. They were amazing with him. It was a really hard time for me, to see Gabriel sad at drop off. It killed me. I communicated and advocated for him a ton, and felt like things were going no where. AND THEN, he got an amazing new teacher, Cintia. I love her and Gabriel went back to being himself at drop off. He would run and give her hugs and goodbye kisses. She instantly expressed her love for him, and how he loved how smart, sweet and kind he was. Once she said that to me, I knew that she understood and loved my child, because that is totally his character. Cintia is from Brazil, and she brings all the authentic warmth that exists in the latin culture. She is such a comfort to my life! When I drop him off at school, I know he is in caring hands, and I can tell because Gabriel is himself around her, when I am in the room.

We are so happy for our two year old, and how he keeps us on our toes! Life would not be the same without him.

The cake Grandma bought.

His birthday outfit from uncle D.

At Chuck e Cheese watching the birthday show

Curious about Aunt Josselyn's gift.

Our gift to him was to go see Thomas & Friends live.

He enjoyed it.

Celebrating with some of his friends at school.

Holidays

We had a great time over the holidays. We spent Christmas in San Diego. The weather was beautiful. David's parents just moved there and so we ventured out there to spend time together and see their new home. It was a really awesome time. We went to the San Diego Zoo, the beach, and went sight seeing a lot. I never realized how amazing San Diego was until this trip. It is such a beautiful place and David and I joked about us moving there one day. Gabriel really loved the palm trees, every time he saw one he would say "Tree!, More more Tree!" It was cute. He liked his new surroundings. He ran free at the beach, he is such a free spirit. Christmas eve was spent on the beach. Of course, all I brought were boots and jeans and sweaters. Somehow we didn't pack shorts or flip flops! So we didn't look very "beachy" at the beach. But it was still an incredible time in my boots, ha.

Our trip didn't end as good as it started because Gabriel got really sick the last two days there. He developed an allergic reaction to antibiotics that he was on for an ear infection. So everything kind of spiraled out of control from there. But Gabriel is a tough cookie, he is better now. David and I really enjoyed this trip, especially as husband and wife. We went on a date while we were out there and it was so much fun to spend quality time with only him. I have such a great husband, i'm lucky. 2011 is off to a fabulous start and I will blog about 2010 as a whole later. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Gabriel made a gf at the beach. Of course, she is older. It takes a mature girl to handle Gabriel's old soul! haha.

We hope you had just an awesome of a time these holidays, as we did. Happy new year!