The Misadventures of Gabriela...

Once Gabriela learned to walk last December, it was all over for us! She started out just as easy and calm as Brendan was and hardly ever cried. We were so excited. Turns out we had no idea the kind of mischief and wild woman she would become.

Gabriela quickly learned how to pull herself onto the coffee table and stand and do squats :)

Next she figured out the step stool, but didn't quite grasp how to get down. She would just stand there and cry and wait for someone to get her down, and then two minutes later she was up again and stuck!

Gabriela's favorite thing to do now, is try and find things that are supposed to be out of reach. She climbs on our bed and tries to get the phone and play with the answering machine buttons. She's got a 10 inch gap between the night stand and the bed, and then she's angled because the pillows are in the way of direct access.

She now gets on the arms of our couches and reaches for items on our bookshelf, and the back door handle and lock. We have let her fall a time or two to see if she'll stop and it only works momentarily.

When she's not climbing on things, she likes to go through doors and drawers and take apart everything she can find, as fast as she can before someone catches her. She's so funny when she's caught because she jumps, and then she squeals with laughter and runs away as fast as she can!

Once she learned to climb the coffee table, it wasn't long before she figured out how to get on the kitchen table as well. She grabs the opposite side of the seat of the chair, pulls with her arms to slide her belly all the way on. Then she tucks up her legs and she's on the chair. All she has to do is stand on the chair and do her little belly slide onto the table and she's up.The first time she did this, I heard her talking/yelling in the kitchen as if she was talking to someone, but we were home alone. I walked in and she was standing on the table looking outside with a furrowed brow, pointing and yelling at something. There's a tree right outside with birds that like to sit, so my guess is that she was telling the birds to go away??Now she just likes to scale the table to get whatever food or drink is left on the table. I always making sure it's empty so it doesn't attract her as often :)

A couple of weeks ago Bren & Isa were at a party, so Danny and I decided to try and clean the house while they were gone. Gabriela would wander around doing her own thing and at one point she started whimpering. I figured she was with Danny and he thought she was with me. She whimpered again off and on for a few minutes, and I ignored her, because if she was stuck, she would say it. (she very quickly learned the work stuck!) I got up and went to the back of the house where Danny was and he said that he thought she was with me. So, I went around trying to find her and she was in the dryer! I had to take a picture before I got her out and she didn't mind. In fact, she had been playing with her feet and sucking on her toes.

Saturday we heard the same whimpering, but this time it was accompanied with the word "stuck". That treadmill only measures 5 inches off the ground, so when I walked in the family room I didn't even see her. It took me calling for her and a couple of room searches before she finally responded and I found her. Again I had to take a picture before I un-stuck her!