School is back in session

Gabriela loves baths and can't hardly wait to jump in. I started filling it up and walked away and saw her tear down the hall at the sound of running water. I grabbed my camera because I wasn't sure if she could resist watching the bath fill and not get in without anyone watching.

So, when she thought I wasn't looking, she felt the water, climbed in, and then saw me. Oh well, she was happy and in one place, so I let her play for a while.

Bren & Isa started 4th & 2nd grade this year and were so excited to get back to school. Although, I have to admit I might have been happier :)

They have great teachers and love the school they're at and are off to a great start. Gabriela understands our daily routine and loves to say "bye brendan, bye isa" and "good day school" as they exit the car. When we pick them up, it's the same thing, "hi brendan, hi isa" then "all done school".

Just this last week she started saying "ela school?" as we're driving away. (I think it stemmed from the back-to-school night we had last week and she actually put together what they do when we drop them off and now she wants to go) I'll say "no, you're not going to school right now, we're going to go home and play", then she'll respond with "ela sad, ela go school" in a very sad voice, huge body sigh, the whole works-I have to be careful not to laugh!

Gabriela still requires constant watch. Just when I think she may be mellowing out, it really just means she's learned to get into mischief quietly.

I was putting laundry away recently and came back to find her on the computer with my welcome screen upside down & flipped vertically!! I had to tilt my head to the side to try and scroll the mouse to where it needed to be for me to log in. I was hoping that it was just the welcome screen that was messed up, but nope! Everything was crazy.

It took me forever to try and scroll around, because if I needed it to go to the right, it would go to the left, and if I needed it to go up, it would go down. Argh!

Finally I figured it out under Properties and couldn't believe she had managed what she did.
Since school started, Gabriela has joined a couple of playgroups and has a routine of her own starting at 10am each day. We have "music makers" on Mondays and "play group at the park" on Fridays. Then on Tue, Wed, & Thu we go on our walk. By the time those activities are done, it's time to go home and make lunch, have reading time, and then (my favorite) nap time!

Thankfully with school starting back up, her naps have returned to 2-3 hours. So, she usually wakes up just in time to go get the kids from school and occasionally I'll have to wake her up.

[She loves horses and this is one of her two favorite things, the other is the swing-can you tell??]

Her favorite things to do is go swimming and to play at the park. I don't have any swimming pictures, but I should, because she is an awesome swimmer. A little too brave though.

She loves to jump in and swim to me, as well as push off the steps and swim out to me, even if I'm not close enough or ready. She can only go so far, but totally has the system down.
She can also float on her back by herself for 7 seconds!! She's also figured out how to hold on to a noodle by herself and now she is all over the pool-no boundaries. She loves it!

I am still in awe some days that this kid is just so different from Bren & Isa. It continues to amaze me what she is capable of and I'm now a little scared that "baby Sammy" (gabs named her that last week) might be just like her! 16 weeks to go...